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“I’m setting the oats now.” Maybe she should just curl up on the hearth and sleep next to the fire.

“What Elias said—about Elma—did Elias and Elma—” Hope’s voice cracked. She sounded painfully young.

Caty dropped the scoop into the barrel of oats and slammed down the lid. “Thy cousin wasn’t chary with her favors.”

“But Elias . . . He’s your husband!”

“I know he’s my husband!” Hadn’t she borne the weight of him these past ten years? Caty shoved at the iron arm to position the pot on the stove. Like everything else in this ramshackle house, it didn’t work the way it ought. “Go back to bed, Hope.”

Hope folded her arms across her chest, looking as self-righteous as only a woman without responsibilities of her own could look. “Not until thee tell me the truth.”

“The truth is that thy cousin was a blight on our home from the day she was born!” Caty lowered her voice, so she wouldn’t wake the children or, worse, Elias. “What thee heard—what happened before, while we were in the country—that was nothing to do with anything. Thee knows Elma meant to be married to Levi that night. Thee told me thyself.”

“She told me she meant to be married,” Hope said slowly. “It was I who said to Levi.”

“Does thee think she ran off to be married to Elias and he pushed her down the well? As thee said, he’s married already.” Never mind she’d wondered it herself. “It was with Levi she went. Thee know that. Thee know every word I said in court today was true.”

Hope gave her a long, thoughtful look. “Thee said Elma was troubled by cramps in her stomach.”

“And she was,” said Caty in frustration. Elma had had cramps for weeks after, her body revolting against her sin.

Hope took a step toward Caty. “The baby—was it Levi’s baby? Or was it Elias’s?”

“I ought never to have said anything to thee.” Exhaustion seeped deep into Caty’s bones. She ought to have known Hope was too young to understand. “As far as thee or the world knows, there was no baby.”

The light of the fire sent strange shadows flickering across Hope’s face. “I wondered why Levi wanted me to know of it. But if the baby was Elias’s . . .”

“What do thee mean, Levi wanted thee to know of it?” Horror and rage surged through Caty. She grabbed her sister’s wrist. “When did thee speak to that man?”

“He told me if I wanted to know the truth to ask thee. . . . Ouch! Caty!”

Hope tried to pull away, but Caty held fast. “Thee spoke to Levi. When did thee speak to Levi?”

“It was when I went to bring bread to the Widow Broad—”

No wonder Hope had been struck by a sudden fit of Christian charity. Caty released Hope so abruptly that her sister staggered. “Thee are as bad as Elma, sneaking and lying.”

“I wasn’t sneaking! I told thee where I was going—”

“To meet thy cousin’s killer!” Everyone abandoned her; everyone betrayed her. What had Caty done to bring this on herself? All she’d ever tried to do was be a good wife and mother and sister. . . . “I should never have brought thee here. I should have left thee home in Cornwall and never let this place corrupt thee.”

“Corrupt me? When Levi told me that thee knew something—”

Caty wanted to lift her face to the moon and howl like a dog. “Why would thee listen to him? Thee knows what he is!”

Hope stepped back, pale and remote. “I thought I did. I’m not sure now.”

“This changes nothing,” Caty said shrilly. It was like telling the children to put on their shoes; she felt like she’d said it over and over and over until the words had no meaning. “Everything I said today was true. Everything Mr. Colden said today was true. Thee knows Levi and thy cousin consorted behind locked doors. Thee knows Elma said they were to be married. Thee knows Levi came back for her that night. . . . And the way Levi behaved when we taxed him of it, wanting thee to sign that paper, saying Elma might have done away with herself. . . . Is that the behavior of an innocent man?”

“He told me there were things I didn’t know—and he was right,” Hope said in a low voice. “He told me the truth when thee didn’t.”

“Only to cause strife between us! He only wants to confuse thee.” Elias’s betrayal had hurt, but this was worse. This was her sister. “He left with her that night. I heard him leave with her that night.”

Hope only shook her head. “Could thee be easy in thy conscience if thee were wrong?”

“I’m not wrong,” said Caty, but she was speaking only to the flickering fire and the oats that would never be steeped by morning.

Hope had gone.