A Little Learning by Margot Early Page A

Anyway, now we never open the enclosure unless there are three adults present.”
    Belle stood beside Lauren and reached her arms up. “I don’t like the big snake.”
    Seamus felt rejected by the preschooler and wasn’t sure why. It was natural that Belle should turn to Lauren, since she knew her sister better than she knew him.
    But before his oldest could pick up Belle, he himself raised her into his arms. Belle seemed momentarily surprised—and wary. But then she leaned against him sleepily, gazing up at his face.
    Watching, Rory smiled, and Seamus felt his heart leap. She was smiling at the two of them; at the sight of him with his youngest daughter.
    Desert fell into step behind Seamus as he carried Belle upstairs, accompanied by the other children. Belle stared at Desert and asked, “Why don’t you have hair?”
    “I shave it off because I like how I look this way. Want to feel it?”
    As they reached the kitchen, Belle stretched out a hesitant hand to touch Desert’s head.
    A young woman with glasses was just coming in the front door. “Oh, hi.”
    Seamus started, recognizing her face but unable to place it.
    Rory introduced Seamus and his children to her second housemate, Samantha, who said to Seamus, “We’ve met. I interned as a legal aide at the Women’s Resource Center one summer when your wife was there.”
    Ice chilled his veins. She’d known Janine.
    “I thought I knew you,” he managed to say.
    Rory told his family, “Well, I’ll see all of you tomorrow. Practice with your broom handle, Lauren, so you don’t forget what we learned tonight.”
    Fire staff practice, Seamus thought, as his daughter smiled in response. The reminder of Janine faded away, leaving only a faint chill. Seamus guided his children out into the dark and the cold, but felt as if he was carrying some memory of warmth with him.
    And perhaps that of Rory Gorenzi, too.
    * * *
    “Y OU KNEW HIS WIFE ?” Rory whispered the words, anxious they not be overheard by the people walking away on the other side of the door.
    Samantha nodded with a sad half smile. “She was my boss.”
    “That’s the summer you were in Telluride.” And now Rory remembered Samantha returning to Sultan and saying her boss had been shot and had died, although she’d never said any more than that. Samantha had hated Telluride, though she’d liked the work. Rory was torn between demanding to know everything and showing a little restraint. It’s just morbid curiosity, she thought. Anyhow, Seamus already told me what happened.
    “What was she like?”
    Samantha’s blue eyes grew curious. “You like him?”
    Rory waved a hand casually, indicating indifference.
    Expression skeptical, Samantha said, “Well, Janine didn’t talk about him much. In fact, I’d worked for her three weeks before I even knew she had kids. And she was nursing the littlest one then. When she talked about any of them, it was her oldest daughter; then her daughters, plural. So it was a while longer before I knew she had boys.”
    “What did she talk about?”
    “Work. Batterers. Perps. Domestic terrorists, as she called them. Psychopaths, sociopaths. Big into psychology. Very... Almost masculine. Though I don’t know why I’m saying that. She used slang a lot. Lots of profanity, too. She could be pretty abrasive, but she was also sweet with her clients. You got the feeling she’d been through some stuff herself somewhere in the past.”
    Rory considered that, weighing it with what Seamus had told her.
    “Did she say anything about him?”
    “Well, the gun was an issue. I mean, when I knew she was carrying it, I asked her if she was okay owning a gun with kids in the house. She said, ‘Look, I don’t let my husband tell me what to do.’ Then, she went through all the safety precautions she used and said she was teaching her oldest daughter to shoot. And that girl must have been, like, ten. She also said, ‘But we’re not telling him. He doesn’t get it.’”
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