The Watchman

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  Antonio said, “No. There is only the one. I’m certain of it. But now, what is my punishment for my part in this tragedy? I’m confused. You try to give me a small fortune, but now comes my judgment and condemnation. In my defense, I did not know what you have told me. You have heard me request nothing but kindness for them. It will not excuse me, but I have done it all from ignorance, not for personal gain or out of malice. If I can make the lives of the ones that I have wronged better, I will pay restitution and any penance that you see fit.”

  I said, “Antonio, I’m not here to judge you! It was Irene who perpetrated this evil. You say that you had no knowledge of it, and in all of our dealings you have acted in a way that makes me believe it. If you had been unkind and aware of what was done, I would feel differently and I would probably seek some vengeance on their behalf, but Irene is beyond our wrath now, and I find no real fault in you. If you feel some guilt, let me be part of extending you complete forgiveness.”

  Antonio said, “You are more gracious than any other, as always. So, if I’m hearing you, your lovely Viola traveled with me as an untouchable for who knows how long and I never knew her. My dear, please, I beg your forgiveness.”

  Viola said, “Sir, as my husband has said, you didn’t know. It was the custom of the Nogud and you were as kind as custom allowed. In truth, I don’t remember it. My life is new and my past is gone. I have said several times that I am grateful in that my untouchable status saved me for this wonderful man and I was not given, nor did I give myself, to another that I would not love as much. We hold nothing against you. We ask only for your help now.”

  He said, “You will have it…and at no cost. What can I do? The truth of this crushes my heart.”

  I said, “There are just a few things that I would ask of you. First, bring any of them that remain to me. They will be in my house or, I have two friends, we have mentioned them already, and they each have mates who were of the same kind and will take others who need a home, if they are older. You say that there is only one and you do not know where she is. If you find her, help her to come to us.”

  He said, “Of course. I have promised it already.”

  I said, “Second, the school in Stevespont is closed. If a girl desires to learn how to keep a house, learn a trade, or learn things about being a woman, bring her here to Bonvale. There is a farm with good women who will teach them. If there are too many for the farm, we will build a bigger building for them and I will hire staff to teach.”

  Antonio said, “I have agreed to this already as well. In past days, there might be a dozen in each season, but now, perhaps only two, or even just one. I will do as you say.”

  I said, “And, it will be at no cost to the parents, except for what it costs you to transport them and feed them on the way.”

  He said, “As you say.”

  I said, “Now, we come to a new thing. It isn’t hard for you. We have a heart, not only for the little sisters, but for widows and orphans as well. My friends have said that orphans who live in Bonvale will have their clothing without cost to them. This includes a dress for the mother. If the boy is under fifteen, there are men here who will teach them to fish and to work. The cobbler will give them shoes. If they are older, we will find work for them as apprentices with the tradesmen. If they are young girls, there are retired women to teach them to bake cookies and pies and to knit and sew. So here’s what I want: if you know these widows who have children with no fathers, encourage them to find a home here. We will find good men to take them into their homes and give them a place to live and work. Of course, I hope that they find good mates, but even if they don’t, their lives will be easier.”

  Antonio said, “Sir Joshua, you ask me for nothing. You ask me to take part in a wonderful blessing. Joshua, these are days that I hoped to see, but never expected. Even the little sisters. I had wanted to help them, but I assumed that it was out of my control and that my place was simply to be as kind as I could. I never thought that I could bring about a change. You say that you have friends in this. If these friends of yours have some society or gathering, if you think that I’m a good man and have a place with them, please introduce the idea that I should take part with you. I am comfortable and not ready to spend all my time fishing, but the work you propose stirs my heart. I’m no hunter and can’t teach a boy woodcraft, but I can teach numbers and coinage and weights and measures easily enough. And books and records if there were some need. I know how to pack a wagon and how to manage a team of horses.”

  I said, “Taste your pie.”

  Antonio looked at the pie in front of him and frowned. He picked up his fork and said, “Um, it is not the most handsome piece of pie that I’ve ever seen. Is the cafe having some temporary hardship?”

  I smiled and said, “Taste it.”

  He looked askance at the little plate, but he took a small bite.

  He said, “They are having trouble, aren’t they? It’s fine, but not wonderful. Should we make them aware of it? They shouldn’t charge us for it.”

  I had my mouth full of a large bite now, and when I had swallowed it I said, “It was baked by a seven-year-old girl and her four year old helper. They have no father, but they are quite proud of their pie making skills. Do you think that we shouldn’t pay for it? I was thinking the opposite.”

  Antonio took a very large bite and when his mouth was empty he said, “I was too quick to judge. It’s a very fine pie. I think that a single piece warrants a full coin if you tell me that the half of it goes home to their mother.”

  I said, “No. Our host, Jonah, takes nothing from what we give for the pies and cookies. The girls who make them split the money between them and each takes some home at the end of the week. Not only does Jonah take no part of the proceeds, but he provides much of the flour and butter and fruit at no cost, and he himself eats the ones that are too rough to serve to customers…and he makes a show of how much he enjoys them.”

  Antonio sat quietly for a few minutes, eating his pie very thoughtfully. When he was ready, he said, “I had thought that with so few women now needing arrangements, that I might retire. Or continue my work, but see that the fees given to me were reduced.”

  I interrupted and said, smiling, “But now, you see that you need to charge these men more than ever. That the fee for finding a good woman should be double. There are fewer of them, so they are more precious. But my friend, whatever will you do with the extra money that you collect from them?”

  Antonio looked thoughtful and said, “From now on, if a man comes to my events, he must by a cookie. He will pay a coin for the privilege of eating it and the opportunity to see what women are available that day. They shall all know that it’s for the fatherless and that no good woman will go with a man who has no part in being generous to them. No, better yet. I have no permanent home. I will buy a place in Bonvale, if there is room for me. From now on, when I travel, I will find the women as before, but events will be held in Bonvale. And if a man wants an arrangement, he will travel here to find it. For one woman in five, the bidding must be done in pies. A pie will be twenty coins and the men will bid according to how many pies they will buy from the little ones. The most generous will have not only a fine woman, but joy in his provision for others. Joshua, I like this. I may have had mixed feelings about you finding such treasures as your mates that were hidden in plain sight, but now I count it a poor reward for what you are doing.”

  Chapter 2 - And He Hears Even More

  I said, “We are called the ‘Golden Triangle Society’. Welcome to the brotherhood. I count four of us now, plus two more men and their woman who work with the children but don’t know all of what we are committed to. Our host is one of those who is generous, but he doesn’t know everything that I have told you about the little sisters. Antonio, I want one more thing from you.”

  He said, “Name it. So far I haven’t done anything.”

  I said, “Antonio, somewhere in one of the villages, you know a woman, probab
ly a widow, who is different than other women. She is perhaps a bit more lovely than most others. Her breasts are more firm and her waist a bit narrow. Perhaps she has an arrangement, but not a bedmate and no token.”

  He said, “And you think that she is one of these and you want me to bring her here to you?”

  I said, “No. I want you to see if she will come with you to Bonvale to be in your bed. I want you to find her and make her happy in your house.”

  Antonio looked shocked and said, “But, my friend, that’s fine for you somehow, but…I suppose I could, but if I could ask you about certain delicate matters that perhaps you and I should discuss alone.”

  I said, “Antonio, you are concerned because you were told that the little sisters are defective and that they can’t please a man. You were also told that they were disfigured and hideous. You see that the one was a lie. I’ll tell you that the other is a lie as well. The only defect is that they enjoy pleasing their bedmate as often and as vigorously as he can accommodate them. It’s not entirely out of pity for them that I ask you to do this. It’s out of my desire to see you rewarded for your kindness and generosity. Do it for both of these reasons. You will not be disappointed. Go find that treasure while it may still be found. When we met, you begged me to be kind to the untouchable. Now I ask you to return the favor to a special widow. But tell me, do you know the woman that I am describing or not?”

  He said, “Well, there is a woman in the village of Meadows, to the east. I have often thought that she was attractive in a way that was different. She is gentle and has a smile that would melt me if I let it. She works for a man who has a paper shop in the market, but she’s not his bedmate. In idle moments, I have wondered if she could be happier, even with a man like me. In a way, I do fancy her. And now that I know what to look for, I think that she may be one of them. She claimed to be a widow when I met her years ago, and I think that she really was.”

  I said, “I am asking you to make her happier than she is, nothing more. Even a widow like her will be a wonderful addition to your home. The Nogud were all the daughters of Nogud. You would place one of them with a family and a young man in the house would fall in love with her. In shame, they would be thrown out into the street and the young man would take her off into the woods. There he would provide for her until he could get her a new dress and move to another village where they were not known. They would live with their secret and no one knew their past. If they had a daughter, you would come and take her to the school, and because she was the daughter of a Nogud, she was judged and forced into the tunic as her mother had been. This woman that you say you know was taken away by a fine man who loved her. When he died, she was widowed, but she never again found a bedmate. If she is what we suspect, I want you to see if she will be happy with you. If not, bring her to me and another of my friends will give her a home and even a husband.”

  Antonio said, “And now my past shame returns to me. I had a mate once, but she is a widow now. I didn’t mistreat her, but she wasn’t suited to the life of a nomad. I know where she lives and I think that she’s happy now. OK, I’ll buy a home here and I will settle down, and I will find the woman that you have described in Meadows, and I will see if she will come with me. If not to my house, then to another where she will have a bed to share. I do fancy her now that I have her in my mind. How will I know if she is truly one of them?”

  I said, “Say to her, ‘If you come with me, I will take you into the woods the way that your mother was taken by your father who loved her.’ If she seems to think that you’re a lunatic, then she’s not who we think. If she knows what you’re talking about, then she might go with you.”

  Antonio said, “Joshua, I’ll begin looking for a home here today. I’ll go to the Merchant of Land and see what he has.”

  I pushed the money back across the table at Antonio and said, “And my final request is that you take my money. Let’s stop arguing over it. Buy a house here and be part of our secret society. Use the money for a home. If you choose, make it large enough for more than one or two. You are doing me a great favor and the amount is no more than reasonable.”

  Antonio frowned and answered, “It seems to me that it is. I will see it your way for now. But, given the chance, I may return some portion of it to you so that you can perform some other miracle with it.”

  I said, “Thank you. I trust you. You will do what you see fit with it. Count it a reward for your years of kindness. Until now, you have collected fees. This morning, you have a gift from me if you see it that way. I want to ask you again, are you certain about there being just one more? For some reason, I had someone say to me that they had seen two recently. And what can you tell me about her other than that she is strange and has her own mind? Some have said that she is ‘big’.”

  Antonio said, “My friend, I don’t know what her face looks like, of course. I let them bathe and sleep in private, as is fitting for unattached women. I wouldn’t dishonor them, even traveling as we did. She is tall, I think. To tell you the truth, I paid attention to where I left them and if they were cared for, not what they looked like. In the tunic, they all look the same. And besides that, men aren’t the best at noticing things like hair and clothing and things like that. She isn’t a large dress size, none of them are. If you mean her bodily proportions, her bust or such things, again, I wouldn't know. She says very little. She laughs a lot. She appears and disappears, sometimes far from where I expect. That’s the very odd thing. I will find her a place on the north side of the river, and a week later, I will find her in the south. If I see the man on the north that she was with, I ask how she left early and he says that she stayed three weeks, or the appointed time, and that she was polite and warned him before she left in the middle of the night. But I would swear to myself that she had appeared on the south side far too soon. It was a puzzle, but I learned to ignore it as the way that things were and nothing else.”

  I smiled and said, “Thank you. That is a puzzle. Do you have more business today?”

  Antonio said, “Oh, I kept you too long. You must have other things to do. Let me leave a coin for this wonderful pie and I will be on my way.”

  I said, “My friend, if you’re not in a hurry, I wanted to invite you to accompany me on an errand. I need to go see the woodworker and change his world. Would you like to see it?”

  He said, “I would indeed. I will be living in this village and I should get to know it and the new friends here.”

  I said, “Good. That’s wonderful. Viola, excuse us. I’ll see you all at home later.”

  She said, “I’m working at the shop today. But I’ll see you when you come.”

  Antonio said goodbye to Viola and again apologized for being ignorant of her past life…and she again told him that she was happy and that he should have no concerns for her welfare or attitude toward him.

  After Viola walked away, I called Jonah and Lucy and introduced Antonio and mentioned that he had a heart for the orphans and widows. I smiled as I told them that he was very impressed with the pie and that two of the coins that we left were for pie and two more were for Lucy.

  When we had left the cafe, Antonio asked, “Joshua, what was the two extra coins for the woman for?”

  I said, “It is an extra amount that I like to leave when a waitress takes good care of me. Today, Lucy did more than you realize. She made sure that we had food and drink, and if we had needed anything else, she would have been there immediately to serve us. But more than that, she made sure that other customers were seated as far from us as she could, so that we could talk in private even though we are on the street. And she is a widow and she has a boy and he has no father. The extra that I leave for her makes her life easier.”

  Antonio said, “I like that. Lucy and Jonah. I will remember them.”

  We walked down the street. I had spoken to the woodworker, Bart, the day before, and he had agreed to meet me at the edge of the village about noon. I had asked him if he would bring at least
one of his trusted workers with him. The two men were standing together, talking, when Antonio and I approached.

  Bart greeted us with a handshake and introduced his workman. He recognized Antonio and he introduced himself.

  Bart said happily, “So, Sir Joshua! You have a few trees that you want me to look at. I take it that you want to clear some of your land. Well, let’s go take a look.”

  I smiled and we walked a little way down the road, outside the village. We came to a crude wooden gate across an entrance to my property and I led the three men along a good path into the woods. The path curved so that you couldn’t see where we were headed, but it wasn’t far to our destination.

  I said, “The trees that I want to show you are just through here.”

  We turned around the bend and walked into an open yard, stacked with freshly cut lumber.

  I pointed and said, “Bart my friend, I need to have all of this taken away and used for building or furniture or other projects. Before you speak, let me say that I want it all removed as you find uses for it. I will not pay you to take it away.”

  Bart looked incredulous and said, “Pay me to take it away? What do you mean? What do you ask in return?”

  I said, “I’m clearing some land farther into my woods. Most of this is from clearing this yard only. I’m thinking that since I have the means to cut the trees and saw them into boards and planks that perhaps you can use them. You and any others in the village who need them. I don’t want to cause you any loss though. I’m hoping that if I provide the lumber at no cost, that you will use your workmen to do more building and less cutting. I hope that because you will have the lumber more easily, that you will be able to build more affordable homes and barns and tables, and therefore men who thought that they couldn’t afford a new barn this season will find that they can. I’m hoping that this gives you so much business that you can hire more workers and even raise their wages. If I’m wrong, tell me and I’ll find another way to do what I need.”