I shot him a glare, hoping he could see the fire in my eyes despite the dim light. He was probably right, but I didn’t care if I was overreacting. I only wanted to get back to the way I knew things should be. I wasn’t good at taking big risks. I was good at being innocent, like the children, and telling stories that made them laugh.

He exhaled as I returned to my task of purity. Each house had a cleaning room inside the back door, complete with a bucket of soapy water. It was required by law to shed the outside world before entering the main house.

My pulse eased as I washed away the evidence of my sins. Shoes clean, I grabbed a folded rag, removed my socks, and rinsed my bare feet, ankles and calves. Seeking a sense of absolution I couldn’t find from the water, I felt like I needed to cleanse my whole body.

“Grace,” Jamie said as he reached down and took the rag from my hand. “Enough.”

He caught my eyes and for a breath we stood still.

“Children?” Stocking feet padded down the hall, and my mother, Julianna, popped her head around the corner toward us. “Oh goodness, you’re here. I’ve been waiting. You had me worried!”

She flicked on the small overhead bulb, flooding us with light. Shorter than Jamie and me both, she stood just over five feet, with short graying dirty-blonde hair, worry-filled brown eyes, and a wrinkled face laced with shame. Anxiety had aged her by a decade, a constant reminder of her personal tragedy. Falling in love with a nonbeliever. Being too weak to convert him. Losing a child for her sin. Now the only single mother in Haven Valley.

Her failure had left her half the woman she’d once been.

“Why were you sitting here in the dark?” my mother demanded. “Is everything alright?”

When neither of us answered immediately her tone rose half an octave. “Did something happen? What’s happened? Please tell me nothing’s happened.”

“Mother, please,” Jamie said. “Nothing’s happened. Everything’s fine.”

“Then why are you late?”

“It’s my fault,” Jamie said. “The evening was just so nice. I urged Grace to walk slowly with me. Please forgive me.” He was always so good with Mother. No one calmed her so quickly.

He placed his hand on her shoulder, which was allowed since she was his mother, and gave her one of his famous charming smiles. “Forgive me?” he asked again.

She smiled slightly and nodded.

Jamie leaned down and placed a small kiss on her cheek. “Now,” he said, “how can I help with dinner to serve my penance?”

“You may wash and peel the potatoes.” She moved her eyes past him to where I stood. “And you, dear, will you not offer penance as well?” She was teasing, but it hit me like a boulder.