Forgiveness

Beth was quietly getting on with things back home with her parents. She was keeping the baby who would soon arrive. She didn't do much. She would rejoin the world when he or she arrived.

In the meantime, she'd been thinking a lot and keeping up with her university reading so that she could return one day.

She'd read the article about Rufus in The Goss and actually felt sorry for him. Maybe it was the maternal instinct kicking in. The story explained his violent streak, horrific though it was, and she realised she herself might have prompted his outburst.