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  “Have you been here long?” Tanyth perched on a vacant stool beside the hearth.

  “This will be our fourth winter.” Amber set about warming a teapot with some hot water, before throwing in a handful of tea. She topped it off with boiling water and set it aside to steep. She straightened from her task and cast an appraising eye across the walls and beams. “That first year was bad, but this year we’re a lot readier for winter.”

  Their settling in was interrupted by the boy’s return with the bucket of water as he carefully took the three steps down and placed the wooden pail on the corner of the hearth. He ducked his head politely in a half bow and offered a shy smile.

  “Thank you, Riley. Go out and play with the others now and let us have a little peace.”

  “Won’t last much longer,” he said with a puckish grin. “Sandy’s spreadin’ the news.” With that as his parting word, he scampered back out the way he came, just in time to pass another slender woman in homespun at the threshold.

  “Amber? I heard we have guests?” The newcomer took advantage of the opened door to thrust her head into the hut and peer about.

  “You may as well come in, Sadie.” Amber hid a small smile by peering at the teapot.

  The slightly-built blonde woman, not much more than a girl by Tanyth’s reckoning, took the invitation at face value and hurried in, long familiarity evident in her sure movements around the small hut even as she eyed the newcomer curiously.

  “Tanyth, this is Sadie Hawthorne. She lives next door. Sadie, Tanyth Fairport. She’s just passing through.”

  The three women managed to pour a couple of mugs of tea before the next neighbor knocked on the door.

  Chapter 2

  Willow Bark Tea

  Tanyth got back on the Pike as the sun passed zenith. Her delay over tea and talk lost her some time on the road but gained her a small loaf of fresh bread and a block of hard cheese along with the knowledge of why the village sat where it did. A path led into the woods to the west of the Pike. It ended at a deposit of fine clay back in the hillside beyond and provided the community’s life blood. Most of the men worked to excavate the heavy mineral laced mud. One served as hunter, another as wood cutter, and a third drove the heavy lorry wagon back and forth to Kleesport. The women talked excitedly of plans to build their own kiln in the coming winter when the clay was frozen and the menfolk would otherwise be underfoot.

  She smiled to herself as she tucked her hair up under her hat and made ready to go. She left some packets of dried basil with the women and measured out a few of her precious seeds to press upon them for planting in the spring. Rosemary and sage grew readily in the local soil and Sadie, who seemed to be the expert on growing things in the village, accepted them happily.

  As she reached her stride and the ground began to roll away under her boots once more, she thought about how exciting it must be to be young, and to be working toward something that might be bigger than themselves. The hamlet was–as yet–unnamed but the women around the hearth planned for a larger community with a real name and even a school to teach letters and numbers to the anticipated horde of children. While Amber had used the excuse of “learning the news from outside,” the women did little listening to happenings outside of their small circle and instead took pleasure in sharing their plans for the future with her. Tanyth smiled a gentle smile at their youthful enthusiasms and said a silent prayer to the All-Mother for their success.

  The afternoon passed uneventfully except for the passage of one of the King’s Own, a messenger on one of the rangy, long-legged horses they used for the service. Tanyth heard the horse and rider coming even over the sighing of the wind through the tree tops and stepped off the road to allow the rider to pass. She knew better than to expect a miracle but even so, she was faintly disappointed when the youth in the saddle was not her Robert. A young woman looking very serious and businesslike in her uniform wore the diagonal orange slash of the messenger corps. Tanyth waved a hand in greeting but the dispatch rider only nodded in acknowledgment without speaking as the horse trotted past leaving a musical jingling of tack and a swirl of light dust that rapidly dispersed in the afternoon breeze.

  “Old fool! Your Robert is a grown man with wife and children of his own by now.” She frowned and grumbled to herself but the thought of having grandchildren she didn’t even know gave her a pang of melancholy. She huffed and stabbed the hard scrabble surface of the road with the iron heel of her staff for several steps in vexation.

  The sun slid on its inevitable path while Tanyth paced her way northward. When it approached the tops of the trees on the west side of the road, she started watching for breaks in the trees on the east, keeping an eye open for game trails or paths. If there wasn’t one, she’d have to find a safe camp off the road by herself, but she rarely had to resort to that level of bush whacking in order to find a safe hole. The Pike wasn’t heavily traveled but it was traveled regularly and travelers had few choices along the way but to find camping spots off the road to spend the night. The nameless hamlet she’d left behind might well do better to open an inn, she thought, rather than a brick kiln.

  A pounding rumble reached her ears as the sun fell closer to the treetops. She quickly chose the best of the options available to her and stepped easily onto the weeded verge, slipping into the underbrush at the edge of the encroaching forest. The trees were not so closely spaced that she couldn’t slip between them and she took shelter beside a large blackberry thicket, hunkering down to lower her profile and peeking through the undergrowth to see what would pass.

  In a matter of moments a large six-in-hand coach rattled into view and swooped past her traveling from Kleesport and heading for Varton, ninety miles to the south. She passed the carriage stations periodically along the road, but never stopped. The men who staffed the stations were not terribly well-mannered and were often bored with nothing better to do than tend the animals and await the arrival and subsequent departure of the coaches. Stopping there carried more risk than she thought prudent.

  She waited until the sound of the carriage faded out in the distance to the south and kept to her place of concealment even after it had gone. Before long a pair of the King’s Own guards came riding by as well. The Guardsmen cantered easily in the wake of the coach. They didn’t seem to pay close attention to the road or the woods that surrounded it, but Tanyth lowered her head, hiding her face behind the wide brim of her hat. The King’s Own were unlikely to assault her but that wouldn’t stop them asking a lot of difficult questions about why she might be hiding in the woods watching the coach and guard.

  They passed without incident and Tanyth let out the breath she’d been holding. She spared a look around and noticed a game trail running behind the blackberry bramble and into the forest. A short way down the path she found a small clearing bounded by a thicket of juniper on one side and a huge boulder on the other. A soft splashing sound led her to a spring-fed creek on the far side of the boulder. A blackened smear on the rock showed where travelers had camped in the past. The site was a trifle exposed to the sky, but the bulk of the stone stood between the clearing and the road. Little would be visible through the trees in that direction. She smiled, dropped her pack and staff beside the rock, and went in search of tinder and wood for a fire.

  Appropriately sized sticks littered the forest floor. She didn’t have to stray far from her campsite in order to collect enough to heat water for tea and a bit of oatmeal for breakfast. She found herself looking forward to the bread and cheese from the village for her dinner. She even found a patch of wild onion to add a bit of flavor. In celebrating her good fortune, she dropped her normal guard and almost walked into one of the two men before she even knew they were there.

  “Mother Fairport?” The taller one looked vaguely familiar. It took her a moment to recognize him as the ox cart drover from the morning. “You visited with Amber today? At the village?”

  The two stepped back from her and held their hands out to their
sides, palms forward to offer as little threat as possible. The smaller one she didn’t recognize but then she’d only seen women and children during her visit. They both smiled and made no threatening movements. Tanyth kicked herself for leaving her staff where she could not reach it but crossed to the scorched rock to deposit her load of kindling before responding.

  “And you are...?” She countered his question with her own.

  “William Mapleton. I’m Amber’s husband. I think I met you on the road this morning, didn’t I?”

  She nodded once. “You did.” She turned to the smaller man. “And you?”

  “I’m Sadie’s man, mum. Thomas.” He smiled and nodded his head.

  “You two seem to be a bit off the path.”

  William’s lips tightened. “In more ways than one, mum. We need your help back at the village.”

  “What kind of help?

  Thomas piped up. “It’s Sadie, mum. She’s come down with a blindin’ headache and I think she’s a fever as well. Her skin’s hot to the touch.”

  She looked back and forth between them. “Do you think I made her sick?”

  The two men shook their heads and William answered. “Of course not, mum, but Amber said you have some knowledge of herbs and such. She hoped you might be able to help. She sent me and Thomas here to try to catch you up and see if you’d come back to the village.”

  “Willow bark tea?” Tanyth asked.

  The two men glanced at one other. “What about it?” Thomas asked.

  “Did you give her some willow bark tea?”

  They shook their heads in unison. “All-Mother preserve us.” Tanyth muttered. She snatched up her pack and staff. “Let’s go.”

  William took the pack from her. “It’ll be faster if I carry the load, mum.”

  She didn’t argue and he slung her pack over one shoulder like it weighed nothing at all.

  Thomas led the way through the gathering dusk with Tanyth on his heels and William acting as rear guard. The Pike itself was just a lighter shadow in the dimness. The long road of the afternoon melted under their hurried strides and even Tanyth’s conditioning showed the strain before they turned into the path leading to the hamlet sometime well after sundown but before moon rise.

  The two men led the way to a hut where Sadie lay shivering under a pile of homespun blankets. “I’m sorry, mum.”

  Tanyth smiled gently. “Not to fret, dear. I’m here and I’ll do what I can.” Her nose told her a familiar story and she turned to Amber and one of the other wives from the afternoon. “Rebecca, isn’t it?”

  The woman nodded, pleased to be remembered by name. “How long has she been throwin’ up?”

  “Just a few times.” Rebecca said. “She started this afternoon.”

  “And the runs?” Tanyth looked back and forth between them.

  “Just started,” Amber said. “Looks like the flux to me.”

  Tanyth nodded in agreement. “I think so, too.” She turned to the two men hovering at the door. “You two, put the kids to bed, if they’re not already. You’ve got work tomorrow and there’s nothing you can do here. Thomas? Can you take a bedroll somewhere?”

  He nodded and they beat a hasty retreat, leaving the women to their tasks.

  Tanyth rummaged in her pack and pulled out a fold of canvas, holding it up with a smile of satisfaction. “This is the last of my stock, but perhaps we can get more in the morning.” She handed the package to Amber. “Start some water boilin’ in a pot. We’ll make her some willow tea, and I’ll show you two how to make it as well. There’s naught we can do for the flux but try to make her comfortable until it burns through her. The tea will help and you should keep a stock handy.”

  The two younger women set to work on Sadie’s hearth and Tanyth sat with Sadie, bathing her brow and offering soothing noises. She thought back to all the various times she’d helped people this way since that first night she fled Roger and took shelter at Agnes Dogwood’s tiny cottage in the forest west of Fairport. Agnes was always taking in strays and Tanyth counted herself among them. She’d stayed in the cottage all winter, curled inward and hurting. With the spring, and with Agnes’s gentle ministrations, she came to herself and began the long pilgrimage that brought her to tend the bedside of a stranger.

  She shook herself back to the reality and Amber called to her from the hearth.

  “How do we make this tea?”

  Tanyth patted Sadie’s shoulder reassuringly and crossed the small room to supervise adding the dried ground willow bark to the boiling water. When Amber took the pot off the heat, Tanyth pushed it back near the edge of the fire to keep the water just simmering.

  “You’ll want to get it a bit more than just steeped to get the full good out of it. Leave it for a few minutes at the simmer to get the most out of the bark. It needs to recover from being dried before it can give up the medicine.”

  The two women listened intently and then watched the liquid bubble gently in the pot. After a quarter hour, with the bitter aroma of the concoction beginning to swirl around the room, they took it off the fire. Tanyth had them pour the tea through a cheese cloth to strain out the solids.

  “How much do we give her?” Rebecca looked at the murky tea.

  Tanyth gave a little shrug in answer. “Start with a cup. It’s less than tasty so I’ve never been tempted to see how much of it I could drink myself. But when cramps are bad, even a bad cup of tea is worth it for the relief it brings.”

  The women shared knowing looks before decanting a mug of the tea and helping Sadie to sip it. After the first tentative slurp she took it readily enough and the exertion of half sitting and sipping the hot liquid tired her to the point that when she lay back in the bed, she fell into a quiet sleep.

  “Was that the bark tea that put her to sleep?” Amber asked.

  Tanyth shook her head. “I’d guess exhaustion. Fever takes a lot out of you and the flux just takes that much more.” She eyed the sleeping woman. “If she can keep it down, it’ll help with the pain, but we really don’t want to give her enough to break the fever until it’s ready to go on its own.”

  Rebecca looked at her sharply. “Why is that, mum?”

  “Fever is the body burning out its poison. If it gets too high, it’ll kill as fast as anything. Normally, it doesn’t and gets just hot enough to cook the poison out of the blood without cooking the person from the inside out. But you want the fever to run its course so you know the poison is gone. The tea will reduce the fever a bit, but it’s all to the good.”

  Amber caught herself in a yawn and Tanyth smiled.

  “Let’s take turns sitting. The night is more than half gone now, and she should sleep soundly for a few hours. If you two would like to get some sleep, I’ll wake one of you in a bit to take a turn.” She nodded at the pile of bedding going unused because the children were farmed out in other huts for the night.

  Rebecca took the hint and burrowed into the bedding. Tanyth thought she didn’t look all that much older than the children that probably slept there.

  Amber asked, “Are you sure, mum?”

  “Please, call me Tanyth? Or Tan? Mum makes me feel old.” She smiled, hands pressing into the small of her back. “And right now I don’t need anything makin’ me feel any older than I am.”

  Amber smiled in return. “But will you be alright?”

  Tanyth nodded and pulled her pack out of the corner where William had dropped it. She took out her bedroll and placed it as a pad on the floor beside the bed, using the pack itself as a cushion to lean against. “Much cozier than a fire in the open, my dear. I’ll be fine. You get some sleep. Tomorrow will be full enough of mischief.”

  Amber crawled into the pile of covers beside Rebecca and the two of them soon snored delicately, leaving Tanyth to her thoughts and the night. The excitement of the evening, starting with finding two strangers in her camp, the dash back over the ground so recently covered in the light of day, and finding a simple case of the flux that these youn
g people should have been able to handle without difficulty gave her pause.

  Tanyth checked on Sadie who appeared to be sleeping comfortably and settled back on her makeshift seat, one she’d often used in the wild. She crossed her arms under her breasts and settled in for a bit of a rest herself, but her mind would not let go of the one real fact. Grown women, albeit young as they were, must have seen flux a hundred times before. Amber had even recognized it. It was the most common of ailments next to running nose and cough. They had to have known that Sadie was in no real danger, even if she were uncomfortable.

  Why, then, had they sent the men after her? Her mind chased the question around like a kitten chasing its own tail, but like the kitten, she never caught up with any good answers. After an hour or so of sitting in the quiet, she heard Sadie’s breathing lengthen and deepen. She reached up and placed the back of her hand against the sick woman’s forehead. The fever hadn’t broken, but the willow bark was working its magic. Tanyth gave a small prayer of thanks to the All-Mother before settling down for a short nap of her own. In the forest behind the hamlet she heard a solitary owl hoot out a single call before the night drew close around.

  Chapter 3

  A Temporary Delay

  Small movements in the bed beside her woke Tanyth. Watery, predawn light gave her enough of a clue as to the hour to get her up and moving. She rose, stretching out sore muscles in neck and back with rolling motions. Sadie had thrown back the heavy blankets, leaving her shoulders and one arm exposed to the moist night air trapped in the hut. Tanyth pressed the back of her hand against the exposed skin of the young woman’s arm and considered. Still fevered, but it was reduced.

  She sighed and crossed to the hearth. She rummaged in the coals, adding some small sticks from the woodbox and fanning the flame to get a cheery fire going. Amber and Rebecca joined her.

  “You didn’t wake us!” Amber seemed at once contrite and distressed.