WEBVTT

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If the signal has found you,

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you are right where you belong.

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Welcome to Stories Through the Static.

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104.7… The Between.

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Tonight: The Bayou Remembers.

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Chapter Two: Trouble Found.

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There was water in the glass beside his
bed.

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Enough to allow me to enter.

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I found him sleeping badly.

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The ship moved beneath him, but the room he
dreamed of stood perfectly still.

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Ten thousand candles lit the mirrored hall,

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The King held court beneath a crown of
gold, Where every smile was bartered,

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bought, and sold.

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The music stopped.

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The court faded away…

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Only she remained

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Reaching

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Holding out her hand to him.

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He knew this dream.

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Sometimes he woke before he turned away.

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Sometimes he even managed to reach for her.

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It never changed what had happened.

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As he slept uneasily, the cabin door swung
a little with each roll of the ship,

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as though someone on the other side were
deciding whether to come in.

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It had not latched properly since he came
aboard.

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This time, he remained asleep long enough
to see her understand his choice.

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Seeing the hurt bloom across her face
brought him bolting upright.

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His hand struck the glass.

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He caught it before it fell.

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Then he sat with his fingers closed around
it while the ship creaked and groaned and

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went on carrying him toward the deep waters
of my bayou.

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Outside his cabin, someone laughed.

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He listened closely until he was certain it
wasn’t her.

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I had known him with iron on his shoulders
and a legion waiting for him to wave them

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forward.

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Julien, they called him now.

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In this life, his family had kept rooms at
Versailles for four generations.

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Then the Revolution came, and they kept
nothing.

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He had been twelve when they crossed to
London with his mother’s pearls sewn into

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her hems.

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Afterward, he served as an officer in other
men’s wars and found, when the wars were

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done, that merchants would pay well for a
man who could read a ledger the way he had

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once read a field of battle.

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For six years now, the insurers of New
Orleans had sent him to investigate the

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claims nobody else could settle.

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He had never attended court in this life,
but he remembered.

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He dreamed of the French court and her
nearly every night.

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The glass was still in his hand, forgotten.

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As he came back to himself,

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he drank the water.

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For a while he only sat,

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listening to the ship.

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Then he rose and dressed.

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His papers were in a leather case beneath
the berth.

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He spread them on the little table,
weighting one corner against the movement

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of the ship.

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Cargo missing.

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Deliveries interrupted.

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Men who agreed on very little except that
someone called Broussard had become

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expensive.

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One account described a band of twenty.

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Another insisted there were six.

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Julien placed the two reports beside each
other.

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At least the arithmetic gave him something
useful to be irritated with.

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He made notes.

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Checked a signature.

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Read again the instructions accompanying
his payment.

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Find Broussard.

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Establish how the cargo was being taken.

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Recover what could be recovered.

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He had been sent because he could listen
without appearing to concede,

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and because men generally believed him when
he explained that there would be

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consequences.

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He put the papers away when someone
knocked.

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They had come as far as the ship could take
him.

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The smaller boat offended him less than the
absence of a seat intended for a

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passenger.

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His boatman indicated a place beside a coil
of rope.

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Julien looked at it, then at his case.

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Will the case stay dry?

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If you keep it out of the water.

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A reasonable answer.

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He disliked it immediately.

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He lowered himself carefully, finding room
for his long legs beside the rope.

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His broad shoulders made the little boat
look smaller still.

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For a while, there was open sky and room to
see where they were going.

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Then the banks drew closer.

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Branches reached over them.

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The water darkened beneath the trees.

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The boatman scarcely seemed to look ahead.

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His attention moved between a half
submerged root, a patch of floating leaves,

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the angle at which the current pressed
against a fallen limb.

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Julien looked back once.

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The entrance had disappeared.

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Have we missed the passage?

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We're in it.

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Ah, So I see.

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At a narrow turn, the boatman told him to
shift his weight.

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Julien moved promptly, keeping the case
clear.

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The hull passed with scarcely an inch to
spare.

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He looked at the submerged timber they had
avoided.

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How did you know that was there?

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I hit it.

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The boatman met his glance and shrugged.

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Once.

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Julien smiled despite himself.

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By the time they reached the landing, my
girl had finished her coffee and found

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somebody else to argue with.

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A buyer stood beside the cloth, holding up
one corner as though daylight might reveal

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a reason to pay less.

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Broussard watched him do it.

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Julien heard her before the boat touched
wood.

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No, you may inspect it as long as you like.

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It will still be the same price when you
finish.

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The buyer said something too low to carry.

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Then she laughed.

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Julien's hand tightened on the side of the
boat.

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Long ago, her laughter had reached him
across what was to be a battlefield before

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he ever saw the woman it belonged to.

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He had been sent across a sea to search her
out.

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He had done so, leading an army into
forested lands and across rolling hills to

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find her.

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The landing was only a few yards away, but
for a long moment he could not move.

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Well?

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Julien stood.

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He put his case ashore, stepped onto the
landing, and looked up.

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She was barefoot, a knife at her waist and
dried mud along her trouser cuffs, with a

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loose strand of hair caught at the corner
of her mouth.

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She pushed it aside without interrupting
what she was saying.

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Beautiful.

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One of the men behind her called a question
about the flour.

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She answered over her shoulder, named a
household, and returned to the buyer before

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he could fold the cloth away.

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He was trying to remove a coin from the
little stack between them.

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She laid two fingers over it.

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Julien knew that look.

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He almost smiled.

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Ti soleil.

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The boatman did not hear.

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I did.

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That name in that mouth startled me.

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Then she glanced toward the landing.

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The smile he remembered was still on her
mouth when she saw him.

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As recognition dawned, the smile
disappeared.

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The buyer tried to lift the coin again.

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Broussard caught his wrist without looking.

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Leave that.

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He left it.

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Julien stood very straight.

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I felt the old impulse move through him.

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Close the distance, find somewhere private,
get her away from all these watching people

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before either of them said something they
could not retrieve.

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He glanced toward the path beside the
house, then back at her.

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He had to fight to make himself stay where
he was.

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My girl had noticed the glance.

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She released the buyer's wrist.

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Count it again.

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I have counted it.

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Then you'll be quicker this time.

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He bent over the money.

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She came down toward the landing.

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Julien watched her approach with an
expression I remembered from a hillside.

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There had been a sword in his hand that
day.

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Today his hands were empty.

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She stopped well beyond their reach.

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Well.

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Whatever polished greeting he had brought
across the water failed him.

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Bonjour.

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Such a little word for all that distance.

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She looked at his face,

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his coat,

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the leather case at his feet.

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You're a long way from court.

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Yes.

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No one to announce your departure here.

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He took that without looking away.

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Behind her, someone shifted cargo to the
dock.

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A child called from the house to their
mother.

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The buyer began counting aloud, loudly
enough to establish his innocence in the

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counting.

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Julien's voice was quiet.

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I remember.

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Her fingers curled once against the seam of
her trousers.

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As do I.

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He had wanted her to know him.

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Now she did.

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The boatman lifted the remaining bag onto
the landing.

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I see you found who you came for then.

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Julien barely heard him.

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Broussard did.

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Something changed in her face.

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Who did he tell you he came for?

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He was looking for Broussard.

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She looked from the leather case to Julien.

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Ah.

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The color left his face as he understood.

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For all the hurt standing between them, she
found room to enjoy that part.

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You are Broussard.

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Bien.

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He looked past her at the cloth,

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then at the men carrying flour toward the
house.

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She let him.

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Finally, he looked back at her.

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She folded her arms.

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Now, monsieur.

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Tell me what you've been sent to put in
order.

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Be kind to yourselves
and each other out there.

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You’ve been listening to
Stories Through the Static.

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104.7… The Between.