“Hell, yes.” She touched her left cheek. “Ain’t too bad, though, is it? They did other things. Like if I wouldn’t open my mouth? They had this machine they use on slaves who won’t speak. It goes round your head and has a piece of iron here.” She demonstrated by jabbing the cigar toward her lips, then shrugged. “That could hurt. But all I had to do was learn to be good and they stopped using it.”

Starbuck was filled with inchoate indignation. “Who were the two men?”

“Just men, Nate. It don’t matter.” Sally made a dismissive gesture, as though she did not really blame them for what had happened. “Then after a month Mister Delaney came to the house and he said he was real shocked at what was happening to me, and he said it was all Ethan’s fault, and Mrs. Richardson came as well, and they took me away and made a real fuss of me and brought me here, and Mrs. Richardson said I didn’t really have much of a choice any longer. I could stay here and make money or they’d put me back on the street. So here I am.”

“You could go home, surely?” Starbuck suggested.

“No!” Sally was vehement. “I don’t want to be at home, Nate! Father always wanted me to be a boy. He reckons everyone should be happy with a log house, two hunting dogs, an axe and a long rifle, but that ain’t my dream.”

“Do you want to go away?” Starbuck asked her. “With me?”

She smiled pityingly at him. “How are we going to do that, honey?”

“I don’t know. Just leave here. Walk north.” He gestured toward the darkening sky that was filled with a new hard rain, and even as he made the suggestion he knew it was hopeless.

Sally laughed at the very thought of walking away from Mrs. Richardson’s house. “I’ve got what I want here!”

“But…”

“I’ve got what I want,” she insisted. “Listen, people ain’t no different to horses. Some are special, some are workers. Mrs. Richardson says I can be special. She don’t waste me on every customer, only the special ones. And she says I can leave here if a man wants me and can pay for me proper. I mean I can leave anyway, but where am I going to go? Look at me! I’ve got dresses and wine and cigars and money. And I won’t do this forever. You see the carriages go by with the rich folks? Half those women started like me, Nate!” She spoke very earnestly, then laughed when she saw his unhappiness. “Now listen. Take off that sword, sit down proper, and tell me about the Legion. Make me real happy and tell me Ethan has shot himself. You know that son of a bitch took my ma’s ring? The silver ring?”