Chapter 24: No One Hides These

Rowena's POV

The morning of my wedding, I wore a dress with no back.

Nan had sewn it from green linen in four nights, grumbling the whole time, and she would not let me see it until I had my arms through the straps.

"There," she said, and turned me to the mirror.

It was cut low and plain, down past my waist.

Six pale lines ran across my skin, and nothing covered them.

I looked at them for a while.

I waited for the old shame, the urge to reach for a shawl.

It did not come.

"Well?" said Nan.

"It's perfect."

"Of course it is," she said, and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

There were two hours before the ceremony, so I took Jory's hand, and we went down to the creek.

The sun was high and warm on my back.

I felt it on every scar, as gentle as a palm.

Jory skipped beside me in a clean white shirt with a pressed collar, carrying his fox, and singing the fox song under his breath.

He sang it all the way down, all four verses, and not once did he cough.

On the Brindle Creek bank, I stopped.

Wolves were already there.

They had come early, a few at a time, and they were setting up long tables under the cedars where the creek bent.

Nobody stopped working when I came.

Nobody stared.

A little girl with two braids looked up from a bowl of flowers, and her eyes went to my back.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

Her mother hissed her name.

"It's all right," I said.

I crouched, and turned so she could see.

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