Verily chuckled. “I think we already have the answer,” he said. “Your speculation about Daniel Webster. He discovers Amy Sump as he searches in Vigor Church for any kind of dirt about you. She wasn't part of any plan, just a girl who started pretending that her daydreams were true. But then he puts into her head the idea of getting pregnant and the idea of testifying against you to clip your wings and force you to come home. She works out the rest herself, her own plan– the Unmaker doesn't have to teach her anything. Then Daniel Webster comes here to Hatrack and of course he meets the town gossip as he searches for dirt about you here. Vilate Franker barely knows you, but she does know everybody else's story, and they converse many times. He happens to let slip how Amy Sump's story will just sound like the imaginings of a dreamy but randy young girl unless they can get some kind of evidence that you actually do leave your cell. And then Vilate comes up with her own plan and the Unmaker just sits back and encourages her.”
“So the plan is all coming from Daniel Webster, only he doesn't even know it,” said Alvin. “He wishes for something, and then it just happens to come true.”
“Don't give him too much credit for integrity,” said Verily. “I suspect this is a method he's been using for a long time, wishing for some key piece of evidence, and then trusting in his client or one of his client's friends to come up with the testimony that he needs. He never quite soils his hands, but the effect is the same. Yet nothing can ever be proven–”
The outer door opened, and Po Doggly came in with Peggy Larner. “Sorry to interrupt your supper and confabulation, gendemen,” said the sheriff, “but something's come up. You got you a visitor with special circumstances, he's come a long way but he can only come in and see you after dark and I'm the only guard as can let him in, on account of he already sat me down and told me a tale.”
Alvin turned to Verily. “That means it's someone from home. Someone besides Armor-of-God. Someone who's under the curse.”
“He shouldn't be under it,” said Peggy. “If it weren't for his grand gesture of including himself in a curse he didn't personally deserve.”
“Measure,” said Alvin. To Verily he explained, “My older brother.”
“He's coming,” said the sheriff. “Arthur Stuart's leading him in with his hat low and his eyes down so he won't see anybody who doesn't already know the story. Doesn't want to spend all night telling folks about the massacre at Tippy-Canoe. So the doors will be open here, but I'll still be outside, watching. Not that I think you'd try to escape, Alvin.”
“You mean you don't think I've been making twice-a-week trips to Vigor Church?”
“For that girl? I don't think so.” With that, Doggly walked out, leaving the outer door open.
Peggy came on in and joined Alvin and Verily inside Alvin's cell. Verily stood up to offer her his stool, but with a gesture she declined to sit.
“Howdy, Peggy,” said Alvin.
“I'm fine, Alvin. And you?”
“You know I never did any of those things she said,” he told her.
“Alvin,” she said, “I know that you did find her attractive. She saw that you paid her a little special attention. She began to dream and wish.”
“So you're saying it's my fault after all?”
“It's her fault that dreams turned into lies. It's your fault that she had hopeless dreams like that in the first place.”
“Well why don't I just shoot myself before I ever look at a woman with desire? It always seems to turn out pretty lousy when I do.”
She looked as if he slapped her. As usual, Verily felt a keen sense of being left out of half of what went on in Alvin's life. Why should it bother him so much? He wasn't here, and they were under no obligation to explain. Still, it was embarrassing. He got up. “Please, I'll step outside so you can have this conversation alone.”
“No need,” said Peggy. “I'm sure Arthur is almost here with Measure by now.”
“She doesn't want to talk to me,” said Alvin to Verily. “She'll try to get me acquitted because she wants to see the Crystal City get built, only she can't offer me a lick of help in trying to figure out how to build it, seeing as how I don't know and she seems to know everything. But just cause she wants me acquitted doesn't mean she actually likes me or thinks I'm worth spending time with.”
“I don't like being in the middle of this,” said Verily.
“You're not,” said Peggy. “There's no 'this' to be in the middle of.”
“There never was no 'this,' either, was there?” asked Alvin.
Verily was quite sure he had never heard a man sound so miserable.
Peggy took a moment to answer. “I'm not– there was and is a– it hasn't a thing to do with you, Alvin.”
“What doesn't have a thing to do with me? My still being crazy in love with you after a whole year with only one letter from you, and that one as cold as you please, like I was some kind of scoundrel you still had to do business with or something? Is that the thing that doesn't have anything to do with me? I asked you to marry me once. I understand that things have been pretty bleak since then, your mother getting killed and all, that was terrible, and I didn't press you, but I did write to you, I did think about you all the time, and–”
“And I thought of you, Alvin.”
“Yes, well, you're a torch, so you know I'm thinking about you, or you do if you care to look, but what do I know when there's no sign from you? What do I know except what you tell me? Except what I see in your face? I know I looked in your face that night in the smithy, I looked in your eyes and I thought I saw love there, I thought I saw you saying yes to me. Did I make that up? Is that the 'this' that there isn't one of?”
Verily was thoroughly miserable, being forced to be a witness of this scene. He had tried to make his escape before; now it was clear they didn't want him to go. If only he knew how to disappear. How to sink through the floor.
It was Arthur who saved him. Arthur, with Measure in tow; and, just as the sheriff had said, Measure had his hat so low and his head bent so far down that he really did need Arthur Stuart to lead him by the hand. “We're here,” said Arthur. “You can look up now.”
Measure looked up. “Al,” he said.
“Measure!” Alvin cried. It took about one stride each, with those two long-legged men, for them to be in each other's embrace. “I've missed you like my own soul,” said Alvin.
“I've missed you too, you ugly scrawny jailbird,” said Measure. And in that moment, Verily felt such a pang of jealousy that he thought his heart would break. He was ashamed of the feeling as soon as he was aware of it, but there it was: He was jealous of that closeness between brothers. Jealous because he knew that he would never be that close to Alvin Smith. He would always be shut out, and it hurt so deeply that for a moment, he thought he couldn't breathe.
And then he did breathe, and blocked that feeling away in another part of himself where he didn't have to stare it in the face.
In a few minutes the greetings were over, and they were down to business. “We found out Amy was gone and it didn't take no genius to figure out where she went. Oh, at first the rumor was she got pregnant at the county fair and was sent off to have the baby somewhere, but we all remembered the tales she told about Alvin and Father and I went to her pa and got it out of him right quick, that she was off to testify in Hatrack. He didn't like it much, but they're paying them and he needs the money and his daughter swears it's true but you could tell looking at him that he don't believe her lies either. And in fact as we were leaving he says, When I find out who it was got my daughter pregnant I'm going to kill him. And Pa says, No you ain't. And Mr. Sump he says, I am so because I'm a merciful man, and killing him's kinder than making him marry Amy.”