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Edward seemed fascinated with the butt of Valentine's .45. His eyes hardly left it.
"I wrote a letter. I wanted to know about your trial. It took forever to get an answer. A junior secretary in civil affairs, a very nice corporal named Dots. I guess she saw it in a pile and she wrote an answer. It's those long-service corporals who are always nicest to work with, I find."
Valentine would have introduced her to Glass if he had the time. He reminded himself to add a private message to Lambert on his first report.
"I'll have to thank Corporal Dots. I-it's nice to have someone see you off."
"She sent me a quickie a week ago, saying that your unit was moving out. I wondered that she kept track of you. I bet she's got a bit of a crush on you. She said you had a very handsome file photo."
Valentine saw her eyes flit to his scar and then his jawline. "Must have been an old photo."
She hooked her cheek with her index finger and showed a missing molar. "The years haven't been kind to either of us."
"You could get that fixed."
"Thought about it. But I stick my pencil there when I'm testing horses."
"Good luck, Daddy," Edward said.
Molly grabbed him at the shoulder. "Edward! We talked about this."
Raccoon seemed to sway first one way then another as Valentine used the horse's neck to hold himself up. "What?" he thought he said. Maybe it was just a choked exclamation.
Edward went wide-eyed in recognition of his own wrongdoing.
"You can't break promises like that," Molly continued. She looked to her left. "Mrs. Long, can you make sure he doesn't run under a truck?"
Mrs. Long looked like she wanted to hear the rest of the conversation. "Yes'm," she said.
She gave Valentine a dirty look as Molly pulled him away.
"Edward, do me a favor, watch my horse," Valentine said, passing the reins to the boy.
The dodged between trucks and made it to the other side of the road, just missing Tiddle roaring along the column on his dirt bike. A soldier with a clipboard near the gate gave Valentine a curious look but didn't move to intervene.
They got out of the way of traffic and stood under a yew.
"David-" she said, hard and quiet. "I'm so sorry about that. I've been stupid."
"Molly-it's not possible."
"Of course it's not possible. David, there's so much you don't know. About Edward's father."
Obviously there was, if Molly wasn't willing to call him her husband. . . .
"Molly, it's not my business. But how?"
"I told you, I was stupid," she repeated. "I... I didn't show you when you visited that time, but I've got a drawer with some pictures of you. That old scarf of yours you gave me that winter in Minnesota. Two paper clippings too, one showing you getting a decoration, or was it a promotion? It was while you were fighting in Texas. I keep the letters from you in there too. It's not like a shrine or anything. I've just always wanted you to do well with your Cause."
"I still don't see the stupid part," Valentine said.
"Edward got to the age where he got snoopy. He was poking around in the drawer and saw all the stuff they'd written about you. He said he remembered you being at our house, God knows how."
"He called me his father," Valentine said.
"Yes. I don't keep pictures of his father around the house. I thought, What'll it hurt if I shave the truth a little? If things had fallen together a little differently, you might have been."
Valentine, who'd calmly given orders with the gigantic shells of a massive Grog cannon called the Crocodile making the earth ripple beneath his feet, stood dumbstruck.
