He laid me down on the bed and began kissing my neck, then lifted my dress. What happened next didn’t justify my fears. It was like cooking or sweeping the floor, just another chore, albeit an unfamiliar one. I was a woman living with a man now, so I understood this was something I’d have to do. As he entered and exited my body with a back-and-forth motion that brought farm animals to mind, I felt something uncomfortable deep in my womb; it was the same feeling that had invaded me on leaving home that morning, when I felt the trotting of his horse. I turned my head toward the window.
