Posted June 11, 2021, 5:45 p.m. by Civilian Ragna Idun McKenzie (Future Citizen) (Jennifer Ward)
Posted by Civilian Seamus McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Earth - An Unexpected Meeting
Posted by Civilian Ragna Idun McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Earth - An Unexpected Meeting
Posted by Civilian Seamus McKenzie (Future Citizen) in Earth - An Unexpected Meeting
(snip)
“So tell her that. You think that someone with a temper like Ragna’s doesn’t understand the need to allow more objective persons to make those decisions, but she does. But you two need to talk as people. Not high born titles and ranks with sticks up both your rears. She is a very scared young woman, in her husbands home, away from her family. Whether she knows it or not, she needs you to be her family. Not her new chief, not a Lady, not any of that, she needs you to be her other mother. Talk to her, and keep talking, even if her fear and anger have got a hold of her at the moment. It’s a trait of the young. But you keep talking, and she’ll hear you. And you know what, you need to be seen as more than the Lady and the title too, and Ragna, is very good at ignoring titles.” Then Helka hugged the other woman. “I hope too that I never have to see or do such a thing and I wish such a thing had never been laid on you.” Helka looked over at Ragna, “She’s alone, go on, go talk to her. I’ve got linens to finish, and then we’ll plan a wedding.” And she shooed Tara back towards Ragna. And then Helka took herself off to wash the linens.
Ragna, Oddvar, and HelkaTara moved slowly over to Ragna, stopping Oddvar and asking him to bring her a chair… which he did. She sat down in front of Ragna and looked at her for a long moment before saying “I should have told you this earlier, Ragna… I am so very proud of you.” and she picked up a bruised and battered hand and kissed it gently before releasing it.
As she approached Ragna looked away from where she watching the door with a sigh. Seamus had told her to be the bigger woman, but it wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about one of them taking the high road, it was a matter of learning to travel the road together. She knew that, she just tended to make people want to travel with a great distance between them and her. Aurora was curled half on half off her lap. She had no words to say to Tara. She supposed ‘thank you’ for being proud of her? But it seemed a paltry response. And to dismiss it and define her own actions as survival instincts was rudely dismissive of her words. The only response she had was to meet Tara’s gaze and gently squeeze her hand.
“I am sorry, Ragna McKenzie… I am sorry that I was so wrapped up in everything else that I didn’t see you. But I do, my dear. I see you and I see what you have brought to this place…” and she waved her hand around at the homestead. “The light and warmth and passion… you may have been born Edman, but you are a McKenzie if there ever was one. And I am lucky to have you as my granddaughter. Now… what can a tired old woman do to make this right? Oh, and I’m not talking about Argyle.” and he turned her head and spit on the ground. “That I think will be best handled… at least at first… by more even tempers than you or I possess.” and she leaned forward and gave Ragna the look she gave Helka. “But I swear on all the McKenzie ancestors and fallen heroes… it will be handled to your satisfaction.” and she leaned back and calmed slightly. “No… I mean this, your home. What can I do to make you feel like you belong here? Because you do. And I want you to believe that as much as I do.”
Lady Tara
Ragna didn’t smile, but her gaze flickered hotly, but not at Tara, rather with her. “Oh I agree. This is far too perfect an opportunity to ruin it with my own temper.” She stared up at the sky. The migraine, the hit to the head, the pain killers, the tension of the previous day…she had to think first, and she was tired and hurting. “I will not say that I am not angry, that I want the man’s head on the end of a pike, that I want to be the one to put it there. But there are others.” She looked back at Tara. This conversation wasn’t about Argyle, but she needed someone to hear this. “Your grandson didn’t live this long with his…disposition and there not be others. He knew this was Seamus’s house, and I told him Seamus was my husband, that you said this was my home. Was that only yesterday?” Ragna shook her head, “If none of that mattered to him, then there are certainly others he’s beaten that he considers beneath him. There are thousands of clan that need to be protected from him. If what happened to me can fix that, then I can wait. Besides, my rage won’t help you use reconciliation to your benefit.” Ragna smiled slyly, “Oh yes, I’m aware, it’s the only option.”
Tara’s words really did mean the world to Ragna. “I meant what I said. You are always welcome. I don’t agree with many people or often. That is not a reflection of you, but me. Don’t stay away because of me.” There was a long moment of silence. Then Ragna began to talk, softly, and very out of character, tears. “Me fitting in here is not anything anyone can help but me. When I was 10, my sister, Revna lost Shauwn. They were…always together. They were seamless. They knew, the village knew, Da and Mom knew, they would get married....He…died in the attack on Earth. It broke Revna, it destroyed her. There was no Revna without Shauwn. They were so interconnected she couldn’t function after he was gone. She threw herself into living his life. She had no identity without him. I didn’t want to end up like her. I never wanted to walk into love with someone. To loose myself so completely in another that neither could function without the other. It still scares me.” She glances at the door to the house again. “I make him angry, a lot. And every time he walks away I get a taste of what Revna felt, and I hate it.” She reaches over and pats Tara’s hand. “That’s not a criticism of Seamus at all. I understand now how it happens that your whole world, your identity, becomes defined by another. But finding a place here is my responsibility, to find the right way to fight for Seamus, not fight with him.”
Ragna McKenzieTara looked at Ragna for a long time and then smiled and said “Do you know how old Seamus was when he started building this place? And How he was when he moved into it permanently?” and she grinned like she had a secret dying to come out.
Tara
Ragna thought about it. Seamus had told her he had found the foundation and the crest. That he thought that if one McKenzie had lived there once then another should. And so he’d built the house. She shook her head. No mostly she tried to find out how and when he’d learned Norwegian, and he never answered, just kissed her. “No, he hasn’t told me.”
Ragna McKenzie
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