'Didn't get their names,' Gus said. 'But they were rude. I won't tolerate rude behaviour.' To his surprise he saw tears shining on Clara's cheeks.
'Why, now, what's the matter?' he asked, concerned. 'I ain't hurt. It wasn't much of a fight.' 'I'm not crying about the fight,' Clara said.
'Then why are you crying?' he asked. He hitched his horse and sat down by her for a moment on the step. He cautiously put his arm around her, not knowing if that was still proper--Clara not only accepted it, she moved closer and clasped his hand, tight.
'It's hard to say goodbye to old boyfriends-- especially you,' she said. 'That's why.' 'If it's so dern hard, then why are you?' Gus asked her. 'Where's the sense?' Clara shrugged again, as he had when he told her she had goose bumps.
Then she put her head in her arms and cried harder, for a minute or two. Gus didn't know what to think, or what to say.
When Clara finished crying she wiped her eyes on her skirt and turned to him once more.
'Give me a kiss, now, Gus,' she said.
'Well, that's always been easy to manage,' he said. When they kissed he felt a salty wetness, from the tears on her cheeks.
As soon as the kiss was over, Clara stood up.
'Go along now,' she said. 'I hope to see you in Nebraska in about ten years.' 'You will see me,' Gus said. He looked up at her again. He had never seen her look lovelier. He had never loved her more. Unable to manage his feelings, he jumped on his horse, waved once, and trotted away. He looked back but didn't wave.
Clara stood up and dried her cheeks-- despite herself, tears kept spilling out. Her father and mother would be up soon, she knew, but she didn't feel like facing them, just yet. She walked slowly around the store to the street in front of it. The six departing rangers were just passing. Call and Gus, both silent, were in the lead. Clara stood back in the shadows--she didn't want them to see her, and they didn't.
Along the street, also hidden in the shadow of buildings, two other women watched the rangers leave: Maggie Tilton and Pearl Coleman.
Maggie, like Clara, had tears on her cheeks; but Pearl Coleman was entirely convulsed with grief. Before the rangers were even well out of town she began to wail aloud.
Maggie and Clara both heard Pearl's loud wailing and knew what caused it. Maggie knew Pearl from the old days, when she had been married to a bartender named Dan Leary, the victim of a random gunshot that killed him stone dead one night when he stepped outside to empty an overflowing spittoon. Some cowboys had been shooting off guns outside a bordello--one of the bullets evidently fell from the sky and killed Dan Leary instantly.
Clara too knew Pearl--she was a frequent customer at the store. She started up the street, meaning to try and comfort her, and was almost there when Maggie came out of the alley, bent on the same errand.
'Why, hello,' Clara said. 'I guess Pearl's mighty sad, because Bill's run off again, so soon.' 'I expect so,' Maggie said. She started to stop and leave the comforting to Clara, but Clara motioned for her to come along.
'Don't you be hanging back,' Clara said.
'This job is big enough for both of us.' Maggie, ever aware of her position, glanced down the street but saw only one man, an old farmer who was urinating beside a small wagon.
When they reached Pearl she was so upset she couldn't talk. She was a large woman wearing an old blue nightdress; her back shook, as she cried, and her ample bosom heaved.
'He's gone and he won't be back,' Pearl said. 'He's gone and this baby inside me will never have a father--I know it!' 'Now you shush, Pearl, that ain't true,' Maggie said. 'This trip they're taking is just a short trip. They'll all be back.' She said it, but in her own mind were fears for her own child, whose father also might never return.
Clara put her arm around Pearl Coleman, but didn't speak. People were always leaving, men mostly. The cold wind burned her wet cheeks.
Soon she herself would be leaving with Bob Allen, her chosen husband, to start the great adventure of marriage. She was excited by the thought. She expected to be happy. Soon she would be living away from her parents, and Gus McCrae would not be riding in, dusty, every few weeks, to kiss her. A part of her life was gone. And there stood Maggie, crying for Call, and Pearl Coleman, wailing, bereft at the departure of her Bill.
For a moment Clara wondered whether life was a happier affair with men, or without them.
Pearl, who had calmed a little, was walking back and forth, looking down the road where the rangers had gone. Her face was the shape of a moon and now looked like a moon that had been rained on.
'My baby's a boy, I know it,' she said.
'He's going to need a pa.' In a few more minutes the sun came up and the women parted. Pearl, somewhat relieved, went back to her house. Two or three wagons were in the street now--Maggie Tilton discreetly went home through an alley, and Clara Forsythe, soon to be Clara Allen, walked slowly back to her parents' store, wondering if, before the summer came, a child would be growing in her too.
ook II
For three days Buffalo Hump and his warriors rode south in a mass, singing and chanting during the day and dancing at night around their campfires. They were excited to be going to war behind their leader. Worm, the medicine man, made spells at night, spells that would bring destruction and death to the Texans. They flushed abundant game and ate venison and antelope when they rested. At night, when the half-moon shone, the warriors talked of killing, raiding, burning, taking captives, stealing horses. They were still well north of the line of settlements and forts --they were lords of the land they rode on and confident in their power. The young warriors, some of whom had never been in battle, did not sleep at night, from excitement. They knew their chance for glory lay at hand.
On the fourth morning Buffalo Hump stayed long at the campfire, watching some of the young men practice with their weapons. He was not pleased by what he saw. Many of the young warriors, his own son included, were not good with the bow. After he had watched for a while he called all the warriors together and issued an order that
