I didn’t want to ask, afraid that might deflate the boys even further. Did they understand that their father had caused their mother’s death, or were they still in shock, not really taking in the whole picture? I wasn’t positive they understood that they wouldn’t be going back to their home. Sure, their shack of an abode was run down and piled with disarray, but home is home, especially to two boys who’d known no other.
I shifted Carlo, and he turned to face me, his head sinking into my neck as if I were the pillow for his bed, if he’d had one. He wasn’t crying, but he felt limp, too overcome by emotion to even protest the series of devastations that had entered his life. I used one hand to massage his back. “You were so brave to ride Frey,” I said. “He’s really tall, isn’t he?”
Both boys perked up at that. “Can we ride him again sometime?” Frances asked.
Officer Krugle’s attention repositioned itself, so that I was his main focus again.
“What if we had a proposition for you, Shama?” the man asked.
A proposition was a bad thing. It meant that a man wanted you to move in with him without marriage. Surely the officer wouldn’t suggest such a thing in front of the boys and Mrs. Penn.
I guess I’d let out a gasp, because Mrs. Penn took note and rushed in to smooth it out. “Officer Krugle doesn’t mean that kind of proposition, Shama. He is asking if you’d be willing to take care of the boys for a few days.
“Not for a few . . .” the officer interrupted.
“For a few days, just until things get settled,” Mrs. Penn corrected him.