It’s #BookQW and this family history has been held ‘tight’!
More from The Twisting, Volume Two of The Luminated Threads, Chapter 3:
Miriam lifted the mug, and a smile etched itself across her tired face. “You’re a strong-willed woman. Just like your mother.”
Annmar’s eyes widened. “Mother? You knew my mother?” Without realizing it, she lifted up, only to wince at the beat of pain between her ears.
Miriam pressed her shoulder. “Lie back. Or not another word will cross my lips.”
Annmar fell against her pillows, but she gripped Miriam’s long fingers. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Miriam laughed. “You’ve been here eight days, the last four bed-ridden with a head injury I missed. When did we have time to discuss a delicate subject?”
“Now?” Annmar squeezed Miriam’s hand. “Please?”
“Take the remedy, and I’ll tell you what I know of Anna Mary.”
Now that Annmar’s head wasn’t so blurry, drinking down the nasty herbs was difficult. When she finished, Miriam set aside the mug.
The healer folded her hands on her lap. “I met your mother during my last year apprenticing to a healer in Chapel Hollow. I’d come to town to get experience with a greater variety of peoples than we had in my local practice. But because I’d been exposed to country traditions, Anna Mary Masterson requested to see me. I was more like the healers back home, she said.”
Annmar drew a quick breath. “Where was back home?”
“Bramble Corner. I knew she thought I wouldn’t have heard of the village, but I had. My traveling family collected wildland herbs to peddle at the chapel Market Days.” The lines on Miriam’s forehead smoothed, and her voice softened with the unwinding tale. “We went through Bramble Corner yearly. A richly diverse area of plants lies nearby, most of which is off-limits to all but a few Bramble folk. My father knew the boundary edges and stuck to them. Plus, the area residents very much appreciated our herbs, because of their frequent clashes between the species.”
Mary Clare had told her the species fought, but Annmar could learn the details of the battles in Mother’s village later. Now her chest was tight with more important questions. “Why did Mother come to see you?”
“Pregnant. But you figured that out.” Annmar nodded. “So did she. At seventeen. She loved the young man.”
Oh, thank the heavens. Not until she heard the answer did Annmar realize she’d always wondered if she’d been the result of an attack…like Paet might have planned. Her birth might have been a mistake, but Annmar preferred knowing Mother loved him.
“He’d moved with her to Chapel Hollow,” Miriam said. “They’d been here a month or so. He hired out as a grower, and she sold her drawings at Market Day.”
“What was his name?”
“They said it was Michael, but sometimes she pronounced it differently. I can’t remember how.” Miriam shrugged. “Me-coal or Mi-coal? My-cal? Masterson was his family name, I gathered.”
Perhaps. Since they had used the name before Mother left the Basin, maybe it wasn’t made up, as she’d claimed. Annmar closed her eyes. Michael. Her father’s name was Michael. They were from Bramble Corner. She could learn more with this information.
“Do you think—were they married?”
“They wore matching woven wristbands, a pledge symbol of the Creator Path Unity in some enclaves, but in others it simply means intended or betrothed. Because the use is inconsistent, people tend not to ask, like so many other details of Basin life.”
* * *
The Twisting is Volume Two of a 3-book serialized steampunk fantasy romance novel. It is currently on sale for .99, and the first in the series, The Unraveling, is free on all retailers.
Buy links and the first two chapters are on The Twisting’s book page or jump straight to your preferred retailer!
Pick up The Unraveling, Volume One of The Luminated Threads for free!
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