Meekly I nodded, blushing. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Mmm…” She considered the idea, her round chin outthrust in thought. “Why?” Her black eyes bored into me.
I felt mine eyes well up with tears as I realized that I dared not say what had really happened. I shook my head quickly, hopelessly, and covered my burning face. There was nothing I would say, I knew, that could make her understand my plight. If I told her my story, I would be cast out! I wept for despair.
Yet in a moment I felt her matronly fingers upon my quaking shoulder. In my wild flight through the forest, my dress had been torn there, unnoticed, and the woman plucked at the damp fabric. Ashamed, I tried to shake free, but she held the ragged edge open and touched her blunt fingertip wonderingly against my bare skin.
“Child…” she whis
