“I don’t know what happened, Rachael. I guess I was tired. I don’t care what the elders think of me. I knowingly broke our rules. I accepted the consequences. I live with the banishment and it’s never made me feel less of a human being.”

Her hands stilled on his shoulders. Something frightening bubbled in the pit of her stomach. “You carried Josh home and they said something mean to you?”

“They don’t speak to me. They don’t look at me. I’m dead to them. If they happen to look my way, they look through me. If I spoke, if I had tried to tell them what happened to Joshua, they wouldn’t have heard me.”

“Those bloody bastards,” she hissed.

Her swearing startled him. Not just her swearing but her choice of expletives. “That doesn’t sound like South America to me.” He turned his head to look at her, a small grin on his face because she could take the sting of the elders’ rejection away with a few choice words.

“I went to school for a year in England. You’d be surprised the things you pick up,” she said and rubbed shampoo into his hair with a little too much vigor. “I’d like to have the chance to meet these wise elders of yours. Greedy little vultures with their hands out and you doing the risky jobs. What about the men you work with?”

If she rubbed any harder she was going to take his scalp off. “Most of them live away from the village and of course we talk. You saw Drake. It’s better for them if they don’t advertise we’re friendly because technically they’re breaking the rules. I guess if the elders can’t see it, they don’t mind it.”

“Sanctimonious bastards.”

He caught her wrist gently. “I’m going bald, sestrilla. I can’t afford the hair loss. I have a woman now and she’s very edgy about certain things.”

She smacked the top of his head with the flat of her hand. Soap bubbles flew everywhere, making her laugh. “I’m not in the least edgy. It’s just that these idiot elders…”

“Wise elders,” he corrected and hastily ducked under the water before she could smack him again. He stayed low while she massaged the soap out of his hair. When he came up she made a sound of complete disgust.

“I don’t know who gave them that title. Most likely they did. In any case, are you telling me that you hauled that man through miles of forest and those men didn’t even say thank you?”