Mina, Edvard, and Yuila reach the gypsy camp.
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Yuila was extra helpful the next morning. Mina noticed this as she stewed two of the apricots the girl found nearby in the copse of fruit trees for the baby. Yuila had taken to calling the boy Menino, and by noon the name had stuck. Even Edvard was using it.
Mina thought more about the gypsies he had heard the night before and found herself anticipating, and at the same time apprehensive, about finding them. It would be a great relief to find a woman who could nurse the child, but she was reluctant to believe the roving family could be as accepting as Edvard had told her. She did realize it was her own preconception and fanciful accounts of the historic nomadic bands from her home world that made her think of them as outlaws and vagrants. She tried to think otherwise, but the concept was difficult for her.
"What if there are no women there that can nurse him?" she asked as they began their travel for the day. She looked down to where Menino was slung in front of her, watching her and blinking. So far Neito's walking hadn't produced any spitting-up episodes. She'd been happy to see that the lilac dress had come clean when she washed it the night before. "He wouldn't be any better off."
Edvard looked over her shoulder as they rode, nodding. "Then we'll find someone who can." He watched her eyes grow troubled. "Mina, we can't keep a baby with us for long."
"I know." She bit her lip as she considered her next words. She glanced to the side to see Yuila preoccupied with some of the apricots she'd brought in a sack for the ride. "What will they think, Edvard?"
"The gypsies?" He frowned as she nodded, her hair bobbing in his face. "About the baby?"
"I don't want them to think I'd give away my own child," she said softly. "I don't want them to think it's mine." She felt his hand on her shoulder beneath her hair.
"Don't worry about that," he said in a low tone. "They won't think it's yours."
She looked to the baby as it drifted into sleep. She nodded.
"I'm serious. I don't think there's any chance in it."
"My father has blue eyes and light brown hair." She was almost glad she couldn't see Edvard very well. "I look more like my mother."
"Japanese and German aren't alike?"
She shook her head. He steered Neito around a large rut in the road.
"What were you concerned about yesterday, Edvard? You were going to say something else about the gypsies visiting the valleys." She felt his hand tighten for a moment, then move to her waist.
"That was something I was thinking about," he said.
She took a moment to look to Yuila. The girl was sucking on an apricot pit, humming. "You looked like you had seen a ghost when you mentioned Yuila and me."
For a long moment he was silent and she wondered if she had pushed a little too far.
Finally he sighed. "If the gypsies take the child, and if they continue on on the trade road," he said gravely, "and if we continue on with our plans, there's a good chance the gypsies will reach the valleys, and my father's camp, before we do."
"That's a lot of ifs," she said, sorting through what he'd told her. She nudged Menino's heel out of her ribs without waking him. "Why would that matter?"
"I'm taking two unmarried girls across the continent, without a chaperone, and I've pawned off a baby on a band of gypsies," he said flatly. "I'd rather be able to explain it in person to my father before the gypsies do. Especially when I'm supposed to be hunting."
"Oh, you're right," she said slowly, groaning at his summary. "It doesn't sound very good, does it?"
"Not very."
"Maybe the gypsies would be quiet about it."
"I doubt that." He pulled on Makka's rope when the mule lagged. "They'd be only too happy to ingratiate themselves into our camp for a little extra bartering. It would be only appropriate to welcome them."
She looked down at the child sleeping against her. "He looks more like you than me."
Edvard chuckled without humor. "That's not funny, Mina."
They traveled for another hour before stopping to feed Menino. Although the gypsies could be heard for a mile, it was not a mile by the trade road. The meandering roadway had followed the brook and Edvard and the girls wove in and out of the trees before hearing the sounds of a camp in the distance.
As they stopped for the baby's meal of tea and creamed potato, they could hear indiscernible calls and shouts from a distance. Yuila pulled her hood over her head without Edvard's suggestion and remained close to Mina as the baby was fed. Edvard had considered riding ahead as the girls stayed with the child in the copse of thick trees, but decided against it. The Derans were past, he was certain, but the notion was still dismissed.
It was early afternoon when the gypsy's camp came into view. It was set off from the trade road in a small glen of maple and poplar trees near the brook, and appeared to have been there for a while already. They were greeted by the barking and howling of dogs, and Yuila pulled Sova to the gelding until her boots were rubbing against those of Mina.
Edvard had told Mina she needn't wear her hood, and she felt strangely amiss without it. He had explained thoroughly about the accepting nature of gypsies, and she was about to see for herself if he was correct.
Eight wagons and three carts were in a half-circle facing the brook among the trees as Edvard and his companions approached. The dogs were barking, bringing two men and several youths a little older than Edvard and Mina to meet them.
The men were dressed as any other man Mina had seen since she'd found herself in Sombra Mundus, all except for the troops at Dimitar. They wore no swords, but each carried a long knife stuck in their belts. The taller man called off the dogs and the animals sat and watched the newcomers.
Edvard dismounted and led Neito a few paces to meet the man who had spoke. "Greetings," he called, raising a hand. "I hope you're well."
"We are." The shorter man looked to Mina and Yuila, then back to Edvard. "And you also. Where are you heading, son?"
"The coast."
"Are you trading?" the taller man asked.
"Not much. Are you selling?'
Mina figured Edvard had said the magical words, because they were welcomed into the arc of wagons immediately. She and Yuila dismounted and they walked the horses and mule to the outskirts of camp to where one of the young men indicated. She and the Crone stayed with the animals as Edvard spoke with the two older men for a moment. The three boys looked Mina and Yuila over, then one nodded to the baby.
"Is that yours?" he asked with a slight accent.
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