What is the deepest reason why father's love becomes meaningful late?

Correct answer: Kezia first reads father through the lens of fear, not experience

The governing idea is that affection may exist even when a child cannot recognise its form. Kezia initially sees her father as frightening because he is strict, serious, and emotionally reserved; therefore, his ordinary actions are interpreted through fear rather than through shared experience. The later night-time incident gives her direct experience of his care: he comforts her, protects her, and allows her to sleep near him. This contrast changes the meaning of his earlier silence. Option D is correct because the obstacle is Kezia’s limited interpretation, not the absence of love. The grandmother does not block affection, Macdonald does not hide the father, and the story never says that the father is loveless.