‘I lost my temper. I admit I took my hand to her. It won’t happen again.’

The surprising confession took the wind out of the Jouberts.

‘A man can make a mistake.’ If there was one thing Joubert did know about the Kloot brothers, it was that you could predict the actions of the younger one by the way he was bent; the other, no manner of indication was enough. David had never struck him as being one to confess. ‘What did Soela do?’

‘I don’t want to make it worse by telling tales.’

‘Tell us. If she did something wrong, we want to know what it is so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again. A man shouldn’t lift his hand to his wife for no reason.’

‘That’s why I’m sorry. I would never have done such a thing, but I was greatly grieved. I thought …’

‘Grieved?’

Soela stood up.

‘You’re going to tell? After all you have done?’

‘Sit down,’ Joubert ordered.

‘See? I can’t talk to her. Ever since that night.’

‘What night?’

‘I don’t want to say.’

‘Soela?’ Elsie spoke for the first time. ‘Is there something we should know?’

Soela lowered her eyes and said nothing. She understood now why he’d been so ready to confess his wrongdoing.

‘Will someone please tell us?’ Joubert asked, in exasperation.

‘It was the night of our engagement, when you all came to supper. Soela was with him in the barn.’

Elsie wasn’t sure she understood what he meant.

‘Yes? With who?’

‘She was in the barn with Roeloff,’ David repeated.

‘Well, what were they doing in the barn?’

‘Never mind,’ Joubert interrupted, his face red. ‘Soela, is this true? A daughter of mine, raised with the Word of the Lord? You were in the barn with his brother?’

Soela looked down at her veldskoene. She would have to make a new pair of laces, she thought. David’s boots shone for the visit. If one judged him by his feet, one might have a good opinion. They were a decent size, unlike the rest of him. Should she tell what she knew? Should she kill it between them for good?

‘But I care greatly for Soela,’ she heard David continue. ‘I married her all the same. I kept my promise.’

‘Is what David’s saying, true?’ Joubert asked again.

‘Yes.’

There was a long pause.

‘Well, this is a fine mess. If I hadn’t heard it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it. I don’t know what to say except that we’re sorry for the shame brought upon you,’ Joubert said.

Elsie turned her attention to David. The colour had drained from her face.

‘You’ve been very kind then, haven’t you, David, to protect my daughter’s honour?’

‘She’s disgraced us,’ Joubert said.

‘I’m talking now. My daughter has broken God’s commandment. Who here will judge?’

The sisters looked at each other. Their mother seldom spoke, but when she did their father didn’t dare oppose her.

‘I think Soela should stay here for a few days. Until she’s recovered. She needs help in any event, with the baby.’

‘I can’t be without her,’ David said, uncertainty creeping into his voice for the first time. ‘Drieka and Sanna are there to give her a hand. She doesn’t need more help than that.’

‘He’s right,’ Joubert said. ‘He’s sorry for what he’s done. And Soela …’

Elsie shot him a look.

‘Soela what? She deserved it? Soela will stay here for a week. It will give her time to gather her strength, and it might be that, after that, David will have forgiven her. From what I can see, she’s still paying for her sin.’

David looked at the flinty eyes of the stern-faced woman in the chair opposite him. He hadn’t expected the encounter to turn out this way, with Soela not getting a proper upbraiding, and Elsie Joubert effectively telling him that he was going home without his wife.

‘My father will wonder what’s happened. I’ve kept this from him.’

Elsie gave one of her rare smiles.

‘Then now is the time to tell him. So that there’s nothing standing between you when she returns.’

David waited for Joubert to come to his aid, but the farmer said nothing. For the first time, David saw who was really in charge. He put on his hat and got up.

‘I will be back in a week.’

‘We’ll be here,’ Elsie said. ‘Go in peace.’

For the first few days, Soela stayed studiously out of her parents’ way, ashamed of the embarrassment she’d caused them, but also relieved that she no longer had to live in fear of being found out. Sanna had been right: her father had shown his disappointment for a day, given a lecture on morality in marriage, and then warmed gradually to forgiveness, enchanted by having his grandchild in the same house. Soela’s mother never mentioned the incident.

After a few days, Soela got used to living at home again and to being with her sister, enjoying Diena’s stories of the new knecht, Lourens’s clumsy attempts at courtship.

A week later David arrived, bearing a barrel of butter and ten bars of soap.

‘I’ve come for Soela,’ he said to his mother-in-law who was sitting on the stoep shelling peas. ‘My father sends his regards, and this butter. The soap is from me.’

‘Thank you. Come, sit down,’ she pointed to a chair on her right. ‘Was the ride uneventful?’