“Luke,” she said, “why don’t you go outside and keep a watch for Finis?”

“He knows his way home.”

“Take the jug with you. And the two boys. You and the young’uns can play games.”

“What about this feller? Who’s goin’ to watch him?”

She smiled. “I’ll do that. Now, you-all git. This man needs his rest before the soldiers come.”

Luke took another drink from the jug. “You sure this is the way Finis would want it?”

“Finis ain’t here to say otherwise.”

As Luke and the boys went out the door, she closed it and slid a wooden bar into place. She turned back toward James, and he knew he did not like the look in her eyes. She studied him as if she were a bear and he a chunk of red meat.

The bed groaned as she sat down beside him on the edge of it. Her hand went to his leg. “You a married man?”

He shook his head.

She said, “I didn’t much think so. You look a little young yet for that, but you never can tell. They get to wantin’ what a woman’s got for them, they sometimes marry awful young.” Her hand began moving suggestively up and down his leg. “It’s a pity how many bachelors there is in this country that don’t have no idea how good a woman can be. How’s that bindin’ feel?”

“Hurts some. I think I need some air.” He tried to get up from the bed, but she put an arm around his shoulder and held him.

She said, “What you need is to lay down a while. Rest easy.”

“What I really need is to get away from here before them soldiers come back. They’re set to kill me.”

She kept her hand moving. “That’d be a waste, sure enough. Ain’t near enough good-lookin’ men in this country as it is.” She leaned, her large breasts pressing against him. “Yes sir, sure would be a waste. You really one of them Lewises?”

He was sweating. “From across the river.”

“I never did rightly know how come Finis hates the Lewises so much. What little I ever seen of Michael and Andrew, they seemed like good men. Handsome, too; the both of them. Always kind of wished I’d seen them before Finis come along.”

James tried to imagine Nelly in Michael’s or Andrew’s cabins instead of Marie or Petra. He would have laughed were he not so ill at ease. “Then how come you to marry Finis?”

“Had to marry somebody. The baby was comin’ on. Isaac never asked me, and Luke, he ain’t bright. Never was sure which one of them was rightfully the baby’s papa, but I reckon it don’t make no difference. We’re all family anyway. It’s like they was all my husbands.”

James blinked. “All of them?”

“Well, Isaac don’t do me no more. Mostly it’s Finis, and now and again Luke when Finis ain’t around. Ain’t neither one of them very good-lookin’. Not like you, anyway.” She kissed him boldly. “I wouldn’t mind a change, if you was willin’.”