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She’d always known her lover would come from beyond the forest. It was foretold when she cast a divination spell. It was a game she played with the other village girls
The spell required a maiden to take off her shift and place it under her pillow during the night of the full moon.
she saw a twig upon the steps of her home. She knew it stood for the trees, the forest.
She guided the man. As they walked together, she thought, It is him, it is him, it is him.
The hunter’s name was Nathaniel, and he stayed that whole winter,
The hunter’s name was Nathaniel, and he was even more handsome than at first glance, with beautiful, expressive eyes and a good laugh.
it became obvious to everyone in town—except perhaps Judith, who was blinded by her exuberant dreams and fantasies—that Alice was thinking of making the guest a permanent fixture of their house.
The hunter’s name was Nathaniel, and he married Alice in the summer.
The hunter’s name was Nathaniel, and, alas, he was not Judith’s lover.
Mental note: the hunter's name was Nathaniel.
In the fall, Judith sat outside the house, on those same steps where she’d once found a twig and thought it prophesized romance.
A stranger stepped up next to Judith. He was neither a farmer nor a merchant. His clothes seemed to have been rather fine at one point, but now they were dirty and had been mended too many times.
The man cupped her face with both hands, and she felt the supple leather against her skin as he bent down to kiss her. Her mouth opened to his, and she let him pull her close to him by the waist, and to nip at her lower lip.
He drew her toward the bed, which creaked under their bodies. She heard a wolf howling in the distance as his hand grasped her thigh
Judith ought to have shoved him away. But she’d cried the morning of Alice’s wedding, and she never had anything for herself, only the hand-me-downs her elder sister gave her.
Nathaniel kissed her again, and she forgot about the stranger, about her sister, about the entire world.
She washed the undergarments she’d been wearing, watched the water grow pink with the blood that had leaked from her body—blood and his seed.
Judith could not afford to be discovered. She scrubbed hard until all traces of color disappeared. She threw the dirty, bloodied water out, letting it soak the roots of a tree.
I understand the author was trying portray that Judith has lost her virginity to Nathaniel... But Judith is 18. She surely must of already started her menstrual cycle before? How or why would Alice or someone else assume the blood was from loosing her virginity? Even if they knew her cycle, spotting is a thing.
“It won’t be. You’re careless. You best learn how to cook, or you’ll never snag a husband. No wonder Elizabeth and Rachel are already wed.”
“Finish with that, you silly twit,” Alice said. “If it were up to you, we’d eat a lump of burnt dough.” Perhaps, but I’ve had the man I want, she thought,
It was a sin to lay with a man who was not her own husband.
Let alone your sister's husband gurl
She’d be destined for Hell if she took him on as her lover. Twice she’d sinned. Twice this folly. Twice damned.
“Lycanthrope. Shape changer.”
Love! What a simple word that could not encompass her feelings, so deep and turbulent she feared she’d drown just by looking at him.
No sooner had she walked in than Nathaniel opened the door. He immediately had her on the bed, tugging at her skirts.
By God, Judith, I made a mistake, but I love you, not her.
Nathaniel and Alice had not even honeymooned together,
But he had never seemed enamored of Alice as Judith would have imagined a new husband would be.
The thought of Judith being preferred over her sister made her feel a little proud, even if she shouldn’t, just as she shouldn’t desire Nathaniel.
“We ought to run away together,” he said. “Alice will find another man, she’s young enough. She’ll do fine and we can begin anew, where no one knows us.”
A wolf was howling, braving the bitter cold outside.
“That’s that big wolf again,” Nathaniel said afterward as he put on his shirt. “When I catch it, I’m going to make a cape for you from its fur.”
“I dreamt of you once, before you came to this town,” she said. “It can’t be wrong if I dreamt of you, can it?”
his smile was sardonic and sharp as usual. Sharp as a blade he was, and those eyes of his were a bit like ice, bright and cool.
“I wouldn’t go inside unless you invited me.”
What a respectful man.
His hands did not look roughened up, although he had dark, ugly hairs on his knuckles and his nails were long.
This man’s eyebrows were too thick; his nose had been broken. Yet she still blushed when he grinned at her with his jagged smile.
“I followed the river. It sang to me.”
“You haven’t heard it before? It’s popular these days. It’s a ballad about a girl who’s dragged to the bottom of the river by her demon lover. You’d like it,” he said.
“I don’t know. I’d rather have a gentleman than a demon.”
Keep your gentleman and give me the demon!
Why can’t spring come sooner? I wish for everything to be different and new. I wish to love you without deceit or secrets.
She was all emotion and eagerness. Reason had fled Judith’s mind.
Outside, a wolf howled.
Singing to her as she sang to him... Heed his warning.
“You’re worried your lover will stop by and catch us together? I wouldn’t hurt him unless you asked me to.”
“Now I know for certain you’re no lycanthrope,”
The only method to catch such monsters is to have a virgin ride atop a white horse through town. The horse will approach the dwelling of the creature, and it’ll be quartered and burnt.
I also happen to know that a boy becomes a wolf after he drinks rainwater from a wolf’s pawprint on the night of the full moon.
“The maiden was young and fair, she wore a red ribbon in her black hair,” he sang. “Alas, she was not wise, she drowned in the river, it was her demise. Heed the warning and let this song ward you away from evil and wrong.”
“Everyone has a name.” “Everyone, but not everything. Would you demand of the tree or the raven its name?”
“The name doesn’t matter. You know me. I have no silks or gold, but I’d promise to eat your enemy’s heart and tear their lungs out with my claws in exchange for your kiss, dear Judith, which is more than a prince could say.”
“Come along, out we go, me to the village and you to wherever you came from.” “From the forest, obviously. You can’t remain longer?”
