But what difference would it have made if she had been alone with her? What could she do with her anyway? Give her some orders, goad her into being insolent, and then punish her? By what authority? Scott was her Master, not her. Victoria had license to treat her as a servant, a kind of live-in maid, but that didn’t include the right to exact physical discipline. Even this strange girl would probably not submit to that from her. Besides, what would Scott think if she told him?
Yes, as Victoria sat there drinking her coffee she wondered if her decision to move in here was not an act of temporary insanity. She had taken one large step towards satisfying her obsession, but the next and crucial step seemed to stretch over an abyss; one false step could send her hurtling to her doom. The result
