"I have been such a horrible friend." Pen said in regret.
"No, no, you haven't", Neera countered. "You couldn't have known."
"And the Commander", she could see the anger coming off Pen. "Not once did he tell me anything."
"I am sure he had his reasons. He didn't want you to worry unnecessarily." Neera said.
Penelope felt her eyes mist over. "That note, the one that whoever used to lure you out wrote, was true, although I didn't write it. Princess Lyra…she ordered me to be whipped and I was wounded."
Neera could not believe her ears. Penelope went ahead to narrate to her the situation between her and the Commander General, and she told her of the gifts and how she and the other maids had kept to themselves that they were intended for her and not Lyra.
"Oh Pen, I have been such a horrible friend!" Neera cried out.
