Claws: Homeward VII Read online

  “What now?” Julianna asked uncomfortably.

  “Now? Come and greet my family. I know you’ll love them all.”

  That remained to be seen, but she followed him toward the wagons. As she drew closer, she couldn’t help noting the charm of the small homes built onto the backs of the wagons, with doors and windows and painted shutters.

  Nadja was already in the embrace of a dark-haired woman who looked over and saw Jan approaching.

  “Darling boy!” she cried, letting go of Nadja and running to Jan.

  Julianna had met Aunt Doreena before, briefly. She was larger and more full-bodied than Nadja, dressed in a full yellow skirt and a white low-cut blouse—with a half dozen bracelets on each wrist. She wore her thick black hair in a single braid, with an orange scarf tied around her head. Her nose was broader than Nadja’s, but her smile was wide, and her dark eyes expressed every emotion she felt.

  “My sweet boy,” she said, embracing Jan in a bear hug and pulling him close. “How I have missed your face.”

  Her overly enthusiastic manner left Julianna off balance, and the moment the bear hug ended, Doreena’s attention turned again. “Julianna? Is that you?”

  “Yes,” Julianna answered quietly.

  “You are a woman! A lovely young woman now. Let me see you.”

  To Julianna’s dismay, Doreena strode over and embraced her like a lost daughter, not seeming to notice that Julianna was too stunned to hug her back.

  “Rosario!” Doreena shouted. “Leave off with those horses and come here right now.”

  Both Nadja and Jan appeared not only comfortable but delighted with Doreena’s boisterous nature, and the sight of Jan smiling made Julianna feel more disposed toward his rather loud aunt.

  A behemoth of a man came striding from around the side of a wagon, seeing Nadja and grinning at her broadly. “How fine it is to see you.”

  His chest was wide as two normal men. He wore his black hair short—and sported a thick moustache. He wore loose breeches, a white shirt, and a russet vest. He too was soon hugging Jan and then kissing the side of Nadja’s face, and afterward, he turned to Julianna in slight puzzlement, as if wondering who she was and why she was here.

  Julianna had seen him before on these brief stopovers, but she’d never been introduced.

  “This is Julianna,” Nadja said quickly, stepping closer. “She will be taking my place this year in the family travels.

  At that, even Doreena fell silent for a few breaths, but then she looked more deeply into Nadja’s face, perhaps seeing a good deal in an instant, and without blinking, answered, “Of course she will be most welcome. Jan, introduce her to your cousins.”

  Already feeling overwhelmed, Julianna could hardly refuse when Jan grabbed her hand and led her around the side of the first wagon.

  “Rico,” he called.

  A man unharnessing a horse turned his head. He was a taller, more muscular version of Jan, with an utterly serious expression. Julianna was struck by the impression that he’d never laughed in his life.

  “This is Julianna,” Jan said as they approached. “She’s coming with us this year. Julianna, this is my cousin, Rico. He has almost nothing to say and he’s a bit of a bore, but a solid fellow nonetheless.”

  Julianna’s mouth fell open.

  Rico didn’t appear to even notice the insult and raised one eyebrow at Julianna.

  “Coming with us?” he said. “Did you...? Are you...?”

  With deep embarrassment, she realized he was wondering she and Jan were a couple, possibly even married.

  “No!” she exclaimed.

  Jan frowned at her. “Well, you needn’t be so emphatic about it.” He turned back to Rico. “She’s like my sister. Mother cannot come this year, and she wants someone to keep an eye on me.”

  The word “sister” stung a bit, as Julianna and Jan hardly viewed each other as siblings, but they also weren’t a couple. What exactly were they? She had no idea.

  However, Rico nodded stoically and looked over the top her head. “You’ll need to meet Belle.”

  Who was Belle?

  Before she could ask, a young woman, perhaps seventeen, came walking—swaying—toward them, and Jan’s face lit up. “Julianna, this is my other cousin, Rico’s sister, Belle.”

  Again, Julianna’s mouth fell open.

  Belle seemed to both sway and glide at the same time. She was small and slender with an incredible mass of wavy dark hair. Her skin was pale as opposed to Jan’s more dusky shade, but her large eyes were black. Her mouth was heart-shaped and tinted red. She wore a deep blue skirt with a white blouse as low-cut as Aunt Doreena’s, but as opposed to Doreena’s large breasts, Belle’s were smaller and perfectly rounded... with the tops clearly exposed at her neckline.

  She was the most beautiful girl Julianna had ever seen.

  “Belle,” Jan said, “Come and meet Julianna. She’s coming with me this year.”

  Belle glanced in Julianna’s direction.

  “Charmed,” she murmured absently and then focused all her attention on Jan. “You get more handsome every year. You’re a little thinner, but it suits you.”

  He took two steps and picked her up in a hug, the two of them chatting away as if no one else existed. Rico turned back to the horses, and Julianna stood at a loss.

  Wasn’t Belle Jan’s cousin? His first cousin if Julianna understood things correctly: both Belle and Rico were the children of Doreena and Rosario.

  Just then, Zupan Cadell came around the side of the wagon, and he smiled at her a little sadly. She knew he was going to miss her.

  “Getting acquainted?” he asked.

  Trying, she thought.

  At the sound of Cadell’s voice, Belle turned from Jan and appeared to forget him instantly. She curtseyed low.

  “Why, Uncle, you get more handsome each year.”

  To Julianna’s surprise, Cadell blushed like a boy.

  And then... she realized that Belle probably had no more interest in Jan than she did in any other man. She was one of those women who required the full and undivided attention of anything male in the vicinity.

  Julianna sighed.

  That didn’t bode well for the journey—and Nadja should have warned her.

  “Rico,” Cadell said. “As soon as you’ve got the horses settled in the stable, have everyone come into the keep. We’ll make a feast and drink some ale together.”

  By way of answer, Rico nodded once.

  Julianna could make no guesses, but there was definitely something odd about him. Although physically, he was even more striking than Jan—which was no easy feat—he appeared to possess none of Jan’s wit or charm... or even Jan’s previous enjoyment of life. Rico struck her as “serious” and nothing more.

  And yet, for better or for worse, Julianna had been introduced to the immediate members of this Móndyalítko family, and she hoped she’d have a little time to get to know all the others before she would be expected to remember names.

  The rest of that afternoon and then evening soon proved so busy that she barely had time to worry. She, Nadja, Doreena and a few other Móndyalítko women (not Belle), worked in the kitchen of the keep to prepare a feast of roasted vegetables, chicken stew, and apple tarts.

  The night was filled with eating and drinking—followed by substantial clean-up efforts—and Julianna did not get to bed until after the mid of night.

  The following morning... after a quietly painful good-bye to Nadja and the zupan, she climbed into a wagon with Jan—as she had promised—and rolled out the broken gate of the keep, down the road, leaving everything she knew behind.

  · · · · ·

  As dusk set in two nights later, Julianna sank down by a campfire, with Jan settling at her side, and her mind spun from all that she’d learned in so short a time. Life on the road with the Móndyalítko had turned out to be nothing as she’d had expected.

  For one, she’d assumed it would be disorganized, bordering on chaotic. But
that preconception quickly proved false.

  The interiors of the wagons were well structured. Julianna and Jan rode with Aunt Doreena’s family. Inside, the wagon-house boasted three beds. Two of them were narrow bunks built into the wall that ran parallel with the front side of the wagon, and a third, wider bed was built into the left-side wall. Doreena and Rosario slept in the wider bed.

  Julianna had been unsettled at first to be told that she would take Rico’s bunk, and he would sleep outside in a tent with Jan.

  “No...” she had stammered. “I cannot take his bed and turn him outside.”

  But Jan assured her this had been the case for many years, and Nadja had always taken Rico’s bunk, and the two young men didn’t mind sleeping in the tent in the least. In the end, Julianna had to agree. What was the alternative? That she sleep in the tent with Jan?

  Meals were also well structured, cooked outside over open fires using pots and iron hooks.

  In the morning, as the men readied the wagons, the women made tea and boiled eggs and prepared oats with cream—as the family traveled with their own chickens and a milk cow—and in a surprisingly short time, the wagons were rolling down the road with everyone properly fed. Within these first two days, Julianna had followed the routine closely enough to begin pitching in, gathering eggs, milking the cow, searching for firewood, and Doreena complimented her more than once for her efforts.

  Belle never lifted a finger and no one expected her to.

  The mid-day meal was served quickly, while the horses were given a short rest, consisting of sliced apples and small hunks of cheese.

  Then everyone was back on the road.

  Julianna had never spent so much time in motion, and the rolling of the wagons sometimes bothered her stomach, but she kept such troubles to herself.

  The end of the first day had been a great relief, and tonight, once her stomach settled, she was even prepared to enjoy herself. Evenings were proving to be her favorite time.

  The women spent as much time as necessary over the evening meal, making rich stews with wild onions and venison or roasting rabbits. She noticed that Rico vanished as soon as they stopped to make camp, and he brought back game to be prepared and eaten on the following night. Julianna thought he must be a skilled hunter.

  But the main reason she looked forward to this evening was that only two days into the journey she could see a drastic change in Jan. He was becoming more and more his old self. The moment Doreena learned that he’d lost his violin—when he’d been conscripted—she’d dug through a chest and produced one for him that was presently in need of an owner. The look on Jan’s face was worth any discomfort Julianna had suffered so far.

  He’d taken it from Doreena’s hands like a drowning man might grab a rope and immediately begun to play in fits and starts, stopping to tune it to his own tastes, forgetting everything and everyone around him.

  Julianna didn’t mind.

  At night, once supper was finished and the dishes were washed and packed away, the group would gather around the fire and entertain each other with music and singing and dancing. Julianna never thought she would enjoy such festivities, but she did.

  So, now, Jan sat beside her by the fire waiting for everyone to gather, and he began to better acquaint her with the other Móndyalítko.

  “That is Rosario’s brother, Heraldo,” Jan said softly, pointing to a burly man on the other side of the fire. “He and his family live in the second wagon.” Looking around, he gestured to a thin young man perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old. “That’s Corbin, Heraldo’s adopted son.”

  Julianna had noticed Corbin before and felt rather sorry for him. She wondered from where he’d been adopted. He had none of Rico’s serious strength or Jan’s charm. His pinched face reminded her of a rodent, and he tended to jerk nervously a good deal, like a rodent. His hair was thin and unwashed, rather like the rest of him.

  However, this didn’t stop Belle from flirting with him at any opportunity.

  Julianna pushed such petty thoughts from her mind and tried to focus on Jan’s words as he continued explaining small things about the rest of the traveling group. There were fifteen people in all, sharing three wagons. In the late spring, summer and early fall, several of the younger members slept outside in tents.

  She learned that everyone had at least one skill or talent, from reading palms or telling futures, to performing astonishing card tricks, to playing the violin, to singing... to dancing. It came as no surprise that Belle’s talent was dancing, and she knew how to move seductively to the sound of slow music.

  As of yet, though, the group had not entertained anyone besides each other.

  “How do they earn their living?” Julianna asked.

  The light from the fire reflected off one side of Jan’s face as he looked at her. “What did Mother tell you?”

  “She didn’t tell me much.”

  “We’ll begin to set up shows as soon as we reach Serov.”

  Julianna shook her head, not following.

  “Mother didn’t even tell you that much?” He turned his entire torso toward her. “We’re heading southeast to a town called Serov. The vassal of Serov Castle is a friend of Uncle Rosario, and so the town magistrate allows our family to set up for a whole moon each autumn.”

  “A whole moon?” Julianna repeated.

  “Yes, the people there have come to expect us. Aunt Doreena is a skilled fortune-teller, and Uncle Rosario plans shows for the rest of us to perform. He puts out hats, and people toss in coins. Villagers from leagues away come to see us.” He paused, thinking, as if he’d not expected to be explaining this to her. “After we finish up on Serov, we move on to Kéonsk for the Autumn Fair.”

  Julianna gasped, “Kéonsk?”

  This information was coming rather quickly. Kéonsk was the largest city in Droevinka, and soldiers from the House of Väränj zealously guarded it.

  Jan held up one hand. “Don’t worry. We needn’t enter the gates if we don’t wish to. Every autumn, Kéonsk hosts an enormous fair in the open area outside the west gates. It’s like a temporary marketplace. Farmers and merchants come from all over Droevinka, and so do the Móndyalítko. We are welcomed there as we provide entertainment at no cost to the city.” He paused. “It’s important that our people only go to places where they have permission or they are invited. Sensible families have a yearly path laid out, and I can assure you, for all their bluster, Aunt Doreena and Uncle Rosario are quite sensible.”

  Julianna absorbed this information, relieved at the thought that they had a destination where they’d camp for a moon.

  “Did you think we’d be traveling the entire time?” he asked.

  “I did,” she admitted, “or rather, I had no idea what to expect.”

  He smiled. “You’ll like Serov.”

  “Jan!” Aunt Doreena called. “Belle wants to dance. Play one of your slow tunes for her.”

  Without being asked twice, Jan jumped to his feet and went to join his beautiful cousin. Belle adjusted her clothing, pulling the neckline of her blouse down slightly. Jan raised his bow, and began to play the slow strains of haunting music. Julianna had almost forgotten how good he was with a violin.

  Then... Belle began to dance, and Julianna could see every man around the fire forget that Jan was even there as Belle moved her arms and hips seductively. She was graceful and lovely. Looking around the fire at various faces though, Julianna saw only appreciation and approval in most eyes—as most of these men were related to her, and Belle probably brought in a good deal of money via strangers throwing coins into hats. However, Corbin, the rat-faced young man was leaning forward with his hands on the ground, staring at her like he was starving.

  Julianna thought Belle would do well to discourage him, as he was not likely a man she would choose to marry.

  Instead, Belle moved closer, dancing right in front of him.

  Julianna closed her eyes, trying to forget Belle and only to hear the beautiful song tha
t Jan played.

  · · · · ·

  A few days later, in the mid-afternoon, the group rolled up to the outskirts of Serov, and Jan hopped down from the top of the wagon to an unpleasant surprise: there were already four Móndyalítko wagons parked in the family’s camping site.

  Rico hopped down beside him, his face equally puzzled, but Uncle Rosario nearly shot off the top of the bench—from where he’d been driving the horses—and strode toward the site.

  “Sebastian!” he barked, “You cheating, lying, filthy...”

  He trailed off as a short, fat man wearing a felt hat and numerous rings in both ears walked lazily toward him from the other camp.

  “Rosario,” he said, yawning. “How good to see you.”

  “Don’t you try that,” Rosario snapped. “What in the seven hells are you doing here? You know Serov is ours.”

  Behind Jan, the door to the family wagon opened, and he turned to see Julianna stick her head out. “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Jan answered.

  He stopped listening to his uncle and the man called Sebastian arguing, and he moved to help Julianna down. However, she needed no assistance and climbed down before he reached her.

  Instead of the new dress and paisley sash his mother had made for her, today, she wore her old red dress, and though the color was not as bright and seams were a bit worn, he had to admit that her hand-me-down garment suited her better. The skirt was a little shorter, barely reaching her ankles, and the sleeves were pushed up, and she moved with much greater ease. All the bracelets were gone, and her silky hair was in a braid down her back. Perhaps she had grown tired of attempting to look like something she was not and decided to just be herself.

  He much preferred her as herself.

  The voices of Rosario and Sebastian grew louder—and then insults began to fly.

  “Rico,” Julianna said. “Do you have any idea what’s happening?”

  Rico’s ever-serious face was still puzzled, and before he could answer, Aunt Doreena emerged from the wagon, climbing down to the ground.