The Alpha's Claim on the Border Ledger novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Mill-Race
The miller was an old man with flour in his eyebrows and a lamp at his elbow.
He was mending a sack when I came in, and he did not look up until I shut the door.
"The mill's closed, miss," he said. "It's gone midnight."
"I know," I said. "I used to count your tithe."
He lifted his head.
The lamp was between us, and I stood in the full light of it.
I felt the ring come up in my eyes, a slow warm tide, and I did not try to stop it.
His needle fell.
"Gods in the water," he whispered. "You've got her eyes."
"Whose?"
"The Alpha's." He slid off the bench onto his knees on the flour-dusty floor.
"Ashdown's. I carried him on my back when I was a lad, and he had that ring, and so did she."
"She was small. She sat on the wheel-house step and fed the ducks."
"Get up," I said. "I haven't come for that."
"I came to ask you what you saw."
He stayed on his knees.
He put his floury hands over his face.
When he spoke, it came out of him in pieces.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Alpha's Claim on the Border Ledger are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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