Scholars and Other Undesirables, Page 2

  Chapter 1

  A stillness accompanied the gathering dusk, a calm that should not have been. Jain looked around nervously. Normally she heard animals moving in the forest as well as birdsong. Her village sat right at the edge of the woods and her family’s modest home was at the edge of town. By order of the laird, hunters and woodcutters had to travel deep into the forest for wood and game all summer. This ensured that those things would be close at hand during the harsh winter months. In the spring it was often quiet, the animals having been scared away. But now, in early autumn, the near woods teemed with life.

  “Get a move on, girl,” her father, Daniel, called from the house. “Airk won’t want a dreamer for a wife.”

  Airk, she thought as she set her basket down and started to fill it with firewood from the pile. She was to marry him at the Winter Solstice festival. Airk was a good man and his family had a good farm. Together they would raise good children. But he was so dull. Airk thought of nothing save the best rotations for crops and the best feed for his livestock. The chickens and pigs surely appreciated it, but Jain wanted something else. She wanted something fun, or interesting, or even just different.

  She scolded herself as she lifted the basket. Airk’s family had asked no dowry, knowing that her family could afford none. He did not anger quickly and had never struck anyone. His taste for drink was limited to an ale at meal times. And he was handsome in the stocky, sturdy way of farmers. Jain could have been betrothed to Ian, the lunatic son of the blacksmith who just about everyone avoided, or Julian, the drunkard son of another farmer, or Dudley, the merchant’s pig of a son. But her parents had done far better by her. She would have a good life with Airk, if a slightly boring one.

  Someone knocked at the door as the family sat at dinner. Daniel put down the piece of bread that he had been eating and walked to the door. “Who could that be?” Jain’s mother Joan asked.

  Daniel opened the door and greeted Eduard. Eduard wore knee high leather boots and black trousers. A mismatched sword and dagger hung from his belt and he wore a simple dun colored shirt like those worn by soldiers. He had arrived a the village a few days earlier and had paid for a weeklong stay at the inn. No one knew who he was or why he was there, but the daughters of the village had all been advised to stay away. Jain looked at him, at his lean, wiry form, at his dark hair and tanned face, and at the garish scar on his cheek that gave his otherwise ordinary face its adventurous, almost feral character.

  “What can I do for you, Master Eduard?” Daniel asked.

  Eduard looked past Daniel and made eye contact with Jain for just a moment before she turned her eyes back to her food.

  “I’m not happy with the accommodations for my horse at the inn,” Eduard explained. “You have a good stable. I was wondering if I could put the horse up here. It will only be a few days and I will pay you.”

  Daniel glanced over his shoulder at Jain and her younger sister Eliza. “I’m sorry, Master Eduard. My stables are full and I wouldn’t know how to take care of a horse so fine as yours.”

  Eduard started to say something, thought better of it, and nodded. “I’m sorry to have interrupted your meal.”

  After Eduard went away and Daniel returned to the table, Joan spoke. “We could use some coin.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I don’t want him around. He’s trouble. Some of us have been talking about having a word with Marcus about letting his type stay in town.”

  Jain wanted to say that Eduard had to stay somewhere and that Marcus the innkeeper needed the coin. But even though she would soon be married, Jain was still considered a child in this house and thus was to be seen and not heard.

  The next morning Joan sent Jain to fetch some water from the village well. Jain carried two heavy buckets. Joan only needed one but carrying only one would put Jain off balance, and besides, she did not want to have to make the trip again that day if she could avoid it.

  Most of the villagers were away at the fields. The harvest was coming in and every pair of hands would be needed if the villagers were to pay their taxes and survive the winter. That was why Jain was surprised to see Airk walking down the lane. A coin purse jingled in his belt as he walked.

  “Master Airk,” Jain said. “What are you doing in town?”

  Airk smiled. He had a nice smile. He had the whitest teeth of anyone Jain knew. “Wishing I was on the farm. Father broke two of the tines on his hayfork this morning. He sent me to get another one.”

  “I though your family had three of every tool.”

  “I thought so, too,” Airk answered regretfully. “One was broken last year and we never got around to replacing it. Another one broke today. I don’t know what happened to the third one, though I suspect Eli had something to do with it.” Eli was Airk’s younger brother. Their father had tried to whip the mischief out of Eli on many occasions, but every discipline seemed to make the wayward boy a little more unpredictable. Airk nodded to the buckets in Jain’s hands. “Do you need any help?”

  Some part of Jain was flattered at the offer. It was a kindness for someone on an errand of his own, someone whose father rewarded tardiness with the lash, to make such an offer. That was not the part of Jain that said, “I can do it.”

  Airk nodded, smiled, and bade her good day.

  As Jain filled the buckets she wondered if she had done the right thing in refusing Airk’s offer. He was very kind and she knew that she would do well to cultivate that kindness. But Jain did not want to depend on him the way some women depended on their husbands. She wanted to be free to walk in the village and even in the woods by herself without Airk worrying all the time. As she began the walk home the vastness of her future spread out before her. She would have to work out how to get along with Airk, a boy she had always liked but was sure she would never love. She had to be the mistress of her own household, raise her own children, and make any number of decisions that Joan had always made for her.

  A copper coin landed in the dust at Jain’s bare feet. “Penny for your thoughts?” She looked in the direction from which the coin had come and into the pale blue eyes of Eduard. “You look troubled. Maybe you should have let your fiancée carry those buckets for you.”

  “I can do it,” Jain repeated. She was a little short of breath, perhaps from the exertion of carrying the buckets. She set them down. “It’s rude to eavesdrop.”

  Eduard shrugged as he stepped out from between the houses and into the lane. “Man like me needs to know what’s going on. Nothing personal. Just an old habit. Too bad your father wouldn’t let me put my horse up in your barn. He’s quite a stallion.” Eduard smirked. “But what troubles such a fine lady on such a fine day?”

  “No trouble,” Jain answered as she folded her arms. “I have a bright future and I’m only looking forward to it.”

  Eduard casually stepped closer to her and grinned. “Milking cows, feeding babies, sweeping the cottage. The thrill must be almost too much for you.”

  Jain was suddenly aware that he was very near to her. It did not bother her as much as it seemed like it should have. “That is the life that is given to me. It could be much worse.”

  Eduard looked away and sniffed. “I suppose. But it could be a bit less dull, couldn’t it?”

  “What are you saying?” Jain asked. She willed herself to take a step back from him but her legs did not comply.

  Eduard leaned forward, close enough for her to feel his breath in her ear. “I could take you away from all of this. We could travel together, seek our fortune, take whatever we want, do whatever we want.” He took a step back. “It’s your life. You know where to find me. Good day.” He stepped between the houses and disappeared.

  Jain stood for a moment. Would Airk ever make her heart flutter the way Eduard just had? Would Airk ever whisper in her ear in a way that would make her body tingle? She shook herself out of it. Her mother needed the water an
d she had chores to do.

  That night, Jain lay awake on her palette while Eliza snored next to her. Daniel and Joan slept in the palette opposite the fire while Jain’s three brothers all shared the palette opposite her own. Airk’s family’s cottage had a common room, a room for Airk’s parents, a room for Airk and Eli, and another room for Airk’s sisters. They had also started a entirely separate cottage for Airk and Jain to live in once they were married. It would have two rooms to start and Airk had promised that more would be added as they were needed. For Jain this would be like living in the royal palace. But she could not sleep.

  She startled when something tapped her shoulder. In the dim firelight she could just make out the shape of her father. Daniel raised his chin toward the door and Jain silently followed him out of the house. Under a starry sky the world felt strangely crisp and clear. Nights like this made Jain wonder why everyone did their work during the day.

  “You are troubled,” Daniel said matter of factly.

  “Yes, father,” Jain said, bowing her head.

  “Tell me about it,” Daniel said. He put a finger to her chin and gently raised her head so that she looked him in the eye.

  She told him about it. She told him about her mixed feelings about Airk and about how Eduard had approached her with such a tempting offer. Daniel gritted his teeth and Jain lowered her head in anticipation of a blow. But Daniel did not raise his hand. Instead he spoke very softly. “Do you know why I betrothed you to Airk?”

  “He’s a good man,” Jain said.

  “Ivan offered me fifty sils if I would betroth you to Ian.”

  Jain gasped. Daniel had once had a very good harvest in a very bad year. That had brought the family thirty-seven sils and half of that had gone to the laird. With fifty sils Daniel could buy livestock, rent more land, anything he wanted really.

  “I refused because I know Ian to be a violent man,” Daniel explained. “The money would be a thrill, but seeing you in a good marriage was more important. Think about it, daughter. The rogue may offer you a thrill, an adventure. But it was not he who offered to help you carry the water. It was not he who built you a cottage. It was not he who will still be with you in your old age.”

  “Yes, father,” Jain said. He was right, she knew. Eduard would abandon her as soon as she was with child. Even if she managed to avoid that, how long would it be before he cast her aside for some other maiden from some other village? She would end up a ruined, destitute woman if she went with Eduard. Airk would stay with her forever. When she was heavy with child, when her youth lay well behind her, until she slept in the cold earth, Airk would be with her.