Alexandra Quick and the Deathly Regiment

Innocence

Every year, a week before school started, Charmbridge Academy sent a bus to bring those students whose parents couldn't take them shopping for school supplies to the Goblin Market in Chicago. The morning that the Charmbridge bus came to pick up Alexandra, her mother was up early and had prepared breakfast for both of them by the time Alexandra came downstairs.

The previous summer, Alexandra had been eager to see her friends and go to the Goblin Market, after almost three months of being stuck in the Muggle world. This year, she faced the upcoming shopping trip with mixed feelings. She did want to see her friends again, but the prospect of reentering the wizarding world didn't fill her with excitement this time.

In fact, part of her dreaded returning to Charmbridge.

She had not spoken of this to anyone -- not to Anna or David, in their email and telephone conversations, nor to Constance and Forbearance, in the letters they exchanged by owl, nor even to her sister, Julia. And certainly not to her mother.

Claudia Green regarded her daughter as they sat together at the table eating eggs and waffles, until Alexandra felt her mother's eyes on her and looked up.

"What?" she asked.

"You've been pretty quiet this summer," Claudia said.

Alexandra shrugged. "Is that a problem?"

"No." Claudia studied her face. "Is there a problem?"

Alexandra stuck her fork in her mouth, and chewed on her waffle slowly, keeping her expression impassive.

"Did something happen at Charmbridge?" Claudia asked.

Alexandra shook her head. "No."

"If there's a problem -- if something is wrong..."

"What, suddenly you're interested in the wizarding world now?" Alexandra's tone was harsh, and she looked away as her mother winced slightly. They'd had this discussion the previous winter. Her mother knew about the wizarding world, yes -- she knew that Alexandra's father was a wizard, and she knew that her daughter was a witch. But that was a world she could never be a part of, and she'd made it clear that she didn't want to hear about it.

Alexandra had honored her mother's wishes. She hadn't talked about it. She hadn't talked about anything that had happened.

"I'm fine, Mom." She softened her tone a little. "It's just boring here. At least at Charmbridge --" She started to say, "I can do magic," and instead, she finished, "I have friends."

Claudia nodded uncertainly. "You could make friends here."

Alexandra rolled her eyes.

"You and Brian really should make up..."

"I'd still only see him over winter and summer breaks, so what's the point?" He doesn't want to hear about the wizarding world either.

Outside, a short bus pulled to a stop in front of their house.

"It looks like your ride is here." Claudia handed her some money. "Here's some spending money. Don't come back with any more pets, all right?"

Alexandra almost smiled. "I won't." Her parents had never been happy about Charlie, and they'd been even less happy about her snake, Nigel.

"Behave yourself. I'll see you this evening." Claudia gave Alexandra a quick kiss on the cheek as her daughter headed for the door. Alexandra paused, and then nodded before going outside to get on the waiting bus.

---

Besides children like Alexandra who lived with Muggles, there were many students who arrived at the boarding school early from other parts of the country; they also came along for the shopping trip. Thus, Alexandra expected to find most of her friends already on the bus.

Mrs. Speaks, the elderly, frizzy-haired bus driver, greeted her pleasantly, but Alexandra was still a little tense as she stepped aboard. She was already notorious in school, even before the events at the end of the previous school year. Now everyone knew that she had been involved in something terrible, deep in the basements below Charmbridge Academy. Thirteen students had been expelled for practicing Dark Arts, and Alexandra's half-brother, Maximilian King, had died.

No one knew the whole story, though, not even her friends. So when Alexandra walked down the aisle of the Charmbridge bus, past the rows of large booths holding many more tables and students than could have fit inside a non-magical bus, conversations faltered, voices dropped to a murmur, and games of Exploding Snap and Muggle Madness were paused. Alexandra ignored the stares as she walked past the older students who filled the front of the bus. Larry Albo, a dark-haired Old Colonial boy who had been her nemesis since her very first day in the wizarding world, was sitting with his friends Ethan Robinson and Wade White. Larry wore his characteristic smirk, but he didn't say anything as she passed by. Wade whispered something to Larry. Alexandra didn't hear what he said, but when she turned her head to glare at him, Larry snorted and punched his friend in the shoulder.

Torvald Krogstad, a ninth grader whose face was pock-marked by puberty and adolescent curses, greeted her with "Troublesome!" She gave him a sour look, but he just grinned. Next to him, his more handsome friend Stuart Cortlandt seemed to be avoiding her gaze.

"Take a seat please, Miss Quick," Mrs. Speaks called from the front of the bus, as they began moving again. Alexandra proceeded towards the back, hoping to find her friends.

She was greatly relieved to see Constance and Forbearance -- the Pritchards' parents had been threatening to pull them out of school. To her surprise, however, there was another girl sitting between them, looking like a younger version of the twins. Like them, she wore a calico dress and bonnet, though her blonde curls weren't staying tucked beneath it quite as neatly. Her deep blue eyes were now staring curiously at Alexandra.

The three Ozarker girls were not alone in their booth. Sitting across the table from them were Benjamin and Mordecai Rash.

The Rash twins were Ozarkers, too, but they were not nearly as friendly as the Pritchards. They had welcomed Alexandra into the wizarding world by calling her a Mudblood, and none of their words to her since then had been any kinder. The two boys, in their long-sleeved shirts, suspenders, and rough wool pants, were both giving her dirty looks.

"Hello, Alexandra," Constance said, and the Rashes frowned disapprovingly.

"Hi," Alexandra said. "It's great seeing you... both."

"We're real proud to see you 'gain," said Forbearance, provoking more scowls from the Rashes.

"You'uns ought not be talkin' to this sorceress," said Benjamin.

"She's our friend, Benjamin Rash. Don't you be rude!" Constance scolded.

"Well, she hain't sittin' here." Benjamin glared at Alexandra. "Just keep on and sit with your own kind."

Alexandra bristled. "Who made you anyone's boss?" The Pritchards had never hung around with the Rashes before, and didn't seem to like them much; finding them sitting together now was disconcerting.

From the front of the bus, Mrs. Speaks yelled, "Miss Quick! Sit down!"

Constance and Forbearance looked pained -- Alexandra knew they hated conflict. She didn't, and she wasn't afraid of it, and she was ready to sit right down with them and stare the Rashes in the face.

She glanced at the younger girl, who was still watching the confrontation with wide-eyed fascination, and thought about starting the eighth grade with another fight.

"See you at the Goblin Market," she muttered, and moved to the next booth down. She found a pretty, dark-skinned girl there, sitting alone, fidgeting with the elaborate, lacy collar of her bright red and gold robe. She was adjusting and readjusting the way her long braided hair fell against it.

Angelique Devereaux would normally be sitting with her friend Darla Dearborn. Darla was one of the students expelled for practicing Dark Arts -- Alexandra didn't expect to see her again, and good riddance, she thought.

"Hi," Alexandra said, and then looked around. Someone else was missing as well. "Where's Anna?"

Anna had always arrived at Charmbridge before Alexandra did, and was always on the bus to the Goblin Market before her. But there was no sign of her. With an uneasy feeling, Alexandra sat down with Angelique before Mrs. Speaks could yell at her again.

"I haven't seen her," Angelique said. And after an uncomfortable pause, she asked, "How was your summer, Alexandra?"

Alexandra didn't dislike Darla's former roommate, but they were not exactly close friends, and after finding the Pritchards sitting with the Rash twins, and her best friend missing, she was unhappy, confused, and not really eager to spend most of the trip to Chicago sitting next to a girl who was mostly interested in clothes and wizard bands and comparing her looks with those of other girls.

"Boring," she said indifferently. "Yours?"

"It was pleasant enough. I took summer classes at Baleswood again."

Alexandra wasn't really interested in Angelique's summer -- any more than she expected Angelique was interested in hers -- so she just nodded and grunted. The two girls said little to each other as the Charmbridge bus left Larkin Mills and sped onto the Automagicka. Alexandra could hear the Pritchards talking -- actually, it sounded like the younger girl was doing most of the talking, asking questions about the trolls who guarded the entrances to the Automagicka, and the Muggle town they had just left, and the Goblin Market. Then the Rashes scolded her for talking too much, and that provoked a flurry of heated whispers between Benjamin and Mordecai and Constance and Forbearance. Alexandra was itching to say something nasty to the Rashes, but held her tongue.

When they reached Detroit, Alexandra perked up a little -- David Washington, her only Muggle-born friend, lived here.

David boarded the bus wearing a plain wizard robe casually thrown over his jeans and jersey, and strutted down the aisle, waving to a couple of the Quidditch players. He paused, as Alexandra had, at the table where the Ozarkers were sitting. Constance and Forbearance both greeted him, and the Rashes muttered and grumbled again. David, casting suspicious, sidelong glances in their direction, kept walking. His expression brightened a little when he reached Alexandra's table.

Angelique smiled at him. "Hello, David." Her New Orleans drawl became soft and syrupy.

David's face lit up even more. "Hi Angelique." For a moment his voice sounded a little wheezy, and Alexandra thought his expression was positively goofy.

Then Mrs. Speaks called from the front of the bus: "Mr. Washington, please sit down!" Mrs. Speaks was sounding unusually short-tempered.

"Have a seat, dork," Alexandra said. After hesitating a moment, David sat next to her, across the table from Angelique.

Angelique fanned herself casually. "And how was your summer, David?" she asked.

"It was, uh, great." David's cheeks darkened a little, as his eyes fixed on Angelique's long, fluttering lashes, drifted downwards, and then back up to her face. Angelique's robes were perfectly decorous and modest, but they were just loose enough around the neck to show some skin below her collar, and she was sitting in a way that thrust her chest out a little. Alexandra bet she practiced that.

David cleared his throat, before turning to face Alexandra.

"How've you been, Alex?" he asked, sounding more serious.

"Fine," she said.

He frowned, opened his mouth, and Alexandra repeated, "Fine," giving him an ominous look.

His eyebrows went up a little. He glanced at Angelique again, then nodded. Leaning forward, he whispered, "What's the deal with the Ozarkers?" He jerked his head back in the direction of the booth behind them.

"Dunno." Alexandra shrugged, with a frown.

"Is that other girl their sister?"

"I don't know."

David looked around. "Hey, where's Anna?"

"I don't know."

Alexandra's mood was becoming sullen again. David tried to draw her into the conversation, as the bus proceeded from Detroit to Chicago, but she found her mind drifting, and she stared out the window at the other magical vehicles zooming along the Automagicka, while David talked to Angelique. He seemed to be trying to explain football to the pureblood witch; Alexandra couldn't tell whether Angelique was actually interested, but her giggles and her fawning tone made it clear she liked having his attention.

It took much less time to travel from Detroit to Chicago on the Automagicka than it did on the Interstate. In a parking lot in downtown Chicago, the Charmbridge students disembarked, and filed into Grobnowski's Old World Deli. Although Grobnowski's shared the parking lot with several Muggle storefronts, Alexandra had never seen any Muggles in the deli. As on previous trips, Mrs. Speaks and the students marched through the front doors, past the dour old proprietor and his wife, and cases full of Muggle and wizard meats and cheeses, and out the back entrance, into the Goblin Market.

For Alexandra, the Goblin Market never stopped being a strange, wonderful bazaar full of magical people and enchantments. The gaily dressed witches and wizards in bright robes and skirts and gowns and tall pointed hats, and the stores that sold everything from wands to owls to 99-flavored ice cream, still seemed like something out of one of the fantasy books she had read as a child.

This was her world now. That thought brought a mixture of delight and sorrow. She couldn't help feeling her spirits lifted a little, after the long summer spent alone in Larkin Mills, but she had also learned that this world wasn't always as bright and magical as it seemed on the surface.

"Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, you are to remain with your chaperones at all times," Mrs. Speaks said to the Charmbridge students who were all gathered on the street in front of the Colonial Bank of the New World. "Ninth graders and above, you're free to shop on your own, but do not forget that you are to conduct yourself according to Charmbridge's Code of Conduct at all times, and meet back here at four p.m."

"Alexandra!" called Constance. The Pritchards hurried over to her, with Forbearance towing the younger girl who had sat with them on the bus by the hand.

"We're right sorry 'bout that, Alex, dear," Forbearance said. "We'uns wanted you to sit with us."

"We missed you terrible," Constance said, taking Alexandra's hands in her own and squeezing them tightly.

"I missed you, too," Alexandra said. "And I'm really glad your parents let you come back to Charmbridge."

"I'd'a had kittens an' conniptions if they'd said I can't educate at a real witchin' school!" the third girl said, with an accent that was even thicker than that of the other two girls.

Constance smiled. "Alexandra, this is our sister, Innocence. She's startin' at Charmbridge this year."

"I'm proud to meet you," Innocence said. "You don't look nothin' like how I 'spected!"

"Hush, Innocence!" Constance scolded, while Alexandra's eyebrows went up. "Now you best mind what you're told and comport yourself proper." She pointed at the other sixth graders, who were gathering into their own group.

"Why can't I stay with you'uns? I already gots a wand!" Innocence pulled out a long wand of white oak to show Alexandra. "Great-granny made mine just for me -- I'm the first in our family to get a new wand!"

Forbearance grabbed her hand. "Put that away! You know you ought not be wavin' it about! And you'll go with the other sixth graders like you oughter! You 'member what Ma and Pa told you!"

Innocence looked sulky. "Yes, sis." Her eyes went wide again as David and Angelique joined them, and then Constance gave her a little shove, and Innocence trudged over to join the sixth graders with their chaperone, looking back over her shoulder several times.

"A younger sister at Charmbridge, huh?" David said. "That's cool."

"Is 'cool' good or bad?" Constance whispered in Alexandra's ear.

"It's good," Alexandra whispered back, as someone called: "Eighth graders! Over here!"

Alexandra was looking forward to next year, when she would no longer have to follow a senior chaperone around. She groaned a little when she saw who was in charge of the eighth graders: Marguerite Millicent Murray, a thick, beefy girl who was the leader of Charmbridge Academy's Witch Rangers coven. Her green and black robe was tied with a sash from which dangled a constellation of small metallic charms representing her accomplishments as a Witch Ranger -- some of them flapped, jingled, chirped, or emitted tiny little sparkles as she moved.

Despite her leadership role, Marguerite looked nervous.

All the flinching and avoidance and averted eyes Alexandra was getting from other kids was starting to annoy her; she felt a spiteful temptation to stare at Marguerite's charm collection and ask if there was one for Dark Arts.

"Does anyone need to go to the bank?" Marguerite asked.

Everyone, including Alexandra, shook their heads.

In the letters she had exchanged with Julia over the summer, Alexandra had learned about the CBNW's Owl Banking Service. (Julia had of course offered to simply send Alexandra some money, which Alexandra had of course refused.) Even after paying the Owl Banking fee to exchange her allowance for wizard money, the Colonial Bank of the New World had charged her less than Gringotts had the previous year, and now Alexandra had a pocket full of eagles. The spending money her mother had given her she would keep for another day.

"Well, good," Marguerite said. "We can go straight to Hoargrim's, then."

They began walking down the street. Constance and Forbearance immediately fell in alongside Alexandra. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that the Rash twins were trailing the group of eighth graders.

"Are those two jerks stalking you?" she asked.

Constance sighed. "Our folks asked the Rashes to look after us."

"Look after you? Since when do you need babysitters?"

Forbearance looked down. "They're fretted 'bout us on account of... well, recent doin's."

"You mean, they don't want you to associate with 'unrespectable' sorts."

David, walking ahead of them with Angelique, snorted.

Forbearance took a deep breath. "They almost didn't let us come back, and only allowed it on account of how proud they was that Innocence got accepted. But we had to promise we'd mind Benjamin and Mordecai 'cause they's our elders."

"Elders? They're fifteen!" Alexandra's lip curled. "So if they tell you you're not allowed to sit with me, or talk to me, or --"

"Alexandra," Forbearance said quietly. "You know you're our friend -- hain't nothin' gonna change that. But it weren't easy to get Ma an' Pa to relent, 'specially on consideration of Innocence."

"You got to let us deal with the Rashes," Constance said. "Please, Alex, promise you won't meddle."

"We hain't gonna shun you. You got to trust us," Forbearance pleaded.

"Fine." Alexandra sighed. "If not sitting next to you at lunch will keep you out of trouble."

"We're sorry," Forbearance said. "We know it hain't fair."

Alexandra shrugged. Her voice became as flat as her expression. "Life isn't fair."

The Pritchards exchanged looks, then both of them gently took hold of Alexandra's arms as they walked on either side of her, while David glanced over his shoulder, and then looked back to Angelique.

Hoargrim's Wands and Alchemical Supplies was a dark and dingy shop that looked closed even when it wasn't. It was nonetheless one of the most renowned wand shops in the Confederation, and it was where Alexandra had acquired her own hickory wand, two years earlier.

She found the smelly, dimly-lit premises as interesting as always. The shelves were full of mummified rodents, insects that were petrified, crystallized, or embalmed in amber, animated snake and fish skeletons, jars of alligator eyes and poison sunflower seeds, boxes of noose-vine roots, and potions and unguents and powders of all kinds. Skins and claws and scales and furs were draped along the walls, along with the heads of several unfortunate beasts, not all of whom would be recognizable to a Muggle zoologist.

But Marguerite did not give them an opportunity to browse the shelves. They lined up to receive their alchemical supply kits for the coming year, bundled and handed out by one of the shop assistants. Mr. Finsterholz, the elderly proprietor and wandsmith, watched them suspiciously as he pulled back the curtain sectioning off the portion of his store where wands were kept. Eager sixth graders were lining up there now; the eighth graders, with their two whole years of worldly experience since they had been the ones waiting to receive a wand, watched with amusement.

"Innocence!" Forbearance hissed.

Across the room, Innocence was showing off her wand to the envious eleven-year-olds, with a few demonstrative gestures. From her smug tone of voice as she explained the properties of white oak, it seemed she was enjoying her brief reign of superiority over her wandless classmates.

At the sound of her sister's voice, she looked up, and then tucked her wand back into her sleeve with a guilty look. Alexandra noticed that the guilty look disappeared as soon as Constance and Forbearance looked away.

Coming out of Hoargrim's with paper-wrapped packages under their arms, the eighth graders passed the seventh grade group coming in, and Alexandra spotted a small Japanese girl among them.

"Tomo!" she whispered. Alexandra hadn't even thought about Tomo Matsuzaka until now, though she must have been on the bus with the other seventh graders. Tomo was a Majokai witch. The Majokai segregated themselves from the rest of wizarding society; Alexandra knew very little about them, except that most of them, like Tomo, lived in California.

The younger girl jumped, and her eyes darted past Alexandra's shoulder, undoubtedly expecting to see Anna. Alexandra pulled her aside; Tomo's eyes went wide, but she didn't resist. Marguerite, walking ahead, didn't notice immediately.

"Tomo, how did you get here from California?" Alexandra asked. "I heard on the Wizard Wireless that all cross-country Wizardrail lines are still shut down."

Tomo nodded. "I had to fly from LAX to Chicago."

Alexandra blinked. "You took an airplane?"

"Yes. It wasn't even my first time on an airplane." Tomo raised her chin proudly. "Lots of Majokai learn about Muggle things."

Alexandra frowned. She doubted Anna's father would have sent her to Chicago on an airplane.

"Alexandra!" Marguerite called crossly, as she realized that one of her charges had fallen behind and was lingering back by Hoargrim's storefront.

"I, um, I need to join my group," Tomo said, gesturing inside.

Alexandra nodded, and the other girl pushed the door open and disappeared into the shop. Alexandra rejoined her classmates, barely acknowledging Marguerite's admonishment to keep up and not go wandering off.

Marguerite was willing to indulge them a little as they wandered down the streets of the Goblin Market. Angelique insisted on looking in robe shops, while David and Alexandra were both captivated by the Astronomy Tower, a new shop next to the perpetually going-out-of-business Ilsing's Wizard Wares. The Astronomy Tower sold telescopes, lunascopes, sneakoscopes, necroscopes, crystal balls, charmed glass eyes, and all sorts of other glasses and lenses.

There was also a new Clockworks shop selling Clockwork golems. David, a member of the American Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, was pleased at the increasing popularity of these house-elf replacements. Alexandra still didn't trust them, and eyed the current year's models warily.

Boxley's Books, where they normally bought their textbooks, seemed unusually busy, and many Charmbridge students were already crowding into the store, so Marguerite decided they would return there after lunch. Instead, they proceeded to Grundy's, a huge wizarding department store that dominated the Goblin Market. Marguerite turned them loose in the store, with another admonishment to be on their best behavior. She seemed to be studiously avoiding looking in Alexandra's direction when she said this.

The Rashes, who had continued to trail the eighth graders into the store, were suddenly at the Pritchards' sides.

"We'll help you'uns find your school supplies," said Mordecai.

"You think maybe after two years they might actually know how to find their supplies themselves?" Alexandra asked.

Mordecai gave Alexandra a withering look. "We're just bein' mannerly."

"To our kinfolk. No one asked to hear your gums flappin'!" Benjamin said, with more naked hostility.

Alexandra began a rapid boil, but Constance turned to Benjamin and said, "That wasn't mannerly, Benjamin Rash!"

He frowned, then took her by the arm. "C'mon. You been lallygaggin' too much with these unrespectable sorts."

David was getting as angry as Alexandra, and Forbearance looked at both of them fearfully.

"Go on," Alexandra said to the Pritchards. "It's not like you're going to be able to avoid unrespectable sorts all day at school."

They smiled at that, before they were dragged away.

"That's kind of sweet, actually," Angelique said.

"Sweet?!" Alexandra and David said together.

"Well, not the part about 'unrespectable sorts.'" Angelique looked taken aback at David's angry look.

"You want a boy to boss you around?" Alexandra asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I... that's not what I meant!" Angelique flushed. "Alexandra, you really are outrageous sometimes!" She turned and flounced away.

"Nice, Alex." David looked torn between indignation and laughter.

"Aren't you going to follow her?" Alexandra asked.

"Follow her?" David looked baffled.

"Or you can hang around with me. Which Angelique will notice, believe me."

"Uh..." David made a funny face again.

"Go on. Show her who's the boss."

He rolled his eyes at her, and then turned to follow Angelique to the Bath and Body Charms section.

Left alone, Alexandra wandered through the magical department store. She really didn't have much shopping to do herself, other than acquiring a new set of school robes and some potion-proof gloves. Before her visit from Ms. Grimm, she had been planning to buy a new broom cleaning kit -- now, she settled for some wand polish and a bag of owl treats for Charlie. She spent some time in the brooms section, and ran her hand briefly over a midnight blue Twister, which hummed and bobbed up and down in response.

It was much too expensive, though -- Alexandra could never afford to buy a broom herself.

She almost walked into the clothing department. She saw Larry Albo and the Rashes there, however, and abruptly turned around, only to bump into Constance and Forbearance, who had Innocence with them.

"There you are, Alex, dear," Forbearance said.

"Let's git 'fore they sees us," Constance whispered, inclining her head in the direction of the boys.

Alexandra followed them. "How'd you escape your 'minders'?" she asked, once they were out of sight of the older boys, and heading downstairs to the basement cafeteria.

"We told 'em we had to shop for necessaries," Forbearance said.

"Necessaries?" Alexandra asked, puzzled.

"You know, unmentionables," Constance whispered.

Alexandra laughed. "You mean underwear?"

Innocence giggled. "Them Rashes'd have a purple 'plexy if they seen girls' bloomers!"

"Innocence!" Her older sisters both gave her reproving looks, but Alexandra snickered, which made Innocence grin.

Grundy's basement cafeteria was full of buffets selling all sorts of food, some of which resembled Muggle fast food, and some of which was unique to the wizarding world. Alexandra was quite fond of peppermeat and Fizzy-Pop and Wyland West's 99-flavored ice cream. The Pritchards, as usual, had brought their own lunches.

Other Charmbridge students began trickling down into the cafeteria. David and Angelique arrived, and headed for the table where Alexandra and the Pritchards were sitting.

"Are they sweet?" Innocence asked, a little too loudly.

"Hush your mouth, Innocence!" Constance snapped at her.

Innocence rolled her eyes, and then turned to look at the couple, as they sat down. "You're the Muggle-born, hain't you?" she said to David. "Constance talks lots 'bout you, too, but she hain't never said you was colored!"

David froze. Angelique merely raised her eyebrows.

"Innocence!" Forbearance exclaimed.

David turned to look at Angelique. "You remember Darla telling us the wizarding word doesn't have these kinds of problems?"

Angelique was more amused than offended. "Oh, David. She's an Ozarker; she doesn't know any better."

She realized her own mistake when all three Ozarker girls stared at her.

"I just meant... that is --" Angelique began stammering.

By now, the Rashes had arrived in the cafeteria and spotted them. They marched over with their mouths set in firm, angry lines.

"What are you'uns doin' sittin' here with them?" Benjamin demanded.

Alexandra bit back a retort, waiting for the Pritchards to respond.

"I guess we'uns just don't know any better," Forbearance said, her eyes on Angelique.

"You oughter sit with us," said Mordecai.

"I reckon we oughter," Constance said.

Alexandra wanted desperately to curse the Rashes -- figuratively and literally -- but she said nothing as the Ozarker girls rose from their seats to join their 'kinfolk.' Constance and Forbearance didn't look at anyone. Innocence, however, waited until they had turned their backs, and then made a horrible face, sticking her tongue out at Angelique, before following her sisters to another table.