“Yes.” She gestured with her chin to the truck. “Let’s get back to the house.”
“You think Salem is calm enough yet?” I asked in amusement.
“I’ll drive slow.”
Muddy was just parking the truck out front when Hadley ran around the side of the ranch house, screaming her head off.
The two of us jumped out of the truck as fast as we could and I ran to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Fig,” she yelled. “Fig got a vole!”
I frowned in confusion.
Muddy sighed. “She’s part beagle.”
Hadley burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.
“What’s a vole?” I asked.
Hadley was too stricken to reply, so Muddy replied for her.
“They look like mice,” Muddy explained. “But cuter.”
“And chunkier,” Hadley blubbered. “And Salem’s dog found one and—and?—”
“Ate it?” Muddy supplied. “Killed it?”
“Caught it and brought it to Salem and put it in her lap,” Hadley wailed. “It’s still bleeding and it’s not dead!”
“Where’s Salem?” Muddy asked.
“By the fire circle.” Hadley sniffed. “She said she can’t bear to put it out of its misery.”
Muddy patted her shoulder. “Go into the house with Poet.”
I took Hadley’s hand and led her toward the porch.
The house was empty, the remains of breakfast put away, the dishwasher whooshing quietly.
I settled Hadley onto the couch and sat next to her.
“You smell like gunpowder,” she said, her nose twitching.
“Muddy took me to shoot,” I explained.
“Oh.” She reached over to the end table and grabbed a few tissues from the tissue box.
The back door opened and a moment later, Salem came into the den. Her face was white, and her jeans were stainedwith tiny blood droplets. Fig, her beagle mutt, trotted in behind her and went to lay down in her dog bed in the corner of the room. She licked her muzzle and then lowered her head, her eyes closing as though she’d just completed a job well done.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded and then she too dissolved into tears before collapsing into Muddy’s patchwork chair.
Salem wasn’t normally a crier. But this event had set her off, apparently.
Fig got up and went to her and laid her head in Salem’s lap. Salem tried to bend over to press her head to Fig’s, but her belly got in the way. That only made her cry harder.
