When he came into the room, she felt a surge of relief at the sight of him that made it harder for her to do what she meant to do, which was nothing. Stand there and hear him out. She couldn’t leave, now that she’d given her money to that boy. Well, she’d figure a way if she had to. She was thinking, I’m gone the minute he talks down to me, no matter what. And just that morning she’d been feeling so safe.
He spoke down the stairs, “She’s here. She’s fine,” and Boughton said, “Tomorrow, then,” and let himself out. Then the old man said, “That’s true, isn’t it? You are fine?”
She said, “Far as I know.”
He nodded. “Me, too. Far as I know.” He sat down on the edge of the bed. “A little winded, maybe.” He covered his face with his hands. A moment passed, and then he patted the bed beside him and said, “Come, sit down.” He cleared his throat to steady his voice. He said, “So. I’ll tell you about my day, if you’ll tell me about yours.”
She shrugged and sat down beside him. “I been out walking.”
“So I gather.” A longer moment passed, and then he said, “Someone came by my office and told me he’d seen you at the cabin. He mentioned it because the weather was turning bad. So I got Boughton to drive me out there so I could spare you the walk home. But we missed you somehow.”
She said, “Who told you?”
“George Peterson. He’s not in the church. They all know better by now.”
They all knew better than to tell him about her comings and goings. She’d have to think about that.
He said, “You weren’t there, but your coat was, and there was a fellow underneath it. When I saw it, I thought it was probably you under it. I said your name and there was no answer, so I turned it back, and this fellow jumped up with a knife in his hand.” He laughed and rubbed his eyes. “I never had such a scare. Or felt so relieved. I thought Boughton might die on the spot. Then he pushed past us and ran off, and we were just too floored to do anything much but look at each other. We started worrying about where you were and how he got your coat. We couldn’t very well ask him. So we came back here.” He laughed. “Boughton must have been doing forty the whole way. He’s so scared of that car he’s always got two wheels in the ditch, but he was Barney Oldfield this evening.”
She said, “Well, I was just here resting.”
“So I see. But perhaps you could clarify things a little. I’m curious. And I feel as though I owe Boughton the rest of the story. Nothing urgent about it, of course.”
“Part of the time I was sitting in the church, trying to warm up a little.”
He nodded. “I guess that’s how we missed you.”
“And I give him that coat. The use of it. Just for the night. I never thought you’d be out there.”
He nodded. “That was very generous.”
“Well, I didn’t know it would turn so cold.”
“I’m sure he was glad to have it. The use of it. So you walked home in the cold without a coat.”
“I felt sorry for him. A boy like that. He was so miserable he wasn’t even sleeping nights. He thought it was because he’d killed somebody, but I thought it might be that he just wasn’t comfortable. Partly, anyway.”
“Well,” he said. “He’d killed somebody.”
“He thought he probably did. Sounded to me like he did and he didn’t want to be sure of it. It was just his pa. I mean, he wasn’t out looking for somebody to kill. He lost his temper, I guess.”
He laughed. “That happens.”
“He wasn’t going to hurt anybody. All he wanted to do was go back where he come from. So they could hang him.”
“I see. Of course I had no way of knowing that, did I. You can imagine what I thought, finding your coat there. And he was a pretty rough-looking individual, from what I saw of him.” He said, “I have a lot of memories these days. And I have some pretty bad dreams. I talked to Boughton about it, and he said he has them, too. So we couldn’t be very sensible in the circumstances, I suppose. Maybe we could have talked to him if we hadn’t brought so much dread into the situation. Lila, I haven’t wanted to bring this up, but I would appreciate it a great deal if you were very careful with yourself. Just to spare two old men a little wear and tear.”
She
