she scanned the yard. The fairy-tale-gone-bad images came roaring back until the woman gave her a wink. Evil, child-eating witches didn’t wink, right?
The air inside was heavy with steam. Small fires burned around the room, their smoke floating up into a funnel-like ceiling. That had to be the source of the smoke that had led Jules there. On top of the fires sat large copper cauldrons with clothing slopping around inside them. Long paddles sat propped on the edge. They looked like giant bowls of dark porridge with flat spoons at the ready.
A hand descended on her shoulder and Jules jumped. She still had that Hansel and Gretel scenario running through her head and if there were ever caldrons made to accommodate a human being, these were it. The woman was oblivious to the fact that Jules was freaking out. She just kept reaching for her until she finally got her fingers on the lightweight sweater Jules wore under her leather jacket. A pale blue t-shirt made up for the loose and see-through weave of the sweater, but the woman tisked and shook her head. She spoke, but Jules didn’t understand and asked her to repeat herself.
The woman did. She even spoke slowly, but it didn’t help at all. Whatever her dialect, Jules couldn’t understand it. She grimaced and shrugged, hoping the other woman would understand her dilemma. The latter smiled and nodded, then made a gesture that clearly meant Jules was supposed to take off her coat. The same gesture got her to take off the sweater, but the third time, the woman was looking at her jeans.
Jules shook her head.
The woman pointed at the wall behind her. Jules turned and saw a plaid pinafore hanging against the wall. Just a skirt, a square bib, and shoulder straps. It certainly looked like something the locals, in the local time zone, would wear. But before she dropped her drawers, she had to make sure the woman knew she couldn't pay for it. Jules didn't need to speak the language to know this chick couldn't take a Visa.
She hoped the gesture of turning out one's pockets was universal. Apparently it was. The woman waved an impatient hand and then picked up the sweater again. It so happened the gesture for 'trade' was also universal.
The laundress looked pretty pleased when Jules handed over her jeans, but it creeped her out just a little when the woman peeked over the folded denim to see what Jules was wearing underneath. Her blue lace-fringed panties made the woman laugh. Hard. Jules tried not to be offended and slipped the pinafore over her t-shirt.
The woman tisked again and gave her a simple yellow blouse to wear besides, and once Jillian was completely dressed, she realized she looked just like the laundress except for an apron and the pointed tips of her cowboy boots peeking out from under the ankle length skirt.
Sore thumb, eh?
The woman pushed her back outside, then took her over to another little house that shared the same yard. A square table took up most of the space in the center of a modest kitchen. No fridge. No sink. No dishwasher. No countertops. Just a stone fireplace, pots, and the table. Onions and turnips hung in baskets from the ceiling, along with things she couldn’t identify. And they still had a thick layer of dirt on them. Jules wondered if maybe that preserved them better, since the rest of the little room looked neat and tidy. She couldn’t imagine someone who liked things to be that clean would allow half a garden’s worth of dirt to come in with the crop.
She was pushed toward a chair, so she sat. If she was going to be used for stew meat, surely the woman would have conked her on the head before she had a chance to get dressed again.
She chuckled, but it was probably more from relief than from thinking anything was funny. Nine days. She still had nine days to stay alive and make it back to New York to testify. She’d already outrun McKiller, frightened off a wolf, slept in a tree without giving a thought to bears, and escaped McKiller again. And it hadn’t even been twenty four hours!
Now she had a disguise and was about to be fed, and both miracles due to the kindness of a stranger’s heart.
She re-evaluated the whole kindness part when she was served a bowl of mushy, tasteless...well, mush. She was pretty sure it would have