Emma woke up a few hours later, with Angel Eyes still snoring by her side. She looked all around at the details of her new room with appreciation while she waited for him to awaken.
She could see her mother's touch in some of what she saw, particularly the curtains, but she could also see her lover's touch as well. The quilt that now covered her was a rich, deep green, which she knew was his favorite color.
After about ten minutes, he slowly awakened to Emma smiling down at him. He did not speak, but reached for his pipe, which he'd laid on the night table.
She waited patiently for him to speak, as she knew he needed the pipe to get going. She slipped out of bed, telling him she'd be right back, then wandered into the kitchen. She found a new coffee pot on the stove, so she set about making some.
As he smoked his pipe, Angel Eyes could hear Emma rattling around in the kitchen and, shortly therafter, caught the unmistakable aroma of the brewing coffee.
He was glad she was bringing him some, because he needed to have a serious discussion with her. Now that she was having his baby and living in a home he provided for her, he'd decided to finally tell her what he did for a living. He'd known her long enough to know she could keep a secret and not betray his trust in her.
"I thought you might like some coffee," she said after she returned.
"I would, thanks." After she rejoined him in bed, he said, "I've got something serious to tell you and you have to promise to keep it between the two of us, no matter what."
"Of course I'll keep it to myself," she assured him.
"I'm sure you've wondered what I do for a living, and why I always have money" he began, trying to ease into the subject.
"You could say that," she agreed.
Taking a deep breath, he continued, looking her straight in the eye. "I'm a hired gun, a paid killer. Have been for around the last ten years or so."
"I just knew it," Emma said softly. "I've suspected for quite awhile."
"Tell me when you first suspected," he said, raising an eyebrow.
"I figured you must have killed that man at the old mine," she told him. "I remember seeing you coming into town from the south road and noticing you had a small spot of fresh blood on your shirt cuff. It wasn't all that long after this that the body was discovered."
"You're right," he admitted. "Odd thing was that this man wanted me to kill someone else. I was going to do it and he'd paid me, but when I found out who he wanted me to kill, I killed him, instead."
"Oh, my."
'He wanted me to kill a man I've known for years," Angel Eyes explained. "He's my only real friend, and probably the only man I completely trust. If I'd not killed this other man, then he'd have just found someone else, who'd have carried the job out.
"I don't usually kill for personal reasons or for just the hell of it, but I made an exception in this case. It was definitely personal this time."
"When do you normally kill," she asked. She was curious and really wanted to know.
"Almost always, when I'm paid, I see the job through. But I choose my jobs carefully," he told her. "I've always worked for myself and have chosen to not be on the payroll of some rich man. I won't kill anyone who is helpless, like a little kid or most women. If I worked for some rich man, I'd not have any say about who I killed. And, of course, I will kill in self defense, like anyone would."
"Nice to see you have rules that you follow," she observed, not in a sarcastic way. "How did you ever get started killing people for money?" She was totally fascinated by it.
"I've always been good with a gun, so I started out as a bounty hunter. I figured I'd make a living doing something I was good at. But I didn't like dealing with lawmen, who mostly take a dim view of bounty hunters.
"I knew that hired guns made a lot more money than bounty hunters and that I might as well be one for real, if that's what the lawmen already believed me to be. And I have more independence this way, and don't have to worry about dragging live men over rough territory to get them to jail. I've made a lot of money doing this."
"Have you ever done anything else?" she asked. "Like maybe being a farmer, or a carpenter like my brother in law or a storekeeper like my father?"
"I couldn't live like that," he admitted. "Your brother in law works very hard and has very little to show for it. And he never will. He'll keep busting his ass until he drops dead one day."
"Any regrets?" she asked. "Do you feel any guilt?"
"None at all," he responded immediately, looking her in the eye. "I'm very good at what I do and people either fear or respect me or both."
"Why have you chosen to tell me this now?" she asked, puzzled. "You were very secretive when we first met and now I understand why."
"You're having my baby and living under my protection now," he said. "And you've shown me loyalty and that you can keep a secret." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "You knowing will keep you from unwittingly saying something stupid to the wrong people that could possibly get us killed."
""I can see that," she said, snuggling closer to him. Knowing for sure what he did for a living did not change how she felt about him.
After she'd refreshed both their coffee mugs and returned to bed, he said. "Now that you know, I'm going to teach you how to shoot. I can't be here all the time to protect you, so learning how to shoot might possibly save your life and that of our child one day."
Leaning over to reach under the bed, he pulled out a small wooden box. Opening it, he reached inside and brought out a revolver. "I bought this for you not long ago. It's not as big of a caliber as I normally use, but is still enough to pack a punch when used by trained hands."
Emma examined it all over, then thanked him for it. "I promise to do my best to learn to use this."
A few minutes later, when they got up and dressed, he told her, "There's one more feature of the house I need to show you."
Opening the door to the pantry, he opened a trap door in the floor. "The root cellar is down here, but there's a shelf that swings outward that hides a door to a tunnel that leads to the barn, where there's another hidden door in the tack room. It's a place you can hide if there's any trouble when I'm not here, though I don't expect you'll need to use it. It's just another layer of security." Taking a deep breath, he said, "Now I'm hungry. I'll fire up the stove after I show you where the provisions are."
The next day, after they'd risen and had breakfast, Angel Eyes told Emma, "I want you to go see that midwife friend of yours as soon as possible to make sure everything is all right with the baby before I have to take another job."
"You sound just like my mother," she told him, laughing. "Except the part about a job, of course."
"In this case, she's right," he told her quite seriously
As the couple lingered over coffee, they heard a sharp knock on the front door in the shave and a haircut rhythm
Instantly alert, he told her, "I think it's all right - that's the knock I taught your brother to use, but go stand in the pantry until I make sure."
He went to the door, where Tom Baker was indeed standing there.
"Come on in, kid, and have a cup of coffee," Angel Eyes said. As he poured a cup for Tom, he called, "It's just your brother, Emma. You can come on out."
She appeared a moment later and sat down next to her brother.
"Ma sent me to find out if you'd gotten back yet," Tom explained briefly. "She wants to come to see you. She's made a pot roast for you and an apple pie."
"I'll let you take the carriage I rented to go pick her up," Angel Eyes told him. "But I want her to go with Emma to go see the midwife, so she can examine Emma to make sure she is doing all right."
After Tom left driving the carriage, she went to get ready for the visit with Janie, with Angel Eyes trailing behind her.
"I think I'll pay your brother to stay with you when I'm away," he told her. "I don't like the idea of you being here alone when I'm not here, with your time being close." After a hesitation to light his pipe, he added, "And maybe I'll pay your midwife friend to stay when it gets very close, even if I'm here then, which I intend to be."
"Sounds like a good idea," she agreed. "We'll have to get a decent bed for the guest bedroom."
A short time later, they heard the carriage clattering up their private lane.
"You sure you don't want to go with us?" she asked, teasing him
"Nope," he said. "That's women's business. And you have to keep up the pretense of being the grieving widow Sentenza."
"Janie knows the truth," she said.
"I know, but she might have other patients there," he said. Going to the door, he added, "Don't keep your mother waiting. I'll be here when you get back." He paused briefly to take the meal from Tom that Lavinia had sent, then gave Emma a brief kiss before closing the door behind her.