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Show WORTHING FARM/21 strange blue eyes. She had been lonely and now there were voices of other people but it was too late. The loneliness was in her blood and she knew that the cure was beyond any amount of cheer these strangers might give her. She belonged to Elijah, who was not in his bed. She got up to find him elsewhere in the house. Big Peter was not inside, but Little Peter and her two sons were stuffing breakfast down themselves in the kitchen. "Where's your mama?" Alana asked. "Dead, mum," Little Peter answered calmly, stuffing more bread into his mouth. "Do you know where papa went?" Alana asked her sons. They shook their heads and ate more cheese. She went outside and found Big Peter lashing thatches on the roof of a stable near the inn. "Have you seen my husband?" she asked the innkeeper. "Not a sign. Is he up? Did you sleep well? You're the first guests of my inn, you know. Just for that, it's free!" His laugh was a great booming one, and Alana smiled before she went off to look for Elijah. He was nowhere in the inn, nowhere in the clearing, and he had taken nothing with him. Big Peter refused to send anyone looking for him. "And why? Goodwife Alana, you know how he loved Worthing Farm. He damn near killed me when I decided to leave, except that I'm twice his size, and eve so I barely escaped with my life. He loves that farm, now how quick do you think he'll be set to settle down here? Let him be. He'll be back when the hurt's worked out of him a little." |
