The crowd went dead silent, terribly so.
Juliana's face shifted through several colors before she managed a thin attempt at smoothing things over.
"Patsy just went in the water. She's rattled, not thinking straight."
"She got a few words wrong, that's all. She didn't mean it."
"We're all comrades in the same brigade. Let's just drop this."
Patsy stood there pale, biting her lip, saying nothing more.
I didn't press it either.
I just knocked the hand off my collar, shouldered my hoe, and headed home.
But I knew.
Patsy wasn't going to let it end there.
Sure enough, over the next few days she kept angling for chances to be alone with me.
She carried a bowl of sweetened brown-sugar water to my house, saying she wanted to thank me for saving her life.
I called Carina Lambert over from next door right away.
"Patsy's had a bad scare. Carina, sit with her a while."
She staged a fall by the well and reached out for me to help her up.
I flagged down the sent-down girls passing by.
"Give Patsy a hand, would you."
After a few rounds of this, the look she gave me turned colder and colder.
Like she wanted to tear a strip of flesh right off me.
I only found it funny.
In my last life, I never understood how to keep myself clear of suspicion.
I thought as long as I stood straight and did right, saving someone was just saving someone, and helping was just helping.
Only later did I learn.
When someone is out to ruin you.
Even breathing is a crime.
That night, a heavy rain came down.
I didn't sleep at home. I went to the brigade warehouse to keep the night watch.
A few days earlier I'd made a point of mentioning it to Marcus.
"Lots of rain lately, and the warehouse is full of this year's seed. If the roof leaks, we've got real trouble."
He decided I was careful and thorough, so he had me take turns on watch with two of the militia.
I signed my name in the night-watch book.
And made sure the bookkeeper caught the time.
"Dustin Delgado, arrived eight o'clock."
The bookkeeper even laughed at me. "What's got you so serious, kid?"
I laughed too, but said nothing.
Past midnight the rain came harder.
I sat in the warehouse doorway, listening to the water drip off the eaves, and I wasn't the least bit sleepy.
Because I knew.
Patsy would make her move soon.
In my last life she ruined me with a single sentence.
This time the riverbank hadn't worked.
She was sure to find something filthier.
At the first gray light of dawn, a wail of crying broke out at the edge of the village.
"Help! Somebody help!"
"Dustin Delgado attacked me!"
My head snapped up.
The two militiamen jumped too.
"Who's shouting?"
I stood, calm. "Come on."
"Let's go see."
By the time we reached my door, a crowd had already gathered.
Patsy stood there with a coat thrown over her shoulders, hair a mess, crying so hard she could barely keep her feet.
She pointed at the door of my house, her voice shaking.
"Last night I came here out of kindness, to explain the riverbank thing to Dustin."
"But he dragged me inside."
"He shut the door, and he tried to..."
She couldn't get the rest out through her sobs.
The people around erupted.
"Dustin Delgado again?"
"The riverbank business was already off, and now a woman comes running out of his place."
"Patsy's a woman on her own. She wouldn't keep falsely accusing him of something like this, would she?"
Juliana's face darkened as she turned to me too.
"Dustin."
"What have you got to say for yourself this time?"
I didn't look at her.
I looked only at Patsy.
"You're saying I attacked you in my house last night?"
She nodded through her tears.
"It was you."
"Don't even try to deny it."
I suddenly smiled.
