Ela ran away from home on her fourteenth birthday. That was the day that the boy down the road, a neighbour's son, grabbed her by the arm as she was returning from the market in the village.

Ela held Nonnie's hand in hers as she looked over her shoulder to see what Daneel had stopped to do this time. "Git away from that, Daneel!" she called back to him. "C'mon! Ma will be wantin' these things from the market." She sighed as she watched Daneel poke with the stick again. "Leave that poor critter alone, Dani! That little hoppy frog never done nothin' ta YOU so quit pokin' at it! And git outta the mud!" She rolled her eyes as she looked at him, spattered to his knees. "Go stand in the creek and wash some of that off'n ya," she shouted. Muttering under her breath, she added, "so I ain't gotta wash 'em again when we get home."

Nonnie looked up at Ela and grinned her four-year-old smile. "Dani dirty?" she asked and Ela nodded, giggling down at her half-sister. "Yes, Nonnie, Dani's always dirty. I never saw such a one fer getting' into stuff. Seems like he's always covered in somethin' er other." She thought for a moment and said "Ya know, Nonnie, I think I do as much washin' fer him and the babe with all them wet diapers as I do fer the whole rest of the family put together."

"Dani, git outta the creek NOW!" Ela sighed as she saw Daneel's head suddenly disappear below the edge of the bank, followed by a huge splash. "Flamin'…" her voice trailed off guiltily as she glanced down at Nonnie, thinking better of what she was about to say. Leaning over to pick the little girl up, she said resignedly, "Let's go fish yer brother outta the creek."

Setting the little girl and the basket of market goods down on the bank as she hitched up her skirt, Ela waded a few steps into the stream and grabbed Daneel by the back of the shirt, dragging him out of the water where he was splashing about. "Look at ya. It were only just over ankle deep, Dani. Ya coulda stood up any time!" Ela pushed him up onto the bank and slid the woven basket onto her arm, then grabbed a hand each of the two younger children. "Now let's get home afore anything else happens!"

As they stepped back onto the road, Ela caught a movement from the corner of her eye. Just down at the path that turned off leading to some few houses, theirs included, stood Treveth. He stood staring down the road at the three of them, watching. Ela drew in a breath and braced herself. She despised Treveth more than any other person she could think of. He was a sneaking, lying cheat as she knew but his father was the overseer for these farms and always managed to keep Treveth out of the trouble that anyone else would surely have been in.

She herded Nonnie and Daneel around Treveth. He stood just where she'd first seen him, partially obstructing the pathway that led to their farms. She was just mentally thanking the Light that he'd not bothered them when she felt his hand groping at her, finally stopping on her wrist. Ela yanked her arm out of his grasp and glared at him. "Let go of me, ya goat-kissin' …" she glanced down at the children. "Just let go of me," she finished.

"Ya won't be saying that in a month, now will ya?" he grinned at her. "Yer mine now. Or will be now that yer da and mine finally agreed ta give me some land that we can farm on our own." Ela gaped at him, her blue-gray eyes horror-stricken as she realized he was serious. To be given away with a piece of land was bad enough but to be given to this hulking brutish sixteen-year old with the reputation for drunken brawling and bullying anyone weaker than him was more than she could stand.

Ela straightened to her full height and spat onto the dusty path at his feet. "Ya won't never have me. I'd go to that place next to th' tavern first where the women take money fer it. I won't never be yers." She ducked the grab he made at her by jumping back away from him but she didn't see the backhanded slap coming, the one that knocked her down to the dust and closed her eye with the bruise it left.

"Ya will and yer gonna pay fer that every day. I ain't never gonna fergit it and you ain't either cause I won't let ya," Treveth answered her, standing over her staring down. "Ya gotta learn that a woman's gotta do what her man tells her. No matter what it is." He leered at Ela. "And yer gonna do everythin' I tell ya or there'll be more a the same. A month and then yer mine. So ya better get useta th' idea." He started to step over her, headed down the path towards his parents' small house. "Git up," he said, turning back and kicking her in the ribs with his dirt-covered heavy boots, "git up. Yer blockin' the path."