'Why?' he asked aloud, his burning eyes turned toward the
heavens. 'Why must I always be punished for showing mercy,
and trying to do what is right?' But it was not mercy he felt
when he took Kataya to him, and he knew it. He kicked at a
protruding root, but trying to make his anger flare was like
trying to make a fire of damp wood. Guilt and remorse quickly
smothered it, smothered him. He stroked Alaska's head and
said quietly, 'It's all right.' But he neither felt it,
nor believed it himself. That afternoon William appeared, like
the white shadow of a tenement grave, and Sylviana had found her
instrument of revenge.
Chapter 43
All that morning Kalus stayed away, not wanting Sylviana to see him, not
wanting to destroy for Kataya what they had shared the night before.
The gesture was not entirely noble: now more than ever he found it
impossible to think or plan, and simply did not know what else to do.
But as various members of the company began to return early from their
labors, as if by mutual consent at the fine Spring weather, the amiable
Smith accosted him in the place where he sat brooding. The youngest of
the company, he had a pleasant, almost boyish face, with sandy hair and
a light moustache.
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