“I wish you could have kept him safe. I know you did your best. You weren’t sitting with Sara…”
“I wasn’t sitting with Ryan Stems. I’m not up for that.”
She nodded. “I don’t like him, either. My youngest sister grew up with the Lamarche boys.”
“He’s never made amends.”
“Let’s not talk about that.”
I nodded. “I don’t know what to talk about.”
She smiled. “I don’t, either.”
The pause was a little awkward.
“So you and Sky…” I said.
“Me and Sky. We’re engaged, actually.”
“Since when?”
“Since last Wednesday. Bad timing… but what else do you do when you’re snowed in?”
“That or Scrabble.”
“I’m awful at Scrabble. I keep making up words.”
“That probably makes you good at it. You just need to find stupider opponents.”
“I don’t have time to play against you right now,” she said. “Maybe later.”
Sara found me then, putting on her fake smile as she approached. She was still pissed at me.
“Did I hear you’re engaged?” Sara said as she gave Katie a hug. “Congratulations.”
Katie held out her left hand for inspection.
“What is this?” Sara said.
“What?” I said.
“That’s my ring.”
I took a look at the ring on Katie’s finger. It wasn’t too big, just a diamond jutting out of a twisting gold band.
“Are you sure?” Katie asked. “Maybe it’s just the same model.”
“It was a custom design,” Sara said. “My ex-husband had it made in Montreal. Where did you get that?”
“I… I’m sorry,” Katie said. “I didn’t know… you can have it back.”
“No… but thank you. I don’t want it back. That’s why I gave it away in the first place.”
“So you sold it?”
“No… I gave it to one of my sisters.” Sara began to cry. “I told her to hold onto it in case I ever thought about getting married again.”
“Your sister…”
“She died at Carman Lake. Both of them did.”
“So maybe she left the ring in town,” I said.
“She used to wear it,” Sara said. “On her index finger.”
“I’m sorry,” Katie said. She began wrenching on her ring finger.
“No, please… keep it. I like the idea of someone being happy wearing it.”
“I don’t know…”
“Think about it… don’t decide right now. But do you know where you got it?”
“Sky found it… at Silver Queen Lake. In a jewelry box. I should go get it for you… in case you recognize anything else…”
“Not right now,” Sara said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“We’ll be back at it after Christmas,” I said. “We’ll talk about it then.”
“Okay,” Katie said. “Thanks, guys. I’m going to go check on my parents.”
She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek before leaving.
I turned to Sara. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head. “No…”
I gave her a hug.
“Not here,” she said. “Not now…”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Guess we’d better talk to the rest of the Walkers.”
We made our way to Dave and his wife.
“Thanks for coming,” Dave Walker said. “I do appreciate it.”
Sara gave him a hug, and then one to his wife. “I’m sorry,” she said.
I shook Dave Walker’s hand.
Then he turned away.
I didn’t mind.
I hated me a little bit, too.
We left the tent after another twenty minutes of awkward mingling and solemn nodding, with Sara’s eyes so puffed out from emotion and exhaustion that I was worried she’d collapse.
I felt a hand pull on my shoulder.
It was Livingston.
“There’s a problem,” he said. “You guys can’t leave.”
“What are you talking about? I need to take her home.”
“Our men have spotted three pickup trucks up the road. I think they’re waiting for you, Baptiste.”
“Shit.”
“You’re not prepared for them.”
“I have stuff back at my truck.”
“But is it enough?”
“You’re loving this, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not,” Livingston said. “Those are the men who killed Zach Walker.”
“Then get your men and let’s take care of this.”
“You’re expecting us to pick a fight before Zach’s even buried?”
“I expect you to want some kind of revenge.”
“They’re probably not after us.”
“There we go,” I said. “There’s the Livingston I remember.”
“Just stay here for now… they’ll give up eventually.”
“That’s a joke, right?”
“We should stay,” Sara said.
“And then what? If they’re looking for me they won’t just give up.”
“Then they’ll get their chance another day. When we have backup.”
“We ought to have backup right now. If this wuss won’t help us I’ll find someone who will.”
I found Eva Marchand, standing with the skinny Marchand boy who’d fought with us at the airport.
“I’m sorry,” Eva said when I asked, “we’re not ready for a fight.”
“They’ll kill us,” I said. “Me and Sara.”
“We can take Sara with us… we can keep her safe.”
“And so they’ll just kill me.”
“You don’t have to cross back over the river,” Eva said. “You can stay here for now. The Walkers will keep you safe.”
“The Walkers should be fighting beside me. And you should be, too, Eva.”
“That’s the wrong choice. I won’t risk my family… sorry.”
“I won’t forget this.”
“You can be angry with me, Monsieur Baptiste… but let us take Sara. We can get her home safely.”
“Okay…”
But that wouldn’t be enough.
I needed help.
I would need to ask Dave Walker. At his youngest son’s funeral.
“Baptiste…”
I turned to see Ryan Stems and his little wife.
“We can help you,” he said. “I have two men at the bridge. That makes five of us.”
“Five?”
“I can shoot,” little Anna said.
“We won’t need to shoot,” Stems said. “We drive out together, with a truck from the Walkers…”
“The Walkers will help?” I ask.
“I’ll handle it. These guys won’t engage if we’re three on three.”
“That’s three on three plus mounted anti-aircraft guns. Not that equal.”
“Still… these guys are cowards.”
“You sound pretty sure…”
“I am. When you dropped in on them the other day―”
“Why are you so well-versed in this?” I asked.
“When you dropped in on them, did they come after you?”
“No…”
“They knew you could put up a good fight. Once you took off, they said a little prayer and cleaned the shit off their thighs. They didn’t come after you.”
“You know an awful lot about this…”
“Sky told me what happened. I do have friends around here.”
“Bullshit.”
“Okay… maybe not friends…”
“So your entire plan rests on a hunch that these assholes will turn tail the moment they see I’m not alone?”
Stems nodded.
He was cocky about it.
“How do I know this isn’t a trap?” I asked. “These guys told Matt they’re the Mushkegowuk Spirit Animals… friends of yours…”
“You’re smarter than that, Baptiste.”
“Explain it like I’m five.”
“They want us to distrust each other. We’ve had raids on our side of the North Driftwood, too. Except on our side they like to pretend that they’re from something called the Cochrane Protection Committee. Sound familiar?”