That evening, Lucas brings back a tiny kitten he has saved from Joseph's pitchfork. Standing on the kitchen floor, the little animal mews and trembles all over.
Yasmine places a bowl of milk in front of it. The cat continues mewing.
Yasmine places the cat in the child's cradle.
The child climbs into his cradle, lies down next to the little cat, cuddles up to it. The cat struggles and claws the child on the face and hands.
A few days later, the cat eats everything it is given and sleeps in the cradle at the child's feet.
Lucas asks Joseph to get him a little dog.
One day, Joseph turns up with a black puppy with long curly hair. Yasmine is hanging out the washing in the garden; the child is having a nap. Yasmine knocks on Lucas's door. She shouts, "Someone to see you!"
She hides in Grandmother's room.
Lucas goes out to meet Joseph. Joseph says, "Here's the dog I promised you. It's a sheepdog from the plains. It'll be a good guard dog."
Lucas says, "Thank you, Joseph. Come in and have a glass of wine."
They go into the kitchen; they drink some wine. Joseph asks, "Won't you introduce me to your wife?"
Lucas says, "Yasmine is not my wife. She had nowhere to go, so I took her in."
Joseph says, "The whole town knows her story. She's a fine- looking girl. The puppy is for her child, I presume."
"Yes, for Yasmine's child."
Before leaving, Joseph says, "You're very young to be taking care of a woman and a child, Lucas. It's a big responsibility."
Lucas says, "That's my business."
Once Joseph has gone, Yasmine comes out. Lucas is holding the little dog in his arms.
"Look what Joseph brought for Mathias."
Yasmine says, "He saw me. Did he say anything?"
"Yes. He thinks you're very beautiful. You're wrong to worry about what people might think about us, Yasmine. You should come with me into town one day to buy yourself some clothes. You've been wearing the same dress since you got here."
"One dress is enough. I don't need another one. I won't go into town."
Lucas says, "Come on, let's show Mathias the dog."
The child is underneath the kitchen table with the cat.
Yasmine says, "Mathi, it's for you. It's a present."
Lucas sits on the corner seat with the dog. The child climbs onto his knees. He looks at the dog, pulls back the hair covering its muzzle. The dog licks the child's face. The cat hisses at the dog and runs away into the garden.
It is getting progressively colder. Lucas says to Yasmine, "Mathias needs warm clothes. So do you."
Yasmine says, "I can knit. I'll need some wool and some needles."
Lucas buys a basket of balls of wool and several pairs of needles for knitting different thicknesses. Yasmine knits pullovers, socks, scarves, gloves, hats. With the leftover wool she makes up patchwork blankets. Lucas praises her.
Yasmine says, "I can also sew. At home I had my mother's old sewing machine."
"Do you want me to go and fetch it?" "You'd be brave enough to go to my aunt's house?"
Lucas sets off with the wheelbarrow. He knocks at the door of Yasmine's aunt. A youthful-looking woman comes to the door.
"What do you want?"
"I've come to collect Yasmine's sewing machine."
She says, "Come in."
Lucas goes into a very clean kitchen. Yasmine's aunt stares at him.
"So you're the one. Poor boy. You're only a child."
Lucas says, "I'm seventeen."
"And she will soon be nineteen. How is she?"
"Well."
"And the child?"
"Also very well."
After a silence she says, "I heard that the child was born deformed. It is God's punishment."
Lucas asks, "Where is the sewing machine?"
The aunt opens a door to a narrow room without a window.
"Everything that belongs to her is here. Take it."
There is a sewing machine and a wicker basket. Lucas asks, "There was nothing else here?"
"Her bed. I burned it."
Lucas carries the sewing machine and the basket to the wheelbarrow. He says, "Thank you, madame."
"You're welcome. Good riddance."
It rains a lot. Yasmine sews and knits. The child has to play indoors. He spends the day under the table with the dog and the cat.
The child can already say a few words, but he can't walk yet. When Lucas tries to stand him upright, he struggles free, crawls away on all fours, and escapes under the table.
Lucas goes to the bookseller's. He picks out some large sheets of white paper, some colored pencils, and some picture books.
Victor asks, "You have a child?"
"Yes. But he's not mine."
Victor says, "There are so many orphans. Peter was asking after you. You should go and see him."
Lucas says, "I'm very busy."
"I understand. With a child. At your age."
Lucas goes home. The child is asleep on a rug under the kitchen table. In Grandmother's room Yasmine is sewing. Lucas puts the packet down next to the child. He goes into the bedroom and kisses Yasmine on the neck, and Yasmine stops sewing.
The child draws. He draws the dog and the cat. He also draws other animals. He draws trees, flowers, the house. He also draws his mother.
Lucas asks him, "Why don't you ever draw me?"
The child shakes his head and hides under the table with his books.
On Christmas Eve, Lucas chops down a Christmas tree in the forest. He buys some colored glass balls and some candles. In Grandmother's room he decorates the tree with Yasmine's help. The presents go under the tree: material and a pair of warm boots for Yasmine, a thick sweater for Lucas, books and a rocking horse for Mathias.
Yasmine roasts a duck in the oven. She cooks potatoes, cabbage, beans. The biscuits were made some days ago.
When the first star appears in the sky, Lucas lights the candles on the tree. Yasmine comes into the room with Mathias in her arms.
Lucas says, "Go and get your presents, Mathias. The books and the horse are for you."
The child says, "I want the horse. He's nice, the horse."
He tries unsuccessfully to climb on the horse's back. He cries.
"The horse is too big. Lucas did it. He's a nasty Lucas. He made the horse too big for Mathi."
The child cries and bangs his head against the floor of the bedroom. Lucas picks him up; he shakes him.
"The horse isn't too big. It's Mathias who is too small because he won't stand up. Always on all fours like an animal! You're not an animal!"
He is holding the child's chin to force him to look into his eyes. He says firmly, "If you don't walk now you will never walk. Never, do you understand?"
The child starts bawling. Yasmine grabs him from Lucas.
"Leave him alone! He'll walk soon enough."
She sits the child on the horse's back. She holds him upright.
Lucas says, "I have to go. Put the child to bed and wait for me. I won't be long."
He goes into the kitchen. He cuts the roast duck in two, puts half on a warm plate, surrounds it with vegetables and potatoes, and wraps the plate in a cloth. The meal is still warm when he arrives at the priest's house.
After they have eaten, Lucas says, "I'm sorry, Father, I have to go home. I'm expected."
The priest says, "I know, my son. To be honest, I'm surprised you came this evening. I know that you live in sin with a sinful woman, and with the fruit of her immoral love. That child isn't even baptized, although he bears the name of one of our saints."
Lucas is silent.