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"What did you do?" he asked softly

"I ed his body out to the woods Everybody kneas a hunter No one suspected it was anything else, or if they did, they never said anything"

"You dragged him?'' he asked in disbelief "Was your father a small man? I ht, although a bit thinner I don't knohere I got the strength," she said, shaking her head "Born of pure terror, I suppose I didn't want the children to knohat he'd done" She looked up, the expression in her eyes suddenly unsure "They still don't know"

He squeezed her hand

"I've tried not to speak ill of hi this burden for five years," he said softly "Secrets are heavy, Elizabeth They're hard to carry alone"

Her shoulders rose and fell in a weary shrug "Maybe I did the wrong thing But I panicked I didn't knohat else to do"

"It sounds as if you did exactly what needed to be done"

"He was buried in consecrated ground," she said in a flat voice "According to the church--according to everyone butcondolences, calling it such a tragedy, and it was all 1 could do not to scream out the truth"

She twisted her head to face hi, the exact color of violets "I hated that he was made to sound a hero I was the one to hide his suicide, and yet I wanted to tell everyone that he was a coward, that he had left me to pick up his pieces I wanted to shake the what a good father he was Because he wasn't" Her voice gre and fierce "He wasn't a good father We were nuisances He only wanted Mama He never wanted us"

"I' her hand

"It's not your fault"

He s to coax one from her in return "I know, but I'm still sorry"

Her lips quivered--almost a smile, but not quite "Isn't it ironic? You'd think that love is a good thing, wouldn't you?"

"Love is a good thing, Elizabeth" And he meant it He meant it more than he ever could have dreamed he would

She shook her head "My parents loved too h left over for the rest of us And when Maone--well, we just couldn't take her place"

"That is not your fault," Ja intensity "There's no lih for his whole family, that means he was flawed, not you If he'd been any sort of a man, he would have realized that his children were miraculous extensions of his love for your o on without her"