Summary

In pages 202 - 216, August hides in the hay. The Koop brothers enter the loft with Autje and Neitje. The girls make a lot of noise, kissing and laughing with the boys. Then they grow silent and August cannot tell what is happening. Salome enters and draws August from the hay. She explains that she had the girls trick the boys into coming into the barn with the promise of sex. Then she drugged them with the belladonna spray the to keep them from revealing their plans. She tells August to watch the brothers, and spray them again should they wake before morning.

As Salome is trying to leave, August begs her to wait. He folds up the minutes and tells her to give them to Ona so she can pass them to her unborn child. Salome's response makes him realize that there was...