"How long's it been, Aldwyn?" The middle-aged woman stood with arms crossed, peering out into the pasture with puckered eyes that drew a mosaic of lines and crevices to the edges of her weathered face.
"Been going on a month, I think," the man replied, while his eyes followed the same path. Beyond the sturdy fence, wide swaths of swaying grey-green grasses flowed like waves in the brisk wind. In the distance, a herd of horses grazed peacefully, tails swishing. "I don't know exactly when it happened. I can't ask her about it."
"Hmm," the woman hummed thoughtfully. Her gaze hovered on a slender figure that was walking amongst the horses, nearly obscured by the tall grass and ever-shifting bodies of the herd. "A month is too long, Aldwyn. Far too long." Another pensive silence followed before she spoke again. "That's not my daughter anymore." She nodded her head towards the pasture, and her pale blue eyes frowned. "This is what comes of marrying some northern nobody. What'd he do to her, to make her so weak and helpless?" The woman's hard words were softened by a gentle cracking of her voice.
"It weren't that," Aldwyn said quietly, shaking his head. "She's always had that big heart. Big and open and ready to love the whole world." His lips pressed together, making his bushy red beard bristle and stick out. "And that's how she loved him. As if he were all the world in one man." He gave the older woman a quick glance. "Don't fault her for it."
"I will fault her for it," the woman answered, turning abruptly away and crossing the wide porch towards the front door of the farm house. "Look what it's done to her. She's skin and bones. She's a ghost." She waved a hand back towards the fields. "She's walking around and dying slowly on her feet." Moisture glimmered in her eyes, despite the harshness of her tone. "Where's the girl that left here two years ago? Strong and steady and never cried for herself or anyone else." She paused suddenly and looked at the ruddy-haired man nearby. "Is she gone?"
He lowered his eyes slowly, but shook his head. "Nay, she's not gone. She's lost. Lost in a dark place and can't find her way out." He sucked thoughtfully on his teeth and gazed over his shoulder towards the horse fields again. "I'll talk to her."
The woman nodded. "Do, Aldwyn. Bring her back to herself. She'd do well to stay here and remember who she is. Find a good man to marry, one that won't disappear or, Béma knows, up and die on her."
Aldwyn turned back to regard the woman once more. "She won't stay here."
