“All right, all right.” I stopped moving my restless fingers. “Goddess help us if the lord thinks we invited everyone but the old woman who would rather spit at people than talk to them.” Hope you like being wet on your Returning day. “Anyway, it makes sense. Why not send one old loveless crone to fetch the other?”
“Noll.” Mother shook a bowl over the sink, spreading water droplets, and Elfriede jumped back to get out of the fray. Elfriede held an arm out to examine her dress, and her nose wrinkled. Mother didn’t seem to notice. “I know your man will find you soon. It’s just this feeling I have.”
“I hope you’re wrong.” I sighed and stretched one arm above my head as far as it would go. The tight stitches in the shoulders of the dress made the movement uncomfortable. A seam ripped. Great. I plopped both hands on the table and dropped back into the chair. “Because if a man does ever find the goddess in me, I’m kicking him straight into the commune.”
“How horrible!” came Elfriede’s squeak from behind the delicate hand that covered her peach lips.
“Noll!” The bowl in Mother’s hand dropped to the floor, clattering and echoing as it rocked back and forth. Luckily, it was made of wood. Another gift from Father, but this one for the wedding that occurred right after the Returning. At least Elfriede’s and Jurij’s wedding couldn’t yet be held. It was Elfriede’s seventeenth birthday, so she could perform a Returning, but Jurij was still only fifteen.
I sighed. “I’m not serious, Mother.”
“I should hope so!” A look of rage spread across Elfriede’s delicate features.
“Why?” I asked. “Because you never thought of doing the same to Jurij?”
“Oh!” Elfriede’s hands clasped over her ears, her lips trembling. Tears started forming across her eyes.
Mother bent over to snatch the bowl off the ground. “Noll, hush now! Your father would be heartbroken to hear you talk like that!”
Speak of the man. A silhouette appeared in the open door, and Father stepped inside, closing the small gap between him and Mother with two huge strides and picking her up by the waist, wooden bowl and cloth and all. “What a beautiful day it is, my love!” said Father, oblivious to the tension in the room and the tears forming in his eldest daughter’s eyes. He held Mother above him for a moment longer, craning his neck upwards to steal a kiss. “Aubree … ” He practically moaned her name.
Mother smiled and flung the cloth down at him. “Gideon, stop that. You’re not young anymore. You’ll throw your back out.”
Father gently put Mother’s feet back on the ground, but his hands remained firmly planted on her waist, his eyes locked intensely with hers. Mother was the first to look away. She searched Elfriede’s face, but my sister bit her lip, unrelenting, not letting a single tear fall. “Elfriede, why don’t you go visit Roslyn and Marden before the ceremony? You should be with your friends before the big day.”
That’s another thing I wouldn’t be able to do even if I’d wanted.
Mother turned back to her sink full of dishes, sliding with difficulty even as Father still clung to her.
“What are you doing?” Father released Mother, only to scoop the bowl and cloth into his own hands. He scrubbed the bowl with fervor. “You should have the girls do that!”
I didn’t think scrubbing dishes on your Returning day was a tradition, so that left me. I sighed and stood, but Mother waved me away. “The girls have other things to do today.” She grabbed Father’s hand in hers. “Honey, you’re filthy. You were out there carving. Wash up first. Then you can do the dishes.”
Father did as commanded, and Elfriede sent me a dejected look before stepping outside. “Bye, Mother. Bye, Father!” She left me out of her farewells.
“See you soon, dear!” called Mother. She faced me, her hands on her hips, her mouth poised to issue an order.
Watching Father wash up gave me an idea for how to deflect the next thing out of her mouth. “How come Father still obeys your orders?”
Father blushed and went back to pouring water over his hands in the sink and rubbing them together. “I don’t.” Right.
Mother raised a finger and walked over to the cupboard, removing a picnic basket. She rummaged through one of the clay pots and pulled out a roll. I heard it clink as she tossed it into the basket. She looked around at the counter next to the sink and plucked a wedge of cheese from a bowl. Someone—or maybe the mice—had started biting into it. Mother covered the top of the basket with a black cloth and dropped it on the table in front of me. “Why don’t you bring these to Ingrith, and see if she wants to attend? We’ll meet you at the Great Hall at dusk.” She took my head and bent it gently forward to kiss the top. Good thing she hadn’t smeared bacon grease into it.