married off his daughter

He draped a heavy, wool-scented blanket over her shoulders and retreated to the threshold.

“Why?” she whispered into the dark.

“Why what?”

continue to the next page.”

“Why take me? You have nothing. Now you have nothing plus a woman who cannot even see the bread she eats.”

She heard him shift against the doorframe. “Perhaps,” he said softly, “having nothing continue reading …