Nobody's Lady by Amy McNulty

she placed the hammer down and snatched her mug up from the table like I might be tempted to steal it out of her hands. “And your father? What was his excuse to pack up shop in the last week? He’s retiring?”
    I shrugged and looked away. I hadn’t been home in weeks. I wasn’t really avoiding Father or Mother, but I knew I wouldn’t be going home to a happy family reunion. Especially not with how things were with Elfriede.
    Alvilda’s rant was undeterred by my silence. She swung her arms around the room, sloshing a little of her drink onto the floor. “All this carving to do, and the other master carver in the village has retired?” She shook her head and took a sip. “No. No, I won’t have it with my nephews.” She slammed the mug down. “And Siofra and Coll won’t have it, either.”
    “Luuk helps Master Tailor and Siofra.”
    Alvilda nodded. “He helps his father and mother and even me plenty. Nissa, too. They’re young. We can still tell them they’d better help out.” I didn’t ask if youth helped them cope with Luuk’s sudden lack of romantic devotion toward his former goddess. I didn’t relish whoever was the one to have the discussion with Nissa that her former little love now thought of her as more of a sister. Alvilda pointed directly at me. “Jurij is the problem here.”
    I crumbled under Alvilda’s stare, focusing instead on the circles my fingers keep tracing in the sawdust. I hated to admit what I already knew, that Jurij wasn’t my Jurij. Even if this probably was the real Jurij, the one who’d have existed without the curse. Then again, the curse was the reason for his bitterness, so who knows who he would have been? “I’m working on fixing things.”
    “ Fixing things ?” I could hear Alvilda scoff. “And what does that entail exactly?”
    I met Alvilda’s gaze. “Jurij back home with Elfriede. With his wife.”
    “With his former wife.” Alvilda sighed and threaded her arms across her chest. “Noll, you’re just not getting it. Things aren’t the same anymore. You can’t influence Jurij now any more than you could when you wanted him to love you.”
    “That was different.”
    “Why? Because he had tolove Elfriede, so there was no hope for you?”
    “That’s exactly why. Now, his feelings could go either way. Or another way entirely.”
    “Then wishing your will on him seems more hopeless than ever.”
    I stared, studying Alvilda. “But he can be convinced now.”
    “You can’t shape him like one of your wooden toys, Noll!” Alvilda rolled her eyes. “He has his own feelings, his own desires. Let him figure out how he feels for himself.”
    “But I don’t want him to love me. Not like that. Not now.”
    Alvilda tilted her head. “And why not?”
    “Because.” I stared back at my circles, surprised to find that I’d traced a blooming rosebud without meaning to. “It’s just easier that way.”
    “Are you worried about Elfriede?” Alvilda waited for my response before continuing, but I said nothing. “Because she’s stronger than you give her credit for, stronger maybe than even she realizes. She’s beautiful and sweet, and there are dozens upon dozens of available men out there now. She doesn’t need Jurij, even if she thinks she does. She just needs time.”
    She doesn’t need him. And I don’t need Ailill. “I need time, too,” I said at last.
    Alvilda didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she picked up her hammer and went back to work. “Well, take it. You could all use a little time to stop obsessing over romance, if you ask me.”
    “Maybe.” I took a deep breath and stood, gathering my tools into my work basket.
    Alvilda pointed at me with the hammer again. “You tell Jurij his mother and I expect him here for dinner tomorrow. He’s had enough time to mope.”
    “I don’t think I can convince him.”
    Alvilda laughed and swung the hammer at a nail. “You tell him he can be convinced by you, or he can wait for me to come over