The Pillars Of The World

around the Old Places was another.
    So his men would do their work until the seasons changed, and then they would go home to a land where magic had been choked back to a whisper. Hopefully, by the time they returned in the spring, the Gatherer would have moved on to some other part of Sylvalan.
     

 

     
     

Chapter Eighteen

 

     
     

     
    “It’s not that I’m not grateful to have soup and bread to eat,” Ari muttered as she stirred the vegetable soup without enthusiasm. “But it’s all I’ve had to eat since yesterday.”
    Didn’t matter. There wasn’t quite enough flour to make a new loaf of bread. By tomorrow, this watery soup she’d put together from the dwindling supply of vegetables she had canned last harvest would be the only thing she could put on the table. There were enough greens in the garden to enjoy the taste of something fresh, but not enough to fill an empty belly. She had done her best last year when she’d faced doing all the work alone for the first time. This year she would simply have to do better.
    This was the last evening before the dark of the moon, the last evening when she was bound to the promise she had made at the Summer Moon. That didn’t matter either. She knew Lucian wouldn’t come simply to visit. Just as well. Her heart was feeling a bit raw and tender. She didn’t need to be told again in one way or another that men only found her interesting when she provided sex.
    “Hullo the house!”
    Hurrying to look out the open half of the kitchen door, Ari winced when she saw Neall check his stride as he noticed the wash that was still drying on the line. She knew she was blushing because he’d seen her underclothes, and she hoped he wouldn’t know what the long rectangles of cloth were for.
    “How are you feeling?” he asked as soon as he was close enough to speak without raising his voice.
    He knew.
    “I’m fine, Neall. And you?”
    “I’m fine as well.” He looked over her shoulder. “Are you alone?”
    Pride nipped her. “No, I’m not—” She clamped her teeth. There was no reason to snap at Neall—or let wounded pride make her dishonest. “Yes, I’m alone.” She hesitated, then added in a low voice, “I’m not expecting anyone.”
    He gave her a sweet, almost wistful smile. “Want some company? Besides my own charming self—and this idiotic beast,” he grumbled as he put his shoulder against Darcy, who was trying to push past him, and shoved. “ Wait . She’ll pet you when she’s ready to pet you.”
    The gelding backed up a couple of steps, making noises that sounded like muttering.
    Neall let out an exasperated sigh. “You realize if the bottom half of this door wasn’t latched, he’d be in the kitchen with you.”
    Ari bit her lip to keep from laughing.
    “Besides our charming selves,” Neall said, narrowing his eyes at the gelding when it snorted, “I brought these.” He lifted a string and showed her two salmon she hadn’t noticed because she was too busy feeling embarrassed.

    Ari’s heart pounded. Her palms were suddenly sweaty. “Neall . . .” she said weakly. “I know you’re Baron Felston’s relative, but poaching is a serious offense. And you’ve said yourself that the baron doesn
    ’t permit anyone to fish in the streams of his land. If you’re brought before the magistrate ...”
    “Are you going to summon the magistrate?”
    Ari frowned. He was her friend. How could he think she would betray him?
    “I got these from a stream on your land,” Neall said. “Since I’m giving them to you, that doesn’t really count as poaching, does it?”
    A heaviness that had been closing around her heart vanished. “Oh.” The word was breathed out in a sigh of relief. “Oh, in that case . . .” She paused. “But Neall, shouldn’t you be attending your work instead of spending so much time fishing in my stream? Won’t the baron be angry?”
    “The work isn’t going anywhere. It can wait for a day. Besides, it didn’t take long to catch these fellows.
    But they won’t be worth much if we don’t get them into some water.”
    “Of course.” Ari opened the lower half of the door. “Come in and be welcome.”
    Neall slipped in, closing the door just quickly enough to prevent Darcy from joining them. “See what I mean?” he muttered. He pumped water into the large oval basin that served as the kitchen sink, then set the salmon in it. Revived by the water, they began to move in the basin.
    Watching them,