Pa did not say no again, but she could see by the concentrated way he pulled on his boots that he meant it. “I thought that with the accidents and bad weather lately, you could use my help, just until the traders come.” She kept her voice casual, as though the idea had just occurred to her. “Pa.” Miri stuffed her other foot in its boot and went to him, laces trailing on the dirt floor. He looked to where Miri stood, frozen, one foot in a boot, her hands on the laces. “Is it morning?” Marda leaned up on one arm and squinted at the firelight. The orange light brightened, pushing his huge shadow against the wall. Pa stirred the hearth embers and added goat dung. She pulled her wool leggings and shirt over her sleep clothes, but she had not yet laced her first boot when a crunch of pea-shucks told her that someone else had awakened. For a week she had harbored an anxious hope to run to the quarry today and be already at work when her pa arrived. Wincing at the rustle of her pea-shuck mattress, Miri stood and stepped carefully over her pa and older sister, Marda, asleep on their pallets. This time of year, all the villagers felt the rush for the last trading of the season, to hurry and square off a few more linder blocks and make that much more to trade, that much more to eat during the snow-locked months.
Her father believed today was the day their wagons would squeeze up the mountain pass and rumble into the village. Then she remembered the traders, kicked off her blanket, and sat up. Though still half-asleep, she was aware of the late autumn chill hovering just outside her blanket, and she wanted to curl up tighter and sleep like a bear through frost and night and day. The world was as dark as eyes closed, but perhaps the goats could smell dawn seeping through the cracks in the house’s stone walls. Miri woke to the sleepy bleating of a goat. Newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offersīest Friend, Companion, & Squeeter Keeper You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you can sign up for Visit to find out more about our authors and their books May be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damagesĪ CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication Printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, Make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise The moral right of the author has been asserted This electronic edition published in May 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin and New Yorkįirst published in Great Britain in 2005 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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