It was still dark when she rose, got dressed and went to eat breakfast in the kitchen. Riana was already up, re-kneading the bread she had been working on yesterday.
“You’re up early, mistress.”
“Big day at the theatre. A lot of work to be done.” She tried to be matter-of-fact about it, but was unsure if she came off convincing. Riana tended to have a pretty good sense for when something was up.
A layer of snow had fallen thick enough to create a small measure of chaos, even in a place where water only fell as snow, and where big snow mounds were a fact of life.
As he usually did on big snow days, Kalit had risen early to shovel a path to the gate, but so much of it had fallen that he was still hacking with the snow pick to make enough room for the gate to open. While he jiggled and pu
