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Sean is the first to act. “Where is the water shutoff?”

“It’s outside,” Julian says. “But you need a passcode to use it.”

“I’ll go with you,” Sean says.

He pulls a firearm from his coat pocket. Luann and Victoria shriek when they see the weapon. I don’t cry out, but my legs go numb, and I say Sean’s name weakly.

“Stay inside,” he says. “All of you. And get away from the windows. Back to the dining room. We’ll come get you when this is over.”

“Oh God,” Victoria hisses. She recovers quickly, though. “Children, come with me. Mary, help me.”

I take Luann’s arm, and Victoria takes Nathan. We return to the dining room. Another loud slap of pressurized water greets our ears when we close the doors behind us.

Beatrice comes out of the kitchen just as we leave the great room. She wears a fierce snarl and carries a rolling pin, a weapon I have no doubt she could use to great effect. “Where are they?” she growls. “I’ll do the lot of ‘em!”

“Stay with us, please,” Victoria says. “In case they come inside.”

She knows her cook well. Beatrice takes one look at her mistress and the children and nods grimly. She takes position in front of the four of us, standing with her rolling pin raised, arms flexing with muscle. For the sake of whoever’s responsible for this, I hope they stay outside.

The minutes pass. My heart thumps loudly in my chest. The children whimper, and I hear Nathan ask Victoria, “How long does it take to shut off the water?”

“I don’t know, dear,” Victoria says. “Just stay with me.”

Beatrice remains planted firmly in between us and the doorway, ready to bash in the head of the first person who threatens her employers. A moment later, there’s a knock on the door. “Ms. Bellamy? Nathan, Luann, are you in there?”

“That’s Grant,” Beatrice says. In a louder voice, she says, “They’re in here. Who’s out there besides you?”

“Just me. Julian and a gentleman I don’t know are trying to get the water under control. Someone broke the control panel, so Julian’s calling the city while the other man ties the hoses so they spray water away from the property.”

“Go help him, Grant,” Victoria calls. “Save the vines, please.”

Grant hesitates. “Julian sent me back here to protect you. Just in case whoever is responsible for this comes back.”

“Please Grant.” Victoria’s practically sobbing now. “Please. I’m begging you, protect the Chardonnay. It’s the last of the harvest. I don’t want to lose it.”

“I’ve got ‘em locked tight in here, Grant,” Beatrice says. “You go on. Tell Julian no one’s getting to his ma or his kids.”

“All right. Thank you.”

His footsteps thunder down the great room as he runs to assist Sean and Julian. I start to pace the room, unable to quell my worry. The saboteur, whoever he is, hasn’t been violent so far, but he’s escalating. Destroying the estate’s irrigation system is an incredibly costly act of sabotage. I shudder to think how much farther he’ll go.

I stop when I remember the harvesters. “Where are the harvesters, Victoria? The man and women you had here to harvest the Riesling.”

“I sent them home today,” Victoria says. Her voice is steady, but her hands tremble as she wipes tears from her eyes. “The Chardonnay needed another week, so I sent them home and told them to come back the following week.”

I frown. “Then your saboteur must have known. It must be someone close enough to you that he could know your schedule.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Nathan points out. “He could have been watching with binoculars from one of the bluffs and seen the harvesters leave.”

“Wouldn’t even need to be that close,” Beatrice said. “Could’ve watched the ferry and seen them board.”

I sigh. They’re right. “I’m so sorry about this, Victoria.”

“Well… we’re safe right now.” She smiles at her grandchildren. “That’s what matters.”

My phone rings. The sound causes us all to jump. I pull it out and see Sean’s number, so I answer. “Hello?”

“All right. It’s safe for you all to come out. A great big handsome fellow named Grant helped me tie off the water. They’re still spitting a little, but Julian’s going to get the county to shut off water to the whole property. We’ll have to disconnect the irrigation system before we can start it again, so it might be a minute before we can shower, but we’re all right.”

I sigh with relief and deliver the good news. The children slump with relief. Victoria begins to weep softly. Beatrice nods and asks, "What about the vandal? He still out there?"

“Sean, did you see anyone who might be responsible?”

“No. There were footprints by the water shutoff, but by the time we got there, the ground was too wet for me to tell what kind of shoe or even if it was a man or a woman. Whoever it was left before the damage occurred, though.”

“So how did they damage the water lines?”

He doesn't answer right away. When he does speak, it's in a softer voice. "Can anyone else hear me right now?"

“No. Why?”

“I haven’t told Julian this yet, but the lines were damaged by ANFO. Are you familiar with that?”

“No.”

“It’s an explosive. Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. It’s a commonly used explosive for demolition because it’s low velocity and safer than dynamite. But it’s still a bloody explosive.”

“And you’re sure of this?”

“I’m sure. It has a very distinct smell.”

I shiver. An explosive? Even a “safe” explosive, is still—as Sean so elegantly puts it—a bloody explosive.

This saboteur really is escalating. It's time for me to put my fears over my past with Annie aside. Now, the family under my care really is in danger.

“Mary?” Beatrice asks again. “Is the bastard out there?”

“No,” I reply. “No, they found footprints, but he was gone before this started.”

Beatrice cursed. “God damned little coward. Sorry for my language, ma’am. But he’s a god damned little coward.” She sighs and looks at the children. “Poor babies. I’m going to serve you some ice cream. Least I can do. Ma’am, do you want some?”

“No, thank you.”

“Coffee then. I’ll bring it outside to the vineyard after I get the children their ice cream.”

That wasn’t a question. She heads to the kitchen to fetch the children their ice cream and the adults their coffee. Victoria wipes tears from her eyes and says, “Children, stay here. Mary, if you don’t mind staying with them, please.”

Nathan hops to his feet. “I want to go outside. I want to help Dad.”

“Stay here,” Victoria says firmly. “Whoever did this is gone now, but if they come back—”

“They won’t come back,” Nathan insists. “That would be stupid.”

“Everything they’ve done so far is stupid,” she counters, “but they’ve done it.”

“Don’t be rude to Beatrice,” I tell Nathan. “She’s making you ice cream. Your father’s all right. Sean would have told me something if he wasn’t.”

Nathan frowns, but he nods. "Okay. I just hate… I'm not a kid."

“I know that,” I tell him. “But sometimes being an adult means knowing when to act and when to wait.”

Nathan sighs. “All right.”

Victoria smiles gratefully at me and heads outside. Beatrice arrives a moment later with the ice cream and a cup of coffee for me. “Ms. Bellamy is outside?”

I nod, and she returns a curt nod of her own and heads outside. I notice that the hand not carrying the coffee holds the rolling pin. A part of me hopes that the coward who did this—and Beatrice hit that nail on the head—is still out there. I’d love to see him get brained for this.

In the meantime, I can do nothing but sit with the children and wait.

***

The police arrive five minutes later and stay for six hours. Sean isn’t able to keep the secret of the ANFO anymore because the police bring dogs, and those dogs immediately identify the explosive.

I am only able to pick up bits and pieces of the investigation. The police quickly determine that I was inside the entire time and once they learn that there was sabotage before I was hired, they rule me out as a suspect, a possibility I doubt they took seriously to begin with.

I stay with the children. Nathan, surprisingly, quickly loses energy. He falls asleep in the dining room, and after a half- hearted protest, I’m able to coax him upstairs to bed. Luann comes with me, and when Nathan is in bed, I turn to her.

She is trembling on her feet, and tears stream from her eyes, which she aims everywhere but mine. She knows something, or at least suspects it.

“Luann,” I say gently but no less sternly for my gentleness. “Someone just detonated explosives on your grandmother’s property. Had they miscalculated, they could have destroyed your house and possibly killed you and your family. Had any of you been outside for any reason, you could have died regardless of his calculations. Or hers. What if your grandmother wanted to show Sean the vineyard? That was the first thing she did when I arrived.”

She sniffs and hugs her arms across her chest but remains silent.

I drop the sternness and remain gentle. “Luann. If you know anything, you need to tell me. Whatever this is, it’s gone too far. Someone’s going to get hurt. Is that what you want?”

She takes a shaky breath, then shakes her head.

“Then tell me. Who did this?”

“I don’t know.”

“But?” I press.

She takes another unsteady breath and says, “But Kevin told me that he overheard his dad arguing with my dad on the phone the other day. He said when they hung up, his dad said, ‘Fuck this. We need to do something drastic. This baby shit isn’t working.’”

A tremble runs through me. I try to conceal it and hope I do well enough that Luann doesn’t notice. “When did he tell you this.”

She shrinks back and replies in a small voice, “Yesterday.”

“So you two have been seeing each other still.”

She nods. “He’s been sneaking over here on Friday nights instead of me coming to see him.”

“And you’re sure Kevin had nothing to do with—”

“No!” she insists. “I promise you, he didn’t! He wouldn’t do that to me!”

“Keep your voice down.”

She flinches and looks at the stairwell in terror. “Are you going to tell them?”

“I have to tell them. Your family is in danger.”

“No! Mary, please!”

“Your family is in danger , Luann,” I repeat.

"Well, don't tell them that I'm still seeing Kevin. Please. I'll get in so much trouble. And don't tell them, Kevin told me."

My first instinct is to be angry with her for being more concerned with her and her boyfriend getting in trouble than with the fact that her family was nearly gravely injured. But after all, she is still very young. Death isn’t real to a child unless they’ve seen it firsthand. Getting in trouble with their parents, especially for dating the child of their parent’s sworn enemy, is very real.

Still, this is more serious now. I can’t make a promise I can’t keep. “I’ll do what I can, Luann. But as I told you before, your safety matters more than anything else right now.”

She lowers her head and nods miserably. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. This is a terrible situation.”

She nods again. “I’m going to bed. Good night, Mary.”

“Good night.” Something occurs to me, and I add, “Don’t text Kevin. If you warn him, the police can trace that message, even if you delete it. It can look like you were an accomplice to any crime he may have committed.”

She pauses with her door halfway open. She doesn’t say anything and enters the room a moment later.

I sigh and shake my head. Those poor children. This has gotten so much worse for them.

And it now falls to me to make sure it doesn’t get even worse.