have been persuaded, by a miracle or sheer perversity, to drop an egg. But as she had expected, the nests were empty, and the hens resisted her attempts at investigation with nasty jabs of their beaks. They’d gotten quite adept at fighting, competing with and chasing away the crows who came to steal their scant feed over the winter. She came away from the hen-house with an empty apron and scratched and bleeding hands.
Nor was there remedy waiting for her in the cottage, even for that. The little salve they had must be hoarded against greater need than hers.
Old Mag, the village healer and Elfrida’s teacher, looked up from the tiny fire burning in the pit in the center of the dirt-floored cottage’s single room. At least the thatch here was sound, though rain dripped in through the smoke-hole,