by Hearth Thistle

The Bell That Was Not There

Maren of Thistle Cottage has lived alone for four years and likes the quiet. Then a bell rings at a gate that no longer has one, and a tired man stands in her rain asking after her grandmother — who has been gone longer than he seems to know. He has come further than the road from town, and the inheritance Brida Thistle left behind has been waiting for someone to claim it. Seven chapters of bread, herbs, slow trust, and a door Maren did not know she had.