Chapter 3

Alexander Beall found his nephew Edward deep in the gloom of his father's barn, mucking out a stable. They sat on the ends of a watering trough that had been hollowed out of a log and shared a twist of coarse tobacco.

"Been some time, Ned," Alexander Beall started, tonguing the thick chaw into his cheek.

"Yep, 'bout year, year and a half. Since Aunt Molly died, I reckon."

"You've put on some weight. How's that romance going? When you going to marry that Foster girl?"

"Oh, soon I hope, I reckon. It's up to her folks. They know how we feel. I think they're kind of hoping somebody better comes along, least her father is, somebody that was on their side anyways."

"She is a pretty little thing."

"Makes good cornbread and turnovers too," Ned smiled. "Now what'd you come down here for, Uncle Alex? Talk about girls?"

"Shame 'bout the war coming between you two. Guess that's bound to happen. Lots of hard feelings, and more than a few good men died out there."

"Yessir, you don't have to tell me. After what I saw them Tories do down in the Carolinas, I find it hard to talk to her father a'tall. He did better than all right, you know. Bought up some land that Maryland took when Governor Eden came back, couple of nice farms along the river including one a'Magruder's."

"And you don't think he's going to give you one as a wedding present, do you?"

Ned laughed, "Naw. No sir, more likely to give me a wagon load of corn cobs or a pile of fresh manure, something like that there."

They sat quietly for a few minutes, chewing their wads of bitter leaf.

"Reason I come down was to talk to you about the Clagett murders out the road there. You remember?"

"Oh yes, not likely to forget them. Awful. That's when I decided I didn't want'a deputy for you no more. Right after we filled in that hole."

"Don't think we ever really talked back then, either before or after the trial."

"Well, you was busy, and I was getting ready to go off to the army, Greene's army."

"So now I'd like to pick about in your brainpan a bit. What do you remember for sure, and what did you know about that family before they were killed?"

"Are you still sheriffing, Uncle Alex?" Ned smiled at him and spat to the side.

"Nope, nope. Just curious, that's all. I'll explain later. Go on."

"I knew her some both before and after they was married. She hitched up awful young and still went to most of the assemblies and such. She did like to dance, that girl. She could hop around. And a pretty minx, too, wasn't she."

"How old are you, Ned?"

"Twenty-eight. She was two or three years older than me, but I danced with her some before she was hitched up, back when I was just a tad, country dances. Think she was 'bout sixteen, seventeen when she married. Surprised us, I'll tell you. Some talked about her having to get married and all. That boy a'theirs did come along pretty quick."