Simon handed out glasses of wine as they took a brief break from Ingrid"s narrative. They drank the wine in silence, unable to break the spell Ingrid"s story had cast over them. After a while, she seemed ready to continue.
"There was one boy who everyone hated. He was about ten years old and should have known better. He wouldn"t help with the farm work. He was a thief and a liar and no one could trust him." She studied her listeners" faces. "And he was destructive. He"d break things, burn things. So some folk decided they"d had enough."
"Perhaps he was just unhappy?" Alice suggested.
"Maybe he was. No doubt he"d had a bad time in the city. No doubt he was poor and half starved. But the other city kids had suffered deprivations too and they were no trouble. Anyway, people back then weren
