From the cabin emerged more. First was the older sister, Sissy, I believe she was called. She had blond hair that was not quite as lustrous as Daisy’s. She also had the same blue eyes, only paler.
The two oldest boys were enough alike to be twins, although it was my understanding they were born a year apart. They were big boned, with anvils for jaws, and held matching Winchesters. I remembered Calista saying one was Ty, the other was Clell.
Last to step out was the matriarch, as Gertrude had referred to her. Hannah Butcher was as broad as she was tall, and she was not much over five feet, a stout wall of a woman with a wide face and a wide mouth that curled in a smile as she held out a hand as big as mine. “So you’re the new parson. I’m right pleased to meet you. I’m Hannah, as if you couldn’t guess.”
“How do you do?” Her grip put Lloyd Tanner’s to shame.
Her offspring had formed a ring around the buckboard and me. Every single one except Daisy had a rifle, and the boys wore pistols, as well, tucked under their belts. Their clothes were home-spun. Only Hannah wore store- bought shoes. Sissy, like Daisy, was barefoot. The males had on moccasins. But not Indian moccasins. These they had made themselves.
“What are you doing here, mister?” one demanded.
“Now, now, Tyrel,” Hannah said. “Keep a civil tongue. He is our guest and we will treat him cordial. The rest of you, lower those rifles. Sistine, fetch a fresh bucket of water from the stream. Kip, you go with her.”
“I don’t need guarding, Ma,” Sissy said. “I can take care of myself.”
“What with all the goings-on around here lately, you’ll do as I say,” Hannah commanded. She had an air of calm assurance about her. Here was a woman who had lived a hard life. You could see it in the lines in her face. Raising several children, living in the wild, having to fend for herself since her husband vanished, she had to be as tough as rawhide.
“That is part of the reason I’m here,” I said. “To talk about setting things right with the Tanners.”
“You’ve got it backwards, Reverend Storm,” Hannah said. “They’re at fault, not us.” She motioned. “But come inside. No need to stand out in the sun unless you want to.”
I figured to find a mess, but I’d underestimated them. No slovenliness here. Everything was as clean and as tidy as at the LT. Hannah ushered me to a high-backed chair. “This was my Everett’s favorite, God rest his soul.”
“I was told he disappeared.”
Hannah’s features clouded. “Murdered, is more like it. My Everett would never leave me so long as he had breath in his body. They got rid of him first to put the fear of dying into us and drive us off, but it didn’t work.”
“They?”
“The Tanners. Who else? They have it out for us, Reverend.” Hannah eased into a chair opposite me.
Her boys and Daisy had filed in after us. Most chose to sit on the floor, their rifles across their laps. Daisy perched on the stones that framed the hearth, her legs drawn up, her chin on her knees.
“They say your family has been stealing and killing their cattle,” I brought up.
“Lies, Reverend. All lies.” Hannah appeared more hurt than mad. “But where are my manners? Would you care for refreshments? We have milk, berry juice, or coffee. Goat’s milk, I should mention. Not all folks are partial to it.”
“You don’t own a cow?”
“We have no need of one. Cows are just big dumb brutes. Goats don’t take up as much space or need as much feed. We have twenty in a pen out back. I usually let them have the run of the place, but I want them where I can keep an eye on them in case the Tanners try something.”
“You’re afraid the Tanners will massacre your goats?”
“Grin if you want. But they blame us for their cows, don’t they? And our goats mean as much to us.” Hannah crooked a finger at Daisy, who rose to do her bidding. “So what will it be, Reverend?”
“Coffee, if it is not too much bother.”
One of the twins who were not twins cleared his throat. “Want Tyrel and me to drop a deer for supper, Ma?”
“That’s up to our guest, Clell,” Hannah said. “How late will you be staying?” she asked me.
I had reckoned on only a few hours. But the better I got to know them, the easier the job would be. “I appreciate the invite. I haven’t had venison in a coon’s age.”
Hannah seemed extremely pleased. “Good. I’ve been hoping you and me can get well acquainted. I do need your help.”
“How so?”
“You said it yourself, Reverend. The Tanners. I want them to leave us be. I want them to stop accusing us of things we haven’t done. If not, worse will happen than already has, and losing my Everett was terrible enough. I can’t bear the thought of losing my younguns as well.”
“I will do all I can.” The lie nearly caught in my throat, which jarred me considerable. The Butchers were nothing to me.
“Bless you, Reverend,” Hannah said. “You are a godsend.”
I could not look her in the eyes, so I watched Daisy put a coffeepot on to brew. But that proved just as unsettling if in a different way, so I switched to the window and pretended to be interested in the woods.
Hannah was as sharp as my razor. She had not missed my reaction. “I’m sorry, Reverend. Does it make you uncomfortable, my talking like that?”
“Not at all.”
“I love my kids, Reverend. Love them more than I have ever cared for anyone, and that includes Everett. Maybe you have to be a mother to understand. But I am scared as scared can be that the Tanners mean us harm.” She bent toward me. “You are the only hope I have of smoothing things over. Will you help us? Can I count on you?”
When you have told a thousand lies in your lifetime, what is one more? “Of course you can, my dear woman.”
Chapter 6
For the second evening in a row, I was treated to a feast.
Compared to the Tanners, the Butcher clan were simple folk who lived by simple means. But they more than got by, thanks to the bounty the Dark Sister supplied. The virgin forest teemed with wildlife.
In addition to the venison, served roasted and boiled, the meal included squirrel soup and rabbit on a spit. Corn pone served for bread. They devoured hominy from a giant pot, but I can’t say I shared their enthusiasm. Brown betty was our dessert. The coffee would float an anvil, it was so thick. I ate until I had food coming out my ears and drank more coffee than any of them. Pushing back my chair, I put a hand on my stomach. If this kept up, I would become the fattest Regulator west of the Mississippi River.
The notion reminded me of why I was there. “I could use to walk some of this off,” I commented, hoping one of them would take the bait.
The Butchers were still eating. Hannah looked up from her third helping of hominy and said, “Daisy, why don’t you show the parson around?”
“Sure thing, Ma.”
As I followed the girl out, I wondered why Hannah chose her out of all the children. It made more sense for Hannah to pick one of the boys. Had she noticed what I had tried to hide? It was hard, as pretty as the girl was, and given the way she moved and carried herself. But it could be I was fretting over nothing. Maybe Hannah just thought I would be more comfortable with one of the girls and picked the one I had ridden in with.
For Daisy’s part, she was all smiles. The moment we stepped through the door, their mongrel commenced yapping at me, and she went over and kicked it. That quieted him. She led me around back to show off their goats and their garden, nearly a full acre planted with all kinds of vegetables arranged in neat rows. Gardens took a lot of work. It, and the tidiness of their cabin, put the lie to the claim that they were a bunch of lazy no-accounts. They took pride in themselves and their home. A large part of that was probably Hannah, but still, they were not the slobs Gertrude Tanner painted them. But what did that matter to me? I had a job to do. What they did, how they
