Bitterroot Valley ✢ And his eyes all over me

The offer — the order — made her breath catch in her throat. She remember a song, then, sung by the women of her village:

aya, aya aya!
the handsome boy there, he is staring at your face!
do not look, do not look
i will say the words loud so he will hear them:
'"what did your father ask in trade?'"
aya, aya, aya!
now he believes you will be married!
see how he runs to find his own furs!
he will bring them to your father,
he will run to ask you first

Visions of Ajei and Arrluk's wedding danced disconcertingly in her mind. Sega couldn't be asking what she thought. But the gesture, in her eyes, was terribly intimate. The overture made her stomach lurch like an animal in it own right.

She would have to think carefully about what she would ask of the man. What she thought she was worth.

What she thought she could carry.

"I'll have to think about what she'd like best," she replied, demurring despite the rabbiting of her heart.

Angel bent her head and got back to work.

Fade here?