Blood-Born

Epilogue - Part 2

"Poe truly believes that he is going to retire and stay on as whatever will be left to manage." Bonnet offered while he refreshed each glass.

"But I fear that particular town will never be the same, either way." He added as he capped the bottle.

"Well at least now," Tombs mused, "to find my way there I'll just have to follow my nose."

Poe simply held out his hand to Bonnet, palm up while he waited for the inevitable wager to be paid out in full which the colonel did by dropping several coins that he had retrieved from his pocket.

"Almost made it..." Bonnet sighed as he glanced at the clock.

"Told you ... the first time that he found himself around me, he would not be able to resist within the first thirty minutes to an hour at the very least..."

Tombs simply smiled as he raised his glass to Poe in reply.

They were seated round Bonnet's desk with glasses refilled more than once as they had discussed what had happened at the fort during the attack by the rogue Indians before talk inevitably turned to the farm and the events there that were far more troublesome in nature to consider.

"My sincere apologies again for not having gotten here any quicker than I have, although to be fair I rode straight through once word got to me about the farm." Tombs offered. "Plain awful what happened there. They were still cleaning up when I came through and chewed out LaRouchette for a bit."

"Apology accepted, my friend. There was absolutely nothing that you could have done even if you had opted to stay there either way."

Bonnet leaned back in his chair.

"Tell him the real reason why you left, he probably should know."

The big man frowned as he nodded in agreement.

"Once Eve began to show her more dominant side, Deer asked me to leave the farm at which point I moved on to the missing priest case."

Poe seemed confused.

"Deer asked you to leave? I was told that you chose to of your own accord, no offense taken either way."

"I think she knew what was going to happen when Eve came of age and the complications that would have come with that between the two of them along with her brother and perhaps me in the process."

"Where did you manage to get off to once you left?" Poe asked, "I hadn't heard anything of you from the usual sources of late."

Tombs shifted a glance toward Bonnet who simply smiled and sipped his drink before he set it down.

"We played that close to the vest for any number of reasons," He offered in explanation for the big man, "Which made it a need to know situation, with all due apologies but I'm sure that you are fully aware of how that works in these situations."

"It was just one of those things Poe," Tombs agreed, "Where we were not entirely sure of who might get wind of changes that were made given the visitors that had come and gone not long before I left."

"Grace and her dark warlock friend," Poe supplied, "Who both seem to have played a part of some sort in things, or so it would appear."

"Long about the time Grace and her friend came to visit, Deer had already begun to strongly suggest that I leave, which I eventually used as an opportunity to follow those two when they up and left before I reported in and travelled east."

Bonnet suddenly frowned as he seemed to have realized something during the discussion.

"And how was it that you actually found out about the farm anyway, the fort I certainly could understand with the press; but we haven't sent out anything in the way of notices or reports of the farm that I know of."