ELLIE
She leaves, and the rest of the day goes by with me distracting myself with more cases at the hospital.
The sun is setting by the time I'm done, painting the sky orange. I check myself in the bathroom mirror before heading to the packhouse.
The great hall is loud the way it always is at dinner, benches full, somebody's laugh carrying over the rest of it from two tables down. Ivy drops into the seat across from me at the high table like she's done it a thousand times.
"Anything?" Adrian asks.
"Give me a day before you start on me." She reaches for the bread. "I've got two people to call up north, and one of them still isn't speaking to me."
"Whose fault is that?"
"Hers." She points at him with the bread. "Same as the goat was yours."
Adrian's mouth twitches. "Don't."
"Elder V
