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tone.
    Thomas nodded, kept his eyes
on hers and hoped his expression was neutral.
    “I was screaming that it
hurt me, but he must have thought it was from pleasure and he kept
pushing until it ripped me. He often gets too rough but he said
this was an accident.”
    Thomas put the needle and
thread on the kitchen table. “Where is he?” he asked. There was an
angry edge in his voice that the woman recognized.
    “Don’t you know?” Her face
showed alarm.
    “No.”
    “You’re not really his
brother,” she gasped.
    “I’m really his brother but
I don’t know who or even what you are.”
    “Get out,” she screamed
pointing at the door. “Get out.”
    Thomas hesitated for a
moment then he started for the door but it opened and William came
through it, followed by Marina.
    “Hello, Brother,” William’s
eyes were hooded and dangerous. “Fancy finding you
here.”
    “What have you done?” Thomas
shouted.
    “That’s enough,” Marina
snapped, stepping between them. “Both of you get out.” She looked
at the woman for the first time. “No, no, wait. Just a moment. I’ll
need one of you to hold Justine.” She put the leather bag she was
carrying on the kitchen table and pushed her wet hair back out of
her face.
    “I’ll have no part of this,”
Thomas said, struggling to regain his composure.
    “Then wait for me in the
front room,” Marina replied. “You can take me home when I’m
finished and William can stay here with Justine.”
    “My name’s not Justine,” the
woman said sharply. “Bill thinks calling me Justine is very funny.
She’s a character in a filthy little French book.”
    “I don’t care to know any
details of my son’s depravity, thank you,” Marina
replied.
    “Why Mother,” William
chuckled. “It’s not depravity, it’s art. The book is
entitled Les infortunes de la
vertu . It was written by Donatien Alphonse
François, Marquis de Sade. Are you unfamiliar with his
work?”
    Marina turned angrily toward
William. “If you think this is a joking matter, I’ll go back home
with Thomas and let you solve your problem.”
    William smiled benignly.
“Very well, Mother. Very well. You are, as always, the
boss.”
    “This is your mother?” the
woman shouted. “I send you for a doctor and you bring me your God
damned family?”
    Both William and Thomas
started shouting and the woman shouted back
    “Stop.” Marina raised her
hands. “Everybody just stop talking a moment.” She pressed the
heels of her hands to her temples and closed her eyes.
    The three younger people
exchanged looks silently.
    “Alright.” Marina took a
breath and turned to the woman. “I just came fifty miles up the
Hudson in an open boat to help you. My son says that you’re a
married woman and that your husband is in Boston until next week,
is that correct?”
    “Yes.” The woman nodded.
“But I want to know if you can do this without making it
worse.”
    “I’ve done it before,”
Marina said. “I assisted a midwife when I was a girl. What’s
happened to you is very common during child birth.” She turned back
to her sons. “William, you stay here and help me. Thomas, wait for
me out there, please. This shouldn’t take long.”
    “I don’t want him here,” the
woman said, pointing at William. “No one needs to hold me
down.”
    Marina nodded then looked at
her boys. “Both of you wait outside.”
    The two men exchanged
malevolent looks.
    Marina aimed her index
finger at them like a pistol. “If you get into a fight I swear by
all that’s holy to make your lives into a living hell. Both of you.
Out.” She waited until they had gone then went to the sink to wash
her hands. “What’s your name, dear? Your real name.”
    “Why do you need to
know?”
    “I don’t really, but it
seemed appropriate to know your name if I’m to be handling your
most intimate parts.”
    “Carlotta. Carlotta Ramirez.
I mean, Carlotta Dubois.”
    “Ah. I’d heard that General
Dubois had married a