Mandy trudged her way through the snow to the Gallagher house, leaning forward into the wind to keep from blowing backwards, arms wrapped around a straw basket. Her thick winter cloak was still drying by the hearth from when she slipped and fell into the stream the day before, mostly frozen but with a small section at the edge of the shore she’d broken through to fetch water, and she had only two shawls wrapped tightly around her to keep her warm. But their youngest, Liam, had fallen ill with a horrible fever, and few expected him to recover.
She knew Liam, or had at least seen him around town, and from what she saw, he was the quietest, most well behaved child she had ever met. It wouldn’t be right to let him suffer or die when there was such an easy cure at hand, and when she’d heard Goodman Jackson complaining about digging a grave, even a small one, through the frozen ground, she set out to prepare it. Finally reaching the heavy wooden front door, she raised her hand and knocked loudly.