The sun had passed its zenith and was beginning to head down into the afternoon, while two great fires had been constructed and lit. The delicious smells of food cooking wafted across.

“Sit. Sit!” Bethany said, staring at her puppy. Fiddler just rolled over and waved his legs in the air.

“That ain't how you do it,” Joe Frye said. “You gotta show them what to do.”

“How?”

Joe picked the dog up and planted his four feet in the dirt. “You push his bottom down and say ‘sit’ at the same time.”

“Show me?” She smiled at him.

“You ain't like any two year old I know of,” Joe laughed. “But I can sure see a hell of a lot of Kaylee in you.”

“Mustn’t swear,” Bethany said firmly. “That’s bad.”

“You know, I think you’re probably right.” Joe sat down on the ground next to her. “Come on. I’ll show you how to train this ball of fluff.”

“His name’s Fiddler.” She looked down proudly at her puppy, then covered her mouth with her hand as the little dog relieved himself, just leaning forward and letting it happen, the puddle growing ever bigger beneath him.

Joe laughed. “Somehow I don’t think Fiddler’s quite the right name.”

Bethany giggled.

“You want more children,” Eleanor Frye said, coming up behind Freya where she sat at one of the tables, her footfalls soft on the dry, dusty earth.

Watching Bethany and the youngest Frye boy playing with the golden puppy, Freya nodded. “A girl.”

“For your husband to spoil.”

“Something like that.”

Ellie smiled and sat down next to her. “That’s how Eddie was. All those boys and he so wanted a girl. I think we’d have had hundreds if’n it meant getting a girl for him.”

Freya laughed. “Well, you’ve certainly got a good one in Kaylee.”

“And little Bethany.” She watched Joe lift her granddaughter into the air, making the little girl squeal with delight. “She’s a darling.”

“That she is.”

“Kaylee says … she tells me you’re psychic.”

Freya was surprised. “I didn’t … that’s not exactly common knowledge.”

“And it won’t go fur