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farewell mixed with a feeling of loss. Lillis missed him, as she had each of them. ­People Lillis had grown up among were disinclined to use the word “love” as having too many possible definitions, but Lillis’s “liking” would have met any of them. The ones who ruled Lillis’s life (the ones who really did, not the ones who got blamed for it) rarely made mistakes; he, she, it, or they were usually very good at what he, she, it, or they did. He, she, it, or they gave her time and allowed her to try.
    Lillis had set herself to the task with grim, unrelenting determination, a determination so rarely met with defeat that she assumed defeat was impossible. Only someone stubborn as she (as her last consort had mentioned, quite fondly) would have made the effort and, having made it, continued it. Each time a new strategy failed, she rethought the process: surely a change in method, surely inventing a new way, a new trick, a trap, a snare that would capture Trudis’s . . . well . . . that was where the failure always snagged! Trudis’s what? Imagination? Ambition? Better nature? Trudis had no imagination. Certainly no ambition that lasted longer than the five minutes needed for gratification. And better nature? Better than what?
    Trudis grew quickly, a large girl who would be a large woman: tall and buxom and even attractive in a brutish, cowlike way. Years of patient teaching had taught her to string half a dozen words together in place of grunts and head shakings. This minor achievement had suggested there might be further progress, which was unfortunately misleading, for Trudis’s mind remained as unformed as it had been on the day she had emerged bloody, brooding, and mute into the world. Trudis was still Trudis, as though carved from a rough block of greedy, lecherous stone. Trudis was not mendable.
    As the years of Trudis’s childhood spun by, a certain subsection of the Hench Valley Rule had very gradually forced its way to Lillis’s attention. That subsection allowed that if a house was without a grown male in it but had a breedable woman in it , then any breedable woman of that house could get up early on midsummer morning, cook a griddle cake, and carry it to the meadow, where she could offer it to whatever male she chose from those loitering there.
    The fact that the man might be half brother or even father to the woman bearing the griddle cake was not taken into consideration. Hench Valley did not keep track of such things. If the man who was approached took a bite of the cake and followed the woman to her home before sundown, then that man had henceforth the exclusive right to breed from any female in that house! This included the woman herself, her mother, even her grandmother, if the Ma had started bearing early enough. A woman of thirty-­eight could have a daughter of twenty-­five who had a twelve-­year-­old girl child and one Pa could enjoy them all. It wasn’t even unusual—­particularly inasmuch as few of the ­people kept track of their ages at all. This practice having been carried on for as long as anyone could remember, the Hench Valley population was very closely related to itself.
    Lillis knew all about the Rule. It was not written down anywhere, but it was fully understood by everyone who lived there. Lillis was not going to let Trudis fall prey to the Rule. Trudis had to be taken from the valley before she reached puberty and fell prey to any of the Pas. Time went by, however, until the time came that Trudis would soon leave childhood behind her. Then, as though suddenly, time was running out.
    Lillis knew that if she had been unable to change the child, she would be unable to change the woman. If the woman were made infertile and left here, she would end up being savaged for not bearing, as this would reflect on the Pa-­ness of whatever male was consorting with her. However, since Lillis’s presence in the valley