Epilogue

A few months after Emma had last seen Angel Eyes, she had an unexpected visitor. She'd been making lunch when she heard a knock on the door.

Wiping her hands on her apron, she went to answer it. Perhaps it was news about Angel Eyes. Lee had been anxiously asking her when his father would return, and it was getting increasingly more difficult to reassure the boy.

The man at the door looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place him.

The visitor saw her confusion. "I'm Jesse Bannister," he told her. "Do you remember me? Four years ago, I came to tell you that Angel Eyes had been shot."

"Oh, yes, of course," she replied. "Forgive me for forgetting."

"Nothing to forgive," he reassured her. Suddenly feeling awkward, he asked, "Might I come inside? I've got news and it would be better told in a more comfortable setting."

"Yes, of course," Emma said. "Forgive my manners. Do come in. " As she led him to the sitting room, she said. "Would you like coffee. I just put on a fresh pot."

"I'd like that, thank you," he replied.

After she'd served the coffee, he cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with what he had to tell her.

"There's no easy way to tell you this, so I'll just speak plainly," Jesse began. "Angel Eyes was killed a few weeks ago fighting over a cache of gold coins with two other men."

Emma's hands flew up to to cover her mouth. "Oh, dear God! My poor baby, he'll never see his Daddy again! How am I going to tell him?"

"I'm so sorry," Jesse said quietly. "He was my best friend. We'd known each other for twenty years. I probably knew him better than anyone." After a pause, he added, "It might comfort you to know that his death has been avenged."

"I always had it in my mind that he might get killed one day and now he has," she said, sniffling. "Lee is with his grandparents today, thankfully. It will give me a chance to compose myself and think of how to break it to him. He's going to take it hard; he worships the ground his father walked on."

"Angel Eyes always knew that he might get killed one day," Jesse told her. "He accepted that during all the years he had no personal attachments. By the time he met you and then Anna, he didn't know how to be any different."

"I tried to get him to do something else for a living, like maybe being a gunsmith in town, but he refused," she said. "He had contempt for average people who worked honest jobs for not a lot of money. But there's more to life than making a lot of money."

Jesse thought this was why Anna had won Angel Eyes' love over Emma. His sister had accepted the hired gun exactly as he was and had never tried to change him, because she understood him. But, to be fair to Emma, Jesse doubted his friend had ever told her about his childhood, which had no doubt had influenced his later life choices.

"He was prepared for the possibility of being killed," Jesse said. "He left with me a letter he'd written to you shortly after you gave birth to Lee, to be given to you only in the event of his death. He also left arrangements for your financial support and left the house to Lee with the proviso that you may live here for the rest of your days."

After he handed her the letter, Emma quickly began to read:

Emma

If you're reading this, I'm dead, probably killed by a faster gun. I accepted this possibility when I took up the gun to make my living so many years ago. I have no regrets about the life I chose to lead.

Anyway, you were a good companion for me and a good mother to our son. You made a welcoming home for me, which I'd never had before.

Jesse will have told you about the financial arrangements I made for you to ensure that Lee is brought up in a good home.

If you choose to marry in the future, Lee will remain a Sentenza. That is all I require of you.

Take good care of Lee and don't let him forget me.

Angel Eyes

After reading the letter, she looked up at Jesse, who was smoking a cigar, and said, "I never approved of what he did for a living, but I still cared about him, nonetheless. And I'll always appreciate how good he was to Lee. I'll miss him."

Jesse stayed for lunch, then went on his way, wishing Emma well. He gave her his mailing address, telling her to contact him if she ever found herself in a jam. As his best friend, he knew this was something Angel Eyes would have wanted him to do.

Emma and Lee went on with their lives, with Lee predictably taking the death of his father hard. Jesse had left a letter for Lee as well, not to be opened until his 18th birthday. But, as is typical of children, he adjusted to his loss and eventually enjoyed life again.

Her friendship with the town doctor, Jeremiah Garrett grew and, after a decent amount of time had passed, they were married, a little over a year after the death of Angel Eyes. Though Dr Garrett became a devoted stepfather to Lee, Emma kept her promise to her son's father and he remained Lee Sentenza.

Emma resumed church attendance and social activities in Cactus Flats once she was respectably married. She had mostly been shunned by the upstanding people in town when she was "living in sin" with Angel Eyes, a man of questionable character, and having his child out of wedlock.

On Lee's 18th birthday, Emma gave him the letter his father had left for him, having stored it in her jewelry box all those years. He took the letter back to his room to read it in private.

Lee

If you're reading this, I'm dead, maybe for several years. Know that if I was alive, nothing could have stopped me from being there with you as you became a man.

But I led a hard life, and it finally caught up to me, which is why you're reading this.

I was always proud of the boy you were and I regret that I'm not there now to see the fine man you've no doubt become.

Do me and your mother proud, son, as you begin your adult life.

With love, your father, William Lee Sentenza

Lee got a lump in his throat as he read this. His memories of his father were hazy after so many years and he wish he'd had more time with him. His mother didn't talk much about him, however.

Inspired by his hard working stepfather, Lee became a doctor, joining his practice after graduating from medical school. Emma was proud of both her men, who were well respected in the town. People had years ago forgotten about Lee's questionable origins.

Almost ten years later, a man came into the office late one afternoon when Lee was there alone, finishing some paperwork.

"Dr Sentenza, I presume," the man said, extending his hand.

"Yes," Lee confirmed. "How many I help you?" This man looked quite familiar, but he couldn't quite place him.

"I am Bill Sentenza," the man told him. "I believe I am your half brother." After a pause, he added, "I'm an attorney and was in town visiting a colleague when I saw your name on the sign outside."

Lee wanted to deny it, but couldn't. The man before him looked just as he'd remembered his father looking.

"You don't seem all that surprised," he said.

"My mother told me that my father had another family," the other man replied. "Perhaps we should have dinner together to discuss it further."

A short time later, as they sat eating in the cafe," Lee remarked, "I remember my father being away a great deal when I was little. I thought it was because he was a bounty hunter, but I suppose it was when he was spending time with your mother, too."

"Bounty hunter?" his brother said. "He wasn't a bounty hunter, he was a hired gun, known as Angel Eyes. He killed people for money. My mother told me so herself. I'm surprised your mother never told you; I'm sorry I was so blunt about it."

Lee was silent for a few moments as he took this in. Again, his brother's words rang true. It explained a lot of things, including him hearing his mother talking about an Angel Eyes with his stepfather. Finally, he spoke. "I was six when he died and what I remember is him being a loving father. I can't change whatever else he might have been, so I choose to remember him as he was with me."

"Same here," the other man said. "I was only three when he was killed, and what little I remember is positive." After a moment, he added, "And there's not that much difference between a bounty hunter and a hired gun, anyway."

"I suppose you're right," Lee acknowledged slowly.

Changing the subject, his brother said, "You also have a half sister. Angela was born a few months after our father was killed."

"No kidding?" Lee said. "I'd love to meet her. I've always wanted a sister."

The two brothers made plans to see one another again, and for Lee to meet Angela. The siblings got together one or twice a year in the coming years, not having as much time once they were married and had children of their own, as well as their work taking up most of their time.

Lee married Rose Porter, the daughter of his mother's old friend, Janie, when he was in his mid thirties. The couple had three children, two boys and a girl. Emma and the doctor were doting grandparents, but Lee couldn't help wish his father had lived to see them.

Emma lived until 1925, having been widowed many years before. Lee lived a similarly long life, witnessing two of his grandsons going off to serve in World War II.

All the children of Angel Eyes lived to see the national fascination with the Old West and their father become an iconic figure of that history. And so the legacy of Angel Eyes carried on.