The Hermit of Lammas Wood

by Nathan Lowell

  Mother Pinecrest’s wrinkled lips turned upward in an amused bow. “No, dear girl. Not mad. You’re one of the few of us who’ve lived long enough to receive the Lady’s gifts.” She reached over and patted Tanyth’s knee. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

  “If you’re ready to teach me, I’d like to learn from you, Mother Pinecrest.”

  “Hush, girl. Call me Gertie. It’s my name and we’re going to be workin’ close together. We can’t be ‘Motherin’’ each other all the time or we’ll never get nothin’ done, eh?”

  Tanyth found herself smiling back at the kindly, wrinkled face. “Gertie,” she said.

  “That’s better. We’ve a lot to talk about, we two, but it’ll wait until tomorrow. We have guests tonight.” She turned to the women sitting beside the hearth. “Rebecca, have you found what you wanted on your grand adventure?”

  Rebecca sat up, her eyes wide in surprise. “Mum?”

  Gertie gave a little laugh. “Don’t look so startled, girl. I don’t need to be a mind reader to know a young girl’s heart. You came with Mother Fairport to have a grand adventure, didn’t ya?”

  “Well, no, mum. That is, I suppose so, mum.” Rebecca looked from Penny to Tanyth and back to Mother Pinecrest. “I suppose I was on a grand adventure.”

  “And was it everything you hoped it would be, girl?”

  Rebecca pondered the question for several long moments. “It’s been far different from anything I might have hoped for. I’m not sure I knew what I could hope for before we left. Now?” Her hands flipped up and down again. “I’m not ready for the adventure to end, I guess. There seems like so much more to do.”

  “That’s my girl!” the old woman said. “Your father’s right to be so proud of you. And you’re right. Your adventure’s just startin’.” She turned to Penny. “How about you, girl? You ready for your adventure to end?”

  “I’m not on an adventure, Grandmother. This is just...well...life. Why would I want it to end?”

  “Oh, you’re on an adventure, daughter of my daughter. You’ve a few more paths to explore, I think.” She cocked her head to one side to look at her. “Yes. A few more paths.”

  Tanyth heard the tea kettle start to boil just as Gertie said, “Who’s ready for some tea? Besides me, that is?”

  Penny pulled the kettle out of the fire and Rebecca tossed in a handful of leaves.

  Gertie leaned down to inhale the aroma of fresh, steeping tea. Her eyes closed and she sat back in her chair, a beatific smile across her lips and her eyes closed as she savored the scent. “Oh, that’s just what I’ve been needin’,” she said.

  She stood and walked over to the inside door. “Lemme get some proper mugs and we’ll have a lovely chat, eh?”

  She disappeared through the door, returning with four, gently rounded mugs with heavy ceramic handles. “These should do,” she said, holding up the double handful of glassware. She placed the mugs on the table top and motioned for Penny to pour the tea.

  “It’s not quite steeped, Grandmother. Just a little longer.”

  The old woman tsked but nodded. “Of course. I’m just excited to have a real, fresh cuppa after all these years.”

  “Years, Grandmother?”

  “Oh, yes. Nobody thinks to bring an old woman tea for barterin’. No, they don’t.” She threw her hands up in the air. “What’s a body to do?”

  “We’ve got tea to spare, Grandmother. Between what we brought and what Tanyth brought, you’ll have enough tea to last until next spring, I wager.”

  The old woman smiled. “Oh, that would be lovely. It’s so difficult to get supplies here.”

  “How do you get supplies here?” Tanyth asked.

  “What we can’t grow or harvest from the wild, we get from barter. Travelers sometimes call, even out here,” she said. She resumed her seat at the table, her eyes fixed on the pot filled with steeping tea.

  Tanyth heard something hard in her voice—some part of the story left untold.

  “I come out several times a year, Gran,” Penny said. “I usually only go as far as my cave, but if I knew what you needed, I could bring it.”

  Gertie’s gaze shifted from the teapot to her granddaughter and back again. “Yes, yes. I appreciate the sentiment, dearie, but you did well to keep out of the valley.”

  “Why, Gran?” Penny asked, her eyes gleaming in the firelight.

  The old woman held out her arms and folded them around her granddaughter. “It’s not your time, dear one. When it is, you’ll know.”

  Penny’s arms wrapped around her grandmother and held on for several long moments before releasing her and stepping away, looking down at her boots and swiping her cheeks with her palms. “Tea should be ready,” she said, a husky burr in her voice.

  Tanyth reached for the pot and poured out four mugs’ worth while Penny poked up the fire against the gathering night.

  Gertie returned to the table, her head swinging side to side. She reached out her hand and Tanyth slipped the handle of a mug into it. Gertie lifted the cup and let the aromatic steam waft across her face. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “Oh, my. That’s heavenly,” she said and sipped. “There’s few things I miss more’n good tea.”

  Once more the younger women settled on their bedrolls beside the hearth while Tanyth and Gertie pulled their chairs closer.

  “This is pleasant,” Gertie said after a moment. “You young folks will have to pardon an old lady for not havin’ proper guest manners. I get so few guests out here.”

  “Well if you were home to guests, perhaps you’d have more,” Penny said, a cheeky grin curling her lips even as a bit of pique slipped into her voice.

  Gertie chuckled to herself softly and nodded. “Well, that’s true.” She paused to sip from her mug. “Some things just are, I fear. May as well ask the mountains to bow down. They will, you know, eventually, but they do it in their own time.”

  An uneasy silence settled among them, only the snapping of the dried wood in the hearth marking the time.

  “Mother Pinecrest?” Rebecca asked. “May I ask how you know my father?”

  She turned her head to face Rebecca. “Never met the man myself,” she said. “But I met your mother once. Lovely woman. A free spirit like you.”

  Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “A while back you said he was proud of me.”

  “Oh, that he is, my dear. You can be sure of that.” She nodded several times as if to assure the young woman. “You can be sure.”

  “If you never met him...?” Rebecca started to ask but the question died on her lips.

  Gertie smiled. “You know Mother Fairport here has some peculiar dreams, yeah?”

  Rebecca looked down into her mug then cast a glance at Tanyth. “Yes’m,” she said.

  Gertie wrinkled her nose and her eyebrows twitched as she leaned forward a little more. “So do I, my dear. Oh, my yes. So do I,” she whispered. She sat back in her chair and took another sip of tea. “Who wants some dinner, eh?”

  “We brought some rations with us, mum,” Rebecca said.

  “Oh, pish and tosh,” Gertie said. “Dried twigs and tough fruit?”

  Penny laughed. “They’re not that bad, Gran.”

  “Well, I have something nicer than that and plenty to go around. You wait.” She upended her mug, draining the last of the tea with a smile. “Oh, that’s so good. You say there’s enough for perhaps another pot?”

  Penny laughed again. “I think we have enough to make tea all night, if you want, Gran.”

  “No, that’s not necessary,” she said. “Just another cup so I don’t forget what it tastes like. We can switch to cider or water. There’s plenty of both.” She placed her cup on the table, well back from the edge, and stood. “Tanyth? Could I get you to help me for a bit?”

  “Of course.”

  The old woman smiled her gap-toothed smile and led Tanyth through the carved door. Stopping just inside the room, Gertie stooped to pick up a lantern and held it high. The
light barely touched the ceiling above them and a line of rough wooden boards marked a crude path deeper into the mountain.

  Tanyth expected a store-room but the size of the space made her skip a step.

  “Over here, Tanyth. There’s a cold room...” Gertie clattered off along the path. “A bit bigger than what you expected, eh?”

  “I expected a closet, not a cavern,” Tanyth said.

  The old woman laughed. “I remember when I first saw it. It’s not changed much in the twenty-odd winters since I’ve been here.” She took a left-turning branch and continued on under the roots of the mountain. “Not much call to change it, that I can see.”

  “Who built it?”

  “Ah, Tanyth, there’s been a hermit here since—well, since there’s been people in Korlay, I suspect.” She slapped a shelf as she walked by, the wood thumping under her bony fingers. “Back here, there’s not much to make ’em rot. No sunlight. Not a lot of moisture...at least not here. The hot springs get damp and slimy, sometimes.”

  “Hot springs?”

  “Oh, yes. You wait. You’ll love ’em.” She stopped in front of a door made of stout timbers hung on heavy iron hinges. “Here we are.”

  “Cold room?”

  “Oh, yes. Ice room this time of year. Should be cold right up until fall and then the ice starts formin’ again.” Gertie slid the sturdy latch back and pulled on the door.

  When they stepped in, Gertie’s lantern picked out a wall of ice. The temperature dropped enough for Tanyth to see her breath. Shelves stacked with wooden crates lined the walls and several iron hooks hung from the stone ceiling.

  “What you fancy after your long walk, eh?” Gertie said, her head cocked just a bit sideways as she looked at Tanyth.

  “What are my choices?” she asked.

  “Well, there’s several bushels of potatoes and carrots left from fall’s harvest. There’s smoked fish and sausages in some of those crates. We don’t have a lot of fresh foods yet, but plenty of dried, salted, and smoked. There’s a couple of cheeses there, too. I love cheese but don’t take the time to saw at the wheel much these days.”

  “Well, let’s make a sausage soup,” Tanyth said. “We can melt a little cheese on the top...”

  “You gonna cook for me?”

  “You gonna teach me what I need to know?”

  The old woman smiled. “I’ll teach you all I have time for, my dear. I’m feelin’ old as these rocks and I still don’t know all I need to know.”

  Tanyth laughed. “All right. Good enough for me.”

  “Sausages on that shelf. Deer and elk sausage in the first crate. Pork in the second.” Gertie pointed with the hand holding the lantern. “Potatoes and carrots in those bins over there. Grab a couple of onions while you’re in there.”

  “Where’d all this come from?”

  Gertie waved her free hand dismissively. “Grew it, mostly. Where else?”

  “You grew it?”

  “Oh, yes. Traded for some. Grew some.”

  “Alone?”

  “My Lady, no. At my age? Don’t be silly. When I first came to the valley, I did most of it, to be sure, but now I have lots of help.”

  Tanyth’s gaze went to the small gray mouse riding on the woman’s head. “Like your little friend there?”

  Gertie’s free hand went up to her hair and a knotted finger stroked the rodent. “Oh, Squeek? Yes, he’s my eyes, but no. Trappers and the occasional hunter come through. I barter for what I need, including some strong backs.”

  “Barter?”

  “Yes, indeed. My cider draws trappers and hunters from miles around.” She waved a hand as if dispersing a small cloud. “But we’ll have plenty of time to talk about that tomorrow after the girls are safely out of the valley. Now, we need to get what we need for dinner and get back before they try to come looking for us.”

  “Is that bad?”

  “It is if they take the wrong turn in these caverns.” Gertie’s light and teasing tone carried a note of concern that resonated with Tanyth. “Grab that pot there on the shelf. Add whatever you want from the larder and we’ll get back to them.”

  “I don’t see any herbs here. Salt?”

  “Oh, well, we’ll talk about that later, too, but there’s plenty of salt.” She chuckled a little. “We got plenty of salt.”

  Tanyth pulled the heavy iron pot from the shelf and started gathering ingredients. If the hints that Gertie had given were any indication of the summer to come, it would be an interesting season indeed.

  Chapter Nineteen:

  Cider

  Morning dawned crisp and clear. Tanyth strolled among the apple trees and lavender, a mug of hot tea cupped in her hands and faint rustlings above her as the breezes stirred the winter stripped branches just filling out with spring’s leaves.

  The door to Gertie’s cottage swung open and she turned back. Rebecca and Penny dragged themselves out into the brilliant morning sun. Neither of them seemed eager to leave.

  Gertie stood in the doorway and held out her arms. Each young woman took a turn being hugged and hugging back. The old woman had that air about her—a warmth and a welcome that Tanyth found at odds with a person known far and wide as the hermit of Lammas Wood.

  They spoke among themselves but Tanyth only heard low, somber voices and not words. After a moment or two, the young women shambled along the path toward her.

  “Mum? I don’t like leavin’ ya here like this,” Rebecca said as they approached. “Why can’t we stay?”

  “Mother Pinecrest’s house, Mother Pinecrest’s rules,” Tanyth said, taking her own turn to hug the young woman who’d come so far with her. “Not like you don’t have plenty to do and you’ll only be over the ridge there if you stay in the cave.”

  “We’ll be staying there, at least for a while,” Penny said. “I need to find some nuggets to pay for next winter’s bills. Only way that’ll happen is if we get them now so I can send them south and get paid for them before the ice comes again.”

  After an awkward silence, Rebecca asked, “Will you be all right here, mum?”

  Tanyth sipped her cooling tea and cast her gaze around the orchard. “This feels right to me,” she said at last. “I’ve come a long way to be here. I’m pretty sure the All-Mother didn’t send me all this way just to plant me in the ground.”

  “What if she did?” Penny asked.

  Tanyth barked a single laugh. “Well, then I’ll be fertilizin’ flowers and not much I can do about it, is there?”

  “Still not sure why it’s all so secret,” Rebecca said, her voice carrying a slightly petulant tone.

  “Age brings caution, my dear. Sometimes too much.” Tanyth thrust her chin in the direction of the cottage where Gertie still stood in the open door. “She’s far from the most secretive woman I’ve worked with. I think we’ll have a productive summer. Who knows what fall will bring.”

  “Snow, if I’m any judge,” Penny said with a grin.

  “Well, that, too,” Tanyth said, then held out her arms. “Give us a hug and get goin’. You’ve got a long road ahead to get back to town.”

  “We talked about it and we’re not goin’ back right away, mum,” Rebecca said, wrapping Tanyth in a strong hug.

  “We’ll spend a day or two lookin’ for rocks,” Penny added. “If things don’t work out here, you can always join us there.”

  Tanyth cast a glance at the cottage where Gertie Pinecrest still waited in the door. “It’ll be fine, but good luck with your hunting and travel safe going back.”

  Penny accepted Tanyth’s hug, after which the two young women turned their steps to southward and disappeared around a bend in the trail.

  Tanyth drained her mug and walked back to the cottage.

  “You ready to get to work?” Gertie asked as she drew near.

  “Sooner started, sooner done.”

  Gertie snorted but a grin lifted the corner of her lips. “Well, I ain’t never seen it done, but with two of us we can prob’ly
beat it back a bit.”

  “What’s first?” Tanyth asked.

  “Cider.” Gertie turned and disappeared into the cottage. “We gotta get the trade goods ready. We’ll have company in a day or two. Best get ready for ’em.”

  “Company?”

  “Alden Jacquard. He’s a trapper keeps a camp two valleys to the west. He’ll be here tomorrow or the next day lookin’ for cider.”

  Tanyth followed Gertie into tidy cottage and closed the door behind her. “He comes all that way just for cider?”

  Gertie nodded. “Him and a dozen more. Good thing they do, too, or we’d have ta work a lot harder to keep body and soul together.”

  “Then why did the girls have to leave so soon?”

  “Two reasons. The first bein’ that Alden Jacquard will be here in a day or two. Two old crows like us don’t have much to fear from him. Two youngsters like them?” She shook her head. “Just as soon not give him the temptation.” Gertie headed into the caverns behind the house. “Come on, then. Let’s get this over with and maybe we can make a pot of tea to celebrate.”

  Tanyth followed Gertie into the labyrinth and did her best to remember the paths.

  “Should have a cask ready to bottle up. Might be a bit young yet but nobody’ll complain.”

  “You age cider?” Tanyth asked a suspicion growing.

  Gertie cast a look over her shoulder, her eyes glinting with amusement in the faint glow of the lantern. “Why d’ya think these fine gentlemen come from miles around to trade with ole Gertie Pinecrest, eh? ’Taint for my medicinal potions and such.”

  Tanyth couldn’t stop the delighted laugh from bubbling up. “I been meanin’ to ask where your herbs are.”

  Gertie shook her head and took a right turn. “That’s gonna be your job, I think. I’ve never been much for the herb lore. Oh, I know hyssop from verbena, but you’re the expert there, my dear. All your teachers say so.”

  Tanyth felt her heart fall to her stomach.

  Gertie pushed against a door and led them into a circular cavern. Dark, wooden barrels rested on rough shelves carved into the cavern walls. Small passages led off in various directions. Gertie used her lantern to ignite a brace of torches, and set them into hangers to light the room. The tangy aroma of old apples filled the air, along with something sharper that Tanyth couldn’t name at first.