Lora of Two Worlds

No horseback ride, and they’d treated the horse for free. The stationmaster, for once generous, gave them a jar of his own green-foam ale. The ten coppers weren’t refunded.

Today was the spring equinox. Though on the road, Alvin had arranged for a sheep to be slaughtered in town, a treat for the company. When Roland came back, Linnie ran down from the boat to report:

”Lord Roland, the Duke of Yarrowvale is on our boat! The deputy commander kept him for dinner. He asked for you by name.” ”By name? I don’t know him. How does he know me?” Roland was puzzled.

”He said he saw you at the Rush lock, with guards, in officer’s armor. Who else could it be?” Linnie had been with the convoy for days and knew everyone.

The Duke had been right there?

But at the lock, apart from the clerks in official dress, everyone had been in plain clothes. A marcher duke, a third-rank lord, would have an entourage. How could they’ve missed him?

Leon and Roland exchanged a look.

Roland went to the passenger boat. Lora and Leon headed for the stern boat. Leon asked: ”How do you know how to treat horse legs?”

”Because the travelling herbalist who taught me was actually a vet!”

Lora bounced aboard. Lyle nearly burst out laughing: ”My lord, the young lady means she’s been treating you like a horse!”

”Talk too much and you’ll swap shifts with Green.” Leon didn’t find it funny at all.

Lyle straightened up, swallowing his laugh.

Green had barely left the boat these past days, to avoid being recognized by von Klein. He’d been cooped up in the cabin. Good thing he was a chamberlain, used to confinement.

Just as Leon was thinking about chamberlains, von Klein’s attendant, Lai Derrick, came over: ”Lord Leon, the envoy says: bring the young lady and Lord Lyle to the passenger boat. The Duke wishes to meet you.”

”Me too?”

Lyle, thirteenth in his family, given the surname ”Claude” at the Duke of Zayne’s mansion, hence Claude Lionel. He went to the stern, collected Lora, and the three followed Lai Derrick aboard.

The Duke, Eugene Osler, saw Lora and laughed:

”Who would have thought, the Odenheim household breeds talent. Even the guardswoman is unlike any other. I didn’t realize you were a young lady.”

”And I didn’t realize the farmer standing behind us was the Duke.”

They bowed. Lora took her place beside Leon and Lyle, behind the Odenheim brothers. Von Klein waved her forward:

”The Duke praises you, come, sit behind the deputy commander.”

Alvin and Roland stood at once, seating her between them.

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Von Klein said nothing. But Linnie, standing beside him, stared:

Imagine that. This scrap of a girl has such pull. I’ve been on this boat with Lord Alvin for days, barely two words. And he’s this warm with her?

Lora didn’t want to stand out. She demurred. Von Klein took it for modesty and told Linnie:

”Go sit with your teacher. She can teach you dance, and teach farmers how to irrigate. A rare woman.”

Linnie brightened. She went over, took Lora’s hand, and sat her between the brothers: So men in the capitals like clever women. I won’t have to play the simpering fool anymore.

With everyone seated, Osler said:

”A young lady from the General’s household, and she knows how to make irrigation channels from reed tubes, drill holes, and drip-water the fields. An eye-opener. After you left, I made the decision on the spot: seal only half the lock, maintain the Rush’s water level. And I’ll promote the reed-channel drip method along the river, reduce water use.”

Osler had changed into plain robes before coming. A court lord by training, his scholar’s robe gave him a scholarly air.

Von Klein praised: ”The Duke serves the realm with all his heart. The King would be pleased. You arrived in a land laid waste, and within a year, refugees are home, plowing the fields again. No small feat.”

”I’ve thirty thousand Yarrowvale soldiers to feed. If they don’t work, they don’t eat. Can’t keep begging the King for grain. The trouble is, too few hands. The old and weak can’t do heavy work. Young men are in short supply...”

Lora, seeing him trail off, asked: ”Is it because the young men have all become monks?”

She’d asked because of what the two women at the lock had said. It had stuck with her.

”The young lady knows this too?” Osler chuckled, his gaze curious:

”That’s one reason. Years of war, soldiers lost. Re-conscription took more. And in the drought years, farming families have it hardest.”

”The northern drought isn’t one or two years old. Isn’t there a better way?” Roland had seen his sister’s drip-irrigation method today. There were ways to fight the drought.

Osler tugged his beard at the two young lords and smiled: ”As long as there’s no war, things will get better.”

As they talked, the simple dinner arrived. Aside from Alvin’s mutton, Osler had brought fresh vegetables and fruit, he knew boats lacked greens.

Lora pointed at the cucumbers and gourds: ”Duke, do you grow many of these?”

”The young lady likes them? I’ll have more sent over.”

Osler was unassuming. The Count of Odenheim was an old acquaintance. He knew the General had a cherished daughter, and Alvin’s manner confirmed it. The ”guardswoman” was a face-saving fiction.

Linnie thought: This is my chance to look clever. She nodded eagerly:

”I love cucumbers. Sliced and applied to the face, makes the skin smooth.”

”Oh? I only know cucumbers eaten raw quench thirst. I didn’t know they’re for the face. Do you apply and eat at the same time? Otherwise, isn’t it wasteful?”

Linnie hadn’t thought of that. She stammered. Lora smiled:

”Duke, growing cucumbers and gourds in a drought is the waste. Cucumbers, gourds, bitter melon, they all need heavy watering. Better to switch to long beans. Besides, your four provinces have rivers crossing them. The surface water is low, but the underground water isn’t. Digging more wells is another remedy.”

”Ah!” Osler stood and bowed to Lora. She dodged aside:

”Please, this... this is what I heard from the guardsmen who’ve farmed. Their experience. Right, Lord Leon?”

Leon had discussed drought with Lora on the boat. She’d mentioned Southland grain, he’d send men to find it. She’d also proposed several other methods, all quite practical.

The wells and low-water vegetables were two of them. And now she was deflecting credit to him, which he hadn’t expected.

”Lord Leon? You helped split the reeds earlier... What other ideas do you have?” Osler didn’t know Leon, took him for an Odenheim guardsman.

Leon, composed: ”The Duke should also have the people plant trees.”

Trees? Harder to grasp than wells or beans. Osler pressed: ”Trees consume more water. They can’t be eaten. How does that help the drought?”

”One year, no use. Three years, five years, it will. Years of war burned cities and villages. Rebuilding meant felling trees. That causes soil erosion, and affects rainfall.”

All Lora’s words, of course. To explain how trees influenced rain, she’d drawn him a diagram of the water cycle.

He’d been skeptical at the time. But he’d thought about it so many times it now came out smoothly.

Leon glanced at Lora sitting ahead:

From the set of her shoulders...

She looked like a teacher who’d just aced a student’s exam.

Smug as could be.