It had been a very long time since Gena had spent such a pleasant day. She had gone with one of the other peasant women, the young girl Hepsie to collect berries from the forest. Gena wasn’t used to people being kind to her, her whole life there had been noone except Noah. Either they pitied her for her disability or they hated her for being a burden.

Something about Hepsie was different. She exuded a kind of warmth from her that seemed to surround all she turned her attentions to. Gena thought that she was well-suited to midwifery, her presence in the room would make any woman feel at ease, despite her young age.

“I have to tell you something”, Gena felt Hepsie’s face lean in closer to her own.

“But you musn’t tell noone else… ‘specially not my Steen cause he’s a wonderful boy but he does get mighty jealous and I don’t wan’t him breaking no nobility’s noses”.

Hepsie put a finger to her lips to emphasise the necessity of keeping this a secret, forgetting momentarily that Gena could not see her gesture. It did not matter, Gena would have died rather than told Hepsie’s secret. She could not remember anyone ever taking time to share their secrets with her, and she considered it a great privilege.

Hepsie began to laugh, “So, do you know who I had the misfortune to meet in the forest the other day”.

Hepsie did not give Gena enough time to guess but rapidly continued her story.

“Why it was that old Sir Alexis… you know, the one with that funny little beard”.

“You know what he did… he came up to me and called me his pretty, eyeing me with those beady eyes of his. An’ then he come up to me and says he wants to see if I’m fully grown yet and tickles me on the sides”, she started to act out the offensive tickling on Gena, who was laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

“And you wouldn’t believe it… the ole’ cad grabs me and tries to kiss me and I tell you what it definitely wasn’t no noble kiss like this one here”, she said between laughs, grabbing Gena’s arm and kissing up it in what she considered to be the way nobles would kiss. Tears were running down Gena’s face as she shook with barely constrained giggles.

“An’ I got such a big old shock that I pushed him away from me and slapped him right across his face”, she snuffled a bit to contain the laugh that was about to burst free, “Ohmy you shoulda seen the look on that poor man’s face, he looked like he had just stepped right in a cow pat”.

Hepsie stopped laughing for a moment, “I’m telling you all this not just cause it’s so darn funny, but because I want you to know you should be careful. It’s not so easy on an island like this to keep away from men like him and you know there are worse here”. Hepsie wrinkled her brow, “And besides, if he tried it on with you you wouldn’t be able to see to clock him one on that stupid mustache of his”.

At this they both dissolved into laughter again, but in the back of her mind Gena had heeded Hepsie’s warning.

The two women stayed for a lot longer than they were supposed, relishing the freedom from endless chores and the beautiful sunny day. They sat together, Hepsie chatting animatedly while Gena listened quietly, happy to be allowed to be part of the conversation. Hepsie sat with her knee just touching Gena’s, as though she sensed Gena’s insecurity in the dark world and her desperate need for human contact.

When the day became dusk, they reluctantly rose to walk home before it got too dark.

Gena mustered all of her courage. “Hepsie”, she asked timidly, “would it be all right if I touched your face, I would just like to know what you feel like?”. Gena prepared herself for the young womans anger and rejection. She knew it was imminent but she had to ask, it was hard to go through life never knowing how people looked. She felt like she could imagine the way Noah was better now that she knew how his face felt.

“Why of course you silly goose, why din’t you ask before. It must be awful not being able to know what your friend looks like. If it will help you of course you shall”.

Gena’s heart almost skipped a beat when Hepsie said the word friend. She had never heard that word used in conjunction with her before, never dared to consider anyone would want to be her friend.

She tentatively reached out her hand and touched Hepsie’s face, moving it over the broad curve of her nose and her smiling lips, feeling the warm, soft skin of her cheeks and her unwrinkled brow.

Now there was another sharing the darkness with Noah. The features of the man who loved her more than anything else were there, but now also the features of a friend.

“C’mon then, we had better get us back before it gets dark and the beasties get us”, Hepsie said jokingly, gently taking the older woman’s hand in hers and leading her back towards the ships.

What she did not realise was how very right she was.

Cade, Ulcar