Mary was glad Patrick was not inclined to stay and talk with the man. He seemed to want to get to his farm as quickly as he could. He urged his mule t... quicken its pace. As mile after mile of dusty desert dropped behind them, Mary was left with her own thoughts, conjuring acceptable reasons for Patrick's behavior. The day was hot and apt to make the best of men cantankerous. Hadn't she herself been impatiently sharp with him? Patrick had traveled half a day on foot, without a chance to clean up. She began to pump it in rhythm with his strokes...But it was too late. Chrissy had been moving faster and faster, and crying louder and louder, and now she suddenly arched her back, uttered one final, drawn-out cry—“AHHHHHHHhhhhh!”—and collapsed onto the sawhorse.The sudden quiet was startling. Now there was nothing but the sound of three people breathing heavily. Jane quickly backed away, not wanting Chrissy to hear her. Not that there was much chance of that, Jane thought. She walked. ”Once out of the living room, they turned right and walked on down the hallway, took a right, then eventually took a left before Jeff stopped at the second door on the left.“This place is...”“Big,” Jeff inserted with a chuckle. “It was originally designed and built to be a conference center/retreat for the Wainwrights and some of their employees, but logistics in the winter made it difficult to get everyone up here ... and back, so I wound up with it as partial payment for one of my inventions.. Her grandma needed to get help in her house and was refusing it.We decided to put on a movie. Hanging out in the living room, for whatever reason, I started taking glances at Shannon. I'd never really paid attention to her more than talking to her, laughing and joking with her. Until this evening.She was stretched out on the love seat in the living room. My daughter Karson was stretched out in the recliner with her feet up. Shannon had her legs hanging over the arm of the love seat. I couldn't.