Don't Poke the Bear!

Chapter 35

WE ALL GO downstairs together, past the few men who just came in lookin' to play cards. Leah and Hester are standin' with 'em, takin' drink orders, tryin' to talk 'em into goin' upstairs now and playin' cards later. Rose enters the kitchen alone. Gentry and me listen from just outside the doorway, out of sight. Wing sees us from the other side of the kitchen, by the back door, where he's standin' guard with a shotgun. I put my finger to my lips so he won't speak. Rose walks over to the table where Bose can see her from inside the hole.

"Well, hi there, Sugar Britches," Bose says with a voice bathed in honey. What would it take to get you to just stand over the top of these boards?"

"Maybe if you rip your eyes out of their sockets," she answers, sweetly.

"It's a deal! Come on!"

"You first," she says.

"Oh, what I'd give to get inside your drawers!" he says. "I bet you got fire in them britches!"

"You have no idea."

"How about you slide that bolt and let me out of here?"

"If I did, what would you do?"

"Anythin' you want."

"Would you kill yourself?"

"Why, sure I would! Just get my gun and slide the bolt. If you want me dead, you can pull the trigger yourself."

"It wouldn't matter," Rose says.

"What wouldn't?"

"I couldn't shoot you."

"'Cause you got feelins' for me? Is that why you didn't let Emmett shoot me awhile ago?"

"I do have feelings for you, Bose. But all of them are bad."

"Aw, you don't mean that."

"What I mean to say is, your bullets won't work in Kansas."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a fact."

"If it's a fact, you shouldn't mind lettin' me have my gun."

"I don't mind."

"Really? You'd give me my gun?"

"I might."

"Don't tease me, sugar. Them townies are gonna come for me in a couple hours. That's how it works. They're off somewhere, drinkin' up some courage. In the end, Emmett'll stand aside and let 'em take me. I'm as good as hung if I can't defend myself."

"You'll never be able to defend yourself. Not in Kansas."

"Why not?"

I walk in and say, "Because she's a witch. And she put a spell on you, just like she put a spell on your horses last fall, when you got the drop on us near Copper Lake."

I close the kitchen door so Gentry can guard it from the main room.

Bose says, "There's no such thing as witches."

"Then you and your men must be the worst horsemen in the world."

"That was some sort of fluke," he says.

"You think?"

"I know."

I tell Rose to fetch me Bose's gun and gun belt. "Wing? Come here and lift the lid."

Bose suddenly gets nervous. "What're you up to, Emmett?"

"I'm gonna give you your gun."

"Bullshit."