I went to see Patience and Lacey, as I had promised, making the long journey in the hot and dusty days of high summer, and Chade swore I was so fractious that he was glad to be rid of me for a time. I didn't blame him. Lacey had become frailer and Patience had hired two women to help care for her old servant. Walking in her gardens with Patience's worn hand on my arm, seeing how she had converted the bloody soil of Regal's King's Circle to a haven of greenery, beauty, and peace gave me the first rest I had known in a long time. She gave me some of my father's things from her clutter: a plain sword belt he had preferred, letters Burrich had sent to him that mentioned me, and a jade ring. The ring fit my hand perfectly. I wore it home.
Nettle lingered after our Skill-lesson the first morning I was back. Chade did also, but at a look from me, he sighed and left me alone with my daughter. “You were gone a long time. Weeks,” she said.
“I hadn't seen Patience in a long time. And she's getting old.”
She nodded. “Thrift is pregnant.”
“That's wonderful news.”
“It is. We're all very excited. But my mother says it makes her feel old, to know she'll be a grandmother soon.”
That gave me a moment's pause.
“She said to me, ‘Time goes faster when you're older, Nettle.' Isn't that an odd thought?”
“I've known it for some time.”
“Do you? I think women know it better perhaps.”
I looked at Nettle directly and said nothing. “Perhaps not,” she said then, and went away.
Four days later, I saddled Myblack again and set out for Molly's. Chade sternly warned me that I must be back in time for the Calling and I promised him that I would be. The day was fine and Myblack well behaved and in good condition for the journey. The summer evenings were long and I made the journey in two days instead of three. I found myself very welcome, for Chivalry was replacing the posts in the paddock fence. Swift and Steady were helpful in pulling up the old rotted posts and Just and Hearth dug the holes bigger. Chivalry and I came behind, setting each pole straight and tall. He spoke to me about becoming a father and how exciting it was until he realized that my silences were growing longer and longer. Then he declared he was going to take the boys down to the creek and let them swim for a time, for he'd had enough of hot, sweaty work for the day. He asked if I'd come but I shook my head.
I was pouring a bucket of cool water from the well over my head when Molly came out with a basket on her arm. “Thrift is napping. The heat is hard on her. It is, when you're carrying. I thought we'd leave the house quiet for her, and perhaps find out if there are any blackberries ripe enough to be sweet yet.”
We climbed the gentle hill behind the house. The shouts of the boys splashing in the creek below faded. We went past Molly's neat straw hives, gently humming with the warm day. The blackberry tangle was beyond them and Molly led me to the far south side of it, saying the berries always ripened there first. Her bees were busy there too, some among the last blackberry flowers and some after the juice from the bursting ripe fruit. We picked berries until the basket was half-full. Then, as I bent a high prickly branch to bring it down so Molly could reach the top fruit, I offended a bee. It rushed at me, first tangling in my hair and then bumbling down my collar. I slapped at it and cursed as it stung me. I stumbled back from the berry bushes, batting at two others that were suddenly buzzing round my head.
“Move away quickly,” Molly warned me, and then came to take my hand and hurry me down the hill.
A second one stung me behind the ear before they gave off the chase. “And we've left the basket back there with all the berries. Shall I try to go back for it?”
“Not yet. Wait a time until they settle. Here, don't rub that, the stinger is probably still in it. Let me see.”
I sat down in the shade of an alder and she bent my head forward to look at the sting behind my ear. “It's really swelling. And you've pushed the stinger right in. Sit still, now.” She picked at it with her fingers. I flinched and she laughed. “Sit still. I can't get it with my nails.” She leaned forward and put her mouth on it. I felt her tongue find the stinger, and then she gripped it between her teeth and pulled it out. She brushed it from her lips onto her fingers. “See. You'd pushed it all the way in. Is there another one?”
“Down my back,” I said, and in spite of myself, my voice shook. She stopped and looked at me. She turned her head and looked again at me, as if she had not seen me in a long time. Her voice was husky when she said, “Take your shirt off. I'll see if I can get it out.”