The days were growing warmer, and Adolphus was away on his campaign. Lucy and Klara took hours-long afternoon walks through the forest, their fingers twining together. They spoke of small things; or of things which seemed small when spoken but which afterward remained fixed in Lucy’s mind. One day Klara commented that when the snow melted away, the exposed grasses looked like the fur of a newborn foal or calf.
“But the earth is not an animal,” Lucy said.
“Yes it is,” Klara told him, and she gripped his fingers ever tighter.