Phryné Crossing

It took some time, but she was able to wipe off the dirty smudges of mislaid shame, straighten her seams, stand straight and tall, and flush her false, misplaced self-guilt down the drain. She was neither the cause nor the reason for the insult that Dieter had cast upon her.

Phryné avoided further self-doubt and degradation by qualifying the dastardly experience and its consequence as an exercise in survival. She reasoned that the simplest way to work through her precarious emotional and physical situation was to consider herself as one of the spoils of war.

Phryné steadily, yet reluctantly, accepted her fate and the uncertain future that lie ahead. From that day forward, she carefully and purposely learned more and more about Hauptmann Dientz, just as he would with her.