Chapter Five
The young man awoke earlier than the previous day, and hurried through his morning shower in hopes of catching Miss Laura at breakfast, though he did take time to note ruefully the persistent mild tenderness and redness of his backside that extended quite evenly from just above his knees to just below his waist, almost as if he had been sunburned. However, when he arrived the cook said the older woman was long gone to her yoga teaching. He was surprised at the stab of disappointment he felt, wondering at the strength of his attachment to this mysterious and fascinating woman who had so fully taken over his inner and outer lives in the past few days. His life with his friends seemed so pallid and trivial by comparison, and as he was eating his breakfast he phoned to cancel his
