by Tara Brown
He giggled again.
Amber took him, kissing his cheek and not minding the spit all over his face from my poor cleaning job. My mom came out of the small house I sat in front of. Families had been given houses first. Our cottage reminded me of the one Murphy and I had shared in the orchards. Mom gave me a waterskin and sighed. “This place is amazing.”
I smiled seeing her so at peace. I imagined she felt Greg around her and he brought her the peace she needed.
Amber nodded. “It was exactly the sort of place Greg and I imagined we could live forever.” She didn't cry anymore when she talked about him. She was getting stronger all the time. She had even giggled the other day over a boy tripping and losing the armload of wool he was carrying. I hadn’t heard her giggle in so long.
“Your father is going to be back tomorrow from the traders. We should try to have the beds built before he gets back.”
I got up, knowing that hint was directed at me. My back didn't ache anymore and my body no longer hurt for no reason at all. I was finally getting used to the hard work of rebuilding a town and eventually a city.
People from the city came, more and more of them choosing to live in peace with the world instead of under someone’s thumb.
Nan strolled over carrying a loaf of bread. My mom instantly scowled. “Did you steal that?” Nan had a bad habit of just taking whatever she found as far as food went. She nodded and tossed me a large chunk. I took a bite and moaned. “They have perfected it.” The brick ovens in the inn had been cooking too hot and finally they were able to cook bread and not dry it out or burn it to hell.
Amber caught her piece and nodded. “Delicious.”
My mother held out her hand and took the chunk Nan passed her. When she took her bite, she was more critical. “It’s still a bit dry but they’re improving.”
Nan leaned against the support beam at the front of the house and nodded at the workers building the house next door. “That's for me, Rodin, Angelina, and Maria.”
My eyes lit up. “Next door?”
She smiled wide. “Yeah. We should be done soon. Rodin is still sleeping at the infirmary. He doesn't like to get woken at the inn and have to walk over to help whoever is sick or injured.” She rolled her eyes. “He acts like he has the most important job here.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “He does. One plague and we’re all dead.”
Amber nodded. “She has a point.”
“He doesn't have to gloat about it, okay?” Nan ate her bread, still looking unimpressed as we chuckled at her.
“Want to help me build some beds?” I asked.
“Thought you’d never ask.” She wrinkled her nose and walked inside.
“You hoped I wouldn't ask. It’s not the same thing.”
Amber called after me. “I’ll get your mom to watch Gregory and be inside in a moment. Let me just feed him.”
I nearly told her not to worry about it, but she had been odd lately about the relationship Nan and me had.
We started building the beds, resting the frame in the notches we cut and tying it all together with thick yarn. Amber walked in, instantly helping with lifting the other side of the bed frame. She smiled at me. “I bet you never imagined this as a designation?”
I laughed and looked at Nan. “The job we are assigned when we finish our schooling in the city. They pick for you, so you are doing the job that will benefit the city the most.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Building beds is a better job than most in my city.”
Amber agreed. “This entire life, as hard as it is, is better than anything the city had to offer. I am so grateful that Gregory will grow up knowing everything that has happened to him. He will be stronger for it.”
“Clearly. Even Gwyn is stronger for it.” Nan stuck her tongue out at me.
The room filled with laughter and smiles as we finished the bed and moved onto the next one. When we were done Murphy walked into the room, giving us an approving grin. “Well done, ladies. You want to come and help with the well?” he asked me.
I didn't know what it meant but I nodded. “Okay.” He laughed. “I know you swim well and you’re small. This job was made for you.”
That made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but I followed him out of the house. Nan came with me, nudging and nodding at him. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. She had been desperately trying to get me to open up to his advances but there was just something about his past that I couldn't let go of. The image of the girl swinging in the tree with the red dress blowing in the wind came to mind every time I imagined being with him.
There was no getting past an image like that one. Sometimes I dreamt that it was Amber when I got to the tree. I would wake, cold and sweaty and searching for her in the dark.
We walked to the well that was the old well they were trying to fix up. I looked at the structure the slavers had sort of ruined like they had everything else and nodded. “You want me to go down there?”
Murphy shrugged. “You fit, you’re light, and you swim in case it floods fast.”
I squeezed my eyes together and fought off the horrible feeling in my stomach. I hated closed spaces. It had dawned on me recently, it was the reason I liked being out in the open in nature more than anything.
“Let me go. I’m small too and stronger than her.” Nan pulled off her jacket and stepped forward.
“You can’t swim well, we had this conversation.” Murphy fastened a rope to my waist and lifted my chin. “You sure you can do this?” He asked it loud enough that the others around us heard him. I nodded and walked to the well. The hole was deep and bricked all the way to the top. At the bottom there was debris but no water. I stepped up onto the ledge that was bricked around it and looked back as Murphy pulled the rope over a wooden beam above the well and made a pulley.
He lifted me into the air slightly and I grabbed onto the rope, holding myself steady as he lowered me into the dark.
I closed my eyes for the first second, letting the feeling of the walls closing in around me hit me. Then I noticed my own breath and the silence that the brick walls provided. My rope was trembling where my hands gripped tightly.
I looked up at the bright light coming from the hole above as it got smaller and smaller. I didn't dare look down. I didn't dare look at the bricks around me. I watched the lessening hole and the blue eyes of the boy peeking over the edge at me.
I hadn’t noticed Lyle had come over but now I couldn’t stop watching him. When my feet touched I shouted, desperately not wanting to be as far down as I clearly was. “Stop!”
The rope tightened and I took a breath, which turned to frost in the damp air of the hole. I was shaking harder standing on the debris than I had been when I was being lowered. Several ropes dropped at the exact same moment and hung around my face. “Tie them onto the logs and stuff down there so we can get the water flowing again. Tug when we can pull it back up.”
I took a rope and tied it to the slimy end of a log. I tugged on the rope and the smallest of the logs slipped past me. When it was in the air I realized if it fell I would die. That instantly became another thing I couldn't stop watching. When they finally pulled it free I breathed and moved onto the next log, tying an even stronger knot so as to remain alive and unharmed while it got dragged up.
The third log was the biggest. I pushed my legs on either side of the tunnel and suspended myself in the air, bending forward and tying the log with three of the ropes. I tugged on the rope at the top. The log squished into me, dragging dirt up my body and pushing me into the mossy bricks of the walls.
I tugged the next rope as the middle of the log passed me, and the final rope as the end of the log was lifted. They were pulling it with three ropes and still it couldn’t move fast enough for me. It was the log that would kill me if it fell.
Hands reached for it, blocking all the light from the bottom of the well as they pulled it out. Lyle’s face was the first one I saw as it was freed from the hole and again
I was given a small amount of light. The rest of the debris was mostly rocks and bricks, so I stepped down into the mushy sand and started to dig with my fingers
The mud was cold and wet as small amounts of water started to burst through the silt ground. Beetles and bugs climbed from the ground, scurrying up the wall around me. I gasped, losing my footing and slipping on a rock. My head knocked against the well and my foot went through the sand.
I blinked the stars away and the rope tightened, lifting me up. I could hear them shouting and talking but it was as if there was something in the way of my hearing them. Suddenly the ground gave way and water started rising over my sunken foot and ankle. I tugged on the rope but my foot was lodged, and when they tried to pull me the rope felt like it would cut me in half.
I screamed, “I’M STUCK!”
The ropes around me lifted instantly and voices got louder. The water rose up to my knees, freezing me. The bugs were gone and the sound of the voices above me echoed off the water.
“NO, LET ME!” Lyle shouted and someone else grunted. Noises filled the air above me and suddenly the light was gone again. I scratched and dragged at the walls, trying to pull my foot free but the sand only pulled me farther into it.
I looked up as my eyes finally cleared to see a figure. Someone was coming for me. I assumed Nan; she was the bravest. Murphy wouldn't really fit in the tunnel with me so I didn't think he would come. But when I saw Lyle’s worried look descending upon me I was completely taken aback.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head but when he got as low as I was, he touched my face and proved me wrong. Blood coated his hand when he pulled it back. “You are hurt.”
I shook my head. “I can’t feel it. My foot is stuck. I’ve lost my boot completely, I think.” My lips trembled when I spoke from the cold water rushing up my body.
He moved down the wall the way I had been doing, using his hands and feet to climb down. He winced and blew his breath in my face as he entered the freezing water. He held his breath and bent at the waist, putting his face and hands into the murky water below. I felt his fingers touching my legs and scraping the sand at my feet. He pulled on my leg. I tried to help but the water sucked me down farther.
When he surfaced he shook the water off his face and wiped, steadying himself again. I shook my head. “It’s no use. The more I move, the lower I go.”
I paused, thinking what a mistake it had been to send him. He didn't remember a single thing about me or his life before. He clearly was the wrong problem solver to be down in the small hole with me.
His body pressed against mine as he took his rope off and tied it to my leg.
“Put that back on! If you slip you’ll die!” I snapped at him but he didn't listen. He looked up and muttered, “This is going to be loud, sorry.” Then he shouted, “LOWER MORE ROPES AND A LOG AS WIDE AS THE HOLE!”
Nan shouted back. “OKAY!”
Suddenly, the ropes dropped and a log was lifted to the hole, measuring it against the opening I assumed.
I looked back at him, trying not to notice how close his face was to mine and focus more on the fact the water was past my midsection. “Why did you come down here?”
He shook his head. “I don't know. I just knew I had to save you. I don't remember you at all, but I have noticed when I think you are in trouble there is a terrible panic inside of me.”
I laughed bitterly. He remembered to save me, just not love me. I grabbed one of the ropes that was lowered and tied it around his chest. He watched as my cold and shaking fingers messed up the knot. He took the rope in his hands, brushing his fingers against mine and tied it off. He smiled when he did the knot a weird looking way. “My cousin Bran showed me that one.”
I lifted my eyes to his. “You remember Bran?”
He scowled. “Of course. Do you?”
I laughed again but this time a sob slipped out.
“You knew him too?”
“I knew him well,” I muttered and left it there. I didn't want to explain the messy details. They wouldn't help either of us, especially not in a hole filling with water faster than I would have liked. I just couldn't believe he hadn’t told me he remembered Bran. That hurt more than anything. I was on the outside of the circle with him, completely.
He reached his hands up, grabbing the log as it lowered. He tilted it on its side and wedged it just above me. He climbed up onto the thick log and reached down. “Stay completely still.” His words were soft and close to my cheek. When his hands slipped around me I relaxed completely as he wrapped around me and hugged tightly. He lifted as I stayed still, letting the mud keep my boot but free my foot. I pulled my legs up into me, grabbing at him and scrambling up onto the log with him. I nearly pushed him but he held tight to me, holding me in his lap.
I sat there for a moment, shivering but no longer cold. The smell of him wafted into my nose, owning me. We sat there for a moment, just breathing and holding each other.
“You all right?”
I nodded into his shoulder, still wrapping my legs around his waist and gripping to him for dear life. It was wrong to stay and make him hold me, but I did it until the rope started pulling me up without my consent.
When I got to the surface I grabbed onto the bricks at the top as hands scrambled and dragged me from the hole. Murphy wrapped himself around me. “You scared me.”
I nodded against him. “Scared myself.”
Nan smacked me on the arm, hard. “Don't ever do that to me again.”
I smiled at her weakly. “Deal.” I looked back and watched as the other men pulled Lyle up. He gave me something of a smile as he climbed from the hole and walked off without a word.
Murphy scowled as Nan grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the inn where I could get warm water to bathe in. “We need hot water and a tea made now.” She demanded. The queen’s ladies, who never really did much, started to scramble. They hauled me up the stairs and dragged me to the washing room. I was warm and clean before the smell of Lyle even left my nose.
Lying back in the sudsy water I gave Nan a look. “What was the commotion up there while I was in the hole?”
She rolled her eyes and continued to rinse my dirty clothes, picking a dead beetle off my pants and flicking it into the waste bin. “Murphy wanted to come and rescue you but Lyle went crazy, shoved him and tied the rope around himself. Murphy almost punched him in the face and Lyle didn't shy away. He leaned into Murphy and said something really weird. Something like, you can’t have her.” She made her voice a growl for the last bit.
I scowled. “Why does he care who rescues me. He barely likes me as an acquaintance.”
She shrugged. “Men!”
“You’re a fine one to talk. I know for a fact you’ve been cavorting with Michael, who is much too old for you.”
“Cavorting? Seriously? I don't even know what that means, but if it does mean what I think it means, that's none of your damned business.” She grinned at me. “He has the brightest eyes and the whitest smile I have ever seen. I love those teeth. Is that weird?”
“Yes.”
She shrugged again. “Then I don't want to be normal.”
I rolled my eyes. “He was hitting it off with one of the teachers.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “So. Doesn't mean I can’t cavort with him also. There is a shortage of men.”
I scoffed. “Not here there isn’t. It’s all men. So nice try.”
“He started it.”
I threw my hands into the air, splashing bubbles about. “Of course he did. He’s a man. He wants to cavort whenever he can.”
She laughed. “You just haven’t cavorted if you think it’s all for the men.”
My face blushed and she nodded. “As I suspected. What are you saving that experience for?” When I didn't respond she folded her arms across her chest, dropping my pants into the soapy water again. “Marriage? Really? You think cavorting is something only married people do?”
I nodded. �
��It seems like something married people should do.”
“Well, I cavort when and where I like and I am never getting married. So there.” She mumbled something before stopping herself. “Lyle has been cav—”
I sat up. “What?”
She gave me a harsh stare. “What did you think was going on with Brooke? Of course he’s—cavorting.”
My heart, what was left of it, cracked in half. “You can’t be sure.”
She shrugged and didn't answer. I knew she was sure. He had been making love to Brooke.
I stopped myself completely, not even letting my brain imagine what that would look like. I forced myself to think on the image of my brother’s ghost on the front steps and the words he had said. He had told me that Lyle and I were in danger and then the image of us both in the well flooded my mind. My brother had predicted that. He had seen that I would be in danger and Lyle would be with me. That was what I needed to focus on. I forced my brain to forget the other conversation and think about what else my brother could predict.
The unfinished tale
Sitting atop the wall, smoothing the cement we had made, I placed the last brick in its spot and slapped the top several times. The section I was sitting on had dried the day before and now I was finishing the last part in my section. Nan tossed me a waterskin from her section next to mine. “You think it’s starting to look like a town again?”
I nodded, removing the cap and drinking slowly. I poured a little on my face and sighed. It was genuinely looking like a town again. The inn was built completely in the image of the one from The Lost City, only it was made with large wooden beams, which in my opinion looked better. Murphy had called it rustic and I liked the word, regardless of not understanding the meaning completely. He said it was outdoorsy and sort of the opposite of fancy. It made me wonder at his knowing the meaning at all.
He had been trying harder than normal to win my affections by attempting desperately to befriend my father. But my father had been too busy in his new role in the kingdom to give any of his time to someone he disliked. The king had taken to enjoying my father’s company. They would reminisce about their old memories and shared stories. They got along well—better than I had expected. He relied on my father for advice and guidance.