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"Yes ma’am, very serious The staton--not the one next door, but the western territory Or that’s where the raph works"

"Me either," she confessed "But I don’t know anybody in Washington"

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure" She turned the envelope over in her hand, still unwilling to open it, reading the stae had been co to open it?" Paul Forks asked, then seemed to think the better of it "Never mind, it’s no business of o

She stopped hiht" A laundry boy bustled past her, proet out of the hallway, here No sense in blocking up the hfare" She carried the envelope to the back scullery stairs, where no one was co at that particular moment

Paul Forks followed her there, and sat down beside her with the stiff effort of a man who hadn’t yet learned hoork around his permanent injuries He was careful to keep a respectful distance, but the naked curiosity in his face ht’ve been mirrored in her own, if she hadn’t been so fiercely tired

"Washington," she said aloud to the paper as she extracted it froht brown envelope and unfolded it "What’s so iton that I need to hear about it?"

"Read it," he encouraged her Paul Forks couldn’t read, but he liked to watch other people do it, and he liked to hear the results "Tell me what it says"

"It says," she declared, but her eyes scanned ahead, and she didn’t say anything else Not right away

"Go on"

"It says," she tried again, then stopped herself "It’s ht your kin caave a half nod that ended in a shrug Her eyes never peeled themselves off the paper, but she said, "I was born there, anda farht’ve been illiterate, but he wasn’t stupid "Father? Not your real pa, then?"

Though she didn’t owe hi, so she said, "My daddy ran off when I was little Went West, with his brother and old in Alaska--or that was the plan as I heard it For a while he sent letters But when I was about seven years old, the letters juststopped"

"You think soured Except, it was strange" Her voice ran out of steae?" Paul proot a box in the post, full of Uncle Asa’s things, and Leander’s things, too Leander was my cousin," she clarified "And there was some money in there--not a lot, but some There was also a note inside from somebody they didn’t know, but it said Asa and Leander’d died on the frontier, of cholera or so Anyhen I was about ten, the justice of the peace said that my momma wasn’t married anymore on account of desertion, and she could marry Wilfred He’s been my father ever since So I don’t knowI don’t knohat thisancient history and began to read aloud fro all the stops

"To Vinita May Swakhammer stop Your father Jeremiah Granville Swakhas by a thread stop He wants you to coton territory stop Please send word if you canyou north to Seattle where he lies gravely wounded stop"

The letter sagged in her hands until it rested atop her knees

"Is that all?" Paul asked

"That’s all" She stared at the letter, then looked up at Paul "And all this tiured he was dead"

"It looks like he ain’t"

"That’s what it looks like, yeah," she agreed And she didn’t kno to feel about it

"What’re you going to do?"

She didn’t shrug, and didn’t shake her head "I don’t know He left me and Momma He left us, and he never sent for us like he said he would We waited all that time, and he never sent"

They sat in silence a few seconds, until Paul Forks said, "He’s sending for you now"

"A little late"

"Better late than never?" he tried He leaned back and braced against the stairwell in order to help push hiht be dying"