“You know what I want to do?” Ellis said.  “I want to pull this door off its hinges and throw it on the porch and smash it into a thousand pieces.”

“That’s interesting,” she said.  “It won’t help anything, though.”

“Jesus Christ, will you just get outside?”

“Not till you calm down.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever calm down again.”

“It’s not that bad,” Charlotte said.

Ellis rubbed his hands over his face.  “Not that bad.  A four-day blizzard’s not that bad.  A rattlesnake in your boot’s not that bad.  This?  There are no words.”  Miller took two more steps back.  Ada and Brewster held onto each other.

“I hate it when you shout.”

“I hate it when you do stupid things.  We’re going to talk if I have to bodily remove you from the house.”

“I’m only relenting because, if I could remind you yet again, there are children and you’re making a scene.”

Outside, one hand on her elbow, he hustled her down the porch, across the parade ground and out through the front gate, leaving Miller standing with his hat in his hand having no idea what to do next.

“Hold on,” Ellis said.  “I have to be able to breathe.”  He left her, walked in a large circle and came back.  “That’s a little better at least.  Now, enlighten me as to what’s going on.”

“What you see is what’s going on.  That’s all there is.”

“God in heaven, I don’t even know where to start.”

“There’s nowhere to start.  This is it.  I’m sorry you’re not handling it well.”

“Handling it well?  I want to shoot myself.”

Charlotte stopped and stared at him.  “You’re taking responsibility?  That’s a very strange thing to do.”

“Yes, I’m taking responsibility.  It started with me.”

“Ellis, I don’t think you understand how any of this works.  And as I recall, it didn’t start with you at all, it started with your grandfather.  Personally, I’ve been thinking about that and I don’t believe he’d be near as upset as you are.”

“He couldn’t be upset.  He’s dead.”

Charlotte stopped again.  “Oh no.  When?  Did he get to Washington City?”

“It was on the way back.  He knew it was coming.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“He got near enough to home.  That’s something.  We could bury him the way he wanted.”

“Did the meetings do any good?”

“Of course not.  But we weren’t talking about him, we were talking about you.”