Chapter 3
The next day, Tracy felt much better.
I was lying in bed, bundled up tight under a thick blanket. The sun was already high in the sky, but I still hadn't made breakfast.
Frank stood a few steps away and spoke in a cold tone.
"If you're going to fuss and get jealous like some small-minded country woman, then you can forget about going to Eikons," he said.
I clutched my rumbling stomach, dragged myself out of bed, and threw together two bowls of oatmeal.
Frank's expression relaxed a bit.
After just one sip, I felt so wretched I nearly puked up all the sour bile in my stomach.
"Why does it taste bitter?" he muttered.
I slowly sipped the sweet, warm oatmeal.
Well, of course, it was bitter. I added wormwood to it.
His face turned stormy. "Just stay home and think about what you've done. Don't go out there and make a fool of yourself."
I lowered my gaze.
By the time half the bowl of oatmeal had gone cold, it finally hit me.
In his eyes, I was nothing but a petty, grudge-holding wild girl who'd never be good enough for the real world.
I almost wanted to say—my heart was just as bitter as that wormwood he swallowed.
Frank didn't even give me a single glance before heading out.
He just called out from the doorway, "Wait for me."
I absently ran my fingers across the straw mat beneath me.
Frank had brought home the straw, and I'd woven it into this mat myself.
Everything in this home, we built together.
The square table and short stools in our home.
The wicker baskets and wooden shelves for herbs out in the yard.
The swing and the little shed beside the herb garden.
All these things that once brought me joy—suddenly, they just lost all their meaning.
Maybe it was time for me to move on as well.
The town's river pier was bustling with people coming and going.
A familiar peddler waved, calling out, "Hey, Laurel, heading up north to chase after your man?"
Everyone in town knew Frank had left on that fancy passenger ship.
I shook my head.
"Which boat is heading south?" I asked.
My mentor once told me her home was in the southern riverlands.
I was just an orphan with nowhere else to go, so I started to think of her home as my own, too.
The peddler grinned and asked, "Are you upset with your husband? Frank's always been good to you—he always stops by to buy you something sweet."
I pressed my lips together and didn't say a word.
He shot me a sly look.
Still juggling his bundles, he waved me over and beckoned me toward a boat that was about to leave.
"Come on, hurry up! This one's going south, and I'm hopping on too!" he called.
I quickly scrambled onto the boat, flustered and all.
I spent every last coin I'd saved on the boat fare, and Joanna's bread would have to be my food for the journey.
When I polished off the last bread, I found five eggs tucked away at the bottom of the basket—Joanna must've slipped them in just for me.
By the time I finished the eggs, I was out of food.
The peddler walked with me as I got off the boat.
He spoke earnestly. "Frank's running himself ragged out there, all to give you both a better life. But it's a tough situation—with all these miles between you, it's easy to drift apart.
"Men really do have it tougher, Laurel. You ought to cut him some slack."
With those words, he vanished into the crowd, moving as smoothly as a fish slipping into water.
I glanced up and saw the grand city walls of Eikons rising above me.
'Figures... that meddlesome peddler,' I thought to myself.
Just like that, he'd hauled me all the way to Eikons.
I counted the coins in my pocket over and over.
In the end, I found a job at a pharmacy.
After pounding herbs for seven days straight, the owner threw me out along with all my belongings.
"Your skills are useless. You spoiled all the good herbs," he snapped. "What? You want money? I'm already being nice by not making you pay for what you ruined."
I was openly ridiculed right at the shop's entrance.
But even the pickiest old doctors at the pharmacy always said I was great at making medicine.
Just then, two women were shoved out the door by the doctor.
The doctor snapped, "Look at yourselves—do you really think you're worthy of seeing a doctor? Nobody wants to dirty their hands for your kind."
One of the women, who had been playing the innocent, instantly switched gears and flashed a sly, almost devilish grin.
"Oh? That's not what you said last night. Weren't you going on about my slim waist, my soft hands, and how you could only fall asleep holding my feet?" she shot back.
The old doctor, well past fifty, was so furious his beard practically bristled.
"You... you're lying! Spreading rumors!" he sputtered. "Women like you, with your kind of background, have no shame or decency at all."
The woman let out a dismissive snort.
She met the passerby's sleazy stare with a sideways glance, utterly unfazed.
Once the crowd had thinned out, she dropped her tough act.
She put a steadying arm around the pale woman beside her and said, "Don't worry. Eikons is huge—there's gotta be someone out there who'll help. You'll see."
I walked up with my medicine kit and said quietly, "Maybe I could give it a shot?"