By the time she arrived home, the lanterns were snuffed and the hearth had dwindled down to embers. Kelty listened for the reassuring rumble of her grandfather's snoring but heard nothing.

Silence stood guard, and Kelty proceeded with caution.

She was halfway across the great room to her bed when the sound of a match froze her in place.

sssshhhhhikt

Then the crackle of dry tobacco in a pipe. The pallid glow of her grandfather's stern visage as the match flared

waned

guttered

He sucked in a lungful of the sweetly perfumed weed and let it out slowly before he spoke.

"Awful long time to gather one's boots."