For Love or Money by Lady MSM

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I Have Issues with Clothing and Discuss Horses

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Chapter 3: I Have Issues with Clothing and Discuss Horses

 

            I wake up bright and early the next morning and realize that I forgot to bring along a change of clothes.

            This isn’t a huge deal, since I once went ten days without changing clothes when I was working on a big project, but I have no idea how long I’m going to be staying here and my clothes from last night are still pretty wet. At least I remembered to bring a nightshirt, but I can hardly go walking around town in that. People here aren’t used to my eccentricities.

            I finally decide that the only way to solve this problem is to enlist the help of Nerdanel’s mother. She probably knows where I can buy or borrow some clothes. I’m going to have to be careful with my money though—I don’t have a ton, and most of that is probably going to go towards my food and shelter.

            “Good morning, Ernil!” says Harma brightly as I step into the kitchen. “Oh, look at ye, yer still in yer nightclothes! Hadn’t ye better get dressed?”

            “Well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” I say. “I’m actually somewhat…short of clothes. Actually, all that I brought was this and what I was wearing yesterday.”

            Harma frowns. “Ye were planning on staying up here, and yet ye didn’t bring along any clothes?”

            Oops. She may be starting to suspect something. “Well, I left in a hurry…because I wanted to leave before it started raining, though that didn’t work out too well. And so I sort of…forgot to pack much.”

            She frowns at me a bit more, and then shakes her head. “Yer a bit forgetful, aren’t ye, Ernil.”

            I laugh in relief. Good, she bought it. “Yes, when I’m in a hurry. It’s really something I need to work on.”

            “Well, I’m sure I can make a few things for ye. And until then, ye can borrow a few things of Mahtan’s. Yer about his height, though I think yer a bit skinnier than him.”

            “Thank you, that would be excellent,” I say. “If it’s not too much trouble.”

            “Nonsense, it won’t be that much work. After all, yer our guest, aren’t ye? I’ll go ask Mahtan if he’s got any clothes ye can borrow.”

            Huh, I think. And here I was thinking that hiding my identity wouldn’t get me treated like a prince.

            “Get some clothes on, Ernil. No one wants to see that.”

            I look up and there’s Nerdanel, obviously just coming in from doing chores. She’s looking at me the way that Indis looks at other people’s shoes—with complete contempt. I really don’t need this first thing in the morning, so I sort of snap back.

 “Oh, I’m dreadfully sorry for offending you, madam,” I say. “I’m sure my feet and lower legs must be an incredibly traumatizing sight. What a good thing it is for both of us that you’re not as hospitable as your parents!”

Nerdanel shakes her head and heads off towards her room without another word.

Eventually I’m going to figure out what she has against me, and whatever it is, it had better be good.

She’s right, though—I really shouldn’t be standing around in my nightshirt, so I go back in my room. These small-town folk certainly get up early. It can’t be later than seven in the morning, and Nerdanel and Harma look like they’ve been up for at least an hour. I usually get up at nine or later.

My door is abruptly opened, and a bundle of clothing thrown at me. “There,” snaps Nerdanel. “Now get dressed and meet me outside. The horses haven’t been fed yet.”

I yawn, get dressed in Mahtan’s clothes (which are a bit short and wide on me, and have a slightly odd smell, not that I’m complaining) and less-than-enthusiastically follow her outside. Maybe if I try not to say anything she’ll stop yelling at me.

“Ye’ve got quite the nice horse here,” says Nerdanel admiringly when I get to the stable. She’s petting my dad’s horse’s nose, and actually smiling for once. “Ye can tell she’s got breeding.”

“Yes, she’s a great horse,” I say. “And since she’s brown, I can ride her in the woods and be practically invisible.”

Nerdanel chuckles a little. “And what’s her name, then?”

I look at the ground, a little embarrassed. “Her name’s…Chocolate.” Nerdanel raises her eyebrows. “Look, my father let me name her when I was about five, okay? I’ve come up with about sixty-seven better names since then, but unfortunately Chocolate’s what she responds to now.”

“That’s cute,” says Nerdanel, smirking. “Nice to meet ye, Chocolate.”

“So…you must like horses, then,” I say, as we go about letting the horses out to graze (They have two horses, and both of them seem to like me quite a bit, which is reassuring).

“I like most animals,” Nerdanel replies. “Dogs and horses are me favorites. I’ve never liked cats much, though. Rotten stuck-up little beasts.”

“My father loves cats,” I say. “He’s always got two or three of them around the house somewhere. Often they’re strays one of the servants just picked up off the street.”

She wrinkles her nose. “I don’t think I’d like livin’ in yer house, Ernil.”

“Well, I don’t mind the cats so much, they’re usually all right. But they get hair everywhere! And there’s a couple of rooms in our house that always smell like cats.” I’m sort of starting to have fun now. “And this one time, one of my little brothers, he sits down on the couch without looking where he’s sitting, and he sits on one!”

“He sat on a cat?” says Nerdanel. She grins. “Hey, that’s a poem.”

I nod. “Spontaneous poetry. Very nice.”

She laughs, and then frowns, like she’s remembered that she’s supposed to dislike me. “Well, I think the horses have had enough to eat, don’t ye? Let’s put ‘em back in the stable.”

            We do this, and I’m just about to go back inside when Nerdanel calls, “Say, Ernil…”

            “Yes?” I say, turning around.

            “About earlier this morning…if yer going to live in this house, yer going to have to learn when I’m being serious and when I’m not.”

            I think that may have been an apology.

            “Of course,” I say. “And for the record, I’d probably be offended if you went around the house in your nightshirt, too.”

           

            “So tell us about yer family, Ernil,” says Harma as we sit down to dinner that night. It’s time for some more lies (and selective omissions), but fortunately, I’m somewhat prepared for this.

            “Well,” I say, “my father is…on the city council, and he’s a bit important, I suppose, so we’ve got some money. My…mother…”(I will never get used to calling Indis that) “…spends most of her time with my brothers or her friends. My brothers are twelve and nine, and they mostly like causing trouble.”

            “So what are yer brothers’ names?” asks Mahtan.

            “Um…Ambarhil and Randir,” I say, naming my two best friends from back home. They’re sort of like brothers to me, anyway. And they often act like they’re nine and twelve.

            “And which one was it that sat on the cat?” inquires Nerdanel.

            “That was…Randir,” I say. “The younger one. He never watches where he’s sitting.” (That’s actually quite true of my youngest brother Finarfin, who is probably going to accidentally sit on a wild boar someday).

            “Me younger sister once got her leg stomped on by a horse,” remarks Mahtan. “She limps a bit to this day, poor girl.”

            “How old was she when it happened?” I ask, glad we’ve gotten off the subject of my family. I haven’t thought up any detailed lies about them yet.

            “She was thirteen. By that point, I was already married and moved away, so I wasn’t there to tell her not to go near Da’s horses!”

            Harma laughs. “Sure and I’ve always liked yer sister. Bit of a bad influence on Nerdanel, though, I think.”

            “Oh, ye just don’t like that she told me that I could get a proper education in the city,” says Nerdanel. “Which I could, by the way.”

            “That’s not a choice for ye right now and ye know it,” says Harma. “Yer too young to go off to the city on yer own! Ye’ve got no one to stay with and no experience with cities. Once yer old enough, ye can do what ye like, but for now yer just going to have to stay here.”

“Oh, bosh. Ye just don’t want me to go because ye need me to help around the house! And Ernil’s barely older than I am but he’s off on his own…”

            “Nerdanel, we are not going to have this argument in front of our guest,” says Mahtan sharply. “And if yer going to be disagreeable ye can go to yer room.”

            Nerdanel scowls and goes back to eating. I sit back in my chair and reflect that no family’s perfect.