Page 89 of The Frozen River

“Stop.” She turns on her father, and he blinks in surprise. This may be the first time she has ever directly defied him. “You cannot let this happen.”

“This,” he warns, “has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me,” she hisses.

Dolly leaves my side and trudges through the snow to stand in front of Barnabas. She isn’t quite as tall as I am, but she raises herself to her full height nonetheless.

“Do not do this,” she tells him.

“I have to.” Still his gaze is pinned on Cyrus.

“Please.”

“You don’t understand. I have—”

“I understand perfectly.”

I’d wondered perhaps if her feelings for Barnabas were rooted in infatuation. He is the first man who’s ever paid her serious attention after all. And that tends to addle a girl’s mind. But no. I hear it there in her trembling voice. She cares for him. But she loves her brother.

“If you arrest him, I will never speak to you again. Not one time. Ever.”

It’s the wrong thing to say. And she knows it the moment the words have slipped into the cold, brittle air. But she is stubborn, like me, and won’t back down now that she’s taken a stand.

His eyes shutter and his spine stiffens. My husband was right. This has nothing to do with Dolly. And the fact that she’s inserted herself into a matter of the court has disappointed Barnabas Lambard.

His voice is as cold as river ice when he answers, “I am sorry to hear that.”

Barnabas doesn’t see the slap coming. I’d guess he hears it before he feels it. But by then she’s turned away and is marching down the path toward the house.

He is dumbfounded.

But Cyrus is grinning.

And Ephraim can’t decide whether to laugh or charge after his daughter.

So I’m the one to speak.

“Cyrus didn’t kill anyone,” I say.

“I know that.” Barnabas’s voice is strangled. And he spares one, longing glance at Dolly’s retreating form. “I do. And it will bear out in court soon enough. You’ll see. There’s nothing. Not a single witness who saw him near Burgess after the Frolic.”

“Then why is the court doing this?”

“To prove that they’ve followed through on the matter. That they were thorough. In case questions are asked.”

“Are questions being asked?”

“Yes. But not about Cyrus. The concern is to do with North. He got away, and they don’t want their authority being called into question. More has happened in this county during the last four months than in the last four years. Every single judge on that court is under a lot of scrutiny.”

“From whom?”

“The Supreme Judicial Court.”

“So my son has fallen prey to politics?”

“I wish I could say it isn’t true.”

Ephraim narrows his eyes. “And you’re willing to be part of this?”