Chapter 3 #3
Margaret was muttering under her breath, alternating between quoting the Word and cursing all those with magic. Jenyfer ignored her as best she could, but the old woman’s words wormed their way inside and began to quickly eat away at her.
‘Shut up, Margaret,’ she snapped, dropping the washcloth into the basin.
‘—heathen and sinner. What he ever saw in you, I don’t understand.
He was a good man, Bryn, and you ran off with some pirate like a common whore.
’ Margaret stopped, eyeing Jenyfer with open distaste.
There was something sly in the woman’s smile, something that made Jenyfer believe Margaret was not as mad as she made out, and suddenly Jenyfer’s blood was boiling and her song was clamouring to get out. The water in the basin began to swirl.
Margaret opened her horrible mouth again, but a stream of water rose from the basin balanced on Jenyfer’s knees.
Margaret gasped, shrinking away as the water shifted towards her, snake-like and tingling with magic.
Margaret’s skin had turned ashen. With the water hovering between them, Jenyfer leant as close to Margaret as she could stomach.
‘You listen to me,’ she said. ‘You will wash, you will eat and you will sleep, as Denny said. You will stop causing your son any more grief. You don’t deserve him.
If Denny had any sense he’d leave you here, but he doesn’t have the guts to do that because you’ve made sure he doesn’t know how to stand up for himself. ’
Margaret blinked at her.
‘I could make him,’ Jenyfer went on. ‘It would be easy, Margaret, to sing him away from here. I could make him forget you ever existed. That’s why you fear me and people like me, isn’t it?
Because you can’t control us. That’s why the Chif feared us and why he taught you all to do the same.
’ She paused and sat back. ‘And look where that has gotten you.’
Margaret didn’t move or say anything for a long time. Jenyfer closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples, her snake of water splashing back into the basin.
‘I’m dying,’ Margaret said eventually.
Jenyfer opened her eyes. ‘You’re not dying. You need—’
‘Before she left, your aunt came to see me. I hadn’t asked her to, but she’d been in my shop and when she appeared on my doorstep, she told me I needed to let her in and I needed to listen,’ Margaret said.
‘Denny wasn’t here, thankfully. Tamora told me I was sick, and I laughed and told her to get out.
She wouldn’t. She asked about my appetite, my sleep, whether my bowel movements were regular… ’
Margaret sighed. ‘Then she left me some herbs and told me to stop taking the Konsel’s medicines. She told me to get my affairs in order because it was likely I would have less than a year before this sickness took me.’
Jenyfer swallowed. ‘And did you do as she said?’
Margaret shook her head. ‘What would it matter?’
‘She would have been trying to make you comfortable, Margaret,’ Jenyfer said quietly. ‘Did she tell you what it was?’
‘She didn’t have a word for it, but she said it was like a poison in my body that would consume me from the inside out.’ Margaret laughed, dark and bitter. ‘Fitting, isn’t it?’
‘No,’ Jenyfer said. ‘No one deserves to die horribly.’
Margaret sat up slowly, not letting Jenyfer help her. ‘Leave the basin. I’ll wash. And I’ll take the damn herbs and drink the tea. Don’t tell my son,’ she warned. ‘Don’t tell him I’m dying.’
Jenyfer opened her mouth to argue, but the old woman glared at her.
‘Everyone believes Denny’s father died at sea, taken by your lot,’ she added.
‘The ocean did take him, but he wasn’t out fishing.
He left us when Denny was small. To this day, I don’t know if the man is dead or alive.
I never wanted to marry him. I hardly knew him, but I was with child so what other option was there? ’
‘I thought things used to be different,’ Jenyfer began.
Margaret laughed again. ‘Different? No, not for us. Not for women. Our options have always been limited, Jenyfer. The coming of the One God amplified that. I could have left here, gone somewhere new when I was younger, but I was afraid. The only reason I was able to keep my shop and livelihood was Denny. Without a man around, even if that man was a boy-child, the Konsel would have taken it from me, and I’d have had nothing at all.
So yes, I kept him close for my own reasons but also for his protection. ’
She shifted her gaze from the basin to Jenyfer’s face. ‘Bryn was a good man, once.’
Jenyfer swallowed. ‘He didn’t stay a good man.’
‘They never do.’ Margaret reached for the basin. Jenyfer set it on the bed next to the old woman and left the cottage without another word. Denny was waiting outside.
‘She’s washing,’ Jenyfer said. ‘Give her a moment. She will take the herbs and the tea. She will eat – broth only to start with. You’ll have to make her some. Chicken would be best. I’m sure you’ll be able to find one without an owner anymore.’
Denny’s eyes were wide. ‘What did you say to her?’
Jenyfer smiled sadly. ‘I think your mother and I finally understand one another, Denny.’
He stared at her, then, ‘How do I make broth?’