The Raven and the Reindeer Read Online Free Page B

The whitewashed sides sparkled. Gardens ran around it on three sides, dotted with green as the spring plants emerged.
    Gerta stared at it for a long time, then lurched toward it.
    Chores, she thought fixedly. I must do chores. You go to the farmhouse and ask to do chores and they give you a place to sleep. In the barn, I think.
    She had never slept in a barn in her life. Presumably there was straw. You could sleep on straw, if you didn’t mind being jabbed by a thousand individual pointy bits.  
    At the moment, Gerta would have slept on a bed of thorns if it meant that she could lie down.  
    The door was bright turquoise, painted with small white roses. She limped up the steps and stared at it stupidly for a moment.
    Do I go in?
    No. I knock. Knocking is a thing people do.  
    She knocked.  
    Footsteps sounded. A door banged. A moment later, the front door opened, and a middle-aged woman stood in the doorway. She had on a very extraordinary hat, covered in even more painted flowers.
    “Yes?” she said, wiping her hands on her apron. “May I help you?”
    Gerta blinked at her in surprise. Somehow, groggy with cold and walking, the fact that she would have to talk to another person had not really occurred to her.  
    Oh. Yes. There would be someone, wouldn’t there?
    Of course there would be a person. Ask at the farmhouse did not mean that you addressed your questions to the front porch. She had not thought it through.  
    I have been stupid. Kay would laugh at me. She flushed a little and lifted her chin and realized that she had been standing there staring at the woman for nearly half a minute.  
    “I’m sorry,” said Gerta. “I’m…I’m sorry. I’ve been walking. Uh.” She raised a hand and pushed the hair out of her face. Her cheeks felt very cold and she wondered when she had stopped being able to feel them.  
    The woman’s face softened. “Oh, my dear,” she said. “Have you been walking long?”
    “All night,” said Gerta. She thought for a moment. There was something important—“Chores. I’m supposed to do chores for you and ask for a place to sleep. Please, ma’am, if you don’t mind.”  
    Well, it wasn’t elegant, but she seemed to have gotten all the right words out, even if they weren’t in quite the right order.
    The woman smiled. “Of course,” she said. “I have plenty of chores you can do. But first come and get warm and rest.”
    This sounded wonderful to Gerta.  
    She went inside the house. The turquoise door painted with roses closed behind her, and the lock went snick.  
    There was a fire on the hearth. The woman in the flower hat led her to a chair in front of the fire. “My name is Helga,” she said. “Please, get warm and make yourself comfortable.”
    Gerta sank into the chair. It was very soft and overstuffed and she was not sure that she would be able to get out of it again, but that was all right.
    “Why did you walk all night?” asked Helga, bringing her a cup of something hot. The steam smelled of herbs.  
    “I have to find Kay,” said Gerta. “My friend. The Snow Queen took him.”
    She looked up at Helga through the steam and it seemed that the woman was frowning. But by the time she had finished the hot drink (was it tea? She couldn’t tell.), Helga was smiling again. “Rest,” she suggested. “Warm your feet.”  
    Gerta bent down to untie her shoes. She remembered getting the right one off, and had just started on the left when sleep crept up and hit her.

CHAPTER SIX

    Gerta woke in bed.
    She did not feel any disorientation, although she wasn’t sure where she was. The ceiling was high and whitewashed. She was lying in a small, snug trundle bed with a bright red quilt covered in roses. Her shoes were tucked down by the foot.  
    She got up, and the woman in the painted hat came to the door, smiling. Helga. Her name was Helga.  
    “Come and eat breakfast,” said Helga.
    “I’m supposed to do chores for you,” said Gerta, remembering.