The Chosen Page 14

  Kathryn waited for him to explain.

  “The first shift would go from dawn to the fourth radian of the morning. I noticed that you’re an early riser so I put you down as well as Matt, Jenna, and Rachel.” He nodded toward the large clock that hung on the wall, thirteen radians visible on its face. He dropped a few of the nuts and berries into his mouth.

  She nodded. “Sounds like a workable arrangement.”Keep him moving,she ordered herself, move his observations away from you.

  “I put you guys together because during the last couple days you were always the first ones up.”

  “Keen observation,” she murmured and then said, “You don’t have to justify every decision to me.” She wasn’t interested in hearing all of his observations on her personal habits. Then again, maybe she did so she would know which ones to make note of and change. It was an idea worth contemplating later.

  “Yes I do if I want to make sure I’m making decisions that are mutually beneficial,” he replied.

  She tipped her head in acknowledgement, and then continued. “Who do you have down for the second shift?”

  “That would be Cassandra, Lindsey, Elizabeth, and myself.”

  “And why did you choose them?” If he felt the need to explain, then least she could do would be to prompt him. And if she prompted him, then just maybe she could keep the conversation away from her.

  “They were hard to place, not exactly morning people, neither night owls. I gambled and placed them in the moderate morning.”

  “I take it then that each shift is four radians?” she asked since he hadn’t bothered to clarify that detail.

  He nodded. “Approximately, yes. With thirteen radians during the day split over four shifts, it doesn’t exactly come out in whole radians.”

  She nodded, which David took as an agreement and continued. “Third shift would be you, Amy, Daniel, and Leia. Leia and Daniel seemed to be more afternoon people and Amy’s your friend. I thought you might prefer a known face in the coming days.”

  Kathryn looked at her cup. “Thank you,” she said stiffly.Perhaps a little too observant?

  David found her reaction surprising, was or wasn’t she pleased to have Amy on her team? Perhaps she didn’t like that he’d picked up on their friendship so quickly, in either case he continued quickly. “Fourth shift has me, Tyler, Luke, and Natalie.”

  Looking up quickly, she asked, “Any particular reason you put Natalie on a team with all guys?” …Although better him than me. Kathryn contemplated the idea of being stuck on a shift with Natalie for four radians and considered herself fortunate at such a lucky escape.

  “That was a hard decision,” he admitted. “In the end I decided that the three of us guys would have a much better chance of overpowering her or protecting her in case something goes wrong.”

  “Natalie does seem the least mature of the group,” Kathryn muttered softly. So softly that David barely heard her.

  He nodded, paused and then asked, “What do you think?”

  She took another sip of her tea. “I think it’s a workable arrangement, at least for now. Once we get the lay of the land immediately around our new home the excursions by the teams will probably extend into days. There are a lot of outlying villages and farms that can’t be reached in four radians.”

  David mulled this new thought over in his mind and nodded in agreement.

  Kathryn continued, trying her hand at some humor, “now we just get to tell the rest of the team the plan and hope we don’t have a mutiny on our hands.”

  David chuckled softly and the two sat quietly until the first rays of the sun streamed in through the windows. In small groups the rest of the Dragons joined them, Amy and Jenna being among the first, Natalie and Lindsey the last.

  As soon as they were all up, or at least showing signs of being awake, Cassandra ran into the kitchen and began preparing breakfast.

  By the time Natalie and Lindsey joined the rest of them, the sun was up and breakfast was on the table.

  Breakfast was a friendly, if a bit formal affair. Very few of the family knew each other well enough to truly relax in each other’s presence and it showed. David hoped that after a month or so they would be laughing and joking around the table like a large extended family.

  After breakfast was over and the dishes cleared David told the rest what he had informed Kathryn earlier. To his immense pleasure the rest of the Dragons accepted his plan almost immediately.So far everything seems to be running smoothly, he thought happily,even Kathryn seems to be warming up. I would never have considered her capable of making a joke before this morning.

  “Well,” David commented after the conversation had died down. “I wasn’t expecting that discussion to be over so soon, but since it is we have another group/team effort to discuss.”

  “What’s that?” Cassandra asked.

  “Chore assignments.”

  Natalie, Lindsey, and Luke moaned theatrically. “Already?” Lindsey asked petulantly.

  David grinned at them. “We can’t wait until next week or even until tomorrow if we want to sustain ourselves. Does anyone have any preferences?”

  “Can I cook?” Cassandra asked timidly.

  He smiled at her. “If you continue to cook the way you did this morning, consider the job yours, the biscuits were delicious.”

  Cassandra blushed, but smiled in delight.

  “I think we need more than one cook,” Luke spoke up. “As much as Cass loves to cook, we’re going to need someone else who can prepare meals, especially in the early mornings and later evenings.”

  David nodded. “Good point. Anyone else like to cook?”

  “I can do it,” Matt volunteered, surprising everyone.

  David didn’t know a single man who would willingly put himself in the kitchen. Most noblemen considered it beneath their station and the common men preferred to believe that it was the woman’s duty to feed the family. “Great. You two can work out your own schedule plan. Now, I’m going to assume that we all know how to milk a cow,” he looked at the rest of the group and when no one bothered to correct him, not even Luke, he continued, “we need milk every day and since the cows and some of the goats need to be milked twice a day we’ll assign two people to a day. One will milk first thing in the morning; the second will milk in the afternoon.”

  No one seemed to have a serious problem with that arrangement and the days and times were quickly distributed.

  By mid-morning they had the rest of the chores divvied up. Kathryn, Amy, Leia, and Jenna would manage the garden, Daniel, Elizabeth, and Rachel would tend the sheep, pribbles, and goats. Natalie and Lindsey would collect the eggs and tend to the fowl, Matt and Cass would take care of everything related to the kitchen. Tyler, Luke, and David would handle the butchering or skinning of any meat caught or slaughtered as well as tend the beef cattle and the pigs. The boys would take care of the barn work and the girls would maintain the house. However each Guardian would tend to their own horse. The mounts were chosen by the rider soon after birth and trained together so that by the time the trainee was ready to be placed into a family, the rider and horse thought, rode, and fought as one. The horses themselves were descended from the Elven herds, how the bloodline refused to die out no one was sure, but a Guardian’s horse lived nearly as long a natural life as a Guardian would, provided it wasn’t killed in battle.

  “Does anyone else have anything to add?” David asked.

  “I think we need nicknames,” Natalie exclaimed loudly from the far end of the table.

  Tyler, taking a sip of water, choked on his drink. “What?” he gasped between coughs. David, who had barely escaped a similar display, arched a brow to echo the older boy’s dismayed question.

  Natalie turned on him. “When we’re out on patrol we can’t just call each other by our regular names, what if someone overhears us?”

  “Our identities would be revealed!” Lindsey exclaimed catching on to her friend’s idea.

  “Exactl
y!” Natalie cried triumphantly.

  David looked at Kathryn, but she remained motionless—neither encouraging nor discouraging the proposal. He turned back to Natalie. “Okay, what have you got in mind?

  “Well your name isn’t hard, we would probably just call you Dave, you know shorten it. Kathryn I was thinking Kate or Kathy.”

  Kathryn didn’t even blink at the suggestions, but Natalie didn’t seem to notice as she continued. “Amy could be Mia—

  Amy choked on her water, coughing hard, adding to Tyler’s sputtering, but Natalie took no notice. “Tyler can be Ty, Rachel could become Rae, Cassandra we could call you Cassie, or Cass depending on which you prefer.”

  She looked around the table, “Elizabeth we could call you Beth or Lizzy, Daniel would just be Dan,” she looked at him then shrugged. “Leia could be Lei. Jenna we could change to Jen, or Nan if we wanted to.”

  Here Jenna interrupted her. “Jen is just fine.” she said quickly.

  Natalie looked surprised at being interrupted but took it in stride. “Well at least we’ve got one settled. Lindsey could be Lin, and I could be Nat.”

  “What about Matt or Luke?” David asked her.

  Natalie shrugged. “I couldn’t come up with anything.”

  Luke jumped in quickly. “That’s quite alright, you can leave my name just the way it is.”

  “Mine too,” Matt agreed.

  “You guys are no fun what-so-ever,” Natalie pouted, slumping back against the chair’s backrest, arms crossed over her chest. She certainly had the petulant spoiled noble girl charade down. Too bad he suspected it wasn’t an act.

  David turned to Kathryn. “What do you think?”

  She sighed. “I guess so. There’s just one problem. The nicknames Natalie suggested aren’t much different than our given names. It wouldn’t be that hard to put two and two together.”

  Across the table, Natalie’s excited smile turned into a scowl, a scowl aimed directly at the younger woman. However, before she could say anything, Tyler surprised everyone by jumping into the conversation.

  “You have a good point, Kathryn, however we also need to consider the chance that a nobleman, or woman, is going to be traipsing around in a country village or wild forest, or a villager attending a court tourney. Add to the fact that while at court we’ll be assuming our court names, and not our day to day ones, we’ll already have added protection against our identities being discovered.” He grimaced. “I don’t see why Natalie’s nicknames couldn’t work.”

  Upon hearing this Natalie practically jumped out of her seat, barely able to contain her enthusiasm. “You guys are great!”

  “I just hope we don’t live to regret it,” Amy grumbled, muttering under her breath, “Mia?”

  The meeting done, the group got up to disperse when David remembered something. “Wait a second, everyone.”

  They paused and waited for him to continue.

  “Lord Jasse suggested that when we go to town we go in groups of mainly girls and one or two guys.”

  Tyler snorted, “What for?”

  “Safety and protection for one, you never know what drunk is looking for a good time.”

  “Point taken,” Natalie said quickly. “If we want to go into town, grab a couple more girls and drag one of you guys along.” That said she picked up her skirts and herded the other girls out the door saying something about linens.

  The boys watched them go. “I think we’re in trouble,” Daniel observed.

  Cassandra raced back into the room. “Daniel, Tyler, are either of you good at woodworking?”

  The two boys looked at each other. “Sort of,” they replied in unison.

  Cass beamed. “Oh good! The kitchen counters desperately need to be refinished. Do you guys think you could do that for me?”

  Tyler looked at Daniel who shrugged. “We can try.”

  Cass’s smile widened. “Thanks, guys.”

  She was about to say something else when Natalie’s voice echoed through the house. “Cass? Cass where are you?”

  Cass turned on her heel and fled back the way she had come.

  “Actually, I think it’s the house that’s in trouble.” Tyler corrected.

  “Come on guys,” David laughed. “We have chores to do.”

  Inside the sitting room Natalie had the girls’ complete attention. “Since we’ll be living here for the rest of our lives,” she was saying, “There’s no reason we can’t make it look nice.” She waved her hand around the room and began to give a running commentary on the depressing color scheme and tacky furniture.

  Kathryn was only half listening, her eyes roaming the walls, taking in a detail that she hadn't noticed earlier. The walls of the sitting room were covered from floor to ceiling with small box-like shelving units filled with scrolls. Kathryn was willing to bet that the scrolls contained histories and reports of the lives of the Guardians who had lived here before them. There were some empty shelving units that Kathryn suspected were for the Dragon's to fill with their own reports. With a jolt she realized her mind was wandering and, chastising herself, forced her attention back to the issues at hand.

  “It already is nice.” Cassandra protested.

  “Yes it is,” Natalie agreed. “But why can’t we make it nicer?”

  “She means with pictures and stuff,” Lindsey explained.

  “What kind of pictures?” Elizabeth asked.

  Natalie shrugged. “Nothing too fancy, probably just paintings or drawings we’ve done.”

  Lindsey squealed with delight. “Oh I love painting!” she gushed, then turned to each, “I’ve absolutely got to do a portrait of each of you.” Her enthusiasm faltered a little when it encountered Kathryn’s stony face, but when she imagined what the older girl would look like with a smile on her face her excitement jumped a few more notches.

  “What else do you have in mind?” Rachel asked.

  Natalie grinned. “I thought it would be nice to make quilts for our beds, you know, to kind of give it a more homey feel.”

  Jen smiled. “I like that idea. Quilting is something I enjoy.”

  “Where would we get fabric?” Leia asked.

  Natalie gave her a sly grin. “You don’t think all those bags I lugged here are full of clothes do you?”

  The girls looked at each other. “Well, yes, we did,” Rachel admitted.

  “Nope,” Natalie laughed. “More than half of them were full with fabric.”

  “Fabric?” Amy asked doubtfully. “You mean out of the twenty bags you lugged here, at least ten are just filled with bolts of fabric?”

  “Yes!” Natalie cried triumphantly.

  Amy looked at her for a moment. “Well if you give me some fabric, I can make curtains if you like,” she offered slowly.

  “That would be wonderful,” Natalie gushed. She looked around. “Amy’s going to do our curtains, Lindsey can paint for us, but Jenna’s going to need help working on the quilts who wants to help her?”

  “I can,” Leia volunteered. She turned to Jenna. “Just keep in mind I’m not very good at it.”

  Jen smiled. “That’s okay. We don’t need anything fancy.”

  Natalie was grinning broadly now. “Anyone else want to help?”

  “I guess I can try,” Rachel said slowly. “Although I’m going to need a lot of help.”

  Elizabeth piped up. “I can spin wool and other materials.”

  “That’s brilliant,” Natalie exclaimed, “I wasn’t sure if anyone other than myself could spin but having another spinner is going to be great. Can anyone weave?”

  Kathryn had been sitting quietly through the whole exchange, watching in surprise as the girls pooled their talents to make this building a home for everyone, unable to offer her talents because she could neither, sew, nor quilt, nor spin. However now she could offer something. “I can weave,” she interjected quietly. And then immediately wanted to kick herself for getting involved.

  Natalie appeared stunned, but as usual quickly
recovered. “That’s great. Have you seen the loom yet?”

  Kathryn shook her head. All she’d seen of the house was her bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, and now the sitting room.

  Shrugging Natalie turned to the next item. “Can anyone here sew dresses or other clothing items?”

  Since most of the girls were from noble families they could adequately handle a needle and thread, only Kathryn and Leia admitted to having absolutely no skill with a needle.

  “I can mend, but that’s about it,” Leia confessed. Kathryn nodded, silently admitting that her own skill could barely manage even that. Jasmine had tried to teach her needlecrafts, but she had not been interested in spending the day gossiping over thread and fabric whilst stabbing one’s fingers with a blasted needle.

  Suddenly Lindsey started giggling. She was standing in front of a large bay window with her hand covering her mouth laughing to the point where tears were beginning to form.

  Elizabeth stood up and hurried over beside her. “What’s so funny? she asked.

  “Its… its Daniel” she gasped between giggles. “He’s being chased by the pribbles,” her voice rising and cracking at the word pribbles.

  All of the girls rushed to the window to view the spectacle. On the far side of the pribble pen, Matt was standing with one foot on the outer bottom rung and the other resting on the middle stave. Both of his arms were draped over the top rung as he deftly worked a long piece of straw protruding out of the corner of his mouth while cheering the activities in front of him. It was hard to determine if he was cheering for the pribbles or Daniel. Daniel was running as fast as he legs could take him to escape an apparent pribble riot. He was followed closely by three angry pribbles. The first had its head and neck protruding straight out targeting his backside as though it was in the throws of a jousting match. The other two were running erect, wings flapping, tail feathers fully flared, honking and bellowing in the manner that was unique to the strange birds. The remaining troop followed less enthusiastically behind, but still contributing to the noisy uproar.