XXIVMrs. Megrim stopped to lean on the stone wall of the blacksmith's cottage. Her hips always ached first thing in the morning. They hadn't been the same since her fall. The day Finn left. Maybe she'd cracked some bone and it had healed askew. Still, it hardly mattered now.
While her breathing slowed, she studied the garden in front of her. They'd been gone only six months, Ida and Dan, but with the summer riot of growth and colour left unchecked, the garden was now a tangled mass of greenery. She doubted the two of them would ever return. They'd wait there forever outside the walls of Engn, hoping for some glimpse or mention of Finn or Shireen. Not that she blamed them. She'd thought about doing the same when Tom and Rory had been taken. But in the end, she'd decided she'd be more use a
