In reply to Liadan Buckley (msg # 901):



Aislyn glared at Lia.

In reply to Millie (msg # 902):

Difyr sighed heavily. "I was afraid of that happening... And I don't have willow bark."

Difyr went over to Pinja and checked the bite mark on the back of her neck. It was red and swollen. Difyr cursed Jack.

"That bastard..." DIfyr usually did not swear around patients, esecpailly not patients that were feeling this badly, but stress was killing her bedside manner. "This has to be drained. Millie, can you get a clean needle from the supplies? And a small bowl and the kettle of hot water."

In reply to Aislyn (msg # 903):

"Or on one leg, or sitting on the floor with a stick." Liadan said.

In reply to Difyr Bateman (msg # 904):

Millie nodded and hurried back to where Difyr had been. She selected the items Difyr needed, taking care to barely touch the needle so it would stay clean. She returned to Difyr and Pinja. "Here you go."

Aislyn shook her head and left for the kitchen.

Difyr wiped Pinja's forehead.

"This will hurt." Difyr told the Pinja, not liking how Pinja did not seem entirely aware of her surroundings. "Millie, could your ho-" Difyr stopped, realizing that if Pinja heard someone telling someone else to hold her down that could send her into a panic. "Try to keep her neck still as I drain this."

Millie did as asked. "I'm not going to hurt you, Pinja," she said as she gently but firmly held her in place. Millie used her thumbs to gently stroke Pinja to try to keep her calm.

"Please don't." Pinja whimpered.

The abscess was so swollen it only needed a slight needle prick before it started leaking pus. Difyr murmured soothingly to Pinja as she gently worked out the pus into the bowl, then used hot water from the kettle to rinse it out. She muttered about Jack having a filthy mouth.

"Shh," Millie said softly. She wrinkled her nose, making certain Pinja couldn't see it. "Did I ever tell you about the first dress I designed? I was, oh, about seven, I suppose, and it was for my doll," she began, hoping to distract Pinja. "It was a pink and green atrocity."

"Better than I can design now." Pinja's voice shook with pain, and trying to to breath in that terrible smell.

In reply to Pinja Esposito (msg # 913):

"Oh, I don't know. One sleeve ended up as a leg, a ruffle ran straight down the back. And the green was a shade that no clothing should be made out of."

"Still better." Pinja shivered. This talk of making dresses was reminding Pinja of the backroom of Millie's shop.

"Did you know my little sister, Kadelyn, loved starting food fights? No one was ever safe from having food tossed at them."

Pinja did not want to talk about food either.

"She outgrew them?" Pinja asked weakly.

In reply to Pinja Esposito (msg # 917):


"Nope. In fact, just yesterday morning, she..." tears stung Millie's eyes.

Pinja frowned as she remembered what happened yesterday. Millie had left the shop for something or other, leaving Pinja alone in the shop. Pinja had heard screaming outside but before she could even look out a window a couple of Jack's relatives showed up in the shop. They got her tied up and gagged in a hurry, though the gag was redundant- there had been so much screaming outside Pinja doubted anyone would have heard her own screaming. By the time things had quieted down outside Jack, along with even more relatives and the Haloway's family midwife were there and Pinja was not thinking about the outside world anymore after what they did to her.

Now Pinja remembered that she was not the only one getting hurt that morning. She tried to sit up. "What happened?"

"They, uhm, set part of inn on fire. We tried, oh how we tried, but Mama, Lek and I couldn't get the little ones out." Millie bit her lower lip, refusing to cry and upset Pinja. As soon as the words left her, she wished she hadn't told Pinja that either.

"They burned the inn?" Pinja was about to ask who they were, but realized it was Jack's family. "What else did they do? Where am I?" As Pinja sat up the blanket fell from her shoulders, some of the wounds reopened and blood seeped through the thin shift. She spotted Brighid Spenser. "Is that the Captain's wife?"

Millie wished she knew how to lie. "Yes, that's Aunt Brie. We are at what was the abandoned keep outside of the village. We're in the healing room. Please, Pinja, calm down."

"They hurt her because he helped me." Pinja lay down, horror written all over her face. She could not calm down but at least she kept her voice down. "What about the captain? Their children?" Pinja knew they had three biological children, triplets, and two adopted children, all daughters. The captain and his wife doted on them. Pinja felt sick.

"Uncle Shawn is bruised and battered, but well. I've...I...I've seen his eldest and one of the triplets. I don't know about the others yet, I've been giving them space."

The triplets were practically babies, the otherdaughter was just a little girl.

"This is because of me." Pinja whispered. If she just stayed Jack's obedient wife this never would have happened. Pinja did not care how badly she had been scarred, what Jack's family did to her- they had killed children and hurt these good families far more deeply than they had hurt herself. Pinja did not know how she could ever make it up to them.

In reply to Pinja Esposito (msg # 925):

Millie shook her head. "No, it is because of Jack and whoever is following him. He is the one with the evil in his heart that allowed him to do such things."

"If I never came to the village Jack never would have gone after the Spensers, the village," Pinja said. She wanted to get up and apologize to Brighid Spenser but knew she was not strong enough. "Your family. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."