"You don't even want to know what I would do to you if you did something stupid like that in front of the kids," Laura replied in an equally quiet tone, her smile fading as she remembered how she'd been acquainted with his true nature. "The bullet or the giant crushing hooves would feel like fond memories in comparison."
Mary looked from her father to her mother to her still-exuberant little brother, and back again. The look on her face plainly said that she thought they were all crazy. But if they were all crazy, it was some serious crazy. They all believed what her dad was saying, even her mom who didn't take anything Dad said seriously half the time.Maybe there was some truth to it? Narrowing her eyes, she regarded her father with a wary sort of acknowledgment. "Okay. If you say so," she allowed.
"No duh, you didn't die. You're right here!" Frank nearly shouted. The very same Jesse James who had robbed his way into infamy was Frank's father, standing right in front of him. Obviously whatever that coward did at the house in St Joseph didn't do much in the way of taking him out. "How old are you, really? If you were born in 1847 you've gotta be really old."
Laura was more than content to let Jesse do the explaining to the children. She only chimed in as he laid out the family relations to Mary, and it was something that only she would pick up on. That stupid woman just had to go and sneak into the conversation on Laura's birthday, of all days. "Half-sister," she corrected. "She was your half sister."