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    â€œThank you for your assistance, Mr. Rees,” Peggy said, breaking into the exchange. “Mr. Eaton promised me you would unknot this tangle and he wasn’t mistaken.” She heaved a sigh. “Poor Xenobia can now return home.”
    â€œIndeed,” Rees agreed. He hesitated. It was not his place to say anything, but he felt he owed it to Jacob Boothe. “The question is, though, I mean, if Xenobia is an innocent party, then who murdered your father?”
    Betsy emitted a loud wail and fled from the room.
    For a moment no one else spoke, frozen into a rigid tableau. “There is that, I suppose,” William said, his face white with shock. Rees suspected the young man had not thought beyond Xenobia.
    â€œCan you … I mean, will you?” Peggy looked at Rees, her hands clasped beseechingly. “You immediately proved Xenobia’s innocence and Mr. Eaton says you have both experience and skill.”
    â€œPeggy, really,” her brother said. “He proved nothing, he merely drew our attention to an improbability. There are others in town who might study this for us. Mr. Rees is a stranger and I’m quite certain he has work of his own to attend to.”
    â€œExactly,” Peggy interrupted, turning to stare at her brother. “He doesn’t live in Salem and will leave when his investigation is done. In other words, he won’t be dining out among our neighbors on tales of our tragedies.”
    â€œAlthough I’m certain everyone knows of the quarrels between you and Father,” William said, drawing himself up in outrage, “I have no regrettable secrets.”
    â€œNo, of course not,” Peggy said. “But with a Salem man living in our back pockets, well, I daresay you won’t mind if every detail of your courtship is bruited about with little regard for truth.” William went pale. “Besides,” Peggy continued with a nod, “Mr. Rees is not quite a stranger. He and Mr. Eaton have known one another for more than twenty years. And you’ve known Mr. Eaton almost as long, William.” She paused and Rees, who was surprised by her insistence, thought she’d made her case. But she spoke again, adding one final shot. “If you’re unwilling to employ Mr. Rees, I will.”
    â€œWith what?” William snapped. “I’m now the Head of this Household.” Rees heard the capital letters.
    â€œI have funds of my own,” Peggy said, fixing a stubborn glare upon her brother. “Or are you planning to claim you have control of those as well?” Although she did not say it, Rees knew she would fight her brother over every penny and never yield.
    â€œYou betray an unfortunate combative streak that is most unfeminine,” William said. “I shall never marry you off.”
    Oh yes, Lydia would like fierce Peggy. Rees chuckled quietly to himself, although he felt a twinge of sympathy for William. Peggy would be a difficult sister to manage.
    â€œPooh,” Peggy said inelegantly. “You know the deputy sheriff cannot handle a matter of this delicacy. So, what will it be, William?”
    Gathering the rags of his dignity about him, William turned to Rees. “Very well. If you think you can solve this mystery, I offer you employment. What is your fee?”
    â€œI haven’t yet agreed to take on this commission,” Rees said. He hesitated, thinking. He was eager to return home to Lydia, but there was the money to consider. And Jacob Boothe needed someone to fight for him. Rees rapidly added sums. He knew how much he might earn weaving on the journey home and added a bit more for the expenses of staying with Mrs. Baldwin and his meals. “$15.00 for two weeks,” he said. “And we can renegotiate the price at the end of the time if I haven’t discovered the murderer’s identity. And in hard cash, too,” he added. “Not that paper