Callah
In the weeks after my wedding, the men stopped hiding their punishment. It had started small, but now? With each meal, there were more bruises visible on the wives. The widows looked at them with knowing pity. However, we women refused to be helpless anymore.
I made it clear I'd heal anyone who asked, at any time. Others offered to help, but they had to work around their husband's demands or they'd be the one needing it. At first, it was a request for a crochet hook. Then a knitting needle.
But when a woman had knocked on my door with blood still running from the cut on her arm, Tobias had all but pulled her inside. She'd apologized, tried to tell him she didn't mean to bother him - and he'd simply called for me to help.
The next day, he'd demanded a set of supplies for me, so I could keep up with my skills. Practicing on women meant I'd sew better if he got hurt, or so he'd claimed - and it had worked. Mrs. Worthington had been thrilled to give me bandages and suture. I'd claimed some ethanol from the cleaning supplies. The clamps weren't as easy, but the infirmary had a bent set no one liked, and Mrs. Worthington said no one would miss them.
Even better, Tobias had impressed Gideon on the last hunt. I wasn't supposed to know it was because he'd been strong enough to contain the women they'd captured for quarantine, but it had earned him a few privileges. He used them to get a mat for the nursery, as well as some extra blankets, and created a place for people to rest while I treated them.
And they were all women.
Oh, he played his part when they came. My husband was simple, so he didn't realize how kind he was being to us. He made comments about how I chewed too loud when one woman showed up in the middle of our meal. Another overheard him grumbling about how I still left scars, so I clearly needed more practice. All were things we knew didn't matter. All those comments made the women who sought me out relax a bit more.
Most of all, they kept anyone from saying he was in on this. It wasn't that I didn't trust these women. It was that I knew someone would try to use our kindness to save them when they needed it most. I knew temptation was hard to ignore because I'd had to face it. Ayla had planned her attack. Meri hadn't actually had relations with her brother. Their goal had been to escape - and I'd helped.
That last part was what kept my mouth shut. I could hint at the rest, and I had told a few people, but now I realized I'd been naive. They wouldn'twantto betray me, but if it meant saving themselves? The punishments were getting more intense, more obvious, and the husbands were no longer ashamed.
I was finishing up a bandage on a girl who'd been married only a few days ago when Tobias stormed in and slammed the door.
"Callah!"
"I'm with someone," I called back.
He snarled in a way that made both me and the woman I was working on flinch. "I'm getting dinner!" he snapped. "You're too slow, and I'm already hungry."
"I'm sorry," the woman mouthed at me, looking at the cracked-open door shielding us, then back. "Will he punish you?"
I waited until our door closed again, then assured her, "No. He'll forget by the time he's back. And once he's fed?"
"Okay," she said, sounding relieved. "It's just that you've done so much for us."
I tied off the bandage, helped her adjust her sleeve to hide it, and began putting away my things. "It feels good to have a purpose, and as long as we women help each other, we'll always have someone to lean on when we need it most."
"But most of us can't do this," she reminded me. "Most husbands would be angry if his wife was wasting her time on something besides him. He is our lord above all but God."
"And God said to care for those in need," I reminded her. "We can't ignore the parts that are inconvenient."
"True." She tested her arm, nodding as if pleased with it. "Thank you. Is there any way I can repay you?"
"Tell others," I said. "Not just that I will heal them, but that we will listen, they aren't alone, and that it's okay for us women to stand together. That is not gossip, it's community."
"I will," she said, then headed out.
But Tobias wasn't back yet. I set to cleaning my things, scrubbing them all with good soap, then rinsing with ethanol. Sterile. That wasn't something we could achieve down here the way they once had, but I got as close as I could. Infections were as deadly to women as to men.
Soon enough, Tobias returned. This time, he didn't slam the door. He also didn't call for me, but I was close enough to done that it didn't matter. Leaving the last of my organizing, I cameout of the nursery to find him placing a large bowl of vegetable mash in the middle of the table before he pulled down our two bowls.
"I got food," he said.
"She's gone," I assured him. "Her husband hit her across the arm with the rod so hard it split her skin. Her bone isn't broken, but she'll feel the pain for a while."
He grunted. "Well, at least you helped." Then he began dividing his meal between us. "Callah, we're hunting again."
"What?" I gasped. "Already? Tobias, you just got back!"
"And the elders say we need more." He slung a dollop of mash into a bowl hard enough I heard the plop. "And we're not going to the Dragons. More wild men. More women to bring back."
