Chapter One
Ivy limped through the forest, leaning on her crutch. Her sister Hazel walked alongside her, a basket slung over one arm. Ahead, the derelict woodcutter’s cottage peeped through the trees, a lopsided building with crooked shutters and threadbare thatching. Ivy glimpsed her youngest sister, Larkspur, sitting on the mossy doorstep, two large red-brown hounds at her feet.
“I see her,” Hazel said.
As if she’d heard Hazel, Larkspur turned her head and looked into the forest, directly at them.
She can’t see us yet or hear our voices, Ivy thought. But she senses us.
“Go ahead,” Ivy said. “Don’t wait for me.”
Hazel nodded, and picked up her skirts and ran ahead, the basket bouncing and swinging on her arm. “Larkspur!”
The hounds surged to their feet, barking.
Ivy hobbled as fas
