As one who never believed in witches, how was I supposed to suddenly think of her as one? And if it’s true that witches were roamin’ the earth, what else would I have to believe? That there’s ghosts and goblins and haints? I sure hoped to hell I wouldn’t have to deal with a haint someday.

Rose stopped a minute and sighed. “This girl’s in trouble.” She closed her eyes and lifted her head up, like she needed a break.

“How’d you escape the bull?” I said.

“Don’t worry about the bull,” she said.

“You were there one minute, the bull charged then you were gone.”

“It just appeared that way to you.”

“It appeared that way to all of us,” I said. “Includin’ the bull!”

Rose sighed again, lowered her head, opened her eyes. “Let’s focus on Scarlett, okay?”

“Fine,” I said. But I didn’t plan to let the subject die. Not ’til I had some answers.

 


 

 

 

35.

 

Rose finished the stitchin’, poured some more sting juice on the wounds, and shook the dust out of Scarlett’s underthings. Then she poured a different kind of liquid on the underthings and pressed them against Scarlett’s stitches. She pushed Scarlett onto her side, and made a pillow out of Scarlett’s dress and placed it under her cheek. Then she collected her medical supplies and placed ’em in the bag.

“You saved her, didn’t you!”

“Not for long.”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “There’s not much more I can do, under the circumstances.”

“How bad is she?”

“Honestly? I don’t think she’s going to make it.”

“She’ll make it,” I said.

Rose looked at me as if waitin’ for an explanation.

“She’s hearty,” I said.

Rose kept studyin’ my face.

“I don’t know what else to tell you,” I said, “except that the West needs women like Scarlett, and she’s the kind of woman that survives.”

“She’s hurt pretty badly, Emmett.”

“I know.”

“I’ve stitched her up as good as I can, and I have what I need to prevent infection. But her stitches are going to burst as soon as the wagon starts moving.”

“We can’t get where we’re goin’ without movin’ the wagon,” I said.

“What she needs is a bed, and someone to care for her.”

“That’s all?”

“That, and time. It’ll take at least six months to heal her broken bones.”

“Six months?”

“Assuming her back isn’t broken.”

“And if it is?”

“She’ll never walk again.”

“Shit,” I said.

We were quiet a moment.

“You like her,” Rose said.

“I do.”

“I’m sorry, Emmett. But she won’t survive ten minutes riding in this wagon.”

“You’re positive about that?”

“I am. And she can’t ride a horse.”

“Well, a’ course not.”

“And we can’t stay here with her.”

I nodded.

I looked at the women across the way. Gentry had finished tellin’ her tale, and now they were castin’ a close watch on Rose. And whisperin’.

I said, “They think you’re a witch.”

She made a sound that weren’t exactly like a laugh, but close to one.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’ve been called worse.”

“You have?”

I wondered what worse thing you could call a woman.

“Let it go, Emmett.”

“I’m tryin’ to, Rose, I surely am. But you seemed to just disappear. Then you showed up, outta nowhere, and spooked them horses like I never seen horses spooked. And Gentry says she heard you speakin’ to her in her head, and says you told her about Scarlett.”

“Oh, Emmett,” she sighed.

“What?”

“Those are just parlor tricks.”

“Parlor tricks?”

“That’s all it was.”

“Must be one helluva parlor where you come from,” I said.

She put her hands in front of her, elbows at her sides, palms facing up. “Your expertise is the physical world, mine is the metaphysical.”

“I have no idea what you’re sayin’.”

“Trickery.”

“What about it?”

“It’s not your strong suit. Remember the fish in the water barrel?”

“You heard me tell that story? You couldn’t have! You were in the other wagon!”

“You’ve told that story a dozen times since I’ve known you. And you never figured it out.”

That was true.

“So you ain’t a witch?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said.

I pointed at the others. “Well, they think you are. And that could be a problem.”

“You think so?”

“I do.”

“Then maybe you should ask them.”

That took me by surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I bet they’ll only remember that Scarlett got gored by a bull, and you shot it, and Gentry killed a man and took his horse.”

I looked across the way and noticed the women had stopped lookin’ at Rose.