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Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART I
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EIGHT
  14. NINE
  15. PART II
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. PART III
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. INTERLUDE
  35. PART IV
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. INTERLUDE
  45. PART V
  46. THIRTY-FIVE
  47. THIRTY-SIX
  48. THIRTY-SEVEN
  49. THIRTY-EIGHT
  50. PART VI
  51. THIRTY-NINE
  52. FORTY
  53. FORTY-ONE
  54. FORTY-TWO
  55. FORTY-THREE
  56. FORTY-FOUR
  57. FORTY-FIVE
  58. INTERLUDE
  59. PART VII
  60. FORTY-SIX
  61. FORTY-SEVEN
  62. FORTY-EIGHT
  63. FORTY-NINE
  64. FIFTY
  65. FIFTY-ONE
  66. FIFTY-TWO
  67. PART VIII
  68. FIFTY-THREE
  69. FIFTY-FOUR
  70. FIFTY-FIVE
  71. FIFTY-SIX
  72. EPILOGUE
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  75. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  76. Newsletter Sign-up

Stutely announced himself as he arrived so that they wouldn’t need to interrupt themselves to greet him. He unleashed a great roar of laughter from his barrel belly, so loud he couldn’t even hear them join in. The fire was low, because Munday didn’t know how to build good fires, even though Stutely had told him to do it better a dozen times last week. Munday was a little thick. He’d always been jealous of Stutely, and wished he was as big and as strong, being just a skinny wafer of a man himself. And with only a joke of a beard. The short red catfur on Munday’s chin was nothing next to the fistfuls of manflow pouring gloriously from the peak that was Stutely Mountain.

Stutely greeted them by reciting each of their names, one by one, with only two mistakes. Most simply mumbled their response, intimidated by his personality. But Stutely had learned long ago to not waste his time pitying weak people. Munday made room for Stutely to sit on the log, across the flames from the two Billinsgate brothers, Hanry and Rog. Both were field-workers who were jealous of Stutely’s strength. They’d never be able to push a ’barrow the way he could. Pushing the ’barrow meant Stutely could move around the fields from worker to worker each day, taking in the sights, telling stories. Pushing the ’barrow was the best job of them all, so Stutely always made sure to give a grand show of how great it was, so the others would have something to dream about.

“We ate without you, we got sick of waiting.” Hanry flicked the ladle in the cooking pot. Hanry’s beard was thin and patchy, and it made him look stupid. Stutely pretended to think and used both hands to stroke his own beard, just to remind Hanry of his place. Stutely didn’t say anything out loud about beards, though, because he didn’t want to make it too obvious. He was crafty like that.

“Perfect, you left me the best part!”

They didn’t even realize that a lot of the chunks in soup would end up at the bottom of the pot, so Stutely could scrape out the bowl and eat a better meal than any of them. Which he deserved. Hanry was always angry when Stutely was late, but mostly he was jealous that Stutely had other important things to do. There were a lot of folk in Thorney that didn’t know what to do when they had free time, but Stutely was always busy. Sometimes he’d move big stones around in the creek to try to redirect the water, or other times he’d practice sneaking up on the goats.