"I'm not sure. It depends on my work schedule. Take this money. Buy more books to read, and don't be so provincial."
Bernice pressed some money into Jacqueline Spann's hand. She hadn't made this trip just to see her niece. To be honest, her feelings for Jacqueline weren't that deep. But in the girl, Bernice saw her younger self—that same strong will, that same refusal to submit to fate's design, that same desperate drive to escape her cage. She was exactly like Bernice had been.
Of course, there was a more important reason. Seeing Jacqueline, Bernice felt as if she were looking at the daughter she had abandoned. She had spent five years in the Great Northern Wilderness, suffering endless torment, so much so that she had even forgotten she was still a woman.
