Chapter 24: First Snow

The snow came in the night, and it was a hand deep by morning.

I woke to a bright white window and a warm weight at my back.

The mark on my neck had gone quiet.

Under it, I could feel Evander's slow, steady sleep.

I lay there a long while and listened to the hold wake up below us.

Then I went down to breakfast in his coat and a pair of my mother's wool socks.

The long table in the kitchen smelled of bread and woodsmoke.

My father sat at the head with a cup of tea, and my mother was cutting a loaf.

Three of the hold's children were arguing over the jam.

A wooden tray sat by my plate.

"Post," my father said, and he did not look up.

I stared at it.

There were four envelopes, and every one of them had my name on the front.

Rowena Ashdown, in four different hands.

My throat shut.

I picked up the top one and turned it over, slowly, and opened it with my thumb.

It was a drawing of a grey wolf with one ear, done by a child.

Underneath, in crayon, it said: Welcome back. We kept your bed warm.

I laughed, and then I had to put it down.

The second was from a cousin I had never met.

The third was from Kendrick's father, in a firm, small hand.

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