[littlemanpoet]

Eodwine glanced back and forth between Thornden and the boy, who was already looking hopeful and eager in that dangerous way of which Eodwine had suddenly become very aware. He locked eyes with Thornden.

"I will speak with you alone, Thornden. We must find someone to watch the boy in the meantime. Follow me to the kitchen. Mayhap we shall find someone there."

Javan, as Eodwine said this, noticed with some surprise that Eodwine had not called him by name since he had learned what had passed. He looked with slightly dimmed enthusiasm at him and his smile faded.

Eodwine led them toward the corridor to the kitchen. He stopped abruptly as Rowenna was just coming out of the corridor from the kitchen. At least, so it seemed. She always seemed to be very ready to hand when someone was needed. A good trait, he supposed.

"Rowenna, watch the boy. Thornden and I must talk. With no one else to hear."

"Aye, lord," she said with a nod, and led the boy off toward the kitchen.

"To my rooms," Eodwine said with a glance. Thornden followed without a word. When he had closed the door behind his almbudsman, he had him sit but paced from wall to wall himself as he spoke.

"Thornden, at first I was going to have the women send bread and drink and coin with you so that you would not have to travel far this night, but the boy came and begged."

“He came and begged, my lord? For what? Not a more merciful judgment, certainly? I told him you were already being merciful.”

"Yes, he begged. But nothing he said persuaded me." Eodwine stopped and looked at Thornden, who was staring at him in frank surprise.

"Persuaded you, lord? Of what?"

Eodwine could not hold back an abrupt ironic chuckle. "What, indeed." He resumed pacing. "At first I thought of hauling him before court tomorrow and requiring him to work for me until he has paid, in coin, every last copper a new stable will cost. But then I thought that he should just be sent home as he is too reckless to be trusted with work here. Yet I thought to myself that it would be no good to him to send him back to the place where he seems not to have been supervised as much as was needful. Then I had a new thought, that instead of holding a job here, he should be taught to be a man, here. Yes, he should be schooled."

Schooled! Thornden was still surprised...almost bewildered. How is someone taught to be a man? What else would Eodwine do, other than giving him a job and holding him to it? But Eodwine said, "Instead of holding a job here, he is to be schooled."

"How do you intend to do this?" Thornden asked after a lengthy pause. "And who will? Lord Eodwine, I will be frank - he's not your or my responsibility. He's my father's, if anyone's. You should not have to make him into a man." But then Thornden stopped. He didn't like the idea, merely because he did not like Eodwine thinking that he himself should deal with Javan's upbringing. On the other hand...he wondered what good it would be for Javan if he were sent back home. Perhaps Eodwine was right. Perhaps it would do no good to send him back, he'd just continue to grow in the same foolhardy, spoiled way, his boyish instincts and thoughtlessness never checked.

Finally, he sighed and looked down. "I don't know what you intend to do or how you think you can teach him, but I'm willing to listen."

At last Eodwine sat down across from Thornden and leaned on the table, eyeing his almbudsman with a twinkle in his eye.

"Why was he sent here, Thornden? Why did he come?"

Thornden was doubtful. "He came to work for you. To get a foothold someplace so when he became a man, he had a position at least somewhere in your court." He stood up. "I didn't think he'd be like this...thoughtless, careless...even dishonest...I mean, to take Falco's pipe and try to smoke it and then burn down the stables!"

It was clear to see Thornden's feelings. He felt angry, and he was ashamed - ashamed that his younger brother should be so without responsibility, should act dishonorably.

"I'm sorry," he said, sitting down promptly again. "I'll listen."

"So we agree that he is not ready to find a place as a worker for me, and that it is no use sending him back home. So he must be taught to be a man. If he is not ready for work, then he must be supervised, every minute of every day. Since he has trespassed against me, I can use the law of the Eorlings to aid us. Mayhap he should be made to think that he works drudgery to pay the cost of the stables.

"But neither you nor I am ready to say yes to this thought tonight. Let us both sleep on it and talk in the morning, and see if it still seems as madcap then as it does now. What say you?"

Thornden did not know exactly what to say. He still saw little promise in the idea at all, but at this point, he thought, perhaps there was no exactly good choice.

There was one thing more. "My lord," Thornden asked, his voice a little sharp, "if he is not to be sent back, what will be his punishment? You said yourself you will not charge him and make him your serf, but there must be some judgment, mustn't there?"

Eodwine sighed and nodded. "Yes, there must. That is my added burden, and I shall sleep on that. For now, good night."

They both rose and Eodwine saw Thornden out of his rooms.