“I know.” Miriam grinned. “But I think this is going to work out. Listen, you’ve been going crazy with the both of us living on top of you for the past week, but once we’re gone we’ll be out of your hair for at least five days. Why don’t you kick back and relax? Get in some of that partying you keep moaning about missing?”

“Because it won’t be the same without you! I was planning on showing you some of the good life. Get you hitched up with a date, anyway.”

Miriam sobered. “I don’t need a date right now,” she said, looking worried—and wistful.

“You’re—” Paulette raised an eyebrow. “You still hooked on him?”

Miriam nodded. “It hasn’t gone away. We spoke yesterday. I keep wanting to see him.”

Paulette caught her arm. “Take it from me: don’t. I mean, really, don’t. If he’s for real, he’ll be waiting for you. If he isn’t, you’d be running such a huge risk—”

Miriam nodded, wordlessly.

“I figured that was what it was,” Paulie said softly. “You want him whether or not he’s messed up with the shits who’re trying to kill you or disinherit you, is that right?”

“I think he’s probably got his reasons,” Miriam said reluctantly.

“Whatever he’s doing. And I don’t think he’s working for them. But—”

“Listen, no one is worth what those fuckers want to do to you. Understand?”

“But if he isn’t—” it came out as more of a whine than Miriam intended. She shook her head.

“Then it will all sort itself out, won’t it?” said Paulette. “Eventually.”

“Maybe.”

They broke off as the noise of the door opening downstairs reached them. Two pairs of eyes went to the camera. It was Brill, coming in from the cold: She’d been out shopping on foot, increasingly sure-footed in the social basics of day-to-day life in the twenty-first century. “I look at her, and I think she’ll be like you when she’s done some growing up,” Paulette commented quietly.

“Maybe.” Miriam stood up. “What’ve you got?” she called down the stairwell.

“Food for the trip.” Brill grinned. Then her smile turned thoughtful:

“Do you have a spare gun?” she asked.

“Huh? Why?”

“There are wild animals in the hills near Hasleholm,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Oops.” Miriam frowned. “Do you really think it’s a problem?”

“Yes.” Brill nodded. “But I can shoot. He is very conservative, my father, and insisted I learn the feminine virtues—deportment, dancing, embroidery, and marksmanship. There are wolves, and I’d rather have a long gun for dealing with them.”

Paulette rolled her eyes.

“Okay. Then I guess we’ll have to look into getting you a hunting rifle as soon as possible. In the meantime, there’s the pistol I took from the courier. Where did you stash it?”