About this story
A girl trusts you with a sledge of meal taken from her father's storehouse; by dusk you have drunk the meal, the sack and the sledge, and lain down in a snowdrift not meaning to rise. The woman who hauls you out owns seven ironworks and keeps a hall of ruined gentlemen at Ekeby. She offers food, company and the twelfth chair, and moves the brandy out of your reach herself.
Who you’ll meet
The Major's Wife of Ekeby, the ironmaster who owns seven works and the ruined gentlemen in her west wing, meeting the village clergyman's daughter on the snowed-out Broby road; she is the woman who decides whether the reader gets a life.
How it opens
Snow erased the road while a small girl dragged a loaded sledge uphill.
Broby Clergyman's DaughterHelp me with this meal, and do not expect payment.
You took the rope because hunger had not yet defeated every decent impulse.
Broby Clergyman's DaughterFather is coming. He must think the sledge belongs to you.
I will bring the meal and sledge to the parsonage after dark.
Broby Clergyman's DaughterFail me, and hunger will not be yours alone.