Meg peeked outside through a window, then opened the front door. John stood there holding a smaller man by the collar. The man's hair was a mess, both his eyes were blackened, and blood streamed from his nose.
"This scum bag came up to me in the yard, demanding to see his wife and children," John explained. "I asked who he was, and he attacked me. The adrenaline kicked in, and I handed his ass to him. He tried to make a run for it, but I told him he wasn't going anywhere until the police get here."
"I'll call them right away!" Meg rushed to the telephone. Jo took a quick glance around and saw that Rosalyn and her children had disappeared to another part of the house.
"Where are you, Roz baby?" whined the subdued man. "I've come to get you and the kids and take you all back home, where you belong. It's no good hiding from me, honey. You know I always find you."
"Not this time, you won't," Jo muttered through gritted teeth.
The man turned furious eyes at her.
"What did you just say?"
"Maybe you'd better just let John and Meg handle this," Beth whimpered, clinging to her sister.
"You stay out of it!" the man snarled, shaking his fist at Beth, who turned terrified eyes away from him.
Several minutes later, the police arrived.
"I found this man trespassing on my property," John told them. "When I asked him what he wanted, he jumped me."
"OK, buddy, what's your name?" one policeman asked the man.
"Douglas McFerrin," he muttered.
"Do you have any identification?"
Douglas took his driver's license out and handed to to the policeman.
"Why are you trespassing on this man's property?"
"He and his wife are holding my wife and children hostage, and I've come to rescue them."
"That's not true." Jo turned to see that Rosalyn had reappeared in the doorway. "I had to run away from him because he beat me up. Meg and John were kind enough to offer us a place to stay until I can get back on my feet."
"Is this true?" the policeman asked Douglas.
"No! She's lying! I wouldn't hurt a fly!"
"And I suppose she blackened her own eye. Tell it to the judge." The policeman's voice was cold as he slipped handcuffs onto Douglas's wrists. "I'm placing you under arrest for trespassing, stalking, and harassment."
Douglas scowled as the policemen led him away.
"So how did you meet that guy, anyway?" Jo asked Rosalyn. The policemen had already left with Douglas, and Rosalyn sat on the sofa nursing the twins. Beth was playing a game with Rosalyn's older children, and Jo was sitting on the sofa beside Rosalyn.
"In a dance club when I was twenty-one." Rosalyn moved Jeremy to her shoulder to burp him. "I thought he was wonderful at first. He was always such a perfect gentleman, opening doors for me, pulling out chairs, things like that. He seemed so much more grown up than the guys I was used to dating. Are you finished, sweetie?" Rosalyn replaced Jeremy with his twin brother. "The trouble started not too long after Brennan was born. Doug came home drunk one night and accused me of sleeping with his best friend. 'He got inside your pants, didn't he?' he asked. 'No, of course not!' I said, really upset. 'Yes, he did,' he said, then slapped me really hard across the face."
"That's awful!" Jo had never seen either Fritz or Dieter angry at her.
"That was just the beginning." Rosalyn patted her tiny son on the back. "The temper tantrums, the accusations, the beatings. He put me in the hospital a couple of times."
"And yet you had five more kids with him."
"He always acted so sorry afterwards." Rosalyn settled Jonathan beside his sleeping brother. "He would cry and beg for my forgiveness and promise to never do it again. I fell for it every time. What a fool I was!"
"Mommy, when is Daddy coming back?" asked Aidan.
"Hopefully never," his mother replied.
"But we want Daddy!" whined Brennan.
"Your father has knocked me around for the last time." Rosalyn's voice was cold.
"Daddy's going to jail," their younger sister sang in a singsong voice, with a smug grin.
"No he ain't! Quite lying!" Brennan raised a hand to smack the little girl, but Rosalyn grabbed it and held it.
"You aren't supposed to hit girls," said the third oldest boy, who was just a tad taller than his sister.
"Why not? Daddy hits Mommy," said Brennan.
"Want to go see if there are any slugs or snails in the garden?" asked Beth.
"Yes!" cried all five of the older McFerrin children.
"You're a lifesaver!" Rosalyn told Beth.
Jo and Beth spent most of the day with Meg, John, and their guests. They returned home just before dark. Jo had a date with Fritz, and Beth had one with Jonas.
"How has your day been?" Fritz asked Jo as she slid into the front seat beside him.
"Busy!" Jo replied. "Beth and I spent the day with Meg and John and the twins. You know how I told you Meg volunteers in a shelter for battered women? Well, one of them is staying with her now. This woman has seven kids. Seven. Can you believe it?"
Fritz chuckled as he drove along. Drivers were just beginning to put their headlights on, and passing pedestrians pulled their jackets tighter around themselves.
"That is a lot of children," he agreed. "It is unusual to find a family of that size in modern times. This woman, she had been abused by her husband?"
"Yes." Jo basked in the warmth of the car's heater. "He came around looking for her and the kids. He jumped on John, and John beat the snot out of him and Meg called the police."
"Your brother-in-law is quite the capable defender." Fritz applied the brakes as he approached an intersection. "My grandmother had the same heart as your older sister. She volunteered her time and energy to help women and children who were in desperate situations such as the one you have just described. That is likely why my father has always stressed to me the importance of treating a woman well."
Jo grinned.
"In that case, I owe him one."
Fritz laughed, and she joined in.