“No,” she said calmly and firmly. “You’re on your own, Arnie or Robert or whoever you are. If you’re smart, you’ll get a lawyer, tell him you have problems and need some help. You probably won’t go to jail that way. And, for sure, you should talk to someone about, you know, the stuff you went through.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, stepping toward her, scowling down at her.

“Whatever happened to you that makes you want to control people, that makes you depressed, makes you want to lock up little children,” she said, backing away.

“You don’t know what you’re saying. All I want to do is make it up to you,” he said. “You know, I liked you. I really did. I could take care of you. And them. It was really easy to see you needed someone like me—someone who could take charge and take care of you. You admitted it yourself—you just couldn’t do it.”

“Certainly you no longer have any kind of job,” she said to him. “What am I saying? I don’t care if you’re president of General Motors! No, Arnie. Never. No way. Be smart—get a lawyer, get some help. It has nothing to do with me.”

He made a growling sound and moved toward her, taking three quick steps.

“Stop!” Noah shouted from the side doorway into the sanctuary. “Don’t take another step. Back away from her. I mean it!”

Arnie stopped. He grinned at Noah. “You again?”

Ellie skittered to stand beside Noah and Lucy. Noah slipped his arm around her waist, pulled her against him and said, “Ellie gave you excellent advice. Find a lawyer to help you. Get some help for yourself. You’re done here.”

“This is about me and Ellie,” he said. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“Nothing there anymore, Arnie,” Noah said. “Move on. Before this gets any more complicated for you.”

The man gave a short laugh and moved quickly toward them. He reached out to grab Ellie by the wrist. Noah’s hand gripped Arnie’s forearm instantly, so the three of them were locked together. And Lucy lost it. Without warning, she snarled and lunged, sinking her teeth right into Arnie’s leg. With a howl of pain, Arnie kicked the dog off his leg and sent her skidding and yelping into a nearby pew.

In the melee, Noah lost his hold on Arnie, but Arnie continued to grip Ellie’s wrist. Ellie twisted her wrist sharply toward his thumb rather than fingers, breaking the hold. And then she kneed him hard in the groin. With a grunt, he doubled over for just a moment.

Noah stepped between Arnie and Ellie, grabbed Arnie’s arm and twisted it behind his back. “Ellie, get out of here,” he growled. Then, with Arnie’s arm as leverage, he marched him back down the church aisle toward the front entrance. As Noah pushed him toward the exit, he informed him, “You ever go near her again and I can’t be responsible for my own actions. You have no claim on Ellie, as if you ever did, and I intend to keep her safe from the likes of you. The sheriff has been called and until he gets here—”

The front entrance to the sanctuary opened and Jack and Preacher stood there. “Right here, Noah. We got him,” Preacher said, as they stepped forward, taking one arm each, dragging him toward the door. Noah was Arnie’s equal in height, though trimmer, but these two at six-two and six-four with shoulders like door frames, dwarfed him. Arnie moaned with each step, no doubt still hurting from that shot to the testicles. “Sheriff’s deputy, Henry Depardeau, should be here in ten minutes,” Jack said.

Noah turned back into the church and saw Ellie on her knees in front of Lucy. Lucy was alert, but down on her belly. When Noah came toward her, she looked up at him and gave a wag of her tail, but she didn’t get up.

“I think she’s just stunned, Noah,” Ellie said. “After her accident, maybe you shouldn’t chance it. Maybe you should take her to the vet, just to be sure.”

Noah knelt in front of Lucy, gently petting her head. “Remind me never to get into a fight with either of you girls,” he said. “Want to come with me?” he asked Ellie.

“I have to see my kids,” she said, shaking her head. “I stopped by Jo’s and they weren’t there. I came here looking for you, to tell you all about Arnie. Brie has a ton of information on him. He must have seen me come in here. Noah, did you hear the way he was talking? He just wanted to do it all over again. He said we could start over and this would all go away. He said I was his.”

“Yeah, well, he’s delusional,” Noah said. He stood up and pulled gently on Lucy’s collar. “You gonna stand, girl?” Slowly, Lucy got up, then started wagging and panting. “I think she’s all right. But I’ll take her over to Nathaniel anyway.” He looked at Ellie, who seemed to be staring at Lucy, but not seeing her. “Ellie? Forget him, he’s crazy.” She didn’t respond. “Are you in shock?” Noah asked her.

She lifted her gaze to his face. “Hmm? No. No, just thinking. Take Lucy, Noah. I’m going to check on my kids. I have to tell Jo about court.”

“Sure,” he said. He leaned toward her and gave her a peck on the cheek. “I’ll see you later, then.” He looked at her closely, frowning. She was completely pensive, which was unlike Ellie. “Ellie, what is it?”

“Hmm. Sorry. Thinking.”

So Ellie went to the Fitch house and found everyone there—Nick was in his den, reading the newspaper while the kids had their one hour of after-school TV in the same room. Jo was in the kitchen, working on dinner. Ellie stepped right in without needing to be asked, getting out the salad makings and going to work on it. While Jo seared meat and cleaned and cut vegetables, Ellie worked on their salad and told Jo all the news of the day. At the end of a softly told tale, she said, “I don’t think the kids need to know about court on Friday morning—it will just stress them out. They’ve already had a short meeting with their attorney, which didn’t seem to upset them, and they don’t have to be in court. Better to tell them when it’s over, I think. I mean, if I thought there was some reason to prepare them for the worst, I’d do that,” Ellie said. “It will be so nice to tell them when it’s over. That we’re a family again.”

“I’ll come to court right after I drop Danielle at school. Nick is going to take the morning off to keep an eye on Trevor. I haven’t exactly taken a poll, but I understand a number of friends will be there—Jack and Mel, Preacher and Paige, Vanni, her father the general. Maybe Shelby and Luke…”

“Oh, get out!” Ellie said. “They don’t have time for that. There’s a wedding happening on Saturday. They have family from out of town coming, and lots to do. And don’t they have Friday-night rehearsal and a dinner? And I’m helping to decorate Saturday morning…”

Jo covered Ellie’s hand and smiled. “Sweetheart, getting your custody resolved is just as important. And your friends are committed to that. We’ll get everything done.”

“I can’t believe it. I was afraid people around here would think the worst of me after what Arnie said.”

“I don’t think so,” Jo said, shaking her head.

“They really plan to go to Eureka for this?”

“Don’t argue,” Jo said. “It’s not a good idea to take chances at this point.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ellie said. Ellie took a deep breath and smiled. “There’s a lot to do between now and Saturday night. This is the opening of the church, a wedding the whole town has been looking forward to, and before we can see that all done, I have to go to court. I might be a little tense.”

“Well, take it easy, honey. We’re going to be fine. I’m sure of it.”

By the time Noah got out to Nate Jensen’s stable and veterinary office, the sun was lowering in the sky, and Lucy seemed to be moving around just fine. But since he’d come this far, Noah decided to proceed with the visit. The vet office attached to the stable was locked, so he went to the house and knocked on the back door. He saw Nate and a woman in the kitchen, apparently having a drink and snack at the breakfast bar; Nate answered the door.

“Hey, Noah,” he said, popping the last bit of a cracker into his mouth.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Nate. Something came up with Lucy and I thought I’d better have you check her out.” Suddenly a chorus of barking came from inside the house and three fluffy, black-and-white dogs with pointy ears came racing into the kitchen. “Whoa,” Noah said.

“Winkin, Blinkin and Nod,” Nate said with a laugh. “Mostly border collie, we think.”

“Donner, Dasher and Blitzen,” the woman said, joining them at the back door. “We call them Don, Dash and Blitz. Hi, I’m Annie, Nate’s fiancée.” She put out her hand. “I’ve heard about you. Nice to finally meet you.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Noah said. “We had an incident. I got into a little altercation in the church. It wasn’t serious, but a man and I locked horns, grabbed each other, and Lucy bit him.”

“Lucy?” Nate said, looking down at the dog. “Even-tempered Lucy?”

The three almost full-grown pups were busy sniffing her and she was standing stock-still, letting them. The pups were dancing around a bit, whining, stumbling over each other, crowding Lucy.

“The situation must have made her nervous,” Noah said. “Anyway, she latched on to the guy’s leg and the guy kicked her off, throwing her into a pew. She couldn’t get right up and—”

But Nate wasn’t really listening. He crouched near Lucy, in the midst of a throng of prancing pups. And then Lucy got down on her belly and the pups laid down, as well. They continued to sniff while Lucy started to smell and lick them. One of the pups rolled over on his back and Lucy went to work on his closed eyes.

“Isn’t that something, the way she does that?” Noah asked. “Do all female dogs just take over the cleanup on instinct? I thought only cats did that. I’ve seen her do that to another dog in town.”

Nate looked up from his crouched position. “Comet? Christopher’s pup?”

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

Nate stood up and grabbed Annie’s hand. “Silas was training Lucy and she was coming along just great. But Silas also had ranch dogs that roamed pretty free—he kept cows and other livestock. A couple of ’em were border collies. I think if Lucy got friendly with another border collie, these might be her pups.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Noah said. “But she was in an accident. When would she have had pups?”

Nate was shaking his head. “Jack Sheridan found a box of abandoned puppies under the Christmas tree last December. They were too little to be weaned; it was a surprise they survived the cold. I put them at about three weeks old. They had to be eyedropper fed and kept warm.” He chuckled unhappily. “I wouldn’t put it past old Silas. He wasn’t the type to have a litter of eight in his house or likely to go to any trouble to place them. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t drown ’em.”

“Come on,” Noah said. “You think it’s possible?”

The three adults stood around, looking down at Lucy and a big pile of playful pups. Even though they were almost as big as she was, they certainly acted like puppies. Lucy seemed to be on the bottom of the pile, and very content, snarling an occasional warning, nudging them, licking them, pushing them around with her snout.

“The town named them after the reindeer. There were four females in the litter—Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and Cupid. I got these guys because they were left over.” Nate connected with Noah’s eyes. “Lucy wasn’t trying to find her way home,” he said. “She was trying to get back to her kids.”