"Damn the woman!"
Parvinder sat on a bench in the Woodlander's forest camp, gazing at a pink sunset over the trees beyond the meadow. Casti handed her a cup of herbal tea and sat next to her. There was no need to ask who had angered the old Indian woman.
"Sorry. I'm irritable at the moment," Parvinder added.
No wonder. Annela was nine-months pregnant and, as the senior nurse of the Woodlanders, Parvinder was expected to ensure the survival of mother and baby; but she had never delivered a baby. Births had always occurred at the Cloner City. And, as Annela got more impatient to be delivered, Parvinder (normally so mild and amicable) got more anxious. It would be worse in two months' time when her own daughter, Dipti, was due.
"It's quite pardonable," Casti assured her. "Why don't you tell me what Mirselene has done?"
"I tried once more to get her to send Annela to the Cloners for the birth. I said that, now we're friendly with the Herders, they'll surely offer us transport. I can't bear the thought that there might be a complication and we'll be unable to contend with it through inexperience and lack of equipment. Now it is too late: the girl won't be able to travel."
"So what did Mirselene say?"
"Our chief, in her wisdom, said she trusted me. Fat lot of good trusting me will do if things go wrong."
"But nothing went wrong when others of us gave birth."
"Please allow me to worry and fret, Casti. It won't be you holding the forceps - ugly big wooden forceps that I made myself, by the way, better used for digging turnips."
Casti smiled.
"What reason did Mirselene give?"
"She has no reason."
"Really?"
"All right. She asked, What if it's a boy?"
"And you said?"
Parvinder paused.
"I said: What if it refuses to come out and Annela dies? ... Who cares what sex the child is, so long as Annela survives? But Mirselene thinks the Cloners will steal the baby and keep it for themselves if it's a boy."
"She is quite fearful of their power."
"She's paranoid! The Cloners may be greedy but they're not kidnappers. Why would they want to steal him?"
"But, as you say, it's too late now. It's not safe moving Annela when she's so nearly due."
"I know," Parvinder calmed down. "As I said, I'm irritable at the moment."
"Are you right to worry so much?"
"Probably not; but Mirselene is so nonchalant it sets me off. ... All right. I've done complaining. Let's drink our tea."
They sat in silence and tried not to worry.
As the pink sun settled down for the night, the preparations for the feast went on around them. Soon Casti and Parvinder joined the bustling women and took up useful tasks themselves.
It was the second night after Ezra returned to the Woodlanders and he'd had no time to himself since he stepped foot back in the camp. There was Mirselene to report back to first, then Annela to comfort, his other bedmates to show how much he'd missed them and everyone else to entertain and amuse with his stories.
A big event the first day was when Ezra showed his pen-knife to the tribe, after which Sharne, Dagma and he agreed on a program of repairs and improvements. There was also his salvage project to begin. The Woodlanders had collected the bamboo and other items he asked for. Soon he could set to work.
The first night, he told the story of his visit to the Mariners. The second night, he said what happened with the Herders. The women wouldn't let him leave out a single detail but badgered him for all the juicy bits. Thus he discovered an unexpected prudishness in the Woodlanders when they were shocked by the immorality of the Herders; how they fought among themselves, and their nightly orgies. He got laughed at for letting Solange test him; but they were pleased he'd secured forgiveness for Wildchild and Tamar.
It didn't matter how embarrassing it was to describe everything he'd done. He was home now, among family, and later on they would remember only that the Woodlander man was a hit with the other tribes.
He slept alone his first two nights in the camp, enjoying the peace and solitude, though he spent as much time as he could with Annela, who was uncomfortable and sensitive. Her pregnancy seemed to be going on forever. It was more than nine months already. Everyone reassured her that the first child was often late, so she had more frustrating waiting to do. Annela didn't find it reassuring at all.
"I just want it out of me!" she wailed.
They were alone together, sitting in the sun outside her hut. She sipped obediently at a cup of tea that Parvinder had made for her.
"Pyoo!" she said, spitting something out.
"What is it?"
"Raspberry leaf. She's gotten me eating garlic, radish and anything spicy she can find, even bark. And I'm waddling to the crapper every hour. It's your fault! You did this to me!"
"I'm sorry, darling, but it's not for long."
"Easy for you to say. ... Tell me something to take my mind off it."
"Actually, you can tell me something. What has Urulla planned for us?"
"I don't know. Nothing, I think. I know she made a fuss when it was Dipti's turn to be your bedmate but I don't think she wants a fuss herself. I expect Mirselene will just announce it and that'll be that."
Mirselene did announce it at the feast that night - and that was that: Urulla and Ezra were bedmates for the rest of the month. Quietly joyful, the girl kept her distance from him until the end of the feast, savouring her expectation.
Just before the rain started, he went to claim Urulla from her lover, Dipti, and they walked hand-in-hand to the Honeymoon Lodge, where they settled in, lighting the oil lamps.
They sat together on the bed and looked at each other. Urulla was very nearly twenty; tall, lithe, with light-blue eyes, mousy-brown hair, small pert breasts, slim hips and long thin legs that didn't meet at the top. Her face had a strong-jawed horsiness but there was beauty in her intelligent eyes, which looked out at the world with focussed curiosity.
He admired her intelligence but this night was about sex and what he most looked forward to was taking the skinny girl from behind. He imagined with relish the sight of her small firm buttocks, smooth thighs and pink juicy inviting slit.
One of his greatest fans since the moment he appeared in the Woodlander Camp, Urulla became his most devoted questioner on sexual matters. No one looked forward to sex with him more strongly than she. No one had such high expectations. Sex with Ezra would be the acme of joy and happiness.
Then came the conflict at the meeting-place when Urulla was stabbed, followed by a long recovery and, just when she was ready again for the supreme moment, Ezra went away for two months. She pined and lusted and built up such a store of longing that she thought she'd explode. All this pent-up desire was to be released tonight. How could it not be perfect?
It couldn't be perfect, even if Ezra were at the top of his game, because nothing could live up to the romantic girl's vivid imagination. For Urulla, love was a petal-strewn garden of delights, a world of butterflies and rainbows. Unreal hopes made her unusually hesitant and shy.
She wanted to talk about love and poetry but she became tongue-tied. Her mouth seized up and she stammered. Ezra took over and kissed her. She responded warmly and began to relax; but then she went the other way and started to gabble, her words coming out too fast and in the wrong order. She wanted to say what she felt, what she thought he felt, what she really wanted him to feel but couldn't find the words for.
