15. Bread and Nails
Bread and Nails
The next day Kain rested, mostly. There was little enough to do, and the long stretch of tilling and planting had wrung him out, so he spent it by the garden, watching the plots, walking the trees and the line of his property, letting himself sit still.
The day after, he knew he wanted more than that out of himself. With the seed in the ground, it was time to look at Garland's forge, and he figured Sasha would have something wanting doing as well.
He saddled Roan and rode up into town, and came down the main street at a trot.
No farmers were out, all of them in the fields now the frost was past and spring could get on properly. A few women went up and down buying what they needed and trading talk, and that was the whole of it.
Kain rode up to the forge, swung down, and tied Roan to the post. Inside he found Garland moving about, sweeping up.
He knocked at the doorframe, and the smith looked up, surprised.
"Kain. Good to see you." The smith put out a hand, and Kain shook it. "Forge isn't lit today, sorry to say. Just cleaning and setting to rights."
Kain looked the place over. Metal shavings littered the floor, and tools and half-done work stood about everywhere he looked. "Off-season?"
"Something like." Garland nodded. "Winter, I get buried, every farmer in the valley bringing me the custom work and the odd repairs they put off all season.
I'll get a second run come midsummer, once things start breaking in the heat.
The week after planting, though, I hardly see a soul.
Truth be told, I'm surprised to see you. "
"Haven't got much ground under cultivation yet. Give me ten years and I'll have a few acres broke out." Kain shrugged. "What can I do for you? Show me the trouble."
Garland waved him along around the side of the forge, to a door that dropped into a cellar. It stood locked tight, and he worked a key off his belt and opened it.
"Enough good metal down there to buy half a kingdom.
The village young ones think it's sport to sneak in and lift something, and once or twice a year some fool thief passing through has a go at me.
" Garland swung the door wide. "There's a glow crystal at the bottom.
No flame down there, too much that'll go up. "
Kain went down. The cellar ran smaller than the Kettle's, though it was roomy enough. A crystal sat in a lantern housing by the stairs, glowing steady, and he lifted it and held it up.
The place was packed, barrels and kegs and shelves and crates of every kind. Kain ran his eye over all of it and settled on the far wall, the northern one he took it for. It stood black with seepage, layered over with old spackle where the smith had been patching it for years.
"That whole wall has to come out." Kain climbed back up. "Rotten through, I'd wager, but let me be sure." He went around to the northern side of the shop and looked at the ground, and found it dished into a shallow bowl, the same as around the Kettle. "There it is."
"You reckon you can fix it?" Garland asked.
"I reckon." Kain crouched and eyed how the ground rose. "We send the water that way, off away from the main street. Seven, eight inches of trench, deeper than the Kettle wanted. This is the worse of the two."
"What do you need from me? And what do I owe you for it?"
"Fair price for the labor and what the clay runs me, same as I'd charge any man.
I'll not pad it for the silver you've got stacked down there.
" Kain looked the cellar door over. "Folks here have cut me enough breaks since I came.
I'll charge you square and we're even. The trench is a day's work once I've got the gravel and clay.
I can dig the gravel myself and I know where the clay is.
Give me two days and I'll be back to put it in.
The wall will run longer. Anywhere you can put the goods while I'm at it? "
"Sam owes me a turn. I can stow it in one of his warehouses a week or so."
They settled the rest of it and shook on the deal. Kain swung back up onto Roan and started off toward the farm.
He came up on the Kettle and swung down and went in. Sasha stood behind the bar wiping mugs, the room empty between meals, and she gave him a nod.
"Hey, Kain. What's the word?"
"Was going to ask you the same. Any work today?"
"As it happens." Sasha made a face. "The back porch is going. Not my entrance, the public one by the woodshed. A couple of the boards have started to give, and if some well-off guest puts a foot through them and breaks something, that lands on me."
"Trouble you don't need." Kain nodded. "I'll take a look."
He went out back, where the porch stood, little more than a landing to keep folk from stepping straight down into the street. It had two steps, and when he put his weight on it the boards gave under him.
They had taken his weight fine the last time he was back here. He knelt and felt along them.
Two of the boards gave plainly, flexing when he pressed on them, and a third felt worse than those. He set his thumb to it and pushed, and his thumb sank near half an inch into the wood before he pulled it back out.
"Something you can manage?" Sasha put her head out the back door.
"Think so." Kain stood. "Crowbar, a saw, hammer, nails, and some lumber. Ought to have it done this morning, nothing too bad."
Sasha went off and came back with the tools, and Kain set the crowbar under the first bad board and began working it up.
He had the first board up before he heard footsteps, and Carol came around the back of the Kettle with a basket over one arm.
"Hey."
"Hey," Kain said.
"Baked up a few loaves and made too much. Figured I'd see if you wanted some."
Kain took the basket and looked in. A big loaf of bread, two jars of jam beside it, a wedge of cheese.
"Just made too much bread. And came looking behind the Kettle for me." Kain raised an eyebrow.
"You can't hand a man just a loaf of bread. That's plain inconsiderate." Carol shrugged as Kain set the basket aside and bent back to the boards. "And I saw Roan out front, so you were bound to be somewhere close, working at something. You always are."
"Gotcha." Kain worked the nails free and pulled the board loose, then tossed it aside. Carol watched a moment, then picked up the box of nails. "Need a hand?"
Kain didn't answer, but as he started on the next board, Carol took up the fresh lumber and began measuring it.
She pulled a nub of chalk from her pocket and marked it off, then passed it to him as he tore out the last of the old boards.
He held it up to check it true, then took the saw she handed over.
"I've worked the farm since I was a little girl," Carol said. "Love it, working with my hands. The slaughtering I can do without, but I know it has to be done. You haven't taken on any animals yet, have you?"
"Nope." Kain shook his head and slotted the next board into place.
"Fair enough. That wolf of yours would just eat them, I expect. Though if you got it guarding instead, you'd have the best-watched flock in the whole town." Carol shrugged. "How'd you tame it, anyway?"
Kain took a nail from her and set to hammering. "I didn't."
"Figures. That's what my ma always said about my pa. She never courted him, just told him the two of them were getting married, and he didn't argue it. Then again, not many men would have. I've seen her likeness. She was a looker." Carol shrugged. "There, you're about to drive that one in crooked."
Kain shifted the nail over a hair and set the hammer to it again.
"Good."
He was driving it home when Sasha came out with Matthew in her sling and a cup of coffee for each of them. Kain stopped to take his. Carol drank hers down in a few swallows, while Kain went slower, got through half, and set the rest by.
He went back to the hammer, and Carol took up the saw on the next board.
Sasha said nothing, only stood and watched the two of them work. When Carol passed the last board over to Kain, Matthew reached for her, and she lifted him out of the sling and sat him bouncing on her knee. He made a small sound, and she ruffled his hair.
Kain had the last board nailed in before long. He stepped back, and Sasha looked it over and nodded.
"Not bad at all. Thank you, Kain, same as ever. The tools can go in the storage shed."
"I'll help." Carol handed Matthew back, and Sasha took the boy and slipped inside. The two of them gathered the tools, carried them around the side, and stowed them in the shed.
"Don't forget the bread." Carol called it back over her shoulder as she set off toward the Martinson place. "And bring the basket when you next come to see my father. Baskets cost. The cloth too, if you think of it, though I'll not hold you to that one."
Kain watched her go, then took up the basket and came back around. Sasha stepped out front as he swung up onto Roan.
"Anything else you need?" Kain called down.
Sasha shook her head. "Don't think so. Off you go."
He nodded and waved and turned Roan for home, the basket hooked over his arm. His stomach growled, and he was glad of the bread and looking ahead to his lunch.