“Stop it!” Doc cried, his heart pounding. Then added, “I’m sorry. Please. Just tell … ask the men not to interrupt.”
Butler shot a smug, slightly superior look to the side, saying, “See? What did I tell you?”
Then to Doc. “Paw lived. We took him with our naatea, our family group, up into the headwaters of Owl Creek. He was recovering, learning to walk…”
“What?”
Butler looked down at his dirt-encrusted hands. “Someday I will tell you the whole story. But the things Paw confessed to? Let us just say he shamed me before my men and wife and family.”
“Wife?” Doc swallowed hard. “You’re married?”
To whom? What woman would have a delusional lunatic?
“Her name in Dukurika is Wobindotadegi. Mountain Flicker. And I see that look you’re giving me. I’m not a madman among the Shoshoni; they believe I see the Spirit World, that I am a sort of puhagan. Especially after I went to the Underworld and lay with Water Ghost Woman.”
Doc barely caught himself in time. God knows what kind of insanity he has imagined. Don’t drive him away!
Butler might have read his mind, a weary smile coming to his lips. “You won’t understand, Philip. It’s all right. The men and I are not here to be a burden. I only came to tell you about Paw. In the end, disgraced by all his lies and sins, he shot himself in the head rather than face it. I had to get him out of Shoshoni territory, bury him where his souls, if they got loose, couldn’t plague the newe. I dug a hole and put his putrid body in it. Filled it full of rocks to keep him in, and covered the grave. I put the sod over it, and no one will ever know where he’s laid.”
“You really believe all of this? I mean…”
Butler chuckled, as if in amusement according to some internal whim. He gestured for Doc to wait, stepped to the door, and rang the bell as he stepped outside. Butler reentered with an Indian suitcase, what they called a parfleche.
This Butler laid on the desk, saying, “That’s all of Paw’s possessions. Everything but the revolver. It’s a nice Starr and I’m keeping it.”
Doc unlaced the ties and opened it. Inside was a small framed photo of Paw in his major’s uniform. No doubt taken just before Shiloh. His gold watch and chain, the one he wore so proudly at the legislature. A small sack of gold coins and a sheaf of Confederate and Federal money. His wedding band, a deck of cards, dice, a folding knife and Bowie, a strike-a-light and box of matches. The pin he insisted he’d taken from a Mexican general’s chest.
Paw’s things, all right. “Jesus. You really found him.”
“Divine justice.” Butler’s smile faded. “It was fitting that I was the one to find him. When I told him about Maw, Sarah, and Billy. About the farm. It might have been water off a duck’s back, for all he cared.”
Doc glanced up. “Sarah.”
Butler shrugged. “Paw had no news. He never so much as wrote to—”
“Sarah is here. In Denver.”
Butler blinked, as if processing this new revelation. “Is she all right?”
Doc took a breath. “Brace yourself. She’s … changed.”
Butler’s gaze slid to the side—the way it did when he glanced at his men. “Imagine that,” he said dryly. “As if any of us were left untouched.”
“Untouched by what?”
“The ways of puha. The cockeyed strings of fate, Doc. Of course she’s changed. We all are.”
“Up until recently she ran one of the most prestigious parlor houses in the city. She’s … well, a madam is a nice way to say it.”
“And Billy?”
“No news.”
“I’ll want to see her before I go.”
“Go?” Doc asked, spreading his arms. “Go where? That night that Aggie came, I was just upset. I didn’t mean those things. I have cursed myself over and over for my stupid tongue. The endless nights I’ve lain awake … I beg you to forgive me.”
Butler reached out, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Long forgotten. I needed to go. Had to go. I found my place. I have a wife, a family. I only came back to tell you about Paw. Do it face-to-face. The men and I figured we owed you that.”
“And then you’re going back?”
Butler nodded, firmness in his eyes. “I don’t belong in your world any more than you’d be happy in mine.”
“But you’ll stay long enough to see Sarah?”
A tease of a smile bent Butler’s lips. “Of course. But Philip, give me your word. You won’t conspire with her to keep me. You won’t lock me up or drug me, or do something I wouldn’t approve of.”
Doc looked into his brother’s clear blue eyes. He might be a delusional lunatic, but he’d never looked as sure of himself.
“My word, Butler.”
“You keep Paw’s stuff. I need to clean up, maybe find presentable clothes. I left a shirt and pants at your house. Then we’ll go see Sarah. I’d like to know how she got here, what happened to Maw in those last days.”
“It’s a hard story to hear, Butler.”
“Aren’t they all?” he asked softly, his gaze distant.
121
June 29, 1868
Sarah closed her door, and the messenger boy went skipping down her front steps. She picked her way around the workmen who were gathering their tools in the foyer, and retreated to her dining room. The last of the banging and sawing signaled the end of the workday.
She used her hand duster to whisk the sawdust from her chair. Pulling up her skirt, she settled herself at an angle so her bustle cleared the chair back. Then, with a thumb, she broke the seal on the envelope Doc had just sent her.
She scanned the few lines, then reread them just for the enjoyment. Butler was back in town! Apparently still mad, but tanned and healthy. Would she mind if he and Philip
