Selfish is the Heart by Megan Hart Read Free Book Online

me the honor of being allowed to eat at your table.”
    The woman shifted, the heavy layers of her gown brushing the bare, swept earth. She didn’t reach again for Annalise’s wrist, but instead gestured. “Come, then, girly. Come inside.”
    The small hut with its thatched roof and old-fashioned split door had looked to be as neglected as the stable from the outside, but inside proved to offer rather greater comfort with a cheerful fire and a well-scrubbed table set with two chipped but clean plates. A small bedstead filled the far corner and two chairs settled in front of the fire, while a rickety-looking ladder led to a small loft above.
    “Sit, sit.” The woman gestured. She moved faster inside than she had in the stable.
    Annalise chose a seat at the table and watched the woman shrug out of several layers of clothes she hung carefully on hooks along the wall. Each layer diminished her until at last the woman who turned with a brisk clap of her hands seemed half the size of the figure that had greeted Annalise in last night’s darkness. The woman, who’d kept the kerchief wrapped tight over her long braid, tied an apron around her waist and bustled at the small stove before turning with a platter of food that she set on the table.
    “Eat, eat.” The woman, who had yet to offer a name, flapped her hands at Annalise.
    “Aren’t you going to join me?”
    “Ach, I broke my fast before the sun rose. You go ahead. Go on.” She waited, expectant.
    Annalise put a hand on her belly, aching with emptiness, and looked at the plate. Simple fare, but she’d never been above it. Scrambled eggs settled on a slice of brown bread oozing with butter. The smell of it set her mouth to watering.
    “Thank you.”
    There’d never been a meal taken at Annalise’s house that had not begun and ended with a prayer. Sometimes the prayers had lasted longer than the meals themselves. Annalise murmured some now, under her breath and without thought to the words.
    “What say ya?” The woman cocked her head to peer. “What was that?”
    Annalise paused with a fistful of bread and egg halfway to her mouth. Butter dripped onto her fingers. “Your mercy?”
    “What say ya? The words you spoke. What were they?”
    “Oh . . .” Annalise swallowed her hunger but held tight to the bread for the moment. “Naught but a prayer.”
    “Huh. Wouldn’t-a thought you the sort to thank the Invisible Mother for Her bread before eating it.”
    “Old mother, I am on a vision-sent journey to the Order of Solace to become a Handmaiden. Why should it surprise you that I would honor Her before my meal?”
    “Most do it silent-like, that’s all. Not with open mouths.”
    “Silent grace so none might judge the sincerity,” Annalise said. “I’ve no care if anyone doubts my sincerity or not.”
    Her hostess gave her a shrewd look. “You do know of what you speak. Huh. Well, don’t let my yapping keep you from it. You’ve a meal to eat and a day’s walk to make.”
    “A day’s—” Annalise bit down hard on the words and the curse she wanted to lay on the head of the man who’d directed her so astray.
    The woman laughed. “Your vision didn’t tell you this part, eh?”
    “No, indeed.”
    “You could turn back, girly. A swift few minutes’ trek will take you to the main road. There’s a village not far off from there. I’m sure you could send word to your people to come for you. You’ve been on the road what, a day?”
    “A few more than that.”
    “They’ll barely have noticed you’re gone.”
    Annalise bit into the food with a sigh, then moaned softly with pleasure. She chewed carefully, aware of how closely the woman watched her eat. She swallowed. Bit again. She finished her breakfast swiftly and neatly, then wiped the corners of her mouth with a fingertip and stood.
    “Thank you for the meal and the lodging. I’m sorry I have naught to offer you in recompense, but—”
    “I know. The Invisible Mother told you to set off