Having a house that's yours, even if only rented, and having the chance of people visiting -- especially, but not only, because you're courting -- calls for a lot of things to have on hand. I'm sure I've barely scratched the surface of what a host should be ready to offer, and I've already spent as much as I can make in a half-dozen visits to the marshes gathering goblin ears. And just for things for my visitors to drink!
I have three different kinds of wine, red, white, and Isenwine, which is apparently also red, but not the same as the first red. And doesn't come from the Isen, which would be a long long way for wine to come. (And who near the Isen drinks wine, anyway? The Thane, and his young betrothed Agelwyn -- probably a wife by now? Perhaps Saruman in his tower? But most Eorlingas will drink mead if they can get it, ale or beer if they can't, not wine. At least as far as I ever heard.) But I don't have glasses to drink it from. I heard that they make them by blowing glass, like slow bubbles, but that don't seem possible. How can glass blow? Anyhow, no one knows where you buy them. For now I'll just have to let folks drink it from tea cups.
Yes, I did find tea cups, though even that took longer than you'd think. There was a merchant passing through that had some, but Bree don't seem to have a potter. The cups I got don't match each other and some are a bit chipped, but it'll have to do. Honey was easier to find; there's a house between Combe and Staddle that keeps bees and sold me a small crock. But finding out about tea proved impossible; I found one kind at market, and I hope it's good, because when I tried to ask Miss Sareva about kinds of tea, I never even got to start. We went off to a quiet spot by the fire to talk, but a rude fellow she knows found us almost right away, made more than a few disparaging comments about foreigners like me -- right in front of me! -- and just started talking to her about windows and suchlike, as if I weren't even there and we weren't already having a talk. On account she was being civil to him, and stopped talking to me, I figured the rude things he was saying about me didn't warrant a scuffle, somehow, so I just kept quiet and let them be. But after a bit it seemed clear there wasn't going to be any talk about tea, so I excused myself. Not sure if they even noticed me leave. It's been months since I seen Miss Sareva and it'll likely be months more before I do again, so I guess that's the end of that. I'll just have to hope the tea I found is a good one for guests, and that Beoda will like it.
Though she usually chooses wine first. Plus, since she likes it so, I got some brandy, which cost more than all the rest put together. I hope a little bit of it goes a long way! But nothing's too good for her. Courting is going well, and I'm more sure than ever that she is the one for me. I took a chance at a kiss, but to hide that I don't really know how to kiss, it was barely touching, and only for a moment. Must not have been too wrong because she smiled. And next time we talked, she decided she wants to come with us when we go to the Mark -- I don't know if she has to ask her pa for permission first or suchlike, but just the thought of her seeing my land, and meeting my family, and being with us the whole season, it makes my toes tingle.
Planning for that journey made me think it might be a good idea to teach her and Miss Adri some of our language, but I hadn't said anything about it. Then, during a merry gathering at the Pony, after I'd hired Mister Brywulf to make me some armor for the journey, Miss Arelienbur confronted me in our tongue, and no one else knew what was being said. Apparently, she's thought I hated her for months, while meanwhile I've been giving her the distance I thought she wanted because she seemed to dislike me -- I wonder how that all started, probably just bad timing. So with all this, I started trying to teach Beoda and Miss Adri the language. Which led to Miss Adri telling us of the troubles she's had finding the right girl for her, which is sad to think of -- but if even if I can find a wonderful girl who'll let me court her, surely someone as good-hearted as Miss Adri can too! I hope so -- I would love to see her with the smile on her face I see on mine sometimes now.
It also gave me a chance to say "I love you" to Beoda, in the guise of teaching her the phrase in Rohirric -- and then, testing out if she had the right accent, she said it back to me. It wasn't easy to keep calm, hearing those words from her, and remind myself she was just learning the language. Everything about it felt so right, almost inevitable. But I can't get too confident, and risk losing her. Winning her is perhaps the most important venture I ever had set before me. No, not had set before me -- the most important venture I ever set before myself. Can't be a coincidence, that now that I am making my own choices in what I set out to do, like taking an apprenticeship, and finding a home, and courting, that things start to feel right in a way nothing ever done before. They feel important, weighty, like everything matters more than anything ever did. Like I want to succeed more than I ever have. But like I can succeed, like things are going to go well, if I keep being careful and working hard. Is this what everything's always like for everyone else? I wonder how I got so far before learning this.
