from?” Louisa scowled.
“It was nothing you did, Loo. Mark loves you with his whole heart.”
“I know that Bernadette told bad lies about him and he was very, very angry with her, but I don’t understand why that would make him want to get away from me.” She sighed and sniffled.
“Oh honey!” Emma pulled the child to her and hugged her close.
“Christmas is going to come and he won’t even come home,” Louisa sobbed. “I asked Grandmother ‘Bel and she told me.”
“Then we are just going to have to save all his presents until he comes home and have a very special celebration then, that’s all.”
Roland stood in the doorway and Emma noticed him over the child’s shoulder.
He nodded to her and frowned.
“That stuff outside is making some of the best snowballs I have ever seen.” He spoke up. “I just can’t seem to make them fast enough for those boys all by myself.”
Louisa looked up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’ll help you,” she volunteered.
Emma sighed as she watched Roland walk with the child towards the back door.
“A girl might be nice,” she thought, placing her hand on her belly. She knew that it didn’t matter as long as the childbirth went well this time.
Chapter Seven
M ark eyed Buck suspiciously as he stood along the tracks outside of the office.
“When I couldn’t find you boys I was just full of worry. I had to return your money and your gun too.” He kicked the dirt with the curled toe of his boot.
“I know it was that girl that probably took it all. As soon as Sam told me you were missing things I went right to her. She doesn’t mean anything by it. I’ll keep an eye on her this time and it won’t happen again,” he assured.
Mark watched him suspiciously. His memory of the evening at the still was foggy, but he was sure he could not recall a girl at all.
“She says she wants to make it up to you. You boys come up for a while. You don’t even have to have a drink if you don’t want.” His comment was clearly directed to Mark.
Mark had thought about that night a hundred times over the last week. He remembered how relaxed he had been, how he felt as if he could just forget everything and his mind would rest easy. He had decided that if he had not drunk down the moonshine so quickly he might be able to handle it better. He thought he’d try again, but not bring any money with him this time, and suggest to Sam that he did the same.
“Alright,” he agreed. “We’ll come up tomorrow after work.”
Buck nodded and grinned.
“I saw you talking to that McHerlong boy.” The woman at the boarding house was sitting on the crumbling porch, haphazardly rolling a cigarette.
Mark was waiting for Samuel to finish dressing and he nodded to the woman. “I don’t know him very well,” he admitted.
“You’d do well to keep it that way,” the woman cleared her throat. “That McHerlong family has been feuding with those Catslips as long as I can recall.” She began to cough and surrendered to a long fit.
“When I was a girl,” she recalled. “Old Man McHerlong was young then, like you boys. He was seeing that Catslip girl, I don’t recall her name. Someone shot her out in those woods and her family just couldn’t accept that it might have been an accident. They were certain that McHerlong had killed her. There was talk that she was expecting his child, but no one knows for sure. That whole bunch is trouble.” She shook her head and walked into the house.
Mark scowled, stepped off the porch and paced in the dirt. He’d left home over just this kind of thing, he thought. He hadn’t come here to have any of this follow him. “Old Man”