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formed a tight seal around her nipple and, when it popped free, he began to wail again. When he was nestled in Lydia's other arm, he wasted no time in availing himself of the other breast.
    Happy, spontaneous laughter filled the wagon. Lydia tossed her mane of hair back and laughed throatily. Her eyes reflected the glow of the lantern. They sparkled like whiskey with sunlight shining through it. Then they happened to lock with Ross's, and all light immediately left them. He was glowering at her with open hostility from across the wagon.
    "Once the lad's done there, I'll get you settled in for the night," Ma said, beaming at the girl and the baby.
    "She's not staying. Once he's done, you get her out of here." The masculine voice sliced through the atmosphere of the wagon with razor precision.
    Ma turned to Ross, her fists planted in the sides of her generous hips. "Don't you think he'll get hungry again, Mr. Coleman? What do you propose to do, fetch her clean across the camp to your wagon each time he's ready for his dinner? Or are you gonna carry him over to her yourself? Seems to me that would be a lot of unnecessary steps on somebody, not to mention the hardship on the babe."
    "I didn't mind takin' in Lydia and I would have taken in her own babe had it lived, but I ain't gonna shelter your babe when he'd have more room and more peace and quiet here in your own wagon," she finished huffily.
    Ross drew himself up with proud dignity, but still had to duck his head and shoulders to stand upright in the wagon. "I wasn't intending to depend on your charity for my son, but the girl can't stay here."
    "Her name is Lydia," Ma said. "And why can't she stay here? Who's gonna look after the boy durin' the day? You go off huntin' or scoutin'. At best you're drivin' the team. Who's gonna take care of him if he starts fussin', huh?"
    The corner of Mr. Coleman's moustache was captured between his teeth and gnawed on as objections raced through his mind. "She's not even clean."
    "No, she ain't. She birthed a babe out in the woods alone. How clean is she supposed to be? And I haven't bathed her 'cause she's been feverish and I didn't want another death on my hands. If it's her bleedin' you're referrin' to, she ain't doin' nothin' that nice and proper wife of yours wouldn't have done. It'll stop in a day or two, and Anabeth or I will come see to her until then."
    Lydia kept her head bent low over the infant while her whole body went hot with embarrassment. Apparently Ma's directness rendered Mr. Coleman speechless as well because he didn't say anything for a while. Tension was thick in the wagon. He radiated antagonism the way a stove radiates heat in the wintertime.
    Finally the baby had eaten his fill. Lydia folded the nightgown closed over her breasts and followed Ma instructions on how to burp him. He let go a gusty belch. Ross watched the scene with mounting, impotent fury. No telling how many men the slut had entertained in her bed, and yet there she was acting like a decent woman nursing a child. His child. Victorias child. But what choice did he have? He wanted his son to live. The child would be his only link to the woman he had loved fiercely.
    He coughed unnecessarily, loudly. "All right, she can stay. Temporarily. As soon as I can find a way to feed and take care of him by myself, she'll be out. Is that understood? I'm not running a charity hospital either. Besides, I don't want a woman like her taking care of Victoria's baby I'm sorry about her own baby, but it's probably just as well he died. She's either a prostitute as Mrs. Watkins said, or a girl who has disgraced her family, or a woman who's run away from her husband. In any event, she's not the kind of woman I want handling my son. If it weren't a matter of lift and death, she wouldn't be. Now, under those terms, do you still want to stay?" he demanded of the girl cooing to his peacefully sleeping son.
    She lifted her head to meet his glaring green eyes. "What's the baby's