Chapter 4
Ten years earlier …
When had it all started? When Pippa discovered she could wander the fields behind the village unattended? When her parents had become so consumed with their duties at court that they paid no heed to a middle daughter whose only distinguishing quality was hair the color of sunshine?
Or was it when the woods first beckoned?
She’d been cautious at first, keeping the village well in sight, skipping a few feet inside the forest and scampering back out. But every time she did, the willows would sweep the earth, the sound like laughter. Squirrels chattered at her, tossed acorns for her to catch. Everything about the woods welcomed her.
So one day she stepped inside and kept walking.
The forest brought her to clear streams when she was thirsty, fed her raspberri
