Doc - Mary Doria Russell [51]
To Morgan’s surprise, the priest thought it over and replied, “Yes. I believe I would like to correct myself.” He straightened, looked directly at Doc, and declared, “There was only one John Horse Sanders. He was worthy of respect. I am pleased and grateful that he had yours, as he had mine.”
There was a considerable silence.
“Sunt lacrimae rerum,” Doc said finally, “for he is gone now, and that is a pity, and I offer you my hand on it, sir.”
“No victor, no vanquished!” Eddie cried.
Doc poured them all another round. “To Johnnie,” he said, “and to men who won’t bow down. Requiescant in pace, by God. They ever catch the killer, Morg?”
Morgan put his glass down and frowned. Doc could pivot like a stock horse sometimes.
“Johnnie’s parents,” Eddie prompted.
“Oh! No, but everybody knew who done it. Fella name of Ramsey rode through town right after, shooting his mouth off about how he pulled the trigger. My brother Wyatt, he wanted to ride after Ramsey, but the city marshal called him off.”
“Nobody wanted trouble with the cattlemen,” Doc guessed.
“Bad for business,” Eddie agreed with a shrug.
Morgan nodded. “Anyways, Wyatt was just a part-time deputy and he—”
Kate, who had drifted off into her own world, suddenly turned to von Angensperg. Her eyes were teary when she asked, “And what could Penelope offer Odysseus but illness and death if he returned to Ithaca?”
Baffled, Eddie and Morg looked at each other and then at the priest, who seemed about to say something, except Doc answered her instead.
“Calypso was offerin’ Odysseus immortality, darlin’. Penelope offered him endurin’ love. I myself just wanted some company.” Kate’s mouth opened, and she looked like she’d been slapped, but Doc turned to Morgan. “You were sayin’?”
“Yeah, well … Wyatt don’t hardly ever get mad but when he does, look out! He told Marshal Smith off, and they got into it some. The town ended up putting Wyatt on full-time, but Ramsey was long gone by then.”
“And that’s why your brother took Johnnie into his home, after the boy’s parents were killed?” von Angensperg asked.
“Wyatt took Johnnie in?” This was news to Morgan.
“Yes, that is what Johnnie said.”
“I’ll be damned! Wyatt never said anything about that part—”
“I don’t need you,” Kate told Doc, defiant now. “I never did!”
“Darlin’,” Doc said, weary of her at last, “the door is behind you and to the left.”
“Go to hell,” she muttered, getting unsteadily to her feet. She flounced off through the main room, staggering against a table, knocking over some bottles. “To hell with all of you!” she shouted. “I’m going to find myself a Texan! With some meat on his bones!”
In the alcove and in the big room, forty-some men watched Kate go, then turned uneasily toward Doc Holliday to see how he would take it. For a while there was no sound in the room but the thrum of moth wings as the big white insects thumped against glass lamp chimneys.
Eddie was the first to speak. “Hellion and a half, our Kate,” he said. “You’re a better man than I am, Doc.”
Doc seemed distant, his face expressionless. When he spoke again, it was with that quiet, careful thoughtfulness that Morgan Earp liked best in him.
“When I am sick,” he told them softly, “she fears that I will die, and she will end up on the street. When my health improves, she fears that I will go back to Georgia, and she knows I will not take her home to my family.” He glanced at the others. “Strikin’ a balance eludes me.”
Nobody said anything. Apparently unperturbed (unstirred, Morg thought), Doc finished his tea and set the cup down carefully before taking a shallow, careful breath. “Not Calypso,” he decided. “Athena. She is a warrior.”
“And she is fighting wounded,” Alexander said, pouring the next round.
Their eyes met. Doc tossed back the liquor and began to recite.
“Desire with loathin’ strangely