Repentance found it harsh that Providence would take Generosity's button mate two months before the ceremony. If He'd waited until after the ceremony to take the young man, Generosity could have lived out her life with her family and cheated the overlords out of slave children. It would have been the perfect life. Sometimes Providence made no sense.
But Generosity seemed not to mind. Her warm, brown eyes were quick to smile and she seemed genuinely happy to be taking care of Repentance.
"I'll braid your hair for you when you go to the Moonlight Festival next month." She steered Repentance into a chair by a sunny window. "But for dinners here, you'll wear it long and loose."
"Moonlight Festival?"
"You didn't keep the festivals to Providence in your village?" Generosity asked as she began to brush her long, wet hair.
None that had to do with moonlight, anyway. Or sunlight, for that matter. But she didn't feel like explaining about the fog generated by the hot springs and how she'd grown up without heavenly lights. "Not the Moonlight Festival, no," she said.
"We have the Moonlight Festival to thank Providence for the gift of mooncloth."
"That's why we never had the Moonlight Festival. We never use mooncloth in Hot Springs."
Generosity took a small snatch of cloth from the wide front pocket of her work tunic and looked at it fondly. "This is made from mooncloth my mother wove. It's all I have to remember her by." She sniffed and held it out to Repentance. "I'll wager you've never seen finer."
Repentance had never seen any, let alone any finer. She rubbed the satiny material between her fingers.
As Generosity stashed the cloth back in her pocket, Repentance thought she saw a flash of light. "Let me see that again."
Generosity complied.
"That was strange. I thought I saw a blue light as you stuck it into your pocket."
"It's mooncloth. It shines in the dark."
Repentance frowned. She was so ignorant. When she'd offered herself up to the slave cart in hopes of cheating the overlords out of her babies, she'd never dreamed there would be so many oddities filling the wide world on the other side of the river. Cloth that lit up in the dark. Houses made of ice that were never cold. Horseless carriages with no wheels. She blew out a breath and looked out the window at the cloudless sky. "Windows made of thin plates of ice that never melt in the sun."
"What's that you say?" Generosity asked.
"Nothing. I was thinking out loud." She reached up to feel her hair. Almost dry. "So are there more festivals I should know about? Sunlight festivals, perhaps?"
Generosity looked at her as if she were a two-headed toad. "You jest."
Repentance gave a tight-lipped smile. She was not anxious to look stupid in the eyes of a maid. Especially not in the eyes of one as talkative as this one. "I don't know how you celebrate up here on the mountain. Tell me about the festivals."
"Oh, I see. You wish to test me. My knowledge? Or my devotion? You need not worry, my Lady. I'm not like so many today that claim devotion to Providence but never serve Him. I know all the festivals, and I attend them."
Repentance sucked in her breath when Generosity called her "my Lady" but she controlled her face. "I'm sure you're devoted. I truly want to know if the people here celebrate the same festivals we did in my village."
Generosity set the brush on the small table next to her and began ticking the festivals off on her fingers. "In winter we have the Snowfrost Festival to thank Providence for the snowcloth woven in Velvet Valley. In spring is the Lavaheat Festival. For the lavacloth, you know. From Smokey Peak." She paused, glancing at Repentance.
Repentance nodded as if she were well aware of Smokey Peak and knew exactly how to locate it on a map.
"In summer there is the Sunlight Festival for the suncloth." She waved a hand at the cloths that hung on the walls. The ones farthest from the window, in the shadows by the bathing room, glowed with yellow light and emitted a soft buzzing noise.
For the love of Providence! What was going on with all these cloths? And why was it that every slave village but hers seemed to weave some kind of special material?
"Fall is the time for the Moonlight Festival, as I've already said, and a few weeks later there is the Dragonbreath Festival."
"Of course. For the dragoncloth," Repentance said confidently.
Generosity frowned. Then she laughed. "Oh, you're having a joke on me. You looked so serious, you had me fooled for a moment. Dragoncloth indeed."
Repentance felt a headache coming on. She would never learn it all. She forced a chuckle. "I'm pleased that I've been given a maid with a good sense of humor. If you'll leave me, now, I'll go to bed. I'm tired from my travel."
"What will I tell His Highness? He's having an early dinner. You're expected."
Sighing, Repentance stood. "Then I'd best go, hadn't I? What shall I wear?" Preferably something the prince wouldn't like. She shivered.
Generosity helped her into one of the thin lowland gowns she'd brought from the healing house then led her through a maze of hallways, as she gushed forth on whatever topic caught her fancy. She stopped at the door of the dining room, ending with her thoughts on having Repentance in the palace. How nice it would be to have another young woman to talk to, Generosity said, and how boring life had been, what with all the
