❛ i don’t pretend to know the challenges you’re facing. ❜
Hamilton sentences | accepting
Cass has heard about Joshua Graham, of course– from news reports on the radio, from soldiers she bartered with or bedded, from other caravans. (From Jo’s rants whenever the name was brought up.) He was the scourge of the NCR, the enemy no one could kill. A nightmare to scare soldiers straight with. And here he is, offering her sympathy for her lost caravan.
It’s so surreal that it takes a few seconds for what he’s saying to sink in.
“I’m not asking for pity.” She should give Jo a black eye for spreading the news around– unless the news of Cass’ ruin has spread far enough for Joshua to hear it from someone else, and that thought has a sting all of its own.
She turns somber. “From what I’ve heard, you lost more than I did.” Losing family happens in the wastes, but a whole town butchered all at once… “New Canaan was good people.” There’s an I’m sorry hidden somewhere in the words. She doesn’t care to find it.
(Mom’s tribe must’ve been good people, too, and she knows the Legate didn’t show them any mercy.)