HEARTHWANE · STEPMOTHER
human, 46
Was left a widow in Cressing with a small daughter, a tanner's debts and nothing else.
THEIR STORY
Ottilie Cray came up from Cressing as a widow with one daughter and married the master of the Cray farm. She keeps the house clean, the accounts straight and the neighbours civil. Her husband is often away, and in his absence she runs the farm as if it were already Lisbet's. She is always reasonable, and nobody on the farm has ever won an argument with her.
FROM
Cressing, in the Marches
HOW THEY LOOK
Neat and narrow, two shawls one over the other, grey hair under a starched cap. Her hands are cracked and white at the knuckles.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“Grandmother keeps the only fire that never goes out. Go and ask her nicely.”
“It is for the household. Everything I do is.”
BEFORE THE TALE
12 years ago · Cressing
Was left a widow in Cressing with a small daughter, a tanner's debts and nothing else.
6 years ago · the Cray farm
Married the master of the Cray farm at the wood edge, and found a grown stepdaughter already keeping his house.