lot plainer if you want I should understand you.”
Elias explained it to him.
“If you mean am I sorry I did certain things, yes
I am.”
“Then He will forgive you if you ask Him to.”
“How I do that, the asking part?”
“Simply speak your heart, say how sorry you are
for what you did and ask His forgiveness and it will
be granted.”
“That’s it? That’s all?”
“Pretty much, except you ought to not go out and
do the same sin again. Even the Lord has His limits.”
“Believe me, I ain’t planning on it never.”
“You want to come to the house and eat? Are you
hungry?”
“No, I best get on.”
“Go with God, then.”
Once outside, Zane Stone felt somehow like a
changed man. But he wasn’t sure how he was changed.
He still had to contend with his brothers and how the
three of them were supposed to find this fellow, this
William Sunday, and put him under and collect the re-
ward money. He didn’t see no way of getting out of it,
and it was probably a for sure sin to be killing a man
for money as it was to be doing what they did to that
poor woman. But if what that preacher said was true,
then it’d probably be all right that he kept his part of
the bargain with his brothers until the killing got
done. Afterward he’d confess it and quit and take off
on his own and maybe find a nice job clerking in a
grocery store or shoeing horses or the like, and do no
more sinning, because it was hard carrying that sort of
thing around inside his head.
The town was starting to wake up. There were a
few folks on the street now—mostly merchants
sweeping the walk out front of their businesses. He
tried to think where his brothers could be. Then re-
membered where he’d last seen them.
Whoring was a sure enough sin. He wondered if
just being in a house where the whoring got done was
also a sin. He didn’t know how else he was going to
rejoin them if he didn’t go to where they was. He
made a mental note to remind himself that it would
be one more thing he’d need to confess once he’d
done it.
“Where you been, hon?” Birdy said. She’d just awak-
ened and had gotten fearful when she saw that Elias
wasn’t there in the bed with her. She still worried the
preacher would leave her because of her whoring
days. It was still hard for her to believe she’d married
a preacher man, had to pinch herself to know it
wasn’t a dream sometimes.
“I was providing succor to a lost soul,” Elias said,
feeling good he was a preacher man again.
“Succor?” Birdy said.
“Succor.”
“Succor,” she said again, as though tasting the
word.
She looked at Elias, suddenly hungry for his very
being and tossed back the covers and said, “Why
don’t you take off your boots and climb in here with
me, hon. I’m about lonely for you.”
He knew that no matter what else he did in life he
would never be able to resist his wife or her needs, nor
did he ever want to. He was so shocked and happily
surprised by her at times, he never wanted to spend a
single minute without her.
He got in the bed with her and took her into his
arms and said softly, “I’d like us to start working on
some youngsters.”
The joy of his suggestion caused her to weep and
her tears fell on his face until he began to weep as well.
“I never been so happy,” she said.
“Neither have I,” he said.
Unbeknown to either of them, a mocking bird
landed on the roof and chirped at the rising sun.
Jake was up first light, dressed and ready to go find
whoever it was took a shot at him the night before.
He dressed in silence and set the brace of pistols into
his waistband then put on the hat with the bullet hole
in it and gauged that two inches lower, it would have
been his brains out on the street instead of the other
man’s blood.
Clara came into the room wearing a cotton shift,
still looking sleepy.
“I can fix you something to eat before you go,” she
said.
“No, I’m fine. Thanks for offering.”
“How will you find him?”
“Can’t be that many men in town with fresh bullet
wounds.”
“He probably fled and isn’t anywhere around here
any longer.”
“Maybe so, though I will check just to make sure.”
“I’m sorry I brought you into this,” she said.
“You didn’t bring me into anything,” he said. But
he wondered if he had a fatal weakness for women
who seemed they were in need of help.
He turned to go, then turned back.
