It started when Tobias was twelve.

They'd been reciting their bible verses for mother in the living room, standing straight, hands behind their back. Predictably, Anne had gotten something easy, because she was a little girl. Matthew 19:14: "But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And of course she recited it easily enough, and Mother had let her go out and play for a few minutes before dinner. Whereas Tobias had been stuck with Jude 1:4-7: "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."

"I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not."

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Tobias began to stumble in the middle of the first verse, and Mother's slow frown cause him to stutter even more, until he wasn't entirely sure what verse he was reciting at all. Something about remembrance? Damn..."Tobias," Mother interrupted him in no-nonsense voice, "Did you study an hour a night as we'd agreed?" Tobias had been supposed to spend three hours a night studying the bible according to the rule laid down by Father, but Mother had intervened, pleading with him that even a belligerant boy like Tobias needed time to do boyish things.

Well. So much for that. It was clear Mother was having none of it. He shook his head glumly, and then replied, "No, Mother," before she could tell him off for not speaking when spoken to. She smoothed the folds of her skirt conscientiously and gave him a serious look. "I should let your father sort it out." Which would mean a long lecture on God, parents, children and one's binding word, and it would also mean he'd not be visiting the library or anywhere else for months, not even with Mother in tow. Damned twice over.

"But," Mother continued after that one deliberate, pregnant pause, "if you'd be content with losing your play time and studying with me for an extra hour a day, I daresay it needn't come to his attention at all." Studying with mother would involve burying his nos in a book and occasionally soaking up the odd sentence as she knitted a few yards away. It was no contest, really. Tobias nodded eagerly.

Mother smiled. "Fetch your Bible and sit down, then." A sigh.