Free Escape from the Past by Annette Oppenlander

transformme into a bird or worse…
    “I’m pretty busy.”
    She nodded and sniffed, the nostrils on her potato nose flaring. “It will rain today. Stay out of trouble, young Max.” For a moment her eyes sharpened while all the wrinkles scrunched together into a frown. “It can be a dangerous place.”
    Luanda turned before I thought of a comeback. A wind gust rippled across the reeds as if the woman had summoned bad weather. I shivered. If her face and tone were supposed to frighten me, it worked. I yanked on my clothes except for the shirt. My skin felt icy wet. I’d get dry and warm at Bero’s house. Even if it stank.

Chapter 8
    In Bero’s hut I stoked the fire and hung my shirt above. Juliana lay with her eyes closed, the hair a loosely braided pillow around her. I took a sip of pine needle tea that stood forgotten from this morning and watched her. I wondered how old she was. I’d ask Bero without attracting too much attention. I needed to talk to him anyway. About the harvest festival and about what year it was. They’d gone to church instead of the fields, so it had to be Sunday. Was the game I’d traveled into maintaining the same schedule as home?
    “Why so serious?” Juliana gazed at me. She attempted to sit, but then her mouth twisted with pain and she slumped back down.
    I shook my head. “Nothing.” I pulled my bench a bit closer. “Tell me about Miranda. What do you do for her?”
    “I attend at meals, help with dressing, hair, anything she needs…” She shrugged.
    “You don’t like her.”
    Juliana shook her head. “She’s cruel and unjust. She accuses us of idleness. Everyone is afraid of her. I’d fancy serving Lady Clara. She was kind—and prettier, too.”
    “What do you know about her?”
    “Lady Clara visits with Lady Miranda a lot. I think she’s lonely—her husband is blind and not very nice to her.”
    “Why did she marry him?”
    “He was much different before he lost his sight. He was funny and joked with us maids. Now, he sits around and drinks.”
    “You worked for Lady Clara?”
    Juliana nodded. “Before her husband got sick. He’s one of the Lord’s vassals. Knight Werner is generous and lets them stay in their manor. But she couldn’t afford to keep us and I went to Miranda.”
    “Must be tough to be an invalid around here.” I remembered the girl’s wound. “Your leg feeling okay?”
    Juliana’s perfectly arched brows crunched into a frown. “Your speech is vexing. What does it mean…okay?”
    “It means fine. Like better or tolerable.”
    She nodded, but the suspicion stayed on her face. Ignoring it, I kneeled to take another look under the bandage. One couldn’t be careful enough. The gash looked as it had this morning. I wanted to touch her leg, the good part, but stopped myself. Instead I replaced the padding and stood up.
    “You look nice,” she said, her eyes lingering on my upper body. I glanced at my chest, which was still tanned from summer. Abruptly, I turned away, my cheeks feeling hot.
    “Thanks,” I managed. Clearing my throat I returned to the bench. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    “What’s that?”
    “Someone you like and hang out with.”
    She looked at him in consternation. “Your speech is so strange. I don’t understand. What is hang out?”
    “You spend time with the person you like,” I tried.
    An inkling of a smile played around her mouth. “You talk funny. I serve Lady Miranda and see her guests and a few of the squires. They’re dim-witted.
Mutter
hopes I’ll marry one. She’s worried I’m getting too old.”
    “How old are you?”
    “Fifteen.”
    “You’re a teenag—You’ve got plenty of time.”
    Juliana shook her head. “It is best to marry early, to be protected.”
    “Why?”
    “Because when knights visit, they will take us if they desire it.” The perfect skin around her nose glowed pink. “I try to stay away as much as I can. Many of the maids have bastards.”
    “Like Lady Miranda’s