Page 61 of Circle of Days
“Pia and I can run the farm perfectly well.”
“I came here this morning to have a good look. This farm is too big for you. You must have a man.”
“And I will, within a year.”
He shook his head. “I can’t risk this summer’s harvest.”
Yana was indignant. “You don’t have the right to make that decision!”
“Of course I do, in an emergency.”
“No, no. There’s no precedent. No previous Big Man has claimed emergency powers in my lifetime.”
“Nor in mine. But there has not been a drought this bad in our lifetimes. You have seven days to get a man.”
Yana was shocked. “I can’t team up with a man for life in such a short time!”
“If you don’t, I will choose someone for you.”
“This is wrong, and you know it.”
Troon ignored that. “And don’t think of running away,” he said. “We’ll come and get you, wherever you go. So you’d better start looking today.” With that he turned and walked away, and Stam followed him.
Pia said: “This is outrageous. He can’t do it.”
Yana said: “The trouble is, I think he can.”
Bort’s farm was some distance from the river, on the new land in the Break that had been plowed up ten years ago. The farm was small but Bort also had half a dozen cattle. His woman had died and he now farmed with his son, Deg. Yana and Pia found father and son bringing water from the river, like every other farmer.
It was six days since Troon’s ultimatum. Yana, with the help of Pia and Katch, had considered every family in the farmer community. Many men were left single when a woman died in childbirth, but they did not remain single for long. Duff was single, but he had his hands full running his Aunt Uda’s farm. Yana had found only one possibility, and with great reluctance she had settled on Bort.
He was neither tall nor short, neither handsome nor ugly. He had thinning brown hair and a wispy beard. There was nothing at all to admire about him, Pia thought dismally: he was not charming, nor intelligent, nor even just likable. Yana would never love him. But she would have him. She had to.
He was surprised to see them, but quite pleased, which Pia thought was a good sign.
Yana began by saying: “It’s a hard pull from the river to your farm.”
“That’s the truth,” Bort said.
“A lot less at my place.”
Bort looked disapproving, and Pia realized her mother had made a mistake. The farm was not Yana’s. Bort reminded her of that by saying: “I was sorry to hear that Alno died.”
“Thank you.”
“I suppose that’s why you’ve come to see me.”
Yana did not answer directly. “Shall we sit down?” They moved into the shade of a hawthorn tree in pale-pink blossom. They sat. Clearly Bort was not going to offer them so much as a drink of water.
Yana pointed to Bort’s son, Deg, who had not said a word so far. She said: “Deg must have seen twenty midsummers.”
“Twenty-one come this midsummer,” Bort said, stating the obvious.
“Soon he’ll want to settle with a woman, and together they will run this farm. But it doesn’t need three. Now, my Pia’s younger than Deg, but it won’t be long before she wants a man and a place of her own. So there’s an empty space for a man on my farm.”
Bort said: “You’re offering this to me.”
“Yes. It’s good land, close to the river, and when the drought ends it will give rich harvests. It can be yours.”
