Chapters (76)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- PART II
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- PART III
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- INTERLUDE
- PART IV
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- INTERLUDE
- PART V
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART VI
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- INTERLUDE
- PART VII
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- PART VIII
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
“You mentioned Will twice,” Alan’s voice cracked. The young man had spent much of the last few days on his own, vanishing into the woods for hours on end. Every time he returned, it was as if there were somehow less of him. “But what about Elena? Why don’t you sing about her?”
Tuck nodded. “The song’s not done yet. Perhaps you could help me with some of it?”
But Alan just shook his head and swatted at the smoke.
Marion did what she could to visit each campfire, to give heartfelt apologies, to explain that they would need to disband. Some of the women treated the news like a death sentence. Mothers like Amelia and Fionne had long sacrificed everything for their children, and had nothing left to give. Marion did what she could to help, but a handful politely declined her company. That, perhaps, stung the greatest. For all her best intentions, she had let them down. Lord Walter’s death was indeed for nothing.
Before she found a bedroll for the night, she visited with Friar Tuck in his tent, sharing the glow of the last wedge of a fat candle. She had leaned on the man for sound wisdom over the years, but rarely for advice on faith.
“Funerals and weddings make everyone devout.” Tuck warmed his fingertips over the waning flame. “Something about lives coming together or being pulled apart makes most people pray harder, to seek guidance.”
“They’ll come to you,” Marion said, “but what can you do? How can you ease this pain?”
“I listen,” he smiled. “Grief is the only thing I’ve ever known that grows smaller by being added upon.”
She reached out to him. It couldn’t be easy, to put aside his own mourning, to ignore his broken arm to heal others.
Upon being touched his eyes sprang up to hers, the wrinkles in his face all sharpened. “Funerals and weddings, I see them as uniquely human milestones. The Lord can nurture love in a man’s heart, but it takes two people pledging themselves to another to make a wedding. The Lord can put reason in a man’s mind, but it is always the man who abandons it when he takes a life in wrath. Funerals and weddings aren’t holy moments. The Lord is only a bystander to these. They are proof we can do things, great or horrible things, completely without Him. Those aren’t the days to praise Him, they’re the days we should fear Him, and the gifts He’s given us.”
He blew out the candle.