Word Usage Key is at the end. The brackets after a character eg CLAIRE (4nc) indicates Claire is a character who is 4 years old and a character not encountered before. Ages of incomers are in Earth years at this point and of Folk in Castle years. (4 Folk yrs ≈ 5 Earth yrs. l is lunes, t is tenners.)
30th of Towin Day 3
Pearl arrived with Merlin at the Master at arms offices before ten. Merlin was a thin faced, tall man with a full head of gray hair. After being helped off with their heavy over coats, Merlin offered Pearl his arm which she put hers through and they followed the junior Master at arms assistant to meet with Willow. Willow greeted Pearl with a hug and said, “I decidet(1) to deal with your situation myself, Pearl. I am glad to greet you, Merlin,” and much to his surprise gave him a hug too. “I have given the matter much thinking, and have selectet(2) a few families whose need for grandparents is great and whom I bethink me you will be happy with, Pearl. May I suggest you look at the details we have on this family first? They would be my first choice, but the choice is yours. I can arrange a meeting which commits you to naught if you like within an hour.” She turned to Merlin and asked, “Merlin, Pearl did explain your value to us?”
“Yes,” replied Merlin, “but it is a little hard to take in. Where we come from older people are regarded as a nuisance, an unwelcome burden.”
Willow said tersely, “Flaughtth,(3) but what they denigrate we treasure.”
She pushed a thin file over to the couple. They opened it to find it referred to a couple with the names of Rainbow and Perch who worked together on three roods at the Growers’ Grounds at Outgangside growing food to sell and barter and healing herbs for the herbals. They willen(4) to cultivate a fourth rood for herbs but at present due to their children’s need for them they were growing strewing herbs on it. Perch also bred quality coneys for the table. They had six children, but even with family support were struggling to manage. Their biggest problem, Rainbow had written, was they couldn’t take the little ones with them to work their land because some of the herbs they grew were so dangerous. Rainbow was thirty and Perch twenty-nine, and their children ranged from Joy who was nearly a woman at threeteen(5) to Fawn who was a year old. They had lost two children to the fevers last year and Rainbow was three months pregnant.
They lived at Outgangside and had the space for two grandparents, but as Merlin realised looking at the notes only one spare sleeping chamber. Wordlessly he passed the piece of paper he was looking at to Pearl. She looked at it, and though Merlin had not considered this possibility she had. She looked at him and said, “They seem to be good Folk. Shall we meet them then?”
Merlin, realising Pearl had decided there wasn’t anything to discuss, said, “Yes, they do seem to be good people.”
Willow, though intelligent and quick on the uptake didn’t have the maturity to realise aught out of the ordinary had happened, and she wouldn’t have understood any hap because she was Folk, brightly said, “Shall I ask them here to meet you?” Receiving a positive response she sent a runner to so do and sent out for leaf. Perch and Rainbow arrived forty minutes later with their three youngest. There was some initial conversation, and it was clear to all the meeting was a success.
Rainbow, taking her courage in her hands, asked Pearl, “May I call you Mother?” And to Merlin, “Father?”
“I’d like that,” replied Pearl. Merlin and Perch were both smiling and shaking hands. Acceptance of a new relationship had occurred.
Pearl and Merlin, still unuest(6) to the speed and lack of formality that accompanied such events in the Folk, were taken aback when Perch asked them, “Shall I find my brothers and go for your things after lunch?” He turned to his wife and said, “I bethink me we should take the day to celebrate.”
“Yes, we’ll celebrate the day, but I’ll have Whitewater pack Mum’s things for her,” Rainbow said. She turned to Pearl and telt her, “Whitewater is one of my sisters. I am sure you don’t wish a man packing your things, strong, clumsy things all of them.”
Pearl said, “That would be kind of you, but really I have very little in my chamber.”
Merlin said, “Thank you, but I also have very little.”
Rainbow said,“Yes, but we can save you the walk, Dad.”
Perch turning to Merlin said, “The only thing I have to do thisday(7) is feed my coneys twice. Would you like to come with me?”
Merlin who knew Pearl had been accepted as Folk lastday,(8) but not sure whether he had been or not was grateful for any chance to prove his willingth(9) to become Folk said, “Yes please, that would be interesting.”
Willow who had said naught for some time said, “I am very happy for all ten of you.”
That was the first time either Pearl or Merlin had really realised the size of the family they were now a part of, and it felt good to both of them, belonging felt very safe. They both felt safer and more secure than they had in years. Rainbow said to Pearl, as she grabbed a three year old who had escaped his father’s control, “If you’re up to it, Mum, I suggest we collect the others from my brother’s wife and settle you in at home. Dad can go with Perch and bring a coney home for a celebration dinner this eve. The children like coney, and a coney dinner and grandparents will be a significant event in their lifes.”(10)
They all expressed gratitude to Willow and left, Pearl and Merlin to face a new beginning as agreäns,(11) but may hap more importantly as valued Folk, and Perch and Rainbow grateful to the elders who were going to make a proper Folk family of them, and in the process ease the problems of looking after their children.
Perch and Merlin left the others and Merlin asked, “Perch, why did you begin keeping ra…coneys? Is it a common thing to do here?”
“There are many of the Folk who keep coneys, Dad, but my family are not typical. Three generations since, when my great grandfa(12) was a boy, there was an incursion. He was a member of a kine clan and when they were taking the beasts he discovert(13) three white coneys, a buck and two does. They were four or five times the weighth(14) of coneys here and tame. None was interestet(15) in them, and he taekt(16) them home and breedd(17) them. We have since allowt(18) others to share this fortune but our coneys are the best, for we keep the best breeding stock. They are a valuable resource to us. They clear weeds on the plot, which feeds them, and are a significant source of meat.
30th of Towin Day 3
That forenoon Nell taekt Breve to shew him off to her sister and niece, and to ask for her niece’s man to deliver the crib. She also telt her kinsfolk of the second of Joan’s children, and asked them to make their kith aware she now required another crib. The women agreed to ask all they knew concerning a second crib, and said they would be visiting that afternoon to see the babes. Mayblossom and Joan went to the babes’ crèche, and they came home with a little girl of berount(19) four lunes old who had been named Truth.
Joan had nursed her whilst at the crèche, and Mayblossom asked, “How is it nursing a babe, Sister?”
Joan replied, “I can’t tell you because it’s comparable with nothing else. It is the most fulfilling experience of my life, even more so than the first time I felt Jamie move which was wondrous. It is the ultimate experience of womanhood, but it is indescribable because it does things to you nothing else does. And before you ask. No, it feels nothing like what it feels like when your man does it.”
Mayblossom blushed, but said, “I was going to ask. How did you know?”
Joan blushed in turn, and replied, “Because I think we must all have asked a mother the same question when we’d had the one experience but not the other. You’ll have to wait, Sister. Do you have a man in your eye?”
“Yes, Mazun, my intendet.(20) We’ve been heartfriends(21) since I was seven,” replied Mayblossom, “but Mazun doesn’t know I intend to marry him as soon as possible.”
“I should say Mum is an exceeding good person to advise you. Does she know of your intentions?”
“Yes, and Dad too. His mum must know too since she’s a friend of Mum’s. So I shall probably not have too long to wait before I can arrange a chance conversation of marriage.”
The two young women collapsed in laughter at this and continued gossiping of Mayblossom’s love till they arrived home. Nell had arrived home some fifteen minutes before her daughters, and the crib arrived an hour after them. Nell was entranced by Truth, and thought it a wonderful name, flowers and virtues were common and popular names for girl children. The conversation continued with Nell advising Joan on the foods she needed to eat to feed the two babes, and telling of her search for a second crib, “But whilst times there’s still the drawer,” she concluded.
30th of Towin Day 3
Rachael had been an orphan in foster care from the age of two. She had no memory of either parent, and though she’d had several pairs of foster parents who had cared for her to the best of their ability, she had never felt she belonged any where. She’d always been a loner and had never had any reason to trust any one. She’d known all the way through school she only kept up with the cleverest by virtue of sheer hard work. She never admitted it to her peers, but the tests they scraped the pass grades on without any effort, she only just managed to outperform them as a result of four hours study every night, as well as more at the weekend. She had studied bio-chemistry at university where the situation was even worse.
She studied every minute of free time she had and came out with a reasonable degree and a massive inferiority complex. She then spent a year and a half unable to find a job. The only way she managed to deal with the huge debts she had incurred to acquire a useless qualification was to become pregnant, which at least she had thought had given her a breathing space, somewhere to live and just enough money to live on. She had been told all her life all she had to do was work hard, and she could have anything she wished, but she knew it was a lie, and she was sick of being lied to. She was resentful she had worked herself to the bone and had achieved nothing when others with less brains, less effort, more neck or bigger boobs had at least managed to find a decent job.
She was slim and tall for a woman and knew she was of average looks, but no beauty. She also knew she was not good at selling herself, and it was looking improbable she would be able to attract a man whom she would be able to rely on to support her and their children no matter what she was willing to contribute to the relationship. Since she was prepared to contribute herself and every hour she could remain awake, no matter how hard the toil, she had decided she agreed with the rather vulgar expression, the world was a crock of shit and then you died.
Then Johannes had happened, a refugee from political persecution who was much clever than she. He had a good job in a scientific institution, and had been desperate for a wife whom he could at least speak with of his work, someone who would understand his problems, share her life with him and with whom he could share his life. They had been very happy, and Rachael had another daughter. She had managed to find a job as a personal assistant to a woman junior to Johannes in his institution, who was grateful to find someone who understood the science of her work.
Then she arrived on Castle, twenty-five years old, nearly eight lunes pregnant with her third daughter, and devastated at the loss of Johannes and her two girls. Though she didn’t think of herself as particularly clever, Rachael was compared with most very clever indeed and much cleverer than her ex-boss. She had accepted the reality of Castle within minutes at Thomas’ meeting. Her thought processes had been rapid, she considered the most pertinent facts: she was eight months pregnant, on her own in a culture which was three possibly four centuries behind anything she was familiar with, there was no going back and she had concluded she needed a husband and a job. She had gone to the dance the eve before where she met none she was remotely interested in, and she went to bed on her own feeling depressed. She had been led to believe these sorts of things were easier on Castle than she was familiar with, but she was starting to think life was a crock of shit here too.
Her third day on Castle started at braekfast(22) standing in a queue in the Refectory next to a small ugly looking man of her age with a pleasant smile. He introduced himself saying, “I am Hedger, a meat kine herder, and you are Mistress…?”
She had replied, “Rachael. I have no craft here, though I am currently making babe clothes with the seamstresses. I am not sure what to do for a craft.” Not sure exactly why, after collecting her braekfast, she sat down at the same table as Hedger. Hedger was a good conversationalist. Without imposing, he explained a lot to her of Castle and the Folk she was grateful to hear. She explained enough of herself to him, for him to realise she was clever, but she had no idea how to use her cleverth.(23)
“Why don’t you have spaech(24) with the milch cow herders?” he asked, “they’re always needing folk who can understand the complex relationships of feed and milk quality and quantity. Or try the dairy crafters, they need clever folk too. As I telt you I am a meat kine herder, but my clan is a kine clan involvt(25) in every aspect of kine: meat, milch and dairy. I shall, if you wish, introduce you nextday(26) to clansfolk of mine who would be happy to accept you as a milch or dairy crafter, either practical or theoretical or a combination of both.”
Rachael by now was interested in what Hedger had to say and said, “I should be very grateful if you would.”
Their conversation continued, mostly Hedger providing answers to Rachael’s questions concerning kine crafting, and though there were a lot of things of milch and dairy crafting he didn’t know, he assured her he would have someone call on her nextday who would be able to answer all her questions. Hedger asked her, “Are you going to the dance thiseve,(27) Mistress Rachael?”
“Please call me Rachael. Yes, I am. I went to the dance lasteve(28) too, and little good it did me. Why?”
“I wondert(29) if you would allow me to escort you as I shall be going too.”
Rachael by this time had ceased to see Hedger as an ugly little man. She now saw him as a pleasant, helpful, not particularly good-looking and not very tall one. Before she realised what she had done she had asked, “Why are you going, Hedger?”
Hedger explained he had lost his wife and two of his three daughters to the fevers, and he would be seeking a wife and a mother for his little girl, Groundsel. His face looked very tight, and he was somewhat terse in his explanations. Rachael felt he was controlling a great deal of emotion, and she couldn’t help the tears running down her cheeks. Hedger to her surprise stroked her hand to comfort her and said, “These things happen, my dear, but we’ve to look to the future, and Groundsel needs a mother. We all have to try to put the grief behind us eventually. None succeeds entirely of course, but we have to try. We have to move on.”
She sniffed and fumbled for her handkerchief, wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “You’re much stronger than I am, Hedger.” She smiled a bleak smile, “I, at least, know my husband and daughters are alive, but their loss overwhelms me from time to time.”
“No, Rachael, it’s not strongth,(30) it’s just time. You have only had three days to come to terms with your loss. I have had over a year.” He smiled, stroked her hand again and said, “but you haven’t answert(31) my question. May I escort you to the dance thiseve?”
Despite what Hedger had said of time helping, his concern for her when he had clearly been under considerable emotional stress himself had maekt(32) an impression on her, and she put her hand on his and said, “Yes, and thank you for asking me. I’m not very good at dancing by the way, and in my present state I can only manage very slow dances.”
Hedger grinned at that and said, “You have to be better than I. My only redeeming feature as a dancer is I’m small and light enough not to hurt too much when I tread on my partner’s toes.”
They agreed to meet at the Greathall that eve, and Rachael asked him what he would be doing before then. “I’m going fly fishing for trout with Groundsel and my brother’s three. The children all enjoy fishing, and I enjoy being with them. The Refectory will cook what they catch for them and serve any excess. They’re always happy to do that with fish as it provides a bit of variety for the few lucky enough to be eating at the right time. I’ve sincely(33) done four tenners with the kine, and I’m spending a tenner with family now. What of you?”
“I’m going to the Master at arms meeting. I suppose they’ll have a cattle crafter there for me to talk to, and then there will discussion of personal placement. I’ll listen and see what they have to say, but I’ll tell them you will be introducing me to some cattle crafters nextday, and I am going to the dance thiseve with you. Fly fishing sounds far more enjoyable.”
“The children insist on going every few days when I’m at the Keep. You can come with us next time if you like. There are trout in the lower reaches of the Little Arder at the moment no more than half an hour away, and there are other places to fish close to the Keep. We could take a light waggon to save you walking. Would you like that?”
“Yes, I should,” replied Rachael. “It will be first time for me. I think I should like to do something just to have fun, and I do like fish.”
As they parted Hedger patted Rachael’s shoulder encouragingly and said, “It can only become better, my dear. Try to dwell on the better things. Bethink you of the babe you carry under your heart and fishing. It does help.” Rachael spent the rest of the forenoon with the seamstresses making babe clothes and wondering what fishing would be like.
30th of Towin Day 3
Ruby had lain down on Deepwater’s bed after lunch trying to rest before she went to the Master at arms meeting. She was eight lunes pregnant, and she’d needed to rest during the day awhile now. She reflected she always had had a poor ability to judge when she had had enough to drink. That was how she had become pregnant in the first place. The father of her babe wasn’t even a memory any longer, just someone she went home with after an evening spent at a nightclub she couldn’t even remember never mind name.
Then she arrived on Castle, and in spite of not having drunk whilst pregnant the stress of incursion led her to promise herself “I’ll just have one.” But she’d done it all over again last night, lasteve, she corrected herself. She’d awoken this forenoon in bed with a stranger, who’d said his name was Deepwater, not able to remember how she had arrived there. It had been his chamber she’d been in, and she had no idea where in the Keep she was. She’d initially been a little embarrassed by the situation and wondered how to dress and leave without too much loss of dignity.
Deepwater had been awake already, and he’d telt her, “You stay there in the warm, and I’ll bring us some leaf.” When he’d returned with a pair of elegant mugs saying, “My mum maekt these, good aren’t they?” Ruby could see he was clearly interested in resuming their love making. They drank their leaf in bed, whilst doing so Deepwater had caressed her full breasts and swollen stomach. Since she had slept with him it seemed reasonable to allow him to continue, and any way she was enjoying the reciprocal arrangements. Deepwater was a tall and good-looking man of slight build and thin features with severe scars on his left arm and a heavy tan which contrasted strongly with his pale un-tanned body and the scars. She thought he was probably a little older than her twenty-six years.
“I had a little bit too much to drink last night,” she admitted, “but it doesn’t seem to have affected your interest.” She had handled his manhood to full readyth(34) and was rather impressed by its girth.
“Me too,” conceded Deepwater, “I don’t remember much, but I know what you’re doing has maekt me will to try it all over again, but sober this time.”
Deepwater continued to caress her, and the last was said with a wry smile. Ruby, who was beginning to feel warm and could feel her blood pulsing, put her free hand on his which was caressing her from her bump to her cleft. She eased her legs and pressing his hand to her softth(35) to encourage his attentions where they would do most good said, “I’m not entirely sober I think, but at least I’ll remember this time.” After a minute she pushed both his hands away from her and teased him and herself before yielding to her desires and plunged his eager hardth(36) into her willing softth.
Deepwater was gentle and inventive with her pregnancy, but Ruby conceded thorough, and she really would remember making love this time. They maekt a game of dressing each other, and sat down to the table to eat a braekfast of bannocks and honey with leaf. Both were aware they had started something, but neither sure how to resolve the uncomfortable situation they found themselfs(37) in. Ruby, now interested in Deepwater, was no longer thinking of how to leave, and determined to ease things she asked, “If I tell you about me will you tell me about you?”
“Of course,” he replied.
“I am twenty-six, and I have left no one behind me I care about. I went to the dance with the intention of meeting someone I could marry. I was only going to have one, but as you have discovered I am not good at judging when I have had enough to drink. That was how I became pregnant. I am not very clever, and I had a job, a craft that is, serving food in a café, which is like a small refectory. My baby is due in a lune or a lune and a half, and is a boy. I know your healers can’t tell, but where I come from they could. I have a temporary placement making baby clothes with the seamstresses, but I have no idea what I want to do as a craft after he’s born.”
Deepwater thought awhile and said, “I am twenty-two and a wild food forager. I have never been marryt(38) nor had children, though I have wisht(39) for a family awhile. I goent(40) to the dance seeking a wife, and I am hoping I have findt(41) one. I too haven’t much sense when it comes to drink, and if you marry me I shall give it up because it’s not good for a man with a family to care to.”
Ruby thought a second or so and without heeding Deepwater’s indirect proposal said, “Twenty-two. I think that’s twenty-seven of our years. I thought you older than I. What does a wild food forager do?”
“I collect edible fungi and plant materials, hunt small game, coneys, partridge and much else. I have fish traps and am interestet(42) in aught that’s edible, but not easy to grow on any scale. I also collect some materials for the herbals and leaf makers along with various minerals and other things there is a small, but steady demand for, flint, goldstone,(43) mica and hardwood rootstocks. Tendril takes a reasonable quantity of colourt(44) materials, like ochres, for use in women’s make up preparations. I lisebrime(45) and find a variety of things there is a demand for, occasionally I find a piece of amber polisht(46) by the tide and sand.
Early in the year I tap trees for sap that can be boilt(47) and reducet(48) to make syrup, mostly for Milligan’s provisioners.(49) I have fifty-four trees most of which I’ve been tapping for a few years, birch, maple, sycamore and some walnut. Every year I find a few more trees. I also have a rood or so near Outgangside where I’ve plantet(50) trees for sap and some for nuts too, and though none are mature enough yet to harvest I plant some more every year, and the oldest should be productive in may hap five years. The growers give them some composted nightsoil(51) in spring in return for the shelter they provide, and I’m now planting them to maximise the shelter they provide the growers’ crops in the margins berount(52) their plots. It’s a satisfactory arrangement for all of us.
Early in the year I harvest a goodly quantity of gulls’ eggs. It’s a decent craft which takes me outside in the good weather, and I don’t have to go out when the weather is poor. What I like is I see the seasons change and my craft changes with the seasons.”
“What’s lisebriming?”
“Walking along the sea’s edge seeking useful things. There’re lots of things bringen(53) in by the sea of value, mostly hardwood knots and roots, some shells too for jewellery as well as the amber. There’s a small bay where I regularly find sponges washt(54) ashore after a heavy sea, they get uest(55) for bathing babes and women’s lunetimes.(56) The herbals will take as many as I can find. Then there’re various ocean leafs and samphire as well as shellfish and other edible animals to be findt.”
“Do you have to travel far? Are you away from the Keep for long at a time?” Ruby asked.
“Though I oft sleep in a tent for a tenner at a time or even two, I’m usually close enough to the Keep to return easily if the weather turns unpleasant, or if some of what I have findt has to be uest quickly. Why?”
Ruby, who had little knowledge of anything outside major cities and urban settlements and had always wished something better than waitressing in a none too hygienic café, was intrigued by Deepwater’s craft, and she was wondering if she could follow it with a young child, replied, “I was wondering if I could be a wild food forager with a young child.”
Deepwater blushed bright red and asked hesitantly, “Will you marry me, Ruby?”
“Yes, but I need to know if I can forage with you?” Ruby put Deepwater’s hand to her cheek and kissed him lightly on the lips saying, “It’s important, Deepwater, is it possible?”
“There are agreäns who craft together,” Deepwater replied, “may hap not all the time, but certainly most of the time.”
Ruby heaved a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction, and said, “Now I know what I’m going to say to the Master at arms staff this afternoon don’t I?”
Her meeting at the Master at arms offices lasted only a minute or so, and after accepting their good wishes she went cheerfully back to the seamstresses to continue with the babe clothes she was working on. Deepwater had gone out on a short trip earlier, and was going to shew her samples of all he brought back before turning it over to the Keep kitchens and others so she could start to learn to recognise their harvest, and she was looking forward to his return thiseve. When her son decided to start what were now his predictable daily exertions in the afternoon she smiled, and stroking her bump, said aloud, “That’s it my son, plenty of exercise will make you strong, so you can be a forager just like your dad.”
Word Usage Key
1 Decidet, decided.
2 Selectet, selected.
3 Flaughtth, foolishness, stupidity.
4 Willen, willed, wished or wanted.
5 Threeteen, thirteen.
6 Unuest, unused.
7 Thisday, today.
8 Lastday, yesterday.
9 Willingth, willingness.
10 Lifes, lives.
11 Agreäns, those person(s) one has marital agreement with, spouse(s).
12 Grandfa, specifically maternal grandfather.
13 Discovert, discovered.
14 Weighth, heaviness or weight, pronounced way + th, (weiθ).
15 Interestet. Interested.
16 Taekt, took.
17 Breedd, bred.
18 Allowt, allowed.
19 Berount, about.
20 Intendet, intended, in this context fiancé.
21 Heartfriend, a relationship of much more significance than being a girl- or boy-friend is on Earth. Oft such relationships are formed from as young as four and they are taken seriously by both children and adults. A more typical age would be six, seven or eight. A child’s heartfriend is automatically one of their parents’ children too, and a sibling to their siblings. Such relationships rarely fail and they are seen as precursors to becoming intendet and having agreement.
22 Braekfast, breakfast.
23 Cleverth, cleverness.
24 Spaech, speech.
25 Involvt,involved.
26 Nextday, tomorrow.
27 Thiseve, this evening.
28 Lasteve, yesterday evening.
29 Wondert, wondered.
30 Strongth, strength.
31 Answert, answered.
32 Maekt, made.
33 Sincely, recently.
34 Readyth, readiness.
35 Softth, softness. Term uest for female external genitalia.
36 Hardth, hardness. Term only uest for an erect penis.
37 Themselfs, themselves.
38 Marryt, married.
39 Wisht, wished.
40 Goent, went.
41 Findt, found.
42 Interestet, interested.
43 Goldstone, iron pyrites uest with flint for sparking a fire.
44 Colourt, coloured.
45 Lisebrime, beachcomb.
46 Polisht, polished.
47 Boilt, boiled.Reducet,
48 Redudecet, reduced.
49 Provisioners, cooks who are one of the two offices that preserve food. They are mostly meat preservers. The other office is the Storekeepers who are mainly concerned with preserving fruit, vegetables and grains.
50 Planted, planted.
51 Nightsoil, sewage.
52 Breount, around.
53 Bringen, brought.
54 Washt, washed.
55 Uest, used.
56 Lunetime, menstruation.
