It was surprisingly small and shabby for all that, and nearly deserted this bright spring morning. The tributary that it spanned was deep and narrow; the trees on either bank towered above it, and the water looked almost black. I did not really need my painted parasol, but at least it gave me som...
Really hit? So your head snapped back and you landed on your rear end wondering what the hell happened? You don’t actually feel it at first. The harder the blow is, the more numb you go. I mean, your face just seems to disappear, and for a minute you think your eyes are going to drop right out of...
Da’s axe seemed to leap into my hand with a will of its own. I turned to face the speaker. It was a man. A Sedorne. He stood on the hill above the brook, one hand casually propped on his sword hilt. He was about thirty, I thought, and tall, with a slim, well-muscled frame. He seemed familiar. Som...
Thinking back to when I was a little girl – back when I’d still run to him whenever I fell and grazed my knee – I realized that he had always been good at taking care of people, really. I’d just forgotten. After I’d taken the painkillers he insisted on, I combed my hair and washed my hands and fa...
The servants and people of the household wandered about like ghosts. We were lost. David was twenty by then, and Hugh eighteen, but they joined Robin in looking after me, spending all their time in my company without a word of complaint and seeing to my needs with the dedi...
I sat in frozen silence as he laughed again, bitterly. “What a coil! I had never loved anyone before, you know, and so I became very afraid – I knew I might cause Emelia to die, simply by caring for her. In the following weeks as she prepared to leave, I avoided her completely. I ran when I saw h...