[rajnish manga]

“Help him,” I said, and the girl obediently hurried tohand the wagon harness to the groom. But as soon as she was beside him, the groom puts his arms around herand pushes his face against hers. She screams out and runs over to me. On the girl's cheek were red marksfrom two rows of teeth. “You brute,” I cry out in fury, “do you want the whip?”. But I immediately rememberthat he is a stranger, that I don't know where he comes from, and that he's helping me out of his own free will,when everyone else is refusing to. As if he knows what I was thinking, he takes no offence at my threat, butturns around to me once more, still busy with the horses. Then he says, “Climb in,” and, in fact, everything isready. I notice that I have never before traveled with such a beautiful team of horses, and I climb in happily.

“But I'll take the reins. You don't know the way,” I say. “Of course,” he says; “I'm not going with you. I'm
staying with Rosa.” “No,” screams Rosa and runs into the house, with an accurate premonition of the
inevitability of her fate. I hear the door chain rattling as she sets it in place. I hear the lock click. I see how in
addition she runs down the corridor and through the rooms putting out all the lights in order to make herself
impossible to find. “You're coming with me,” I say to the groom, “or I'll give up the journey, no matter how
urgent it is. It's not my intention to give you the girl as the price of the trip.”