.. ... go where?Then she heard a wonderful sound! It was peaceful!Familiar ... beautiful!Her ears shut out the diner’s noise and focused on the lov...ly sound.Why was the dining room changing colors?How could she be looking up at a blue, summer, midday sky? It was the middle night in a terrible blizzard!But... She listened... ... and the sound began to come clearer.Warmth????Where did this beautiful warm air come from? “Oh, I’m warm. Finally I’m warm!” she said to no one. “God! I am warm! I. It was Laura's place, the luscious woman whose freedom I had won in a crooked card game. I still remembered the short time we spent in the blacksmith's loft and the loud and violent ending of that evening.The big woman was behind the bar, looking harried, her hair a mess, when I came in with the girl. "Two beers," I said and she drew them and plunked them down without looking up. I grabbed her wrist. She pulled her hand away, reached under the counter, produced a nasty-looking little knife and. I am so tired. I am hungry and dirty, too. We haven't been fed today. If you will feed me a little and let me clean up, I will try to show you that I am a good and willing bed warmer."We had some wine and fruit in the room. Ula gave it to her to drink and eat. Ula then spoke. "I am Ula. My mate and master is Alaric. We live out from the towns in a hidden place safe from marauders. Given a choice, what name would you like?" I had been named Mara before I was taken into slavery. My mother had. Oh God, there she went again, juggling the "ifs" and heading right toward a crying spree.Well, she wouldn't! Not again today. Yesterday had been bad enough for her, but she'd vowed to see it through and she would. Besides, there was nothing else for them to do, no one to turn to for help... unless Chief Lannigan might listen... but that was far-fetched, too, she'd decided. That awful judge had passed down his decision, and no one was going to bother listening to their plight... two nobodies.