Molly’s head came up. “I have done nothing I’m ashamed of,” she said evenly. “Have you?”
“No. But-”
“ ‘But.’ Your favorite word,” she said bitterly. She walked away from me.
“Molly!” I sprang after her, seized her by the shoulders.
She spun and hit me. Not a slap. A solid punch in the mouth that rocked me back and put blood in my mouth. She stood glaring, daring me to touch her again. I didn’t. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t fight back. Only that I didn’t want you caught up in it. Give me a chance to fight this my way,” I said. I knew blood was running over my chin. I let her look at it. “Trust that given time, I can find them and make them pay. My way. Now. Tell me about the men. What they wore, how they rode. What did the horses look like? Did they speak like Buck folk, or Inlanders? Did they have beards? Could you tell the color of their hair, their eyes?”
I saw her trying to think, saw her mind veer away from thinking about it. “Brown,” she said at last. “Brown horses, with black manes and tails. And the men talked like anybody else. One had a dark beard. I think.. It’s hard to see face down in the dirt.”
“Good. That’s good,” I told her, though she had told me nothing at all. She looked down, away from the blood on my face. “Molly,” I said more quietly. “I won’t be coming … to your room. Not for a while. Because …”
“You’re afraid.”
“Yes!” I hissed. “Yes, I’m afraid. Afraid they’ll hurt you, afraid they’ll kill you. To hurt me. I won’t endanger you by coming to you.”
She stood still. I could not tell if she was listening to me or not. She folded her arms across her chest, hugged herself..