It’s #bookqw and Mary Clare notices Rivley’s ‘music’…among other things!
More from my short story, Falling into Place:
Unfamiliar workers were queued, and many smiled at her. When she reached the bell pole, she figured out why—she still held a giant wooden bowl of rolls. Grasping the rope with one hand, she managed a low thunk, not the usual loud peal.
Ach. She couldn’t put them on the ground—what if Mrs. Betsy saw?—and she needed both hands to pull the rope. She turned toward the kitchen—but no, she was already here, so she turned back, face heating as a twitter of laughter rose behind her. Land’s—
“Let me help,” said a quiet voice. His freckled hands reached from a neatly tucked flannel shirt covering broad shoulders. The clean-shaven fellow smiled, from his freckled cheeks to the prettiest hazel eyes glinting with orange.
Oh, my lands. An animacambire. Animal changers weren’t rare in the Farmlands, but she’d never met one this handsome or with such a musical accent. From his lean, muscular body and tawny hair glinting blue-gray, he had to be a bird. He was a head taller than she was—although most folks were, so he wasn’t especially tall.
“Then you can ring the lunch bell?” He cupped one hand to the bowl, his warm fingers overlapping hers.
A shiver shot through her. Mary Clare pushed the bowl to him when what she really wanted was to open her Knack to learn if he was genuinely as nice as he appeared. She couldn’t, and with her head muddled, she must be staring like a townie going into the Wildlands.
“Uh, thank you.” She forced herself to turn and grasp the rope, cringing as hoots accompanied the peals. The ten rings for lunch gave her nerves time to settle. Those bloody farmhands acted like a herd of toddlers. She was new and had to take it until she had a position secured here. Then they’d get a piece of her mind.
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A farm emergency brings together an ambitious Victorian witch and an honor-bound shapeshifter, while shadows from their pasts threaten to keep them apart.
Buy Love at Dawn: A Romance Anthology, and ALL PROCEEDS go to World Central Kitchen! Purchase the ebook or paperback from your favorite retailer today!
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On a personal note:
On our mountain property, I carved out wildflower beds by staking and marking them so the mitigation crews [hopefully!] won’t walk across them.
Some areas were previously in the shade of fir trees that have now been removed for mitigation.
Then, as directed, I raked up the ground and put out my ‘Montane Wildflower’ seed mix purchased from Western Native Seed. It didn’t rain as predicted, but days later we have 5 more inches of snow that will melt and carry the seed deeper into small crevasses in the soil.
In the meantime, I’m pleased to see my Oriental Poppies emerging. I saved these after the flood from along what had become our new creek-edge. Seven original plants have self-seeded into dozens!
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