Page 34 of Songs and Spun Gold
“Thanks, Mother,” she said with a smile.
After she’d finished feeding Mother and given her the dailydose of medicine, Katy cleaned up the lunch dishes before heading downstairs to look over the books. Adele was in the far corner of the front room, running an old broom over the wooden planks.
“How is Mother?” her middle sister asked without looking up from her task.
Katy crossed to the tall table and reached under it to pull the logbook from the shelf underneath.Flipping through it, she replied, “About the same as this morning.”
Other than the inner workings of the mill, which were muffled by the wall and the blanket, the light swishing of the broom and the rustle of the pages as Katy turned them were the only sounds for a few minutes. When Adele spoke again, it was with a note of concern. “I haven’t had anyone come in today. Father’s milling some of the wheat so it will be ready, but we don’t have any unfulfilled orders, either.”
With the current price of yarn being low and the current price of wheat being high, that news was not what Katy wanted to hear. She could feel the crease in her forehead deepening again. “I assume you’ve already entered all the sales in the logbook?”
She could see Adele nodding in her peripheral vision. In the past, such a question would have roused her sister’s ire. Today, she was subdued. “I have. Katy, is it going to be enough?”
The numbers were not encouraging. She scowled a little at the afternoon sun lighting the small room. Not that poor weather would have improved their situation, but she was irrationally irritated with such a bright day when the picture in front of her was anything but.
Maybe she should venture outside later, she thought glumly as she propped her head up on one hand. If the weak warmth of the rays didn’t cheer her up, the roar of the rapids would.
“It will have to be,” she finally answered. “We’ve alreadymade the winter payment on the loans from the crown, so for a few months, we only have to worry about food, Mother’s medicine, and the doctor bills.” Not that either of the latter two items was cheap. “The next payment will be due before shearing time, but we’ll set aside a little each month. As long as flour sales don’t get worse, we should squeak by.” Barely.
“But what if they do?” Adele worried. She gripped the broom tightly, the small pile of dust forgotten. “What if we can’t afford food? Or pay the doctor for Mother? What will we do?”
Why was it up to Katy?
Because her mother was an invalid and her father was unreliable.
Scrubbing her face in thought, she straightened up and paced a few steps behind the table. “I know a few families that still have wool. I’ll try to talk them into letting me spin it. And there might be some flax around that I can spin, too.”
“Will that be enough?”
“I don’t know, Adele,” Katy sighed. “It depends on how much I can get and what the price of yarn does. But it will have to be; I don’t know what other options we have.”
Adele shot her a weak smile. “You could get married. From the sounds of it, the young man you met in the capital could help us.”
“He’d never marry me,” Katy said, making a face at her sister. “Not once he learned about—” She jerked her head in the direction of the back, not wanting her father to overhear if he was near the doorway. “Just like the last one.”
“Even Fritz, though,” Adele tried. “He’s not rich, but surely he earns enough that he could help us out.”
Katy was already shaking her head. “Even if he comes around again, it would take too long. And I couldn’t ask him to do that.” She stared unseeing at the road past the windows. “Isuppose I could make payments directly to the crown instead of putting money in range of Father’s pocket, but it’sourproblem. It wouldn’t be right to marry a man and expect him to fix it for us.”
“MaybeIshould get married,” Adele sighed, her head drooping as she began to slowly sweep again. “I’ll be eighteen in a couple weeks. I don’t do much, and it would be one less mouth to feed.”
“Oh, Adele,” Katy said sadly. Walking over to her sister, she pulled her into a hug, something Adele rarely allowed. But today, she leaned into Katy, folding one arm up to wrap it over hers. “If it’s what you want, I hope someone asks you to walk the day after your birthday, but don’t feel like you have to leave us. We’ll figure it out.”
It wasn’t wishful thinking; it was pure practicality. Katy would figure something out, because there was no other option.
She couldn’t let her family starve.
~
A few weeks later, Katy was sitting in a corner of their main room, working her magic on a bundle of flax. It was one of several she had coaxed out of her neighbors. Mother was settled in the rocking chair in front of the fire as she always was when strong enough to leave her bed. As Katy pumped the pedal and the wheel spun, her mind likewise spun, trying to sort out her problems.
The yarn she was spinning would earn some more money. She thought there was enough to make it through to spring, but only if she could limit the money her father could access for his trips to the tavern. Even then, if her mother had a bad spell, it could wipe out their savings and leave them in rough shape.
Thinking of Adele’s half-joking suggestion that she marry Gunther, Katy’s mind wandered to the capital. MarryingGunther was not a solution, but could she find a job and send money home? Would that help?
She shook her head. She didn’t know what such jobs might pay, but she feared there would be little left after paying her living expenses. Besides, she might be expected to stay on year-round, which would mean she could not spin next year.
But it would put her in the capital, which would mean she might run into Gunther again. Katy couldn’t deny that the thought of seeing him again lifted her heart out of its despondency.
