Shadows and Light

hawk just stole one of our clothes-pegs! We pay good coin for those pegs, and he stole one!”
    “We pay a copper for a dozen of those pegs, and the only reason we pay that much is we can afford to and it gives old Jess a purpose to the whittling he likes to do. And now that he’s living with his granddaughter, having a few coppers of his own lets him keep his pride and buy a treat now and then for his great-grandchildren.”
    “How much we paid for it isn’t the point,” Breanna said. “The point is it belonged to us and he stole it.”
    “What would a hawk want with a clothes-peg?”
    “Exactly!” Breanna threw up her hands in exasperation.
    “Exactly,” Nuala agreed. “So I ask you again, my darling Breanna, what would a hawk want with a clothes-peg?”
    Breanna opened her mouth, closed it slowly. “What would a Fae Lord want with a clothes-peg?”
    “That,” Nuala said dryly, “is a different question, and, like the other, it has no obvious answer.”
    “It’s bad enough that the Fae have been skulking in the woods, pestering the Small Folk about us, but this one just flies in here as bold as you please to watch everything we do—and steals from us.”
    “Breanna—”
    Breanna whirled around to face the woods, took a deep breath, and roared, “ Thief !”
    “Breanna,” Nuala said sternly. “Come inside now. You’ve had enough sun this morning. It’s overheated your brain.”
    “It—What?”
    Nuala just gave her the look that had subdued Aiden into obedience.
    When Nuala walked back to the house, Breanna went with her—and saw three reasons why she should have been a little less vocal. Clay had run halfway to meet her, a pitchfork in his hands, before seeing that this was, somehow, a discussion between grandmother and granddaughter that he should stay out of.
    Edgar was standing near the wall of the kitchen garden, a hoe in his hands. And Glynis had come running with the big paddle she used to stir the laundry in the washtubs.
    Giving Clay an embarrassed smile, Breanna hung her head and followed Nuala to the house, much as she had done when she was eight and couldn’t manage to stay out of trouble for more than two days in a row.
    But as she reached the threshold of the kitchen door, she looked over her shoulder at the woods, and mouthed, “Thief.”
    “Breanna,” Nuala called through the partially open parlor door. “Would you come outside with me for a minute?”
    Sighing, Breanna set aside the book she’d been trying to read. She enjoyed reading when she wanted to read, but it had always seemed a shame to spoil the pleasure of a story by remembering she’d used it to fill the hours when she’d had to stay in her room after some kind of rumpus. Of course, Nuala hadn’t sent her to her room this time, since she was an adult, but suggesting that she stay in the parlor and find something quiet to do amounted to the same thing.
    “What is it?” Breanna asked. Maybe she’d have to polish the silver. She hated polishing the silver. It was one of those tasks for which she was more than happy to side with Glynis about what was and wasn’t a proper task for a gentry lady.
    Not that she thought her opinion was going to matter this afternoon.
    Nuala led her out the kitchen door to where Clay stood with an odd smile curving his lips. He held up a dead rabbit.
    “You caught a rabbit?” Breanna asked.

    Clay shook his head. “The hawk caught a rabbit. He flew over to the wood block, waited until I spotted him there, then flew off, leaving the rabbit behind.”
    Breanna frowned at the rabbit. “Why would he do that?”
    “Maybe he didn’t want to be called a thief anymore,” Clay said.
    Breanna felt her cheeks heat. Of course Nuala had told Clay—and probably Edgar and Glynis—what she’d been shouting about. She’d be surprised if there was anyone in the whole county who hadn’t heard her.
    Which didn’t make it any easier when Nuala leaned toward her, and said softly, “I’d say a rabbit is adequate payment for a clothes-peg. Wouldn’t you?”
    The next morning, the hawk brought another rabbit. This time, he guarded it until Clay fetched Breanna.
    As soon as the hawk saw her, he left the rabbit and flew off.
    Ignoring Clay’s grin, Breanna took the rabbit to Glynis, who was quite pleased to have more fresh meat without having to make the trip to the butcher’s shop in Willowsbrook.
    Two rabbits for a clothes-peg didn’t seem quite fair. Considering the way she’d