They gave him the blind daughter as a joke, but he gave her his last name and a home…
The sun beat down on the dusty main street as Anika changed her shawl, hoping no one would spot her trembling hands. She had come into town with simple purpose: to trade for flour, salt, and lamp oil. Yet she felt the stares the moment she stepped into the mercantile. Mutters drifted like smoke—foreign girl,…