Tyves 16th, 1513 – River Sulis, Lothianshire, Albion

The big iron gate squealed as Anna-Marie pushed against it, sending up a tortured sounding shriek. And of course with the dusk had come a summer storm, which was building up fog like some giant blowing smoke rings. She bit her lip and tried to orient herself. She didn’t come here very often. She didn’t have any reason to.

She knew–at least in daylight–how to get to where Cookie and Ayla were, Darry had brought her a couple of times. And once, just once, Elias had brought her to see his mama. Anna-Marie shivered as a cool breeze made it’s way up her back, or maybe it was the way that same breeze stirred the fog.

There was a lantern at every crossroads. And there was a statue of some sort, with lanterns by Elias’ mama, so, hopefully she wouldn’t lose her way. Oh, why couldn’t she have just told Mama or Papa where she thought Elias was and let them go try and find him. Because this was her fault and it was too like what Romeo’d do to just drop fixing it into someone else’s lap.

She sucked in a deep breath, her head twisting around. She wasn’t scared–or at least until an owl hooted, somewhere out there in the dark, and she jumped. Maybe a little scared. And grass rattled behind her and she was lost.

“Yer alright, sweetie.” A voice seemed to say from somewhere out there in the mist. But she didn’t see anything. “Just head up th’ rise there an ye’ll see the lanterns.” It was a strange voice, sorta like someone whispering in her ear, sorta like someone speaking in her head.

It couldn’t be anything too bad. This was a churchyard and the Lord Wright wouldn’t let anything bad happen to anyone in a churchyard. So, maybe–well, if the lady was right, there’d be light ahead and she could see, and if she wasn’t then Anna-Marie could just turn right around and walk back down the rise and find the path again.

Easy, right? Again there was a feeling of something out there in the mist, like an arm settling around her shoulder, a smell like warm baking bread and cinnamon and–floor wax? But she still couldn’t see anything. But she squared her shoulders and marched up the rise that voice had wanted her to climb and yes, right there, ahead was some sort of statue. A big crescent moon with lanterns hanging off it under a big old weeping willow tree. And just off in the mist she could see the statue of St. Vivian.

Anna-Marie thought she knew where she was now and the feeling, the smell started to float away into the mist, with one last ghostly sensation of someone smoothing her hair back. “Thank you.” She whispered to whatever it had been with her.

She walked a little closer to the moon-statue-thing. “Who’s there?” A suspicious voice called out, sharp and much more sim than what had been with her in the dark and the mist. And it was a familiar one.

“Elias?” She asked, peering around the moon statue.

“What do y’want?” He sounded near as sullen as Romeo. To make this right. She thought. Because nobody should be out here in the mist. Not when they could be home with their family snug in their house.

“I wanted to ‘pologize.” She told him, though he didn’t move.

“How’d you know I’d be here.” He asked, staring up at the sky.

“Cause your mama’s here?” Anna-Marie bit her lip. “I wanted my mama and papa tonight too an’ Romeo was a lot meaner to you.”

“My papa doesn’t care.” Elias said.

“Elias Butcher, don’t be a stupid-head. I knewed you were missin’ cause your papa came to our house looking for you, an’ your step-mama too.” Anna-Marie planted her hands on her hips and glared at him.

“My papa came to your house?” Elias said, his voice cracking a little. “I don’t believe you!” He added a moment later, loud, it seemed to bounce off the mist and the trees. Anna-Marie took a deep breath, getting ready to shout him down. Maybe she was dumb and this was her fault, but Elias was being dumb too.

“Anna-Marie!” Her mama called from somewhere in the mist behind us.

“Elias, oh, Wright you scared me.” Elias’ papa said, pounding up out of the fog, Mrs. Butcher hard on his heels. “What were you thinking?” If he still thought that his papa didn’t care about him, Anna-Marie would give him such a piece of her mind.

“‘M sorry, papa.” He said, face crumpling. “I didn’t mean to make you worry. Y’shouldn’t haveta worry ’bout me.”

“‘Course I’m gonna worry about ye, Elias.” Mr. Butcher knelt next to Elias who buried his face in his hands. Maybe this was what Romeo didn’t understand, maybe the Lord Wright had made it so people could cry for a reason. Because sometimes you were hurt and the hurt needed to get out somehow. “Ye’re my son.”

“But you have Kian now.” Elias whimpered.

“That doesn’t change what I have with ye, Elias. You will always be my son, even when I’m old and totterin’ around on a cane and ye are too.” Mr. Butcher pulled Elias against him as the sky started to cry too. “Ye’re stuck with me worrin’ ’bout you.”

“Papa,” He shook his head and started to try and pull away from his papa, but Elias’ papa was smarter than that, or maybe he’d just figured out he’d forgotten one too many hugs because he just pulled Elias closer.

“Why would you run off, Elias?” Mr. Butcher asked as Elias sniffled and sobbed into his hands.

“Cause Romeo said you don’t love me no more cause you’ve got the twins.” Elias sobbed out and that seemed all he could sob out because he became incoherent after that. Anna-Marie swallowed hard.

“Romeo? Romeo Rose from next door? Why would he tell you that?” Mr. Butcher asked.

“Cause I told his papa that he’d been teasing Elias an’ callin’ him a crybaby.” Anna-Marie said, dinner and guilt swirling together and trying to climb up her throat from her tummy. “An’ Guardsman Rose told Romeo he had to do double chores til Hybel cause he’d been being a bully an’ so Romeo come out and told us that of course we’d tattle cause you don’t love Elias no more with Kian and Violet ’round.”

“And he didn’t say anything to you?” Mr. Butcher asked.

“He didn’t get the chance, Anna-Marie punched him in the face ‘fore he could.” Elias muttered to his hands. Elias’ papa stared hard at Anna-Marie for a moment, before stroking Elias’ hair.

“Well, Romeo is wrong, Elias. I love ye so much and I wouldn’t never fergive m’self if anything happened to ye. Never.” Mr. Butcher said. “An’ I suppose I deserve ye thinkin’ ye couldn’t tell me ’bout Romeo.” He shook his head “But why didn’t ye tell Star. I thought–,” He trailed off looking at his wife.

“She isn’t my mama.” Elias reminded him.

“Well, no, she’s not. But.” Mr. Butcher sighed.

“An’ if I start thinkin’ about her like a mama, won’t I forget my mama?” Elias asked.

“Oh, Elias. No, ye won’t forget yer mama. She’s in here.” He put his hand over Elias’ heart. “An’ she’ll always be there. She’s there in ye an’ in Marina an’ she’ll be there whenever you need her. But sometimes…” He trailed off again.

“Sometimes you need a friend, eh?” Mrs. Butcher said, speaking for the first time. “An’ if you need a friend, you can come to me anytime, okay?” Elias nodded. Mrs. Butcher leaned down and gave him a quick hug. “Now, at the risk of sounding like a mama, it’s raining and this mist is getting mistier by the moment an’ we should all get home before we’re soaked to the bone.”

Mr. Butcher put an arm around Elias’ shoulder and lead him off into the gloom, Mrs. Butcher close by the other side. “Papa Bear is right.” Anna-Marie’s mama said. “We can’t fault your heart. But sometimes, me lass, I wonder ’bout your brains.” She ruffled Anna-Marie’s hair before they too walked off into the mist.

—

Tyves 18th, 1513

“Colby!” Eve gave him an enthusiastic, just shy of bone crushing hug. “I was beginning to think you were a figment of my imagination. Reggie says you come by, but it’s always when I’m at lessons.”

“Sorry, Eve. When you’re at lessons is when I can get away.” Colby told his baby sister.

“You could bring the kids with you. I can play with them while you talk with Reggie.” Eve told him with a light poke in the torso. While Eve was a ball of energy, a comet of laughter and warmth that could light up any room, attention pretty much always settled on the man on the other side of the desk.

Even just sitting casually, white shirt stretched taut over broad cafe au lait shoulders, energy seemed to pulse and swirl around him. There really was no question as to how Reggie could hold an empire the size he did, five minutes in his company would tell you that even if Miguel, Captain of the idiots as well as the Guard of River Sulis always wondered it.

Colby could have told him, of course, but he chose to not remind people that he and Reggie were related. Miguel would either question Colby’s loyalty–or he’d come up with some moronic plan for how to use Colby against his brother.

“So what does bring you here?” Eve flounced into one of the ornate chairs on this side of the desk.

“Well… I need advice.” Colby admitted to his hands. And he might be a man grown with four children, but he still came to his elder brother when he needed it.

“Divorce your wife and set your eldest son up as a cabin boy under a captain with a hard reputation, I know a few, if you’d like some recommendations.” Reggie said with a smirk.

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Colby snorted sarcastically.

“Well, I think it’s good advice.” Reggie sending a wink to Eve.

“Romi would never forgive me if I sent Romeo away.” Colby said.

“He’d come back–hopefully with some sort of better perspective and a work ethic. And maybe not be such a little brat.” Reggie told him, thoughtfully. “But what did you need advice on?”

“Well, Romeo–actually. The Osmonts little girl, Anna?” Colby frowned that didn’t sound quite right.

“Anna-Marie.” He should have known that Reggie would know. He probably knew the name of every chicken in River Sulis, let alone ever child.

“Aye. Anna-Marie dragged the Butcher boy over to my house on Saturday. Romeo’s apparently been bullying the kid something fierce. And don’t say you told me so. I know you did.”

“When do I ever say I told you so?” Reggie asked with a quirked eyebrow. Okay, well, he didn’t say he told you so, even when he had. With Colby he didn’t have to. Colby was so used to hearing it from his wife that even if no one else said it, he still knew it.

“I made him apologize to the boy and gave him extra chores for a couple months in hopes that that might straighten him out–just a little.” Colby sighed. “But right after I gave him the punishment, he went outside and picked another fight with Elias.” Reggie shook his head. “But he might have bit off more than he could chew, because he did come back in the house with a bloody nose.”

“Elias Butcher gave Romeo a bloody nose?” Eve asked, sounding startled. How would–oh, yeah, Marina, Elias’s older sister was old enough to run in the same crowd that Eve did. She probably knew the kid enough to know that it was highly unlikely. Colby couldn’t claim to know either kid well, he didn’t have any children Marina’s age and quite obviously Elias wasn’t one of Romeo’s regular cronies.

“No. I’m pretty sure the bloody nose probably came from Anna-Marie.” Reggie said with a wry chuckle. “The Osmont girl is a spit-fire if nothing else.”

“Oh.” Eve said with a nod.

“So obviously taking the trash out every night isn’t going to solve the problem.” Colby sighed. “But hell if I know what to do with him that might make him see the error of his ways.”

“You could send him over here.” Reggie told him.

“Even if Romi wouldn’t flip, I’m not sure that Romeo would see that as a punishment.” Colby told him. Thinking back to all the times he had heard Romeo lording it over other children that his uncle was Reginald Rose.

“He’d probably get it soon enough if I have him helping old Ed spread manure in the flowerbeds and he gets stuck polishing the marble.” Reggie said.

“I dunno, Reg. Romeo seems to think that he’s gonna grow up to be just like you some day. Not me, slaving away at the city guard with nothing to show for it.”

“Because your wife doesn’t understand the concept of a budget.” It was Eve who said that, but still Colby winced.

“Still, he thinks being–what you are is–flashy.” Colby said with a sigh.

“He’ll never be what I am, unless he changes his personality entirely. And quite honestly I wouldn’t hire him, even as a grunt, with any personality I see him growing. But you’re right that we need to do something because I can think of a few people who would love to put one in your eye and mine by hiring him on.” Reggie folded his hands before standing up and heading over to pour himself some wine.

“I know what we do.” Eve said with a grin. “We do like Reggie suggested and have him come over to sweep floors and polish the marble and spread the manure and what not. And then we don’t bother hiding all the disreputable characters that Reggie has to deal with on a day to day basis from him like usual.”

“It’s partially our fault that he thinks it’s so glamorous to be–whatever Reggie is.” Eve sighed. “We have tried our best to hide the bad parts from the kids, you just still try and hide the worst parts from me when you can.” Colby and Reggie shared a shrug. “But if he sees some of the absolutely creepy guys who waltz in and out of this office, maybe he’ll see it’s not all sunshine and roses.”

“Maybe.” Colby said dubiously. “Romi won’t like it though.”

“Well, tell her if she’d discipline your kid then you wouldn’t have to send him to me.” Reggie told Colby flatly. Colby sighed. “It’s part of being a parent–or at least acting in a parental capacity.”

“Speaking of things parents have to do that aren’t fun, Reggie, you still haven’t told me if I can go to Lady Elizabet’s birthday party with Darin yet.”

“Darin–Sara-Beth’s Darin?”

“Aye.” Reggie and Eve nodded. “Darin seems to have gotten some sort of in with the baron’s son.” Reggie shrugged.

“Aye, I figured as much when Darin got caught on a pub crawl with Lord Joshua. But–still–Darin?”

“What’s wrong with Darin?” Eve asked planting her hands on her hips.

“Well, you’ve gotta admit, Eve, this family hasn’t had the best of luck, romantically speaking, with that family.  And Darin is Sara-Beth’s brother through and through.” Colby sighed.

“It’s an invitation to a fancy dress party not a marriage proposal.” Eve tossed her head.

“I don’t know why you’re waiting for me to say yes, even if I said no, you’d just poke me til I said yes, so aye, you can go with Darin to the party.”

“Goody. Tell Romeo to be over after school tomorrow.” Eve said skipping toward the painting that hid a door between Reggie’s office and the private family portion of the house.

“That girl.” Colby sighed.

“Meh, she keeps me on my toes.” Reggie said. “And she’s a good kid.” Colby nodded and wished, just for a moment, whatever magic Reggie possessed, that it would be enough to make his son into what anyone would call a good kid.

Tyves 16th, 1513 – Outskirts of River Sulis, Lothianshire, Albion

This is all my fault. Anna-Marie thought as she shoved the door open and spilled herself out into the dying summer sunlight. What if something happened to him? She thought she knew where Elias was, but what if he wasn’t there? She picked up her skirts to run just a little faster. She had to find him!

—

Earlier that morning…

“Climb up my apple tree. Slide down my rainbow into my cellar door.” Elias was better at clapping games than Gretchen was, but not quite as good as Starla. Of course there were all sorts of boys who would give him all sorts of hell if he ever played clapping games at school, so usually Anna-Marie had to make due with Gretchen. Boys were supposed to play boys games. And girls were supposed to play girl games. And the less they had to do with each other the better.

Which was dumb to Anna-Marie, all you had to do was look at the older kids, holding hands in the schoolyard or trying to sneak off to go snog in the woods to know that while apparently boys and girls were supposed to find each other icky, it would only be a few years before you went from supposedly gross boys trying to scare you with frogs (was it weird that Anna-Marie sorta liked frogs?) to no longer gross boys trying to stick their tongues in your mouth. That sounded a lot more icky than the frogs to Anna-Marie.

But the older girls didn’t mind, so as weird as the whole tongue thing seemed to be, apparently you got over it.

Anna-Marie was glad that Elias had come over to play today. Something was going on, she could see him at the edge of the boys’ area of the playground, by the “castle” and the monkey bars–which the Reman kids sometimes called the Albion bridge for whatever reason–hands clenched into fists, or slumped against a tree staring at his shoes.

But she couldn’t go over to the boy’s section and pester whatever it was out of him, even if Elias had been her friend since they were both in nappies. Even Anna-Marie had some basic idea of the playground rules, even if she didn’t like most of them.

Still, now they weren’t on the playground and she could pester him as much as she she wanted to. Now she just needed an opening.

Anna-Marie realized someone one was coming up behind her right before she heard shoes hitting the paving stones. Elias’ sorta cringed and took his eyes away from the game.

“Are you playing a clapping game?” Like a girl?” A sneering voice that made Anna-Marie’s teeth grit. “Like a baby?”

“I am a girl, Romeo.” Anna-Marie got to her feet and dusted back of her dress off.

“He ain’t.” Romeo Rose, the bane of the classroom and playground, was still sneering when he walked around Anna-Marie  and pushed Elias in the chest. “Unless you’re still in nappies under that.” He pushed Elias again.

“I’m not in nappies!” Elias protested.

“Of course you ain’t.” Anna-Marie agreed. What kinda butthead was Romeo anyway? How did it make you flashy to do something as stupid as accuse someone of still wearing diapers? “But Romeo might be.”

The two boys looked at Anna-Marie in near identical confusion. “He might?”

“Well, he probably hasn’t got the brains to hit the pot.” Anna-Marie crossed her arms over her chest. “My mama says some of the really addle-pated people at the hospitals wear nappies.”

“What do you know about brains, you’re a girl?” Romeo’s sneer returned.

“I know lotsa girls with brains, Romeo Rose. Enough to know if you got any, they’re drowning in stupid an’ mean.” Anna-Marie told the other boy.

“Leave Anna-Marie alone.” Elias said as Romeo reared back like he was about to hit her. “Nobody wants you here, Romeo.”

“Yeah, cause I’m a boy an’ all that’s ‘llowed around is girls an’ babies.” Romeo said, giving Elias another shove before putting moose ears above his head and wagging his butt back and forth like a dog. Anna-Marie was half tempted to tell him that–or to give him another Sminese burn–and still deciding which it was when he shoved Elias a third time. “Cry-crybaby-cry cry.” He sing-songed before running off the way he came.

“I ain’t a crybaby!” Elias called after him, though his voice was cracking all over the place and he sounded like he might cry any minute. Stupid Romeo. Anna-Marie scowled for a moment. She gave him a hug. Even if that was kinda a girl thing to do.

“Romeo’s got pigeon poop in his head.” Elias didn’t even smile at that. “Didja see it, last rainstorm, he was on the castle playin’ and he went and tried to run across the playground and slid on the mud under the monkey bars.”

“Yeah. I saw. But doesn’t matter how many times he shows he’s a big dummy, people still laugh at him.” Elias muttered toward his shoes.

“Aye, they laugh at him. My grampa says people do two kindsa laughin’ at people. They laugh with ‘em, cause they’re funny or clever or whatevernot, or they laugh at ‘em. Which is cause they think they’re all flashy an’ clever.” Anna-Marie told him. “I’m pretty sure that they’re mostly laughin’ at Romeo.” That got her no response other than a slight shrug of the shoulders. Okay, different tactic. She thought.

“Hey, Elias?”

“What?”

“You ever heard the Reman kids callin’ the monkey bars an Albion bridge?” He nodded. “You know why they call it that?” She bit her lip.

“No.”

“Phooey.” Anna-Marie said.

“They’re saying people from Albion aren’t smart enough to walk on their feet.” Anna-Marie’s mother said from behind her. “What was going on out here?” Anna Marie looked at Elias who ducked his head.

“It was jist big dumb Romeo, being a dummy.” Anna-Marie said.

“Elias?” Mama asked the boy. “Is something wrong?” He shook his head fast. “Would you like to stay for lunch?” He shook his head again. “My papa’ll expect me home for lunch.” He said. “I’ll see you later, Anna-Marie.” He said before he ran off toward his house.

—

“You should tell somebody.” Anna-Marie told Elias looking up at him from the front porch at the Butcher’s home.

“That’s tattling.” Elias kicked the base of one of the stone columns. “Besides, who would I tell?”

“What about your papa?” Anna-Marie asked. He shook his head.

“He’s too busy at the shop to bother with something as dumb as this.” Elias told her. “An–” he stopped with a shrug.

“Well, then what about your…” It occurred to her after it was half out of her mouth and too late to shove it back inside that it was the wrong thing to say. That that was what his eyes had been begging her not to bring up. He took off into the house. Her manners warred for a moment with her desire to fix what her mouth had gotten her into. She hadn’t, strictly speaking, been invited in, but she wasn’t gonna let that stop her as she clambered up onto the porch and tore off toward Elias’ room after him.

Elias was standing by the quilt that his mother had made him his head bowed and face buried in his hands.

“Elias?” Anna-Marie asked.

“She’s not my mama, Anna-Marie! I don’t got a mama no more!” He sobbed into his hands. “An’ Romeo’s right. I am a crybaby.”

“You ain’t. I’d cry to if my mama were gone.”

“You’re a girl.” 

“Y’think?” Anna-Marie growled at little tired of everyone pointing that out. Her being a girl had about as much relevance in this situation as the price of tea in Smina did. “Are you really gonna listen to a dummy like Romeo? An’ even if your step-mama ain’t your mama, she likes you. She’d help.”

“She’s too busy with the twins to care about me.” Elias told her. That didn’t sound right. His half brother and sister were about the same age as Johnny and as far as Anna-Marie could tell, about a quarter of the trouble. Not one in all the times she’d come and visited the Butchers had she seen either Kian or Violet running around naked as a jaybird swinging their braises over their head.

Mrs. Butcher always had time to offer Anna-Marie a shortbread and some tea and ask how things were going. But sometimes things looked different than they were. Darry and Sara-Beth were always happy when they’d come for dinner, but she knew that her mama was worried about Sara-Beth and that Darry and Sara-Beth fought a lot. Maybe this was kinda sorta the same thing.

Okay, if telling somebody wasn’t gonna help, she needed another plan.

“Well, if we can’t tell your mama and papa–” She leaned over and whispered her plan in Elias’ ear.

—

“I got a bad feeling about this,” Elias said.

“I don’t care if you’re a girl or a cry baby, but if you’re gonna be a chicken, we’re gonna have words.” Anna-Marie pushed open the heavy metal gate her slippers seeming to echo back at her from the walls of the little hallway that lead to a second metal gate.

“Anna-Marie.”

“Come! on!” Anna-Marie told him as they stepped into the courtyard of the house. Still, she did sort of wonder at her own daring as they approached the wooden door. “It is this one, isn’t it?”

“I dunno. Maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Unless some sort of wicked witch lives in the wrong side of the house an’ is gonna eat us if we knock on the wrong door, they’ll just tell us to go next door.” Anna Marie told him, squaring up her shoulders and rapping on the door. Her papa had told her that Romeo’s papa was a guardsman, that should’ve made him a good person. Hopefully he’d give them the chance to explain.

A moment later, a man in a dark suit opened the door and stepped out into the courtyard. “Mister–er–are you Guardsman Rose?”

“Aye.” Guardsman Rose looked puzzled for a short moment, then his face cleared. “You’d be Elias Butcher–and you’d be… Raven and Eric’s little girl, wouldn’t you?”

“Aye, sir.” Anna-Marie said. Elias didn’t say anything.

“Well, Miss Osmont, what can I do for you?” If that wasn’t an opening, she’d eat her best sunhat. And she told him. Told him about how Romeo had been bullying Elias–how he’d come over seemingly only to tease them–about how he was being a general jerk. And if her voice shook, just a little, as she told it. Well, she was a fairly newly minted eight.

“Please, come inside and sit. I’m going to go get Romeo.” Guardsman Rose said at the end of Anna-Marie’s recitation. Was that good or bad? Anna Marie bit her lip but headed into the cool interior of the house with Elias trailing reluctantly after her as Guardsman Rose headed up the stairs.

She moved over to the whitewashed wood sofa with the orange cushion and sat down with an experimental bounce. Elias, she noticed, was sitting on one of the chairs by the door.

“I’m pretty sure–cause we were invited in–that we can come in a bit further than that.” Anna-Marie told him. He hadn’t said a word since she’d opened the courtyard gate. That–wasn’t good was it?

He slid off the chair and–slunk–more than walked to the sofa before sitting down next to her with obvious reluctance.

“What do you think is gonna happen?” Elias whispered.

“Um, dunno.” Anna-Marie said, then a moment later, the door opened. Guardsman Rose walked in with Romeo trailing behind him rather as Elias had trailed behind Anna-Marie.

“These two children have just been telling me about your behavior at school, Romeo.”

“They’re lyin’.”

“I bet they’re not.” Romeo’s papa said with a shake of his head.

“Why would you believe them rather th’n me?” Romeo asked sullenly.

“Because I didn’t say what they’d been telling me. It could have been good. But if you’d been being good, you wouldn’t have immediately told me they were lying.” The guardsman told his son.

“Ma says you’re not ‘posed to use that trickery guardsman stuff on us.” Romeo said.

“Well, then I guess your mother will just yell at me.” Guardsman Rose said flatly. “Have you been bullying kids and teasing them, Romeo.”

“No! It ain’t bein’ a bully to tell a crybaby he’s bein’ one. That’s what ma calls speakin’ plain.”

“That may be what your mother calls speaking plain, but I call it being a bully and as long as you live under my roof you’ll abide my rules as well as your mother’s.”

“Ma says…” Romeo trailed off as he looked at his father’s face. “What do I haveta do?”

“Apologize to Elias and stop doing it for a start.” The guardsman said.

“‘M sorry.” Romeo said to Elias. “I won’t do that no more. G’me a shake on it?” Elias looked at Anna-Marie who nodded and slid off the couch. The two boys shook.

“Anna-Marie! Elias!” Romeo called as they were walking away from the house. He ran up the corridor after them. “Thanks, you stupid tattling crybabies! Now ‘m gonna have to do double chores until Hybel all cause you had to tell my pa cause you can’t take a joke.”

She probably should’ve guessed. As her gramama liked to say “a tabby cat can’t change it’s stripes.” A bully like Romeo would probably always be a bully.

“A course you’d come tell my pa, y’ain’t got no ma, no more an’ yer pa prob’ly don’t love you no more cause he gots yer sibs to love.” Romeo sneered at Elias. “An’ you–” he started to turn to Anna-Marie but got no further.

His eyes were huge as he touched under his nose where Anna-Marie had hit him and he stared at the blood on his finger tips.

“You hit me.” He whispered as if amazed that she would have done any such thing. “I’m gonna tell my ma.”

“Then you’ll be the tattler.” Anna-Marie did her best to match Romeo’s sneer, even though it sort of made her feel slimy on the inside. “Just go put a cold wet rag on it and you’ll be fine.”

He ran back in the house and Anna-Marie turned to see if Elias was alright. He’d run to the end of the house already, head and shoulders slumped.

“I’m sorry, Elias.” Anna-Marie said.

“I have to go.” Elias told her trudging away toward his house. Anna-Marie kicked herself and headed toward her house, this whole thing had gone bad.

She’d confessed her crimes to her father upon getting home. About dragging Elias to the Roses–about talking with Romeo–even about punching him in the nose. Papa had told her that her heart had been in the right place, but that she really needed to learn that not all problems could be solved with a Sminese burn or a punch in the nose and had forgiven her, just this once, for trying to solve it that way.

“You can’t fault her heart.” Papa had told her mama when her mama got home after work.

But then things went from bad to worse, because they hadn’t hardly gotten finished with supper when the Butchers knocked on the door asking if Anna-Marie knew where Elias was. And she betted she did. But the question was–was she right?