The Autumn Queen No. 20 – My boy

This is #20 of The Autumn Queen. To start at the beginning, go here.

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Many captains thought it ill luck to provide passage for a woman in flight, as I so obviously was, but the amount of gold I was providing managed to allay many fears, and gain me friends enough to keep me and the wee one safe. The trip was without ruin; the sea was neither stormed nor becalmed. I did not find the heave and toss of the deck made me ill, nor did it affect the little dark-eyed beast at my breast

We did not stay in the port town where we made landfall, but hired carriages and horses, and packed them with empty bags and sent them in three different directions, in case we had been followed across the seas. The fourth carriage I purchased and drove myself, then traded it out for a wagon at the next town, and a shoddier wagon at the next. I made us look poor and without anything save the most wretched of nags, and then I got rid of the nags as well, in the last of it, and made do with walking.

It took weeks to reach a town that looked as though it hadn’t seen news since well before everything had gone to hell, a place where we wouldn’t be questioned. I found a cunning-woman on the edges of the village proper, with a garden in poor repair, and she took me on in an apprenticeship, asking few questions, because she needed the extra hands so badly.

I fully intend to live out my life here, to raise the boy never knowing anyone but me as his mother, and Grey Ness as his grandmother, and if they what give me the child had any sense at all, they’d let it lie that way, and forget all about any plots or plans. Nothing for them here, anymore, anyway.

He’s my boy now.

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About Catastrophe Jones

Wretched word-goblin with enough interests that they're not particularly awesome at any of them. Terrible self-esteem and yet prone to hilarious bouts of hubris. Full of the worst flavors of self-awareness. Owns far too many craft supplies. Will sing to you at the slightest provocation.
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2 Responses to The Autumn Queen No. 20 – My boy

  1. Trent Lewin says:

    Good stuff, Jones. Like the new graphic for your site, too. I think I have to clean up mine.

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