by Guy Antibes
My Dearest Sara,
All is not well in Belting Hollow. Brightlings remains a pile of ashes. Ben has taken over the Head Councilor’s house and has firmly established himself as the ruler of the town. West couldn’t have been so bad. He has banned all girls from attending school and has even begun to tax the residents and the farmers for money to rebuild the Council Chambers. He blames this return to feudalism all on you.
If you hadn’t come, then there would be no destruction of Brightlings and Vesty would still be alive. I’ve tried to reason with him, but, as you can tell, my tenure as leader of the town came to an abrupt halt when he returned from Obridge. He spreads lies about you and they are reinforced by your old friend Anna.
I imagine you didn’t know that you were providing the miners with your sexual favors to persuade them to follow you? I didn’t think so. You still have some loyalists in the town. Panna Wells actually spoke up for you in a town meeting. The Glimmers and Natti Strongarm still come to your defense before your father’s cronies drown them out.
I have heard renewed talk of secession from Stonebridge. I fear no good will come from it. I am glad that your brothers stayed in Obridge for the summer and did not have to witness Ben’s destruction. Pol, your apprentice friend, posted this from his home village. I’m afraid that your father is censoring all of the post leaving the town, especially from me.
Take care, Sara. You, again, are not welcome in Belting Hollow. I’d dearly love to see you, but not here and certainly not any time soon.
Faithfully yours,
Nona
PS: If you reply do so under a false name.
Sara had to sit on her bed. Her life in Shattuk Downs was a shambles. Two men. One loved her too much and another hated her too much. Her birthday would take place on board ship. One more year and she would reach her majority. Twenty years old and so much to do after that.
She dashed off a brief reply to Klark to accompany the necklace, emphatically stating that it wasn’t being returned, but that she didn’t want to risk losing it in Belonnia. Nona would have to wait until after her trip. Another letter went to Obed Handy with a hastily written notes stating that she would be leaving Brightlings to Enos and her fortune, whatever remained of it, to Seb in the event of her death. Ben would forever be banished from the estate and Wells would run it until Enos turned twenty. She also asked about the mysterious Handson Dairyman.
“You’re late!” Willa said.
Sara didn’t realize the time after she had written her replies. Her mind boiled with confusion and anger. Klark had no right to send a letter like that and Nona’s letter merely added fuel to her mood. Could Ben Featherwood descend any lower? She looked forward to the voyage and tried to cast off the past and look the future as she had done time and again. The future still held unpleasant confrontations.
~
The reception couldn’t have been more of a disaster. The King circulated around the room with his fiancé, Millis, but it seemed that Lily and Sara were repulsing the male students. As they tried to move about the court, the men kept walking away from them.
“It seems that the University and the Women’s College aren’t a united institution yet.” King Terrant said. He sniffed the air, standing in front of the two curtseying women. “No malignant odors that I can tell. Never mind. I hope you return to us safely and with stories to tell.” He gave them a wink. The King could do so much better at interacting with Sara than his brother, the Duke.
Handson Dairyman walked up. “How are you two ladies faring?” Millis’ eyes lit up as he talked.
“As you can see, we have meticulously avoided contact with the University,” Lily said.
That produced a laugh. “You can’t avoid me,” he said, looking at the clumps of young men. “Are you excited for your trip?”
Sara smiled. “I haven’t ever sailed before, so I’m looking forward to it.”
“Oho, you have a treat in store. A fall ocean trip is always an adventure.”
“How many trips have you made on the ocean? It’s three or four weeks to Southarm from Parth.”
“My father is a noted agricultural factor. We’ve shipped products all over the world.” Dairyman said, coloring. His face clouded for an instant as if he chided himself. “You can call me Hans, by the way. I’m sure we’ll be together often and I believe I can act as an ambassador between the University men and you. I look forward to visiting with you on the ship.” He bowed deeply to the king and to Millis as they left them to join another group of students. The King left the reception soon after.
“I don’t trust him,” Lily said. “He’s full of contradictions and he’s obviously a creature of Millis Shields.”
Sara watched Hans from across the room. “He holds himself with much more confidence than he exhibits to us. Look at the way he observes the students. He turns the charm on to us and then treats the men like he is bored.” Sara had to turn away quickly as Hans gave them a glance.
“We’ll see. We may need an interface with the students, after all,” Lily said, watching Millis depart from the reception. “It’s time for us to leave now that our hosts have left.”
“I didn’t see the Duke.” Sara said as they walked out and she saw a number of guards in Millis’s colors standing about the doors even though the King no longer held court. Something didn’t feel right. She struggled to put everything in perspective, but insight never came.
~~~
Chapter Nine
The Voyage
The gray clouds seemed to brush the white-topped waves. Sara clutched her coat around her. She stood on the deck with Willa, watching the dockhands remove the ropes that held the Belonnian ship secure. The anchor came up and the ship began to make headway.
Obed Handy jumped out of a carriage and waved a paper in his hand. Sara reflexively waved back to him until she noticed the alarmed look on his face. He yelled something at her, but by then the ship had left the dock. He waved both hands in exasperation. Whatever he needed to say would have to wait. Perhaps it had something to do with her will. He never could find any information on Hans. Perhaps there was nothing to say.
She looked back and saw a couple of men ushering Handy back into a carriage. He looked back, but his body language only told her that he failed to communicate. What was that all about? She shrugged—another mystery that would have to wait until she returned.
“Wasn’t that Obed?” Willa said. Evidently her attentions were elsewhere.
“He seemed anxious to see us. I had him write up a quick will while I was gone. Maybe he didn’t think I should have left without signing it.” Parth began to dwindle as they made their way out to sea. “Too late now, whatever it was.”
Meldey dressed in plain clothes that pretty much matched Willa’s. Her trim frame made her seem gaunt and lanky underneath a loose dress, but Sara knew better. The woman still moved like a cat and the gauntness only hid Meldey’s wiry strength.
Lily and Sara shared the best cabin on board save for the captain. Willa and Meldey were placed not far from them, but in a small closet of a compartment with bunked beds and barely enough room for their possessions.
“You can come to our cabin during the day,” Sara said after inspecting their accommodations. “At least we have a window to view the rolling seas.”
“Rolling is right,” Meldey said. “I must return to the deck.” The woman hurried away.
“Right,” Willa said. “Until that woman’s stomach is settled, we can at least learn a few words of Belonnian and it appears that you are the expert.”
“I know a few words,” Lily protested with a smile. “But Sara knows so many more.” She said it as if learning more was a punishment.
Sara could only sigh. “Come on.”
For the next two days, the three women spent the daylight hours learning more about Belonnian until Meldey’s stomach settled, and then the voyage consisted of exercises that used a technique that Meldey called ‘resistance’. Sara’s muscles woul
d cramp at night and she hardly moved them during the day. The language lessons were interleaved with the physical training.
The students pointedly ignored the four women. Hans made a few appearances from time to time, but he kept his communications to the merest of pleasantries in passing. Sara picked up the distinct impression that the man pursued her. Sara stood at the bow, watching the water move underneath the ship, feeling the cold mist chill her cheeks. Hans came to her side.
“Countess. Forgive me, I’ve tried to intervene with the University men, but I’ve failed horribly, but you can understand. They are incorrigibly against your presence. However, I am not.” He stood closer to her than at any other time.
Sara shook her head, the cold fled as anger flushed her face. She’d had enough of their actions. “I don’t understand. Your ‘brothers’ have been unbelievably rude to all of us. I doubt if there is a civil bone in all of your ‘manly’ bodies. As an ambassador, you’ve failed in your duties.”
“Ah. Perhaps I have a civil bone here.” He held out his little finger. “The tip or maybe the fingernail.” He gave her a little bow. “Perhaps my position as an outsider has not made me a particularly creditable intermediary, Countess.”
Sara turned up the corner of her mouth in the barest of smiles. “Perhaps the tip of your fingernail. You may call me Sara. I’m not very interested in being a Countess.”
“I can’t understand that. I hear you are one of the brightest students in the Women’s College.”
“And how would you know that, Hans?”
“We were briefed. The smartest and the most glamorous of students have come with us to Belonnia.”
“And what about Lily Evertrue?” Sara said.
She is the most glamorous.” Hans colored as he realized his phrasing had been misinterpreted. “Not that you aren’t the most attractive of Countesses.”
“I am the only Countess in Parthy.” Sara tried to sound as cold as she could, while this student continued to dig a deeper hole for himself. “That’s hardly a compliment.”
“May I speak to you another time when my tongue is more firmly implanted in my mouth?” Sara noticed another of those black looks that fled across his face.
“You may,” Sara arched her brow and gave him a condescending smile and turned to look back at the waves, trying her best to ignore him as he left. Lily would be proud. If Handson Dairyman thought she’d be fawning all over him, he was quite wrong, however he held his dignity while she attacked his every phrase. Now alone, she smiled to herself as the windblown spray cooled off her face.
~
The captain had invited Lily and Sara for a meal in his cabin on the last evening of the voyage. Willa and Meldey would have their meal, as usual, in the little passenger’s mess close to the ship’s galley. They walked into a room with a few students and the ship’s officers.
“Welcome, ladies. Countess, Miss Evertrue.” The captain announced them and all of the men bowed. The officers bowed more deeply than the cursory bending of the heads of the students. Handson Dairyman bowed even more deeply than the crew, which brought a grimace from the captain for some reason.
Lily curtseyed and Sara nodded her head. Sara had to stifle a gasp as Lily put her elbow into her ribs. “Countesses should respond with a shallow curtsey,” she quietly said as chairs were pulled out for them on opposite sides of the table. Hans held her chair. She ended up with the captain at the head of the table on her right and Hans on her left.
A chandelier on a short chain swung over the table as the students talked amongst themselves with hardly a word to the Sara and Lily.
“Countess,” the captain said, “you have enjoyed your voyage?” He poured a glass of deep red wine and passed it to her.
“Oh, yes. Your officers have been models of politeness as they have explained to me the workings of the ship to my companions and me. Our fellow travelers have proven expert at avoiding us, Master Dairy excluded.” Sara nodded towards Hans who looked at her as she spoke.
“Dairyman, Countess.” Hans corrected.
“Oh, that’s correct. You are a man, barely. Men wouldn’t treat women the way your compatriots have treated us.”
Hans lifted up his hands, smiling. “Then call me Handson Dairy all you want. I deserve it. We deserve it.” The captain sputtered at Dairyman’s comment.
Sara took a sip of her wine as stewards brought in plates of food and set it out on the table. “I’m sure you all can redeem yourselves like treating us as if we existed. We don’t expect to become more than the merest of acquaintances, but none of us are enemies.”
“You can tell that to Miss Evertrue’s servant. One of us nurses a broken wrist after he tried to befriend her,” Hans said.
“I think your definition of befriend might be a little different than Meldey’s. She knows how to take care of herself.”
“Obviously. The word passed through our little band quickly.”
Sara looked over at Lily who was actively engaged with a ship’s mate talking about Belonnia, ostensibly practicing the language. Lily’s pronunciation was improving, even if her selection of words were still lacking,
“What studies do you pursue, Master Dairyman?” the captain said as he plunged into his now-full plate.
“I am an expert in languages and speak flawless Belonnian.” Hans looked rakishly at Sara, preening at his claim to accomplishment. “I dabble in Practical Politics and other subjects.”
Sara lifted up her eyebrow and spoke in the language. “Tell the captain where you were born?”
“Be born I in Parthy. South of Shattuk Downs I was, Captain.” His Belonnian grammar was atrocious.
“And you claim flawless Belonnian?” Sara said, perfectly in the language. “Your research wasn’t quite accurate enough, Master Dairyman. Perhaps tonight, you might want to study Belonnian structure a little more thoroughly.” Why did he make a mockery of Belonnian grammar when his pronunciation was absolutely perfect? She could ask him, but at this social gathering, she’d leave it alone.
He gave Sara a knowing smile. “I will, I will.”
The captain took another swallow of wine and swallowed too much, making him cough. Sara didn’t know what to make of it other than both of them were in on some kind of subterfuge. Was Hans a spy the Duke had inserted in their group or was he Millis’s creature or both? She could think of no appropriate answer, but would remain careful around him.
~
After a week at sea, walking comfortably on shore took a bit of getting used to. The male students were quickly bundled into coaches and left the four women waiting for their luggage. Sara actually felt relieved that they wouldn’t be sharing the four-day trip to Okalla.
“We need some more phrases,” Willa said. “I need to ask for sheets, cleaning, things like that.”
Sara began to teach them more common words.
Meldey didn’t join in. In fact, Sara noticed that she began to withdraw from the group’s conversations.
“Fluent in Belonnian?” Sara asked her in Belonnian.
“Yes.” Meldey looked out the window. “I’ll be leaving soon after you’ve settled in,” she continued in the language. “The less you know the better. Tell them I ran off or something.” Meldey shrugged her shoulders.
“I thought you’d be happy to stay with us.”
Meldey shook her head. “I’ve enjoyed being a woman again, since I began to train you. Now it’s back to my real job. For once I don’t enjoy going back.”
Sara tried to put herself in Meldey’s place. In some way she felt that way when she had to return to the College. Her interest in learning seemed to have lost its savor. “I understand.” Sara leaned over and took Meldey’s hand. “Thank you for what you’ve done,” she said in Parthian. “I think we all needed some toughening up and you were a wonderful example.”
“Here, here,” Willa said. “We certainly hope to see you back in Parth.”
Meldey looked down at the floor of the coach. “I likely won
’t return.” She fiddled with her fingers. “To succeed, my chances of survival are slim.” Meldey took a deep breath and looked out of the coach at the brown countryside. Clouds the color of brushed steel scudded low across the sky, adding to the dismal atmosphere.
“If you need help, we are here. I hope you realize by now that we aren’t a totally useless gaggle of women.”
Lily nodded. “Let us know if we can assist you.”
Meldey snorted. “You might know if I need help, but likely after you learn of my death. I can’t tell you any more.” Meldey remained silent for the remainder of the way.
~~~
Chapter Ten
Inns and Taxes
The gray clouds began to darken as the day ended. The carriage pulled up at a ramshackle inn that sat in the center of a dismal village. The driver had left the main road to Okalla to get here. The cobbles still existed, but the bare tops peeked out from mud and debris that covered them. The sign was barely readable. Weeds grew from the thatched roof. Willa tried to complain, but the driver didn’t understand Parthian.
“Why are we stopping here?” Sara looked at the villagers. They bundled up against the cold and rushed past the coach without showing any curiosity.
“The other students said you had no money. I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
Sara stood, collecting herself as anger coursed through her every vein. “Do we look impoverished?”
“No, lady. I wondered about that myself.”
“I am a Countess and the diminutive blond woman is the daughter of a Baron. Would you like to see our money?” Sara didn’t wait for an answer and pulled a purse of Gold Belonnian Stars out of the valise she kept inside the coach. The man’s eyebrows shot up. “Do you think we can find a more suitable inn?”
He nodded. “I can. It’s half an hour away.” He moved to get back up on the carriage.
