He Stole My Title, So I Took His True Heir novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Ledger She Keeps

I woke on day three to the smell of burnt toast, and the first thing I did was count.

Twenty-six days to the full moon, and a Council summons propped against the salt on the windowsill.

If the staff lit for neither child, the seat went to Bram's uncle.

Mabel was asleep in the crate Cade had lined with a horse blanket, and nobody in the house had said the word staff aloud since the summons came.

I had a stitch in my side and milk coming in, and I was rested for the first time in years.

In the kitchen, a ranch hand was arguing with the coffee maker.

I came into the kitchen in a borrowed flannel shirt and found five ranch hands at the long table looking at a wall calendar.

"Morning, Luna," one said, and stopped. "Sorry. Ma'am."

"Willa's fine."

"Willa." He tried it out. "We've got a problem."

The calendar had the feed deliveries, the vet and the farrier written in four colours of marker.

Two of them overlapped on Thursday.

"The hay truck and the vet are both coming at nine," he said. "The vet can't get the trailer past the hay truck. Last time it took us until dinner."

I picked up the pen.

"Move the vet to eleven," I said. "Tell the hay driver to unload in the north lot, not the barn lane. Put the farrier on Friday, when the lane's clear."

I wrote it in.

They all stared at me.

"That's it?" the youngest said.

"That's it."

"The Alpha's been scheduling this since March."

"He's been scheduling it in his head," Hanna said from the stove, without turning around. "Eat your eggs."

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