Otherwise she was obedient. She submitted to examination by the Healers who declared that her body showed she had not yet lain with a man, and could therefore marry in purity. And now the day had come. Her mother poured the laboriously heated water into the wooden tub, and when Alis sat motionless in it, she soaped her body for her, moving her hands gently, anxiously, over the girl’s skin, most unlike her usual brisk self. She washed the dark hair and rinsed it in herb-sweetened water. Then she dressed her daughter in the simple white-and-green bridal robe. Alis made no protest: she let her limbs be moved into convenient positions; she obeyed instructions to bend this way or that. But she said nothing. When it was all done she went into the front room. Her father was there in his prayer-house clothes, gazing out of the window. He looked round when she entered and came forward to kiss her gently on the forehead. Taking her hand, he said, “I would not have chosen this for you, Alis, but sometimes our paths are chosen for us.
