But shame would not bridle her tongue forever. Susannah knew that without a second’s hesitation. Surely Tonia did as well?

After lunch there were chores to do, dishes, preparation for the evening meal, wood to collect and a little to cut. In the middle of the afternoon Kate announced that she would go for a walk around the inland water, preferably alone, and look for the blue herons.

Susannah turned to Tonia. “I’d like to go along the beach again. Will you come with me?” Perhaps she could persuade her out of the quarrel.

“Of course,” Tonia agreed. “That’s an excellent idea.”

Susannah was pleased, and surprised. Maybe it was not going to be so difficult after all.

It was a little cooler than yesterday, but still pleasant, and the tide was even farther out, leaving them plenty of room to walk along the sand below the stones.

Tonia was smiling. Her shoulders were tense and she walked with purpose rather than ease, but still it was a great improvement on the morning. Perhaps she had gone as far as she meant to?

Susannah was undecided whether to say anything or not. Now might be her only chance. Three more days of this bitter innuendo would be unbearable. How could she do it without betraying herself?

“Tonia?”

“Yes?” They had stopped walking and were staring at the tumbling water.

“Do you have to go on making such a point of Kate getting caught in the wave? Does it really matter?”

Tonia bit her lip thoughtfully, then she looked sideways back at Susannah. “Do you mean that I should forget all the past, and think only of the moment now, and the future?” she asked. Her eyes were narrowed a little, intent on the answer, her expression completely unreadable.

“I didn’t mean anything so sweeping,” Susannah replied, and then knew instantly that it was a lie, and not a good one. Tonia did not believe it. That was exactly what she had meant. She stumbled to retrieve it. “Just not the wave, the… the brambles. It sounds as if…”

She did not know how to finish.

Tonia was smiling, not with warmth but with amusement, an inner anticipation as if she foresaw exactly where they were going, and intended it. “Yes?”

“As if you’re deliberately trying to provoke her,” Susannah finished lamely.

“Oh? Why on earth do you imagine I would want to do that?” Tonia asked. She looked absolutely innocent, but in that instant Susannah knew with an ice-cold certainty that Tonia was perfectly aware of the love affair between Ralph and Kate, and that she intended to exact her revenge for it, slowly, drop by drop if necessary. It was in her eyes, like a hard, bright edge, and in her smile.

Susannah drew in her breath. Dare she say it, openly? There was something in Tonia that made her hesitate, a power, and memory of the days when she had been the eldest sister, to be admired, obeyed, whose praise mattered most.

“Because you’re grieving for Ralph, and you want to hurt her,” she said aloud. It was a compromise, half of the truth.

“My grieving for Ralph makes me want to hurt Kate?” Tonia asked. “Or are you suggesting his death has unhinged my mind?”

“No! Of course not!” Susannah protested.

“It might have,” Tonia replied, her eyes narrowed against the sharp, afternoon sun reflected off the white water. “After all, to have your husband sent to prison for five years, subjected to the vile life inside such a place, forced to mix with the worst people in our state, and then finally driven into a corner by them, and murdered like an animal-don’t you think that could be enough to drive some women out of their senses?”

She knew! It was a sick certainty twisting like a knife in the pit of Susannah’s stomach. Tonia knew that it was she who had told the police about Ralph. Did she also know that Ralph had tried to make love to her, not because he cared for her, or even was attracted to her, but in order to use her in his corruption? No, probably not. She opened her mouth to defend herself, and realized there was no defense. Tonia did not care why; the fact was all that mattered. She did not want reason; she wanted pain in payment for her own.

Susannah gulped, her mouth dry, her legs suddenly weak. She was afraid, and furious with herself for it. Had it been anyone except Tonia she might have been able to face them. She was not wrong! What else could she have done? Sleep with Ralph, betray the bank so he could use the money to win a Senate seat? Was that what Tonia would have wanted?

Yes, probably. Ralph didn’t love her! He was arrogant enough to think a smile from him, a little passion that would pass for love, and she would do whatever he wanted. He would throw her away afterward, and she would be too mortified, too ashamed to tell anyone.

“Yes,” she said aloud, looking back at Tonia. “I suppose it might be enough to drive some people mad-but you’re not ‘some people.’ You won’t lose sight of reality. It was a tragedy Ralph was murdered. It wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t Kate’s fault either. They got the man who did it, and he’s been executed.”

“Oh, yes,” Tonia agreed. “He’s dead.” There was a look of momentary, intense satisfaction in her face, almost joy. “Did I suggest it was Kate’s fault? I didn’t mean to. No, Kate would never have hurt Ralph, I know that. And she wouldn’t have wanted him in prison either.” Her voice was laden with meaning, her face hard, the wind whipping her dark hair across it.

They were twenty yards from where the breaking water reached, and as they stood there another sneaker wave came racing up the sand and stopped only a couple of feet short of Tonia’s shoes. She ignored it, as if she knew she were impervious to such things. There was something frightening in her calm, the sense of complete control in her eyes, her face, even the way her body braced against the wind.

Susannah was as certain as she was of nightfall that Tonia intended to take her revenge, her own concept of justice, for Kate’s betrayal of her, and for Susannah’s. She could do it here, away from Astoria, where no one else would see her, and she would do it slowly, carefully and completely. What she did not know was how.

Tonia was smiling at her, a cruel, half-excited smile that finally hid nothing. All her hurt and fury were in it, her knowledge of Kate and Ralph, and the way they had laughed and loved behind her back, and that Ralph had made the fatal mistake of trying the same trick, but without the heart, on Susannah as well-not for lust but for profit. But she could not be wooed or flattered into corruption. She had turned him in, which had ultimately cost him his life, and so finally stolen him from both Tonia and Kate.

How would Tonia do it? Poison in the food, or the water? A pillow over her face when she slept, and blame Kate for it? An accident of some sort, a slip in the bath, perhaps, and drown in the hot, soapy water? A fall somewhere, even over the cliff. One would not have to go more than ten or twelve feet onto the rocks; that would be enough.

Or the sea? Something to do with those magnificent, pounding waves with their terrifying, exhilarating beauty, and the power of a thousand miles of ocean behind them, sucking back under, dragging in with the undertow, those hungry, unpredictable sneaker waves that reached out farther than the rest, and pulled the unwary, even off dry land.

“You look as if you have been caught with your hand in the cookie jar, Susannah!” Tonia said with only the slightest sneer in her voice. “Are you afraid of being sent to bed without any supper?”

Susannah spread her hands wide. “I haven’t taken any cookies!”

“Oh you did, my dear! You just couldn’t hold on to them!” Tonia answered. “No cookies for anyone now. But let’s go back and have supper. I promise you can have a share of everything!” She started to walk back along the sand, striding out easily, her arms loose at her sides and her steps graceful.