Andrez stepped forward and handed her a cigarette, cupping his hand around the tip. He lit it from a wooden match.

Ingram removed a crystal tumbler from the disarray of glasses, the remains of Sarah's search for the sword. She looked at the desk. The Quanoon and Opusculis glared at her.

The whiskey Ingram handed her burned its way down her throat, into her stomach. She chased it with a hard drag on the cigarette.

Andrez stood in front of the desk, looking down at her. "I am, quite frankly, frightened of your mother. She's quite... how do you say... fierce. Formidable."

"She's a goddamned bitch," Sarah said, the words popping out of her mouth of their own volition. "She always has been. She'll tolerate you, let you go along with your life, until what you want and what she wants don't...jibe." She took another swallow from her glass. "Then she'll rip you apart like a damned-"

"A wolf?" Andrez inquired, looking at her strangely.

"The disease makes her face look like that. It's a minor symptom of the lupus."

Andrez shook his head sadly. "Maybe she got this disease because she resembles a wolf on the inside. Eh?"

Sarah shook her head. "No. It's just a disease. And wolves aren't as vicious as she is, anyway."

The little man smiled, then looked to the door. Reuben stood there, in his overalls, holding two large boots.

"Sorry to bust in on you like this, Miss Sarah, but nobody answered the door. I got some shoes here for Mr...."

"Ingram," the big man said. "Why're they all dirty?"

"Big Jim was a farmer, Mr. Bull. Spent his days knee deep in mud, may he rest in peace."

"A dead man's boots."

"That's right, Mr. Ingram."

Ingram laughed and took them, and Reuben nodded at Sarah as he left.

They were quiet for a moment as Ingram sat down on the window banquet and rolled up the cuffs of his pants.

"I saw something strange from Mama's window." Sarah opened the desk drawer again and withdrew a piece of paper and the nub of a well-chewed pencil. She scratched on the paper for a moment and then turned the paper around so that Ingram and Andrez might see.

"Andrez," she asked, placing one finger on the paper. "Do you recognize this?"

He nodded. "It's Hastur's sign. The yellow sign, but in this case, not yellow but bloody. The question is why? The sign usually appears at a place where there's a covenant in effect. Or, more likely, a territorial marker to let any other entities know that he has possession of this place or person. But I don't understand how it could be either in this case."

Andrez looked at the Quanoon and Opusculus on the desk. "Unless..." The little man's hand went to his chin, as if he had a beard there to stroke. He sat like that for a long time, then shook his head.

"I don't know, but we must be on our guard. It's no small matter when gods-even this one that Bull has faced down-start meddling in the affairs of men."

There was nothing Ingram could say to that. He refreshed their drinks, pouring the whiskey with a large, unsteady hand. He took Sarah's glass, and she turned her head from staring at the Quanoon to smile at him. He set the bottle back down.

"Don't scratch, Bull. You're gonna make them worse."

"What?" He looked down, realizing that his good hand fretted at the wound on his chest. "Oh." He dropped his arm and took up a tumbler.

He raised it up to the light coming from the window. "Well, here's to weird shit and dead birds."

Andrez tsked. "No, Bull, don't toast to the bad." He took up his own glass. "Here's to the strength of new friends."

They raised their glasses, and drank.

Chapter 17.

In the late afternoon, when the yellow light slanted into the library, the children returned from swimming at Old River Lake with far less noise than their departure.

Franny went to her mother, her bare feet making soft slaps on the hardwood. She leaned into Sarah's chest and looked at Ingram. The exhaustion showed on her face, her body. Sunburnt across the nose, she held her index and middle fingers in her mouth and sucked at them busily, an old habit Sarah thought she'd broken her of.

Franny popped her fingers out of her mouth and asked, "Is he staying here, Mommy?"

She smiled and said, "Yes, baby. For a little while."

"Good," the girl said.

From the door, Alice said, "Sarah, I'm gonna take Lenora and Fisk on to the kitchen, get 'em some dinner. Send lil Fran in when she's ready."

Franny turned to Ingram.

"How tall are you?"

"Tall."

"How tall is that?"

He held a hand flat on top of his head.

"This tall."

"That's not what I meant."

"I don't know really. Pretty tall. I gotta duck going into most rooms."

"I wanna be that tall when I grow up."

He thought about what she said. Sarah and Andrez watched him. The awkwardness he showed around others disappeared as he spoke with the girl.

"Why would you want to be as tall as me? People look at me funny. People make fun of me for being so big. They call me animal names. It's not that swell, believe me."

"If I was that tall, what do you think they'd call me?"

Ingram rubbed his chin, looking at the ceiling. "Beanpole, maybe. Giraffe."

She laughed, her body hitching. "Stilts," she said.

"I like giraffe. You ever see one?"

"No."

"They're from Africa, and they eat the leaves from the top of trees. They're beautiful. If you grew as tall as me, you'd have to be part giraffe."

Franny pushed away from her mother and approached Ingram. He kneeled.

She reached out and touched his chest above his heart, where the bandages were visible under his shirt.

"Does it hurt?"

"Franny, don't ask such personal questions," Sarah said.

Ingram glanced at Sarah, frowning. He turned back to Franny.

"It hurt when it happened, but it just itches now."

"Were they really mad?"

"Who?"

"The people who hurt you."

"Yeah. I guess they were. But don't ask me why."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know why they were mad. Maybe they just stay that way, mad at everybody. All the time."

Franny frowned. "I wouldn't want to be them."

"Me neither."

"I'm glad you're staying with us, Bull."

"Me too, Franny. Me too."

She patted his good hand, like a parent patting a child's. He seemed surprised by the gesture. He grinned.

"I'm hungry. Are you hungry, Franny? Why don't we go get some dinner with Alice?"

"And Fisk and Lenora. I'll bet you were really hungry once you woke up. You slept for a really long while."

"Yeah. I had funny dreams."

Franny took Ingram's hand, pulling him away from the library into the hall.

"I have funny dreams too. Crazy dreams. Really. About dogs that live in the attic. Some are nice and funny. Some are mean."

After they left, Andrez chuckled and said, "That's an odd couple."

"She wants a father. She hasn't said anything about her own since we came back to the Big House, but she wants a dad." Sarah drained the last of her drink then stood, smoothing the front of her dress. "Bull just had more of a conversation with her than Jim ever did." She looked down at her wedding band. "I don't need a lecture."

"I'm not going to give you one. But you like him, don't you?"

Sarah looked at the priest, unflinching.

"He's quite possibly the loneliest person I've ever met. But I do like him. It's strange, but even before he awoke I felt... I don't know. Confused. I felt like I knew him. I was afraid of him. But drawn to him too."

He nodded. "Does that scare you?"

"It makes me wonder if I'm crazy. Everything is happening all at once, and I don't understand anything. The world, my... reality... is shattered. I'm terrified and excited all at once."

"Sarah, your reality hasn't changed. Your perception of it has, and that is what's important."

She bowed her head, thinking. "Let's go get some dinner. It's getting dark soon and, quite frankly, I'm not inclined to drive you back to Stuttgart. So we need to figure out where you're gonna bunk down."

"I don't sleep much. Maybe two hours a night. I never managed to sleep well after... after what happened to my mother. I can just remain here, in the library, if that's all right. I'd like some time to study the Quanoon and look into the Opusculus a little more." He waved his hand toward the stacks of books littering the floor. "I'd like to do a little indexing as well. Your father and uncle amassed a pretty unique collection here. If you don't mind?"

As she left him, she heard him open the Quanoon, gasp, and then turn the page.

Chapter 18.

Cap Hap stood on the deck of the cruiser bound for Tulagi in the dress armor of a Roman centurion. His breastplate shone silver in the Pacific sun, embossed with a scene of a bull surrounded by priests in togas. A scorpion stings the bull's testicles. A snake and a dog drink from a wound at its throat.

Hap stood with his hip cocked, one hand on his sword, grinning at Ingram.

Ingram saluted and Haptic returned it, bringing his hand sharply to the helmet with red horse-hair plume.

"At ease, marine."

Ingram relaxed, spreading his feet and keeping his hands at the small of his back.

The captain walked around him, inspecting him.