A sweet smile, a bashful glance: she had bought fresh bream from the muzhiks in the village. She had prepared conscientiously for their arrival. Marfushin rushed to help, and in no time the bream were being smoked, while they sampled the homemade liqueur and the home pickled mushrooms, all very simple. Bream! There was a conversation topic. We are eating bream but Zoya is painting them. Who is Zoya? What bream? Had something offended her visitors? Had she done something wrong? No, no! Totally delicious, unbelievably fresh smoked bream! But how terrible that someone drowned in the lake. They could talk about it. Katya was fearless. She had sailed a boat across the lake! She was a strong, sturdy girl, not afraid of anything if there was a challenge. But now for a few minutes they felt like o
