CHAPTER 23There was no great rejoicing at my return. No one understood that I had meant to go. My mother was just irritated that I had not said I was going to be with Matilda. And Matilda herself asked me nothing. Her eyes probed, understanding that I had been in trouble, but tactfully she refrained from demanding the details. It was enough for her that I was clearly unhurt.
Clearly.
Only Lise — with an expression so ludicrously combining joy and guilt that I would have laughed if I had been able — seemed likely for a moment to give the game away. But in the end, she was uncharacteristically silent too.
So, I ate my supper and writhed inside, and went early to bed, throwing Lise out before she had even closed the shutters. I needed the air and the sheer largeness of the sky in order to
