Write Kate right: "What's to Become of Us?"
Title: “What’s to Become of Us?”
Author: dcwash
Length: 708 words
Rating: G
Characters: Kate, Allan
Summary: Kate’s worried about the future.
Allan jumped at the sound of the rustle.
“It’s me! Kate!”
“Bloody hell, woman! I could have run you through! What are you doing wandering around at this time of night?” Allan grumped back.
“I couldn’t sleep. I knew you had guard duty and I thought….” She shrugged her shoulders and Allan thought she looked rather forlorn.
“Bad dream?” Allan asked, settling back down under a tree.
“No, it’s more….” Kate joined him. “Allan, what have we gotten ourselves into? How does this all end? I mean, when my mother was my age, she was married and had babies and knew what to expect out of life. And I used to think that when I got to be as old as she is now, I’d be settled in Locksley making the pottery, the same way she is. But now…what’s to become of us?”
“You mean, where we gonna be in twenty years? That kind of thing?” Allan asked.
“Yeah. Though I doubt if you think more than twenty minutes into the future, let alone years!”
“Hmmm. Let’s see. When you’re your mother’s age….” Allan said. He had no idea how old Rebecca was, but, for argument’s sake, decided to make it older rather than younger. “Married. Kids, of course. The oldest is a blacksmith in Clun. Locksley has a blacksmith already and can’t support another, but Clun doesn’t, so he thought that would be a good place to strike out on his own.”
“Clun! But that’s so far away!” Kate wasn’t sure she liked the idea of her children being anyplace besides around her own hearth.
“No it isn’t! Besides, his new wife brought in a little land in Clun as her dowry. And who can blame her for wanting to keep a little distance, the way you always remind her that no girl is good enough for your son.”
Kate chuckled. “That’s true.”
“Yeah, but the new grandbaby starts to make up for all that.
And the youngest boy, he’s clever. He learned his letters and numbers faster than anybody else in the dame school, and now the priest…or Tuck…or somebody like that has kind of taken him under his wing and is teaching him real reading and writing.”
“Ooh, maybe he’ll go into the church!”
“The church!” Allan exclaimed. “You want him to throw his life away like that?”
“He wouldn’t be throwing his life away!” Kate retorted. “It’s more than respectable! And it suits his talents. He can go a lot further in the church than he can as a peasant in Locksley! God, Allan! You’re so conservative….”
They glared at each other. “What about a girl?” Kate demanded. “All I get are lumpy great boys in your scenario?”
“No,” Allan said, rather resentfully. “She’s in between. Her name’s Rosie. And she’s got yellow curls.”
“Mmm. Pretty!”
“Yeah,” Allan replied, darkly. He began sharpening his sword rather fiercely.
“What, you going to do that every time a poor lad comes to ask her to go for a walk? You’ll scare them all off!” Kate laughed. She could really imagine it.
“I know lads. I was one. I don’t want any sniffing around our daughter!” Allan retorted.
“Not even Much’s son?” Kate asked.
“Much’s son! God help us!” Allan replied.
“And why not? He’s a nice boy, Rosie likes him, and he has prospects! Think of it-she could be mistress of Bonchurch! That’s nothing to turn your nose up at!”
“But Much! As an in-law! It’s one thing to be his neighbor and to see him around town, but to be related to him! On purpose!” Allan was aghast at the prospect, just as Rosie was indignant on Much’s (and his son’s) behalf.
They heard a grumble in the bunkhouse and realized they had worked themselves up into quite a volume. Which, of course, made them both laugh at themselves and each other.
Kate, obviously in a better frame of mind than when she came out, said, “Thank you. I feel a lot better.” She sighed, contentedly, and said, “So I think I’ll head back and try to get some sleep. G’night!”
She was still smiling when she turned back towards camp. But she wasn’t about to tell Allan one of the reasons why.
He said “our.”