Sold Into Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

early evenings. After each family visited the table set up in the village square, the soldiers went door to door in order to verify each household had paid up. The soldiers also waited for stragglers who lived on the outskirts of the village to arrive.
    Well, she had plenty of time to visit the stream, if she wished. Even though the day wasn’t particularly warm, she longed to dip her feet into the brook one last time. Mayhap she would collect a handful of the tiny, smooth stones that rested at the bottom of the creek bed to take with her to Himma. She had only lived in this village for about five years, having come from a mountain village after her father died and a relative arranged for her mother to marry a man from Monnaka, the awful man she now called stepfather.
    Quiet and shy by nature, Meadow had preferred to spend her leisure time exploring the nearby forest, rather than by trying to make new friends in Monnaka. One of the local girls had taken a dislike to her anyway and spread several ridiculous rumors about her, thus making friends would’ve been especially difficult even if she had cared to try.
    The stream ran through the forest at a slow, relaxing pace. She’d spent many an hour sitting on a large moss covered rock beside it, with her feet cooling in the water as little schools of fish zipped by. Sometimes, if she was lucky, she would be able to glimpse a white eagle that had a nest nearby.
    The prospect of never visiting her stream again saddened her. She started walking down the hill, then paused midway. Varron had instructed her to remain in the tent. Perhaps she should obey him. Her bottom tingled, her soreness from the strapping suddenly acute.
    But her desire to say goodbye to the brook grew as she stood in the knee high grass. She eyed the sun again. Yes, it was definitely only noon. A trip to the stream would take but a few minutes. She would return to the tent hours before Varron did, and even if he did come back to find her missing, she doubted he would be angry over her visiting her stream one last time. There was no danger and no reason for her to remain in the tent all day.
    Resolved to have one last little adventure before her life as a married woman began, she lifted her skirts and hurried down the hill. When she reached the edge of the forest, she paused and peered through the trees. The chirping of birds and the rustling of squirrels and other woodland creatures greeted her, and she took a deep breath and appreciated the familiarity of the place.
    To her delight, after she entered the forest she found the brook deserted. No one else from the village had decided to visit today, and she was glad she didn’t have to walk further down the stream just to be alone.
    She moved through the underbrush and came to sit on her favorite rock, spreading her fingers out upon the soft green moss. She closed her eyes and thought of the white eagle, as if thinking of the bird could summon him to make an appearance in the trees above. Her mother hadn’t believed her when she claimed she’d seen a white eagle in the forest shortly after they moved to Monnaka. Her mother had said eagles preferred the rocky mountains, and as a child growing up on the mountainside she had seen her share of white eagles. Glimpsing one in her new home, a home she had been reluctant to travel to, had given her hope that perhaps her life wouldn’t turn out so bad, after all.
    Slipping her boots off, she removed her stockings and rolled them up in her lap. She dangled her feet into the stream, gasping when her toes hit the frigid water. Goosebumps rose up on her arms and she shivered, but she lowered her feet more and fully submerged them in the brook, smiling at the ridiculousness of what she was doing. It was early spring and the weather was still usually too cool to go without a cloak or a shawl, and the stream felt freezing.
    When her teeth started chattering, she removed her feet and shook them dry. She glanced at the sun