On one warm spring afternoon he happened to be working near the fence when he heard a cheerful voice call out "Hello there!" He turned and saw the girl, standing by the somewhat weathered stone wall that separated their farms. "I thought I'd come say hi," she said, "Since we're neighbors now."

He paused his work for a bit. It wasn't so urgent he couldn't spare a moment. "Hi. It looks like you're doing a good job of getting your place fixed up."

She laughed. "You only say that because you can't see the unholy mess that's still left from a distance. I'm Spark, by the way. Don't ask, my parents had some peculiar notions" she said.

He chuckled. "Jonathan."

She held out her hand over the fence and he took it and shook it. Her hand was as work-roughened as his own. He had a flash of memory then, of the sword-calloused hand of Ariana, and felt lonely all over again. But he had a sudden thought. "Would you care to come over for dinner some time? It has to be a little lonely there, all by yourself."

She smiled. "I'd like that. My horse is good company, but he isn't good conversation."

"He's quite the animal," said Jonathan.

"And you're almost certainly wondering why somebody who's here, scraping along on a little farm, has a horse like that, aren't you?"

"Well, he's a sight better than my own, we'll put it that way," he said, admittedly quite curious.

"He's my inheritance," she said, "So to speak. I had him, and enough money to buy a little place. I could have sold him, and had the money for a larger farm, or to start a city shop or something, but... I don't really like cities. And there's just me to work the place, and I wouldn't have had a horse! So small is better. And his dignity isn't offended by pulling a plow, thankfully. But I should get back to work, and I'm sure you have lots to do."

"Yeah."

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer this evening," she said, and smiled.

She did come over for dinner that evening, and for several evenings after. "I have enough to do without having to cook, and then having to eat my own cooking," she had said. "I'm not really all that good at it."

"Well, cooking for three isn't any more work than cooking for two," Jonathan's mother had said, and after that she came over nearly every day.

Jonathan found himself smiling at her a lot. Although sometimes the smiles were a little sad. He thought of Ariana often still, though he tried to put her out of his mind, and he could almost believe sometimes that she had been telling the truth, that she had cared for him. But it didn't matter now, she was gone and wasn't going to come back.

"You're looking rather sad," said Spark one evening as they sat talking after dinner. "Something on your mind?"

He shrugged. "Regrets. We all have them. Enough said, really."

She nodded. "Yes. Well, let's talk about something else then. What about your family? This house is big enough for an army, where did everybody else go?"

He chuckled. "It felt like an army when everyone was still here. I had three brothers and two sisters! Plenty of family. My sisters both married and moved out. One of them lives not far from here. My brothers..." He shrugged. "None of them loved the land. You have to love it, to stay and work it. But they wanted money, or excitement, or whatever else it is you get in towns and cities, and they all went, one by one. So there's just me. It's a small enough farm, and I manage by myself. I.... had help for a while, that was nice, but... I manage by myself."

Spark sighed. "So do I, though I don't envy you the work you have here. And I know what you mean about loving the land. Though with me it's more loving life, and growing things. I never get tired of watching things grow. And I'm fond of animals," she added with a chuckle. "I seem to be better at managing them than I would have thought. I knew what to do about the garden and the fields, but the goats worried me for a while. But they're fine. It's amazing how much personality goats can have. I wouldn't have thought! And how much trouble they can get into."

He laughed. "That's part of why I don't keep them."

She nodded. "You make enough to buy milk and cheese. But I don't think I can. And I'm not sure I could live without milk! I may end up living without cheese, I've never made it before, and I get the feeling that my first attempt may be kind of... interesting."

"We've never done dairy here, or I'd offer to help," he said.

"Heavens no! I know how much work you have to run this place. You don't need to take time off to help me. I do all right. Just getting out of the cooking once a day is plenty help enough! I should probably get going though," she added. "It's getting late, and morning comes early."

"Goodnight then," he said.

"Goodnight."