But he wasn’t heading toward the pastures. Instead he veered and started running along the east line of the property.

The cemetery. He was heading straight for it. Jenny remembered how Joe joked about Randy digging around their house. “Swear he’s trying to get to China, Jenny. You should just see him. Every spot that shows a bit of thawing, he’s into.”

If the dog ever started digging in the graves…

Jenny passed the girls, running as fast as she could on the mushy ground. “Randy,” she called again. “Randy, come here.”

Suppose Erich heard her? Puffing heavily she ran around the line of Norwegian pines that screened the graveyard and into the clearing. The gate was open and the puppy was leaping among the tombstones. In its isolated corner Caroline’s grave was covered with a blanket of fresh roses. Randy romped over it, crushing the flowers.

Jenny saw the glint of metal coming from the woods. Instantly she realized what it was. “No, no,” she screamed, “don’t shoot! Erich, don’t shoot him!”

Erich stepped from the shelter of the trees. With slow-motion precision he raised it to his shoulder. “Don’t, please!” she screamed.

The sharp crack of the rifle sent sparrows squawking from the trees. With a howl of pain the puppy crumbled to the ground, his small body sinking into the roses. As Jenny watched in disbelieving horror, Erich worked the bolt with a well-oiled click, and shot the whimpering animal again. As the echo of the blast died away, the whimpering ceased.

18

Later Jenny remembered the hours after the shooting as a nightmare, blurred and difficult to piece together. She remembered her own frantic rush to head off the girls before they saw what had happened to Randy, yanking their hands. “We have to go home now.”

“But we want to play with Randy.”

She thrust them in the house. “Wait here. Don’t come out again.”

A shirt-sleeved, grave Erich was carrying Randy’s still form; the parka he had wrapped the animal in was soaked with blood. Joe tried to blink back tears.

“Joe, I thought it was one of those damn strays. You know half of them are rabid. If I’d only realized…”

“You shouldn’t have put him on your good coat, Mr. Krueger.”

“Erich, how can you be so cruel? You shot him twice. You shot him after I called to you.”

“I had to, darling,” he insisted. “The first bullet shattered his spine. Do you think I could have left him like that? Jenny, I was frantic when I thought the girls were chasing a stray. A child nearly died last year after being bitten by one of them.”

Clyde, looking uncomfortable, shifted from one foot to the other. “You just can’t go around petting animals on a farm, Miz Krueger.”

“I’m sorry to give you so much trouble, Mr. Krueger,” Joe said apologetically.

Her own anger dissipated into confusion. Erich smoothed her hair. “Joe, I’ll replace him with a good hunter.”

“You don’t need to do that, Mr. Krueger.” But there was hope in his voice.

Joe took Randy to bury him on his own property. Taking her back to the house, Erich insisted she lie on the couch, bringing her a steaming cup of tea. “I forget my darling is still a city girl.” And then he left her.

Finally she got up and got the girls’ lunch. While they napped she rested, forcing herself to read, willing her mind to stop squirming about in hopeless worry.

“It will be a fast dinner for you two tonight,” she told Beth and Tina. “Daddy and I are going out.”

“Me too,” Tina volunteered.

“No, not you too,” Jenny said, hugging her. “For once Daddy and I have a date.” But no wonder the girls expected to be included. The few places she and Erich had gone to in this last month, he’d always insisted on bringing them along. How many stepfathers would be so considerate?

She took elaborate care with her own preparations. Soaking in a steaming tub took some of the soreness from her body. Hesitating only a minute, she filled the tub with the pine-scented bath crystals that she’d so far ignored in the bathroom cabinet.

She washed her hair and pulled it back in a Psyche knot. When she’d been in the restaurant with Kevin her hair had been loose on her shoulders.

She studied the contents of her closet, choosing a long-sleeved, hunter-green wraparound silk that accentuated her narrow waist and the green in her eyes.

Erich came into the room just as she was fastening her locket. “Jenny, you dressed especially for me. I love you in green.”

She cupped his face in her hands. “I always dress for you. I always will.”

He was carrying a canvas. “Miraculous as it might seem, I managed to finish it this afternoon.”

It was a spring scene, a new calf half-hidden in a hollow, the mother watchfully beside it, eyeing the other cattle, seeming to warn them to stay away. The sunlight filtered through pine trees; the sun was a five-pointed star. The painting had the aura of a Nativity scene.

Jenny studied it and felt all her senses quickening to its profound beauty. “It’s magnificent,” she said quietly. “There’s so much tenderness there.”

“Today you told me I was cruel.”

“Today I was terribly stupid and terribly wrong. Will this be for the next exhibit?”

“No, darling, this is my gift to you.”

She pulled the collar of her coat around her face as they went into the restaurant. The other time she’d been so anxious to escape quickly that she’d hardly noticed the details of the place. Now she realized that with its bright red carpeting, pine furniture, mellow lighting, colonial curtains and blazing fire, the inn was immensely appealing. Her eyes slid to the booth where she’d sat with Kevin.

“Right this way.” The hostess led them in that direction. Jenny held her breath but mercifully the hostess sailed past it and led them to a window table. There was a bottle of champagne already in the cooler beside the table.

When their glasses had been filled Jenny held hers up to Erich. “Happy birthday, darling.”

“Thank you.”

Quietly they sipped.

Erich was wearing a dark gray tweed jacket, a narrow black tie, charcoal gray trousers. His thick charcoal eyebrows and lashes intensified the blue of his eyes. His bronze-gold hair was highlighted by the flickering candle on the table. He reached for her hand.

“I enjoy taking you to places for the first time, darling.”

Her mouth went dry. “I enjoy being everywhere… anywhere with you.”

“I think that’s why I left that note. You’re right, sweetheart. I wasn’t only teasing. I was jealous watching Joe teach you to ride. All I could think was that I wanted to share the first minute you were on Fire Maid. I suppose it’s as though I’d bought you a piece of jewelry and you’d worn it for someone else.”

“Erich,” Jenny protested. “I just thought it would be nice for you not to be bothered with the ABCs of the learning process.”

“It’s not unlike the house, is it, Jenny? You came in, and in four weeks you try to transform a historical treasure into a New York studio complete with bare windows and spider plants. Darling, may I suggest a birthday present for me? Take a little time to find out who I am… who we are. You accused me of cruelty when I shot an animal I thought might attack our children. May I suggest that you in a different way shoot from the hip utterly without justification? And, Jenny, I have to say this, you have the distinction of being the first Krueger woman in four generations to create a scene in front of a hired hand. Caroline would have fainted dead away before she would publicly criticize my father.”

“I’m not Caroline,” Jenny said quietly.

“Darling, just understand that I’m not cruel to animals. I’m not unreasonably rigid. That first night in your apartment I could see you didn’t understand why I was astonished that you gave MacPartland money; the same thing on our wedding day. But it’s come back to haunt us, hasn’t it?”