A soft smile tipped my lips. “I happen to enjoy your company, and that has its own merit.”
Penny's expression turned serious, almost somber. He pulled over a scrap of brown leather and tested one of the carving blades while avoiding my eyes.
When he didn’t respond, I started back toward the forge, only to pause halfway there.
“Penny?”
He swiveled toward me with his brows drawn. “Hmm?”
“I think we both have things in our pasts that are better left there. So, I don’t want to hear you repeating anything else Merrick says about you. He’s been wrong about all of it, and you don’t need to live in the shadow of his judgment anymore. We both know exactly what kind of man he is and how little his opinions matter.”
Penny blinked several times before giving a shallow nod and returning to his carving.
I headed for the rack of tools that needed repairing and picked out a dull, bent, and dented hoe blade to start with. It was comforting to focus on a familiar task and forget where I was for a while, going through the motions and letting my mind empty of all the worries of the last few days.
I was so lost in the work that I didn’t see the trio of men filing in under the canopy sometime later until a voice from the doorway drew my attention.
“Heard we had some new blood in town. What’d I tell you, Reimond?”
I lowered my hammer and looked up as the first manstepped close to the hearth and held his hands up to the heat radiating from the coals.
He towered at least four inches taller than me and was just as broad. His brows and eyes were the same mousy brown as his shaggy hair and chest-length beard. His face and arms were a deep tan as if he’d spent the entire summer out in the sun, and he had a leather scabbard strapped to his back with some sort of long blade tucked inside.
Behind him trailed a man about Penny’s height and build, fixing his mussed auburn hair as his gray eyes scanned over the space. His cheeks were windburned, and hay stuck to the hems of his slacks. Bringing up the rear was a man with chestnut skin and eyes to match and close-cropped black hair who barely came up to my chin. He fussed with the twisted left strap of his overalls while standing close beside the second man.
“Technically,” I said as the tallest of the three came closer to see what I was working on, “I’m old blood. Just been gone a while.”
He grinned and flicked his eyes over my shoulder. “And what about you?”
I glanced back to find that Penny had left his leatherworking and now stood behind me like I was a shield.
“This is my first time here,” he said.
Before the monster of a man could ask Penny anything else, I tugged off one glove and extended my hand to him. “Kit Koesters. This is Penny.” No surname for him. The less people that knew of his connection to Merrick, the better, but nothing stopped me from taking advantage of my own infamous family ties.
“Anders,” he replied, gripping my hand in a too tight shake. With the other, he gestured to the second and third men in turn. “That’s Reimond and Thoma.”
They each gave a brief wave, though neither seemed interested in the introductions. I got the impression that they had other things to do but got roped into playing town greeters.
Anders released me and picked up my discarded hammer, swinging it idly through the air as he wandered the shop. “You two initiates or just here to work?”
“Initiates.” I watched as he rifled through my tool racks like the items there belonged to him. “But we’ll be working here, too. Have to earn our keep, after all.”
“Guess we can’t all work the mill,” he said, flexing his sizable bicep. “Not everyone can split a mighty oak with one swing of an axe.”
Thoma rolled his eyes behind Anders’s back, and I had to stifle a grin.
Penny peered out from behind me at the other two men. “I’m apprenticing here, though I’m mostly focusing on the leather bits. What do you do?”
The lumberman motioned to his companions before they could respond. “They’re just animal wranglers.” He sniffed derisively and resumed poking through my supplies. “Little shepherd boy and the horse tamer.”
Penny’s face lit up at the mention of livestock, and he stepped around me. “We kept sheep on the farm. I’ve always loved them.”
Anders scoffed, but Reimond returned Penny’s smile. “We have a whole flock. Just brought them in for the winter from grazing up the mountain. You’re welcome to come by the stables to see them.” He bumped Thoma’s shoulder with his own. “And he has a couple of fine new colts out there as well.”
“Well,” Anders broke in, making his way back to the rest of us, “while you ladies play with the animals, usmenwill be doing the real work.” He stepped up next to me andswung my pilfered hammer, clanging it off the anvil and barely missing the hoe blade that I yanked safely out of the way.
I shifted to position myself between him and Penny.
