she is only a woman

She sees one of them step into the courtyard and pull the gold chain from the neck of the woman standing there. Maybe that is what they really are, ordinary robbers pretending to be some sort of army. She tries to remember where she put her jewelry; they may leave her alone if she gives it to them right away. She is only a woman, after all.

 

S. A Novel About the Balkans, Slavenka Drakulić