Chapter 12
one’s place
Dressed, smelling of lavender and standing next to her packed picnic bundled up in a pail, Nelia looked over the room she had had the honor of spending the night in and sighed heavily. Somewhere in the distance, a church bell rang, the hour echoing off the sides of the mountains. Nelia counted, leaving the echoes to themselves, coming exactly to nine. Nine in the morning. She had never gotten such a late start to the day in all her life. Perhaps the only time had been when she was sick with a fever at fifteen.
Glimpsing herself in the long mirror. Nelia gave a small twirl and laughed for two reasons. The first was that she couldn’t believe how well she looked. Refreshed. That was how she looked. It was the word that both her mother and Aaron’s mother used when tal
