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"Raya," Menolly said, "when you do chores, do you usually use your left hand?"
The young Holder girl seemed to shrink into herself for a moment before nodding very slightly.
"That explains a lot," Menolly said, smiling. "You're in luck. Master Jerint uses his left hand in the same way. I'll ask him if I can borrow his learning gitar for you. I think we'll see rapid improvement once you have an instrument that supports you. Keep studying your part for the rehearsal."
Raya squeaked a thank you and ran off. She had a good singing range and was a fair hand with a lap harp, Menolly had learned, but her father had been insistent she learn how to play gitar to "distinguish herself" and more appropriately entertain the young men who were traveling around, trying to determine if they would extend an offer of a partnership contact to her or to some other young girl being paraded before all the boys with the same goal in mind.
Menolly had found most of the young girls sent to learn musical skills pleasant and interested in developing their musical ability, wherever their talent might lie. It was often their fathers, the holders, who were more demanding and less tolerant of working with the limitations and strengths of their daughters. Menolly's hand itched where the packtail knife had cut her in sympathy every time the holders began to make demands or berate their daughters in their letters and visits, even if after many years of playing, stretching, and hauling had helped rebuild the muscles and broken down the scars from Mavi's attempt at healing. If anyone ever asked, that itch would be blamed for how often the contemptuous parts of those letters found themselves accidentally carved off, erased by careless ink handling, or accidentally used as starting materials for the various fires needed to make glues, inks, or other substances necessary for the Harper Hall to operate.
"Another successful solution, Menolly," Lorena said approvingly.
"Another solution produced by actually listening to someone's problems," Menolly said sourly. "It becomes clearer every day that if any of the girls who stayed here actually learned something from their time here, it was because the girl was already musical."
"They're holder daughters. Gitars, harps, pipes, and voice lessons are all good for attracting a man, but once you have him, what need is there to do more?" Lorena said, mocking the prevalent attitude among the men who believed the work of their holds was accomplished without the need for music to help the day go by and keep the work on task, or to entertain after a hard day's work.
When the Masters had presented her with the task of instructing the girls of the cottage sufficiently that they could produce and present a credible show, Menolly had taken the suggestion she return to the same building as Dunca as the grave insult it was. Only after Dunca had been dismissed as the house matron did Menolly begin to believe the task hadn't been intended as a cruel joke to stop her from ever obtaining a Mastery. She'd asked Weaver Audiva to help run the house as a potential revenge for both of them, but she had already established herself with many customers in Tillek. Silvina had instead provided a young woman who she believed might have the capability to be the headwoman of a small hold once she was of age for someone to notice her. Lorena had been every bit of competent headwoman Silvina had believed her to be and equally as adept at ensuring all the negative attention thrown at the residents of her cottage found somewhere else to be.
Each of the residents had their own issues to work with. Most of them had not been taught to read the musical notation that Harpers and Singers used for their songs and translate them to the sounds of their instruments, so their ability to make music relied solely on what they had sung or played so often that it was in their memory. And, because they were expected to find good husbands and never need to raise their voice for any task more arduous than yelling at a drudge for one of a seemingly infinite list of failures, none of them had been taught to sing properly, either.
"There is always need to do more for music in the Holds," Menolly said. "I'm going to stretch my legs and see if the Runners have any messages for the residents." Such a task was primarily for the cottage caretaker, she knew, but Lorena knew that when Menolly needed to think, the trip to the Runner Station and back was her favorite circuit.
Menolly continued to ruminate on her residents as she walked. As she had gotten to know them more, Menolly had learned the musical strengths of each of her charges. Lina might have been a little slip of a girl, but she'd been the only one to successfully wake Masterharper Robinton from his customary afternoon nap when given the opportunity to sing in the same spot where Menolly had done the same. Caela had almost caught the ire of Voice Master Shonagar with a lusty performance of a sea shanty that he had told Menolly was "highly inappropriate for young ladies of breeding," but Menolly had merely suggested that Caela might be able to match his famed volume and he had bellowed at the insult from Menolly instead.
Listening to the music from the girls was fascinating for Menolly, who did her best to copy down all of the working songs and as many of the bawdier songs from those who came from the ports where the Fishers sang and played as she could. Having met Masterfisher Idarolan many times, Menolly knew the roughness of the lyrics of their songs proceeded directly from the roughness of the Masterfisher and the work. Yanus Sea-Holder had always been furious when Old Uncle had slyly taught her another of the many songs he had overheard through his life, complaining that no Holder son would ever marry a daughter with the language of a Fisher. He may have been right, but Menolly had never been destined for the dance of matchmaking for a Holder's daughter once Petiron had taken an interest in her voice and skill with the instruments. Menolly also knew that setting her words to melodies that evoked tavern songs would make them easier to remember and more pleasant to hear and learn, even if it made some Holders turn up their noses at them.
With Raya potentially settled once she had a proper gitar in hand, and Lina and Caela practicing a duet that she'd written with Masterharper Robinton and Master Shonagar's voices (and relative volumes) in mind, Menolly still had two girls she needed to find instruments for. Had Cordelia been a boy, she would have sent him up to the drumheights immediately, because she had a sense of rhythm that would make the drum code easy to learn. Unfortunately, a young lady with a talent for complex drumming could not entertain by herself, and Cordelia's relationship to pitch made most instruments impossible for her. Menolly secretly hoped that Cordelia might sneak herself into a white robe and become a junior Weyrwoman at Fort Weyr before the time of their performance, or possibly even sneak herself into becoming a weyrmate at Fort and choosing not to return. Menolly refrained from actively putting the idea in Cordelia's head, but Cordelia was clearly jealous of Menolly's fire-lizards and looked wistfully toward the Weyr when she thought nobody else was looking at her.
The remaining girl was, Menolly suspected, the real reason this particular cottage was being offered to her as a test to see if she was ready for her Mastery. Therese was opinionated, used the promise of violence as one of her best negotiating tools with the world, and, most infuriatingly, was good enough at the music that Menolly put in front of her that it was clear she was deliberately playing incorrectly whenever Therese felt it would be best. Menolly had put a moderately complex pipe accompaniment to work with the two voices and Raya's gitar work, and Therese seemed to know when to play off-key so as to make the entire piece sour. Menolly had tried every way she knew to try and get the young girl to open up to her about why she felt the need to sabotage everyone so much, had asked Lorena to do the same and to spy on her where possible to try and get that information, and had seen if she could get some of the other apprentices to draw out the reason for her mischief. All their efforts had failed, and Therese continued to play for maximum discord whenever she felt she could get away with it.
"Thinking mood, Journeywoman Menolly?" the Runner at the station said as she approached.
"Yes," she said in reply.
"You're in luck, then," the Stationmaster said. "Journeywoman Tenna is cooling her heels between assignments, and she was hoping to see you before she left." Before Menolly could say anything else, the Runner Stationmaster disappeared to get the Runner that Menolly was developing a fast friendship with when they were in the same space.
"Menolly! How's the fair?" Tenna said, emerging out and looking for any of the ten fire-lizards that were always not that far away from her.
"They're all fine. Probably perched on top of Master Shonagar's building, ready to sing along at the slightest invitation." They both smiled at the thought of the Master puffing and blowing at "unauthorized voices" joining in, not that he could stop the fire-lizards from singing when they wanted to. "Anything interesting for me?"
"Nothing the drums haven't already carried faster. Lord Groghe is still trying to discipline his sons, Lord Larad is still on the hunt for his wayward sister, and a scamp of a Journeyman Harper was spotted with Lord Jaxom, both of them almost assuredly up to no good, but neither could be detained long enough to find out what their plans were. Lady Sharra was very cross with both of them, though."
Menolly shook her head. "No doubt secret business they could not tell Lady Sharra, upon the pain of not getting to have any fun." She thought about the prospect of whether Therese was behaving the way she was because she thought it was fun. It didn't seem to be the case, because Therese didn't engage in any other pranking or misbehavior, and was otherwise perfectly well-behaved, according to Lorena.
"You've got a problem," Tenna said. "One of your little ladies being less than ladylike?"
Menolly explained as best she could, about how Therese was perfectly fine at all the other things but refused to be biddable or good when it came to playing her pipes. Tenna nodded along to the explanation, and when Menolly was finished. she broke into a broad grin.
"I think I know why you're having trouble," Tenna said. "I would, too, in trying to deal with her."
"And why is that?" Menolly said.
"Because she's just like both of us when we were her age. A little less hanging our clothes out to dry and being berated for sleeping in the nude, but absolutely determined to give spite and malice to the idea of what she 'should' be doing with her life."
Menolly turned the idea over in her own head. She'd run away from her own situation at home after the packtail slice. And protested when Pona had tried to get Bemis to take away the marks given to her by Robinton. And cheered when Audiva had punched Bemis and made him cry. None of those things were very ladylike at all, but Menolly had never had an intention of becoming a lady. Tenna had already punched out one of Lord Groghe's sons for running her off her trace into a patch of sticklebush, and continued to pursue the career of the Runner, even after she had been sought and promised wealth and status by that same son and several other suitors looking for a spirited woman to run their households and raise their children.
"You said it yourself, Menolly," Tenna continued. "She only does it when it will cause maximum discord in your group. Her father probably intends to parade her before all the eligible men he can, in hopes that seeing her at her most domestic, he can get her married off before she can open her mouth and prove she's more than just a docile lady playing pipes."
"Queen's egg shards, am I going to have to smuggle both of them to the Hatching Ground?" Menolly said, putting her head in her hands.
"If one of them leaves, she'll bring the others around, almost assuredly. After that, the dragons will decide if any of them are coming back to you."
"What do I do in the meantime?"
"That's up to you, but if Therese were to develop a sudden illness or to have accidentally given herself too much fellis, for her performance anxieties, to wake up in time for your program, I'm sure you could make the program work."
"I'm not going to encourage Therese to play with fellis," Menolly said. "That's much too dangerous."
"What you'll need to do is believe her when she says she's ill on the day of the performance, and to have a backup plan in place so that all of the musicians who get sick, intentionally or otherwise, can play each others' parts if needed. You might find you liked it more with different musicians. I have no doubt your girls, even the one who plays off-key, have the skills to learn a completely different set of parts."
"So I'm going to let her get away with not playing in front of anyone?"
"It's what we both would have wanted, isn't it?"
"I would have wanted to be treated with some respect, like you did." Menolly's thought about it. "I can't let Therese skip the performance. But maybe there's something I can do that will let her play without having so much attention drawn to her. How would you like to hear a concert of Fishercraft songs?"
Tenna's eyes lit with potential mischief. "I could use some new material for the traces. And I'm sure those young ladies would faithfully sing and play the songs they've been given, and all the blame would fall on the Journeywoman with such poor taste as to program such material. So long as none of them looked like they understood their songs and were enjoying them, they might be able to sing an absolutely filthy program."
Menolly smiled back, songs already arranging themselves into a playing order in her head. "Do you have any specific requests?" she asked.
"Are there any songs you know about having a lass in every port and not caring if they know about the others? I'd love to be able to sing that into a few Stations on my long circuit, just to see the looks on the Stationmaster's faces."
Menolly nodded. "If Caela doesn't know one, I'll bet Therese does, and she'll be thrilled to teach it to all the other girls."
"Then I think your problem is sorted, Harper."
"I certainly hope so, Runner. Fair trade."
Tenna laughed. "Save some bubbly pies and a skin of Benden white for me next Gather and we'll call it a deal."
"I can do that. Don't be late punching out one of Groghe's other sons."
"If they stop riding runners on my traces, I'll stop punching them."
The two women smiled at each other and departed back to their respective stations. Menolly would have to work quickly to get the girls ready for the performance at this late day, but she had a feeling she might have a more receptive audience once she announced the change to the program, and her girls might double their efforts to learn the new songs thoroughly and well.