“Sully Weatherspoon is a snake, sir.”
Culp nodded. “That was my impression. When you’re new, unfortunately, it can be difficult to sort out the truth. Especially when you have the reputation of an honest man. Tell me, Bentley, where have you been lately?”
“In the Thicket, sir.”
Culp nodded. “Just as Weatherspoon said. What were you doing there?”
“Gathering cattle, sir.”
Culp glanced at the herd working its way into the pasture. “So it would seem. Which directly contradicts what Weatherspoon told me. He claims that you’re still fighting the war, that you and your neighbors are plotting an insurrection, and that you were campaigning in the Thicket, rounding up ex-confederates to come up here and fight alongside you.”
Will boiled with anger. “Sully Weatherspoon is a liar. All I want to do is provide for my family. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Sully had no right to come here. I’d like to know what he was doing.”
“According to Sully, he came here to bury the hatchet with you—something about a fight with one of his employees—but the women and some neighbors ran him off under threats of violence.”
“More lies,” Will said. “I wouldn’t doubt they ran him off, but I guarantee he wasn’t here to bury the hatchet… unless he meant to bury it in my head.”
“I’ll admit, he doesn’t seem like one of Jesus’s blessed peacemakers. He seems a lot closer to what you said—a snake, the sort who’ll stir up trouble, looking for an edge, which I understand he had with my predecessor. Sully’s father, it seems, is a man of some influence.”
“He’s rich.”
“As is Mr. Pew.”
“Is Pew in on this, too?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Culp said. “I haven’t even met the man. But I did hear you’d had trouble with him as well. Don’t look so surprised Bentley. I’ve known your name for years. You and I are both cavalrymen, and I know a thing or two about your time on the battlefield. I will tell you this, off the record, of course. You have my respect.”
“I appreciate that, sir.”
“That respect led me to investigate you before coming here. Sheriff Rickert grudgingly told me about some trouble with Pew but insisted that he could handle the situation.”
That news surprised Will. Even after their recent run-in, Rickert hadn’t tried to rile up the bluebellies against him. Why not?
Maybe Rickert sensed that Culp was an honest man. Maybe he didn’t want to seem incompetent. Or maybe Rickert was on the take from Pew and didn’t want to share that money.
Whatever the case, it meant Rickert wasn’t focused on Will’s destruction the way Sully was. Perhaps, Rickert could even redeem himself. Only time would tell.
“What Rickert failed to tell me, however, was that Pew kidnapped your sister,” Culp said, disgust clear on his face. “What sort of man would do such a thing?”
“A man who thinks he’s above the law and everything else, including common decency.”
“So it would seem. I sense, Mr. Bentley, that you are a good man, perhaps even an honorable man. But you are also a fighter. I know that to be true. And it sounds like you’ve been in a fair number of scraps since coming home not long ago.”
“None of my choosing, sir.”
Culp nodded and was silent for a time. They had come to the edge of the property. They stood in silence for a time, the only noise the gurgling of the creek before them.
“I wish the war was over,” Culp said.
Will looked at him. “It is over, sir.”
Culp shook his head. “Not for me, Bentley. Not for me. I have a wife at home. And two children, a girl of twelve and a seven-year-old son who barely knows me.”
Culp turned to face him. They were of a height, and looked eye to eye; men, who, despite their vast differences, also shared similar bedrock. “I don’t want to fight you, Bentley. I don’t want to kill you. And I don’t want to die here. I want to go home to my wife and children. I want my son to know me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Since coming here, I haven’t seen much of the troublesome Texan they talk about up north. Oh, there’s Teal and his gang, and I would love to have that murderer’s head stuffed and mounted over my fireplace, but mostly, folks around here seem like just that: folks, people trying to get by, people trying to put the past behind them, trying to take care of their families and live the type of life I want to live back in Ohio.”
