Chapter 26

Later, Andrew went to the old woman's family tent. He needed to have another discussion about what he had bought into.

An agreeable, forbearing lifestyle might be somewhere in his future but that somewhere certainly wasn't here and now. Confusion was in charge and he was compelled to dance to its tune whether he wanted it or not, though Andrew still got to decide a step here and there. He had a little moment before the feast and he needed to deliver a few messages, which he dictated to Lena.

The old woman busied herself with basket-making while Lena and he labored away. Roland was sent off to look for suggestions down at the wharves. Andrew hoped he might wobble across something we could build while he was poking around. It took him a while to clarify to him that he was reimbursing for him to go out and just be interested in anything he came across that looked intriguing.

And after depleting his minuscule understanding of the builder's exchange, Andrew got down to composi