Excerpt: The Dance

Each of these steps marked a moment in Sarah’s life. The first three steps – the ones she could almost reach over, her legs were so long – were the little years of her life, worn down and forgotten in her memory. Those years – her mother’s favourites – were insignificant in Sarah’s eyes. The fourth and fifth steps, larger in importance, reminded Sarah of the days of ignorant childhood, when reality had seemed more like one of the tales her mother told at night before bed.
The sixth step was askew. At seven years of age Sarah had left her home, the pretty stone building in the Horse Market, bound for Hawkland Palace and the miserable life of a maid in the employ of King Richard the Second. Since then the steps had shown her – extraordinarily – how much she had grown. Seven, eight and nine were quickly surpassed. Yet step number ten … that last step, the one which was flat, and held the door … that was not yet reached. One more step, and Sarah’s life would be over.