“Andi, Darling, I waited and waited and thou didst not send for me! Didst thy mother not… I see she did. Surely thou wert not going to try to do this all by thyself?”
Andreina, startled, looked up from “Formatting your Proposal: How a Good Format can lead to a Better Exchange” to see her cousine who, baby on back, had pushed herself through the curtain, plopped herself down on Andreina's bed and was busy unstrapping the infant. The very fat infant.
“I didn’t want to bother thee. I have already been working for at least two hours, surely would have been a long time for thee to be away from thine house.”
“Bother! What nonsense. As if it was a bother. I was so excited when thy mother asked me to be thy contract confidante. Hast thou decided anything yet? Or art thou still lost in the fog? I know I was.”
Andreina had always been afraid of sharing her inner thoughts about he marriage, even with a confidential confidante, but her cousine was obviously not to be put off. “I’ve worked up a rough draft,” she admitted, handing the notebook to her cousine, and turning back to her book.
The baby began crying so she put him to her breast and picked up the notebook. That was the hungriest baby that Andreina had ever seen.
“Army, that’s good,” she heard her cousine mutter. “Lad stands on some sentry post all day while you nurse and burp. Hopefully right here on our planet, Two jumps for thee, so very profitable exchange.”
“No physical limitations… brave lass. Good luck with that.”
But then, in very loud tones, she said, “Fully fertile?! But Darling! But, darling, thou canst not put that down! What will the lad think of thee? Art thou thinking of trying to marry a landowner?”
Andreina blushed. Like any landowner would take a slum lass like her. They had plenty of their own lasses to match with, anyway.
“I don’t care what he thinks,” she said. “It is just a marriage proposal. It won’t even match anyone that doesn’t at least leave himself open to it!”
“Well, thou has the right of that, I suppose,” her cousine said. “But darling, wilt thou get any matches at all? How many lads would agree to that?”
“I put myself as preferring the army, which is two jumps.” Andreina said. “We all know that that is what most lads are looking for… the ones that are trying to work an exchange, anyway. They are exchanging for some lad, some rich lad, that wants to get out of army service, and if they come with a wife who is merely clan bound that is even better. I am clan bound, a jump from clan to army will mean a good portion, and so the lad’s family will be able to use that in the negotiations with the crystal class family who will be paying the exchange. Who knows how much his family will gain.”
“And,” she said, pointing at the document, “I haven’t insisted on anything else. I put a high portion but nothing a fifth child might expect to get going for army and… and that. Well, and I refused Grengin. No one will deny me that after that one incident. But I put nothing about where he must come from, how much he might weigh…”
Her cousine giggled, “It would be funny to see thee with a fat lad, darling. And they say opposites attract. A tall, fat lad… art thou sure thou art willing to marry such? Canst thou imagine walking down the street arm in arm with such a one?”
“I would prefer not to, but I can’t have everything.” Andreina scooted over to where she could look at the proposal. “It isn’t like I am some beauty, besides.”
“Thou art fair enough, not filled out like some, but some lads like that.” She stared at the paper, “Thy father will not like…”
“My father will like the gift I am asking for!” Andreina said. “And that I am going for the army will help me get that gift.”
“Well, that’s true. Besides, thy tall, fat husband will probably be killed by the hoppers in his first six months and thee and thy orphan will get to try again. Thy father will like that. Thou’lt get his payout, too.”
“I hope he isn’t killed!” Andreina said.
“Thou sayest that now,” her cousine said, ominously, “But after six months of having to live with a fat slob thou wilt be singing another story.
“… well, I suppose he won’t be too fat after basic, I hear it is physically exhausting.” she said and turned back to the proposal again.
“But darling, this gift. Your portion of the exchange. However did you decide it? Is the exchange really worth thirty thousand?”
“There isn’t a hard and fast rule, but, look here at this book, ‘Pricing your Exchange’. It says that, first of all, if you are going for an exchange it never makes sense to put down less than ten thousand.”
“Such a lot of money,” her confidant breathed.
“Yes.”
“Well, so, ten thousand is the minimum for one jump, and I have two, so twenty thousand. But then it said that a lad will only very rarely put that little. He will almost always put at least forty. So if you put thirty, then they negotiate between thirty and forty… you’re already up there. But if you only put twenty…”
“I see. So putting a higher number will actually help your father in the negotiations.”
“Yes. Did you have any negotiations?”
“Oh, yes. My husband put down that he wanted eight offspring, and I said that I wanted seven. He said that he wanted to live by his folks, and I wanted to live here. I put down that I wanted nothing to do with Frank Smith, who was a good friend of his.”
“But, they are still good friends. Why, he and his family ate at your house just last week.”
“Yes, well, he had him come by and offer me a very nice apology, and his wife, well, she knows what happened and promised it wouldn’t ever happen again. Anyway, so there were two whole weeks of negotiations, but, in the end, father and his father agreed and we signed the contract the next day. We had to wait three months for our honey trip, though, and during that time we lived in his house. Oh, that was so crowded.”
Her cousine settled back with one of the books, her baby still busy at her breast, and Andi opening a book herself, let her mind range into the future to her own negotiations. What would the lad want? How would her father respond…?
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