Passage - Lois McMaster Bujold [41]
“I won’t even be out of sight!” She just barely kept herself from skipping down to the bank. She was a sober married woman now, after all. And besides, it would be a tad cruel to Whit. Deciding which, she let herself skip just a little.
Reaching the bank, she caught her breath and stared around eagerly. There were fewer folks in view than she’d expected. She’d seen some fellows hanging around up at the storage shed, others down on the wharf boat, which Tanner had said doubled as a general store for the riverfolk. One or more of the houses in the hamlet, still obscured by the half-denuded trees, probably served as taverns. Maybe some boatmen had gone hunting in the hills to replenish their larders during this enforced delay. But a few men were quietly fishing off the backs of their flatboats—one, strangely, wore an iron kettle over his head like a helmet, although Fawn could not imagine why. Perhaps he’d lost a bet? A group of several men atop one level boat roof had their heads down over some game of chance; dice, Fawn thought, although she couldn’t see for sure at this angle. One looked around to watch her pass and drew breath for what was likely going to be a rude catcall, but some turn of the game sent up hoots and a murmur of comment, and he turned back. A woman came out of the shack on one boat and emptied a pan over the side, a reassuring domestic sight.
Fawn strolled along the row, looking for likely candidates for their boat. Some had long top-sheds that clearly left no room for a horse. Others were carrying livestock already—one had four oxen stalled on the bow end, quietly chewing their cud, so the boats could carry big animals, but that one was plainly full-up. Several had chicken coops, on top or tucked into a corner, and some had dogs, though none roused enough from their naps in the sun to bark at her. She stopped and studied a likely prospect. A fellow sitting on a barrel in the open bow tipped back his floppy hat and grinned in return with what teeth he had.
“Do you take passengers?” she called to him.
“I’d take you, little lady!” he replied enthusiastically.
Fawn frowned. “It would be me, my husband, and his horse.”
He swept off the hat with a flourish, revealing greasy hair. “Oh, leave the husband and his horse. I bet I can give you a better ride. If you—ow!” He clapped his hand to the side of his head as a small wooden block from seeming nowhere bounced off it with an audible clonk. Looking up to his left, he complained, “Now, what’d you go and do that for? I was just bein’ friendly!”
Atop the flat roof of the next boat over, a figure in homespun skirts sat in a rocking chair, whittling. As Fawn squinted, she saw it was a surprisingly young woman, almost lanky in build, with straight blond hair escaping from a horse-tail tied at her nape. She had light blue eyes and a wide mouth, both pinched with annoyance.
“To remind you to behave your fool self, Jos,” she replied tartly.
“Now apologize.”
“Sorry, Boss Berry.”
This won another wooden missile, which Jos did not dodge quite fast enough. “Ow!” he repeated.
“To her, you nitwit!” snapped the blond woman.
Jos put his hat back on, for the purpose of tugging its brim, evidently. “Sorry, miss—missus,” he mumbled to Fawn. He shuffled into his boat’s shack, out of range.
“Dolt,” observed the woman dispassionately.
Fawn strolled on a few paces, noting with interest that while Jos’s boat had its hull stuck in the mire, Berry’s, moored farther out, still floated. And it had an empty animal pen in one corner of the bow. Some chickens were penned on the opposite side, pecking up a scattering of corn, and their coop didn’t stink in the sun, unlike a few she’d passed; someone here cleaned it regularly. She put her hands on her hips and stared up at the woman, who didn’t look to be much older than Fawn herself.
“What are you carvin’ on?” Fawn called up.
The woman held out a rounded block. “Floats. Cottonwood makes good floats, for ropes and whatnot. A lot of softwoods do.”
Fawn nodded, encouraged by the sociable explanation and an almost-smile