...“Who made you the leader?” Anna was five years older than me and bossy.

“Yeah, who do you think you are?” Lizzie was a year younger than Anna and her chief lieutenant. They had run the household while Mother worked with Father in the forest, cooking and cleaning, spinning and weaving, even taking in fancy needlework to help out. But their skills weren’t much good here.

I’d been the one to follow my father and brothers into the woods, the one to forage with Mother. “I made me leader. If you can think of a way to find food and water better than what we’ve had, I’m all ears.”

They grumbled a little more, but settled down. I listened to the brook and the night birds and slept.

The second day was less forgiving as the country started going uphill, and the third we found the source of the little river we’d followed. I made Anna and Lizzie wait back in the deeper undergrowth while I watched the great stone hut built near the spring.

Three young women, our age, but very, very tall. The tallest and most beautiful had hair like ripe grain and eyes the color of a pond on a pretty day. She came out once, to check the chickens that scratched in the yard. The second had hair the color of a moonless night and eyes to match. She came out for a load of firewood and then hung out something on the trees to air. It was so large it took me a moment to realize it was a featherbed.

But the youngest, she was in and out, and I watched her all day. Her hair burned like a brand of fire and she had eyes like deep forest pools. She drew water and tended the garden. She shook the featherbed and took it in after its airing. I watched and watched, her every move sending shivers through me. I wanted to kiss her, to see if the hair would burn my hands.