"Yes ma'am," she says, figuring she can just keep saying that unless and until someone corrects her. She steps inside. She doesn't have much with her; they took her books and her notebooks and replaced her clothes with different ones.

The living room is utterly immaculate. It looks like a picture out of a magazine, or like a very competent and hardworking person had absolutely nothing to do other than make sure the floor is spotless. There is a bookshelf, but it's mostly being used to store small decorative knickknacks and a potted plant. 

"I am Serena Joy," Serena says. "I intend this relationship to be beneficial for both of us. Our last two Handmaids were both saved and made very godly marriages." The 'and didn't give us children' goes unspoken. "Here is your journal." She hands Keturah a binder with several brightly-colored section tabs sticking out. "In the first section, you will find your daily chores. I expect you to take notes on how to do them properly. The second section is recipes. You will cook with me each night until I am satisfied with your cooking; afterwards you will cook three days a week, and we will work together on Sunday dinners. The third section is for your notes and studying. You will find a syllabus. We will begin by studying Koine Greek, a general survey of both the New and Old Testaments, and a deep dive into Proverbs 31. The fourth section is for our ministry work; I have filled out the first month's calendar for you, but in the future I will expect you to keep up your own calendar. The fifth section is your ovulation calendar. Please begin tracking your ovulation signs immediately so we know when to schedule the Ceremony. The sixth section is your prayer journal. I have included a copy of the Sinner's Prayer so that you can be saved when you choose. Any questions?"

Her brain is doing the thing it does, the thing where it politely screams in the background of everything so that she can still think pretty well over it, but everything is still tense and hard and scary. She can do things, she can do hard things, but she isn't sure she can consistently do this many things at once. She's pretty sure she can't. Augh.

"I'm saved, ma'am." She makes herself smile at that - doesn't dare let on how scared she is, because the one thing they can't do to her is make her someone she doesn't want to be. Not if she doesn't let them. She hopes. "I don't know how to track ovulation signs, but if there are instructions I'm sure I'll be fine." Not scared not scared not scared not scared. "What is our ministry work?"

"You're saved? Really? It's... unusual, for a Handmaid to be saved. I understand from your paperwork you were caught kidnapping a girl away from her mother?"

" - my sister was carrying a child and believed that her mother-to-be intended to abuse the child horribly. I don't - claim I've never made incorrect decisions. If I did I could hardly claim to be a Christian. But all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and I don't believe God's mercy is too small for my own case."

Thank you Baptist upbringing for making half of those words come automatically even when she kind of wants to cry right now.

"I'm sure your sister was confused. A child's rightful mother"-- slight emphasis on the rightful-- "would never abuse a precious child."

"Perhaps she was, ma'am. I hope the child is wherever God wills her to be." She's not going to cry, she's not, not in front of this woman who has nothing to do with the situation. She digs her fingernails into her palms and wills herself not to. 

"I do as well." Serena politely ignores Keturah's distress. "I manage the local soup kitchen and tutor refugees from Canada. You will begin by running errands, but if you do well you may soon be making dinners and tutoring a refugee yourself."

"I'll do my best, ma'am."

"I'll show you to your room."

Keturah's room also resembles a magazine picture. There is a twin-size bed (neatly made), a desk, a dresser, and a bookshelf with actual books on it this time: several bible translations; How To Read The Bible As Literature; The Essence of the New Testament: A Survey; A Primer of Biblical Greek; Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism; Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

This last Serena Joy picks up. "You will find instructions for tracking your ovulation in here. Please ask me if you have any questions, I would be happy to demonstrate."

" - thank you, I'll be sure to ask if I do," says Keturah, and even she isn't sure if there's more relief or discomfort in her tone. She has lots of objections to the whole situation, obviously, but she doesn't expect them to do her any good, and it isn't her fault that she's in this situation, so she just - doesn't want to get in trouble on top everything else. Injury is enough, thank you, she'd like to pass on insults.

At least there are books. She doesn't think she can keep the room as clean as it is right now, but she can try.

"You will, of course, be expected to maintain a high standard of cleanliness."

"I understand. I will try my best to follow your example."

And fall short, but don't we all.

"Very well. We have some time before it's time to start dinner. Which subject would you like to begin studying?"

Oh are they starting now. "I'm interested in learning Greek, if you don't think learning how to do my chores is more urgent."

"The house is quite clean, there would be no point. You will have plenty of time to learn once Nick and Fred have dirtied it again."

"Yes, ma'am. Then Greek. I've read the Bible but only in translation."

And she may have skipped over parts of Habakuk, but hopefully she has time to rectify that before they get that far.

Serena Joy takes her to the study and they begin work on the Greek alphabet. Serena is actually a very good teacher: strict but patient and good at explaining, and not someone who will let you get away with half-understanding something.

If Keturah looks at the bookshelf in the corner, she'll see a shelf of books written by Serena Joy Waterford.

She does look. She doesn't mention them, but she remembers to ask for the chance to read them after she finishes the books that are already in her room.

Keturah has a pretty good memory, though she doesn't know that she'll be good at any of the other parts of language-learning. At least she has a good teacher? Free Greek lessons are at least some kind of silver lining to this whole mess, and she's going to do her best with them. 

Eventually Serena closes the book and says "Time to start dinner."

Dinner is mashed potatoes and meatloaf.

She can eat mashed potatoes and meatloaf, so that's something. She's never made them before, so she focuses on the instructions. By this point she has a tendency to miss things the first time and need them repeated, but she does ask again rather than attempt to fly blind. (It won't be like this forever, she reminds herself. She won't always be learning things. At some point she'll know them and some tasks will be familiar and her brain will hopefully be able to rest between the hard parts.)

Serena Joy is very patient and appears to be pleased with whatever Keturah gets right, as if she were bracing herself for someone who had only the faintest idea of what a cooking knife is.

She gradually stops looking vaguely like she's tensing for a blow.

"Thank you for your patience," she says, when both parts of the meal are nearly done cooking. 

"Patience is a virtue. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. I pray for it daily."

"Yes, ma'am. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness - there's another I'm blanking on - and self control. We're all called to display them, but I don't expect that all of us succeed."

"Gentleness, Keturah. Would you like me to set the fruits of the Holy Spirit as your first memory work?"

"If it doesn't bother you that I have them partly memorized already, sure. They're important."

Try not to think about the fact that externally enforced memory work is for eleven-year-olds. It's not any more humiliating than anything else about this. And that's an easy one, at least they're not assigning her something she can't do.

"It's best to start with something you will succeed at. It builds confidence."

She looks like she's about to say something else, and then the smile momentarily drops. "Oh good. I think I've failed at quite enough things in the recent past."

Annnd smile is back. "How many people are we setting the table for?"

"Four. You, me, my husband Fred, and his personal assistant Nick."

So she sets the table for four.

"Ah, meatloaf! My favorite! Who's the new girl?" 

"This is Keturah, our new Handmaid. Keturah, this is my husband Fred."

"An absolute pleasure."

"Thank you, sir."

Don't think about - don't think about anything, actually, that's probably simpler. But she's not going to get another chance to make a good first impression, and she kind of thinks that good first impressions might be sort of essential to her ability to live here, so -

"Your wife has been teaching me Greek," she says, smiling.

"Getting some practice for homeschooling, eh, Serena?"

"Evening, sir, ma'am, miss."

"This is Nick, my husband's personal assistant. Nick, this is Keturah, our new Handmaid."

"Good evening," she says, nodding politely.

When everyone has seated, Fred begins the prayer.

"Father in heaven, thank You for providing food for we on earth. We thank You that You do not give us food merely to keep us alive, nor merely to keep us healthy, but also to enjoy. You are good to us. Thank you, in the name of the Savior. Amen."

"Amen." She feels only slightly wrong about not making the sign of the cross. Or about not participating in prayer. She has so so so many more problems.

She's not going to say anything until someone says something to her, she's gonna let them meet her halfway in that minefield if that's something they're planning on doing.

Nick eats in a determined yet expressionless fashion.

"So, Keturah. What sort of things do you do for fun?"

Ah, quiz time. "Oh, uh. I like to read. Histories, fiction. Anything, really."

"Excellent! Serena likes reading too. You too will get along. Serena used to write books, you know."

"That's really cool," she says, before seeing Serena Joy's expression. She looks down at her plate. "I've tried writing things before. I don't think I'm any good at it, though."

"Writing is an appropriate feminine attainment, like teaching piano or charity work with the poor. If you like, I will redo your schedule to give you some time to write."

She looks up, surprised. " - thank you. I would appreciate that a lot."

She mentally reminds herself not to get Stockholm syndrome that easily, they're still dictating her schedule down to the minute and they're still going to violate her and they're still going make her bear a child outside of marriage and they're still going to take the baby from her. The whole thing is still ridiculously terrible. 

Her smile is no less genuine for it.

"Oh, well, you know Serena. All about those appropriate feminine attainments, aren't you, dear?"

"Yes."

Nick, oblivious to this entire conversation, is shoveling meatloaf into his mouth. 

- she really shouldn't respond to that, she should really just shut up.

"I think it's really important that that some people be able to focus on specifically feminine work. It's harder for some people, focusing on really small-scale things like piano lessons and cooking a good meal, but - I think it's really important that someone be making sure that those things keep happening. And it's good to be able to think in terms of asking where God most wants you, and not where you'd most like to be."

Fred laughs. "Oh, I agree with that, you can't be married to Serena Joy Waterford for ten years and not agree with that. It's just-- has Serena not told you who she is?"

"...maybe not?"

"Serena used to be a bestselling author! Courtship, homemaking, parenting, education, relationships, sex-- that last one was a bit awkward! She paid for the down payment on this place."

"Oh, wow." And now she does remember the name. "That's very impressive."

"It is not appropriate for a woman to teach men."

"Then I'm glad you've decided to teach women."

Serena's tone sounds like a warning. "I have not published a book in three years."

For the first time in the conversation, Nick says something.

"They don't publish religious nonfiction written by women anymore. Too much risk that a man would read it."

" - I meant I'm glad you're teaching me and tutoring refugees, ma'am. I appreciate it, and I'm sure they do, too. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was saying anything else."

Should've shut up in the first place.

"So," Fred says, "how about those Angels? I can't believe they lost to the Revelations, we are not going to make the playoffs this year."

"That's too bad," says Keturah, as neutrally as she can.

Fred single-handedly maintains an entire conversation about sports! Which is pretty impressive, because Serena Joy doesn't care about sports and Nick doesn't talk. 

This actually is pretty impressive, even though she doesn't care about sports at all either.

Fred has a Lot of practice!

After dinner they have Family Board Games. 

Oh boy. This could be either possibly fun or really terrible, depending largely on the games.

"Let's let our newest family member choose!"

The games include: chess, Narnia stratego, normal Trivial Pursuit, Bible Trivial Pursuit, Settlers of Catan, and Prayer Warrior. 

Choices, choices.

Chess will likely result in her being destroyed, but if anyone in the family is good at it that might involve opportunities to form more solid social bonds via tutoring and make sure people don't totally hate her. Normal Trivial Pursuit probably involves lots of pop culture questions that she won't know, and it looks bad to pick it before Bible Trivial Pursuit. If she picks Bible Trivial Pursuit then she will be destroyed and everyone will take this as morally significant. She doesn't know what Prayer Warrior is. Settlers of Catan is pure and good but also doesn't involve many opportunities for forming more solid social bonds. 

Narnia Stratego is her favorite game (if you play without the Narnia rules, anyway), and she will probably crush all opposition if she plays it.

"Oh, thank you. If you're sure. Does anyone like Stratego?"

"I love Stratego! Good or evil?"

Serena picks up a book. To her mind, if she scheduled Family Board Game Night, then her duty was executed and she definitely did not have to participate in it. 

"You can be good the first time. It's a purely aesthetic choice unless we're playing with the special powers."

"Oh, we always play with special powers! --No takebacks."

Special Narnia powers have no place in any Stratego game; they reveal where the characters are too quickly, and they make the game unbalanced by giving the good side straightforwardly more and better powers. (Which is, to be fair, sometimes fun when you're playing with someone younger or worse than you and you want to give yourself something of a challenge.)

She has them all memorized and is going to crush Fred anyway.

Nick sits down across from Keturah and watches her intently.

Keturah ignores him.

She keeps the witch and her spy within easy reach of her flag, and sends her nine in to attack Fred's forces, backed up by a goblin for misdirection and a cyclops to destroy the flag's defenses. She likes to think that her monsters are all very nice people, really, they've just been convinced by the white witch that they need to back her politically and militarily in order to prevent the the hostile takeover of Narnia by foreign English not-even-royalty. The animals and the English children, of course, believe that they must give their lives to take back the land from eternal winter. It's really very tragic, how everyone involved is too afraid and too proud and too determined to attempt to find a diplomatic solution to this mess.

When her seven kills Mr. Tumnus and nobody cries out to mourn his passing, she feels really deeply homesick for a moment. Mr Tumnus and Mr. Beaver are the two most useless good pieces, exactly as useless as the evil army's goblins; they have no special powers and they can't kill anything stronger than a three. To counterbalance this, she and her sister always used to cry out dramatically when Mr Tumnus or Mr. Beaver or one of the goblins was killed - they were so unprepared for this conflict, so small and so tired and so desperate to believe in their cause. She always used to give the goblins different names when they were killed in combat, to make it fair, and then talk about their little goblin wives and little goblin children and their hopes and their dreams and their sacrifice.

In this game, Mr. Tumnus falls silently, stabbed through the heart and forgotten by one of her cyclopes.

Okay, so, maybe no one playing this name will cry out when Mr. Tumnus dies, buuuuut Nick continues staring at her expressionlessly and without blinking. That's almost as good, right?

Nick is so much less important than the fate of Narnia.

The white witch's army closes off the main path to her flag by turning the good army's pieces to stone. This presents Aslan with a choice to leave his fallen comrades or to defend his own flag, the scrap of cloth that is the symbol of everything his army stands for. It's really sort of weird, if you think about it, that a piece of cloth is worth more than the lives of the talking animals or the children or her harpy or her little goblin fathers with little goblin sons, but that is how the game works, and Aslan would be a fool to ignore his own flag just to bring back Susan and an eagle.

Aslan defends his flag without the slightest bit of hesitation!

Stare. Stare stare. Creepy stare.

Aslan will succeed at taking the cyclops that slew Mr. Tumnus (which is as it should be, he's been avenged), which prevents Keturah from rampaging through the flag's defenses. Her nine falls back. Aslan might pursue it, or he might go back to his frozen comrades and lead an assault on her own flag.

Fred understands the point of this game! He will go try to capture Keturah's flag.

Staaaaaaaaaare.

Then destruction shall rain down around Aslan. Wolves have their throats torn out. Goblins scream in anguish, spending their final moments thinking of their wives and tiny goblin children, who they fear will grow up under an unopposed English colonial government. The living room is dead silent.

She can't actually oppose Aslan until he reaches the cluster where her flag is, unless he happens to run into a bomb. It's kind of thematically weird that Aslan can be killed by bombs and can't come back to life afterwards - weirder, if you think about the fact that the bombs in this game keep claiming to be magic - but that would probably mess with the game balance. Luckily, she doesn't have to stop him. Her threes rush out of Aslan's way, evacuating their own war-torn side of the board and heading over to Aslan's side, where they are in position for a precision strike on the flag. Peter will slay one, but Peter can be in but one place at a time. Another one dies on Lucy's knife. The third squeaks through, deactivates the bomb defending the flag, and touches its goal.

It ends as many games do, with one of the humble, ugly minoboars clutching a dirtied piece of cloth, moments before Aslan reaches his goal.

"Ah! It was all luck. Best of three?"

"Sure!"

Fred loses the next two games.

Nick's expression is unchanging. He seems to be deeply interested in Keturah's left eyebrow.

"Do you want to take a turn playing Fred?" she asks Nick. It's kind of fun to crush people but there's a point at which it gets sort of boring.

"Sure."

Now Nick is staring intently at a Stratego board, which is probably some kind of progress.

Well, uh, good for Nick.

She takes out her binder and reviews the Greek alphabet, occasionally looking up to see how the game progresses.

Every time she looks up, Nick is glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.

Well that's sort of weird. 

She will practice her Greek alphabet and maybe stop looking up very much.

Eventually Serena puts down her book and says "it's time for bed, Keturah. "

Serena had very carefully not commanded Fred to do anything, and yet he starts putting away the Narnia Stratego!

At some point she's going to figure out whether she's supposed to be thinking of herself as an adult or not. That'll be good, because if she is an adult then she'll know to be upset about being ordered around like a six-year-old, and if she's not an adult then she'll know to be extra upset about the deliberately getting her pregnant and making her carry a random person's child. Alternatively, she might be able to sort herself as a prisoner of some kind of ideological war, it's possible that prisoners of war have to put up with both of those sorts of things.

She's not gonna figure it out tonight.

"Yes, ma'am."

In Serena Joy's defense, everyone always does what she says, adult or not. 

This doesn't really make it less creepy.

She brushes her teeth and puts her binder on her shelf and closes the door. She takes a few minutes to page through the KJV Bible on her shelf - a few to review the fruits of the spirit, and then a few to figure out what the book of Habakkuk even consists of.

O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. 

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.

She shuts the Bible. She turns off the lights.

She prays that her sister and her sister's children are safe and well and together, and that they will be led to wherever God wills them to be. She prays that people who are confused about the nature of God will be led to the truth. She prays for Serena Joy, and for Fred, and for Nick, and for the people who brought her here, and for the refugees in Canada, and for people who are ill and dying and don't yet know the truth, and for people who are hungry, and for people who are despairing or suicidal, and for her parents, and for the government, and for the Church.

She prays that the Lord will work a work. She lets him know that she has no idea what that even means. Maybe it says in Habakkuk 1:6.

She sleeps.

She is awoken before dawn.

"I prefer to fast before breakfast, but that is my personal spiritual discipline. I have made you eggs on toast."

She's pretty sure the first meal of the day is breakfast regardless of when you have it, but you know what, all right.

"Thank you. Is there a time I should set an alarm for tomorrow?"

"It's in your journal."

" - thank you, sorry, I'll try to finish reading it today."

Aaaaa.

"I'll leave you to your quiet time, then."

"Thank you, ma'am."

OK, clearly the first thing she needs to do is look at her daily chores, if there's a schedule then it's probably in that section, maybe?

It is!

There are, in fact, two daily chores lists, one for even days and one for odd days. It looks like Serena split the household chores in half and Keturah is alternating halves. 

There is also a helpful note that Keturah should "feel free to ask for help anytime."

OK. She can work with this. Is there a schedule that says what she's supposed to be doing at different times of the day, she feels like she's gonna need to know that in order to budget energy and mentally prepare herself and stuff.

There is indeed a schedule! From 2pm to 3pm every day is designated "Free Time".

Thaaat's not very much free time, but she's been on mission trips that were roughly that constrained, and she survived them. They were only a week long and they were hard and they drained her but she's gonna try not to think about that. If she gets desperate she can always lie awake for a couple hours at night or something.

She sets the room's alarm clock for tomorrow and checks how much quiet time she has left.

Serena allotted fifteen minutes for daily quiet time!

That's not very much but she has what she has. She scribbles a prayer in her journal in very very tiny letters, three lines to a line (she has no idea what her paper supply is going to look like). She cracks open the Bible and checks on Habakkuk where she left him, that seems like an appropriate quiet time activity.

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.

They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

Fun times. This sure is gonna be a day, isn't it.

She shuts her Bible and heads downstairs.

Then she can help make bacon and eggs for breakfast!

She can do this! She hasn't made bacon and eggs before but she's sure she can figure it out given proper guidance.

As she cracks the eggs, Serena says, "the Coopers down the street also have a new Handmaid, Emily. Would you like to run errands with her this morning?"

"Sure, I'd love to." She has no idea what other sorts of people end up becoming handmaids and she's a little scared to find out, but that seems terribly hypocritical at this point.

"Do you think you will be able to grocery shop on your own with Emily, or should I accompany you?"

"Oh, uh - I'm sure I can do grocery shopping if I'm given a list? I'm a little worried about getting lost on the way, I haven't been there before, but if Emily has then hopefully that will be fine? But a map might be good anyway."

"I understand why they don't let Handmaids have phones, but it is not a realistic simulation of what being married is actually like and makes things very difficult for the host families."

- oh are they supposed to be simulating marriage. Right. Yes. They're going to marry her off after this to someone who believes what they believe, that's the only way out. Don't think about how terrifying that is.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm afraid I don't have a very good sense of direction on my own."

"That's quite all right, I'll make you a map and I'm sure Emily will have an excellent sense of direction."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Time passes!

Serena Joy is tough, but fair and patient, and she never asks Keturah to do something she wouldn't do. If Keturah is competent at something, she backs off; if Keturah is unskilled, she shows Keturah again and again. Keturah's days consist of prayer, tutoring refugees, cleaning, cooking, and studying theology and Greek. 

The time for the Ceremony approaches. 

Every time he sees her, Nick stares at her emotionlessly.

Fred occasionally wins at Narnia Stratego!

Keturah reads more of the minor prophets and tries to be the sort of person she can be proud of. She's not entirely sure how to do this. If the only thing she has to do is endure, just keep existing, then she can do that, sure. If she has to avoid condoning sin no matter what, then -

If she refuses to participate in the ceremony, they'll take her to prison and impregnate her there. Nothing will have been accomplished. But if you're trying to be your best self, then you can't go along with the demands of evil, even when you don't have the strength to stop evil from hurting you for it.

She doesn't want to go to prison. She doesn't want to go to hell. She doesn't want to have to face her creator and tell Him that she knew what the right thing to do was, and she gave up on doing it because it sounded scary and she liked having the chance to study Greek. But it is scary, and she spends the days leading up to the ceremony having frequent crying fits and making herself sick with fear.

"You look sad."

She stops listlessly hand-washing dishes in the sink.

"...I don't think I can do this."

"Everyone is scared, their first Ceremony. It's okay. You can get through it."

Better take a deep breath and get this over with.

"No, I mean - I mean - I mean I think that surrogacy is wrong, and that forcing people into surrogacy is even more wrong, and that - that bowing to pressure to willingly defy God, even at peril of one's freedom, even at peril of one's life, is - there is a reason the early Church was so inspired by the stories of young women who refused to deny their faith and bear the children of Roman officials, even when it cost them their lives. And I just - maybe I've gotten it all mixed up and I'm inventing reasons why I shouldn't have to do any of this, but - I'm afraid of the ceremony, yes, and I'm more afraid of prison. But I'm even more afraid of being complicit in sin."

Good! Good. Now she just has to wait for the internal screaming to stop.

"Have you been doing your Bible study to help you understand why surrogacy is God's plan for us?"

"Oh yeah! Totally. I just think you're - uh - wrong."

"I do believe that surrogacy is God's plan for fertile and unmarried women, but I don't want to force you to do something that goes against the stirrings of your conscience... I can't imagine that would be helpful to your rehabilitation."

That sounds better than immediately getting sent to prison and having to do it anyway!

"Oh. So. Uh. Then what?"

"I'll ask Serena to delay the Ceremony a few months, so you have more time to listen to what God is calling you in your heart to do."

"Thank you," she says, because hey, a few more months to put off going to prison. A very upset Serena Joy is plausibly as bad as prison, but she doesn't have the authority to force her to have children without her husband's approval, probably, so that's cool. "And - if in a few months I still think he's calling me towards something you think is wrong?"

"Do you believe you are called to celibacy or to children within marriage?"

"Probably the second one. Under the circumstances."

"Perhaps we can introduce you to some likely young men."

Oh, man, this is gonna be a thing -

- but if she's married that's fine, right, they're going to make her have children either way, and at least this way she won't be doing anything wrong, right? 

"OK. I'm.... sorry about not being able to solve your problem."

"You'll have to work hard on becoming rehabilitated fast."

That gets at least a little smile. "I'll do my best to figure out the truth, then."

"Keturah?"

"Yes?"

"I promise you we will work this out somehow and I will not force you to do something that's against God's will for your life."

"Thank you, sir. That's... really good to know."

Fred leaves. 

When he's gone, Nick appears, backs Keturah against the wall, and says, "I know your secret."

"Oh," she asks, because most of her brain is trying to calculate exactly how concerned by this she should be, and that doesn't leave a lot left over for making words. "Well, uh, can you tell me so then we can both know?"

"You love me."

"Wh- "

She hasn't actually thought about that, though, maybe she should consult herself on this before saying anything definite. Hm. She kind of wants to punch him, but is pretty sure that would be a gross overreaction. Also she's trembling. That sounds like maybe not relevantly love.

"Well - I mean I try to love everyone."

And the award to stupidest comeback goes to Keturah Teller, Kentucky native, recently of Boston. We're all very glad that she has this one thing going for her.

"Sure."

He pulls away to let her leave.

Oh boy, thanks God, that could have been much worse. Hopefully she's overreacting and nothing will come of this and she will not have to kiss or punch any young men ever.

...the 'get married in the next three months' plan might be sort of hard to pull off.

She'll just go and do some chores in a completely different area of the house for now.

The next morning, Serena Joy says, "My husband says you believe God is calling you to delay the Ceremony for a few months."

"I... believe it would be a sin to consent to it. I'm sorry."

"Well, we certainly can't ask you to consent to something that you think is a sin." Her voice was tight. 

"Thank you, ma'am. I understand if you want to change our study plans to cover this topic instead."

"Perhaps I shall. But in the future. Tonight there is an ice cream social that you should attend so that you can meet eligible potential husbands." 

- she supposes this is another way to solve both of their problems, though it may well introduce some new ones on her side.

She nods. "OK. Thank you."

For the rest of the day, Serena Joy is seething with anger!

She continues to be consummately polite, but there's an edge to it. 

Keturah sort of figures this is fair. She is vaguely apologetic and as cooperative as she can manage.

And now it is time for the ice cream social!

Yayyyy.

Ice cream socials are sort of a fundamentally questionable idea, in her opinion, because the ice cream doesn't facilitate socialization and the socializing doesn't really improve the ice cream. Also all her estimates of her odds of finding a nice husband are pretty depressing.

But hey. Ice cream. She wears a dress that she thinks is something approaching cute and tries not to give off obvious criminal vibes.

There are lots of people at this ice cream social! There are a couple of people talking about their faith walk, and some people having an incomprehensible conversation about international relations, and some women talking about their infants' milestones. 

Hmm.

Well, she's bad at talking to people in group settings, so any attempt at actually making friends with male people she doesn't already know is likely to end in unspeakable humiliation. On the other hand, if she sits in a corner all night, Serena Joy will be mad at her.

She grabs some ice cream and heads for the women talking about their babies. She knows how to make impressed sounds about babies.

On the way to the conversation about babies she is intercepted by a wild Nick!

"I was hoping I would see you here."

Aw, man. Nick is way worse than babies. She's gonna die here in the middle of this ice cream social.

"I didn't really think you had a hard time seeing me."

"We don't get that much time to really talk."

"I see. I was hoping to talk to some of the people from church who I don't see as often. Maybe we could talk at dinner later?"

"I want to talk to you without Fred and Serena Joy being able to overhear. I know you want that too."

Oh no.

She tries circling around Nick so that she can more easily leave for the babies conversation. "I don't think this is really the time?"

"Oh, I think this is definitely the time."