dog beside him so all he has to do is hitch the horse to the cart and be on the road as soon as the storm has passed. I’ve volunteered to accompany him while Norinn gets the children ready.”
Haniss laughed. “No one will ever accuse your brother of being a lay-about, that’s for certain.”
The sky was the color of cold ink by the time Odon Imre let Brida off at her front door. She was his last passenger, and she waved from her doorway until the dray turned a corner and disappeared from her sight. She yawned repeatedly now, and her eyelids felt scratchy, but she didn’t dare lie down. If she did, she’d slip so far into slumber, she’d miss her brother’s arrival, and he’d go on without her. She’d never hear the end of it from him or Norinn later.
She changed out of her clothes into her oldest frock, tucked her flute back into its customary cabinet, and hid her money purse beneath a floorboard under her bed. Afterwards, she made herself a pot of tea. She stood at her window as she drank the entire pot, watching as the storm swept in, first on a wind that bowed trees, then the lightning that flared across the sky, followed by thunder loud enough to rattle the windows. The sky finally opened, dumping a solid wall of rain onto Ancilar. Even from this distance, Brida heard the roar of the surf as it beat against the shore.
The buckets she’d placed on the floor under the roof leak in her bedroom and the parlor filled up fast. She exchanged them for empty ones and tossed the contents of the first out her back door. Rain blew into the kitchen before she managed to close the door against the wet, and she spent the next several minutes mopping up her floor.
The storm’s fury lasted beyond dawn, finally lessening to a drizzle by mid morning. Sleepy, damp, and grumpy, Brida groaned at the sound of wagon wheels rolling up to her door. She opened it and leaned against the jamb to pull on her muddy boots.
“I thought you’d be ready by now,” her brother said, a frown creasing lines in his brow. “We’re hours past when I planned to pick you up.”
Brida climbed into the driver’s seat beside him. “Don’t start. I’ve been up all night playing for his lordship’s fancy guests and all morning battling roof leaks.” She reached behind her to pet the head of his favorite dog where it sat behind them in the wagon. Laylam had raised Moot since she was pup, and while the dog practically worshipped Laylam, she often visited Brida for treats, affection and a quiet place to sleep before the fire.
Laylam twitched the reins. “Walk on,” he instructed the horse, and the animal pulled the cart through Ancilar toward the beach, joining an ever-growing line of other carts and wagons as villagers emerged from their houses to harvest the Gray’s bounty.
“I’ll fix the roof for you after we harvest,” Laylam said around the pipe stem held between his teeth.
Brida eyed him, concerned. “You don’t have time for it, and I made enough last night to hire someone in Ancilar to do it.”
His perpetual frown deepened. “You’re my sister. We help each other. I would have patched it sooner if you’d told me it had gotten that bad.”
“You do enough already. I can handle this. You have family to care for.” She refused to acknowledge what they both knew. She feared the label of burdensome widowed relative more than a leaky roof.
Laylam’s frown turned into a full-fledged glare. “You are family, Brida, and if you aren’t careful, you’ll choke on all that stupid pride. I’ll come by later. You can feed me supper if it makes you feel better. Norinn won’t mind.”
Brida didn’t pursue the argument any further. While she might suffer from too much pride, Laylam could put a mule to shame with his stubbornness. They completed the journey to the beach in silence, at least until they got their first look at the storm’s aftermath. Laylam halted the wagon, rose from his seat and gave a celebratory whoop that startled his horse, set Moot to barking, and was echoed by the other villagers who rolled up on either side of him.
For as far as the eye could see, a carpet of seaweed in variegated shades of green to black covered the sand calf-deep, and spilled over the clusters of rocky outcroppings that tumbled