Page 19 of Circle of Days
At midday he ate some more cold pork, drank at the spring, and lay down to rest for a while. He still hurt all over but the work took his mind off his aches.
He removed the old lintel and replaced it with the new one, but of course it was not stable, and he did not have any straps. However, he wondered if there was another way to attach the lintel to the doorposts.
Perhaps he could use a flint bradawl to dig two holes in the lintel, make matching holes in the tops of the doorposts, and drive a long peg through the lintel and into the doorposts. He did not much like that solution: it would be a lot of work with the bradawl, and the pegs might break.
He thought a bit more and had a better idea.
With a flint chisel he could shave the tops of the doorposts, leaving a bit sticking up in the middle, like a peg. Then he could dig out matching holes in the lintel. It would have to be carefully measured so that when he placed the lintel across the two doorposts, the pegs would fit exactly and firmly into the holes.
He could not see any reason why that would not work.
He spent the afternoon doing it and thinking about Neen.
Recalling his time with her cheered him up. During their night together she had taught him things he had never dreamed of. He smiled as he remembered. In his fantasy, Neen would become a wise and kind mother like Ani. He and Neen would be loving parents, and their happy children would never be hurt.
But she had refused to talk about their future together, which meant—he became more sure of this as he mulled it over—that she was still thinking about Enwood.
He longed to talk to her again. But when would he see her? Did he have the nerve to defy his father again and run away? It was a possibility he could not contemplate while he still hurt all over. And what would she say, next time he showed up outside her house?
The pegs fit the holes the first time. He fixed the loose rafters to the lintel. Their weight would make the peg-and-hole joints even stronger.
He heard a noise and turned to see that his family had arrived home. Cog, Olf, and Cam stood at the edge of the pit, looking down. Cog’s nose was red and swollen, Seft saw with secret satisfaction.
Cog said: “You haven’t cleaned up!”
Olf said: “There’s loads of rubbish left.”
Cam said: “You lazy dog!”
“That doesn’t matter,” Seft said. “I’ve stopped the house falling down.” He stepped off his platform.
“Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter,” his father said angrily. “I ordered you to clear up the floor of the pit, and you haven’t done it.”
Seft’s heart sank. Was Cog really going to pretend that he had done nothing useful? How could he be so stupid? “The lintel wasrotten and it had slipped off one doorpost. The house was about to fall down. But I’ve made a new lintel.”
Cog was unyielding. “It’s no good. You haven’t even strapped the lintel to the doorposts. You’ve just been shirking hard work, boy. You should have followed my orders. Now get on with clearing up.”
Seft said: “Aren’t you even going to look at how I’ve done it?”
“No, I’m not. I’m going to cook a piece of beef I got at Upriver.”
Seft was surprised by the reference to Upriver. Cog and the other two must have left the Monument early and gone to Upriver to trade their flints there. He wondered why. Perhaps they had got into trouble over the fight.
Seft hoped so.
Cog went on: “And you don’t get any supper until the pit is clean.”
This was outrageous. “I’m entitled to that beef. I mined the flints that you gave for it. Are you going to steal it from me now, like a common thief?”
“Not if you finish cleaning the pit.” And with that Cog withdrew from the edge of the pit, and the brothers did the same.
Seft could have wept. But he took a basket and went down the climbing pole, a tree trunk with notches cut in its sides to serve as handholds and footholds. He picked up litter until the basket was full, then climbed the pole to the surface and dumped its contents on the rubbish pile.
Cog, Olf, and Cam were now resting on the ground outside the house. They had made a fire and Seft smelled the roasting meat. He went back down the pole and picked up more rubbish.
The next time he climbed the pole he saw that Wun, the nosy flint miner, was here. He was a small man who made quick movements and thought fast. He was asking Cog how he had got on at Upriver.
“Very well,” Cog said briskly. “I sold everything.”
