She saw his fist swing down at her, the leather wrapped around it, and there was nothing in the world she could do to stop it. A thunderclap exploded in her head. Something tore in her neck and her vision was swamped with black constellations. She did not see the fist coming a second time, but she felt another blast of thunder and hard things on her tongue that might have been teeth. The universe narrowed and funnelled as something hot flowed into her eyes. She tried to say something, anything to stop it all, even the truth, because he was right, she could tell him that, yes, he was right, but her mouth was full of blood and teeth and she didn’t have the words to say it and—

He struck her a third time, his fist connecting with the rear of her skull and then her cheek hit the floor and something cracked there and the pain became everything in the whole wide world. She knew then that she would die, and she wanted that if it would mean an end to this, and she was ready, but then something miraculous happened.

From the floor, her one open eye saw George charge into his father like a train, screaming as he went. He pushed him into the wall, and the two of them wrestled there for a moment before spinning across the room to the far side and Ivan cried out as George backed him into the stove. George freed himself from Ivan’s grip, then swung his fist at his father, and again, and again, and over and over as Ivan wrapped his arms around his head to fend off the blows.

Joy lifted her head from the floor and she wanted to say kill him, kill him, but her tongue would not obey.

Ivan fell to the floor, curling himself up into a ball under the rain of clenched fists and booted feet. At last, George stopped, gasping for breath. Joy pushed herself up onto her knees and coughed out a mouthful of blood and teeth that splattered and spread on the floor.

“Don’t you touch her again,” George said between breaths. “You lay a finger on her again and I’ll kill you. She’s coming with me and she’s going to be my wife. You’re going to give me my money so I can buy that farm, and I’m going to be a real man with a real family and you can’t stop me. You hear me, you auld bastard? She’s going to be my wife.”

Joy heard a metallic snick-snick from the doorway to the hall, and she turned her head towards it. Through the blood and the black stars she saw Tam there, his rifle raised, and she stared down its black throat.

“Who, her?” he said.