On Saturday morning, the corridors and halls of Sexton had fallen quiet, emptied of the usual sound of footsteps and voices as most of the students departed in carriages at first light in the morning. By ten o'clock, the courtyard too stood nearly abandoned, with only faint tracks of the carriages' wheels pressed into the thin layer of frost.
In one of the corridors, before one of the rooms, Ezekiel turned the doorknob and upon pushing it, he found Caroline sitting on the edge of the bed, her hands clenched tightly in her lap, her eyes red and swollen from crying.
The moment she saw him, she rose to her feet and cried, "I don't want to be sold to the minister!" Her voice broke as fresh tears gathered in her eyes. "Please, Eze. Do something—anything, please."
