Marriette found a ride with a wagon carrying supplies to a monastery up north by the mountains. John, the drover, knew the town George had talked about and said he would be passing through there on his way. She bundled herself up in heavy wool blankets and sat on the seat beside John. He talked as much as George on the road, but where George had pointed out landmarks along the road, John pointed out the sites of tragic events. Given the amount of snow on the road, and in the fields beside them, she was nervous. His stories made her fears worse.
Here, a family was accosted by bandits and killed. There, a drover lost a wheel in a blizzard and froze to death. The longer and more torturous the death involved the more John relished the telling of the tale. Marriette had never realized that lif
