Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Silke thought about how not having family would make her feel as Gesina began her trek across the meadow to return home. Silke only had Fenja and Tora. If she did marry this ancient man and had children with him, she had no idea where he would want to live. She wouldn’t want to leave Fenja or Tora, her only family, especially if she was going to have children. She hadn’t considered what it would mean to be tied to a stranger who came from a different land.
She once again began the process of planting the remainder of the starts she had in the buckets into the ground. She positioned them for maximum light or shade, drainage and the proper soil. She talked to them as she worked, whispering encouragement and love. As she did, the realization came to her that she might want children after all. For the last few years, she had convinced herself she wasn’t a woman who would be good in a relationship. She didn’t want to raise a daughter to be a demon slayer. That legacy had been handed down for generations from mother to daughter. Kneeling in the dirt, hands in the soil, whispering to her plants and the other ears and eyes in the forest, she knew she had been very wrong about herself.
After admitting to herself that she did want a husband and children after all, she knew she needed to decide what kinds of traits were important to her in a husband. What kind of marriage did she want? She had to decide those things before the stranger she was promised to arrived. She didn’t feel in the least bit indebted to him. Or as if she owed him a marriage. She was a demon slayer, and she guarded his soul. She did both things to the best of her ability. She had no problem with transferring his soul back to him without the least commitment of marriage on her part. It made no sense to her that she would have to do both.
She was not a woman who followed rules. She certainly wasn’t the kind of woman to marry a stranger and expect a fairy-tale ending. Her life didn’t work like that. Her personality would never accept most men into her life. She knew that with absolute certainty. From the time she was little, she remembered thinking she would be alone all her life. When she watched interactions between couples in the village, even those in really good relationships, she knew she was too different to share her life with a man.
Silke made her way back to the village while she contemplated her inability to deal with the opposite sex and their traits. She knew there were good men in the village, many of them. Raik was one. She desperately wanted to save him because he was such a good man, and he loved his wife and daughter. His laughter was contagious and booming. He made his wife feel beautiful, accomplished and loved. There were many men like Raik. But Raik was also the sole head of his house. She didn’t see the relationship between Raik and Imka as a true partnership. What was a true partnership? Was there any such thing? She doubted it. What did she want?
The house she called home was nestled in the middle of extensive gardens. Fenja had begun working to plant and transform her small estate the moment she had acquired the property. She’d poured more time and effort and money into the landscaping and extensive gardens than she had into the house. Silke had been the one to modernize the house.
Silke always took a moment to appreciate that first sight of her home. She knew she would never tire of it. The house was set right in the center of the land. The various gardens circled the stone house in rings, giving the appearance of colors and texture rising around what Silke had always considered a fairy-tale two-story house. Because the house was constructed of stone, vines and moss grew on the sides and in the cracks between the rough rocks. The roofline looked like the wings of a bird spread across the rocks in protection. A porch circled the house, front and back, with tall columns to support the overhang shading the verandah.
Because they lived so close to the forest and there were trees planted all over the property, Silke considered that with the abundant gardens and native trees, brush and wildflowers, they lived in a magical kingdom that extended across the meadow to the forest. As a child, she had lived in a world of dragons, fairies and other magical—mythical to most—elements.
She had grown up with a logical, responsible brain, but a fantasy heart. Over the years, she secretly maintained that childhood outlook on the world. She thought it was the reason she tended to connect with the children. She told wild stories they all loved. She laughed with them when she was a little more reserved around adults. She found young children hilarious. She loved their take on the world around them. They were full of insight and information most adults ignored. She found it strange that it hadn’t occurred to her that she wanted to be a mother. The interaction with the children should have tipped her off.