“Like I said: chickenshit.” And away Percy tramped through the trees.
They sat around the fire, eating, Billy the last to join. Warily he emerged from the tree line, into the clearing, making for the space they’d left him, between Jarrah and Noone. Watching them all closely. He trusted not one. Pope sat with his long legs crossed and his bald head bent—the dome of his skull dented and ridged—nibbling on a chicken leg; Jarrah hunched moodily beside him, shoveling it all in. On the other side of the fire Percy tossed grapes into his mouth one by one, while Noone ate an apple in six enormous bites, devouring it entirely, core, pips, and all.
Billy lowered himself between them, picked up his food parcel and opened it, found chicken, bread, cheese, grapes, a coupleof slices of beef.
“She really was most generous. Such an accommodating host.”
Billy frowned at the comment, then noticed the napkins the food was wrapped in: green with golden trim, the same they usedat Broken Ridge. Noone had mentioned Katherine back at the house, and there was all Percy had just said. He turned on Noone:“What have you done?”
“Why, nothing but pay a visit, Billy, asking after your whereabouts—I had heard you were working up there. And of course,a woman alone on a frontier property, vulnerable, it is my duty to ensure she is well. Which she was, you’ll be pleased tohear. Nothing to worry about at all. I have to say, I was rather surprised to find she is engaged now, though I am sure oncethe poor fellow realizes what his fiancée has been up to, the condition she has got herself in, he will be far less inclinedto stick around.”
Billy felt himself tilting, his face burning in the flames. “What you talking about? What condition?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Now that does surprise me. For a cattle man such as yourself, I would have thought gravidity in a femalewould be easy enough to spot. But then, surely she should have told you—I assume the bastard is yours?”
“He spat his seed into her cunny, now she’s got a babby . . . He doesn’t think it’s very funny, that he’ll be a daddy . . .”
Percy sang it like a ditty, a nursery rhyme, then dissolved into cackling laughter once he was done. Noone shot him a reproachful glance. The two troopers sniggered and Billy began scrambling to his feet. Again, he went for his revolver but reconsidered, pointed his finger around the circle instead.
“Shut your fucking mouths. I got done with you cunts years ago, I don’t want none of this horseshit now. Drew Bennett ain’tnothing to me, neither’s that boy in his barn. Do what you like, see if I care, but you leave us alone, you hear me? I seeany of you lot round our way again, especially this gobby little shite here, and I’ll put a hole in you. To hell with it,I’m going home.”
They watched his performance impassively, like bored spectators at a show. Pope picked off another morsel of chicken and putit between his teeth; Jarrah had his revolver drawn, cocked, and ready in his lap. Already Billy felt his resolve slipping.Could it possibly be true? It had been almost a month since he last saw Katherine—had it happened then, or had she alreadyknown? Had she wanted to tell him that day in her office, while he grumbled on about a deed?
“Sit down, Billy,” Noone said.
He swallowed thickly. A tiny shake of the head. If he were in town or on the station he’d have hit any man who threatenedhim; or more likely wouldn’t have had to, they wouldn’t dare. But he had no authority over these men. He was powerless here,and they knew it.
“Don’t you remember our deal?” Noone said. “We are already a day’s ride closer to Tommy. We could continue directly from here.Or we could go back to Broken Ridge and avail ourselves of Mrs. Sullivan’s hospitality again—I know my boys are more thankeen. So why not give your brother a chance of making it, and leave the young widow in peace. You’ll be back with her theday after tomorrow, provided everything goes to plan.”
All the fight washed out of him. He looked despairingly around the circle of men. Pope had finished eating and was preparinga tobacco pipe; delicately Noone speared a grape on the end of his bowie knife and, smiling, popped it in his mouth. “Youcast in your lot five years ago,” he said, chewing openmouthed. “You don’t really have a choice here. You’re already in thisup to your neck. Now sit down and eat the meal she has kindly prepared for us and stop making a fool of yourself.”
Meekly he did as he was told. Legs crossed, the food parcel in his lap, every mouthful sticking in his throat. He imagined Katherine making up these parcels: her slender fingers folding the napkins, putting in the best of what she had, trembling with Noone at her shoulder . . . he should have been there to protect her, they could have done anything.
Noone produced a silver liquor flask, took a drink and passed it around. Jarrah handed it to Billy and he wiped the neck beforehe drank. He rolled and smoked a cigarette. The others lit their pipes. The little fire crackling between them all, tossingsparks into the night.
“They are suns, did you know that?” Noone said, gazing up at the stars. “Millions of suns, no different to our own, so distantthey are but pinheads in our sky. And yet they say that some are dying, may already have done so, only their light is visiblenow. Meaning that at any time, like snuffing out a candle, one of those stars might simply . . . expire.”
He looked at Billy expectantly. “Horseshit,” was Billy’s view.
“You don’t believe me? Or don’t understand?”
“I don’t follow half the crazy things that come out your mouth.”
“No, well, that doesn’t surprise me at all. But
