The River's Gift Read Online Free Page B

the common people except at harvest, when every hand
was needed, hers included. "No, and it seems to me that it's really wrong
to be spending time on such foolery and fripperies when there are people who
need help."
    :Has this woman power
over you? Can she compel you to remain indoors? Or is it only that you fear
her disapproval:
    Ariella
grimaced. "She'd tell Papa—" she began, then shook her head. "If I was just running off to play in the forest, it would
be different, but I can't see how Papa would be angry if I were helping the
sick." She raised her head and looked Merod straight in his wicked green
eyes. "I see what you're thinking. And you're right. It's time I stood up
for myself."
    He
tossed his head, and drops of water flicked off his mane; she could tell he was
pleased. :You're becoming
less like a silly mortal maiden and more like one of us every day,: was
all he said, then he did something he had never done never done before. He
reached out and touched her cheek with his soft nose, exactly like a kiss, and
she felt a tingling, a warm thrill pass through her.
He pulled back shyly, and she put her hand to her cheek, and neither of them
said a word about the moment—but all the way home that evening, she kept
putting her hand to the spot on her cheek where he had touched her in a kind of
wonder.
    The
next day, when the lesson had been recited and I ,ady Magda announced that she and Ariella were going to work on the altar-cloth,
Ariella shook her head.
    "Not
today, Magda," she said carefully, trying to make certain that her tone
remained polite. Without another word, she went straight to the carved wooden
chest at the loot of her bed and took out her old clothing, laying it on the
bed.
    "What
do you mean—" Magda began. She blinked at the sight of the old dress.
"Lady Ariella! Where did you get that rag? Give it to me at once, and I'll
take it to—"
    "These
are my working clothes, Magda," Ariella said levelly. "I can hardly
go among the workers to tend to their ills dressed in a fine gown, now, can
I?"
    "Go
among—but—how—" Magda's face grew as red as a ripe apple as she struggled
to express herself through her surprise and outrage. Ariella simply went about
her business, changing swiftly out of her fine gown and into her comfortable
dress, though as a concession to Magda she did slip on a pair of old pattens
over her bare feet.
    She
half thought that Magda might try to push herself between Ariella and the door,
but instead the woman sat abruptly down on the edge of the bed, still
struggling to make her feelings known. Ariella strode firmly out the door,
ignoring Magda's splutterings.
    Nor
was that all; she went openly to the stillroom and made up a proper basket of
medicines and remedies, thinking that if she was going to defy Lady Magda, she
might as well do so properly.
    Thus
armed, she went down to the village and to each and every tiny earthen-floored
home, looking for anyone who might be ill or injured. She was greeted with
astonishment and open mouths, but not a one of the people to whom she offered
her help turned her down. She found there pretty much the same sorts of
ailments that she had been treating in the forest: babies with sour stomachs or
nagging coughs, grannies with aching bones, children and adults with sprains,
nasty cuts, and a broken bone or two. All her practice on the forest creatures
stood her in good stead now, and she was glad of it, for she didn't think she
dared exert her healing touch on fellow humans, at least not yet. Before she
had gotten half through the village, some of those who had been working out in
the fields and sheds came trickling in with minor hurts, probably summoned by
children carrying the astonishing news that "the Lady" had come to
tend to them.
    As
she bound up the last of the sprains, she looked about only to find herself
surrounded by curious onlookers in their dusty, earth-colored, threadbare
working clothes. But the work-worn faces around her showed no