Sold to the Wolf Chief for a Debt, but His Wolf Knelt First novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Terms

On New Year's morning the Tie Hall kitchen smelled of bacon, and nobody in it wore a cord.

Sixty-one people sat at the long table with their wrists on the cloth, turning their hands over to look at the skin.

Peigi stood at the range with a pan in each hand.

Coll stood at the head, because I had told him to be there at eight.

Dugald stood at the foot with the green ledger in both hands and his red cord showing.

"I've terms," I said, and the table went quiet.

"Say them, hen," said Peigi, and put a plate in front of me.

I did not sit.

"The Tie Hall closes today," I said. "Nobody lives in it who doesn't choose to, and no door in it locks from outside."

A man laughed shortly and wiped his eyes.

"Every year you were tied, you're owed a wage," I said. "What a hired hand earns in Inverness, paid from the estate."

"And from the moor, if the moor must go," said Coll.

"Does it?"

"It goes."

"The Book," I said, and turned.

Dugald held it against his chest.

"You'll put it in the range yourself," I said. "You wrote it. You can see it out."

He crossed the flags with his head down.

He opened the range door, and the red light fell on his face.

His hand shook over the coals.

"Go on," Peigi said, not unkindly. "It's only paper."

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