Day two of the trial meant that the Pendergasts were asked by a Wizengamot clerk to produce Kaatjie and prove that she hadn't left the country and was well taken care of. Mrs. Aoife Pendergast brought her on time, was asked to leave so that Kaatjie could not be influenced, and Kaatjie was asked a few boring questions: who was she staying with, what were her conditions, had anyone involved in the trial come to visit her?

Mrs. Pendergast wasn't coming back until later, so Kaat had to sit in the back of the courtroom and be bored. The lawyers were doing lawyer things, she guessed, and she could see the tops of her heads of family members from both sides, but even that couldn't hold her attention for long when she had a row to herself in the back. She slumped in her chair. She played with the hems on her sleeves. She considered unbraiding and rebraiding her hair.

The only thing that caught her attention was when the lawyers started arguing about her last name, and she sat bolt upright.

"Legally my clients agree that it should have been Dempsey," one of her uncle's lawyers said, "But Miss Kaatjie's paperwork bore the name Spaans when she was orphaned. It appears that Mrs. Adriana Dempsey modified the paperwork in order to hold her maternal surname. This was done due to her being separated from Mr. Don Juan Dempsey at the time of Miss Kaatjie's birth."

The Dempsey lawyer said something about Spaans being used by her mother to hide her. This went back and forth for several minutes, until the Wizengamot member cut them off:

"It's quite obvious that Mrs. Adriana Dempsey made several irresponsible decisions in the course of getting married and raising her child; it's also obvious that this was some form of character deficiency, given the respectability of the rest of the family. I would appreciate our moving on today, as we will have many other days to discuss the girl's mother."

Kaatjie bit her lip. No one was looking at her anymore, so as the Wizengamot member called for a break she slipped out of her row and out of the door in the back of the courtroom, and scittered own the hallway. She pressed the balls of her hands to her eyes, which were leaking tears in a sudden torrent — why were these people being so mean about her mama?

She was trying to keep it in, but a sob wheezed out of her mouth. She pressed her back against the hallway wall.