Anna hadn’t seen this side of Martin. He’d been kind to her. Good-natured. She hadn’t known this angry side existed, but his wife had clearly hit his tender spot. How galling it must have been for him to lose the contest to a female!

“How is this not my business when you’re here with this tramp instead of trying to find work to feed your children?” Mrs. Drapple yelled.

He slapped her. Hard. It happened so fast that it took a moment for it to register in Anna’s mind. She heard Pauline gasp and knew her friend was as horrified as she was.

“You fucking bastard!” Mrs. Drapple kicked Martin in the leg. He grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her, her hair flying through the air like a spray of golden glitter.

“Hey, hey!” Karl said. He was next to them in a flash.

Instinctively, Anna got to her feet and stood protectively in front of Jesse and Peter where they remained on the floor, stunned, their hands still on the stretcher.

Karl’s air of authority seemed to wake the Drapples up from their personal battle, and Martin withdrew his hands from his wife’s shoulders.

“Go home,” Karl said, his voice quiet but commanding. “Both of you. Go home. Make up.”

Martin and his wife were already moving toward the door, red faced and shouting at one another as though no one else were there. Anna could imagine what their home life was like. Their poor daughters! Martin slammed the door behind them as they left, and a hush fell over the warehouse. All of their gazes were on the door, and Anna’s heart still pounded out of proportion to what had just happened.

“Oh my,” Pauline said finally as she dropped back into her chair.

“She call you a tramp?” Jesse said, looking up at Anna from the floor with a sort of disbelief in his brown doe eyes. “She sure ’nough got that wrong.”

She was touched by his defense. You’re a love, she thought, but did not say. “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones,” she said instead, not bothering to finish the rhyme.

“Well.” Karl knelt at the side of the stretcher again, his complexion ruddy but his hands steady. “Let’s get back to work here.”

Anna wanted to thank him. She considered giving him a quick hug, but thought it inappropriate. She felt that little bit of envy creeping in again. Pauline had a man who was not only handsome and kind, but protective as well. She shook off the emotions—or at least most of them—and lowered herself to the floor again.