What a job that had been, added on to all the other chores that continued every day. Thanks to Hjelmer’s trapline and Tor’s fishing skill, they often had meat to go with the porridge, for they had run out of vegetables other than what they could harvest from the wild. Tor also had hare hides nailed to the walls to dry. He planned to finish tanning them and make mittens in the winter. The pair he had finished as a pattern would go home with Nils, along with the gloves that Nils swore were the finest he had ever had. With him would also go her heart. Not that he knew that, but one day while she and Gunlaug were talking, she realized that yes, what she felt was indeed love. Love that needed to be kept secret, for she understood that the son of a successful city man and a girl raised on a farm near a small village were not meant to be together. Nils would become a wealthy businessman, even if that went against all he desired. And she? She would become the best midwife possible and go on with her life, because no other man would ever compare to this one.
