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Renna reclaimed Beni and Lucik’s s in her few possessions and barring the door with a tre hand

As she lay back in the bed, she stroked Miss Scratch, her favorite cat, as pregnant and soon to litter As she did she thought of Cobie, of a house in Town Square and children of her own The ies warmed and co ti off to sleep

For the next few days, Renna avoided her father whenever she could It wasn’t difficult Spring plantingchores once shared by six Just feeding the ani’s work for Renna, and she still had to hter, ready , make butter and cheese, tan skins, and an endless array of other tasks She fell into the work al she bound her breasts, leaving her hair a tangle and her face shts fro the wardposts around the fields took hours Each had to be examined carefully to ned properly to overlap their neighbors without gap A si or a warp in the wood could weaken a ward sufficiently for a deap

After that, the fields still needed weeding, and the ripest produce had to be harvested for the day’sand preserves After all that, there was still always so

The only tiether was at meals, and they said little Renna was careful not to bend close as she served and cleared Harl never gave any sign he was looking at her differently, but he grew increasingly irritable as the days wore on

"Creator, ht at supper as he bent to fill another in’s Ale that Meada had sent back with the Renna had lost count of how asped in pain as he tried to straighten, and stu his ale Renna was there in an instant, steadying hi before it spilled Harl leaned heavily on her as she dragged him back to his chair

Renna and Beni had often been called upon to knead the pain fro, working her father’s tensed irl," her father groaned, closing his eyes and pressing against her hands "You were always the good one, Ren Not like yer sisters, with no loyalty to kith and kin Dunno how you turned out all right, with those two deserters as an exarabbed her about the waist and pulled her close before she could pull out of reach He looked up at her with tears in his eyes

"You’ll never leave irl, will you?" he asked

"No, Da," Renna said "Course not" She squeezed hi to the keg and refilling it

Renna awoke that night to a crash as so on her dress, but there was no other sound She crept to the door and pressed her ear to the wood, hearing a loheeze

Carefully, she lifted the bar and opened the door a crack, seeing her father passed out on the floor, regurgitated ale staining the front of his nightshirt

"Creatorto clean the voed her father back to his roo to her desperately "Can’t lose you, too," he sobbed over and over Renna sat aardly on the edge of the bed, holding hied as he drifted off to sleep She went quickly back to her roo, Renna cas in the barn and found Harl popping the pins out of the hinges of her door

"The door broke?" she asked, her heart clutching

"Nope," Harl grunted "Need the wood to patch a hole in the barn wall Don’ton in this room no more" He hefted the door and carried it off to the barn, leaving Renna stunned

She felt like a frightened aniht, all her senses attuned toward the thick curtain hung over the doorway

But nothing stirred the curtain that night, or the night that followed, or for a week after