<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Boring, boring, boring.</span></span>The word repeated itself in Katrina McMillan's mind as she sat on a chair by the window. It was less than an hour after lunch, and there she sat, embroidering a handkerchief with her father's initials, and waiting for him to leave the house. That was the reason the girl had chosen that exact spot, since there was still enough daylight to make it unnecessary to sit by the window. Her eyes only passed on her work eventually, but most of the time, her gaze shifted from the clock on the wall to the window. She would spend the next twenty or thirty minutes in that uninteresting occupation.<br/><br/>A huge sigh of relief left her lips when she finally saw her father out the gate, followed by one of the household men. The Earl always went out on social calls in the nearest houses about one or two hours after lunch. Those were the best moments of Katrina's days, the only moments she got to be a little less trapped by social conventions.<br/><br/>The minute the gate closed, the girl jumped off her seat and in a few seconds she was darting out of her room, in search of her sister. As the two girls met at one corridor, Katrina didn't like what she saw. "Em? Why are you crying, dear?", she asked, her voice soft and concerned.<br/><br/>The younger girl replied by showing her hands, which had distinct red markings. Katrina's eyes narrowed and she embraced the child. "Do not concern yourself with that, dear. Go to my room, and wait for me there", she requested, kissing her sister's forehead. Only as the little girl disappeared into her sister's room did Katrina make her way downstairs. She went first to one of the maids who eventually tended to "discipline" Emily. As she denied any wrongdoing, the girl's next step was to find her sister's teacher.<br/><br/>"Mister Ray?", she called out, her voice less cordial than it usually sounded. "May I know<span style="font-style: italic">why on Earth</span>does my sister have her hands red as though they have been hit with a wooden ruler, sir?"