Captain Cosette

“In the depths of winter, I learned that within me there was an invincible summer that could withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

-- Renée Chevalier,
Planet Sorine, author of
Blazing Hearts on Fire Again

Chapter One

No one helped
Cosette cut the heavy vine of ambrosia fruit.  No one helped her heft it to her shoulder, nor helped her struggle to the end of the row and settle it into the cart.

Her step-brothers, Lucas and Claude, had their own quadrant
s of the family vineyard to harvest.  No one helped them either, but they were twice her weight and half again her size.  They whistled and called to each other, but not to her.  She was the sibling by a previous father, she was small, and she was a girl.

I
don’t
care
. 
I
can
harvest
my
quadrant
the
same
as
them
.

She carefully cut the next large branch from the vine, a sloping cut one inch from the divide, just right to encourage new growth next spring.  She tucked the knife into the scabbard at her waist and heaved the vine over her shoulder, slowly so as not to bruise the dark red fruit, full of the juice so prized in the port city.

“Lucas,” called Claude from his quadrant, “I’m on my last row.  You need some help?”

Sweat from
Cosette’s forehead collected on her eyebrows, but she didn’t wipe it off.  She needed both hands to balance the load on her back.  Each step took concentration; the ground was uneven, and a fall would be disastrous.

She had eaten a
n ambrosia fruit once, cutting it in half with her knife and sucking the juice.  It was almost worth the whipping her stepfather had given her and the accusations that she was a thief and a waste.  She protested that the fruit was as much hers as anyone else in the family, but that just brought on a few extra strokes.  She never tasted the fruit again.

But that one taste had been heavenly.

Merchants at the spaceport paid well, and spaceships took crates of the ambrosia fruit to other planets, where the value increased greatly due to its rarity. 

Cosette
never saw the money, though.  Auguste, when he did take time to speak to her, said only that the money had been invested in her future, and that after the bills had all been paid, there wasn’t much left anyway. 

Lucas and Claude always wore the best of clothes and never lacked pocket money when festivals were held.  Somehow, even though
Cosette was the oldest, Auguste had trouble dredging up a few coins when she asked for them.

She gently laid the vine in the cart and
wearily walked down the row for another.

“
What do you mean, do I need help?” shouted Lucas.  “I’m done!  Finish up, you lazy carcass, and let’s go swimming!”

Swimming
!  

She would give anything to throw off her
work dress and fall into the clear water of the river that skirted the edge of their property.  Several farms lined the banks, and on special days, such as pruning, thinning, and harvest, everyone would gather above the irrigation dam at the end of the day and swim.

Gregory would be there.

Her heart warmed and her step quickened.  Gregory, the boy with the quick laughter, the sandy hair and the kind eyes, who didn’t hesitate to talk to her and even dunk her in fun.  He was a decent soul, the only decent soul she knew, though she had to admit that she didn’t know very many others.

Lucas and Claude met her as she carried back another vine
to her cart.  “Not done yet?” taunted Lucas, his dark curly hair half-hiding his eyes. 

Claude, a year younger
than Lucas but with the same dark curls and leering mouth, elbowed him in the ribs.  “She was probably sleeping again.”

Lucas elbowed him back. 
“She’ll miss swimming!  She’ll break Gregory’s heart!”

Claude clutched his chest and put the back of
his hand against his forehead.  “Cosette!  Cosette!  I will die without you!”

Cosette
kept her face grim.  Years of being taunted had built stone walls inside her.  The taunting still hurt, but the hurt never got out for anyone to see.  “You could help me with the last rows.  I would appreciate it.”

Lucas’ face lost its humor. 
“We did our quadrant, older sister, and you can do yours.  Fair’s fair.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“
How are you going to do that?  Wash our clothes?  Cook our food?  You already do that.”

Claude elbowed Lucas again. 
“Stop wasting time.  Let’s go swim!”

They ran off, elbowing each other and laughing.  The last thing
Cosette heard was Lucas mimicking her voice, “I’ll make it up to you!”

She added another
stone to the wall inside her, but a tear of frustration got out. 

She looked at the rows, and pushed back her
long blonde hair.

I
can
walk
faster
. 

After t
aking a deep pull of water from the bota on the end post, she ran back to the next vine, chose the branch with ripe fruit and cut it, after checking carefully for any of the large yellow spiders that would make her hand swell up.  She hated spiders, and her stepbrothers would sometimes drop them on her hair for spite.

Hefting
the vine on her back, she trudged quickly back to the cart.  She laid it down, careless of the fruit.  Let her get caned for the damage – if she could spend some time with Gregory, she would have memories to comfort her.

Back and forth she went,
ignoring the complaints of her legs and back.  She filled her cart, and then pulled it to the place where the merchant would park his truck, the whine of its turbine bringing everyone out to help load. 

She
grabbed another empty cart, and hurried back.

Gregory
will
be
there
,
and
he’ll
smile
and
wave
,
and
I’ll
jump
in
the
cool
water
and
swim
to
him
. 
He’ll
try
to
dunk
me
again
,
and
I’ll
dunk
him
instead
,
and
then
we’ll
swim
to
the
bank
and
chat
. 

She stumbled in her reverie and almost dropped a
branch. 

I’ll
be
bold
,
I
will
,
and
I’ll
grab
him
and
kiss
him
quickly
,
my
first
real
kiss
,
and
then
he’ll
confess
it
was
his
first
real
kiss
also
,
looking
all
shy
. 
We’ll
be
more
than
friends
after
that
,
we’ll
get
married
,
we’ll
start
our
own
farm
and
I’ll
have
children
,
sweet
children
that
I
will
teach
never
to
bully
each
other
.

And she would never have to see her stepfather
Auguste again.

She was wringing with sweat when she finished
.  Flies buzzed her, attracted to the salt on her skin, but she didn’t bother to swipe at them; she needed to get the last cart in place for the merchant.

Done, and the sun was still up.
  The rest of the branches wouldn’t be ripe for another week.

She
threw the harvest knife into the shed and ran towards the dam.

T
rees softened the heat of fall as she left her property, and she slowed down and lifted off her work dress.  Her underclothes, everyone’s underclothes, were thick and served for swimming; only city people had bathing suits.  Still, she was a lady, and she didn’t like removing her work dress in front of others.

Her mother and father had cleared the land and planted the
ambrosia vines.  She was the only child her mother had; the sickness came and carried away her father, and when her mother married Auguste, her mother found that she could bear no more children.  Auguste had Lucas and Claude from a previous marriage. 

Her mother cared
well for them, but she weakened and died when Cosette was twelve.  After that, Auguste and his two boys acted as though they owned the property and Cosette remembered no happy times from then on.

Still, legally, she would be the one to inherit the land because she was the oldest child
.  Eighteen times had the planet Sorine orbited its sun since she was born, making her seventeen standard Earth years.  Lucas was sixteen Earth years, and Claude a year younger.  It didn’t matter that Cosette was a female; the planetary council had insisted that there be no difference between the legal rights of men and women on Sorine.

But she would happily leave the farm to
Auguste and begin a new farm with Gregory.  She wouldn’t mind working hard, as long as there was love in her life, something to give it meaning.

Laughter echoed through the woods.
  People were still swimming. 

I’m
not
too
late
! 
Gregory
should
still
be
here
!

She
paused where the narrow path left the woods, hung her work dress on a dead branch, and studied the swimmers in the water.  The irrigation dam was an earthen dam but substantial, holding back enough water to swim in and to jump in from a rope swing.  The swimmers were playing catch with an old leather ball, but Gregory wasn’t there, just Lucas and Claude and several other young men and women.  Four girls were eating and resting on the near side of the dam, their hair wet and stringy.

Maybe
Gregory
has
already
gone
.

Disappointment
twisted inside of her, but across the water she saw movement.  Gregory and a girl were sitting under a tree on the far side, hidden from the swimmers by a bush. 

Cosette
almost called out to him, but then she saw that the girl and Gregory were leaning towards each other, talking.  The girl put her hands on the sides of his face, pulled him close, and kissed him right on the mouth.

Cosette
froze and her heart died.

The pair separated
; the girl laughed and poked at Gregory’s chest.  He pulled the girl close and kissed her again.

Lucas waved at her from the water and yelled,
“Cosette!  Come on in!  Gregory’s here!”

Claude stood on the bank
, clutched his chest and once more cried “Cosette!  Cosette!  I will die without you!”  With great drama, he fell backwards into the water.

Gregory looked up from the girl and
saw Cosette.  He smiled and waved. 

He
thinks
there’s
nothing
wrong
. 
He
knows
I
saw
him
kissing
another
girl
and
he
doesn’t
mind
.

He’s
nice
to
everybody
. 
Anybody
. 
Even
me
.