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Silas set the knife down and went to her. He took her swollen hand as gently as if it were glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere,\u201d he said, and the word felt like a post driven into bedrock, \u201cyour girls are the only thing worth feeding.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Marabel did speak, the words came iron-thin:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was seventeen when my father married me to Joseph Quinn. He was thirty-four and rich. Said I was lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silas kept the stone moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first daughter, he frowned. The second, he stopped speaking to me. The third,\u201d her voice frayed, \u201che called the midwife a witch who\u2019d cursed my womb. Said I was a mule if I could not give him a son. He and his brothers beat me. Then he tied me to that fence and left me for the snow. He called it justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Silas set the knife down and went to her. He took her swollen hand as gently as if it were glass.<\/p>\n \u201cHere,\u201d he said, and the word felt like a post driven into bedrock, \u201cyour girls are the only thing worth feeding.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"