Chapter 18: The Boundary

Gareth's POV

I was sitting on the gatepost after the Hall's breakfast had been cleared when I heard small boots on the gravel.

It was the same gate she had walked out of at eighteen, with her chin up and her hand on her stomach.

I had stood in the dark behind that post and watched her go.

I had opened my mouth to call her back, and I had closed it.

That was my worst night, and I had come back to it every night since.

"You're a ghost," said a small voice.

I looked down.

My younger son stood at the foot of the post with his mother holding one of his hands.

He had a jacket pocket that bulged strangely.

"I'm told I look like one," I said.

It came out rusty.

It was the first joke I'd made in five years, and it wasn't a good one, but he studied me gravely.

"Mom says you used to be funny."

"Mom's right."

"Say something."

I thought hard.

"A wolf walks into a bar," I said.

"What does he order?"

"I don't know. I haven't got that far."

My son frowned at me.

"That's the worst one," he said.

"I know."

"I'll tell you a better one later." He dug into his pocket and held out a squashed triangle of pancake and half a biscuit. "You missed breakfast."

I took them.

I'd stopped thinking I would ever be handed anything by this boy.

"It's a little flat," he said.

"I like flat."

I ate the pancake in two bites, and it was the best thing I had eaten in five years.

"Can I walk the boundary with you?" he asked.

"It's long."

"I have legs."

"He does have legs," Sorrel said, and her voice shook a little.

I lifted him onto my shoulders.

He gripped my hair in both fists.

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