Hadassah walked over to the railing. “Enjoying the view?” she asked Mehetabel.
Mehetabel turned toward her, “And the voyage. I was scared to death when my Dad told me he was sending me to be a Hostage Wife. Oh, I understood it and all, but it was scary.” She paused, blushed, “Of course, you understand. You had an even harder time than I did, and here I am going on and on about my fear. Do − do you − like your Seth?”
“I love him. And my Father wants to me love him, so that makes it that much easier. That was my fear. Marrying a Husband and being in the middle between my Father and my Husband − I was afraid of that. And you? How do you with your Ishvi?”
“Oh, he’s fine. He’s got this quiet streak that is hard. He gets to thinking about something and the world could end and he wouldn’t notice.”
“Ouch. Of course, men aren’t exactly known for talking. Except for ‘Where’s my dinner?’, and ‘Take your clothes off’!.” She laughed, looking down at what she was wearing, “Not that that takes long now!”
“True. How are you enjoying being a Visserfrau?”
“Oh, it’s wonderful. I know Seth much better now than I did before. I don’t know what it is; and the swimming!”
“You know, I was embarrassed to swim, before. Not so much as to not want to, but still, it is so much better now.”
“And the way we live now, I couldn’t imagine doing it as a Farmer. But it is different as Visserfrau.”
A few minutes later Mehetabel ran off to help some girls with a project, and Hadassah stood leaning against the railing and watching her husband as he talked with the other leaders. He was so different from her Father. Her Father was never happier than when he was chair of a meeting; but Seth tended to avoid them. He liked to meet with one person, privately, whenever possible; and liked to hear more from people before speaking… Even with her. After those first couple of weeks-where he hadn’t told her anything; he tended to ask her what she wanted, or wanted to do, and then leave her to do it.
She kept thinking of him as weak. But − well, he was young, and immature. Yet what he was doing seemed to be working. He seemed to be gaining friends, and the people working for him were competent enough, at least, they seemed so.
And she liked them! Of course, that was probably her issue. She was young, and many of her friends were young − and their wives.
Lleonora, for example, Wynforr’s Wife, she really liked her. She was so quiet, and calm. And of course, it was easy to be friends with her; she and her Husband were totally non-political. She could talk with her without feeling her words would come back at her.
Of course, she was an Ellyllaa, with their strange rules of modesty and privacy. As a Farmlass she found them strange and awkward. As a Visserfrau she found them laughable. But still, she liked her.
And Met, of course. Met had stayed so long in the class, although she had hardly needed it, that she and Met had become fast friends. Met of course, was from a family that, politically, was opposed to Hadassah’s Father’s family, but she herself didn’t seem to pay any attention to that. She was loyal to her Husband first and foremost, as she ought to be, of course.
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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von