They Blamed Me for Mama's Death, So I Healed Their Worst Enemy novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Mama's Stone
On Saturday the Elk Fork men carried my mother up the hill to the pack ground.
They lifted her in the frozen dawn from under the sourwood, six of them, with the stone Duncan had cut following on a litter.
The ground was iron.
The old elder with the white beard had two men break it open with picks the day before.
A folding chair stood empty at the head of the grave, where the Alpha sits at every burying.
Loyal had sent word that he was ill.
Nobody turned to look at the chair.
The elder read her name from the black book, and the roll closed, and the stone went down at the head of her.
I stood with my hand on it.
It was cold, and it said Mother of Dovie, and I did not cry until I read it a third time.
Duncan stood behind me and did not touch me.
He had learned when to.
At the gate of the pack ground a thin man in a canvas coat waited with his cap in his hands.
He had not come in.
When the elder had said the last word and the men had gone, I walked down to him.
"Dovie," Burl said. "Let me stand by her."
"No."
His face went gray.
"I'm not saying never," I said. "I'm saying not today. You didn't stand by her when it counted. You can stand at the gate."
"That's where I stood," he said, and nodded.
He did not argue.
I think that was the first thing he ever did for me.
That night the lodge was quiet, and the snow had stopped.
I came in through the boot room at dusk with my hem soaked and my hands numb, and sat down on the bench.
Duncan knelt in front of me and undid my laces.
He took off my boots, one and then the other, and set them side by side.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of They Blamed Me for Mama's Death, So I Healed Their Worst Enemy are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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