4
Doing penance.
The act of penance should not be undervalued, my child. Caroline recalled her grandmother’s words of last summer when they kneaded dough side by side in her kitchen. Then she had added, But the punishment should not be worse than the transgression, and never throw away the key.
Thank you, Ouma, for making me feel guilty.
Caroline had returned to their cabin, finding it empty. She rushed through a shower and changed into dry clothes. Miss Emilee is playing the martyr game, forcing me to go look for her.
She found Emilee sitting at a different table, in the corner of the smoking room, with three empty coffee cups in front of her. Emilee cringed and whimpered—a pathetic mess.
“What are you still doing here?”
“I’m doing penance,” was Emilee’s meek response.
“By hiding
