Chapter 358

“Nurse, Baby,” I begged him, but he wouldn’t.

I carried his wailing, squirming body back to the pile of cushions Nu-reeh had directed me to. Singing softly, I tried to comfort my boy, but he was uncharacteristically irritable. Pacing in front of the cushions I rocked him until he calmed.

Tosu reassured me, her only male offspring had done the same thing. His brothers had not been at the gathering the first day and it frustrated him. That little boy had done the same thing Jonathan was currently doing.

It took time, but my boy relaxed slowly. I put him on the cushion beside me and he just stayed there. He sat and played absently with things Nu-reeh brought to him. The other little boys would wander by, but he ignored them. Jonathan knew what he needed and these children were not it.

“More women arrive for the next many days,” Tosu told me. “This gathering will last here for five day cycles.”

Nu-reeh and her sisters talked. They hoped at least some of Jon