1 September 1023, Bois-de-Bas, Armorica
Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter. Cathy’s First Letter.
Amelia,
I have been in Bois-de-Bas for two weeks, and in many ways I feel I am still crossing the Abyss. On the Amelie I had nothing to do but write pointless letters and stare out the window; and everything here in the Grier’s spare room is much the same: I am cast on my own resources and finding them wanting.
It is odd to be so idle after so many years of keeping my house for Brother John. I’ve offered to help Mrs. Grier, but she will have none of it. “You’re Mr. Tuppenny’s guest, dear,” she tells me. And in truth there is little enough to do. The Grier’s home is small and neat, so unlike the rattling old Attic in Nexing Cross. And as Captain Grier prefers everything to be ship-shape—so unlike my dear brother—few messes get made to begin with.
That will change soon enough, for Mrs. Grier is newly with child, and radiant with it; but I should be out of this house long before the child comes.
It seems that your cousin is as discreet as he says. I would expect his wife Amelie to shun me if she knew my history, but I have received several visits from her, and there is nothing in her manner that reveals any kind of disapprobation or disgust; rather, she simply seems delighted to meet one of your friends.
She came to see me several days ago, driving a floating cart.
“Ton frère will need a house, n’est-ce pas?” Amelie called to me, patting the seat beside her. “Let us go look.”
I studied the beast that pulled the cart as I approached, for it was like nothing I had ever seen. Its horns were covered by leather sheaths, as though they were knives, and it wore a sort of stiff leather garment, strapped tightly in place and with two stout handles attached, one on each flank.
The beast studied me in turn, staring at me with large liquid eyes, and uttered a high-pitched bleating sort of shriek. I’m afraid I jumped.
Amelie laughed. “Do not be afraid of Patches,” she said. “She is very fond of people. If she comes you, take hold of a poignée and a horn and you will come to no harm.”
I do not speak Provençese, which I can see I shall have to remedy, but her meaning was clear enough; I resolved to take the beast by a handle and a horn post-haste should it ever seem prudent to do so.
I climbed into the cart and took my seat. “What kind of beast is she?”
“Une chèvre, a goat, you would say. Her horns and hair are très abrasif, so she wears le manteau, the coat. Mon cher, he tended the goats when he first came here, and Patches would not be parted from him.”
Snapping the reins, she drove us past the entrance to Tuppenny Wagons and on around it toward the rest of the town. Soon she came to a patch of open land, gently sloping, from which I could see Tuppenny Wagons on one side and the church steeple and the roofs around it on the other.
“C’est ici! Will this do, pensez-vous?“
I looked at her in surprise. “I thought we were looking at houses?” I said, and she laughed again.
“Bois-de-Bas, she is growing,” she said. “Before the house, one must have the land, nest-ce pas? This is not far from the wagonworks, and not far from the square. Ce sera très pratique.“
“But what about the house? My brother should be here with our things in no more than a month or two.”
“A house can be raised like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. “Your brother is a craftsman, oui? We know well what a craftsman needs: room to work, and the storage for his tools and materials. It will not be, you would say, fancy—but Bois-de-Bas has no time for the fancy.”
I thought about the clutter in the old ballroom at the Attic, remnants of John’s past experiments. “Neither does my brother,” I said, sighing. It was a grand house, once, the Attic.
“All shall be bon, tres bon,” said Amelie with deep satisfaction. “You will see.”
I was still bemused when Captain Grier returned home for the evening meal; he laughed when I had explained.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “The folk here in Bois-de-Bas are just like that. Problems are to be solved, quickly but thoroughly, and in the simplest possible way. But have no concern! They solve today’s problem, but also prepare for tomorrow’s, as I have learned. Should your brother’s house need to be enlarged there will be no difficulty in doing so.”
And then he told me a tale about how your cousin needed a work room for his forming, shortly after he married Amelie. He had hardly uttered the desire before their home had a new store front beside their shop, with a counter and a place for customers, and a suitable work room behind.
“Practical folk, Armoricans, by and large,” he said. “I can’t promise you that everything would be the same in Mont-Havre; peacocks and wastrels always congregate in the city. But when your brother arrives, he’ll find a house waiting for him.”
“But what about the cost? I have no funds with me,” I cried, for I was in some distress.
“All shall be well,” he said. “Are you not coming to live here? Mr. Tuppenny has spoken for you, and your new neighbors know that the house will be paid for sooner or later, whether in coin or in kind. As for the land, we have no great landowners in Armorica; the land is there, and unused, and will do for you as well as anyone else. Better, in fact, for that plot is unsuitable for either logging or farming.”
“It is like a dream,” I said. “I am dreaming, and I fear I shall wake up.”
Mrs. Grier nodded. “Yes, it was just like that for me, too, when I came here. You get used to it.” And she and the Captain exchanged hearty smiles.
And yet, is it a dream or a nightmare? John will have a place to live and to work; but though I long for some sort of rational employment to fill my days, I am not sure that I want to pick up where I left off, picking up for John, no matter how practical the new house will be.
Cathy
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Zymurgia House 