“Where?”
“Out to the southeast, a hamlet called Peachill.”
Jeka cocked her head. “No. Better that you go alone.”
“You be all right?”
She laughed. “I was fine ’fore you came…be all right if you go.”
“I’ll be back in a day or so.”
“That’s what-”
“I will,” Kharl said.
“I’ll see you then.” Jeka turned her head away.
“I’m going out to see my boy.” Kharl didn’t know why he had to explain to Jeka, but he did. “I want to know if he’s all right.” He knew that, in some ways, going to Peachill was dangerous. Dangerous or not, he had to know that Warrl was all right.
“Why’d you leave him?”
“I didn’t. I told you. He left me. He was afraid I’d lose everything, and that somehow it was all my fault, and he wrote his aunt, and she came, and he left with her.”
Jeka looked up at him.
Kharl wasn’t sure how to read the darkness in her eyes. “I knew they were right, but how…how could I have just given up the cooperage?”
She didn’t say anything, but she might as well have stated that he’d lost it anyway, and lost his sons as well.
“I have to make sure he’s all right.” Kharl knew he was repeating himself, but she had to understand.
Jeka nodded. “I’ll be here.” She turned away.
Kharl pulled on his tunic and winter jacket. He’d wear the ragged cloak over the jacket until he was clear of Brysta, but he wasn’t going to see Warrl as a beggar. Especially not when his son was staying with Merayni.
Once he left the space between the walls, it took him more than a glass to reach the southeast road at the foot of the harbor on the outskirts of Brysta. No one seemed to be following him, but he kept walking until he was a good kay beyond the pillars that marked the limits of Brysta and until the road was empty. Only then did he shed the ragged cloak, roll it into a cylinder, and hide it in the hedgerow behind the stone wall. He paused a moment, trying to mark the location in his memory.
He kept the short walking stick, and it was almost a pleasure to be able to straighten up and stretch his legs along the gently curving road.
Midmorning came…and went, and he was still on the road.
Early in the afternoon, he saw a woman cleaning out her garden, and for several coppers, persuaded her to provide him with a half a loaf of bread, some hard cheese, a leek, and permission to use her well for water. The water and the food added some spring to his step, at least for another three or four kays, when his feet began to ache, and his steps slowed.
Still, by late afternoon, he reached the kaystone that announced Peachill. He knew that Dowsyl’s orchards were off a lane on the west side of the road, somewhere short of the hamlet, but it had been more than five years since he and Charee had visited Merayni, and Kharl could not remember the lane exactly. He walked another five rods, and stopped.
With a sigh, he walked another fifty cubits to a hutlike dwelling set amid gardens needing preparation for the winter. There, he knocked.
After several moments, the oblong peep-door opened. “Don’t need nothing sharpened,” came a woman’s voice.
“I’m not a tinker. I’m a traveler. Could you tell me which lane leads to Dowsyl’s place?”
“Why you want to know?”
“Because they’re family,” Kharl replied.
While the small part of the woman’s face Kharl could see expressed doubt, she cleared her throat. “If you were coming south, you already passed it. Last lane back. Go in about two kays, and the house is just past the peach trees.”
“He still have the little barn between the pearapples and peaches?”
“Yes.” Even with the single word, some of the suspicion lifted from the woman’s face. Then, the peep-door closed with a click.
“Thank you.” Even with the door closed, Kharl bowed. Then he headed back northward to the first lane.
It could have been that he was tired, but the distance to Dowsyl’s orchards seemed far longer than two kays. The sun hung low in the western sky above the rolling hills covered with a mixture of graying broadleaf trees and pines before Kharl stopped at the low stone wall that bordered the lane.
Beyond the peach trees, their leaves now almost entirely winter-gray, Kharl could see the square dwelling with the heavy thatched roof, and beyond the house, the rows of pearapple trees, with some leaves still showing patches of green. After standing in the lane for a time, he walked through the gateless opening in the stone wall. He had almost reached the clear area around the house when he heard footsteps to his right and turned.
“Da! You came!” Warrl ran from the small barn toward his father. He looked as though he might throw his arms around his father, then stopped. “You came. I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Your aunt said I was welcome, and I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I’ve learned a lot, and…” Warrl stopped and looked past Kharl.
Kharl turned. The broad-shouldered Merayni, wearing a ragged apron covered with flour, appeared on the narrow porch of the orchard cottage.
The cooper nodded toward Charee’s sister, then began to walk toward her.
Warrl walked beside his father. “Aunt Merayni…Da came.”
“I see that.” Merayni’s voice was level.
“Merayni…” Dowsyl appeared behind Warrl. “Kharl’s walked a long way. I’m sure he could use something for his thirst.”
Merayni looked at her consort, then at Kharl. “I’ll find something.” She paused. “Everything is wonderful, and you’re going to take Warrl?” Her voice was cold and edged.
“No. Things are not wonderful. You were right.” Kharl met Merayni’s eyes directly. “I lost the cooperage, and I’m getting by best I can. I may have to go to sea. But I wanted to see Warrl.”
Abruptly, Merayni looked down, if but slightly.
“Hard thing, to lose something like that,” said Dowsyl slowly. “Wouldn’t want to lose the orchards and land. Know I wouldn’t take to that.”
“Da…I’m sorry.” Warrl’s voice was low.
“You didn’t do that, son. I made some mistakes. Sometimes…you make mistakes, and bad things happen.”
“How did you lose it, Da?” asked Warrl.
“I couldn’t make the golds for the tariffs. The justicer put it up for public auction. Said no one related to me by blood could bid on it.” Kharl was troubled by his own words. Although what he said was truthful, what he implied was not exactly so.
“Comes from upsetting lords…” murmured Merayni.
“It does,” Kharl agreed. “But there’s little I can do now.”
Merayni slipped into the squarish dwelling.
Dowsyl stepped closer. “Long walk, Kharl.”
“It was, but I wanted to see Warrl. I wasn’t sure when I might be able to get back here.”
“Said you were welcome to stay here. I meant it.”
“I know,” Kharl replied. “I thank you for that, but I’m a cooper. I’m not a grower. I don’t know trees or the land.”
Merayni came back out onto the porch, bearing a large mug. “Just drew this.”
Kharl accepted the worn clay mug and took a long swallow of the cool water. “Thank you.” He took another, draining the mug and handing it back.
“Well…your Da’s here, Warrl,” Dowsyl said. “He’s had a long journey. Least we can do is have a solid supper and offer him a bed for the night.”
Before Merayni could say anything, Kharl replied. “Both would be welcome, but just a mat and a blanket in the little barn would be good. I’ll have to leave in the morning.”
“There’s a comfortable pallet there,” Merayni said, “and we’ve blankets to spare.”
“Thank you.”
“Be a bit before supper, though.”
“Anything would be welcome…anytime.” Kharl bowed his head slightly.
“Da? Can I show you the orchard and the trees Uncle Dowsyl let me prune?” asked Warrl.
“You surely can,” replied Kharl.
“Over this way…he had me start on the pearapples…”
As Kharl followed his son, he could not but overhear the words behind them.