Read Chloë for Free Online Page B

compact but very comfortable and very clean.  Chloë had
visited other such simple towns back home; all of them seemed to be running on
the ragged edge of disaster when it came to things like sanitation.  This
town was as clean and tidy as it was charming.  She enjoyed the break
watching parents with their children as they went about their daily chores.
    “We
skipping school or something?” Chloë finally asked.
    Heather
just smiled, “I’m not.  Most book learning is usually done by the time you
are fifteen or sixteen and then it is off to find an apprenticeship or start
helping in a store or family.  Gwen, for example, did both.  She
started off apprenticed with a midwife, mainly because she was so very good
with little children and not so much in other areas.  Don’t get me wrong,
she is awesome on the mandolin and violin, but not the type to teach or work on
her own.  She ended up moving in to our house as a nanny that winter when
the five descended on us.  A year later she married
in.”    
    Chloë
nodded, “Gwen does seem like such a wonderfully friendly person.  She’s
very observant, just a very quiet sort.”
    “Less
weird now that you know her better?”
    Chloë
laughed, “Very much so.  I’m very disappointed in my own first impression
of her.  It did her no justice.”
    “That’s
okay.  You gave her a chance to have a second impression, and that’s the
good part.”
    “So
what of you,” asked Chloë with a smile.  “Apprenticing, working or what?”
    Heather
laughed and her fur danced, “Oh, I’ve been through three apprenticeships
already.  Longest lasted four months.  I’m still trying to figure out
what to do.  Well, on Wednesday and Friday nights, I teach
dance.   Not quite broad enough to make a living at it.”
    “Your
entire family seems to ooze music,” laughed Chloë.  “That must be
wonderful.”
    “Ivy
toured off world for two years before she was married.  Hit over a hundred
Altshea and Kuplgurie worlds and colonies doing piano concerts.  She’s
beyond good.  My aunts on my dad’s side… well, my dad’s younget brother’s
First and Second Mothers both were lowland musicians before they moved up here. 
Zoe, the First Mother is also fantastic on piano, while Tatiana, the Second
Mother of that family taught me some off-world dance as well as the local
stuff.”
    “You
aren’t apprenticed to a dance instructor here?”
    Heather
flashed a toothy grin, “I was, for two months.  At that point I was better
than her, had sucked her dry, and was better at teaching new people to dance,
too!  Oh, that went over so terribly well!”
    “Wow! 
You must be quite a natural,” laughed Chloë.
    “Yep
yep.  Two things I’ve always excelled at were dance and sparring. 
Not much of a career to be had teaching hand-to-hand though.”
    “Well,
I wouldn’t mind learning to be able to defend myself.  Something I never
was exposed to growing up!”
    “That,”
grinned Heather, “sounds like a lot of fun.  That and we need to get
Father to teach you Live Steel.”
    Live
Steel.  There it came up again.  Oh well, Chloë was tired of
questions for the day.  That one was just going to have to wait. 
“So, to the dress shop?”
    “Indeed!”
    The
pair threaded their way through the light traffic back towards a dress shop
they had visited the previous day.  All about them people were busy about
their business, yet frowns seemed few and far between.  And what smiles
were to be found were sincere; everything seemed so much more real than at home. 
This is how people were; they weren’t putting on an act for Chloë.  Even
the frowns seemed nicer than the ones at home; they were honest.
    Heather
did a sharp turn in front of the entry to the dress shop, spinning Chloë around
in the process so they came face to face with a young man who was ruggedly, but
neatly dressed.  He seemed a little shocked at the sudden face to face
meeting.
    “Hi! 
You’ve been