The Age Of Arma Gedeon

Chapter 4, Farsarah

Three days of kitchen work hasn't been enough to make Farsarah stop smiling, but it has been enough for Erray to start teasing her about it.

She serves him his dinner at the table and tries for a conversation that won't make her blush. "We're out of meat salt and that crack in the ice keeper is still growing."

Erray suggests, "I can go to the village tomorrow after midday. I need to test the wagon anyway. What would you say to me getting you an ice maker instead of fixing the keeper?"

Farsarah collects her plate,"The keeper makes ice in a day. I don't think we need it faster."

She sits across from him as he shrugs, "It's just less work for me now and time saver for you."

She watches him cut his pork steak, "If you like."

She lets him eat in peace as he likes.

After he's wiped his plate clean with bread and chew it all. He takes his plate to the sink and washes it with the dishes she's not got to yet.

As he dries them, he asks, "Do you mind having Night Wind in the house?"

Farsarah rushes her bite to answer, "No. I like her inside at night. She's only a problem when you put her in to go for your bath. She worries of you."

Erray watches the dog eating her dinner, by the fire, "She didn't seem to like it at the creek. I don't either sometimes anymore. More than once I was sure I was being watched."

His mother worries, "It could be a lone wolf in the area."

He fusses, "Not hunted. Watched. Like a peeper creeping in the trunks."

"You shouldn't go anymore than, Erray. I can wait outside as you bathe, same as you do for me."

He shakes his head, "I will when the weather is cold. Or I can bathe in my barn."

Farsarah loses her hungry to worry, so she takes her plate and scrapes it off onto Night Wind's. She gets a lick as thank you.

Erray takes her dishes, "Any coffee left?"

"Enough for one weak cup, until the sun is up."

He finishes up the dishes and wipes down the table and chairs.

She makes him the cup of coffee, then sits with her mending as he sets up to write at the table.

The fire, scratch of his pen and the heavy breathes of the hot dog make a soothing mood. She finishes the last sock darn, then Farsarah takes up Erray's only dress shirt and gets the buttons from its pocket.

The task of restoring them is so mindless for her, her thinking begins to chatter...

'A rocking chair would be lovely in these peaceful evenings.

'Someone to talk to would be better.

'Maybe city life would mean friends. Not likely, but a girl can dream. How fun it would be to giggle silly with my girlfriends over Lauriah's shy flirting.

'Who's he think he's kidding? I know he's been in the Hen House. Just glad he was after a hen and not a rooster.

'Even more, he's interested in this ol' goose.

'Who knows how old we are, but I've a grown son and he doesn't even know how to hold a baby.

'Who knew he was a poet? I wonder if he wrote those ones he resited on our walk? Doesn't matter, I fell for it like a school girl. Never knew a kiss could be so tender and still lustful. I wonder...'