Chapter six

CHAPTER 6

Eddy was undoubtedly the most learned girl in the village, maybe in the entire kingdom. She was now a beautiful tower with an average height, brown eyes, curvy figure and long black hair which made her an object of interest in the entire land. Within the first few months she had already made friends with afew village girls and was already homeschooling them on different subjects. Crochet, home science, housekeeping above many other practical lessons she had acquired at school. Girls had very little to do around Butita safe from collecting firewood and preparing dishes, sometimes preparing farms when the season was ripe for planting assisted by young boys. This was the reason parents found it easy to release their girls for Eddy's classes, the sessions were informal and no girl ever dreamt of missing a single class. They were also attracted to city stories and upcountry gossip which Eddy was more than willing to share.

"Eddy, will you give me a smile?" Fache asked one evening with his face ashone.

"I won't donate smiles to an uncle who keeps bad secrets", Eddy joked.

"Actually I might be having the most heart lifting news of the century", he continued creating attention. When it came to drama, Fache had specialized in it.

"Unless you tell us there's a new dinosaur breed in the village that wears pressed pants", everyone burst out laughing. Eddy was a comedian by the sense of it.

"Actually, it's not about animals".

"Will you go ahead or keep us guessing till we knock our heads, then you'll have a mental lot to tend".

"Okay, the king just sent me".Everyone was now all ears, Fache had become a junior elder and was a frequent visitor to the kings palace but this, this was exceptional news.

"He says he has heard alot about the beautiful work you're doing, and would like you working from his palace", Fache concluded enjoying the attention he had just created.

Hannah remembered the voices which had now settled abit, she remembered the evil forest, she remembered her affair with king Xavier and almost lost control.

"Well, my daughter won't work from the palace, tell the king she's busy over here", Hannah remarked with a background hatred.

"nobody says no to the king, lovely sis, the dice is cast", Fache was more heartbroken than worried.

"Okay mom, maybe there's an hope, maybe he will avail much space and material for my sessions which are growing exponentially, maybe he will approve my work and get more teachers from the city to help, and who knows, I might even start earning". Eddy was an expert when it came to convincing, and who could deny such an innocent girl opportunity for growth?

So it was then that Eddy found her way to the palace, no one doubted her almost mirror image with the prince who was abit younger. The king who was now ripe with age watched the girl with admiration, whose daughter was this brilliant girl? He wished he had a daughter. Eddy got more materials from the king and her school grew to major proportions. More girls were coming and as she had predicted, she started getting stipend and afew favors from the palace.

Time passed out smoothly, planting season came and passed without much event. The queen had found a soft spot for Eddy and was mostly helping her with administering the housekeeping lessons, Eddy inturn tought her how to count and abit Swahili which was the city's mostly used language. The two were getting on real good. Then it happened, in one of the elder summit meetings it was decided that the king could not only survive with one son, what if he was hit with a log and died, what if a strong wind carried him to the ocean? The queen was already past child bearing age and so it was decided that the king find a young girl who would atleast add seed to his lineage. A couple of elders were already mentioning Eddy loudly and the king was already into it. For was she not the most elegant girl in the whole kingdom?

Hannah sat uncomfortably at the veranda of her new hut, her mind felt like an hot turbine, she felt like her body was being carried on some busy conveyer belt. She had to act or lose it all. The following Monday the summit would be meeting, maybe that was the last chance she had !