True Deceit

CHAPTER TWO

Amidst the Son

Annika came up the foot-worn road towards the house under a cold, cloudless sun. October days gave cause for cotton skirts and no stockings, but that day it seemed the sun took a wider path across the sky. And yet, its pace must have accelerated, making Annika rush to bring the cat in.

Seth had found the little ginger kit half drowned on the banks of the river. Every night he would walk from the moment Annika fell to bed till two hours into the early day. It had been only two months since the poor cat had been found, and had Seth not been out at night before the morn, the tiny creature would have frozen in his fur.

The boy has a good heart, Annika thought, But his memory can’t run past a snail. Seth went to school in the town down the road, and he refused the ride Annika offered every morning in the mule cart. He left very early, after Annika had fallen back to bed for the morning, and he always forgot to latch the kitchen door. That cat could push his way through, and every day Annika trudged down the hill to collect the miscreant.

The kit mewed from the folds of her apron. She couldn’t hold him in her arms past a moment afore the sneezes and coughs overtook her. She would drop the apron straight into the wash when she reached the house. Despite his mischief, the creature held charm, and she hated not being able to reassure him with a scratch to his ear.

Once inside the swinging door, Annika dumped the kitten on the rug for wiping shoes. He’d need a bath and wouldn’t be allowed past the kitchen till he’d had it. The poor cat would be trapped between a locked door and a solid one, trafficking the tiny square for hours. Seth loved the kit, but he didn’t always consider how to best care for the thing.

Annika disappeared into the fire place room where she picked at a single log she let smolder. That the weather was out of season barely took notice in her mind. It had been near three weeks since the last of Robbie’s letters had come. She knew the work at sea took many hours away, and she would hope he’s take sleep over letter-writing when he needed. Still, they needed more flour and salt, and Seth’s shoes had been abandoned a month past for all the holes they bore. Annika knew he wouldn’t be forgetful of this, and so her mind chose to toss around the worst reasons for a delay.

Many folk in this land were not strangers to superstition, and Annika lived by the habits these created. Salt over the left shoulder, rosemary at the garden gate, and she still let spiders take residence anywhere in the house, though it gave her less peaceful hours of rest. She had not given in to believing in sea beasts and vengeful weather gods, though. Whatever kept Robbie was human enough, as he had not been opened to any other world.

Though she could work diligently through present worries, Annika let herself droop when reminded of past terrors. Seth parents knew such a world all too well. Annika had known his father best, even having been courted by him in her younger years. All his secrets were held in her mind, locked tight with never a key made. Seth’s mother knew all, and suffered for it as her husband had. They had only been dead two years, and the newly teen’d Seth had come to live with her and Robbie.

The cat scratched from the kitchen side, but Annika held her ground against his pleas. She almost felt a mother to him, though her love did not extend as far as Seth’s. The boy knew nothing of the forces his parents delved in, and thought Annika his true aunt, kin to his mother. Robbie knew all the facts, though his grasp of understanding could only extend to his imagination. Annika would never let such a world touch her Ever-Love.

Again the ring was turned about her finger, gleaming amidst the shadows of the hearth. To all around, it was an Ever-Bond, sacred and binding. None but those two knew it only a Promise, though the effect on their souls was just as strong. Annika herself could have completed the rite, but they were young when first in love, and Robbie wanted all to be proper. His voyages were to keep them steady and living well, and the wait to give his darling time to consider her options. It had been years afore he had needed such a job to keep the up. Annika held patience, and she knew he’d find her ready upon his return home.

She was lucky to hear the light rapping on the outer door. Annika knew she could look a fool rushing so blindly to answer the knock should it have been but in her head, but none but the cat could notice her fumbling. Lucky again, she opened the door to a face grown familiar over many months. “Oh, Terry,” she said. Here was the parcel-man, delivering a treasure greater than that within his palms.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. B.” Terry was a small man, built for speed, as some would say. The speed he could offer afforded no rush to his deliveries, as his land travel was confined to a wagon and an ox. “The sea ain’t been kind this week,” he said. “But I reckon Mr. B’s fairing all right.”

Annika hated being rude, and though Terry had declined on every prior occasion, she still offered him a spell of rest inside. “Na, ma’am,” he said. “If I don’t shove off now, I’ll miss the ship out of here, and Robbie’ll be waiting an extra week on your letters.” He gave her a wink so gentle and pure, and she smiled at his eyes and his hands extended towards her. She took the package and gave him a nod, and they both knew she wasn’t rude in any sense.

Even the cat gave her a pathway to the table, reprieving her legs from pawing for the time. The table sat a full foot from the chair, though she didn’t scoot to close the gap, but rather leaned to dump the solid contents on the surface. The coins and bills were comfort, yet not that which she shook to behold. Twelve folded parchment parcels fell into her lap, a veritable hoard of heavenly plunder. The way she tore through each one, and how she poured over every word, could seem greedy, but none would fault her for it.

Always yours, as he always signed it. His ‘i’s almost curled over backwards under the dot, which was as close to a dot as any could make it. Annika devoured each of these with the broadest smile, cooing over descriptions of long nights and cold cabins. She would she could comfort him, though he always told of how she had saved him in the same way he saved her then. When she had finished, all were tucked into a chest beneath her bed, to join the dozens that she cycled through each night when Seth believed her sleeping.