When Ruth awoke the next morning...she called for her mama. I was sitting in the kitchen, waiting for the night to be over. My body had striven against me for sleep, for escape from the sores and bruises and the paining muscles, but whenever I closed my eyes, what I saw behind them was unbearable. In the daylight, I'd promised myself, everything would be different. They would find Mathilda in a neighbour's house, somewhere along the lake, or maybe even in the woods around the bay. She would be wet, maybe, or freezing. She might even have caught a chill. Her dress would certainly be ruined, but that would be the worst of it.