Longarm looked at her closely. “You ain’t the least bit sorry he is dead?”
She laughed girlishly. “Gonna make Paw happy. Means he can sell me again. I guess this makes me a widow, huh?”
Longarm shook his head in some amazement. “Yeah, I reckon you could say that.”
She smoothed the front of her dress and looked up at Longarm. Her voice was a little husky when she said, “I’m mighty glad you didn’t get hurt none.”
“So am I,” he said.
She said, “You about ready to come in now? Now that you’ve got your work done?”
It took him so off balance he didn’t know what to say for a moment. Finally he stammered out something about taking the body into town.
She gave him an innocent look. “Why?”
“Why?” He didn’t know what to say. He finally replied, “Hannah, there are laws. I have just killed this man. I’ve got to get him into the undertaker’s office and notify the authorities. It’s the law.”
“But you’re the law.”
“Look here, I need to get this man into town and get a tintype made of him. I assume this here town has got a photographer’s shop?”
“I reckon. But you promised me you’d show up for supper yesterday and you never come.”
“Hannah, honey…” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t you reckon I was dying to do just that? But that gang held up the auction barn yesterday and I had to go out there. By the time I was finished it was good and late.” He started to tell her about Bodenheimer, but decided to hold his tongue. “Didn’t you hear about the auction barn? That it was robbed?”
She shook her head. “Naw, I never hear anything out here ‘less somebody comes by. But I wouldn’t have cared nohow. All I cared about was you showing me what you said you would. That’s why I don’t want you going off now.”
“But Hannah, I got to. I want to get a picture of this man and show it around. There’s a chance he ain’t even Gus Home.”
“I reckon I ought to know if it is Gus Home or not. Hell, I married him, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but men have been known to change their names. Outlaws especially. You just said so. I need to get this body on into town.”
She stamped her foot. “Now Marshal, you tie them horses up over there in the shade of them chinaberry trees and come on in the house.”
Longarm took off his hat and wiped his brow with his forearm. For lack of something better to say, he said, “Hell, Hannah, it’s Sunday.”
“Well so what? Church is out, ain’t it?”
Longarm put his hat on. “Hannah, I’ll be back before you know it. I’m a law officer and I got my duty.”
She pulled her lower lip down in a pout. “What about yore duty to me? You was gonna teach me.”
He gave her a quick kiss. “And I still am. I’ll be back before you can miss me. Hell, Hannah, I couldn’t do my best with a dead man laying out here. I wouldn’t be able to keep my mind on my business. You can see that.”
She dug the toe of her slipper in the dirt. She was still wearing a pout. But she said, “Oh, I guess so. That’s all girls ever get to do anyway, is wait. Wait and then wait some more. You be back before dark?”
“I’ll do my dead-level best. Depends on what I find when I get to town. By the way, where does your daddy live?”
She gave him a look. “What you want to see him about?” Then her face suddenly brightened. “You going to ask for my hand? Now, with ol’ Gus dead, won’t be nothing to stop you.”
He gave her a grave look. “Hannah, there is nothing I would want more. But I can’t. Federal marshals ain’t allowed to marry.”
“You could quit.”
Her easy response, like a child, left him slightly staggered. He said, “Well, you see, it ain’t that easy. You have to sign a … You have to sign a piece of paper says you’ll stay on the job for so long. They won’t let you quit.”
“Oh.” She put her hand to her breast. “Then you hurry in and hurry back.”
Longarm swung up in the saddle, putting on his hat as he did. He said, “You never did say where your daddy lived.”
She made a vague gesture to the northeast. “Oh, out the Llano road about four miles and then back east a couple. Almost down to the river. Got a real nice house. Part rock and part lumber and it’s all painted white. Big place. Well, you’d figure that with the size family he had.”
As he rode into town Longarm saw the remains of old Fort Mason. At one time it had been part of a chain of forts that had stretched from Fort Brown at the very southern tip of Texas clear across New Mexico to Fort Yuma in Arizona. The forts had been built to protect the settlers from Indian attacks, and as such, had been placed approximately a hundred miles apart, it being thought that cavalrymen could cover fifty miles in a day. Someone had told Longarm that Robert E. Lee had been in command of Fort Mason on the day he had left to join the Army of the Confederacy. Now, however, the fort was a crumbling relic. Most of the cut stones and rocks had been carted away to be used to construct the schoolhouse. There were still, however, several structures standing—the quarters of the married officers, he had been told. It looked like a good place to run into a nest of rattlesnakes.
Then he was into the town, coming into the square from the east side. The undertaker’s parlor was at the far northwest corner, catty-corner from the jail. As he rode along, leading the horse carrying Home’s body, the townspeople came out of their shops and homes to watch his passage. Several called out, inquiring who his load
