“Injuns?”

“Mebbe,” he allowed. “I’ve heard tell that squaws do that sort of thing in some places, but not around here - and even the injuns are scared of that valley.”

“Why do you stay?”

A shrug. "Lived here all my life. Most of my kin are up in the cemetery; don't want to leave 'em. Reckon somebody'll find me and bury me when my time comes. I never was a traveling man.”

Me neither, I thought, but I didn’t say it. I slid some coins across the bar. “Will this pay for a bath, a bed, a meal, and some water for my horse? I’ll be riding on in the morning. I’d like to see this lady.”

He shook his head, but took my money; I couldn’t help but think of Romeo’s apothecary. The room faced onto Front Street, so I couldn’t see the cemetery, but I dreamed about the funeral anyway.

We were all there, even some older boys who'd stopped going to school a year or two ago, but who'd stayed on the ranches near Benedict or gone to work in the mines instead of going off to war. Johnny McKillian, whose father was the sheriff as well as running the faro game at the Silver Dollar saloon, tried not to grin, but he whispered in my ear as we walked away, "You know what this means? No more school!"

"They'll get another teacher."

"No they won't, not just for eight or nine children. The town won't pay for it, my father said. No more school!" he crowed again, this time more loudly, now that we were outside the cemetery's rickety gate.

"What will you do?"

"I'm going to go sign up," said Frank, the blacksmith's son. "There's not enough work here for two smiths, and not enough silver left in the mountain to be worth the digging. Or hunt buffalo, drive a stagecoach, find a mine isn't worked out yet...or be a sutler, maybe; they make all sorts of money. What're you going to do?" he asked me, managing not to smile.

I turned away and looked at the rough wooden cross they'd given Miss Towers as a marker. She’d been the prettiest woman I’d ever seen, and though I’ve seen a lot of women, I never saw another I felt the same way about until I saw the weeping woman at Devil’s Gate…

Johnny grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me around, and kissed me. His teeth clashed against mine, his tongue felt like a slug, he tasted of... I twisted in his grasp, and brought my knee up as hard as I could between his legs. He made a horrible gurgling sound and backed away from me, half bent over. "Why'd you do that?" he gasped, then he laughed. “You’re just a girl! That’s all you’ll ever be, and all you can ever do is…”

I looked down at him - even standing, he was an inch shorter than me, and now he was a foot or more down the slope - and past him to the town. I thought of all the things that he could do that I...