Those who had predicted that Kavuki would abandon her matrimonial home and return to her parents’ home, where she would dump the children and go to look for employment in the city, were surprised to see her make drastic changes to improve her home. First, she loved her parents-in-law, who had always been sympathetic and supportive of her when she was neglected by her husband.

Now, since her husband's death, they had developed a stronger bond both with her and the children. She thought they were wonderful parents who told her, "Grace, Jonathan is not dead; he lives in you and in your children. You are our Jonathan and a wonderful mother of your children. We love you."

They further expressed their love for her by teaming up with her to develop the home in spite of their bodily weaknesses. Kavuki decided to build herself a better house. So, she surprised the villagers by making her own bricks and even building the first kiln ever to be built by a woman in that part of the world. She fired the bricks successfully and they saw her take the next step of mapping the house on the ground, then digging the foundation, after which she used sandstones to build it.

"People, come and see!" some villagers cried. "This isn't a woman. It's a man doing the things which her husband couldn't do when he was alive."

When asked where she learnt doing all those things, she said, "These things are done all over Ukambani for anyone to learn. If I were a man, you wouldn't ask me where I learnt them, would you?"

Up to now, Muthengi had kept his distance.

*****

The pepper-woman hurried up, afraid she wouldn't be home before sunset. That would be dangerous, taking into consideration that she had been away for three days. What if her husband had decided to follow her to her parents' home where she had told him she would be going? She had told him, "I got a report that my mother is sick. Please, let me go to see her."

On the other side, she worried that bad things may happen during her absence as her husband might take the opportunity to have a wonderful time with Grace. He hadn't recovered from his nose wound, which he had attributed to some robbers who waylaid him.

She tightened up her muscles to walk up the hill as her round and highly pronounced button rose with each step of the climb. She was sweating but happy with herself. At least, she thought, she had got the answer to her great problem which had been giving her sleepless nights for a long time. Her biggest problem had been Grace Kavuki. She had done her best to conceal how much she hated Kavuki.

On her first visit to the witch and after explaining to her who her enemy was, claiming that it was a co-wife who was about to destroy her together with her children, the witch, an old woman with long black nails and one who appeared never to have taken a bath in her life, prescribed to the small woman, "Then you must bring me certain things from her which I must use in preparing the concoction."

"Such as?" Asked Kanini.

"Get me bits of her nails; that's one. Two, anything from her, which she has worn—her shoe or even a piece of it, or any piece of cloth and her hair. Got me?"

"Yes, yes," said Kanini, blinking. "That's all?"

"Not yet. Something else," said the witch, Mathembo. "Get me her saliva."

"Now—that one! How would I get it?"

"Easy. Spend some days with her and watch out… Once in a while she must spit, people do that often. Or give her something to eat and terrify her that it was the wrong thing when she had started eating it. she'll spit it out."

*****
It was two weeks after KaninI's witchcraft incident. The extended family was gathered at KavukI's home. She had presented her bitter complaints to the parents, who had promised to call a family meeting over the matter. But to be honest about the power structure in this home, the parents were no longer powerful as they used to be. Today, they were taken as dependants heavily under the care of Kavuki; actually they let Kavuki make the tough decisions and affairs of the family to MuthengI's great disappointment.

He had been heard often saying, "This woman has taken over my powers. And how can this home be ruled by a woman who was brought here from outside by my own brother?"
At other times he had asked, "Am I dead and buried like Jonathan in order to let certain things be carried out in this home without consulting me?"

And one day when he was drunk, he asked, "Has Grace Kavuki acquired testicles?"

But Kathambi wielded the real power in the home. Today, she was going to preside over the accusations. Mr and Mrs Muthengi had been summoned at the family court to answer charges before Chief Justice Kathambi. Kavuki had taken time to table her accusation then given her own verdict, "I'm going to kill one of them if they continue to play with me like that."

It was in the evening after eight o'clock. Everybody had eaten except the accused who had barely tasted the cooking.  She only took  a few spoons just as a matter of confirming her allegiance to the family. Otherwise, she and her husband felt too guilty to eat their fill before those accusing eyes.

Outside the inner family were three uncles and two aunts present. Then there was Muthengi’s sister, Dorothy Kavenge, who worked and lived in Mombasa with her husband. She hardly featured in family gatherings unless there was something very serious. She could finish a whole year without coming to see her parents and letting them see their grandchildren.

She never wrote to the parents, and she would never think of buying her parents anything. That was one of the reasons she had been summoned, besides participating in this dreadful matter. Kathambi had used her own money, sending a messenger to bring Kavenge.

It was a tense moment following the dinner and the most embarrassing time for Mr and Mrs Muthengi. Now Kathambi cleared her feminine voice calling everybody's attention. That sound in itself terrified Muthengi.

She opened the discussion, "Father, this is your home. You are the head of this home, and you'll tell us why you called us here. Surely, you didn't call us just to eat."

She then went silent.

The old man licked his lips and swallowed, wondering where and how to begin. He had hoped Kathambi would kick off the session. He fidgeted, trying to compose his thoughts and let his hoarse and vibrating voice say something of substance. His eyesight was failing him, and he had to fight hard to distinguish faces. e had to decipher things.

"Now, now," he opened the discussion. Usually, he addressed Kavuki by her father's name, Musyoki, hence Ng'aMusyoki. So he said, "Ng'aMusyoki has words which demand answers from Muthengi and his wife. And now that we have eaten Ng'aMusyokI's food, we could as well hear what she says," he went silent.

****
It was on a Saturday morning. Kavuki was depressed and was pondering between going to church and doing something else. She could sleep her depression out or continue with her knitting. She had a plan to raise money to buy herself a sewing machine because someone had promised to teach her sewing. Sewing would improve her financial status tremendously as there were always women who wanted all sorts of things made. Too many villagers wanted their torn clothes patched. Wasn't that good money waiting for her?

It wasn't the lack of a sewing machine that made her depressed. She was going through a phase she had never thought about and something she had never experienced when her husband was alive. In those days, she had many women friends. But all those friends had disappeared when she became a widow and from then she appeared to make many enemies quickly among women.

"They just feel threatened by your presence," her father-in-law had repeatedly told her. "They have a duty to protect their husbands from free women and you're one of those free women."

That, however, was not how Mrs Malevu understood the relationship between the two and she had her own reasons to believe her husband was having an affair with Kavuki and, since her husband was her territory and she had the right to defend that territory, she thought she should show the red flag to Kavuki. It was just the previous week she had picked up a quarrel with Kavuki when the two met at the village dam where people went to draw water.

****
A year had passed and the relationship between Kavuki and every member of the family had recovered. She had become the most admired woman in the family and in the village. Muthengi never returned to drinking and developed into a responsible man.

They all said, "All this is because of Grace Kavuki."

KavukI's leadership in the family was now in no doubt. Muthengi gave up his advances and told himself, "Let her go where and with whom she wants."

He encouraged Joyce to support Kavuki and let them be seen as supportive of each other's efforts. The family stopped worrying about who was sleeping with Kavuki. They treated her as they would treat a man.

It was from this attitude that villagers began to think Muthengi had become her emotional caretaker. Kanini, who had been labelled the bad egg of the family, earned KavukI's confidence to such an extent that she told Kavuki frankly, "I wouldn't mind sharing my husband with you."

Kavuki’s response was, "It's nice to hear you say that." But she kept the rest of it to herself.

"I mean it!" Joyce would emphasise, to which Kavuki would respond, "It's a good gesture, Joyce, isn't it?"

That left Joyce confused as far as KavukI's feelings were concerned. In the meantime, the two women were seen together, knitting together, drawing water together, and even in some cases, Joyce helped in giving Kavuki bricks when Kavuki got a bricklaying contract.
Even MuthengI's home began.to shine and respectable elders and friends made several visits. The two had also got engaged in a project to make bricks for a new and better house which, they had promised, would be built by Kavuki.

Kavuki earned a new name—Queen of the Village; this was because they felt she had become the model of the village. She was consulted on various issues, but the conservative village church remained undecided on whether to declare her a woman of God or something else. Her single way of living symbolised great temptation. They would rather hear she was under MuthengI's care. But religious or not, Kavuki had many people who defended her. More voices were coming up to  say, "Kavuki is a modern woman."

"Learn from Kavuki," others said.

****

A month after MuthengI's disappearance and when the family was worried sick about him, a messenger from Nairobi delivered a package to Kavuki.

"I was told to bring it to you, personally," he told her.

"By whom?"

"Thomas Muthengi."

The package contained her possessions. Everything she had left behind in that room that night. The torn pants had been replaced with a new pair and everything in the handbag was intact. Enclosed in the package was a letter which read:

“Dear Grace,

In spite of what happened I'm still alive somewhere in Nairobi, where I intend to hang around for a while. I thought I should send you all your stuff, hoping that not a single item would be missing.

I don't know what became of you and where you went and slept that night, but eventually I received information that you are alright. Grace, there isn't much I would like to tell you here and I'm sure you know why.

But I pray you, please, please, do one special favour for me. That is, if by now you haven't disclosed to anyone what happened and I believe you haven’t, bury it in your heart away from anyone's knowledge.

Don't tell Joyce anything. I promise I'll never disclose it to anybody. Even if I had to disclose it to anyone, I wouldn't even know what to say, where to begin, how and when.

With this letter I want to promise you once and for all that I will never attempt anything like that to you. Never! That chapter should be closed absolutely and maybe that is how God wants it.

I have a wife and I'll settle for that with all my heart. For that reason, be free to be yourself and the way you want. Marry a man and even bring him to live with you in your house, you'll never hear a word from me.

I wish you all the best.

After another month, news reached Kavuki that Muthengi got a good job as a transport-trailer driver. He had already established contact with his wife, and she planned to pay him a visit soon.

When Joyce returned from the visit, she went straight to Kavuki and asked, "Grace, what did you do to my husband to have propelled that drastic change in him?"

Kavuki took time to ruminate over the question and what answer to give. She asked, "What did he tell you about me?"

"Absolutely nothing. But I believe his change has something to do with you. Suddenly, he wants to work and has dropped all the projects he had here," Joyce said.

Kavuki heard her voice say the biggest lie in her life, "I did nothing to Thomas. It was his personal choice."

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