“Show me,” Prin said, understanding about every third word.
He pointed to the wall above her. She hadn’t noticed a lip of stone running around the three walls, as wide as her hand, and apparently made for beams to sit upon. He pointed to places on the stone floor where timbers and once stood upright to support the center of the loft.
“The cost?” she said.
“I warn you, the cost may be more than my original estimate, but only because you may add to it. And you mentioned adding cabinets, tables, and storage on the ground floor that are not included in the original bid. Neither are the windows that open that you mentioned, but I don’t think you’ll need them. All that can come later.”
“I want the windows,” she persisted.
He pointed to the ones high on the wall. “Those are small, but they do open, and there are a lot of them. Tell you what, if we get the deck of the loft built and you want to add larger windows, we can do it then. That’s when we would, anyhow. But I think you’ll be happy with them as they are.”
“The cost?” she asked again, more insistently.
He gave her a price of less than half of what she expected to pay, and that would be after bargaining the price lower. He said, “Again, if the previous loft hadn’t left the supports we need, the price would be three times what it is.”
“When can you start?”
“I have another job this morning, but I can start on the roof by this afternoon. And I can order the materials for the loft to be delivered late today, at least most of what I’ll need. None of it is rare or unusual, so it’s readily available.”
Prin held out three coins. “For the materials and initial work. We’ll pay the rest when we are satisfied, my father said.”
El said, “I can see he’s taught you well. In your land, do you shake hands to confirm a deal?”
She reached out and took his large hand in hers. Just to let him know she was stronger than she looked, she gave it a hard squeeze. He was enough of a gentleman to wince as if she’d hurt him, which drew a surprised look from Sara.
Prin said, “I think we should go shopping again. Back to the bazaar.”
“What for?”
“Food. I’m starving. And chairs. I miss chairs. And blankets.”
Sara said, “Then we also need a desk for you. And candles. You need to work on writing and then reading every day.”
They went to the bazaar and found grilled sausages, pies and weak ale for breakfast. Both wore their ugly tan dresses but found small items in the market to decorate and make them more cheerful. Sara used imitation flowers made of thin colorful material pinned to her shoulders, and Prin bought a bright red belt.
They encountered another of the Order of The Iron Ring and thinking it was the one they met the previous day, called out to him. However, he responded quickly and introduced himself, and said he knew of them and would help with anything they needed. Prime told him of the robbery in their house, and he offered to look for the thief.
“They didn’t take anything of value,” Sara said.
“But, they did,” he responded. “They took sanctuary and your trust.”
“We ordered new locks,” Sara snapped harshly.
“See?” He shrugged as if that explained it all.
They returned with armloads of purchases to wait for the carpenter or the delivery of the building materials. Prin explored the small yard in the rear of their building that was surrounded by a hedge that blocked off a view from the street, yet allowed the afternoon sun to strike it. Chalmers had referred to it as a garden, as if the building was a palace with carefully tended grounds.
The remains she found were of a vegetable garden where a few carrots and onions had managed to go to seed and grow. Sara pointed out that all five of the trees were fruit trees, and in the shade of one tree sat a sturdy bench large enough for two. Sara used a piece of wood from the scrap pile for a backing to rest on her knees and carried the ink and a few sheets of paper outside.
Prin’s formal education began in the garden. Sara hadn’t had the opportunity to teach her much of reading and writing before they fled, and since then they had been far too busy, but now she changed from a friend into a taskmaster. While Prin had been proud of the letters she’d learned on her own, the knowledge didn’t begin to satisfy Sara.
Sara made her repeat each letter and their sounds out loud, acting more of a disciplinarian than the crow that had corrected her at the tree in the forest. Each stroke of her pen had to agree with the little chart they’d purchased, and after she had grown tired of an exercise, Sara moved her on to another.
She printed pairs of letters and had Prin pronounce how they should sound together. On the following day, Prin was again working in the overgrown garden after the rest of the lumber for the loft had been delivered and placed inside via the carriage doors at the end of the building. The new locks were delivered, the roof had been repaired, and the work on the loft was well under construction by a crew of four.
Prin said, “Your knife is supposed to be ready today.”
“Are you trying to get out of reading?”
“Yes. I’ve thought of something else we need, too.”
“Which is?”
“Treeman.”
Sara laughed, “That tree you probably killed by throwing your knife so many times at it?”
“And I still need practice. But you need to learn. And I warn you, I’ll be as hard on teaching you as you’ve been on me.”
“I don’t want to throw at a fruit tree. I’m looking forward to the apples later this summer and the cherries and plums next year.”
“I talked to El this morning. He’s going to use a soft wood to make us a new treeman, a target we can use inside.” Prin went back to work on her reading and writing.
Two days later, the loft was decked, and the walls were going up. El presented them with the new Treeman, a target vaguely shaped like a man. Sara wore her new scabbard and knife. But, more importantly, Prin sounded out her first word, bat. After reading ships days earlier, there had not been time or opportunity to continue.
She sat by herself on the bench under the tree, knees pulled under her chin, looking at the letters and sounding each, and then slurring them together. Bbb-aa-tt. Bat. She hadn’t checked with Sara but knew it was right. She replaced the B with an R. Rat. Rat, bat, rat, bat. Rat, she now knew another word.
A peg slipped into a hole in her mind with those two words. She yanked herself back from daydreaming and tried fitting other letters in front of the AT, and soon she was printing sat, cat, mat, and pat. Six words. The concept of reading filled her will joy, and when Sara approached, she didn’t want to stop long enough to look up and reveal that she could read six words.
Three days later, the loft was finished, all but whitewash, and El collected the final payment from a girl who was almost too busy reading to spare him the time to pay. Fortunately, Sara was so pleased with his work she also ordered cabinets, shelves, and worktables. The area under the loft was transformed into workbenches that circled the three sides of the building, while two more ran parallel in the center. Under them were crude shelves and cabinets, and more were on the walls.
The new Treeman was stood inside the storage area, and Prin took the breaks her eyes demanded and used it for practice. El had placed an old shirt over the chest for the target. Prin made Sara practice the same as her, and already the front of Treeman was showing signs of the number of times their throws were accurate. The wood was soft, spruce or fir, the body the size as that of a man, the bark removed, and a crude head, belt, and red heart painted in the appropriate locations.