Page 128 of The Knucker King

Brave. She tossed a smile over her shoulder at the younger woman. Tough.

Joan swallowed her mouthful and plucked her lips up in response, her hand on Bramble’s shoulders for comfort.

The door creaked, snapping Avice’s attention to it. Catherine stood in the entryway, her golden hair cascading down her torso in waves. She wore a neat brown dress, and had a child wrapped around each leg.

“Midwife Avice!” she exclaimed. “I was not expecting—” Catherine looked past her. “By God! Joan, what are you doing here? I was going to visit this afternoon. Are you well?”

Avice side-stepped so the sisters could get a good look at each other. “Goodwife Joan has come for your help—”

Her patient held up her hand. “Thank you, I have this.” She took a deep breath and met her sister eye-to-eye. “I have left Robert.”

Catherine swept her gaze to Bramble, to her sister’s face, and then to the children clutching at her skirts. “Back inside, my darlings. I need to help Aunt Joan with something.”

The eldest child, Lily – her face round and head kissed by golden curls – tugged her younger brother away and retreated into the cottage. Catherine stepped outside and made her way to Joan. She held her face in her hands, a muscle feathering in her jaw.

“What did he do?” she asked.

“He hit me. Then, Midwife Avice and Bramble came, and…”

Avice half-listened while Joan babbled on, recounting the story. Bramble extracted himself from her grip and ambled over to his mistress, sitting at her boots.

“I think this will work,” she whispered down to him, watching as Catherine pulled her sister into a hug.

The pair walked past them as Joan carried on. “…Avice said Hope is doing well. The Well King saved her and…”

Catherine opened her cottage door and shepherded Joan inside. She offered the midwife a grateful smile, before closing it behind her with a clunk.

“Well,” Avice chuckled weakly, “that was exhausting.”

Bramble tilted his head up, his ears flopping back. We could go home, he offered. I would consider that our good deed done for the day.

She roughed his muscular neck. “You are a good boy,” she praised. “While it is tempting. I want to visit all my patients today.”

With that, they struck out for the Barley family’s cottage, squashing down the towering grass with heavy stomps.

Bramble trotted ahead of her. Why the hurry? We could come back tomorrow morning. King Trewoofe is not coming until twilight, after all.

Avice scrambled to find the words. How could she explain to her steadfast familiar that she might decide to stay? That she wanted to make sure things were as well as they could be with her patient’s before they went with Trewoofe into his Kingdom.

“Well, tomorrow I want to take some time to myself,” she began. “Have a walk, think about things.”

You could do both, Bramble observed. Visit the last of the patients and have time to yourself.

“I may stay,” she blurted. “If I go to the Underneath and it feels…” – she tossed her hands – “right.”

Bramble came to a sudden stop in front of her and she nearly tripped over him. You would do that? He looked up at her with sorrowful eyes.

To say Avice was confused at his reaction was an understatement. “Yes. What of it?” she asked pinching her brows at him.

You would leave? he confirmed.

“Have I not done enough?” Her heart picked up into a gallop. She did not want to fight with her familiar. “Do I not get to choose something for myself? To be with someone who makes me happy. Do I not get to put myself first, in just this one aspect?”

Bramble tucked his tail between his legs and whimpered before continuing down the overgrown path. Avice ground her teeth as she followed him. She had spent her life in service of others: working herself to the bone until her eyes burnt, her fingers bled, and legs screamed in protest as she trudged through the woods and fields. To say nothing of the emotional toll her duty wore. She was ostracised by the village, questioned at every turn, and blamed for deaths.

“I get to choose this, Bramble.”

The familiar stopped in his tracks, ears twitching. It does not mean you should leave Ashling and I behind.