128 A First Impression

Was his face so ugly that it couldn't be trusted?

Defi understood that the siblings were feeling betrayed by those they thought they could rely on, and Adtra was a soothing presence, so the discussion had fewer snags due to temper.

Sigrene thought of him as a city-born urbanite who was farming on a whim and may possibly be taking advantage of her siblings, and he thought she was letting her emotions make unreasonable demands. Even if he had feelings of guilt over Amary's circumstances, he wasn't about to simply hand over control of lands that were his – that was how revolts against landlords happened.

A lease should be clear and definite, laying down the responsibilities and obligations of both parties in indelible ink.

Their increasing animosity was alleviated by Haral, Farbar, and Adtra, weighing in on the discussion with their own suggestions. Even Eri and Sarel chimed in once in a while, though Eri was mostly questioning.

Even then, by the end of the hour, Defi and Sigrene were both fuming, glaring at each other.

Adtra tapped the quill on the inkpot firmly, gaining their attention. "The basics are already outlined for a tenant lease of the land and house, and a work contract. We'll talk more later, when both of you aren't about to claw each other's throat out."

Sigrene was about to protest. Her sister sent her a stern look and she subsided, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself.

Farbar took the lull to say, "We're a few minutes from the Garge house. You'll probably want to check on the place you're leasing."

There was a hint of amusement in his tone.

Sigrene huffed at that, glaring at Defi when he sent her a look of barely-concealed smugness. He'd been telling her the southern house was large enough for ten people, as the old couple who sold it to him were retired merchants and had many grandchildren.

It was a riverfront property besides, which came with water rights. Which was another thing she thought was too good to be true.

She was going to eat her words.

Adtra nodded. "Siggy, go with Haral to see Amary. I'll take Eri with me to see the house."

"Don't call me that, I'm not a child anymore."

Adtra sent her another stern look that said 'then act like it'.

The corners of Defi's lips briefly curled up in satisfied amusement. Adtra sent him a similarly firm look.

Thankfully, Farbar came to a stop.

Defi jumped out of the wagon. They had to unlash the wheeled chair from the back before the backboard could be lowered.

Haral let out a whistle as they carried the siblings' luggage to the porch of the south house. "Nice house."

The floor area was smaller than half of the Garge house, but the south house had two storeys instead of the single-level sprawled out design that Leraine's ancestors adopted. Like the Garge house, the foundation was stone and the rest of the house built in wood.

Defi had done a cursory inspection after it was sold to him, and all the bedrooms of the family were on the upper floor, arrayed around a small family common area.

The ground floor was a square, bisected nearly in half by the receiving hall. There were also rooms for servants on the ground floor but were mostly used as storage. There was no separate dining room, but a large kitchen and pantry. The cellar was small and connected to the pantry.

There were only five bedrooms, but they were spacious and could be re-ordered to contain more than one person. It was indeed large enough for seven people. 

Sigrene hummed, looking around the place critically.

Defi ignored her. He put down the sacks he was carrying and turned to Adtra. "The entry-token is at my place. I'm sorry to trouble you and your sister to wait outside in this damp weather."

The eldest of the siblings shook her head. "No, it's us who have given you trouble. We have to look around the outside, in any case. The time waiting would be well-spent." 

Leaving Adtra and Erkrea at the south house, the rest of them clambered into the wagon. Haral took the reins that Farbar gladly relinquished while Sigrene sat in the covered part of the wagon with the two youngest siblings. 

They trotted on only to stop a minute later to let Defi and his baskets of starcherries off.

"Hand me the baskets, would you?"

Sigrene's brow quivered, but she gave her younger sister charge of the five-year old she'd been carting around, and pushed a basket to the rear opening without comment. Defi swung it down, thanking her with a nod. The rest were easily unloaded in the same manner. 

"Are you making starcherry jam?" The youngest girl, Fee, asked shyly as Defi and her sister dealt with the baskets.

"No, I feed the starcherries to my slimes."

"Oh, can I see?"

"Another day." Defi smiled at her. She was younger than Renne and Markar. Possibly younger than ten years in age, even. "You must see your older sister, and the southern house must be checked before the sun sets."

There were only ten baskets today, compared to the thirty to fifty when he started to collect starcherries. The wheeled chair now had enough space on the wagon bed.

Soon enough, the wagon was on its way to the north farm.

Defi carried the baskets to the warehouse, and took the wheelbarrow that the builders had constructed from old parts of a cart.

He filled it half with firewood, pushed it to the door of his house, and added to its depths some barrels of food, a few litr bottles of the Vonish wine, the old kitchen utensils and pots, and a box of candles. 

He eyed the inside of the storage room.

After months of no contact, he didn't think Kern or Leraine were returning. He was using a free bedroom to store much of the supplies he acquired in Ecthys. He could use the space if Adtra and her siblings could clear the designated storage room out.

Most of the furniture and decorative fittings were too big for the wheelbarrow. 

Eh, he'd get Haral to haul them away tomorrow. If he could convince them to take the things, of course.

He packed a canvas sack with Leraine and Kern's linens and some of the old clothing.

He took the box with the south house's entry-token from the chest in his bedroom and seeing that Turq had already eaten what was in his feeding basket, took the slime with him.

He put the entry-token box inside his coat and started off, hooking the sack over his shoulder and pushing the loaded wheelbarrow before him, Turq on his head.

The southern house was approximately two hundred mar from the Garge house, and it took only a few minutes to walk. Laden as he was, it took longer.

Between the Garge homestead and the south house, there was a small gathering of pine trees, and beyond that, the old retired couple had planted several kinds of fruit trees. Unfortunately, Kern's experiments with hybrid mystic herbs had mostly been on the southern side of the homestead, so those fruit trees withered worse than the sansu trees north of the homestead.

There was a walking trail between the two houses, but it had been little used and overgrown; Defi had to be careful not to jar the contents of the wheelbarrow too badly.

Thankfully, there was no fence between the properties.

He found Adtra and Erkrea studying the covered well that was near the house, between the kitchen yard and the fruit orchard.

"It has not been six months since it was used, so the water should be clean." He'd made sure the cover on the well was properly sealed as well.

They looked up at the sound of Defi's voice.

Adtra smiled at him. "Thank you, we were about to go and forage for firewood to use tonight."

Defi returned her smile briefly. "Gert and Hener didn't leave much furniture in this house and the things Leraine left, I definitely am not going to use so feel free to come by and take the lot."

"I don't think…"

"You still need to gather firewood before Icewerth," interrupted Defi. "There are dryboxes in my woodshed you're free to use for the wood you gather. I'm throwing out most of the things in the storage room anyway."

A small lie, but Adtra still frowned. "We'll be adding that to negotiations."

"It's old furniture, and some have surfaces scarred by fire. I don't think they're worthy of being sold."

Adtra sighed in resignation. "We'll see."

She helped him unload the wheelbarrow and he used the entry-token to unlock the Emblems on the door.

The inside of the house was slightly musty.

Eri looked around, fascinated. "Are we really going to move here?"

"Never lived in a farmhouse?" Defi teased gently.

"Papa had a farm," Eri protested. "I still remember that much. It had chickens and ducks."

Their father had property? Defi looked at Adtra, who shook her head. "Our father sold it to pay for mother's vital dishes. She took sick after Egg's birth."

He nodded. "This house was built fourteen years ago, to be a vacation house. Gert and Hener moved in permanently maybe six years ago. They wanted to live closer to their grandchildren, so they sold it to me several months ago."

"Really? Why, didn't you already have a house?"

The original land-plot was split from the Garge homestead," Defi explained. "Part of the ownership contract was that the owner of the Garge homestead had first refusal if they were ever going to sell the land again."

He looked at Adtra, who had been opening windows. "The land they bought was 6.2 hecte in all, more than half of it in uncultivated woodland and the rest in fruit trees and vegetable gardens. There was a chicken coop too, I think, for eggs."

Adtra looked out the window, pointed at the skeletal branches that could be clearly seen reaching pathetically up from dry soil. "Those are fruit trees?"

Defi cleared his throat. "Apparently."

Eri trotted to the window, only to wrinkle her nose at the sight. She looked at Defi skeptically.

"That was not my fault," he said.