He could not quite hide the horror on his face. Had that man... done that to her? And then the horror turned into deep compassion. This poor child. "Miss..." he wished he could say something to comfort her and give her hope. "There's no telling what time may heal...." He dropped his voice: "But surely you mustn't go to school to be a wife. Go to school to improve yourself. Use it to your advantage. Especially if you don't want to get married."

"It's school to refine me as a lady in preparation for marriage," she explained, "That is what finishing school is. And I cannot... abide by people touching me right now. I couldn't imagine having to deal with the teacher swatting me for dropping a book off of my head." She closed her eyes.

Gabriel frowned. Drilled and beaten into being a good wife? Sometimes he wondered whether rich children had it worse than poor. "There's so much more you could do with your life than getting married," he said, voice still quiet, because the people looking after her might not like this message. Could he ask a rich girl like her. Would such lowly work offend her? But he had not come to this town to tell people what they liked to hear. Especially the rich. Quietly, he continued. "There's a lot of suffering in this town, Miss. With your education and time on your hands, you could do a lot of good. You could educate the children. Or... they are always looking for new nurses or midwives..."

"Oh, I don't know about that..." she said, hesitant. "I don't know if my father would approve of such... Not that he doesn't approve of philanthropy, just that I don't think he likes the idea of his daughters working after all the hard work he did to give us a good life. But then again, he might like it... He sometimes says that he doesn't like us being spoiled. My eldest sister tends to act entitled sometimes."

"You musn't disobey your parents..." Gabriel admitted. "But there's a lot of good you could do in this town even if you don't make it your profession." For it would keep her occupied and maybe help her heal. And it would help the people in this town. Two birds with one stone.

"I will talk to papa about it," she promised. "Perhaps he will want me to try... he says he hates me being cooped up like I have been. This is the first time I have even been off of our property since... since... since it happened," she stammered. "Being a nurse might be good for me, you never know," she concurred with him.

He gave her a concerned look. "I'm sorry to hear that. You mustn't be afraid here. You have people keeping watch over you." But he had heard a ton of fears and phobias during his pastoral visits and he knew they weren't always reasonable.

"I cannot help it," she said softly. "Not after the things that were done..." She looked away and watched as Millie checked on them from where she was haggling over some herbs. Pearl returned her gaze to the priest, steady on his face, "I don't know how to stop it."

"To stop what?" he asked confused.

"The fear. I don't know how to stop the fear." She said in a small voice.