The sting of Luthier Lee’s words never faded.

Solwen tried on the very night they were spoken to put them from her mind. Told herself not to take the remark personally. Reminded herself that there were any number of things that boys could do that girls could not, just as there were things that girls could do that boys could not. Besides, it was not as if she wanted to become a minstrel, anyway.

By the following afternoon, when the household roused itself for another business night, she thought she had convinced herself that the day before hadn’t mattered.

Then she saw the window. And with a strange, hollow hurt in her center that brought the threat of tears to her eyes, she knew she could never bring herself to sing the song of its music to her sister.

From the next day for...

Please subscribe to keep reading.