I tried the audio version by podcastle but I ended up quitting. I got about half way before quitting.
The recording isn't very clear. Tincan-ey. I'm not so fond of the narrator either. :/

Historical setting. A judgie elderly woman is narrating. Multiple generations live in the household. They receive an unexpected guest.
I think we learned there is a legend of people frozen behind the "forest" of thorns. I believe the guest is there to learn more and the elderly woman likely knows all about it.
I think if I ever came across a version I could read myself, I'd try again.

ETA: I found a visual copy, http://literary.erictmarin.com/archives/Issue%203/thorns.htm

Reading it myself made all the difference. It's a very good short story.
The elderly woman indeed knows exactly what is in the thorn forest and why it's there.

She, a witch or something, cursed a royal family when she wasn't invited to a christening but she didn't have the heart to wake them up a 100 years later because they would suffer with all the changes. "The King here is a King no more. He cannot even claim the land his palace stands on. ... The inhabitants would be lost, maddened by the changes around them..." So instead she and her family has become their protectors. . I would read more from this world. ( )