Chapter 5
The Gleave Family Lodge
The Gramarye Region
Grand Quillia
June 1856
Alf enjoyed the late nights and early mornings alone in the lodge. He scrubbed at Kendrick’s shirt cuff by the light of the moon shining through the kitchen window. As everybody else slept, he could imagine that he actually had some semblance of a life, a life that didn’t revolve around the lodge or its occupants, be they regulars or guests. That this was his finely tailored shirt.
His mother had died in childbirth. No midwives or doctors were willing to brave the Chiming Wood to visit the lodge, and they had no means to reach a hospital. Any animals left in the stables ended up as bait and then a feast for the humps, so the difficulty of getting in and out meant most medical conditions went untreated until
