“You lost your mother years ago, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “It was just Ben and Morris and Granddaddy and Tad and me. Granddaddy protected us. After he died, it was just Tad and me against Morris and Ben. I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and I couldn’t take Tad because Ben wouldn’t let me. I had to stay to protect Tad from Morris.”

“What a hell of a way to grow up,” he murmured.

“I love my little brother,” she said softly. “I’d do anything to keep him safe.”

He felt sick to his stomach. He’d been so wrapped up in Grace’s homecoming that he’d ignored all the signs that Clancey was going through some sort of turmoil. He could have helped, if he’d known.

“It isn’t nice to keep things from the boss,” he said firmly. “Don’t do it again.”

“Okay.” She hesitated. “You don’t want to fire me...?”

“Who else could I get to work down here?” he returned. “I told you, not a single man applied for the job.”

“Several women did,” she pointed out.

He grimaced. “Women who were looking more at attracting the boss than doing the job,” he pointed out. He pursed his lips. “Imagine if I’d hired one of them and Grace had come down here to see me. My, my.”

She hid a laugh.

He chuckled. “She has a pretty low opinion of modern society.”

“So do most people of faith,” she replied simply. “It doesn’t mean she’s wrong.”

He glowered at her. “Don’t you start.”

She held up both hands. “Forgive me. I wouldn’t dare offend you, now that you’ve promised me I still have a job. Miserable though it is. Working in a dungeon, hardly any time off, a boss who threatens to shoot helpless printers...”

“Stop right there while you’re ahead,” he said firmly.

She grinned.

He grinned back. His black eyes fell to her soft bow of a mouth and he had a sudden, inconvenient ache as he remembered, vividly, the feel of it under his on her porch. It seemed like a lifetime ago, now.

He stood up. “I’m going to talk to Marquez. I’ll see if he can spare somebody to help keep tabs on you and Tad...”

“Cal already did,” she interrupted gently. “He has some old...friends,” she said after a second, “who owe him favors. He said they’d keep a watch over us.”

He moved closer, so that she had to look up at him. “Hollister is only a couple of years older than I am, and he doesn’t go out with anybody.”