Ravenwood Read Online Free PDF

simply because of the warm smile in his eyes. She had to admit to herself that the rest didn’t hurt. She smiled at him. “Good morning, William. Not out cutting today?”
    He shifted uneasily and looked into his cup. “Oh, I reckon I’ll be goin’ out soon as I’ve finished my tea.”
    Tanyth turned to Amber. “She’s better. Had some more tea and she’s resting more or less comfortably at the moment.” She took the offered seat and sipped the tea. A cutting board with cheese, bread, and fruit was in the center of the table and Amber pushed it just a bit toward the older woman as if in offering.
    In a tree on the far side of the clearing a squirrel chattered a few times at some transgressor unseen from the sunny breakfast table. The morning breeze felt soft against Tanyth’s cheek. She turned her face up to the sun, closed her eyes, and accepted the gift of warmth while she waited for the conversation to begin. By her reckoning they had a week before the Harvest Moon and the weather would start changing soon. .
    “So, you’re probably wonderin’...” Amber began but her voice petered out.
    “Yes,” Tanyth replied without opening her eyes or turning back to look at them.
    “Mother Alderton was our healer.” Amber said. “The All-Mother called her home late last winter and we’ve been muddling along ever since. We’re all pretty rugged. The outdoor work and all, I guess.”
    Tanyth noticed that William stared into his mug of tea without drinking it. In the light of morning he looked very young for all his broad shoulders and muscled arms. She looked carefully at Amber. “You never made willow bark tea?”
    Amber looked startled. “Not from bits of bark!” She looked embarrassed by her outburst. “At home we’d pop around to the apothecary and pick up some willow bark tea whenever we needed it.” She shrugged. “Mother Alderton made some for us when we needed it, and none of us have had the time what with the kids and the houses and all.” Her voice petered out under the older woman’s scrutiny.
    “‘At home’? What did you mean ‘at home’? Where are you from?” Tanyth’s voice was soft but insistent.
    William spoke for the first time. “Kleesport, mum. We came out here as a group from Kleesport. There was something over two dozen of us to begin with. Some left. Some are still here.” His face turned to look at what must be the graveyard. Tanyth made out some whitewashed stones set in the ground. “Mother Alderton said she came to keep an eye on us.”
    Tanyth’s eyes swept back and forth between the two of them and then around the yards and tidy huts. The odd chicken scratched here and there and a pair of goats grazed on the weedy side hill. The garden plots seemed too small to support two dozen adults. “Why did she think you needed keepin’ an eye on, then?”
    “She thought we were too soft and citified to make it out here on our own.” His voice was low, and he didn’t look up from his tea cup.
    Amber wouldn’t meet her gaze either. “Were you?”
    He gave a half shrug. “Some were. Mostly those left. A few were called home, like Mother Alderton. We’re down to 18 adults now and the kids.” He blew out a long breath. “Honestly, mum, I thought we’d have more of a going concern by now.”
    Amber added a morose, “We haven’t even named the place yet. We can’t seem to agree.”
    “So why do you stay at it? It’s only a few days into Kleesport, isn’t it?”
    “Ten days on foot, mum. Two weeks by wagon.” William sounded very dejected.
    “It takes you two weeks to get a wagon load of clay into town? How many times a year can you do that?”
    He gave another half shrug. “Only have the one wagon and team that can make the trip. Ole Bester and the cart is good for the woodcuttin’ and all, but Frank Crane takes the cargo rig into Kleesport and back six times a year or so. We got one more load for this season. He was due back on Sickle Moon or