Trick gazed into the distance, toward where the Stikine River cut through the valley.“Nasty business, but from what Cal and the children say, ’twasn’t much else they could do.”
The three of us were silent for a long while, as we stood in the grass by the old barn.
“Well,” I said, finally, “if there ain’t nobody’s bits buried in the barn, I reckon we should think about makin’ it weatherproof and gettin’ Cal a milk cow and, maybe a horse and small cart—and some chickens.”
Trick grinned and pulled her hat down on her forehead.
“I reckon that’s a good idea.We don’t gotta say nothin’ more about what happened to Cal’s husband.Nobody’s come lookin’ for him.I bet he ain’t got no friends around here.Sounds like a right nasty piece of work.”
“Trick, I gotta ask you somethin’.Were you suspicious at all, when he came to see Cal at The Angel?What I mean is, did he seem like he was a good man who might make all of Cal’s dreams come true?”
Trick frowned.“He put on a pretty good show of caring for her—though, in retrospect, all the showy stuff might have been a giveaway that he was tryin’ to hide something.’Tis easy to bring flowers and pretty words for someone, and make them care about you, ’specially if that person ain’t got much in their life already.Anybody can do that.Takes a real good man to fulfill his promises, I reckon.”
Trick kicked at the ground and shoved her hands into the pockets of her trousers.“I could murder the bastard myself for turning Cal into this—huskof a person.She ain’t the same as she was.”
“No, she ain’t,” Oscar said.
“She’s got the children now.They seem to mean a lot to her,” I said.
“That’s true,” Trick said.
She looked at the house, then at me and Oscar.“Well, now that the truth has come out, she and the children can put it behind them and get on with their lives.”
I nodded.But I wondered what kind of lives they could have, without a working man to bring money in.All they had was the small house, the old barn and the land, with no means to farm it.
We were all thinking that, I figured, as we stood by the barn and waited for Miss June to join us.
Eventually she did, striding across the grass in her long skirts and pretty blouse.She was carrying the broad-brimmed hat she wore by its strings, and the expression on her face was sober and sad.
“Everything all right?”I asked as she approached, which seemed like a silly thing to say, what with everything we’d recently learned.
Miss June shrugged.
“I suppose.As much as it can be,” she said.“Although I reckon it’ll be good for all of them for the truth to be known amongst us.We can give them more support, now that we know the full extent of the situation.”
I nodded, but Oscar seemed unconvinced.
“How we gonna do that?”he said.“Cal can’t go back to work at The Angel.There ain’t no room for the children, and it ain’t a proper place for ’em to be,” he said, glancing at Miss June and Trick.“No offense.”
“None taken.You’re right.’Twouldn’t work,” Miss June said.
“And she can’t turn tricks outta the house, here.”
“Well, she could,” Trick said slowly.“But, no, ’twouldn’t be ideal.”
Miss June nodded.“Those poor children have been through enough without worrying about strange men coming over to sleep with their momma.No.That’s no solution, either.Plus, word would get around, and folks wouldn’t like it.’Tis one thing for me to set up The Angel and have all that going on.But for women who do it on their own?Well, it’s a complicated business.”
“What are we gonna do?”I asked.
“I don’t know, Jimmy.My head’s spinning with everything that’s come out today.”Miss June turned to Trick.“Did Cal tell you what she did with what was left of her husband?I couldn’t get that out of her.”
“The river,” Trick said.“I reckon he’s been eaten up by the fish by now.”She shrugged, as it none of it mattered.“Me and Jimmy and Oscar reckon we can fix up the barn enough that they could keep some animals there, but we’ll need money for supplies, and money to buy a cow and some chickens.”
Miss June nodded.“Don’t worry about the money.We’ve got enough funds at The Angel to provide all of that.I reckon Cal can count on me helping out financially over the long term, but it won’t be enough to keep them all out of rags.Let me think on it for a few days.You all think on it, too, and we’ll see what we can come up with.”
“All right,” I said, glancing at Oscar.
I toyed with the idea of the two of us staying here and trying to provide for Cal and the children, but we were gonna be hard pressed to provide for ourselves, and we had a house and a home in Port Essington that we wanted to go back to.I knew Oscar wouldn’t be keen on staying in Telegraph Creek and, honestly, I wasn’t either.I was glad we could help Cal and the little ones in the short term, but Miss June, Trick and the girls would have to think of something else to make Cal’s life easier.
