"If it hadn't been for me, for my example, Violet and Blanche would've left, as it was meant to be, and she wouldn't…"
"That, you do not know for sure," Joseph told her. "Violet wasn't even going to get married. She was to be that man and woman's servant, who may not have been better persons than Harris. You just opened another possibility for them and they chose it. Or do you honestly think the shock on their faces when they met their fiancés had anything to do with you?"
"No, but…"
"We could well say that it's my fault, then. After all, I drove them away from the castle. Does that make me responsible for her death?"
"No. Of course not."
"I know it would be a greater comfort for you to believe so, but it really won't be of any use that you stay."
Roxanne embraced Joseph. She didn't even realize what she was doing.
He interpreted her natural manner as a sign of her sisterly love - which he'd surely fomented, he reproached himself - and tried, once more, to accept, although he'd allowed himself more freedom to feel since Alan's departure, that there could never be any other thing between them.
"Mama. You don't mind me still calling you that, do you?"
"Baby, of course not."
"There's something bothering me and I'd like to discuss it with you. You see, Celeste once mentioned, not long ago, that Griselda had actually seen… the witch. How… how can that be? I find it hard to believe that she lied."
Lorraine bit her lip.
"I'm sure she didn't. She must have seen someone, a woman, one of the villagers, disguised and characterized enough to be frightening."
Listening to her, it seemed so simple and, yet, it hadn't occurred to her.
"But…" she objected, realizing why she hadn't considered that assumption before. "Would any woman do that? You mean forced by Father?"
"Not necessarily forced. With Leonard came a lot of people that agreed, and still agree, with his way of doing things. Or it's just easier or more profitable to play along with him."
Roxanne weighed this new piece of information.
"I'm such a fool," she apologized, and even blushed. "I thought… I thought women weren't capable of making anyone suffer so."
Then, she recalled the frequent times when Griselda had been humiliated by Dora - just like Lorraine and herself. And not only by Dora, but quite often, also by the rest of them.
"I still have a lot to learn, right?" she smiled sadly. "Even about the things I've already lived."
"The people that haven't been living locked up all the time, like you have, also learn by way of disappointments and pain. It's pitiful, but true. So, don't feel bad or different. I'm very proud of you for finding evilness strange and crazy. I hope you never change that way of being surprised."