Ch. 132 Beneath the pear trees

Chapter 132: Beneath the Pear Trees

The grass beyond the gate was wet.

That was the first thing Aurelia said.

She stood beneath the tree, looking down at the hem of her gown.

Then she laughed.

“I had forgotten this corner never dried properly.”

Evelyn stepped onto the path beside her.

“What tree is it?”

“Quince.”

I looked up.

Small green fruit hid among the leaves.

Aurelia touched one.

“My son disliked them.”

“Too sour?”

“He tried eating one before it was ripe.”

“That would do it.”

“He blamed the gardener.”

She smiled, though tears still shone on her face.

We walked farther into the garden.

There was a bench against the low wall.

One end had sunk into the soil.

Aurelia sat on the higher end and patted the place beside her.

Evelyn joined her.

I remained standing until my wife caught my sleeve.

For a while, none of us spoke.

The garden room stood beyond the open gate.

I could still see the fountain.

It was such a small distance.

I kept looking at it anyway.

“What happens now?” I asked at last.

Aurelia turned her wrist.

Nothing crossed it.

“I learn what has changed.”

“Could the bond return?”

“The hall closed that attestation. It cannot continue using it as though nothing happened.”

“That wasn’t quite—”

“I know.”

She took my hand.

“Someone might try to do something new. But this part is ended, Uriah.”

I nodded.

Beside me, Evelyn finally let her shoulders rest against the wall.

We woke to rain tapping the shutters.

For several seconds, I listened.

Then I sat up.

My wife was already smiling.

“What?”

“You were checking.”

“So were you.”

“Yes.”

She held out her hand.

I took it.

Our palms were ordinary again.

No light.

No cold reaching through the bones.

Just the marks left by a difficult day.

Outside, someone was trying to persuade a horse to move away from the kitchen door.

Melody’s voice joined the argument.

Apparently the horse was winning.

We got dressed.

Nerys had not slept much.

I could see that when she brought the remaining copies into the hall.

Mary examined each one.

Castellan compared the seals.

At the end, Nerys set down a thinner bundle.

“The other attestations.”

I looked at it.

“Names?”

“Offices. Some names. The places where they were entered.”

Evelyn moved beside me.

There were four entries beneath the one we had closed.

Two had been renewed.

One had no surviving keeper named.

The last bore a seal I recognized.

Avar’s sun.

I stood very still.

Nerys watched my face.

“I have copied what is here. I cannot tell you which still holds force elsewhere.”

Castellan took the bundle carefully.

“We can compare these with what Lady Aurelia can identify.”

I let him put it away.

One part had ended.

I would not turn that into nothing because more remained.

Before we left, Nerys asked to speak to me.

We stood beneath the olive tree.

Rain dripped from the leaves between us.

“I want to examine the other suspended entries.”

“All of them?”

“There are more than I knew.”

She looked toward the hall.

“Land disputes. Unpaid wages held in trust. A marriage objection whose parties cannot possibly still be alive.”

“What do you need?”

“Someone else who can read the old forms. And enough help that I can leave the roof to someone while I work.”

I glanced toward Mary.

She was speaking with one of the guards near the wagon.

“I’ll ask who can come from Stoneford. We can arrange the repairs separately.”

Nerys nodded.

Then she held out a sealed copy of our entry.

“This one is for Aurelia.”

I accepted it.

“Thank you.”

She looked down at her keys.

“I wish someone had done it sooner.”

“So do I.”

The return journey took longer in the rain.

Nobody complained very much.

Castellan rode beside the driver beneath a canvas cover, holding one corner away from the man’s face.

Evelyn and I rode close enough to speak without raising our voices.

At the fallen standing stone, she looked back.

“Do you think Nerys will stay?”

“At the hall?”

“Yes.”

“I think she wants to.”

My wife considered that.

“She looked frightened when we arrived.”

“She had reason.”

“She still helped.”

Ahead of us, Eliza raised a hand where the road narrowed.

We slowed.

I thought about Nerys standing before the panel with the brass rod shaking in her fingers.

“Yes,” I said. “She did.”

At the House of Bells, Edris made us wait while she dried her hands.

Then she came to hear the result.

Mary read the closure aloud.

Edris listened without interrupting.

When Mary finished, the old woman looked toward the records room.

“Will it show here?”

We went to find out.

I touched the crown.

The entry appeared.

Closed by revocation.

No consent remained under Greykeep’s seal.

Edris reached for the back of a chair.

Then sat.

For a moment, I thought she might be unwell.

Instead, she began laughing.

“My grandfather said the old thing would wake one day and tell us something useful.”

Melody looked toward the table.

“A patient man.”

“He died before I was born.”

“That is considerable patience.”

Edris laughed harder.

We left a copy with her.

Home smelled of bread.

I noticed it as soon as we stepped through the gate.

Then Helena appeared with Carol in her arms, and I stopped noticing anything else.

Evelyn reached them first.

Our daughter made a delighted noise.

Garrick arrived a moment later with his namesake tucked against his shoulder.

My father-in-law passed him to me.

“Well?”

“We did it.”

He looked at my face.

Then his own changed.

“How much?”

“Our part of the binding is gone.”

Helena closed her eyes.

Evelyn leaned against her mother, still holding Carol between them.

For a while, the gate chamber became inconveniently full.

Mary directed the porters around us.

Nobody asked us to move.

The first construction golem stood in the workshop yard.

It was taller than Castellan and much broader.

Its arms ended in interchangeable fittings.

One held a lifting hook.

The other was still open at the wrist, where Tilda was checking a connection.

Eleanor stood nearby with an expression I had learned to distrust around unfinished buildings.

“That looks promising,” I said.

“It is.”

“Has it moved?”

“Not yet.”

Castellan stepped forward.

Tilda withdrew her tools.

Light gathered behind the golem’s narrow faceplate.

One foot lifted.

Then settled.

The sound traveled through the yard.

Perrin grinned.

Eleanor pointed toward a stone block.

Castellan looked at her.

“We will begin with the walking sequence.”

“Yes,” she said. “And then that.”

We watched it cross the yard.

Slowly.

Carefully.

When it stopped, Castellan walked around it and examined the knees.

Evelyn stood beside me with Carol asleep against her shoulder.

“Did we help make that?”

“Yes.”

She looked down at her free hand.

Then toward the frame.

I knew what she was thinking.

The castle had taken something from us so quietly that we had scarcely noticed.

Now it stood in the sunlight, ready to lift stone for houses we had not yet built.

Eleanor was already discussing the next one.

I left before she could turn that discussion into a promise from me.

Aurelia came three afternoons later.

She asked us to meet her in the chapel.

We brought the children.

Soren was there when we arrived, setting a fresh cloth beside the basin.

He began to leave.

Evelyn stopped him.

“She asked for you too.”

He looked at her.

Then at me.

I nodded.

He sat down.

Very carefully.

When Aurelia appeared, he stood again.

She smiled at him.

“Soren.”

For a moment, he seemed to have forgotten every word he had ever used.

Then he bowed his head.

“My lady.”

She held out her hand.

He took it.

We gave them a little time.

I stood near the window with Garrick while Evelyn showed Carol the flowers.

I could not hear everything they said.

I did hear Soren laugh once.

When I looked back, Aurelia had her hand over his.

He was speaking now.

Easily enough that I turned toward the window again.

Beyond it, the courtyard was bright.

A cart passed.

Two people stopped to argue about where it should be unloaded.

Aurelia watched them when Soren finished.

Then she stood.

Evelyn looked up.

“Would you like to try?”

“Yes.”

The chapel doorway was only a few paces away.

Aurelia crossed the room without the first loosened threads of gold appearing at her sleeves.

I watched for them anyway.

She stopped beneath the lintel.

Her hand rested against the stone.

Outside, sunlight fell across the step.

She put one foot into it.

Then the other.

Soren remained just behind us.

For a moment, nobody in the courtyard noticed.

Then a woman carrying an empty basket stopped.

Her eyes widened.

Aurelia looked at her.

“Good afternoon.”

The woman opened her mouth.

Closed it.

Then managed, “And to you.”

Aurelia smiled.

We began walking.

We did not reach the lower garden quickly.

Aurelia stopped at the fountain.

At a patch of warm stone.

At the sound of a hammer from the workshop.

People noticed.

Some bowed.

A few stood very still.

One little girl asked her mother why the lady was shining.

“I’m not certain,” her mother whispered.

Aurelia glanced down at her sleeve.

“Only a little, I hope.”

The girl nodded solemnly.

Then offered her a flower she had already crushed in one hand.

Aurelia accepted it.

By the time we reached the garden path, she was holding three flowers and a sprig of something nobody had identified.

The pear trees were waiting where we had planted them.

Small.

Green.

Entirely unaware of the importance we had given the afternoon.

Fenrick had left a bench nearby.

Aurelia sat.

Evelyn settled beside her with Carol, and I took the other end with Garrick.

For a while, Aurelia looked from one tree to the other.

“Which is whose?”

We showed her.

She leaned forward to examine a leaf.

“They look well.”

“Fenrick has opinions about their watering,” I said.

“He should.”

“He has shared all of them.”

Evelyn smiled.

Aurelia looked pleased.

Footsteps approached along the path.

A woman from the lower kitchens stopped a little distance away.

I recognized her face before her name.

Her gaze went to Aurelia.

Then to Evelyn.

“My lady, I’m sorry. My mother’s been having that pain again.”

Evelyn shifted Carol toward me.

“Has she gone to the infirmary?”

“She doesn’t want to make a fuss.”

“Will she come if I walk with you?”

The woman nodded quickly.

My wife kissed Carol’s head and stood.

Ilyen would still be in the infirmary at this hour.

Evelyn knew that.

So did I.

“I’ll meet you inside,” she told me.

Then she went with the woman.

Aurelia watched them leave.

“She meant it,” she said softly.

“Yes.”

Garrick had caught the edge of my coat.

Carol was considering whether she objected to the change in arrangements.

Aurelia held out her arms.

“May I?”

I placed our son carefully against her.

This time, I let his weight settle fully.

Her arms held him.

She drew him close.

No fading.

No sudden loss of warmth.

Garrick looked at her face.

Then reached up and caught a strand of her hair.

She laughed.

I sat beside her beneath the pear trees while my wife went to help someone.

For a little while, that was how we spent the afternoon.