Chapter 10
JOHANNA WALKED home in the dark. She didn’t see any guards, but there were some people in the street in front of the house so she felt her way through the back yard and came into the entrance to the back of the house. Koby sat in the kitchen, talking to a young man who had to be the new groundsman.
Koby’s eyes widened. “Oh my goodness, Mistress Johanna, what have you done to yourself?”
Johanna looked down. Her dress had acquired black smudges and her hands were black, too. With the heat of the fire and the smell of cooking, it was stuffy in the kitchen and her dizziness returned.
“I . . . didn’t feel so well,” Johanna managed to say before collapsing in a chair. Black spots danced in her vision.
“Oh no, certainly, I can see that. Let us take those dirty things off and get y
