For a Moment

There was nothing quite like coming home after a hard day’s work. Mark could feel the tension and cares slipping from his shoulders with every step he took up the front walk. Of course new ones would come to rest soon — they always did — but this moment of bliss was worth savoring all the same.

“Looks like we won’t be getting snow for another few days,” Joshua remarked, scanning the sky. They had had a bit of a warm spell, melting all of the snow of the late snowstorm. Unfortunately that meant that the roads had turned to mud, which could be bad for business … or good, if people were desperate to get to one place or another and needed a steady horse or mule to get them there.

“Does it?” Mark scanned the sky himself. “Isn’t it the other way around?”

“Er … isn’t what the other way around?”

“You know — that rhyme Richard is always saying. ‘Red sky at night …’”

“Sailor’s delight.”

“Are you sure?”

“Dad, it rhymes.”

Mark considered that. “You know, son, you do bring up a good point.”

The Way of All Flesh

Clarice knew she shouldn’t be doing this. The mirror wasn’t for her, for making sure that her hair was neatly tucked up in its bun. Or for smoothing her dress and seeing that her apron was as freshly white and laundered as it had been the day she bought it. The mirror was for the patients.

But she didn’t have any patients here — yet — and the mirror might as well get some use. Clarice had thought it a wonderful idea back when she requested it for her surgery. She had assumed that she would be dealing mostly with female patients, and most of the time, they would have to strip down to their shifts for her to examine them. Then they would have to get dressed again. What woman wouldn’t want a mirror to help her be absolutely certain that her gown and her hair would exit the office looking the same way they had when she came in? Thus the mirror safely tucked behind the changing screen, a little luxury that would keep her patients coming back to her.

Lately, though, Clarice was wondering if she was going about this entirely the wrong way. Not so much the medical part of her profession, healing injuries and treating the sick — she understood that as well as any doctor just out of Camford could be expected to. But running a business, making her little surgery profitable … she was beginning to think she didn’t know a thing about that at all.

And the conversation today at breakfast wasn’t helping matters.

Inlets and Outlets

This, Garnet decided, was just what she needed. A creative outlet. A chance to let her insecurities go somewhere else for a while. A chance to make something beautiful with her own two hands. Something restful, and — this was important — something domestic and oh-so-feminine.

Yes, flower arranging met all of these requirements.

Guild of Husbands

It was Wednesday, and that meant it was the night of the weekly Guild meeting. Or at least, that was what the young and youngish men at the expensive inn in Port Finessa were calling it. Never mind that one-quarter of the membership present was of the nobility and thus not technically eligible for membership. And never mind, too, that the nominal head of the Guild was currently at the home of one of the nobility, drinking port and relaxing by the fire as they traded stories of their misspent youth before the mast and behind the till.

It was Wednesday, and these young and youngish men wanted out of the house, and the easiest way to effect this absence without their wives complaining was by claiming that they had a Guild meeting.

Let’s Play a Love Game

Tambu was on bar duty for now, since Marigold and Mirelle and Wei Li were all busy with other johns. What that basically consisted of was pouring drinks from time to time and calling customers to come and get ‘em — after suitable means of exchange changed hands, of course. Bar duty was flexible, because they lost money on the drinks and gained it when they took a john upstairs. And so, when Tambu or any of the other girls were on bar duty, they only half paid attention to the bar and spent most of their time watching the clientele, waiting for an opportunity.

But tonight Tambu was only watching one client in particular.

Mommy Dearest and Darling Daughters

“Are you sure there is nothing I can get for you to eat?” Claire asked her daughter for the second time after seeing to it that her cloak had been taken and she had been seated comfortably. “Or drink? I know it’s a long ride.”

“No, no, Mother, I’m fine!” A broad smile, a relentlessly cheerful tone — but what did that mean? And for that matter, what did her refusal of all refreshment mean? Claire had lost her appetite when she entered her dark phase, but just because Lynn did not want food now did not mean that she was slowly dying on the inside. Perfectly healthy and happy people with normal appetites were not always hungry and often refused refreshment for that very reason. It was impossible to draw any conclusions from that alone.

Wheeler Dealers

“Admit it, Joyce, admit it!” Berach called. “Ye’ve got no choice but ter admit it now!”

Berach grinned even as Joyce tilted her head from one side to the other and rolled her eyes at him. This was what he needed: a quiet evening at home with the family, no one to bother them, no concerns to break through from the outside world, nothing worse than the occasional draft to worry about. If there was anything to keep him from thinking about Finley –

Damn it, he had promised himself he wouldn’t think about Finley!

The Sparrow in the Mead Hall

Deep in her heart, below the level of conscious thought or feeling, Ailís had always felt that her life with Neil was not, in a way, real. It was as if she was a ship and he the port: port was wonderful and restful, but it wasn’t where she belonged. There had been storms before, storms that had beaten against her, broken her mast and led her to limp home. And there would be storms again. This pleasant life, much as she loved Neil and he loved her, simply couldn’t last. If there was anything being the daughter of Finley and Lilé Brogan had taught Ailís, it was that.

And yet …

Finley was dead and gone. And Neil was still here. Maybe — maybe this comfort, this shelter, could last.

No Half Measures

Tuck’s hand started to shake as he hammered on the door, and not just from the cold, either. “He’s not answering.”

“He isn’t? Imagine that. I hadn’t noticed.” Brother Andy blew on his fingertips. “Look, you said yourself that sometimes Goodman Brogan doesn’t like to answer the door for you. If he is merely being stubborn –”

“This is different,” Tuck snarled. The country had been blanketed in a blizzard for the past three days. Everyone was just getting to the work of digging themselves out. Finley Brogan was an old man alone, unloved and uncared for. Who knew what might have befallen him in three days?

Two Men to Make One Brother

On the first tithe day that Galahad would have to run by himself, Will made a point of escaping after lunch and walking over to the small church. When the church had first been built, Will had rather selfishly looked at the bell towers from the perspective of a father with two infants and had been less than pleased. But now that Galahad was there …

Well, Will would be a liar if he said that having Galahad right across the lane didn’t make every one of the du Lacs feel a bit more settled and right inside.