Rachel stares at her mother who is busy watering her favorite flowering plants.
Halinka sighs. "Out with it. You've been staring at me since last yesterday. It's starting to make me uncomfortable."
Rachel takes a deep breath. "I need your advice and…I don't know…perhaps your assistance as well."
Halinka chuckles. "That's new. Took you long enough to finally consider me the voice of reason."
"My betrothed is a wolf," Rachel blurts out. "A wolf sifter, that is."
Halinka drops the empty pot she was going to use to repot one of her orchids and it breaks into pieces at her feet.
She stares at it for a while before clicking her tongue. "Well…at least I wasn't holding a pot with an orchid in it. That would be upsetting."
"Mother, did you hear me?" Rachel cries, exasperated.
Halinka puts
