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Chapter 4
“Excuse me?” Elwyn asked the woman.
“This is a cottage for a healer. You can’t just open a tea shop here.”
That stung, since the woman wasn’t entirely wrong, but Elwyn didn’t want to admit that to her. Forcing herself to remain calm, she said stiffly, “The teas are made from herbs and provide health benefits. I have one that I think would help you considerably if you’d like to come in and have a seat.”
The woman didn’t budge. “Not just anyone can move in here and set up shop.”
“I assure you, I’ve been properly trained. I have extensive expertise in herbs.”
“But are you a real healer? I know about these things, and you can’t just move in to one of these cottages. You have to be a proper healer, and you have to be chosen.”
Although Elwyn had been denying all along that she planned to work as a healer, this woman made her want to declare herself the new town healer, just to spite her. Instead, she forced a polite smile and said, “If you know about these things, you would know that I wouldn’t last long in this cottage if I wasn’t welcome. I am seeing to things here for the time being as a guest of this cottage. Now, would you like some tea?”
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” the woman said with a huff, then spun around stalked off.
Elwyn felt somewhat vindicated in her assertion that she was welcome when the door slammed shut behind the woman without Elwyn touching it. “Thank you,” she said to the helper. In spite of what she’d said to the woman, she did feel a bit guilty about not using the cottage for its intended purpose. The resident helper was supposed to make life easier for the healer, as it was difficult to care for oneself and care for the community. If the healer didn’t have to cook, clean, and do laundry for herself, she was better able to help her patients. It felt a bit like cheating to get all that help when she was merely running a tea shop without seeing patients, but she was quite ill-equipped to look after herself. She’d had servants in her father’s home, so she’d never cooked a meal or washed her own laundry until she went to work for Mother Alis. Mother Alis had made her learn the basics so she’d better understand what her patients experienced and so she could do what was needed if she visited a bedridden patient, but she hadn’t done that sort of work in all her years at court.
The next day, the shop was busier. Most of the women in the village were unmarried, and they seemed to enjoy having a place to go to socialize away from their homes. Elwyn could see what Mair had meant about the town needing to attract more men.
“It looks like it’s going well,” Mair said when she arrived with another woman she introduced as Nesta, the miller’s wife.
“Yes. I was worried there might be some resistance, though.”
“Oh, you must have had a visit from Sara Smith,” Mair said. “Stocky woman with a glare that could curl iron?”
Elwyn fought the urge to shudder. “Yes.”
“Don’t worry about her, even if she doesn’t need a forge, anvil, and hammer to bend metal. She wants things to go back to the way they were before, and that makes her hate all newcomers she sees as getting in the way of that. If you’re in the cottage, Mother Dilys can’t come back. Not that she would. She said there was too much for her to do while retired, not enough to keep her busy while working, and she left. She was reunited with her first love, after all those years, if you can believe it. She always was a hopeless romantic. Sara doesn’t represent the views of the village. After all, the Chicken Lady likes you.”
“Well, if the Chicken Lady likes me, I should be set,” Elwyn said with a smile.
“Nesta needs a moment to relax,” Mair said. She added to the other woman, “Elwyn knows how to pick just the right tea. Somehow, she can tell exactly what you want, even if you don’t know, yourself.” Elwyn thought that was overstating things, but she didn’t want to let her friend down, so she let her hand brush against Nesta’s and read the need for sweet and calm.
“I have something you might like,” she said, then went behind the counter and made a blend of herbs and set it to steep.
“It’s nice to get away from the house for a moment,” Nesta said, wringing her hands on top of the table.
“Now, what’s upsetting you so much?” Mair asked. To Elwyn, she added, “When she got to my house, she was in such a state that I knew I had to bring her here. You’d have just the thing.”
“I’m worried about my husband,” Nesta blurted, and her shoulders shook.
“Oh no, what is it?” Elwyn asked. “What are his symptoms?”
“Not that! No!” Nesta leaned forward and said softly to Mair, “I think he may be straying.”
Mair laughed, leaning her head back as she roared, then she wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and patted Nesta’s hand. “I can assure you he isn’t. Not for lack of trying, I’m afraid, but none of us will have him, so you’re quite safe.”
Nesta sat utterly frozen for a moment before she, too, laughed. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or insulted on his behalf,” she finally said.
“I’m not sure he really means it. He probably wouldn’t know what to do if one of us took him up on a proposition. I suggest you try flirting with him the way he does with the village women and see what he does.” She winked. “Could be fun.”
Elwyn was glad that neither of them were looking at her because she couldn’t keep a straight face.
“I suppose I worry because there are all these women in the village, and so few men. I felt like he could have his pick of women.”
“I know I’m not interested in him,” Mair said, “so you have nothing to fear from me. Lucina seems to have gone off men, as well.” She turned toward Elwyn. “What about you? It sounded like you’ve gone off men, too.”
