“Hello, Terisa,” he said earnestly, without quite meeting her eyes. “I’m Minick. Geraden sent me to get you.”
“Hello, Minick,” she replied. “I’m glad to meet you.”
As if she had surprised him, he asked, “You are?”
She nodded. “I’m glad to meet Geraden’s family. I’m glad to be in Houseldon – in the Care of Domne.” This was so true that she didn’t know how to explain it. “I’ve wanted to meet all of you for a long time.”
Minick seemed to recognize the inadequacy behind her words. “Well, I’m glad to meet you, too. I wasn’t sure before. I don’t like it when Geraden’s unhappy. But now I am.”
He baffled her a bit. “What makes you sure?”
He indicated the house with a lift of one shoulder. “You were in the room with the Domne,” he explained, “and now he’s taking a nap. He trusts you. So you must be all right. You aren’t the reason Geraden’s unhappy.”
Minick’s confidence was so unjustified that Terisa felt compelled to say, “It’s probably more complicated than that. Sometimes I think I am the reason he’s unhappy – sort of. I have a lot to do with a lot of things that hurt him.”
“No.” Minick shook his head mildly. “It isn’t complicated. You’re like him. He always thinks things are complicated. But they aren’t. Important things are simple. He needs somebody to love him. That’s simple. The Domne trusts you. That’s simple. So now I can be glad to meet you, when I wasn’t sure before.”
Unexpectedly, she found herself relaxing. “I guess you’re right.” A world of difficulties apparently evaporated when Minick touched them. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.
“Let’s go see Geraden.”
“Oh, no.” Minick became suddenly serious. “That isn’t what he wants. He’s too busy.” For a second, the brown man almost shuddered. “When he gets like this, he yells at people a lot. He thinks they’re fast. He’s fast, and he thinks they are, too. But they aren’t fast. They’re just farmers and shepherds. They’re like me. They like having things explained to them.”
The thought of Geraden ranting with impatience was so incongruous that Terisa nearly laughed aloud. At the same time, it gave her a pang. Poor man, he must be almost out of his mind. Deliberately, she controlled herself. “I don’t understand. I thought you said he sent you to get me.”
Minick nodded. “He did. I thought he was just making an excuse to send me away. But since you’re glad to be here I guess I was wrong.
“He sent me to show you around. The Domne can’t walk very far, and Tholden is too busy, and Quiss prefers to stay at home with Ruesha. Geraden said, ‘She likes tours. She might like a tour of Houseldon.’ So I came to get you.”
Terisa accepted the suggestion, despite the vexed spirit in which Geraden had probably made it. She understood how he felt. And she wanted to see more of Houseldon. She suspected – in an entirely uncritical way – that there wasn’t a great deal to see. On the other hand, if Master Eremis launched an attack soon, she might need to know everything she could learn about the Domne’s Seat.
Giving Minick a smile which would have astonished Reverend Thatcher – or her father – she went with him to explore Houseldon.
In fact, there was more to see in Houseldon than she had expected. At any rate, Minick thought there was a great deal to see. And he liked to see it all thoroughly, with an attention to detail which was both loving and analytical. For instance, Houseldon contained no less than three livery stables to accommodate the numbers of people who came here from all over the Care, as well as from other regions of Mordant. Each of these was exactly what it claimed to be: a place where horses were left and cared for while their masters transacted business, visited relatives, appealed for justice, pursued crafts or apprenticeships. Yet to Minick each was worth looking at closely; each had virtues and drawbacks which required evaluation; each prospered or declined according to factors which he took pains to understand.
And he was a motherlode of information. He knew exactly where all the drainage pipes had been laid, and when, and how many square yards of leachfield they required. He knew who had first conceived the idea of trussing the eaves-thatch of the roofs with that particular kind of binding, and why it was superior to the way eaves-thatch used to be trussed. He knew where Houseldon’s supplies of tallow came from, and how long they would last in an emergency. And he knew every child he saw by name, parentage, and predilection for mischief.
In a short time, Terisa realized that she had only two choices. She could cut off the tour now, before he drove her to distraction. Or she could relax and let him do whatever he wanted. With him there wasn’t any middle ground.
Well, that fit, she mused. In their separate ways, Geraden, Artagel, and Nyle were all intolerant of middle ground. Wester was said to be a fanatic about wool. Stead couldn’t keep his hands off women. Geraden had called Tholden a compulsive fertilizer. The Domne himself had given up on middle ground when he first met King Joyse. Why should Minick be any different?
Just for a minute, she considered stopping him – telling him that she had had enough, going her own way. But then she noticed that in his company she did very little except smile; he filled her alternately with amusement and affection. He was perfectly capable of distinguishing precisely between good workmanship and bad, sensible husbandry and careless, forethought and its absence; but he liked everybody around him; he loved the details he expounded for her. The more he talked, the more gentle and companionable he seemed. And the more she listened, the more she could feel her tensions and fears going to sleep.
Instead of stopping, she relaxed and let him give her the whole tour.
As a result, the day seemed to evaporate the way complexities did when he analyzed them. He began showing her around a little before noon – and then the shadows were slanting toward late afternoon, and her legs hurt gently with so much walking and standing, and her boots had rubbed a sore place onto one of her toes, and her heart was full of rest for the first time since she could remember. Minick wasn’t just amusing, likable, and meticulous: he was a healer. Somewhere in Houseldon, she knew, preparations were being made for battle – but they didn’t come near him; he seemed to carry peace with him wherever he went. Now, she thought, all she needed was one really good night’s sleep, and then she would be ready to start thinking again.
So when he brought her back to the Domne’s house and started to say good-bye, she didn’t want him to leave. “Where are you, going?” she asked to forestall him.
This time his grin was shy in a new way, self-conscious about things which hadn’t come up before. “I like to go home before supper,” he murmured, “and play with the children for a while. It gives their mother a chance to cook. And it uses up some of their energy so they go to bed more easily.”
The thought of this earnest brown man playing with his children delighted her – and reminded her that during the whole afternoon he hadn’t said anything personal about himself or his life. Maybe he would have considered it presumptuous to talk about himself. Impulsively, because he had done her so much good and hadn’t asked her for anything, she leaned forward and thanked him with a quick kiss.
His eyes widened; he stared at her for a moment. Then he ducked his head as if he were blushing.
“I think I’m not going to tell my wife you did that,” he said softly. “She might not be pleased.” It was obvious that he was enormously pleased. “I like her to be pleased. She’s the only other woman who’s ever been so patient with me.
“Good-bye, Terisa.”
After he left, she went up the steps, across the porch, and into the bustle of Quiss’ cooking. Her cheeks ached from smiling so much. Clearly, those muscles needed the exercise.