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protect her from a beating.

    Angel’s tiny, sweet mouth hung open as she slept. One tiny drop of milk clung to her lower lip. Six times each day Bab put the infant to her breast. For a little while, the breast milk could give the child all she needed to thrive. It was herself Bab worried about. If she didn’t eat enough she wouldn’t make enough milk for Angel.
    ONE GOOD WOMAN SUSAN KELLEY 27

    Tomorrow she would scout the shoreline. Some of the green plant life that floated on the vicious water was edible if not tasty. She would mix it with her small bag of grain to stretch out her supply. She would scout for nuts left from last fall and might last as long as half a moon turn on what she carried with her.

    After one desperate winter, Jak and Hop had caught little fishes from the sea and made everyone eat them. Some couldn’t stomach the greasy, foul-tasting things and a few old people starved before spring relieved the famine. She would lower herself to such horrid actions if she must to save Angel.

    She moved her little clay bowl closer to the licks of flame. The oats would simmer and cook slowly over night. On her journey, she’d gathered a handful of sour berries for flavoring in place of honey.

    She settled back in her sleeping hide with Angel in her arms. She missed her comfortable home and the pallet she’d built for herself out of sticks and vines. Only she and Lena had such nice beds and a real table in their homes. Some of the older females and the two biggest males never thought to build something with their hands. Someday she would make even finer things for Angel.

    The day abandoned the cave quickly when the sun set. She took up the book Lena had insisted she bring along. If tell open to her favorite picture of the full grown pretty people. It gave her courage to face the morrow.

    “I promise, my little, little child, you will grow up to be as perfect as them. I promise with my life.”

    * * * *

    Brady led Cara close to the sea so the waves occasionally touched their boots. The tide was coming in and would soon wipe out their tracks. He hoped anyone backtracking them from their campsite would assume they came from the north. No one was likely to think they came over the falls. They probably should have waited a few hours longer, but watching Cara sleep had been torturous. Though it was a good method of keeping himself awake. He could sit for hours and watch her, damn it. Being so constantly close to her was going to kill him.

    His stomach growled and reminded him of their missed meal.

    Cara snorted softly. “Your belly will give us away at a hundred paces.”

    “I’m so hungry I might have to rob them even if there’re thirty Savages in that camp.”

    “There’s plenty of grass between here and there. You Realm men eat as much as a horse so maybe you should see if you have a taste for their fare.”

    “You eat as much as I do.” He stopped and checked behind them. The rocks they’d spent the day hiding behind stood out as dark lumps against the white sand. “Let’s head inland.
    If we’re spotted or even if we’re not, we’ll retreat back along the same path.”

    He unhooked the thin leather thong that secured his pistol in its holder. He would now be able to pull it quickly should he need to do so. He took his knife in his left hand should they stumble upon trouble they wished to settle quietly.

    The strip of land between the cliff and the sea was little more than half a mile at this point. The roar dropped to an uneven murmur but it was enough to cover whatever sounds they might make slipping through the sparse undergrowth. Short bushes and a few saplings struggled for survival beneath the dense canopy of the older trees.

    One moon held forth already but the other was not yet risen. But the new spring leaves blocked out the silver light except for small spots and spangles speckling the ground. The stone wall loomed in front of them as a blackness darker than the night.
    ONE