Chapter 10

Caroline was awakened by a none-too-gentle prod in her side from Grace’s foot - more of a vicious kick, really. She looked up to see her hostess frowning down at her.

“Come with me, Caroline. There are some things I want to show you, about which I would value your opinion.”

Surprised that there could be any topic where she had anything to teach Grace and disturbed at her unfriendly tone, which continued to cause her terrible grief, she followed her up to the house. She noticed that a hosepipe had been attached to an outside water tap. Grace walked into the house and Caroline followed. Her friend wiped a finger across a window. She then put it in front of Caroline’s eye.

“What would you say that was on my finger, Caroline?”

“Dust, Grace! Sorry! I must have missed a bit last night.”

“And what did I say would happen if you failed to do a proper job of cleaning my home?”

“That I would find out how severe you could really be with me. I’m sorry, Grace, but I was awfully tired yesterday. I worked non-stop for eighteen hours without food or drink.”

“Don’t make things worse by coming out with a lot of miserable excuses, Caroline. You’re in a hole - stop digging it even deeper!”

“Yes, Grace. I promise to try and do better in future”

“That’s better. Get upstairs, brush your teeth etc. and then report to me outside in the yard.”

Some five minutes or so later, Caroline did as instruct. Grace told her to stand with her arms raised. She then turned on the tap, lifted the hosepipe and directed a jet of freezing cold water at her, playing it up and down her body for such a long time that Caroline began to shiver uncontrollably under its icy cold impact. Despite the fact that poor Caroline was obviously perishing with cold, Grace did not let up, and the poor victim knew that any plea for mercy would be quite useless.

She hated to see her friend in this implacable mood and only wanted to do something - anything - to regain her favor. With a great effort she controlled the shaking and trembling of her limbs and body and forced herself to stand quite still. A little later, the hose was turned away from her and off. Grace told her to get straight back to the field and continue ploughing without any food to break her fast.

This terrible regime lasted, without the slightest let-up, for three long and arduous weeks, at the end of which, the field had been completely ploughed and the house had been cleaned and re-cleaned over twenty times. Every night, Caroline collapsed onto the alfresco bed, separated from her friend and with only the occasional comfort of the here today and gone tomorrow Engelbart to keep out the cold. She vowed never to complain again to her friend about hardship.