Despite her look of hope last night, I was surprised about Rachel at first. She was so strong, so advanced in her studies, and I knew she loved River and River’s Edge dearly. But maybe she believed that she would be a weakness in a fight, and she left so as not to be a liability, as Joshua had said. And yet, after that tense meeting, after the departure of three of us, nothing happened during the next week. I didn’t go to town, though the project was finishing up and I was dying to see it. I told Bill that I had the flu, and that he was in charge but to not go crazy with my charge accounts. Here at home we were all on edge, looking around warily as we walked from house to barn to field. The vegetable beds that we’d replanted showed their first, tentative shoots of pale green; the horses and dogs all seemed calm. Dúfa and one other puppy were the only ones left; Asher planned to keep the other one, a perfect, classic specimen of a German pointer, whom he had named Henrik. The remaining chickens were fine and annoying as ever.
