Ardwick

Ardwick is a quiet village on the highroad — bigger than the hamlets around it, but no town — home and practice of Zora, the region's practical healer, whom folk come to for help from all over. The houses stand along the road, a cherry orchard to the east, fields of wheat and potatoes all around, and life runs to the rhythm of the harvest and the seasons. Zora's practice stands by the market square but turns its back on it — the door off a side lane, the window onto the fence and the apple trees; inside, a shelf of herbs labelled in her hand, dried bunches under the ceiling, and the smell of lavender, anise and angelica. Here too she keeps a little box with four things of the old world she can't name.