‘You can’t leave in this weather, Lena,’ said the miller’s son, standing in front of the door. Edith stared at him, unblinking. He shouted, ‘I have the right to punish my wife. A woman needs to know her place.’

And Edith’s eyes never left his until he moved out of the way. Lena took Edith’s arm as they set off.

The miller’s son laughed. ‘You won’t get far. And I might not have a mind to open the door when you come back, freezing, begging to be let in.’

He slammed the door and turned the key in the lock. He can’t keep out an avalanche, thought Edith.

Lena sobbed silently, her body shaking, her head bowed, but she matched Edith’s determined steps. The sky was grey with snow and in all the whiteness everything looked the same. The path they had taken was unclear. Edith held tight to Lena’s hand and knew that she hadn’t enough clothes on for this weather. It was the baker’s shop she saw first. The main street was deserted; no one would venture out in this weather. The snow in the cabinet maker’s yard was up to the verandah. She opened the door and the warmth that greeted them possessed a presence, the ghost of her grandmother waiting to hold them in her warm embrace.

Edith found clothes for them both to change into. Lena not only had a black eye but bruises on her arms.

‘Everything I do is wrong,’ she said. ‘And I think he knows he’s not the baby’s father.’

Edith shook her head; she doubted that the miller’s son had the wit to work out that the child wasn’t his. If he did, it was a truth so buried in him he wouldn’t know what to make of it.

Lena was still shaking. ‘The food isn’t cooked to his liking and he always wants something I haven’t made. His mother told me that I don’t keep house the way I should and he said this morning he wants his mother there when the baby is born as I wouldn’t know what to do for the best.’

Edith put her arms around Lena and gently held her. She looked so broken.

It was midday when the cabinet maker rose from his bed, seemingly oblivious to the pig.

‘What happened to your eye?’ he said, sitting down in front of a bowl of soup.

Edith didn’t bring wine so he got up and fetched a bottle. He had just pulled the cork when the soup dishes started to move on the table.

‘What’s that?’

Edith knew. She opened the cupboard under the stairs and gestured to Lena and her father to go inside. They crouched there as Edith crawled in after them and closed the door.

‘The mountain giant is awake,’ said the cabinet maker.