He looked at her, at the bruises blooming beneath her skin, at the swelling of her eye only now going down. Darren Gearhart had a mean right; short, stiff, packed a lot of power. Amelia wasnt a pygmy but she wasnt his equal in size. Moses remembered Joe Gould, the Newenham ambulances emergency medical technician, describe a head injury once over a lot of beer at Bills bar. Joe had just lost a patient to head trauma suffered when a fight at the small-boat harbor led to a fall between boats. “One of the guys told me you could hear the crack all the way up to the harbormasters office when the guy went in. Like breaking an egg. He went on to explain, with a delivery that became more didactic as the drink in his glass dwindled, that the human brain floated inside the skull like a cork bobbing in the water. When something hit the front of the skull, the brain inside was knocked against the back of the skull, which was why so many blows delivered by fists caused injury to the back of the cerebrum, not the front.

Maybe, Moses thought, maybe I should have run her by the hospital before I packed her onto a plane to get her out here.

He consulted the voices on the subject. They were silent. Figured. Most of the time they wouldnt shut up. Now, when he was actually looking for insight, they wouldnt talk.

“I want my husband, Amelia repeated. Her voice sounded more stubborn than whiny. If that stubborn could be harnessed for her own benefit, she might make it after all.

“No, you dont, Moses told Amelia, and snatched up the cards and began to shuffle them himself.

Later, when both kids were in bed and asleep, Bill and Moses moved to the porch. “What are we going to do with her? she said.

“Come here, woman, he said. She curled easily into his lap. One of his hands settled naturally on the rise of her hip, the other on the curve of her breast. She sighed a little and wriggled as if to press into both. He gave her a smack on the back. “Be still before I haul you down to the ground and have my way with you.

“You mean you wont if I stay still?

“I will no matter what you do and you know that perfectly well. He smacked her again, turning it into a caress. “Im going to keep them isolated and safe for a few days. Im going to teach them tai chi. Im going to sweat the evil spirits out of them in the banya.

“It wont be enough for Amelia.

She felt him shrug beneath her cheek. “Its what I can do.

“You told her not to marry him, didnt you?

“Nope.

“I was there in the bar, I remember.