“Secrets,” she stormed to herself. What did she have that she could hold out to these men as secrets?
IT TOOK FOUR DAYS for them to arrive at the Holyland. Rel went on ahead to inform Elder Brome that they were coming. When they arrived, the full complement of wives, children, and sons was arrayed on the porches of the wife-houses or Father-house.
Carefully and bit by bit over the four days, Stavia had changed her garb. When they arrived she was clad in her felted coat, with the hood drawn over her head. Under the hood, a wide sash was wrapped around her hair. Under the coat were her thickest trousers and shirt, covered by a long, quilted tunic. She had made no effort to keep her face clean. She was as unattractive as it was possible to appear, under the circumstances.
Cappy told his story. Just as Stavia had changed her appearance for her own benefit, so had he changed the history of the brothers’ expedition for their benefit. There was nothing in it of their desires for a woman, nothing in it of their original intention of keeping the woman hidden. Now it was all about duty to the family. They had gone out looking for sheep. They had happened upon the woman. Then it had seemed a good idea to get the woman for the family, to learn the secrets the woman had. There was a problem they hadn’t counted on. The woman had a man with her, and he claimed to be her husband. He claimed the woman was carrying his child. He had cut out a magic thing the woman had in her.
Elder Resolution Brome held out his hand and Capable put the tiny implant in it.
“What is this?” Resolution demanded of Chernon.
“He doesn’t know,” said Stavia before Chernon could speak. “It isn’t even magic.” This was a calculated risk. She expected to be hit, and was, but it was a not ungentle cuff from Doots.
Chernon had been ready to speak, but now he subsided angrily. She had already cast doubt on what he intended to say.
“What is it, then?” Resolution demanded of her.
“It’s a kind of medicine to keep me from dropping babies before their time,” she said. “Now he’s cut it out, I’ll probably lose this one.” She patted her stomach. It suited her to pretend pregnancy. She dropped her eyes, pretending modesty as well.
“How come he didn’t know?” Retribution demanded. When Rel had arrived with the story, Retribution had been filled with a sudden and irrational hope. Maybe the foreign woman could be his! That hope now died squirming. “How come?”
“It’s a woman’s thing,” she said, eyes down. “We don’t bother the men with women’s things.”
“He says you’ve got secrets!”
“Just women’s things,” she said again. “About healing and childbirth. Things like that. Nothing men want to know about.” She risked an upward glance, intercepting a hot and angry look shared by most of the older males in this family. The father, his older sons. There seemed to be eight of them, counting the three who had captured them. And only one adolescent girl! She read it all in that, inferred it all. They had learned about it in history class. Female infanticide or female sacrifice, one or both. But not polyandry, which could have solved the situation. She risked another glance, meeting the eyes of the worn, middle-aged woman who stood beside the girl. The girl’s mother. Holding a baby. Perhaps not middle aged then. Perhaps younger.
“What’ve you got on that donkey?” Again this was addressed to Chernon, but Stavia answered for him.
“Herbs for healing,” she told him. “That’s what I was doing. Collecting herbs for healing.”
“I’ll think on this,” declaimed Resolution. “I’ll think and I’ll pray. Meantime, take the woman into your house, Susannah.”
“Papa,” cried Doots. “She’ll run off.”
“Not with you watchin’ the house,” the old man said. “You or some of the others. And you take this man down to the bachelor house and keep him there. I’ll want some time to think this out.” He looked at the implant lying in the palm of his horny hand, eyebrows drawn together to make a deep, vertical furrow. “Think it out.”
Stavia turned and went up the two splintery steps to where the woman and girl were standing. Another girl, younger, was hiding behind the open door. “Susannah,” Stavia said quietly. “My name is Stavia.”
“This here’s Chastity,” Susannah murmured. “Inside’s Faith. She’s eight.”
“What’s the baby’s name?”
“Babies don’t have names,” whispered Chastity. “That’d be right wasteful.”
OUTSIDE THE WIFE-HOUSE, Doots and Retribution watched until midnight, at which point Vengeance and Diligence took over. Stavia made one trip to the privy under their voracious gaze. She decided to use something for a chamber pot if she had to go again, rather than submit to these stares.
The supplies from the donkey were stacked on Susannah’s porch, including the emergency medical kit that Stavia always carried. She laid out its contents for Susannah’s scrutiny. “You’re the healer, here?” she asked, already sure of the answer from things the boys had said.
“I’m what they’ve got,” the woman agreed. “All I know’s what my mama taught me, and all she knew was what her mama told her.”
“I’ll leave this kit with you when I go,” said Stavia.
“You’re not goin’ nowhere,” Susannah said. “It’ll take that old man some time to figure out, but he’ll figure a way. Either he’ll get you hisself or he’ll give you to one of the boys. Retribution, most likely.”
“I’ve already got a husband,” Stavia claimed, not liking the sound of the word.
“Maybe. You have a live baby, maybe Papa’ll let you be. If that man’s still alive, maybe.”
“Still alive?”
“Likely they’ll kill him. Maybe not, but likely.”
“And you don’t think they’ll let me go.”
“Not likely. If I was you, I wouldn’t try. Better to have two
