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Show I 63 The men resumed their inspection and ignored Lathrop. "You risk the pillory!" His warning was unheeded. The door suddenly opened and two women and a young boy entered. It was Hannah, Elise, and Benjamen. Elise, seeing Hyrum on the floor, let out a fearful gasp. She backed herself against a wall, all the while trying to assess Hyrum's condition. Hannah recognized instantly the gravity of the situation. From her husband's stern, unyielding appearance, she guessed he had assumed the stature of an upper-class individual. She fluffed herself up accordingly. "What's going on here?" she demanded with no hint of Yorkshire in her speech or mannerisms. "These are ne'er do wells making a pretense of being on the King's errand," Lathrop informed her. The bull turned to Hannah and asked, "Who are you?" Hannah looked at him with fire in her eyes as though he had way overstepped his bounds of authority and with iron indignation she reiterated his presumptuous question. "Who are you!" Benjamen hid behind her skirt. He had never heard his mother speak in such tones. |