“That’s unfortunate. I do it a lot.”
“Doesn’t put me off, though. I’m still glad I took the job.”
“That’s ridiculous, you know.”
“So you say. I’m satisfied.”
Laurel simply shook her head. “What are the other, slightly less true reasons you took the job?”
“So we’re moving on, are we?”
“Yes.” She was firm on that.
“Well, you know I was looking for a job with Stonechurch Mining when this came along. I needed money, and I figured a job was a better way of getting it than thievery. Maybe I can rise a little in your estimation by telling you that stealing never occurred to me.” He waited to see if she would comment. She didn’t so he went on. “I didn’t have enough capital to buy into a poker game. Didn’t want to start riding shotgun again if I could avoid it. And I figured my prospects were limited for what the army trained me to do.”
Laurel peered through the darkness, trying to make out his features and gauge the truth of what he was telling her. “And what was that?”
“Kill.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” he said flatly. “You probably don’t want to know if I was any good at it.”
“No, Mr. Landry, I don’t. Your presence is testament enough to your talent for it.”
“Call,” he said.
“What?”
“My name. You keep calling me Mr. Landry, I’m going to stop answering to it.”
“I’ll think about it. Maybe I won’t say your name at all.”
“That’d be better than the other.”
“I’m not sure I understand your objection.”
He shrugged. “Isn’t it enough that I have one?”
Laurel considered that. “All right,” she said at last.
“Thank you.”
The silence that followed was surprisingly companionable. Laurel resumed pushing the rocker, slowly and rhythmically. Call watched the movement. It was restful and he closed his eyes. It had been a long day in the saddle, yet he was reluctant to retire as long as he could spendtime in Laurel’s company. He didn’t think too hard about the attraction he felt. It was just there. There was no reason that he could think of to deny it.
“It’s not really a talent,” he said as much to himself as to her.
“Pardon?”
“I told you the army trained me to kill, and you said I had a talent for it. I’m saying it’s not a talent. It was hard learned. I knew a few men who came to it naturally, maybe even enjoyed it. I wasn’t one of them.”
Laurel considered what he was telling her and wondered that he cared enough for her opinion that he would explain himself. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, grave. “I should have chosen my words more carefully. I admit that you shocked me. I wish I hadn’t responded so dismissively. I apologize.”
“I wasn’t looking for that. I don’t know, maybe I meant to shock you. The army trained me to do lots of things. I could have answered differently.”
She refrained from asking what those things were. “Were you a volunteer or a draft recruit?”
“Volunteer. Joined up as soon as the local company was formed. Marched off with my eyes wide shut. I didn’t know a damn thing and thought I knew it all. The army’s good for waking a soldier up. Fighting does that.”
