“Winona, we need to ask you a few questions,” said Deputy Daniels.

“I got nothing to say to none of you.” Her arms hung at her sides, but Lady Mae saw her mother’s gentle, small hands curl up into fists there in the glowing dark.

“Stands to seem you do. Least you need to explain yourself.”

Her mother stood a meter from Lady Mae, her back to her daughter. Lady Mae wanted to reach out, grab her shoulders with both of her hands, and drag her backward into the kitchen, out the door, and beyond the settlement’s edge. But all she could do was stand there, her feet in mud, and watch.

“I ain’t butchering no child.”

“You know your lot, Winona.”

“What I know is that was just a boy. He ain’t done nothing nobody else in his position wouldn’t have done. He ought to be absolved.”

“And you ought to know forgiveness by your own right is against the law.”

“I don’t much care for the law no more.”

The chains scraped on the wooden floor, and the torches crackled in the stillness of the room. Three of the Deputies stared at her mother, but the fourth, the fat man Lady Mae had never seen before, stared past her mother at her, his black eyes narrowed and eager.

“Is that so?” Deputy Daniels asked.

“It is,” replied her mother.

“I reckon it’s your job to care.”

“So you say.”

“Anything less is, is—” he said, turning to the other Deputies. “That there’s blasphemy, now ain’t it?”

“Ain’t saying nothing that everyone don’t already believe.”

“And what,” Deputy Daniels, ignoring Lady Mae’s mother, asked the other men in the room, “is the punishment for that?”

The unfamiliar Deputy spoke, his voice throaty and excited. “Judgment before the settlement.”

“That’s right,” said Deputy Daniels, his fingers tapping upon his lips.

“I ain’t standing on no scaffold.”

“Seems you ain’t got no choice.”

“We all got a choice.” Her mother crossed her arms over her chest and planted her feet squarely on the rug that covered half of the living-room floor.

“Mama—”

Her mother turned her head to the side and spoke over her shoulder, her voice clear and unafraid.

“It’s alright, my girl.”

The black-eyed Deputy flitted his eyes back and forth from Lady Mae to her mother as if trying to piece something together. He opened his mouth to speak, but Deputy Daniels held out his hand.

“Winona, you just come with us and do what you know needs be done.”

“I ain’t going nowhere with you.”

“Yes, you are, Winona.”

“Mama, just do what they say.”

Her mother spun around and faced her daughter. The chains scraped on the floor as the Deputies inched their way toward her mother’s back. She looked at Lady Mae and reached out her hand. Lady Mae took it in both of hers, tried to pull her near as if she could hide her mother in the folds of her dress. If you let go you’ll drown, Mama.