Winter's Dance (#1 Ruthen Quartet)

Ch-28. Chavva

"Come in Chavva!" she squealed. "Do come in!"

She froze. "Cathy, do you not have internal bleeding? How can you move about?"

Someone guffawed from inside the house. "You believed her? She wrote it like that so that you would come soon."

"Tell me it is a joke, Cathy," Chavva whispered.

"Oh, it is," her friend said merrily. "Had I not written that letter like that, you would have never come."

"Why would you want me to come?" she asked. "I have a lot of work back home."

"All healers have a lot of work," Cathy snorted. "That does not mean that we must not have time for us."

"Are you keeping a guest out, Cathy?" a masculine voice said.

"My! Come in, Chavva," Cathy invited.

Her chin wobbled. "Do you have any idea how much I have thrown away to come and help you? A man who was about to die and so many things. Now you want me to sit with you and have a chat?"

Cathy was taken aback. "I am sorry." She cast her eyes down. "I wished my friend would be there for me till my time."

Chavva sighed. What would she do? Aeron or Cathy? Promise or friendship? The hopeful look on Cathy's face wanted her to tear her heart open.

It was up to her. She could either turn and leave or stay and help. But she had already reached here.

She slumped her shoulder. "Move aside, Cathy." When the pregnant woman did not move, she said, "I believe you invited me in."

Placing the lamp on a short stool, she clasped her. Her huge belly between them. She hugged back trying not to hurt her.

"Is my wife that charming that you came in, Chavva?" Mark asked.

"Must be a mother's charm, brother," Lucas, Cathy's brother answered.

"It is for her child I agreed to stay, Mark," Chavva said, untying her cloak and draping it over a chair.

Stroking his bread, he continued his previous work of eating his dinner.

"No women to help you, Cathy?" she asked sitting opposite to Mark and next to Lucas.

"Becca is a sweet girl." Cathy cooed. "She helps me during the day. Says she wants to learn the trade."

"Becca?"

"Oh!" Cathy smiled and sat next to her husband. "She is engaged to Lucas."

Chavva faced him. "Slipped your mind, Lucas?"

A proud smile came on his face. "No. I just met you now after a year."

Chavva laughed. "Yes. A year. But Lucas did you finish your meal?"

The brown haired lad groaned. "What is with you healers? Food first, sleep is next, and work third. What is wrong with you?"

She blinked. "These are the three most important things."

"It is no use arguing to one," Mark quipped.

"I am meeting Becca's father at Night's Glow tonight. I was about to leave, you came in," he said.

"Why don't you go, Chavva?" Cathy asked. "I brought you from your home. The least I can do is to show you how we, residents of Icathus celebrate winter."

"With a mournful song," she shrugged. "Or so I have heard. Icathus hates winter. No harvest."

Mark had a grim look. "As said before, you can't argue with a healer."