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softly.
    “No. I do not even need to stitch them. They should heal nicely. If you’re unsure, however, rub some aloe oil on them once the skin has sealed, but not before. That should help.”
    “Thanks, Pa.” She looked around the tiny room and saw the second bed against the wall. “At least there is a place for you to sleep since I know you will be in here all night.”
    “You can take it. I will stay up for observation.”
    “Papa,” she pleaded. “Please get some rest. You’re looking tired. The pace of the journey is wearing on you. Mr. Gardner has given up his room for me. It will do you no good to stay up all night when there’s a perfectly good bed to sleep in.”
    “You know, for someone who was never going to speak to me again you sure show a wealth of concern for my well-being.”
    She leveled a stare at him. “You know I never follow through with my threats of silence.”
    He chuckled. “No, you don’t. I am never that lucky.” His laughter grew as she swatted his shoulder. “I always told your mother that if it weren’t for my meeting her, and her loving me back, I’d think I had no luck at all.”
    In the sad silence that followed, her lips quivered against an onslaught of tears. “It’s gone, Papa,” she cried. “The photograph of mother. It was in the valise.”
    Argyle cleared his throat as he frowned. He reached out and pulled her to him. “I’m sorry, Lila. So very sorry.”
    The weight of guilt in his words was far more intense than the loss of a photograph would warrant. It told her what she’d already come to know. He blamed himself for Lynn’s death. He’d saved hundreds of lives, but not the one that mattered most to him, the one that mattered most to her. Any time he saw Lila’s grief, he’d skewer himself anew. So, she sniffled one last time and did what she’d forced herself to do for the last two months; she drew her emotions inward, willed her eyes to dry and stretched her lips into an empty smile.
    “It’s just a piece of paper,” she said as she pulled away from him. “I’ll have her with me every day in my heart. I didn’t mean to get so upset. I think it’s just everything from today overwhelming me.”
    Argyle nodded. “It has been quite a day for you.”
    “For all of us,” she corrected, and he studied her with a tilt of his head.
    “None of us took a life today.”
    She glanced down at her folded hands on her lap. “Are you disappointed in me?”
    “No, not at all. I am proud of you. I won’t be around much longer, and it gives me great comfort to see you look after yourself.”
    “Don’t talk like that, Papa. I can't even bear to think it right now. Besides, God made no man stouter than you. I think you’ll outlive us all.” 
    He chuckled. "We shall see. If today is any indication of the life we can expect then we shall both have to bear up."
    "You're the one who wanted adventures." She pointed a scolding finger at him as her eyebrow lifted. He looked at the ceiling while he scratched his chin.
    "I seem to recall a certain brown-headed child leaping around my sitting room with a coonskin hat she'd won throwing apples in the fall festival, spouting something about revolutionaries and the wild frontier. Do you happen to know of whom I speak?"
    She stifled her laugh with a hand over her mouth. "Why must you torment me with memories like that?"
    "Only to remind you of the excitement you once craved."
    Her smile softened, and her eyes paled in a far-away gaze. "A child's fantasy quelled by the reality of propriety." She laughed again as she shrugged. "Lucky for you I actually do enjoy being a lady."
    "It wasn't your sense of propriety that purchased your little pistol, or that led you to wield it."
    She appraised him with a tilted head. "Don't tell me that you are now starting to renege on all of those years drilling me to be proper?"
    "Not at all, Lila, but you can be proper and practical at the same time, given the conditions and circumstances.