At work the next day, while walking the perimeter of the district, Coriolanus kept getting distracted by the same house.
There was a stuffed rabbit sitting on a window seal. It called to his attention each time he passed it.
It made him think of Liville. And while in a way, everything brought his mind back to Livile, the stuffed rabbit actually had a reason to. Because it reminded him of the ridiculous lie he'd told her in a panic, back when they'd first met, the lie that he had a pet rabbit.
He wondered what kind of pet Liville would actually want someday. She seemed the kind of girl to enjoy having a small dog around. Then again, cats seemed more common for stay at home women, because they did not need to be walked or looked after as carefully.
Coriolanus smiled to himself, imagining how Liville would absolutely fawn over being gifted a small kitten. Perhaps he should suggest that she should buy one. It might make her less lonely during the hours he and Sejanus were gone.
Sejanus. Just thinking of the boy dampened his mood. Because Sejanus had the day off, and he was home alone with Liville right now.
Coriolanus was trying desperately not to think of what Sejanus and her were up to at the moment. Hopefully nothing. Hopefully there was tension between the two, and they weren't speaking. Sejanus had been crying the night before, while Coriolanus pretended to be asleep, so the best case scenario was that he was still crying, and that he hadn't left his room at all.
Coriolanus wished Liville had just told him what Sejanus had said to her the night before. He hated that she was making him wait for the information. It unnerved him to no end how withholding she was being with it, as if it didn't involve him too.
He kept trying to push the thoughts out of his mind, but it was hard. Because, again, everything reminded Coriolanus of Liville. So everything reminded him that she was home alone with Sejanus.
It was on his fourth hour of patrol that he noticed a woman cutting wood in her side yard. He only spotted her because she was at the house with the stuffed rabbit in the window.
He looked at her the same moment she noticed him. She became tense and still, immediately. Dropping the ax she was splitting wood with, she began hurrying inside. The abrupt, suspicious behavior made him call out, "Stop."
The woman froze, like she'd been caught doing something wrong.
He realized as he walked up to the house that technically, she had. Because she wasn't supposed to be splitting firewood. At least, not this kind of wood. Because it was illegal to bring in your own wood from the forest during the summer, district citizens were required to buy it from the market.
She'd obviously cut some small tree herself, without a permit, to get this wood. Coriolanus could have technically issued her with a fine right then and there if he'd wanted to.
"Where did you get your firewood?" he asked her.
She hesitated, "My husband just bought it from the market-"
"The market doesn't sell that kind of wood this time of year."
Her shoulders dropped. "I..." She gave up excuses. "I'm sorry. It's been getting colder at night, and I don't have the money to purchase wood from the shops. This tree was inside the district, I swear, I didn't go past the fence to get it. I just-I just didn't have the money to buy one-"
"Do you have the money for what the fine will cost you?"
She paled. "Please-there's a hole in our wall. The air has been so cold."
