Thorns.

Lily, Rose and Fern were sisters who lived with their widowed father in a small cottage at the edge of the Green Forest.

Their dad, Sam Thorn, was a tailor who worked exclusively for the Duke and twice a year Sam and his daughters would be tasked with creating an entire wardrobe for everyone in the Duke's family which brought them plenty of coin although not nearly enough to make them rich.

One bright Summer morning the girls were in the woods picking flowers and looking at different patterns in nature.

"Have you ever seen such neat petals?" Lily, the eldest said, holding up a pink rose bud to show her sisters. "I think I'll copy the pattern of these petals and sew them into the hem of the Duke's robe."

"Roses?" Fern scoffed, turning up her nose. "Are so last season. I'm doing feathers." she had collected quite a few from nests in the lower branches of several trees . "Look at all the pretty colors."

There were blue feathers, reds and pale greens and even a purple one as long as her arm.

"Oh? Really?" said Rose, who hadn't collected anything because she couldn't make up her mind.

"Yes. No one has ever worn feathers before." Fern said with a smirk. "But as for roses. Why, everyone has worn them."

"Well, I think they're beautiful." Lily said firmly and dared Fern to complain. Lily was taller and leaner than her sisters and looked the most like their mam. Her hair was black and straight as a ruler, she had light brown skin and almond shaped, apple green eyes.

Rose was the youngest, she was small and round and like Fern, she had their Papa's coloring being very fair with strawberry blonde hair which curled and big, innocent eyes as blue as a Summer's sky.

Fern was the true beauty of the family. Tall and shapely. Her strawberry blonde hair was soft and silky, her eyes were a darker shade of blue than Rose's and her pouty lips were as red as cherries.

All three were very talented designers and seamstresses who had been taught the craft by their dad.

"Well no one said roses are ugly." Fern said with an eye roll. " Anyway, I'm bored. Let's go home."

"I'm not done picking flowers." Lily said and that's when the bushes rustled and a man stumbled from the foliage and collapsed on the ground.

It had happened so suddenly that the girls didn't have the chance to scream or give much of a reaction.

The man rolled over onto his back and groaned.

There was a lot of blood and dirt on his face and his clothes were badly torn and stained but the girls could still recognize the finery of the cloth as if he were a nobleman.

Lily was the first to react as she kneeled beside him.

"Sir? What befell you?"

"I, I don't know." He gasped, making an effort to keep his eyes opened. They rolled to the back of his head until the whites showed in a dead faint.

The girls exchanged frightened glances and Lily said,

"Rose, go and fetch Papa."

"I'll go." Fern insisted and without a seconds hesitation she ran off down the path which would eventually take her to the cottage and their Papa who was watering their only horse.

Sam was a tall, rawboned man with thick whiskers, a Patrician nose and many lines radiating from the corners of his faded blue eyes. His sweaty hair was still thick and strawberry blonde and he was still an attractive man.

"Papa! Come quick!" Fern yelled, startling man and beast and her Papa was even more alarmed at sight of his breathless middle daughter.

For one thing, Fern was not one to go wildly running anywhere because she considered herself much too lady like for that and so Sam had a bad feeling that something was terribly wrong.

"Where are yer sisters!" was his first worried question because he always had an irrational fear that something awful would happen to his girls if he let them out of his sight for too long.

"Oh, Papa." Fern gasped, one pale hand pressed against her heaving chest. Her eyes were big and more excited than frightened. "The girls are okay. We found a man in the forest and he's all bloody and hurt and we need you to come look at him."

A heavy frown furrowed his brow as Sam considered this news which was a different kettle of fish and could mean anything and from what they had been saying in town, he was sure that it couldn't bode well.

He was a man of impressive courage and quick response so grabbing his axe from a stump of wood in the yard, Sam followed his daughter until they arrived at the scene where Lily had kneeled on the ground above the injured man while a white faced Rose stood nearby.

Both girls were relieved now that Papa had arrived. He was their leader and protector and teacher and all that they had now that their mam had died.

Lily moved over to give Sam room to kneel on the springy ground and anxiously watched as he checked for a pulse and then Sam glanced at his eldest girl and nodded.

"He's alive, but barely. The heartbeat is slow."

At the sound of Sam's gruff words the man moaned and then tried to sit up but Sam laid a heavy hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down.

"Take it easy there, until we can get you to a healer." He said in a loud, clear voice and hoped that his words were understood by the injured man.