"Just pretending, were you?" he muttered. "Just waiting for me to come out here, and pat you on the back."
Robert tried to break free. Sick with fear, he tugged and twisted, but Durkin had stronger fingers than a demon, and a deeper understanding of how a frightened boy could make a fool of a man by using his smallness as a cloak.
"You too, Emily," Durkin said. "Come here. I want to have a long, fatherly talk with you."
Emily turned and cast a frantic glance of appeal toward the kitchen door. When her mother did not appear she started backing away from her stepfather across the yard.
Without releasing her brother, Durkin circled around in back of her. "Not so fast, brat!" he warned. "You and Robbie play house in a mighty interesting way. Suppose you tell me more about it."
"Let me go!" Robert pleaded. "We just took one of the dolls and made a Halloween coal man out of him."
"A coal man, eh?" Durkin sneered. "That's sure odd. You must have forgotten it's not Halloween?"
"It doesn't have to be Halloween!" Robert protested.
"Doesn't it? I suppose not. You could turn on your own father just as well on Thanksgiving day. That's how grateful you are."
Emily spoke up defiantly then. "You're not Robbie's father," she said. "You never could be."