I spent the weeks after Christmas thinking real hard about William and his father, and about Lan’s and mine. One of the things I thought was that William had been partly right, last summer, when he’d said that all Papa’s plans were about Lan, but he’d been partly wrong, too. Papa and Mama expected most of us to make plans for ourselves, once we got past upper school; they only got involved when there was a special reason, like Diane’s music or Lan’s double-seven magic.
I’d never made much in the way of plans, and I could see it was well past time I did. I’d already decided I wasn’t going East like Lan wanted, and I knew I didn’t want to work for the railroad like Nan, or get a job with one of the mills. About the only thing I really liked was helping out at the menagerie.
So right about the middle of February, I went to Professor Jeffries and asked him if there was any chance of me being hired on at the menagerie full-time after I finished the upper school exams in the spring.
Professor Jeffries narrowed his eyes at me. “And when would that be, exactly?”
“They start testing in March,” I said. “I figured on signing up for an early place, if the settlement folks don’t grab them all.” The students who came from settlement families all tried to take their exams in March or early April, so as to be home in time to help with planting. Sometimes, if there weren’t enough places, they’d just go on home, anyway. Some of them never did get their upper school certificates.
“Hmm. And you think you’d like working here?”
“I know I would.” I hesitated. “For a while. A few years, anyway.”
“A few years,” Professor Jeffries repeated. “And after that?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. I knew that I wanted to see more of the wildlands of the Far West, but I didn’t want to join a settlement, and the only other job I knew of out on the far side of the Great Barrier Spell was the one Wash did. I didn’t think the Settlement Office would hire a girl fresh out of upper school with no experience and no great knack for magic to be a circuit magician, even if I had helped out with the mirror bugs the summer before.
“Aren’t you?”
The professor looked honestly interested, and next thing I knew I was telling him about wanting to go West, only not to a settlement. “I don’t know how, but I mean to find out,” I said. “Maybe somebody will get up another expedition to explore, and I can talk them into taking me along.”
“Maybe.” Professor Jeffries’s eyes crinkled like he was amused about something, but all he said then was, “Well, if and when you pass your exams, I think I can find something for you to do.”
I went home that day feeling very pleased with myself. All I had to do was pass my exams. And I wasn’t much worried about just passing any of them, except maybe the one in magic, and I’d been doing a lot better with my spells since last fall.
I signed up to take my upper school exams in late March, and as soon as I was sure I’d be doing it, I told Mama and Papa what I’d arranged with Professor Jeffries. They seemed a little startled, but not unhappy. Mama actually seemed pleased. That is, until I told her that I wanted to see more of the Far West one day.
“Eff!” she said. “You’re much too young to make a decision like that!”
Papa gave her a look. I said, “I’m eighteen, Mama. Nineteen in June. And I’m not looking to head out this summer, or even next. I just wanted you to know it was something I was thinking of, so you wouldn’t be too surprised when it comes up for real and all.”
I don’t think Mama heard anything past me saying I was eighteen. That was the age you had to be to claim an allotment from the Settlement Office, the way my brother Jack had done, and though there weren’t many women who did, it wasn’t unheard of.
“You can’t mean to go for one of the settlements!” Mama gasped.
“No, no,” I said quickly. “I’m not inclined to farming, and I’m nowhere near good enough to be a settlement magician. Anyway, I don’t want to stay in one place. I want to get out where I can see the country and the animals and such.”
“I still say you’re much too young to be doing something like that!”
“Mama,” I said, “I’m only just deciding to work for Professor Jeffries. Far as I know, he hasn’t got any expeditions planned. I expect I’ll just be doing the same thing I’ve been doing all along, only I’ll have some pay to help with the householding.”
“I’m sure Allie could get you a job at her day school. She’s always saying that the office could use more help.”
“I don’t want a job at a day school. I like working for Professor Jeffries, and I already know most of the work. And if something likely does come up in the way of heading West, I’ll be in a good place to hear about it.”
“Eff!”
“Sara,” Papa said, and Mama looked at him and pressed her lips together, and didn’t say anything more. Papa turned to me. “It sounds as if you’ve thought this out very carefully.”
“I’ve been doing just about nothing but think since last summer,” I said. I must have sounded a mite cross, because Papa laughed.
“If Professor Jeffries thinks it will do, and you pass your exams, I think it will work out very well,” Papa said. “For a short while, at least.”
Mama looked crosser than ever. I’d expected her to dislike the notion of me going West; she’d been upset for months when Jack signed up for a settler, and then she got snappish again when he finally got his allotment and left. I hadn’t expected her to be this cross, though, not when it was just a notion for somewhere far off in the future. I didn’t worry too much. I figured she’d grow accustomed after a while, the way she had when I first started spending time at the menagerie.
That same night, I wrote Lan and William about what I’d decided. They both wrote back right away, for a wonder. Lan’s letter wasn’t happy; he still thought I should go to magic school, and he warned me that he’d be home in the summer to badger me about it. (He called it “talking it over some more,” but I knew what it’d feel like to me.)
William’s letter was more of a short note. Good for you, it said. You always have liked animals better than people. Then it went on to say he’d be heading off to Triskelion as soon as he finished his last term, and gave me his address. It was the first letter I’d had from him all year, and I’d have thought he hadn’t gotten any of the other letters I’d sent him, except for the line at the bottom.
P.S., it said, I’ll give Professor Ochiba your message when I see her.
CHAPTER 4
I PASSED MY EXAMS AND STARTED WORKING AT THE MENAGERIE FOR real in April. I was happy and busy, and I didn’t pay too much heed to Mama’s worrying or to the visits of the new head of the North Plains Territory Homestead Claims and Settlement Office. There were always people from the Settlement Office coming by in the spring, on account of their arrangement with the college. The Settlement Office never had enough magicians, so they’d taken to hiring on some of the magic students during the summer, and of course the college professors always helped out when there was an emergency.