She nodded. “There’s a jug of cool water in the pantry.”

“I ought to help you get the meal ready,” Susannah said, and then her mouth opened in a wide yawn.

“Sarey Adams is coming in to help,” Rosalita said, “and it’s nobbut a cold meal, in any case. Go on, now. Take your rest. You’re all in, and it shows.”

Two

In the pantry, Jake drank long and deep, then poured water into a bowl for Oy and carried it into Pere Callahan’s bedroom. He felt guilty about being in here (and about having a billy-bumbler in here with him), but the bedcovers on Callahan’s narrow bed had been turned down, the pillow had been plumped up, and both beckoned him. He put down the bowl and Oy quietly began to lap water. Jake undressed down to his new underwear, then lay back and closed his eyes.

Probably won’t be able to actually sleep,he thought, I wasn’t ever any good at taking naps, even back when Mrs. Shaw used to call me ’Bama.

Less than a minute later he was snoring lightly, with one arm slung over his eyes. Oy slept on the floor beside him with his nose on one paw.

Three

Eddie and Susannah sat side by side on the bed in the guest room. Eddie could still hardly believe this: not only a nap, but a nap in an actual bed. Luxury piled on luxury. He wanted nothing more than to lie down, take Suze in his arms, and sleep that way, but one matter needed to be addressed first. It had been nagging him all day, even during the heaviest of their impromptu politicking.

“Suze, about Tian’s Gran-pere—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said at once.

He raised his eyebrows, surprised. Although he supposed he’d known.

“We could get into this,” she said, “but I’m tired. I want to go to sleep. Tell Roland what the old guy told you, and tell Jake if you want to, but don’t tell me. Not yet.” She sat next to him, her brown thigh touching his white one, her brown eyes looking steadily into his hazel ones. “Do you hear me?”

“Hear you very well.”

“Say thankya big-big.”

He laughed, took her in his arms, kissed her.

And shortly they were also asleep with their arms around each other and their foreheads touching. A rectangle of light moved steadily up their bodies as the sun sank. It had moved back into the true west, at least for the time being. Roland saw this for himself as he rode slowly down the drive to the Old Fella’s rectory-house with his aching legs kicked free of the stirrups.

Four

Rosalita came out to greet him. “Hile, Roland—long days and pleasant nights.”

He nodded. “May you have twice the number.”