Rupert Winshaw and his wife had worked the farm all day, and both were more than ready to settle in and have a good meal. ‘What is this, Elizabeth?�...� ‘Ignore him, Papa,’ Elizabeth said, kissing her mother on the cheek. ‘He has no idea what he is talking about.’ She hoped her father would let it go, but knowing that the subject of marriage had been a particularly sensitive one as of late, it wasn’t likely. ‘Oh Elizabeth, do tell us your brother is speaking the truth!’ Mrs. Winshaw said, clasping. ..youknow...feed...this often?Zoe almost did a double take at the unexpected hesitant question, andrapidly looked up into the gaze of her beloved to search for theimpetus behind his uncomfortable probing. His question was annoyinglyvalid and one she had considered herself, but her circumstances in thatarea were still the morass she had pondered earlier, this was justanother one of the areas where she lacked even the most basicinformation necessary to guess at an answer."I don't know,. "What kind of experiment?" asked the redhead."Lets see if Bigmouth here can spend the rest of the evening in Ward Dress, up to Matron's standards, mind you." the size 24 explained."I'll be Matron," put in the girl with glasses."And see if he is still of the same opinion in, say, two hours time?" I'm not sure I can do that," I said. My nerves had gone haywire at the prospect of wearing a nurse's uniform in front of these women, but I was also terrified at the prospect."I think you're outvoted,". So what do we do whendoubt starts to gnaw at us?" MORE POWER, SCOTTY!"shouted a half dozen people. Apparently it was acatch phrase of theirs."Exactly! We crank the game up another notch. The cruelty, the demands,shifting the rules around. Squashing that little voice in our head, likeslapping a mosquito. It lets us feel in control again. For a while. Butit's a self-perpetuating cycle, and it leads to bad, bad places. For thepeople we hurt, but for us too. In the end---if it progresses that.