Chapter 21
I woke at sunset, my writing on the floor, feeling uneasy. Aura had left her usual spot at the end of my cot to perch on the windowsill, sniffing into an open crack in the shutters. The fire in the stove had burned down and my teeth chattered as I pulled on my boots and clothes and slid down the steps to replenish the coal, tripping along the way. The crunch of the coal landing in the stove must have deafened me to the sound of Janie running through the snow. It was the way she frantically jiggled the lock from outside that I heard first. The cats fled in different directions, scrambling into the lofts. I dropped the poker onto the floor and backed into the nearest pony stall, leaving the stove wide open, flames licking the air around it.
“Open up, open up,” Janie cried, pound
