Aelfeva sat still in her chair, loving the feel of Josceran’s hands. He’d asked Teoda to show him how to braid her hair for her, since its length still intimidated her; she wasn’t sure this was much motivation for her to learn, although she knew she’d have to eventually. Not today, though. It was so early that the sky was barely growing paler, and they had the sun-crystals uncovered.

“Everything’s packed,” she said. “We took care of that last night, except for clothes for today. We have the small packs to take with us, and the trunks will get to Rosebridge tomorrow. We checked the houses that we didn’t leave anything behind. Have we missed anything?”

They’d even, cautiously, checked the house the Denisots had been given, after Guillen reported yesterday that Giefroi’s stallion was no longer in the stable. Giefroi’s trunk had been packed, and they’d found the maid cleaning; she’d reported that he hadn’t been there for meals since before Sunna’s Day. Presumably he’d gone back to Rosebridge on his own. It wasn’t a good idea to travel alone, especially considering that he hadn’t had anyone like Ximeno to teach him to use a sword all his life, but his stallion could probably outrun any trouble.

“No,” Josceran said. “As far as material things, we’re bringing home pretty much what we brought with us, plus a few extras. We did what we had to do in Blaecstan...”

“More or less.”

“Close enough to it that we won’t be in trouble with the Queen. And we’re bringing home practical ideas, like for the mill, and some unexpected changes that are going to make things better. Right?”

“Definitely.” She’d had two full days after Sunna’s Day. Josceran had asked her last night whether she had any regrets. She’d told him, with absolute honesty, that she did not.

“Good.” He draped her braid, neatly tied with the orange ribbon that matched her dress, over her shoulder, and followed it with both arms, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “It’ll be good when we have our own house. Keeping my hands off you in front of your parents is hard sometimes.”

“You’ll survive.” Not that she didn’t quite like his hands being on her, but there was a time and a place for that. “Let’s just get through today, shall we? Rosebridge is a long ride away.”

“At least we can just stay on the main road and not have to push. And no one’s going to fuss and grumble and complain if we stop for the odd break to let Ferrand stretch.”

Sadrilde, lying on the bed with her forepaws tucked neatly against her chest, mrrrped at them.

“And Sadrilde can help him when it does hurt,” Josceran added, straightening and moving over to run a hand down the cat’s back. She purred, arching into it.

“We can work around it,” Aelfeva said. “It feels like it’ll be a warm day and we don’t need the horses overheating, even if a lot of the road has trees shading it. If we get to Rosebridge after dark, it won’t matter. It’s more important to look out for each other.” She stood up and picked up her belt, wrapping it around and tying it in place.

The belt itself was new, part of Josceran’s bridal gift, a woman’s belt woven in elaborate designs of many colours but most strongly red and yellow. Her short everyday knife was her old one, but the other two items threaded onto it were as new as the belt.

The chatelaine was of polished bronze, adorned with a shiny tin-plated mare’s head facing the brass head of a stallion, surrounded by heads of grain—a fertility symbol, mostly, but particularly appropriate for her. There were no keys on it yet, but it had chains for them.

Opposite that was a new purse, the body of it warm tawny leather; the semi-circular lid was embossed with the same kind of motif, mare and stallion, the mare stained lightly with red and the stallion with blue-black.

It already felt natural to knot the belt the way women did, so the trailing end hung down the front, and to have that beautiful chatelaine in place all the time. Quite likely, she was going to forget that it had ever not been that way, or at least, anything else would feel strange.

She hadn’t figured out a way to comfortably fasten her sword to her belt along with purse, knife, and chatelaine, but she didn’t often need to so it didn’t really matter. It wouldn’t interfere with hanging her sword on the side of her saddle in easy reach if she needed it.

Not that anyone was likely to be stupid enough to attack a party of eleven mounted adults with a number of swords showing. There wouldn’t be a bandit party that large operating successfully this close to the capital.

Josceran scooped up Sadrilde so she could settle herself against his shoulder; Aelfeva picked up both small packs and gave the room a last quick search before covering the crystals and following Josceran out of the room.

That was the only bed Aelfeva had ever slept in. How was it going to feel, being back in Aelfric’s bed in the Glaedwin house?

Well, she wouldn’t be in it alone. That should help chase away ghosts.

Richold and Teoda were already in the dining room; Einwulf and Melisend soon joined them. Packs were left near the stairs while they ate the oatmeal the cook had gotten up to prepare for them. If yawns outweighed the conversation, no one cared. There would be plenty of time with nothing to do but talk on the road, and this was an early hour to rise even for a farm family accustomed to rising with the sun. Sadrilde had some of the cream along with a bit of liver and meat scraps the cook had saved for her.

The cook bade them farewell as she gathered the empty dishes, and sent them on their way with fresh bread, partially split and filled with butter and cheese and fresh greens, since they wouldn’t reach any other source of food until at least noon.

The stablemaster and his sons had all the horses ready and waiting, partially blocking the street but there wasn’t much activity to interfere with. The Cristovals beat them to it, but not by much, since they were still settling packs onto the backs of saddles—and yawning just as much as the Glaedwin household were. Greetings were rather sleepy and lacked much energy, and exchanging good wishes and farewells with the stablemaster likewise. Josceran waited until Aelfeva was on Swallow, then handed Sadrilde up to her, and mounted Brook; Sadrilde settled herself comfortably on Aelfeva’s lap, sitting upright to look around.

Blaecstan was waking up around them, carts of fresh goods showing up on the way to the Great Market, a few shops starting to open their front windows. At least the streets were relatively quiet, the hooves of the horses echoing off the buildings, as they made their way out of the city. Even the horses felt like they hadn’t entirely woken up yet, none of them fussing but all moving just a little more slowly than usual.

Outside the city, though, as the sun broke over the horizon and crept across the land gilding everything with bright gold, and the air warmed, the horses gained more spring to their strides, and their riders roused. Thoughts turned towards home, and plans for the future.

The proper marriage celebration in Rosebridge, Aelfeva thought, was going to be remembered for years for the sheer size as much as it would be for the unorthodox nature of two of the three couples involved.

Josceran nudged Brook closer to Swallow.

“If your father,” he murmured, “keeps adding more cows to your settlement, you’re going to be Rosebridge’s leading dairymaid. Do you know how to make cheese?”

She laughed. “I have some idea. I’d be better at that and churning butter than cooking or sewing, and it’s more use day-to-day than the horses. Sadrilde will be happy, I’m sure.” Managing a dairy herd, milking them and processing the milk, tending to a garden and some poultry, and continuing a sideline of breeding mares to either Dragon or Blizzard and training the foals, while sharing bridge toll duty, didn’t sound like an unwelcome future at all. Especially sharing it with Josceran.

When they passed a traveller’s lay-by, a cleared area where a stream looped close to the road, they stopped to rest, allow the horses to drink and graze, and break into the food the thoughtful cook had given them. Sadrilde had a few bites of cheese, even a little of the buttered bread, and then wandered off to explore.

“I had an idea about the bridge,” Aelfeva said.

“What about it?” Ferrand asked. “We construct, or get help constructing, bars to block the ends that will let people on foot pass, maybe bells so we know someone needs to cross. We take care of maintaining it and the road and we make sure we don’t have bandits infesting it. We pay the appropriate tax to the King. What else is there?”

“After the taxes are paid and the maintenance is done, there should still be money left over. Or eventually there will be, at least. But really, we don’t need it. We’re already the three most well-off families in Rosebridge. What if, in Jehanne’s memory, we gave the money to the temple as a fund to use to help women or children trying to escape from violence at home? Or, I don’t know, other sorts of situations that are just generally terrible and shouldn’t happen. So that they can offer another option and no one has to feel trapped. It won’t help fight things like trying to please her family or being too scared to speak up, but at least it’s... something? And it might save someone?”

“Yes,” Richold said immediately. “I love that. We should absolutely do that.” Teoda, beside him, simply nodded and echoed, “Yes.”

Guillen nodded as well. “The bridge will be some extra work but between us it won’t be all that bad, and you’re right, we don’t need it as much as some do. That’s an excellent idea.”

“I’m all for it,” Ilduara said. “And we can probably assume safely that Leo will be in favour. Anything that makes less work for Osgyth and for her when she gets back, she’ll approve of.”

“That would be wonderful,” Josceran said quietly. “If it means a way out for someone who feels like they just have to live with that... That would be good to see.”

“We have to make sure that we cover the practical expenses first,” Ferrand said. “It won’t help anyone if we get complaints about the road or the taxes come up short. But everything above that... I can’t think of a more amazing use for it. Thank you for thinking of that.”

“I think I’m glad we ended up in Rosebridge,” Vituccia mused. “I doubt there’s anywhere better in all the world. Especially with you lot trying to make it even more so.”

“I think Jehanne would be immensely proud of you,” Melisend said softly. “I would like to think...” She stopped and shook her head. “It’s a lovely idea, Aelf.”

Josceran wrapped an arm around her in a sort of half-hug, and she leaned against him. He didn’t really need to say out loud what it would mean to him. She had a pretty good idea already.

“We should also make certain,” Ferrand added, “that the temple knows all about the laws about marrying someone the same sex. Maybe some women, with a little help, could pair up and help each other just on practical grounds. And everyone should know that it’s an option.” His forehead furrowed. “I’m not sure what we can do for anyone who doesn’t really fit in the gender they were born into.”

“Just breaking down some rules will likely help,” Teoda said. “Even if it starts in very small ways, like the idea that trousers are acceptable for women doing hard physical work. Knowing that a marriage doesn’t have to be the traditional sort will help with that too. Maybe Aelf can still run for reeve eventually—by then people might forget everything except that they used to assume she’d take over. The more I think about it, the more I think that an awful lot about being a man or a woman is just things we learn. Maybe the learned parts don’t have to be the way they are.” She shrugged and sighed. “That feels like an enormously complicated thing.”

“It is, love,” Ximeno said, “but be patient. Small stones can cause big waves on the far shore.”

“You’d still make a good reeve,” Einwulf said, and took another bite of his bread.

The future might not look anything like she’d anticipated while travelling this road in the opposite direction a sennight ago... but it looked promising, and anything but boring.

Prysmcat

That's it, folks! Hope you had a great time! This started as an idea for a shorter story to go in the Bondage collection, but it got longer and more complex when Aelf and all came to life. It feels like there are so many untold stories - Sadrilde's backstory, how Vituccia and Ximeno got to Rosebridge, what happens after all this - but I don't know how much I'll be back, considering how many others I have on the go. Probably there will be at least a few slice-of-life shorts, because I'm sure Rosebridge will never be the same! 

You can still get the epub on Patreon for free if you want it to keep or share. Thanks for coming along for the ride, I deeply appreciate every comment, heart, rating, and review! There's going to be a bit of a hiatus before we start up again with the next story, because life happened, but I'll do my best to keep it short.