Tiffany went to the kitchen, got a bag of frozen peas from the refrigerator, and handed it to Jayden. Jayden held the peas against her eye and crossed the room to sit with the adults. Her heart had settled down to a slow, steady beat, but the pain in her eye and head would take a while to disappear. It wasn’t her first black eye, and she’d had a minor concussion before, so she knew this wasn’t one of those, but it still hurt like hell.

Mary leaned across Elijah’s empty chair and laid a hand on her arm. “Are you all right? Did they get her into the van without too much trouble?”

“I’m fine and she’s on her way to Alpine,” Jayden answered with a reassuring smile. “And this casserole is good enough to eat cold. I earned two of those cinnamon rolls after this. Are you and Henry all right?”

“We’re fine, but I got to admit that’s the first time I’ve had a girl hit me,” Mary said.

“Hopefully, it will be the last,” Henry added.

“While you were outside—” Diana began, but then drew in a short breath. “Good Lord, girl, your hands are shaking. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Just a little shook up.” Jayden made a conscious effort to still her nerves. “What happened when I was outside?”

“Rita told me that Lauren said she wasn’t going to stay here no matter what she had to do. She was so mad when she stepped in horse crap this morning on their walk that she declared this was her last day here. Rita also said that Lauren told her she had some pills that she’d hidden with her cigarettes and managed to hang on to them even when Novalene confiscated the smokes,” Diana answered. “I’ve dealt with kids that were high in my school before, but I’ve never seen anyone as wild as that girl.”

“Me either.” Jayden willed her hands to stop shaking so she could finish her breakfast.

“Diana, would you drive the second van to church this morning?” Henry asked. “Mary and I like to steal away for an hour and go to our church on Sunday morning. After what’s happened, it’ll be good for both of us to go sit quietly before the Lord for a little while.”

Jayden’s three girls finished their meal and came over to form a circle around her.

“What can we do to help you?” Tiffany asked.

“You can help me and Mary out in the kitchen.” Jayden could see that they needed something to do, and Mary was covering it well, but her hands were trembling.

“Yes, ma’am,” Tiffany said. “I’ll start rinsing trays.”

“It’s a good thing Lauren is gone, or I might have done something stupid and gotten sent away with her. If I get a demerit for not staying in my seat, it’ll be worth it.”

Carmella led the way to the kitchen. “Me too, but let’s go get started.”

“That Tiffany is a tough cookie,” Henry whispered.

“She’ll have bruises,” Jayden said, “but she’s showing all the other girls that she’s meaner than Lauren was.”

“I admire her and hope my girls take a lesson from what happened this morning.” Diana picked up her tray and headed toward the kitchen with it. “Since Lauren isn’t here for slop duty next week, that’s going to be Rita’s job. She stole my cell phone last night and was attempting to call her boyfriend when I caught her.”

Jayden just nodded and joined her girls in the kitchen.

“I hate this job.” Ashlyn sighed. “I’d rather clean horse stalls any day of the week than wash nasty old trays. We’ve got an amazing chef at home who makes whatever each of us wants, and she does the cleanup.”

“Stop griping,” Tiffany said. “We’re here to help Jayden.”

Jayden turned away so they couldn’t see her smile. She was proud of them for stepping up to the plate and taking on extra work.

“You mean you don’t have to eat whatever is fixed?” Carmella asked.

“Nope, we get to tell Martha what we want in the morning, and it’s ready for dinner.” Ashlyn rinsed trays and stacked them in the dishwasher. “I’ve never had to work like this before. I don’t like therapy, but I’ll take it over this.”

“Therapy ain’t so bad,” Tiffany said. “And I like Karen. I wasn’t going to talk to her when it was my hour, but she’s so sweet and she really listened when I said something.”

Jayden appreciated the meeting the counselors had with Karen. She addressed several of the girls’ problems and gave the counselors positive ways to help with them. Hearing that Tiffany liked Karen was a plus and gave Jayden hope that the girl would truly leave with a better self-image.

“I like to cook,” Carmella said. “Our cook lets me help in the kitchen all the time, but Mama decides what the menu is, and I can eat what’s put on the table or have a peanut butter sandwich.”

“What about you, Tiffany?” Jayden asked.

“My folks are gone all the time. They don’t give a crap what I eat or even if I eat. The housekeeper will fix food some of the time, but mostly I just live on takeout,” Tiffany answered.

No wonder the girls got into so much trouble, Jayden thought. Seemed to Jayden like their parents were much more taken up with careers and their own lives than seeing to it their daughters had the right kind of positive attention, but then she was used to seeing similar in her own school.

Elijah would have much rather been back at camp making sure that Jayden and Mary were really all right than taking a petulant girl to the county jail. His thoughts were all over the place. What if Mary had a heart attack over this incident? What if Jayden’s eye swelled shut? Would that affect her ability to help Mary or to take care of the girls in her cabin?

At first Lauren didn’t cry, but when Novalene and Elijah wouldn’t argue with her, the waterworks started. She cussed, long and loudly. She tried to kick the side window out, but then she got sick and threw up in the barf bag that Novalene had the good sense to bring along.

“Daddy is going to hate me. He loves my brother, but then Joseph is perfect and never does anything wrong. I wish he would die so Daddy would love me.”

“That’s your problem.” Elijah didn’t care right then if she hadn’t been loved enough or potty-trained right, or if her brother had wings and a halo.

“If you would take advantage of group sessions and your counseling, you might get over that feeling,” Novalene told her.

“Counselors are stupid,” Lauren said and stared out the window. “Take me back. I’ll be good.”

“Can’t do that,” Elijah said as he eased into a parking space behind the jail. Two deputies waited beside a patrol car and started walking toward them. “Looks like your dad has already arranged something.”

“I hope someone sets fire to Piney Wood and you all die,” Lauren hissed.

Elijah rolled down the window and said, “We’re delivering Lauren Fielding into your care.”

A deputy slid open the side door and held out a pair of cuffs. “Young lady, your father has instructed us to take you back to the airport, where he will have a private plane waiting to take you to a rehab center.”

Elijah got out of the van and walked around the front of it.