Chapter 52

Lone Eagle showed up after a week’s absence, and I was overjoyed when he spent the night because Cut would have to move back with me. Alas, I reckoned without a complete understanding of the situation. He threw Lone Eagle on the floor on the west side and claimed the bed opposite Otter. By right of age and standing, Lone Eagle dispossessed Otter, who rolled up in his blanket before the fireplace. I slept alone in a cold bed.

The thaw came the next day when Cut sent the two boys on some fool’s errand. He sat at the table while I prepared a meal.

“Come here, wife,” he said. I ignored him. “Billy, please come here.”

I claimed the chair opposite and leveled a look designed to inform him I would brook no nonsense. It was probably only calf’s eyes.

“I am sorry, Billy,” he said at great cost. “You have a way of taking the sting out of things, for making it easy to come over to your way. But sometimes when you do it, it hurts. You begged that Pipe Stem dog for my life.”