“He didn’t ask me.”

“So why did you let him live here if he wouldn’t marry you?”

“He was very hygienic.”

Judy stared at her with astonishment. “You let him stay with you because he was hygienic?”

“I’m joking, Judy. He stayed because I liked him and he liked me.”

“Not enough to give you a ring.” She seemed almost angry. “I couldn’t live like this.”

“Like what?” Ruth felt herself hardening against this woman.

“Like this,” she said, a little heated. “Like this.” She was looking around the room as if it were spattered with excrement.

Ruth had had enough; she stood up. “I need to get on with my work.”

Judy didn’t move and seemed even to be tightening up her body, as if preparing to struggle against being thrown out.

“I need to finish my book,” Ruth said. All at once Blanche, the character she had based on Judy, came back to her: the deeply shy secretary with her fierce façade who had finally won the heart of the handsome and arrogant Mr. Simmons, whom she had based on Bennet. Ruth had inhabited Blanche for months, creating a life for her, and had grown to like her. But this woman was impossible.

“My husband”—Judy looked up at Ruth—“hasn’t touched me since the day I told him I was pregnant with Alvin.”

Ruth didn’t know what to do now and sat down.

Judy gave her an odd, unpleasant smile. “I’m joking.”

Ruth nodded.

There was a thudding of feet on the porch. The kitchen door shuddered open, and Raj hurried in, supporting Annie, who was hopping.

“Ruth,” he said, “Annie stepped on some glass.”

Getting up, Ruth motioned for Annie to take her seat and told Raj to get the first aid box out of the bathroom.

“I’m bleeding on your floor,” Annie said apologetically.

“Don’t worry. Hon, you’re a little old to be running around barefoot.” Ruth noticed that Judy was staring strangely at Annie.

Raj returned with the box and, as he put it down, said, “We found Mrs. Barnacle dead.”

“What?”

He turned to Judy. “Alv was there too.”

“He didn’t say anything to me,” Judy shot back, as if suggesting the whole thing were a lie.

“Ambulance man told us it was most likely a heart attack,” Annie said.

“Oh, that poor woman,” Ruth said. “How did you find her?”

Annie winced as Ruth dabbed iodine on the cut. “We wanted to see the puppy and I had some money to give her.”

Ruth was now trying to cut the bandage, but the scissors in the first aid kit were too blunt. Raj got up and disappeared down the hall. Judy was still staring strangely at Annie.

“She was just lying on the floor,” Annie said.

“Does she have any family?”

Annie shook her head, and all at once Ruth remembered what she had heard about Mrs. Barnacle, the image everyone in Pisgah had of her chasing down that young man and demanding to know how many. That was thirty years ago. Now her life was over.