It was some time before they began to discuss who would be in their wedding party.
~~~
Father Christopher
On his way to Orthos, Christopher noticed the grass outside. This is the first time since we arrived here that it is all covered in a thick hard frost. I suppose that I felt that chill outside our warm nest of blankets and feather throw last night. Winter is well on the way. Not the winter I am used to, mind you, but a mountain winter. The work of repairing the houses will have to take on an extra urgency. I wonder if I can use the patronage of St Amos, of maps and surveyors, whose day it is, to seek aid to our work? Can I make that work?
~~~
After he had finished Orthos Christopher received a surprise. He had been distracted by the events of the day before and unusually did not notice who had been sitting with whom. When it was over he was approached by Harald. He had Lakshmi by the hand.
“Can we ask’n you to perform a wedding for us please,” said Harald, “’n’ Lakshmi wants to talk to you about conversion.”
Christopher felt a little stunned. How did I miss this? He found himself saying, “Of course, yes, but this is sudden.”
Harald shuffled his feet. “You know t’at I’ve been lookin’ for t’right woman?” he asked. Christopher nodded. That is true. “Well Lakshmi, because of how she used to earn her living you see, she understands jewels ’n’ I want someone who knows what I do ’n’ she is strong ’n’ she can help me if’n I need ’n’…well have you ever seen such courage. First just telling her past ’n’ then taking out a strong mage armed only with pair of knives. T’at is all real courage. I like t’at even more in a woman t’an her beauty…even though she do be beautiful.” He added the last hurriedly.
That is almost Dwarven logic. Christopher addressed Lakshmi, “This is what you wish?”
“Yes…Father. I do not love Harald, and he does not love me, but most marriages start that way. He is a good match for me. We have no-one to arrange a marriage for us and he is right, we have a lot more in common than many others here do and I think we will grow old and learn to love each other as we age. I am very happy in our choice. Much happier than I ever thought I would ever have a chance to be. I will have a man, one who knows my background, and I have made him fully aware of it, and yet he still wants me for what I bring and not just my looks.”
When you look at it that way, the pair are right about their prospects. It is a very good match for them both. “In that case, my blessings are on you both. If you wish to talk to me about conversion, we had better wait for a week or so for the marriage, but we do have all winter ahead of us.”
~~~
The next day at Hesperinos, the Mass at sundown, Christopher announced that Theodora and Rani would be married in two days and he announced the engagement of Harald and Lakshmi, with the wedding to take place in two weeks. After the service Goditha and Parminder came up to him.
“Can thee allow us to have the week in between please?” said Goditha. “We want to be married after the Princesses, but not too much after. We want our baby to always know us as always being married.” In this place of death and long-suffering there is now the new hope of marriage and children.
This is good. This is the way it should be in a village…in my village.
~~~
By their request Theodora and Rani’s wedding will have a mixture of all of the cultures in Mousehole represented in it. Basil and Astrid have even taken over a section of the kitchen to assist by making Darkreach food. Astrid has been missing from the village all of the morning and came back with a large something hidden under a cloth. Once she returned, from what Christopher could hear as he moved around, this assistance mainly means Basil smacking his wife with a wooden spoon as she tries to taste everything he works on. I didn’t think that it would take long before she was relegated to working on her own dish. Seeing that Basil will give the bride away and Astrid is a maid of honour, the kitchen is…a little confused.
What do you do for a wedding between two women? You make it up as you go from a normal wedding. I am glad that the two women had readily acceded. It was not surprising to anyone who watched them together, to find that Theodora has declared that she is the bride. We have Astrid, Bianca and Ayesha as maids of honour and Hulagu, Stefan and Thord as groomsmen. Astrid has declared that it is all a plot to make sure that no-one sat with their partners, but fell to work anyway.
Christopher found himself continually having to try and bring order out of chaos. Astrid not only had to help Basil with his cooking, but make sure that all of the clothes were ready by helping Fortunata sew. Valeria’s day had been spent running between two rooms. Theodora had been installed in Christopher’s old room but had insisted on wearing her own clothes that she had brought with her. Rani had not brought anything formal and the Havenite women in the village had little idea what a high caste woman would have on. They had to keep asking Rani.
It is with relief that I now contemplate the sight in front of me. Rani’s party are installed in the hall to the music of Parminder playing a sitar with Shilpa playing a tamburi in support and singing. Kãhina is leading on percussion with Naeve and Hagar. They are a mixed lot. Rani wears a formal sari, probably not the right one, but at least it is a formal dress of some sort. She has her hands and feet painted with henna and silver chains hang from the rings on her face and in her ears. The red dot on her forehead is new and vivid. Hulagu wears his Khitan clothes with mace and bow. Thord wears full armour, even with his shield, insisting that this is what Dwarves wear to a wedding. In Christopher’s eyes Stefan looks like the only one at a wedding. He wears a long belted dark blue silk bliaut with silver trim over paler blue fine-woollen hose. As he stands there he keeps glancing with a worried expression at Bryony who is very silently sitting near the front with her eyes not really focussed. Verily sits with her holding her hands and, when she notices him watching, indicates to Stefan to pay attention to the wedding.
Now the musicians change. Danelis takes the stage with a crumhorn, Eleanor with a lute, Elizabeth and Tabitha have shawms and Dulcie has a sackbut. Kãhina is the only drummer. The music starts. I was sure that there were more people in the wedding party and doing music than in the audience, but I am wrong.
The door is opening and Fear comes in as the flower girl, trying to look like a little princess herself…Ayesha is undulating up the aisle, as much dancing as walking. Astrid follows, stalking as she does. She is dressed in her own wedding dress as is the next girl in, my own beloved wife Bianca, and finally Theodora comes in. She has left her own coronet in her rooms and is wearing the village wedding crown except that the strings of pearls from her coronet now hang from this one. Basil is beside her wearing his own marriage clothes.
~~~
It seems to me, in the eyes of almost everyone here, the wedding is going superbly. The now traditional Khitan wedding dance has four dancers, which means that they dance in a square. Bianca is wearing her Khitan dancing clothes under her own and makes a simple change. Ayesha sits with Hulagu, Bianca with Stefan and Astrid with Thord. The same couples, along with the bride and groom, lead the dancing. The evening progresses well…I look at Bianca; she looks back. Stefan still shows his concern for Bryony, but Verily is looking after her. Astrid and Thord just stare at their tankards and are getting very drunk together.
So, Astrid’s big surprise was a huge fish that she had caught in the river that morning. “I knew that he was there, and I was keeping him for something special. I have been keeping my eye out for where he liked to be and this morning I tickled him out.”
Sitting here, the soberest of them all bar Ayesha, I wonder if Astrid and Thord will actually get thrown out due to their drunken behaviour. Looking at Theodora, I am sure she is thinking of it. Astrid makes her first try at entertaining by relating to the village how the bride and groom came together, including their behaviour in the bath and admitting her own part in it all… It is hard to tell with Rani, but Theodora is b
lushing. It is not the most skilful tale that I have heard, but Astrid’s humorous rendition, complete with running around to places in the hall to play the various parts as she told the tale had people laughing out loud. Her baltering rendition of Theodora’s dance nearly had them all explode with mirth, and then when she ran down to be Rani looking up at her bride to be, the whole hall erupted. Oh dear. Even the groom has a small smile on her face. That is obviously all she will allow herself, to try and keep her dignity…although after tonight that may not be possible. The bride is still blushing and trying to deny it all. That only confirms it. Looking at the normally calm-faced Basil, it seems he was near choking with trying to control his expression as Astrid adds their own exit, playing both sides of it. Astrid sits down to cheers and stomping feet and reaches for another tankard of ale…which Thord already has handy for her.
I wonder if Basil will ever let his wife sit near the Dwarf again. They are definitely a bad influence on each other.
~~~
Rani
Imagine my delight. I will have time together and alone with my Princess. Fear is with Valeria all night. It looks like our house will be repaired enough to be liveable before the snow sets in and I am already grateful for that. Do we have to put up with the whole village showing us to our room? It seems so. Behind us the door closes… “One day I am going to kill Astrid. I doubt if either of us will have a shred of dignity left after tonight.”
“Except for Granther’s, I believe most courts have a clown, my husband. They have license to poke fun at those who are in charge. It gives release and reminds us to be humble in our role. It looks like Astrid has appointed herself to that role. As well, people needed the release after the hobgoblins and then yesterday. Now, for once we do not have Fear between us. Come to the bed for your bride.” As she lay naked she reached up with her arms. I am married to this beauty…
~~~
Ayesha
Astrid will never be a classic storyteller, but she is certainly good at a comic tale. She has a sense of timing in it and is willing to let herself be the butt of the humour as well. I was glad of that interruption. I am finding it more and more difficult to even sit with Hulagu and, being part of the ceremony, as it were. I could not even politely avoid the dancing. He seems to have some problem. He was very quiet…far more than usual. His köle were not missing him. They were with Goditha and Parminder and of the four only Parminder is to be counted as being sober. However he was not watching them. He spent most of the night just staring off into space. If I say something I feel like I am interrupting his thoughts.
~~~
She woke up the next morning. At least this time I did not wake expecting to see Hulagu beside me, even if he was in my dreams. I can hardly have a night’s sleep lately without something inappropriate happening in my dreams and on nights like this, they are not only inappropriate, but are…well outright sinful. However, I have to admit they seem good in the dream. Not that I have any experience of the reality to judge by… Everyone goes to the infidel priest with their troubles. I really might have to do the same.
~~~
Goditha
Who would have expected my wedding to be an anti-climax? After the Princesses’, though, anything was bound to be. I looked at my brother earlier. We are now nearly twins since I have now cut off most of my hair and we wear near identical clothing. It is a plain brown tunic and green woollen hose and leather capelet. Only my boobs beneath my tunic say that I am not a very handsome young man. With my brother’s archery and my stonework, even our shoulders are filling out to near the same size with muscles. Giles stands next to me and he is dressed near the same as well. At least, for once, he doesn’t have a straw stuck in the corner of his mouth.
The music swelled and she looked behind her. Goditha felt her heart near skip a beat. I am getting married…to my beautiful little girl lover and by a real priest. Parminder’s sister, Gurinder, is the flower girl and first in. Naeve is the maid of honour in her best. Robin, of course, gives away the bride. She looked at Parminder and suddenly could see nothing else other than her beloved. She may not be wearing as fine a sari as that of the Princess, nor does she have the jewels or the red dot, but who cares. She is just so delicate…so beautiful…and she is mine…forever.
Afterwards, she made sure not to drink too much. I nearly mucked everything up last night. Giles and Robin got me far too drunk and my little one, and indeed the other women of the village, were not impressed. Once I recovered from my hangover, I defended them. “That is what always happens at home—and yes, the women always are mad at the men all day—until the wedding starts, that is.” I was forgiven. Still, it is best not to press my luck as a new married husband.
It rained during the wedding. “This is considered a good omen in our village. It means fertility and prosperity. We will manage the fertility part somehow.” Robin is nodding, so is Valeria—she comes from our area too. The only thing that would have made my marriage perfect would have been if my mother could have seen that her daughter is now not only still alive, but also married. Somehow we need to let her know. She will have difficulty with me marrying a woman, a girl really, but in time perhaps she will accept it.
~~~
Bianca
During the days the pace of life continued. Bianca, having been raised as an orphan that few regarded, had to adapt to her role as the priest’s wife and being deferred to and, at the same time, staying as an adopted Khitan and the executioner. From an almost invisible role as a lowly stable hand and server I am now one of the most noticeable women in my village. My life has turned completely on its head.
Looking around on Krondag I can see that the same sense of change is spread through the whole village. The training in weapons continues. Stefan swears that the women of the village have been waiting for this opportunity. They are soaking up what they are given and some are on the way to being almost fair in their skill. He and Hulagu are competing as to whether the women with swords will be better or whether it will be those who use maces. “One of t’em would no stand up to an experienced armsman on t’eir own yet, but t’ey will do so one day soon,” he declared.
Thord had Ayesha and Harald, and now Lakshmi, climbing the cliffs around the village and Norbert was hard pressed to keep up with his demands for equipment. If you looked for rope in the village you would likely find it with one of those four.
The women are even being introduced to the horses and how to ride them, instead of just using one for the cart. Eleanor has even started to work with Theodora’s Esther. For a warhorse, she is patient. Life is settling into a routine with the traditional slow down for winter that most places enjoy replaced by hard work, which went on well into the long night, especially for the trainee mages.
~~~
The day of Harald and Lakshmi’s wedding was the day that Rani and Theodora moved into their house with all those who would be accompanying them. It was a clear fine day and they thought that they did not have much to move, but they were annoyingly distracted at the start by Naeve with questions about the wintering of the herd. They had to go down to the pens to see what she meant. When they returned they discovered that everything had been moved…and they had a new bed and many other new things. That had been fun to plot. The whole village had been preparing for this move by secretly making things for their house, although it was not all theirs. Some of the items there would be moving on when Goditha and Parminder finish their house in a few weeks.
The days were growing chilly and the nights were far colder. Astrid declared happily that she could smell snow in the air. Why should that be good news?
Chapter XXXII
Father Christopher
The morning of the marriage Lakshmi was baptised and had her first confession. This may have been the longest confession that I have ever done in my life or will ever do, even counting those that had been done after we took Mousehole. Lakshmi obviously thinks that she has a lot to be forgiven for and she is glad of a chance to un
burden herself of it. It also shows that she has a very good memory. Instead of confessing such general sins as theft, she can still remember where she had stolen things, what they were and often how much she had gotten for selling them. She went into particular detail with gems. It is obvious that one of the reasons Harald has decided to marry her was that some of her skills complemented his. Her memory is, unfortunately, excellent. It extends well back into an early, and it turns out, very criminal, childhood. I am glad she didn’t go into such detail about all of her other activities, just numbering customers. I am left wondering if she will have time to get dressed. I can see Goditha, who will be giving her away; and the maid of honour, Elizabeth, waiting at the back of the hall, but it is Lakshmi’s right to give a full confession and she is taking it.
~~~
We made it, it is delayed…but we are here. Thord is Harald’s groomsman and the two are in front of me as we wait… The music has a lot of drums in it. Bilqĩs with her naq, her flute, is the only melody. It all sounds very Dwarven, but then Thord is a Dwarf and Harald was been raised in a Dwarven village and may as well be one. The two are both in full armour. There is a shield on Thord’s back and hammers at his side. He has a couple of throwing axes stuck into loops on his baldric and Harald has a pouch of martobulli hanging from his belt and his two-handed hammer over his back. They both look dressed for battle rather than a wedding.
Engaging Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 2) Page 36