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“Your brother is making an inordinate amount of fuss about naught but a tiny scuffle,” Lizzie said, with a kindling eye.

“Hold still!” Benedict scolded her, taking the raw steak from his brother.

“You solved the mystery yet? Of how it happened?” Jack asked him humorously.

“I have. Daphne belted her and then took off into the night.”

“What?” Jack was thunderstruck. “Daphne did? Why in God’s name?”

“What are you doing with that piece of meat?” Lizzie asked with misgiving as Benedict cast the paper and string into the fire.

“Hold still.”

Lizzie recoiled from the wet, cold press of the steak against her eye, but Benedict’s firm grip would not allow her to retreat from his ministrations.

“So, the two of you came to blows?” Jack said scratching his head. “Maybe we should put her in the ring, eh, Ben? The fighting Toomes’ and no mistake.”

“The only one she fights with is me,” Benedict said through gritted teeth. “And that’s with words, never fists.”

“Benedict wants to send me away!” Lizzie burst out angrily.

“What?” Jack’s face fell. “Then what was the point in Daphne clearing out?”

Benedict turned sharply to his brother. “That vicious bitch would have stayed over my dead body!” he said with such seething anger that even Jack fell back a step.

“Yes well,” his younger brother said hastily. “That may be so, Ben, but you can’t deny she was damn useful to us about the place, cooking and cleaning. Not to mention drumming up business for the tent. But well, if she’s gone now, then that’s all there is to it.”

“You haven’t even asked me who it was instigated the fight,” Lizzie pointed out in an odd voice.

Benedict’s eyes flickered a moment. “That’s because I don’t care,” he admitted.

Jack spluttered. “Ben!”

“So, was it you who started it?” Benedict responded, a challenging gleam in his eye.

Lizzie’s gaze fell before his own. “I – well, I provoked a verbal fight with her,” she admitted.

“That’s not the same thing and you know it,” he responded and unscrewed a bottle of ointment which smelled very pungent.

“Why did you quarrel?” Jack asked her curiously.

“Because of Maggie,” Lizzie responded. “Ow! That stings!” Benedict was applying it to a spot on her temple that she hadn’t even realized was grazed.

“I know it does, sweetheart,” Benedict replied gravely. “But I want your face to heal.”

His tone was so tender that Lizzie caught her breath and Jack backed away with alarm. “Right,” he called back in a cheerful voice. “I’ll head back and er – leave you to it. I’ll fill Frank in with what’s happened with the womenfolk.”

“Goodnight,” Lizzie called after him, though she kept her eyes on Benedict’s face. “I’m not being sent away to some house I’ve never seen while you finish the year touring with your brothers.” It was hard to sound firm and reasonable when she had a piece of raw steak stuck to half her face, but she attempted it anyway.

“We’ll talk about it later.” He refilled the kettle over the fire and fetched her cloak from the wagon, tucking it about her. “I’m going to fetch us some food,” he said abruptly. “You’re going to eat it, and then we’ll turn in early. Don’t take that off your eye.”

Lizzie fumed silently as he tilted her head back to the angle he thought necessary to keep the meat applied to her eye and then walked away. “Outrageous!” she muttered, kicking her foot against a pail of water. “As though I have no say of my own!”

Sebastian’s ears went back, and he flashed her a sheepish look as he lowered his muzzle onto his front paws. “You weren’t much help either!” she grouched, leaning across to test the weight of the teapot. When she’d determined there was another drop to be squeezed out of it, she helped herself to another cup and navigated sipping it with some difficulty with her head tipped back.

Hearing approaching footsteps, she squinted into the darkness and saw Frank approaching, a troubled expression on his face. Sebastian bounded up and circled around the newcomer making huffing noises which Lizzie recognized indicated excitement more than hostility. Clearly Frank thought so too, for he did not look concerned by the dog’s attentions.

“He’s gone to fetch us some supper,” Lizzie explained, seeing Frank look about for his brother. She thought he looked a little relieved to hear this as he patted distractedly at Sebastian’s head. The dog tolerated this for a moment only before returning to sit beside the fire.