“Words cannot undo what has been actioned. I had such high dreams for you, Elsha. Fine dreams, dreams I believed you would fulfil. I dreamed of you, knew you before I heard your name, loved you before I ever saw your face. I loved the fire in you. I trusted you. And you have betrayed it all.”

“I’m sorry. I could not help it, lord. The power was strong, the song deep.”

“That I know. But it must be mastered, Elsha, or all is lost. There is a right time for everything. Have you forgotten what I said last night about your road? About not losing it?”

“I’m sorry, lord! I went too far. I did not mean you to know. Not yet.”

“Know, Elsha? The whole house knows of it! The whole town! It was the major talk at the feast tonight!”

I half rose and looked at him, unbelieving. I couldn’t speak, for horror and bewilderment and guilt. He started pacing the floor, furious, his robes swinging as he strode, his shadow raging on the reddened walls.

“Have you no shame, Elsha? No sense at all of what is right? Was it not enough to drink wine with him last night – did you have to come back early today to meet with him, and go creeping off up into the mountains? And in the name of the power, why did you leave your sacred sign behind? So you could do anything, without guilt? So you could throw aside your destiny for a day, forget everything you are, for one brief forbidden ecstasy? And it will be brief, Elsha. He is not on your road. He’s a distraction, a momentary madness. He’ll finish everything for you.”

Shaking all over, I stood up and confronted him. Relief flooded me. I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep. “Lord, you talk of nothing! He’s a friend. Only a friend. We did nothing.”

“Nothing? Then why did you say you could not help yourself, that the power was strong? How would you know, unless he touched you? And how is it then that you went too far, and did more than you wanted me to know? What are you talking of? I think you lie to me, handmaid. I feel something in you that is less than all the truth, something veiled. I think you lie.”