by Robin Roseau
“Everyone helped build a house your granddaughter will use?”
“Well, yes, but that’s how this region works anyway. No. We’re making sure you’re comfortable so you stay as long as you must rather than traveling about.”
I laughed. “Very sly,” I said.
“There’s a tub inside for baths, but around here, we don’t use them much in the summer. We have a shower system. It’s outside. The water isn’t hot, but it’s warm. Well, not if you prefer morning showers. Or you can bathe in the lake. That’s what a lot of folks do, but I’m a little old for that. Darfelsa, Tess’s letter told us a lot, but I’d like to hear it from you.”
“How about the short version, and I’ll do the long one with more people.” She nodded. “I was in Gandeet solving a significant trade dispute. It was ugly, very ugly, and for a while, it looked like we would be ending all trade with Gandeet.” Emotion clouded her face, but I hurried on. “So I began planning. From my time in Ressaline, I know, if they can only find a way to pay for it, that they would be especially happy to receive more citrus and other fruits from us. I think we can also sell some in other directions. But now Father wants me to explore this, even though we resolved the most immediate problems to our east.”
“I didn’t know all of that.”
“So. I’m here for an education. I want to learn as much as I can. I want to learn about growing seasons and harvest and all your difficulties. I want to meet as many people as I can. And I’ll be traveling to Ressaline next spring. They have very unusual rules.” I thought about it. “Grandma T, I’m going to need to talk to some very, very open-minded women. I have some shocking things to explain, and then I am hoping to take two women with me.”
“Open-minded women.”
“Who can handle some hard travel. It has to be women.”
“The Ressalines don’t allow men.”
“Correct.”
“I’m not anyone special here. If it weren’t for Tess, you’d probably be visiting somewhere else. But we all know each other, more or less.” She nodded. “All right. Ready to meet everyone else?”
“I think I am.”
* * * *
I met everyone. It wasn’t that many. Tess’s parents were Amisyra and Folluin. They had three children in total. Tess had an older sister named Rosaniya; her younger brother was Genmenor. Both were married with children, ages seven down to one, Genmenor’s and Calorel’s little son. He was very cute. Tess cried, as she’d only before met Sosaniya’s eldest, Velatha. The girl didn’t remember her, but knew who she was. “You’re my other aunt. You work for the king.”
“I did,” Tess said, kneeling down. “Now I work for the princess.” The girl pointed at me, and Tess said, “That’s right.”
“She’s very pretty,” said Velatha.
“She is, and a very, very good princess.”
“What does a princess do?”
“Anything her father tells her to do,” I said. “In this case, she comes to Sessen farms and learns all about lemons and pomelos and all the other things you grow.”
“Why?”
I knelt down, and she came to stand before me. I set my hands on her shoulders. “Well,” I said. “I need to learn as much as I can so I can help convince the women in Ressaline to buy the things you grow.”
“Ressaline is in the north.”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “It is.”
“It used to be called Charthan.”
“Yes, although there is a place called Ressaline City that’s even further north.”
“It’s north,” she said. “They can’t grow pomelos there.”
“No, they can’t. Lorafar region is the best region in the world for pomelos.”
“We have three different varieties,” she said.
“Well, there you go. I didn’t even know they came in varieties. You’ve already taught me something. Thank you, Velatha.”
“You’re welcome.” Then she turned to her mother and declared, “When I grow up, I want to be a princess.”
I straightened, held my hands to my heart, and mouthed, “She’s so cute!”
“Well,” said Grandma T. “I bet you’d like to get settled. Everyone is anxious to show you the house.”
And so, we got moving towards the house. I found myself walking with Folluin, and I used the opportunity to tell him how proud he should be of his daughter.
“Thank you for bringing her home to us,” he said, his voice deep. I thought it cracked for a moment, but when I glanced over, he was looking away. “It’s a little hard to believe you’re here,” he added.
“My duty is to all of Flarvor,” I said.
“There are more important places than Lorafar.”
“Are there?” I asked. “I am convinced your oranges are the reason I was able to resolve the issues in Gandeet as easily as I did. Most of the trade between our countries is for non-critical goods, but they have no other source for citrus.”
“They grow apples.”
“Yes, but they don’t grow enough for the entire country. They’ve become reliant on trade. They could have planted trees.”
“That takes time.”
“I presume years.”
He looked over at me. “Depending on the variety, as long as ten years.”
“I didn’t know. I just knew they were going to be in trouble.”
We reached the house. Sergeant Felist stepped in first, but I’d already talked to her about this. These were good people, and we agreed she’d be able to relax her diligence. Folluin and I entered.
Grandma T was correct. It wasn’t grand. It was rustic, with a spacious first floor and six small bedrooms upstairs, one larger than the others. It was rustic and absolutely lovely.
And Tess’s entire family was watching me for clues. I turned to them and smiled. “This,” I said with a gesture. “This is why I love my job. I am a stranger to you, and you offer this lovely place to me.” And then I went from one to another offering brief hugs. “This is absolutely perfect and will suit us well.”
“We hope you’ll be comfortable,” Amisyra said. “It’s a little small for so many people.”
“We’ll share,” I said. “It’s perfect.”
“Princess Darfelsa,” said Grandma T. “We have dinner planned. Do you know what else you would like?”
“Yes, at least for a start. I would like to clean off the dust of the road.”
“Tess can show you that.”
“Very good. After dinner, I’d like to talk with as many as are interested. It won’t be all my guards, but is there a place that can hold us?”
“The barn is bigger, but we can meet here, if you like,” said Amisyra. “There’s more room. We made this different from the main house.”
“Then we’ll start here and see how it goes,” I said.
“We’ll leave you to get settled, then,” Grandma T said. With a few more hugs for Tess, Grandma T got them moving, and then I was left with my staff.
“All right,” I said. “I want to get ourselves settled and cleaned up. This was very gracious.”
“They built this for us,” Tess said. “I can’t believe they did that.”
“Your grandmother said everyone helped, but I’ll need you to discover if this caused a hardship.” She nodded. “We can make this work, but we’ll be sharing beds. Renishta and Talith, I want you to figure that out. I expect to share the same as anyone else, and that big bedroom can take an extra nest or two. I don’t think there are quite enough beds, even sharing.”
“We have enough gear to make it comfortable,” Mariya said.
“Make sure everything that comes into the house gets a proper cleaning first.”
“Of course.”
“Tess, Grandma T said something about a shower system, or should we head to some lake she mentioned?”
“Maybe showers,” she said. “It’s outside, Darfelsa.”
“In plain sight?”
“Sort of.”
“S
how me.”
Everyone followed. We stepped around the house to the side furthest from everyone else. There was a little booth, but open to nature. I looked around and decided I didn’t care if the lemon trees saw me. “How does it work?”
“You pull this chain,” she said. She demonstrated, and water fell from an overhead nozzle. “You should be sparing.”
I put my hand under the water. She pulled the chain. It was cool, but after a moment, it warmed. “How does that work?”
“There’s a system on the roof.” She pointed up. “You can’t see it from here. It uses sunlight. There’s a tank up there with cold water.” She pointed to a set of stairs. “Someone will have to climb up and use the pump to fill the tank, but it’s big enough for…” She paused. “Well, for my family when we were growing up, we could all get a little shower. Later showers can be cold, because it takes time to heat more water.”
“I like it,” I said.
* * * *
It felt good to be clean. Upstairs, I dressed in fresh clothes then wandered. Talith and Renishta had made the bed arrangements, and I saw a big nest beside the bed in the main bedroom. I tried it, careful with my wet hair. It seemed comfortable.
Over the next half hour, we all took the opportunity to bathe. I suspect the last few were cold, but no one complained. And, slowly, we collected back in the main room downstairs. Terla had made tea for us, so we shared tea, and then I asked, “Can we stay here for a few weeks?”
I looked around. It was Terla who asked, “Are we a drain on Tess’s family?”
“That’s a good question,” I said.
“No,” Tess said. “We’re not.”
“Tess.”
“You’re always telling us to trust you. Talk to Father about it. And then trust him.”
“We can buy and share supplies.”
“Talk to Father before you reach conclusions.”
“Not Grandma T?”
“Father runs the farm,” she said. “I think my sister does the numbers now, but start with him.”
“All right.”
“If we’re not a drain,” Terla said, “I think this works really well. It’s a working farm, and it’s well-located.”
“The county seat is two hours away,” Tess said.
“We’ll tour, but people can come to me,” I said. “Or are you making a hint, Tess?”
“No.”
“All right. Next. I am going to ask them to put me to work. Tess, I don’t know the standard for visiting guests.”
“We haven’t really had guests like this, not that I know,” she said.
“Well, this is a lot of extra mouths. I don’t know if we should plan our own meals or how to best help. We’ll figure that out. I’ll be asking to be put to work, but other than as necessary to be good guests, I won’t make anyone else.”
“Where you go,” Renishta said. “I go.” That became the general consensus.
“Last item for now. Tess, I’m going to rely on you, but you haven’t seen your family in some time. Spend as much time as you can with them.” I paused. “Renishta, new task for you. Make sure everyone else is able to visit their families on a reasonable schedule. I’m not happy Tess hasn’t been able to come back in so long.”
“I’ve been in Dennaholst, and it’s a long trip,” Tess replied. She paused. “I send money. I send it to my sister. Father doesn’t know. He’d be mad.”
“Then your sister and I will be having a quiet talk as well,” I said. “I have funds.”
She nodded.
“All right, then. I’d like a tour.”
* * * *
Dinner was lovely. We ate at outdoor tables. It was a simple meal of stew with ample warm, savory bread, but it was quite good, nicely filling after our long travels. We cleaned up before heading back to the guest house. Genmenor, Tess’s younger brother, saw to the children, but the rest of us found places to sit, with many on the floor.
I explained everything. There were questions, most of them easily answered. Then I explained, “I want to learn as much as I can. Some of that can happen right here, but I also need to visit other portions of the region. Frankly, I don’t know anything, including where I need to visit. I’ll need guidance. And we want you to put us to work.”
“That isn’t necessary,” Folluin said.
“I imagine you don’t need a bunch of poor farm workers bruising your fruit,” I said. “But I’d like to learn any tasks I can do that won’t put me in the way, and we’d like to spread out, each of us learning different things. If we’re just going to be in the way, tell us.”
“Father,” Tess said. “Darfelsa doesn’t make empty offers. We want to help as good guests, but we also want to help, because that’s part of learning.”
The man grunted then nodded. “There’s always work.”
“Maybe we can rotate,” I said. “You could assign us to different people.”
“We can do that,” he said.
“Good.” I shifted my gaze. “Rosaniya, I understand you handle the numbers for the farm.”
“I do,” she confirmed.
“I don’t want to poke my nose where it doesn’t belong, but if I could understand the finances of a farm like this without being too invasive, that would help.”
“Show her anything she wants,” Folluin directed. “You understand numbers?”
“I do,” I confirmed. “And speaking of those numbers, you and I should talk about some of them.”
“I already know what that’s about,” he replied. “When Tess wrote us, we spread the word and had a big meeting. It was decided that you’re here trying to help us. Lorafar region will see to your needs as long as you’re our guest. This is our duty, the region’s duty, and we’re making sure it is shared.”
“We can buy our supplies,” I said.
“The region agreed. Everyone agreed.”
“And it may be the first time we all agreed on anything,” Grandma T added.
“There were two people who said the king can afford to feed you,” Rosaniya said. “You should have heard the howls.”
“If you were here for some other reason, it would be different,” Grandma T said. “But you’re here to help us.”
“I may not succeed.”
“Maybe not, but you won’t know until you try. So, we’ll do whatever we can to help you help us.”
I smiled. “Thank you. I have a few other things, then I’ll listen to your suggestions. I want to understand, well, everything you can teach me. One thing in particular: I want to understand how this operation compares to the others here. Are you bigger than average? Smaller?”
“We’re about average,” Grandma-T said. “Hmm. What’s average?” She paused. “I think you could classify farms into three groups. There are the long-time farms that have been in the family for generations. This one is one example. Then there are the farms that have split off pieces.”
“Different inheritance?”
“Yes. It’s not necessarily in half, and some of those may grow again.”
“Buying more land?”
“Yes, or clearing other trees to plant more orchards.”
“That makes sense.”
“Unless they’ve regrown, those farms will be smaller, sometimes much smaller. This farm has never split. It has grown a few times, but we’re now locked.”
“Surrounded?”
“Yes, and our neighbors are all doing well, so no one is going to part with land. To expand, we’d have to split the family.”
“Which none of us want to do,” Rosaniya said.
“I understand.”
“There are also some very large operations,” Grandma T explained. “This can happen when two families merge.”
“Marriage?”
“That is most typical. Or someone can buy out a neighbor. That’s usually for sad reasons. And there are two operations further south that began with two families that split, and the portions that left created new operations in areas people
thought would be poor, but they worked very hard to make a success.”
“They may not be as successful per acre,” Folluin said. “But they make up for it.”
“They are to be commended?” And there were several nods.
“There’s no real average,” Grandma T said. “But I’d call us fairly typical.”
“That helps me to understand,” I said. “In my travels, I’d like to visit those two farms you mentioned, amongst others.”
“That’s a good idea,” Folluin said. “Everyone works hard, but you’ll get a different view there.”
“I have one more thing, then I’d like to hear your recommendations. I’ve mentioned this to Grandma T. When I go to Ressaline next year, I would like two women to travel with me.” I explained a little bit. “But I need a conversation with a few women with very, very open minds.”
“Not necessarily the two or three that would go with you,” Grandma T said.
“People who could help me present the same conversation with the people who might go.”
“Ah. This is shocking information?”
“Yes.”
“I think you should start with Rosaniya and me, then. We’re not easily shocked.”
I didn’t argue. “All right. Let’s do that tomorrow sometime.”
“Maybe when I’m showing you the numbers,” Rosaniya offered.
“Perfect. So. I think you have an idea what I need. What do you recommend? We can talk this out, and we don’t need to decide everything tonight.”
We talked for a couple of hours. Later, before bed, I pulled Tess aside. “You know what I need to talk about with Grandma T and your sister.” She nodded. “Would you rather I simply get them to recommend someone else?”
“Grandma T knows everyone, and Rosaniya will be fine.”
“It’s your family,” I said. “Are you sure, Tess?”
“It’s fine,” she said. “But I hope you don’t want me there.”
I laughed. “I think it will just be the three of us.”
“It’s fine.” Then she hugged me. “Thank you, Darfelsa.”
“You’ve thanked me twenty times,” but I hugged her back. “Are you going to enjoy your turn to order me around?”
She laughed. “Yes. Have you ever done farm work before?”
