"Yeah... Think that's what went wrong with their dad." Bobby looked around, making sure that Matty wasn't lingering anywhere. Wouldn't do to have that boy overhear him talking badly about his beloved dad. "He didn't have any love left after his wife, their mother, after she died. He just wanted to make them into little soldiers."

And he had gotten way further into that than he should have ever allowed to happen. Bobby shrugged. "I reckon I won't be rid of them for a long time now." John would have to pry them from his cold dead hands, if he ever deigned to show up again. "But I ain't as busy as you probably are."