Charles and Philip Barnett have settled down to raise their children, but their domesticity is disrupted when Philip's nephew Steve is delivered to their doorstep early one morning after being beaten senseless by his homophobic father.<br><br>So the family grows, but of course, that's the easy part. A rabidly fundamentalist sheriff and a gay-bashing incident leave Steve and his new boyfriend in legal hot water and at the mercy of the deputies' harassment, and Charles must once again take up the fight for justice for his loved ones.

Triumph

Marie brought the girls up at the beginning of June for an extended stay. She returned home the next day to close up and sell her house and begin the process of searching for a new home in Alexandria.


Lydia came by to see the girls two or three times a week. As it turned out, they were dealing with their father’s death better than we’d suspected. A couple of their cousins on the Cox side of the family had been giving them a very rough time at school, and they weren’t at all upset at the prospect of moving to Alexandria.


Marie came to collect them on the same weekend that Philip and I arrived home from Boston with Paul George Barnett in our arms. Two weeks later, we flew back to Boston to pick up Raymond James Barnett, and the tribe was complete.


Chapter 94