Excerpt: Fire of the Covenant

Day 28: Bags, Smiles & Laughter

“No, no, no!” Aeron shook his head as he told Willoe to stop walking across the room. The chamber was the one that she and Protector Dougal had been using for their weapons training, and it made a perfect location for Aeron to teach Willoe how to look and act like a man.

Willoe stomped a foot and gritted her teeth with fists clenched. What did he want? She was frustrated and quickly became angry. She had done everything Aeron had told her to do all day long. How to slouch the shoulders a little, how to lean up against a wall with ankles crossed, and dozens of other bodily acts that differed between men and women. Yet he still wasn’t satisfied. “What was wrong with that?” Her stomach rumbled; they had worked right through supper.

Casandra and Rowyn sat along one wall, watching, while Dilys sat next to Rowyn, engrossed in her embroidery.

Casandra piped up. “I thought that was fine.”

“I agree with Aery. It just doesn’t feel right,” Rowyn voiced. “There is something that just doesn’t say…man. I still see a woman even though she is wearing my clothes, but I cannot tell you why.”

“I am not sure either.” Aeron walked over to Willoe and looked her over. He stepped back. “Can you walk across the room again?”

Willoe huffed in response. What else did he want from her? But she turned and walked back across the room to make him happy, trying not to stomp as she went. Once she reached the back wall, she turned around to face Aeron, her fists on her hips.

“To start with, do not put your hands like that. Every man knows an angry woman’s stance.” Aeron laughed as he said it.

She dropped her hands and looked up at the ceiling. Can I really do this? She wanted to cry, but Aeron had already warned her, repeatedly, against displaying such emotions.

“You almost have it. But there is still something missing.” He rubbed his bearded cheek as if in thought.

Willoe started to jut her hip out, shifting her weight, then remembered what Aeron had told her and shifted back to standing normally, putting equal weight on both legs.

Dilys continued with her embroidery and spoke without looking up. “Bags.”

Everyone turned to her as Aeron asked, “Bags?”

Dilys stayed focused on her needle and repeated. “Bags. She be having no bags.”

Her frustration temporarily overcome by the mystery, Willoe asked, “What do you mean, ‘no bags?’”

“No bollocks.” Dilys put her embroidery down, made two fists next to each other, held a forefinger out between them and wiggled it. She folded the finger into the fist and held both fists up in front of her to emphasize what she meant. “Ye be having no bollocks.”

“Dilys!” Rowyn and Aeron said together.

Casandra, who didn’t seem shocked at all, asked, “What does a lack of bollocks have to do with the way she walks?”

Now Rowyn and Aeron turned to Casandra, both frowning, which made Willoe smile. Why did men always think women never discussed topics like sexual organs, both their own and those of men? What would they think if they were ever to sit in a circle of ladies working on embroidery?

Dilys pointed at Willoe. “Dear, walk across the room again.” She turned to Aeron. “Watch her feet.”

Willoe walked across the room. She had already tried to correct the sway in her walk, as Aeron had pointed out earlier, and tried to stride rather than sway.

“Rowyn, ye walk across the room,” Dilys politely directed Rowyn.

Rowyn looked at Aeron, who nodded. The prince stood and walked across the room as instructed.

Dilys nodded toward Willoe. “The woman’s feet be close together and she walks almost one foot in front of the other, but not quite.”

Aeron plopped down next to Dilys, taking Rowyn’s seat. He sat with his mouth open for a few moments and, without looking at Dilys, said, “And Rowyn walks with his feet farther apart than Willoe.”

Dilys picked up the embroidery again and looked back down as she pushed the needle through the fabric. “No bags.”

Willoe walked up to Aeron and held out a hand with a big smile on her face. “I am glad to meet you, Lord Aeron.”

“Wrong again.” Aeron shook his head, frowning. “You’re still doing it.”

“I can’t help it.” She huffed again for the hundredth time in two days. “Are you sure that men do it that way?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” He turned to Dilys, who was still working on the same embroidery from the day before. She had become Aeron’s advisor in Willoe’s training.

“He is sure,” Dilys agreed.

Aeron twisted his lips, then told Willoe, “Go for a walk around the castle and watch the men and women you pass.”

Willoe changed into her own clothing behind a screen and left the room with Casandra. I don’t see why this is necessary. She stopped and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself before they continued. I have to make this work. They strolled down the Middle Gallery, walking slowly so they could run into as many people as possible.

As they passed other women, Willoe and Casandra would smile. In response, most of the girls’ and women’s lips would part, their teeth clearly visible, as they smiled in return, even among the castle staff.

She also noticed that if a man was in the vicinity, many of the older women kept their mouths tight-lipped, their teeth barely visible.

“Aery was right, look at those men over there.” Willoe pointed toward three men standing alone.

They talked vigorously, but their expressions were neutral, maybe with a thin smile, teeth hidden or barely visible. They seemed so much more serious and less social than the women they encountered.

After circling the castle once they walked several levels down to the Lower Gallery and completed the circuit once again, with the same result. They came across several men in a group who were all laughing.

“Look how open they are.” Casandra said it as an accusation.

“I’ve heard you laugh like that.” Willoe didn’t see a difference.

“Not in public, and especially not around a man.”

“Oh no.” It dawned on Willoe that she also would suppress her laughter if someone other than her brother or cousins were around. She wondered if this was as common a trait among women as Aeron had implied. It was confirmed a few moments later when they came across two women, alone along the walkway, who were both laughing similarly to the men they had just seen, but at a lower volume. Casandra grasped Willoe’s arm and stopped her as several men came down the walkway. As the men approached, the women covered their mouths. They giggled politely through thin lips and nodded to the men as they passed.

“Damn the Shades.” Willoe couldn’t believe it. Something as simple as a smile or laughter could have exposed her on the first day of the escort.

When they returned to the training room, Willoe burst into the room and started to talk excitedly. “You were correct! I wouldn’t—”

Aeron held up a hand, a frown spreading across his face. “You obviously did not learn anything.”

Willoe clamped her hand over her mouth. She removed her hand, nodded at Aeron, then walked back to the door and left, closing the door behind her. She reentered the training room. She pulled her dress up enough to see her feet and strode over to Aeron, walking with her legs a little apart and a set expression on her face. She came straight up to Aeron, dropped the hem of the dress, bowed slightly, and addressed him with a thin-lipped yet polite smile. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Aeron.”

Aeron smiled back, and Willoe noticed that some of his teeth were visible. She did not, however, widen her own smile. He then bowed deeply in return. “It is my pleasure, Prince Rowyn.”

They both laughed out loud with mouths wide open and for the first time she thought, This might actually work.