“I concede that,” he replied. “I have a given name and you may use it.”
“I also have a given name, though I have not heard you call me by it.”
“Very well—Brenna,” he grinned.
She let a smile cross her lips. “’Tis not so hard to settle things with you.”
“Oh? You should reserve your opinion till we have finished,” he responded, watching the rare smile vanish. “Now,” he continued in an authoritative voice. “Yarmille has suggested you be put with the two other young females. Janie and Maudya share a small house a short ways behind the stable. You will be quartered with them. You will sleep and pass your free time there. Is this agreeable to you?”
“Yea.”
“Good. Your duties will be no different than those the other females share. You will help with the cooking and cleaning, the washing, milk the cows, grind corn. There is not really that much to do, since this is a small household and you have only me to serve. Yarmille will instruct you in your duties when she is here. When she is not, Janie will show you what to do. And since I have no wife, you will also help occasionally in the sewing room with the mending and making of new clothes.”
“Is that it?” Brenna asked coolly.
“Yea. There will be no children to mind or a lady to tend, since I will never marry. You have only me to please,” Garrick said quickly, assuming from her question that there would be no argument.
“All these duties you have described are woman’s work.”
“Of course.”
She gazed at him levelly, trying to keep calm. “You were right that I should reserve my opinion on the outcome of this meeting, for if this is the only course you offer me, we will never be in accord.”
Garrick looked at her sharply, frowning. “Do you refuse to work?”
“I have told you I will not do woman’s work!” she said haughtily. “I never have and I never will!”
He leaned forward, his eyes forming narrow slits, his anger building. “You will!”
“Nay, Viking!” she snapped, ending the short truce between them. “I won’t!”
“The food you eat, the clothes you wear, they come from me! The house you sleep in is mine!” he stormed, coming to his feet. “If you will not earn your keep, mistress, then you are useless to me!”
“I will earn my keep,” she said in a suddenly calm tone that surprised him.
“How? ’Twill not be in my bed, if you have that in mind.”
“With certainty,thatwill never happen. Nay, Erin has agreed that I may help him with the horses if you will give him your permission.”
Garrick scowled at this. “When did you speak with Erin?”
“Your first day back.”
“You were told to stay in the sewing room that day!”
“I am not accustomed to inactivity, Viking,” she replied hotly. “Nor to taking orders!”
“Well, you will have to learn, wench,” Garrick returned brusquely. “And as for working with Erin, that is out of the question.”
“Why?” she demanded. “You said I must earn my keep. Well, I have told you what is agreeable to me. I know horses as well as I know weapons, and I am not opposed to cleaning a stable, for I have done so before. If that is not enough, I can also hunt game. I provided meat for the table at home; I can do as well here.”
“Is that the extent of your talents?” Garrick asked sarcastically.
Brenna suddenly grinned. “Nay. If you have an enemy, I will kill him for you.”
Garrick burst out laughing. “You are amazing, wench. You would really try to be a man?”
She glared at his mockery, her voice breaking. “I cannot help the way I am. ’Twas the way I was raised.”
