Chapter Text
Elin stood on a cliff overlooking the fjord. She watched as the boats landed, watched as the men hauled them up the beach, watched as wives and daughters and young sons ran out to greet them. Somewhere down there was the answer to the question she had dreaded for nearly two months. That question, was the catch good, would likely decide her future. If the catch was good, they would eat for months, if not, there would be more hunger, more suspicion and more bitterness and misery all around. She felt terrible for silently hoping the catch would be mediocre at best. She didn't like starvation any more than anyone else but she had reason to wish the catch didn't go well.
If the holds of those boats were full of fish, Karl Andersson would likely come to ask for her hand. He'd implied it was likely and she hadn't known how to politely discourage him. He'd have enough wealth to offer her a good living and because men often suspect women want only comfort and riches when choosing a husband, he clearly believed she would say yes.
She watched the beach below, there was little activity. It seemed her hesitant, guilty prayers had been answered. A few crates were being unloaded onto a cart but not nearly as many as it would take to feed the village for several months. The men would try hunting next, even though the game was still skinny from the winter. She could hide up here no longer, her father would be worried if she didn't turn up at such an important event as the return of the fishermen. She sighed and began to make her way down to the village.
It was a steep climb, but it was one she had made a hundred times. Eventually the path led through the trees and switched back on itself as it meandered down the hill. Elin could see activity in the village as she neared it. People were slowly making their way back to their houses and shops, mostly looking downcast. If the catch had been good, it would need to be salted and stored, the work of several days, and everyone would still have been on the beach, packing it in barrels as fast as possible. She hoped it wasn't too little, a small catch would sometimes be made into stews or served at a feast to welcome the returning men, mostly to console them. A lot of ale would be drunk.
As she rounded the last switchback Elin heard voices down below, both she recognized. One was Karl and the other a girl about Elin's age, Lisbeta Nilsdottir. Lisbeta had never liked her and Elin returned her feelings. The girl was frivolous, always concerned with her appearance and never remotely interested in news from the outer world, in the innovations being made in the cities or the new worlds being discovered. Elin loved to hear the tales of merchants who brought goods from faraway places like Oslo, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam. A fur trader that had come a year or so back had the wildest tales of the peoples of the Americas. Elin had listened from the stairs as he and some of the other men from the village talked in her father's shop.
Lisbeta was chattering away at Karl, who answered occasionally, but it was in a voice too low for Elin to hear his responses. They didn't sound encouraging. She knew Lisbeta liked Karl, wanted him to marry her. She hated Elin for Karl's interest in her, though Elin had never encouraged him and would have been glad if he married Lisbeta, hopefully that way they would both leave her alone. She kept walking toward them. All she need do was pass. Now that the men were back she felt the weight lifted somewhat from her shoulders. After she passed him, their first awkward meeting would be over, and she could rest easy.
Finally she heard Lisbeta's voice get louder, more shrill, she was begging Karl to walk her back into town but he said he wished to walk in the woods. Elin took a deep breath and rounded the final curve where the trail flattened out. They hadn't seen her before but now they stopped talking, both their heads jerked toward Elin and Lisbeta glared at her.
"Elin! I was looking for you, I thought you might be up on the hill," said Karl with his usual predilection for stating the obvious.
"Hello Karl," said Elin. She would have to be careful, she must be polite but she hated to encourage him. "I'm sure we are all glad to see you and the men safely returned."
"Yes, I-"
"Karl! I want you to walk with me!" said Lisbeta pulling on his sleeve.
"Lisbeta, please. I really need to see Elin," he said, shaking her hand off his arm lightly, "I must speak to her on an important matter. I am sure your mother needs you at home."
Lisbeta pouted but glared at Elin again and turned back toward town, she stomped off down the path and Karl watched her go nearly as far as the village wall before he turned back to Elin, who stood silently waiting.
"I'm sorry about her," he began.
"You don't need to apologize for her, she’s always hated me. I don't mind it, I have better things to do than worry about what she thinks of me."
"You are wise, Elin," said Karl. He took a few steps nearer to her. She took a breath to try to speak but he cut her off. "That is why I wish for you to be my wife."
"What?" He’d surprised her. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
"I wish for you to be my wife," he repeated.
"No, I heard you. I just don't understand,” she said slowly. “I thought with the catch being so poor…"
"That I would not be in a position to ask?" he laughed a little, it was an irritating, patronizing laugh, as if she'd said something cute and naïve.
"That's not what I-“
"It is well, I know a wife is expensive," he said. "You know I have been planning to wed you for a long time."
"Well I haven't," she muttered. He must not have heard it.
"I have given your father much good business," he tried, a little sheepish now. She suspected it was an act.
"I hope you didn't do that expecting him to sell me to you, too," she said. He laughed.
"You have always been funny, Elin," he smiled at her. "I know he is grateful. You should be grateful too."
"I am grateful for everyone in the village trusting in my father's wisdom and relying on him for their remedies,” she said as tactfully as possible. “But that does not mean I wish to marry them all."
"No." He said, "But I had thought you understood."
"I have understood you, I have for months now," she said, trying to be gentle. "I am not trying to be unkind, I simply do not wish to marry you. I have tried to make you see that in all our conversations."
"I hoped you would change your mind."
She looked at him and felt a little bad, but not bad enough to marry the most boring man in town. "I'm sorry, but I haven't. Not all women are as fickle as the tides, Karl."
"I see," he said, stiffly. There was a long awkward silence. Karl began to pace.
"I suspect Lisbeta would like a visit from you," Elin said, trying to be encouraging.
"You have made it plain you have no interest in my plans to wed, I did not ask for your advice," he said, glaring in her direction. "I will delay you no more." He gestured her along the path towards town. This abruptness was very unlike him but Elin understood.
"Goodbye, Karl," she said as nicely as she could manage. She passed by him and headed toward the village. She did not hear his steps behind her. She dared to glance back and saw him leaning against a tree resting his chin in his hand, looking very glum.
As she entered the village she spotted a group hovering around Lisbeta, they all looked in her direction as she passed but Elin ignored them, heading for home. If this many people were milling about the streets the work on the beach must already be done.
Her father’s apothecary shop was on the main street of town and their dwelling was above it. Her mother had died when Elin was about ten years old and she had no siblings, so she and her father shared the work of making remedies from herbs, different types of animal fats, the barks of certain trees, and many other useful natural sources. The work was fascinating for Elin, she loved the idea that there were things right under your nose that could harm or heal that most people just walked right by without even noticing. Of course, she could not sell remedies. That work the villagers only trusted to a man, so Elin mostly worked in the back, hauling water and wood for the copper, preparing ingredients, drying herbs, and rendering fats. Oddly enough it had been her mother who had taught her father his business. Elin had only the happiest memories of her.
She came in by the shop entrance hoping to overhear some news and was not disappointed. There were two women chatting to her father as they looked over some soaps. By way of a greeting he raised his eyes and smiled and she smiled back. Knowing he would be with these two for a while she made for the stairs and as soon as she was out of sight, she stopped to listen. Apparently the men had gone father out than usual, hoping to find larger schools of herring. They had gone off course in a storm however and not known until it was too late that their supplies would not last if they chose to stay and fish rather than head back in. They had dropped their nets closer to home but predictably brought in fairly little. The waters around the coast were fished out this time of year, with everyone relying on that to see them through between sowing time and harvest. The men were to meet with the magistrates and other important men tonight and plan what was next, there was to be a small feast afterward to announce the news. The women turned their attention to the soaps again and Elin crept away to her room.
--
That evening, Elin and her father Magnus Larson joined in the feast at the Guildhall in the center of town. A thick stew had been made of the catch and there was a little fresh bread and ale too. After the speeches of thanks and town announcements had been made, everyone started eating and the din of their conversation settled over the town square. It was the biggest space in town, tables had been set up for the nearly two hundred men, women and children who were in attendance, most of the village.
Elin and her father were sitting with the butcher from their street and his wife and daughter were further down. Elin liked her place at the end, even though it was colder at the edge of the square, it was quiet.
Or it was until there was some sort of small commotion. At the next table over, Karl Andersson was standing up, Lisbeta Nilsdottir standing close in front of him. Though not everyone had heard the slap, a lot of attention was on them. “I am sorry,” Karl was heard to say and after a moment conversation started back up again as Lisbeta stomped off toward some of her friends who were keeping warm by a fire.
"What do you think that was about?" asked Magnus, conspiratorially.
"I don't know exactly," replied Elin. "I wonder if he's turned her down?"
"That is rare to hear," said her father, chuckling. "The words 'he turned her down'."
Elin smiled. "Yes, I almost feel bad for him." They sat in silence for a moment.
"But then you would be a hypocrite," said her father, slowly. She turned to him, ready to be hurt. "I don't mean to sound cruel. But, you turned him down today didn't you?" he asked, gently.
"How did you know?"
"Several people told me they'd seen him head up the path into the hills and then seen you come down, alone, and he much later."
"Damn that path for being right where the whole town can see it," she said ruefully.
"It has its uses," he laughed. "Apparently Lisbeta was seen too, a little earlier, I doubted that to be true but then Rakel from the bakery said she'd seen her stomping into town in a huff...But you were still up the mountain then I think?"
He quirked a brow, asking silently for her explanation.
"Yes, and yes I did turn him down. He had to know that I would," she said, a little irritated. "I thought he wouldn't ask since the catch was so bad, I thought I was safe."
"My girl, you know I am not angry at you. I agree, you gave him no reason to hope," he said. "Besides, I am not so ready to be rid of you...I need your help in the shop." There was a sly tone in his voice as he said this.
"Is that all?" She asked.
"Well, I think so. Yes," He said. "That's all." He grinned.
She smacked his arm softly, smiling in spite of herself.
"Let's enjoy this stew and this ale while we can," he said, and they finished their meal, joining the others at their table in conversation about the upcoming hunting expedition the magistrates had sanctioned. Elin let the conversation buzz around her without really listening. She was thinking about something her father had said, that he'd doubted it upon hearing Lisbeta had been in the woods. Indeed, it had been strange to see Lisbeta there. She hated leaving the village and going into the wilds. In fact she'd selfishly stayed behind when the apples needed gathering last autumn and all the women went out to pick them for cider and for fattening up the pigs during the coming winter. Elin wondered what she'd been doing on the trail, perhaps she had followed Karl? But then there would have been no pretext for asking him to walk her back to town as Elin had heard her ask.
She tried to put it out of her mind and enjoy some time with her father. His knowledge of herbs and the land around the hills outside the village meant that if anyone could find game surviving on the last vegetation it would be him. The magistrates had asked him to accompany the hunting party and he had agreed. Elin dreaded him going since she would be all alone in the shop and house but he enjoyed hunting and rarely got to go so she'd held her tongue.