Jake hadn’t done the chores because he was out in the pasture, working a horse for a neighbor. The horses took more and more of his time. The neighbor had no money to pay him and Jake knew it, but it was an excuse to fool around with a horse instead of fixing fence, dragging the rusty old corn planter out of the field, or doing something about that wrecked Model A that had been plugging up the irrigation ditch since they bought the farm. He was up and out of the house before four o’clock every morning, but when he was working a horse he left feeding the livestock and doing the milking to her. When he came back around six, he’d want his coffee and breakfast on the table.

She emptied the bucket into the basin in the kitchen and put coffee on the stove to perk, then went back out to fork hay to the horses and cattle and scatter slop in the trough for the hogs. When she had finished the first round of chores, she stood stroking the neck of Maudie, her bay mare. The mare’s dark, wet eyes watched her, the way old friends watch to make sure everything is all right. Flies settled on the Roman nose, the long black tail flicked like a lash, the hide rippled where the flies landed. The mare was so heavy with foal that she looked as though she had swallowed a barrel. Emaline scratched her nose. Any day now, girl. You’re going to have a prize colt and keep us in money for flour and sugar all winter long.

She left Maudie gulping water at the stock tank and went back into the house to start Jake’s breakfast. It was too hot indoors, so she kicked off the loose-fitting brogans and peeled off the overalls and stood at the stove in her thin dress with nothing underneath. She put on the radio to keep her company. There was nothing on but the hog and cattle markets. Jake would be back soon. Knowing that made her want to scream. She shrank from him, but in this small house there was nowhere to hide.

She had to fight the urge to gag as she cracked the eggs, but she had his breakfast almost ready when she heard the horse coming up the lane from the county road. She braced herself. Moments later, he came striding into the house with his boots on. He smacked her bottom so hard it stung. Watching him eat, she was reminded of the hogs. Like them, he ate with his nose to the trough and his mouth wide open, shoveling it in as fast as he could inhale.