Soul Catcher (70 page)

^{Cain lays down his copy of Milton. From the breast pocket of his tunic, he removes an envelope and opens it carefully. Inside is a piece of paper, frayed from handling, fragile now as an old woman's skin. He opens it and starts to read.
My Dearest Cain,
it begins. It is a letter from Rosetta.}

^{After they'd made it across the Ohio, they had found a doctor to tend to his leg, and when he'd recovered enough, they set out for the}

^{Gist Settlement. It was her choice to go there instead of heading up to Canada. For one thing, she needn't fear Eberly coming after her anymore. Besides, she told him, she wanted to be with her own kind. She no longer brought up the possibility of coming west with him. It was as if something had changed in her after what had happened in the cabin, as if all that bloodshed and death had brought the realization to her that whatever they'd had was over now, that they belonged to separate worlds, and that it was time for her to return to hers. Before he left the settlement, they hugged one last time. As he mounted up, she said to him, "Take care of yourself, Cain." He looked back over his shoulder once to see her standing there. She looked so beautiful in the morning light he was half tempted to turn around, to say the hell with what the world thought. But he kept on riding.}

^{He had assumed that that would be the last he'd ever hear from her. But as with all things regarding Rosetta, he should have known she was a woman beyond predictions. Two years ago, at the hotel in San Francisco, he had received a letter from her. He wasn't sure how it had found him but it did. In it she told him some about Gist, that the people there turned out to be friendly, had taken her in. She was teaching in a small school they had started. She said she liked that, liked working with children. She also told him that the baby she had carried all those miles, had run away to protect, had died in childbirth. She said maybe it just wasn't meant to be. She said she missed him, would always miss him. When Cain read this part, he'd felt a surprising ache in the unprotected part of his chest just below his sternum. He wouldn't have thought that could happen to him, not all this time later. Then he recalled how Rosetta had said pain sometimes makes a body feel alive. She closed the letter by saying that she hoped Cain had found whatever it was he was looking for. He wasn't sure if he hadn't already found it and like a damn fool had let it go.}

^{Cain carefully folds and puts away the letter. Then he picks up his Milton and begins to read again.}

^{"Captain Cain?" comes a voice.}

^{"What?" he says, turning to see a young private standing there, holding a scorched pot of coffee.}

^{"You be wanting more coffee, sir?"}

^{Of course, it's not really coffee at all. Since the blockade, that has been a forgotten luxury. And yet the chicory's bitter warmth will see him through till morning.}

^{"Much obliged," Cain tells him. He removes his spectacles and looks up from his book. In the woods across the cornfield to the north are the campfires of the Federals. The night is dotted with their glow, like a thousand fireflies. He watches as the private pours him another cup from the pot. He's new, just arrived a few days before. A boy from the western hills, pink faced, can't be much more than sixteen. He doesn't even shave yet, has this fine down along the angle of his jaw. In his eyes Cain sees the familiar fear of the unknown on the eve before a first battle, a fear he tries to cover with a stiffening of his jaw.}

^{"Thank you, private," he says. "It's Joshua, correct?"}

^{"Yes, sir," says the boy.}

^{"Do you have a family, Joshua?"}

^{"My mam and sisters. An older brother died at the First Manassas."}

^{"I'm sorry to hear that."}

^{"That's why I done signed up. I want to kill me some a them Yanks."}

^{Cain nods.}

^{"Tomorrow, you keep your family in mind, son. Don't try to be a hero."}

^{"Yes, sir," the boy replies, but Cain can tell he's not convinced. He hungers for blood. For Yankee blood.}

^{"Good night, private," Cain says.}

^{"Good night, sir."}

^{To the east, the faintest lightening of the darkness has begun. Still, there is time yet, so he opens his book and begins to read.}

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