Billy had a keen look about him, eager now. "Don't want to break up your woman's little party, do you? Worried about making her mad?"

"You are surely the stupidest creature God ever put on this earth," said Jed, his voice low and hoarse. "Are you forgetting the beating you took from this man the last time you was drunk?"

"He won't fight, not now," Billy said. "Look at him, he's scared. Not of me, no. But she's got him tied up in a knot."

Nathaniel turned back toward the sound of his daughter's voice; because it was the right thing to do. For her, and for himself, and for Elizabeth. Behind him, Billy Kirby laughed.

"I guess I'd toe the line, too, for a woman who'd brain a man with his own rifle. What I'm wondering is, what old Jack got up to before she laid him low. Maybe Lingo ain't gone, really. Maybe he left a little something of himself behind, growing—"

As he swung around Nathaniel caught a glance at Axel's expression, drawn down hard and resigned.

At the last moment, some part of his reasoning self stopped him and Nathaniel lowered his aim from that point high on the bridge of the nose where the bone could be shoved into the brain, and the rifle butt took Kirby square in the mouth. His head jerked back with the sharp crack of breaking teeth, and he collapsed backward, coughing and spitting blood, his hands pressed to his ruined mouth. Nathaniel put his foot on Billy's throat and leaned in.

"Nathaniel," Jed said at the count of three, when Billy's bucking and kicking had started to ease up.

Axel knocked him away. "You don't want to hang for Billy Kirby," he said. "He ain't worth it."

His face set hard, Nathaniel reached down and pulled Billy up by the shirt, and held him at a distance while he bled and retched and tried to catch his breath. When it was clear he wouldn't die straight off, Nathaniel dragged him down to the lake, tinged red with the sunset. Kirby hit the water with a splash and Nathaniel waded in after him to pull him out, shook him as easily as he would shake a wet dog.

"Can you hear me, Billy?"

The ruined mouth stretched, broken teeth and bloody pulp. Nathaniel shook him again, and he nodded.

"I want you to hear me clear. My wife is carrying my child, and I'll kill the next man to suggest otherwise. You got that?"

Nathaniel looked up on the shore. Axel and Jed were still there, Axel leaning on his rifle, pulling on his beard. Behind them was Julian.

"Middleton? You hear me?"

"Oh, yes, quite definitely," Julian said softly.

From the schoolhouse, the sound of singing. A young girl's voice, sweet and clear.

"Now, one more thing. You leave off beating that brother of yours, or I'll come after you and make you regret it."

Nathaniel let Billy Kirby go with a jerk and a splash. He leaned over to wipe his hands on his shirt and then he walked up the shore. Julian stood there, watching impassively as Billy vomited.

"You got something to say, Middleton, then say it."

His eyes narrowed, Julian looked away. "I believe Billy touched on all the salient points."

"When are you going to stop hiding behind other men and settle your own business?"

None of his usual grin, now. "When the return is higher than the required investment."

"You will never get the land," Nathaniel said. "Or your sister."

Julian said: "And I shall never stop trying."

* * *

"I lost my temper," Nathaniel said shortly. "It's that simple."

Elizabeth was sitting on their bed with a handkerchief in her hands which she folded small, spread open on her lap, and folded small again. In the corner was an embroidered lily of shaky proportions, bracketed by her own initials. The Glove girls had given her this gift; Elizabeth blinked at it and the flower swam briefly in what threatened to be tears.

"I was trying to save your recital, damn it."

"Yes. I know." She looked up at him finally, and taking a very deep breath, she managed a smile.

Nathaniel drew back, frowning. "Tears? It went well, Boots, didn't it?"

"It did go very well," she agreed. "Better than I had hoped."

"What is it, then? You're not crying for Billy Kirby?"

Lifting her head, she met his gaze. "You do know, don't you, that Jack Lingo did not—"

He interrupted her by pulling her into his arms. His own expression was tense with regret. "I know," he said. "I know, Boots, I know that. Oh, Christ, I shouldn't have told you what he said."

She put her face to his shoulder. "You do believe me?"

"Yes," he said, and he kissed her. "Yes, I believe you. It was just Billy Kirby's half mind at work."

"No," Elizabeth corrected him. "It was my brother." And the tears came then.

He held her while she wept, rocking her gently with his face against her hair. He could not correct her, and so he said nothing at all.

"It's late," he said finally. "You need your rest."

She shook her head and held on harder to him, rubbed her cheek against his. She ran her hands under his shirt and around his waist. He moaned, softly, against her hair.

There was a timid knock at the door, and they moved apart. Hannah appeared, looking woeful but determined.

"What are you doing up?" Nathaniel asked, surprised. "I thought you were asleep."

"Grandmother has my book," Hannah said. "I had other things to carry, and she said she'd bring it up."