Deborah Wheeler

It was past dark when I reached the city and I__ mostly shoved my ghosts back into their graves. I let the gray mare pick her own pace and browse in the grain fields along the way.

Stung, I lifted my eyes to his and saw them as if for the first time. Eyes the color of rain, soft as dew and strong enough to etch a mountainside. Tears shimmered there _ tears, ay Mother! Or maybe they were in my own eyes.

He stared at Esmelda with a face like glass, nothing hidden. What I saw there wasn__ steel or fire or stone. Feelings stirred in me and I had to look away. I knew what I saw because I__ felt them, too _ understanding, sadness, compassion...forgiveness.