3rd person P.O.V
The week at the Matrifocal Compound passed quickly. The two conversing every night after dinner for several hours and going about their days as they normally would. Tally's class had completed their project during that week and Tally had refused to tell the General anything other than her students were working on a gift for her when she left. Tally was publicly chosen along with three other instructors by the education coordination of the compound to present all the gifts that had been made for the General to be given to her just after the lunch service on the Generals last day there. Tally, Glory, and two of the younger class leaders were chosen to collect all the gifts from all the classes and individuals and to check them to make sure they were all appropriate. The four would take their lunch early so that they could sort through all the gifts in the empty auditorium where Alder would be giving a goodbye speech after the lunch. They were going to arrange large bed sheets over the table that held all the gifts so that nobody could see what exactly was there. Nearly everything had been handmade in the compound. Though some things had been bought at the local store on the last town trip. The adults and eldest teens took turns going into the town on the first of every month to buy and trade things that they made or could not make themselves in the compound. Things like fabrics for clothes and well as selling decorative items and miscellaneous charms to the locals.
"Thank you for having me in your home for the last week" Alder said to Tally as she cleaned up the breakfast dishes "it is your home as well now General" Tally said. Turning to fill the sink with water to wash the plates and cutlery "you know, as my wife you can call me Sarah when we are in private." Adler said from the other side of the sink, learning against a bar stool. The biddies were reading in the main living area. They looked over and smiled at Tally in unison. Something she had gotten used to over the last week. "Okay. Sarah." Tally said, looking up to meet Alder's eyes. Brown and Blue met for a few seconds and a smile pushed its way onto Alder's face as she watched the redhead hands under the water scrubbing plates and forks. "It's going to feel a bit odd after you leave. I got used to this house being full of people at all hours of the day. And now it will go back to being empty again." Tally said as she rinsed the plates. "I suppose it would, but conscription day is at the end of next week so it's only a week in a house alone. And then you are sharing a room with your unit." Alder reassured Tally. Drying her hands Tally moved around the kitchen island to lean next to Sarah. Tally sighed as she looked over the room and out of the widows facing the gardens, she could just about see the top of the steps that lead to the marriage spiral.
"Take a walk with me through the gardens?" Tally questioned, already moving towards the patio door. Sarah followed, with the biddies close behind. "This is probably one of the last times we are on equal standing and you aren't my commanding officer yet." Tally said quietly. Trying to keep the calmness of the gardens and from keeping any eavesdroppers unable to hear their conversation. Not that anyone would spy but the younger witches would get quite nosy at times. "I will miss these gardens when I'm back at base. We have gardens there but nothing as free flowing and natural as this." Sarah said gesturing around at all of the intermingled vegetable plots and flowers. "Maybe, now you have an excuse to come back at some point in the future." Tally said, looking over at Sarah from the corner of her eye. She pushed her hair behind her ear and kept looking at the older woman who was staring out at the orchard that was just about visible from the gardens. "You know, I haven't visited the orchard yet. Could you show me?" Sarah asked, turning back to Tally and catching a blush colouring the girl's cheeks. Nodding Tally moved down towards the edge of the garden where the steps led down to the marriage spiral and past the gate to the rest of the community. The gate was opened and held open for Alder and all of her Biddies. Checking the time on her watch Tally noticed that she only had an hour before her last session on the handkerchiefs with her class before she needed to rush through her lunch. "I can only stay for an hour, but I am sure you are more than capable of finding you way back to the house. The orchards aren't that big." Tally informed Sarah.
The biddies kept a respectable distance as Tally showed Sarah around the orchard pointing out the variety of fruit trees that they had, apple trees, pear trees, orange trees and lemon trees. "Most of the fruit we eat, but some of the fruit goes into our drinks. The older teens and adults will make cider from the leftover apples and pears after each harvest season," Tally said, pointing to the barns where the fruit was stored in cool rooms after the harvest to be preserved for eating and to the building that was used as the distillery for the cider. "The young teens will make orange juice and the children will make lemonade in the summer from any fruit that they find." she explained. They walked past rows of trees, the different fruits intermingled with each other, branches brushing together, creating patches of shade along the walking paths. "It's quite beautiful." Sarah said as they reached the edge of the orchard and turned to walk across the back. Between the tresses and the border bushes that ringed the edges of all the plant spaces. "It is, isn't it. I'd never really noticed all the beauty here. It always felt normal and unremarkable to me." Tally said, reaching out to run her hand through the leaves of the bush to her right. "I'm sure that there are beautiful gardens at Fort Salem as well." Tally said hopeful that she would be able to find a place that reminds her of home. They reached the edge of the orchard where the trees turned into vegetable fields. Tally checked her watch, "I have got to my class. I'll see you after the lunch service." She bid the woman and her companions goodbye and ran off through the fields. Closely following the thin paths between the rows of crops.
Alder made her way back along the edge of the orchards away from the border bushes. The biddies moved closer to the General now that privacy was no longer required for her wife. This was something that had been agreed upon that when Tally and Sarah were together in a more private capacity the biddies would keep a distance to allow the younger girl the chance to talk and get to know the general without feeling like she was being judged, or that she had seven new shadows; this wasn't a permanent thing it was only for that week. Alder spent the slow walk back to the house lost in thought, a mix of everything she would need to do back at the base when her leave ended in order to prepare for conscription day. Alongside partially unwelcome thoughts of Tally, of the way the sun made her eyes shine and how she ducked her head when she laughed. Alder tried to push those thoughts aside, she did not need the distraction, and besides even if her marriage was blessed the blessing was only on the relationship not the marriage. It could simply mean that Tally would have a long military career alongside Alder even after their marriage ended.
Similarly Tally was distracted across the compound in her class. Fortunately her class had great sewers and didn't need much supervision. The final touches were being placed and the napkins would be rinsed and dried before lunch to remove any loose fibers. This was something she did not have to pay much attention to which was good as her mind was focused on how when she spoke Sarah's voice sounded as if she had come from both everywhere in the world and nowhere at once. And how when she took her braid out in the evenings some of her hair would always get caught on the collar of her jacket.
"Miss Tally, we've finished all the sewing. Can we go to the washing room to clean the napkins now." one of the younger civilians asked. Tally nodded and stood up from her chair, "we will all go together. I can teach you how to use the washers properly." Tally said, fully aware that only some of the children had had the chance to use the washers. Electricity was not available for the whole compound so it was mainly used to connect the phones, televisions and lights. Everything else was hand powered or gas powered. She led the small group of about ten or so children to the washing room which held twenty hand powered washing machines and five irons heated by the water boiled over the fire. They would not be using the irons. Instead they would hand the napkins to dry and Tally would collect them during the main lunch service.
The children watched and listened closely as Tally demonstrated how to rinse the napkins and then how to squeeze out as much water as possible. They all had a turn before tally dismissed them early to their mothers in order to finish up and eat her own lunch before the lunch service started. She quickly pegged all the napkins up on a line between the fireplace and the open window. Most of their clothes were dried outside in the sun with the exception of things that could easily blow away if the wind were to catch it wrong.
Tally rushed through her lunch at her mothers house to meet the other girls at the auditorium where they set up a table on the stage near the back. The four girls rushed around the compound to collect every class' gifts and to collect any personal gifts that had been made by members of the community who were not in the ran down to the washing room when the last personal gift had been collected and pulled all of the napkins off the line. All the gifts would be inspected before being placed on the table. This was to ensure that nothing offensive or cruel was hidden in a gift and that no workings had been used on the gift. Witches in the matrifical communities were allowed to use their work inside the compounds but only for the health and growth of the community and its people. Once all of the gifts were checked they were set on the table with name tags attached describing what the gift was and who made it. The gifts were then covered with a bedsheet to keep it a surprise for the general. The same four girls would also be in charge of packing all of the gifts up into two large boxes for the general to take back to the base with her.
After the lunch service had finished all of the witches moved into the auditorium, while the welcoming speech had been for all members of the community the goodbye speech was just for the witches. Something special that would help set up the announcement of the betrothal next year. The speech was something that Tally had heard Alder practising for the last few nights in the living room. Something that she was certain she knew by heart now, Tally and her group took seats in the front row by the steps up to the stage so that after the speech they could go up and read aloud all of the tags for the gifts while showing them to the general. They would not be showing the seated members but they would have a chance to see all of the gifts on the table before they were packed up.
It was when she was packing all of the gifts into the two boxes that she was pulled aside by her mother. "Your wife wants to see you before she leaves. Now she will be leaving as soon as everything is packed." May said in hushed tones to her daughter at the side of the stage. Tally walked out of the auditorium mindful of the people still there and once she was outside she ran to her home. "Tally," the voice greeted her when she had shut the front door. "I want to ask something of you." Sarah said sitting in the main house's living room. Tally moved over to the sofa and sat down next to the older woman, "yes?" she asked, slightly confused and apprehensive.
"I want you to promise me something, and I want you to mean it. I want you to promise me that when you come to Fort Salem, either as a cadet or as my wife, that you will not confuse me as I am now with you with who I am as the general. I have grown to care for you over this last week and I do not want that to be ruined because you saw me as the general and as Sarah at the same time. I feel like a different person when I am around you Tally, but on base I cannot be that person. I want you to understand this and promise me that you will not confuse me as your wife with me as the head of the army. Can you do that for me, Tally?" Sarah asked in a rare moment of vulnerability, sadness written clearly across her face.
"Yes,yes, I can try. I promise to try," Tally said, slightly shocked that Sarah shared some of her feelings. She moved her hand forwards slightly on the sofa cushions and brushed her fingers against Sarah's "I will do my best to learn to separate my wife from my C.O. can i also ask that you don't tell my mother that i plan on joining the military on conscription day, she still thinks i will change my mind but I can't stay here when you are fighting for our country when i know that any difference i can make for peace is something good in the world." Talky asked and Sarah nodded, reaching out to briefly squeeze Tally's hand before standing up.
"Do you think you can help me move our bags to the truck?" gesturing at the biddies who stood near the door with 8 duffel bags piled up on the floor at their feet. "It would be my pleasure." Tally walked over and lifted the top bags and opened the door to the military transport that had arrived moments earlier to bring the general and her biddies to the airfield to go back to base. "Goodbye, I'll see you in a week. Feel free to you know, call me if you want." Tally said once the last of the bags and biddies were inside the truck. She stood outside of her home and watched her heart beating loud in her chest as her wife sped away in the truck, nothing but a small smile to say goodbye.