The Chosen (15 page)

David looked at Kathryn, but she remained motionless—neither encouraging nor discouraging the proposal. He turned back to Natalie. “Okay, what have you got in mind?

“Well your name isn’t hard, we would probably just call you Dave, you know shorten it. Kathryn I was thinking Kate or Kathy.”

Kathryn didn’t even blink at the suggestions, but Natalie didn’t seem to notice as she continued. “Amy could be Mia—

Amy choked on her water, coughing hard, adding to Tyler’s sputtering, but Natalie took no notice. “Tyler can be Ty, Rachel could become Rae, Cassandra we could call you Cassie, or Cass depending on which you prefer.”

She looked around the table, “Elizabeth we could call you Beth or Lizzy, Daniel would just be Dan,” she looked at him then shrugged. “Leia could be Lei.  Jenna we could change to Jen, or Nan if we wanted to.”

Here Jenna interrupted her. “Jen is just fine.” she said quickly.

Natalie looked surprised at being interrupted but took it in stride. “Well at least we’ve got one settled.  Lindsey could be Lin, and I could be Nat.”

“What about Matt or Luke?” David asked her.

Natalie shrugged. “I couldn’t come up with anything.”

Luke jumped in quickly. “That’s quite alright, you can leave my name just the way it is.”

“Mine too,” Matt agreed.

“You guys are no fun what-so-ever,” Natalie pouted, slumping back against the chair’s backrest, arms crossed over her chest. She certainly had the petulant spoiled noble girl charade down. Too bad he suspected it wasn’t an act.

David turned to Kathryn. “What do you think?”

She sighed. “I guess so. There’s just one problem. The nicknames Natalie suggested aren’t much different than our given names. It wouldn’t be that hard to put two and two together.”

Across the table, Natalie’s excited smile turned into a scowl, a scowl aimed directly at the younger woman. However, before she could say anything, Tyler surprised everyone by jumping into the conversation.

“You have a good point, Kathryn, however we also need to consider the chance that a nobleman, or woman, is going to be traipsing around in a country village or wild forest, or a villager attending a court tourney. Add to the fact that while at court we’ll be assuming our court names, and not our day to day ones, we’ll already have added protection against our identities being discovered.” He grimaced. “I don’t see why Natalie’s nicknames couldn’t work.”

Upon hearing this Natalie practically jumped out of her seat, barely able to contain her enthusiasm. “You guys are great!”

“I just hope we don’t live to regret it,” Amy grumbled, muttering under her breath,
“
Mi
a
?”

The meeting done, the group got up to disperse when David remembered something. “Wait a second, everyone.”

They paused and waited for him to continue.

“Lord Jasse suggested that when we go to town we go in groups of mainly girls and one or two guys.”

Tyler snorted, “What for?”

“Safety and protection for one, you never know what drunk is looking for a good time.”

“Point taken,” Natalie said quickly. “If we want to go into town, grab a couple more girls and drag one of you guys along.” That said she picked up her skirts and herded the other girls out the door saying something about linens.

The boys watched them go. “I think we’re in trouble,” Daniel observed.

Cassandra raced back into the room. “Daniel, Tyler, are either of you good at woodworking?”

The two boys looked at each other. “Sort of,” they replied in unison.

Cass beamed. “Oh good! The kitchen counters desperately need to be refinished. Do you guys think you could do that for me?”

Tyler looked at Daniel who shrugged. “We can try.”

Cass’s smile widened. “Thanks, guys.”

She was about to say something else when Natalie’s voice echoed through the house. “Cass? Cass where are you?”

Cass turned on her heel and fled back the way she had come.

“Actually, I think it’s the house that’s in trouble.” Tyler corrected.

“Come on guys,” David laughed. “We have chores to do.”

Inside the sitting room Natalie had the girls’ complete attention. “Since we’ll be living here for the rest of our lives,” she was saying, “There’s no reason we can’t make it look nice.” She waved her hand around the room and began to give a running commentary on the depressing color scheme and tacky furniture.

Kathryn was only half listening, her eyes roaming the walls, taking in a detail that she hadn't noticed earlier. The walls of the sitting room were covered from floor to ceiling with small box-like shelving units filled with scrolls. Kathryn was willing to bet that the scrolls contained histories and reports of the lives of the Guardians who had lived here before them. There were some empty shelving units that Kathryn suspected were for the Dragon's to fill with their own reports. With a jolt she realized her mind was wandering and, chastising herself, forced her attention back to the issues at hand.

“It already is nice.” Cassandra protested.

“Yes it is,” Natalie agreed. “But why can’t we make it nicer?”

“She means with pictures and stuff,” Lindsey explained.

“What kind of pictures?” Elizabeth asked.

Natalie shrugged. “Nothing too fancy, probably just paintings or drawings we’ve done.”

Lindsey squealed with delight. “Oh I love painting!” she gushed, then turned to each, “I’ve absolutely got to do a portrait of each of you.” Her enthusiasm faltered a little when it encountered Kathryn’s stony face, but when she imagined what the older girl would look like with a smile on her face her excitement jumped a few more notches.

“What else do you have in mind?” Rachel asked.

Natalie grinned. “I thought it would be nice to make quilts for our beds, you know, to kind of give it a more homey feel.”

Jen smiled. “I like that idea. Quilting is something I enjoy.”

“Where would we get fabric?” Leia asked.

Natalie gave her a sly grin. “You don’t think all those bags I lugged here are full of clothes do you?”

The girls looked at each other. “Well, yes, we did,” Rachel admitted.

“Nope,” Natalie laughed. “More than half of them were full with fabric.”

“Fabric?” Amy asked doubtfully. “You mean out of the twenty bags you lugged here, at least ten are just filled with bolts of fabric?”

“Yes!” Natalie cried triumphantly.

Amy looked at her for a moment. “Well if you give me some fabric, I can make curtains if you like,” she offered slowly.

“That would be wonderful,” Natalie gushed. She looked around. “Amy’s going to do our curtains, Lindsey can paint for us, but Jenna’s going to need help working on the quilts who wants to help her?”

“I can,” Leia volunteered. She turned to Jenna. “Just keep in mind I’m not very good at it.”

Jen smiled. “That’s okay. We don’t need anything fancy.”

Natalie was grinning broadly now. “Anyone else want to help?”

“I guess I can try,” Rachel said slowly. “Although I’m going to need a lot of help.”

Elizabeth piped up. “I can spin wool and other materials.”

“That’s brilliant,” Natalie exclaimed, “I wasn’t sure if anyone other than myself could spin but having another spinner is going to be great. Can anyone weave?”

Kathryn had been sitting quietly through the whole exchange, watching in surprise as the girls pooled their talents to make this building a home for everyone, unable to offer her talents because she could neither, sew, nor quilt, nor spin. However now she could offer something. “I can weave,” she interjected quietly. And then immediately wanted to kick herself for getting involved.

Natalie appeared stunned, but as usual quickly recovered. “That’s great. Have you seen the loom yet?”

Kathryn shook her head. All she’d seen of the house was her bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, and now the sitting room.

Shrugging Natalie turned to the next item. “Can anyone here sew dresses or other clothing items?”

Since most of the girls were from noble families they could adequately handle a needle and thread, only Kathryn and Leia admitted to having absolutely no skill with a needle.

“I can mend, but that’s about it,” Leia confessed. Kathryn nodded, silently admitting that her own skill could barely manage even that. Jasmine had tried to teach her needlecrafts, but she had not been interested in spending the day gossiping over thread and fabric whilst stabbing one’s fingers with a blasted needle.

Suddenly Lindsey started giggling.  She was standing in front of a large bay window with her hand covering her mouth laughing to the point where tears were beginning to form. 

Elizabeth stood up and hurried over beside her. “What’s so funny? she asked.

“Its… its Daniel” she gasped between giggles. “He’s being chased by the pribbles,” her voice rising and cracking at the word pribbles.

All of the girls rushed to the window to view the spectacle.  On the far side of the pribble pen, Matt was standing with one foot on the outer bottom rung and the other resting on the middle stave.  Both of his arms were draped over the top rung as he deftly worked a long piece of straw protruding out of the corner of his mouth while cheering the activities in front of him.  It was hard to determine if he was cheering for the pribbles or Daniel.  Daniel was running as fast as he legs could take him to escape an apparent pribble riot.  He was followed closely by three angry pribbles.  The first had its head and neck protruding straight out targeting his backside as though it was in the throws of a jousting match.  The other two were running erect, wings flapping, tail feathers fully flared, honking and bellowing in the manner that was unique to the strange birds. The remaining troop followed less enthusiastically behind, but still contributing to the noisy uproar.

By this time Daniel was running flat out.  Building up speed he timed his strides so that he just cleared the fence as he hurdled over the top railing.  Unfortunately, the toe of his trailing leg caught causing him to tumble and land flat on his back in the sheep pen. Before he could gather his dignity he had to quickly roll away to avoid being pecked by several birds that had poked their heads through the fencing.  In a strange and almost mesmerizing dance, all of the birds stomped their feet in unison, creating a large dust cloud while bellowing and hissing in perfect rhythm.  Two curious sheep sauntered over and sniffed Daniel’s face as he pulled in deep breaths while curled around a rather large mound of dung.  Meanwhile Matt, had entered the pen, pushed his way through the gang of birds, and was peering down at him with a big grin on his face.  To add insult to injury, one of the pribbles rubbed his head against Matt’s neck, rested it on his shoulder and gazed back lovingly into his eyes.  Matt said something to Daniel, but the girls couldn’t make out what he said.

“Looks like he’s getting his exercise in for the day,” Cass snickered.  All of the girls laughed except for Lindsey.

“Do you think he’s all right, is he hurt?”

“He’s ok,” Jenna replied.  “Look, he’s getting up”

“He’s definitely ok, but his manhood may have suffered a mortal wound.” Amy’s eyes sparkled as she said it to no one in particular.  This time everyone laughed.

After a few moments, the girls returned to their seats and continued to discuss their planned activities for nearly a half a radian.

Finally Natalie seemed content that enough projects had been taken on and asked, “Is there anything anyone else would like to add?”

Kathryn spoke up as she stood. “Before you make monumental changes or completely cover the walls and beds with projects, you might want to let the boys know so they have at least some say in this,” she advised, then seeing that Natalie wanted to protest added, “It’s their home too.”

The girls watched as she turned and left the room. Once she was gone Natalie huffed, “What’s her problem?”

Amy shot her a look. “Kathryn has plenty of her own problems to deal with, you just make sure you don’t add to them,” she said fiercely.

Natalie stuck out her lip. “Just because she’s second in command doesn’t mean she has to be so bossy,” she complained.

Elizabeth spoke up. “She wasn’t trying to be bossy, Nat,” she replied gently. “She listened to your ideas and offered her weaving skills. Her advice to you was sound. The boys live here too.”

“Whatever,” Natalie huffed. “I’m just glad I’m not on any of her shifts.”

Kathryn escaped from the house as soon as she could. Destiny flew after her, ecstatic to be free of the confines of the building. Never in her life had Kathryn revealed to anyone her fear of close quarters, especially close quarters involving other people.

She slipped into the forest and made her way through the underbrush. As she walked she wasn’t sure where she was headed but of one thing she was sure, it was better than being back at the house. It was taking all of her self-control to try and be civil to Natalie and Lindsey. Lindsey was sweet enough but far too impressionable. She followed Natalie around like a lost puppy, hanging on her every word. Kathryn had sworn to herself that she would never, ever put herself into such a state of dependency. Dependency makes you vulnerable and being vulnerable can make you an easy victim. She’d been victimized enough in this lifetime already.