The door opened on the first lift of the latch.
Neri stood with her key still in it.
Behind her, Iven held a box against his chest. The hired carrier waited on the stair below with a second box and the expression of a man who knew exactly how long people could spend admiring an empty room while he held their belongings.
Neri stepped inside.
“It opens.”
“Good beginning,” Iven said.
Ressa had planed the sticking corner. The pale new wood showed along the top edge. Inside, the stove stood clean with the stove man’s completed test mark beside the flue, and a little packet of kindling lay where somebody had thought they would want it before they found the right box.
Day four hundred.
