things he believed.
Becky sensed in him something that no one else did, a darkness, she called it, and she confessed quite often that this was what had first attracted her. She said there was an enigma at the core of his being, a mysteriousness to the seeming straightforwardness of his past that no one in town had caught, and she was intrigued by that. The more time they spent together, the closer they became, and a year after he'd first arrived in Carlsville she revealed that she loved him.
He discovered that he loved her too. It was not something he'd been looking for, not even something he'd wanted, but somehow it had happened, and soon after he told her, he proposed to her, and they made plans to get married.
One evening they were lying by the creek that ran through the woods just south of town, talking, touching, looking up at the stars. The conversation faded away, and they lay there for a few moments in silence, listening to the high, clear babble of the creek. Becky seemed more subdued than usual, and he was about to ask her if there was anything the matter when she sat up, facing him. 'Do you love me?' she asked
He laughed. 'You know I do.'
'Can we tell each other anything?
'Anything and everything
She thought for a moment, then took a deep breath. The hand that touched his was trembling. 'I'm not pure,' she said. The story came out in a torrent, a nonstop jumble of words that flowed over each other and on to the next like the water in the creek: 'I wanted to tell you so many times, but I did not know how and it never seemed to be the right time. My father took me against my will. After my mother died.
It was only once and I hated it, and he performed penance afterward and we both prayed, but it happened and I'd change that if I could but I can't. No one else knows and I promised him I would never tell another living soul, but I love you and I can't start off our marriage with a lie, and you'd find out anyway, so I thought I'd better tell you.'
By this time she was sobbing on his shoulder. 'Don't hate me, she cried, don't want you to hate me.'
'Shhh,' he hushed her. 'Of course I don't hate you.'
'I couldn't stand it if you hated me.'
'I don't hate you.'
'But you don't love me anymore.'
'Of course I love you.' He tried to smile, though it felt as if his heart had been ripped open. He gave her a quick kiss on the top of the head, smelled the fragrance of her hair. 'Anything and everything, remember?'
'It only happened once, and it's over now. He apologized and I pretended to forgive and forget, I tried to forgive and forget, but I didn't, I couldn't, and I've been worried ever since because I knew this day would come. I knew I'd meet a man I loved and he'd find out I wasn't pure. I even thought of what I'd tell him. I had a big story all worked out. A lie.'
'Shhh,' Jeb said. 'Shhhh.'
She was silent for a moment, and when she spoke again her voice was low. 'I thought of killing him.' Her eyes met Jeb's. 'He knew what he was doing even while he was doing it, and no matter how much he prays or apologizes, it still
happened, and we both know it, and I know that every time we're alone together, we're both thinking about it. So I've thought of killing him many times, but but somehow can't do it. I still want to kill him, but I know I won't. He's my father.
She exhaled when she if so, as though a great weight had just been taken from her shoulders. She let out a small harsh laugh. 'I never thought I'd admit that to any body.'
He didn't know what to do, so he just kept holding her, and when she started crying again, sobbing into his shoulder, he held her tighter.
Eventually the crying stopped, and she pulled back, kissed him on the lips. 'I love you so much.'
'I love you, too.'
'Now it's your turn,' she said.
'What?'
She touched his face. 'Come on. I want to know your big secret.
You've been keeping something from me, and I want to know what it is.'
' 1'here is no big secret. My life's Open book.' 'With some missing pages.' She stood up on her knees, pretended to point a gun at him.
'Come on, buster: Adroit it.' Her face was still red from crying, her cheeks glistening with the wetness of tears, and she looked so sad and lost and alone that it damn near broke his heart.
So he told her.
He did not tell her everything, did not go into detail, but he told her that he had powers, that his father had had powers, and that they had both used those powers to help people. He explained that others had not understood, had feared and hated them, that his father had been killed and he himself had only narrowly escaped the same fate.
He told her he was a witch, though he did not use the word. 20She seemed subdued, her reaction not what he had expected. In fact, he did not know that she had a reaction. She was neither understanding and supportive nor horrified and angry. Instead she was politely quiet, pensive, and though that worded him at first, when she gave him a quick kiss before llaey parted and said, 'I love you,' he. knew that all she needed was a little time to get used to the idea.
He felt good that he'd unburdened himself, freer than he had since living with his father, and he fell into a quick and easy sleep.
The blacksmith awakened him. 'Get up!' he whispered. 'hey're coming after you.'
Jeb stirred groggily, blinking against the lamplight. What? Who?'
'Reverend Faron's gathering up a posse, and they're coming to get you.
They're going to string you up.'
She'd told her father.
He felt as if his guts had been yanked out of his chest, and only at that moment did he realize how much he truly loved her.
He'd escaped--with the help of the blacksmith, who understood what he was and didn't care--and he'd been on the move ever since.
'Maybe it wasn't her,' William offered. 'Maybe someone else found out.
Maybe--'
'It was her.'
Even now the wounds still hurt. Just talking about those memories had dredged up the emotions that went with them, and Jeb found himself wondering where Becky was now, what she was doing, who she was with, what she was like. 'I've never been in love,' William said sadly.
They were both walking, William leading his home, and Jeb looked over at him. 'Never?'
The other man shook his head, started to say something,
then thought the better of it. Jeb waited for him to say something else, but he did not. '
They continued on in silence.
They came upon the monster in the late afternoon.
The beast was dead, its corpse rotting in the sun, but even in death it was a fearsome sight to behold. They were well up the canyon by this time, fenced in between high rock walls that blocked out half the sky, and they saw the oversize body lying in the dry creek bed well before they reached it. They could both sense the undiluted malevolence of the creature's lingering presence, like the smell of a skunk that remained long after the animal had gone, and the horse seemed to sense it too because William had to talk to the animal to keep it from bolting.
They approached the body warily. It was easily as big as three men, both in height and width, and was vaguely human in form, but there were claws instead of hands at the ends of the excessively long arms, and what
