That was when Wilhelmina delivered her line about the traffic.

And then, warming to it, she added: “There might be half a cucumber left in the fridge, if you’re hungry.”

Odalind’s father’s jaw tightened, and his hands closed slowly into fists at his sides.

He was a gentle man.

She had almost never seen him angry.

She knew that particular restraint in him, because it was the same restraint she had been performing her whole marriage.