"Okay, thanks," she said to the smith as he left.

They were putting all the foodstuffs into Rose's saddlebags. But Ferona kept an apple for herself and began eating it too, like Berek. She didn't finish though, and gave the rest to the horse. Rose knickered excitedly and breathed on her hands. 

"Oi! If it isn't the Queen Beggar!" suddenly announced a man, laughing snidely. 

"Eh? It really is. And wasn't that the smith with 'er?" 

"I do believe it was, Todd! What would he be doing with 'er, ay?"

By now the two men were close enough to recognize. By SMELL if nothing else. It was, of course, the manure cart drivers she'd had the misfortune to tick off previously. But this time their expressions weren't nearly so angry. They looked... like they'd spotted fresh meat.

Todd, was it? Todd snatched the scarf off her head, eliciting a shriek. She dropped Rose's reigns and grabbed for it. 

"Lookie there! She's not bald no more!" He held it out of her reach, passing it from one arm to the next.

The other man, the one she really hated, reached out and touched her hair, carressing her cheek in the process.

"'S pretty. No wonder the smith's keeping her at home." 

Ferona slapped him and then snatched the scarf back from his stunned friend. 

"You bitch!" he cried, grabbing her wrist and yanking her to close to him. "I should've taught you a lesson the first time!" 

She was too proud to whimper and to cowed to slap him again. She was reminded too much of the night she was kidnapped, when it had done no good to cry for help or fight. And the enraged face glaring down at her seemed to mesh with the one she'd seen that night as well. She shrank back, heart in her throat.