by Ember Pierce
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.
* * *
He paused for a moment and then smiled. “Just have dinner with me. Spend the last night with me in our house before I go hunting for Smith.”
* * *
“Of course,” she said. “I’ve still got a lot to learn, but I’ve learned a lot today, about the West and about you.”
* * *
He smiled. “I’ll be leaving at dawn.”
* * *
“I’ll fix you breakfast before you go.”
* * *
“Thanks.”
* * *
“But how will you find him? This is, as you have mentioned to me a few times, a big county.”
* * *
“But in this section of my county, I know the places to hide. Smith needs a place to hide until things cool down.
* * *
“Even when he has been in trouble, he has stayed in this part of the region. He’s going to stay here but lay low.
* * *
“I think I know where he will go. It’s just a question of finding him. And that used to be one of my talents, too—tracking.”
24
Kristian tied his saddle bag on his saddle, then kissed Bonny. He realized it was the first time he had kissed her.
* * *
It felt good and he wanted to do it again. But he had other things to do first.
* * *
The sun had not even crawled over the horizon when he put his boot in the saddle and lifted himself into the seat. As he steadied himself, he felt differently than all the other times he had ridden out.
* * *
This was different. The orange light now barely glinting over the horizon was different. Bonny, somehow, looked different. The very air seemed different.
* * *
“I see you’re getting an early start this morning, son,” his father said. “Good for you.”
* * *
Kristian accepted his father’s compliment with a nod and a warm feeling spread over him. He wasn’t used to the look of approval in his father’s eyes—something he had been seeking his whole life.
* * *
Getting it now made him feel slightly better about the things that had happened. If he could heal a lifetime of disappointment with his father, it gave him hope.
* * *
As soon as Kristian was out of sight, Bonny hitched up the buggy, got in and headed toward town. It had been a week or more of swirling emotions.
* * *
She gave one quick, brief bitter laugh. She had been against drinking all her life and now she had a brief thought of taking one, herself.
* * *
She wondered what it would taste like. Shaking her head, she flicked the reins.
* * *
The ride was quiet and gave her time to think. There were not many of those times in her life, times to think and contemplate, whether in Philadelphia or Wyoming.
* * *
She admitted she had admired Kristian as he’d ridden away that morning. He was risking his life so they could get out of debt.
* * *
It was more than that, though. It was something he wanted to do for himself. It was said, she knew, that women would not understand such things.
* * *
But she did, at least vaguely. She knew enough to understand what he was doing and appreciate it.
* * *
The West was different than the East, she thought, in more ways than one. There was a different character to the place.
* * *
It had been built in a time and a different place and a different way than the houses and the people in the east. And she knew she would not be able to understand it in two weeks or even two months or maybe even two years.
* * *
But as she drove on the flatland toward Red Desert, she knew she had a respect for it. The first day she arrived, she only had an apprehension of it.
* * *
That fear was only soothed because she knew what was behind her was even worse than what was in front of her.
* * *
But this was the place she had accepted, just as much as she had accepted Kristian. He was a good man and the West was a good place.
* * *
It was different from the East, yes, but it was a solid land of decent, honorable people. People who, at their best, keep their word and had a sense of honor.
* * *
They made mistakes and they slipped up, just as did people in the East, but she was glad she had come. Her life was here, not back in the East.
* * *
,Her life was with Kristian and his family and the family she and Kristian would have.
* * *
However, things were moving too quickly. Events were happening too fast. She needed another viewpoint.
* * *
She had never really had anyone to depend on, or to offer advice she could lean on. It was always just herself and her siblings. As soon as one got old enough to know something, he or she left.
* * *
The young ones were not wise enough to take any advice from. Maybe she didn’t take advice too well, she thought, because she’d never had anyone to take advice from.
* * *
She tied up her buggy at one of the railings at the church. She walked in and walked down the corridor to Reverend Smallwood’s office.
* * *
He looked up when he saw her at the door. “Bonny,” he said, a smile on his face. “It’s nice to see you. “
* * *
“Pastor, I need to talk to you,” Bonny said.
* * *
“Come right on in.” He was going over what looked like a ledger book to Bonny. He closed it and sat back in his chair. “What can I do for you?”
* * *
She eased down in a chair before his desk. “Pastor, I’m in something of a situation and I think some of it is my own making.
* * *
“In just a matter of days, there has been a great deal going on. And I wanted to talk to someone about it. I needed someone’s opinion besides mine.
* * *
“I figure a pastor would be the man to talk to. Figured he heard a lot of things and wouldn’t be surprised by much, and might come up with some good advice for a lady from the east.”
* * *
“Possibly, I can. And you are right, I have seen a lot in my ministry.”
* * *
Bonny liked that he had a soothing but also cheerful voice. He was a tall man with an aquiline nose and chin. But the large smile gave him an amiable look.
* * *
“What can I do for you?”
* * *
Bonny gave her best imitation of a grin. “I hope you have a lot of time today,” she said.
* * *
“I have as much time as you need,” he said.
* * *
Bonny detailed what had happened since she arrived at Red Desert—her husband’s problems with alcohol, his debts, the threats from Graves, the angry dispute about his being in the saloon, Kristian’s feelings toward his older brother and his becoming a bounty hunter to ward off death.
* * *
“I wanted an independent point of view,” she said. “Now, I don’t think Kristian had a drink and I should not have gone off the handle.
* * *
“He’s a good man, but he’s dealing with a lot of stuff and everything is seemingly hitting us at once. I wasn’t sure where to turn so I came to you, wondering if you could tell me what path I should take.
* * *
“You can probably guess I haven’t dealt with anything like this in Philadelphia.”
* * *
He nodded.
* * *
“My first concern is Kristian’s health. The man he’s tracking has a reputation in these parts, and it isn’t good. I don’t want Kristian to wind up dead on some lonely trail.”
* * *
&nb
sp; “Neither do I.”
* * *
“Does the sheriff know he’s doing this?”
* * *
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask him that.”
* * *
“Most sheriffs tend to discourage bounty hunters, and I think our sheriff would have tried to talk Kristian out of his plan, not that he could.
* * *
“But your husband is right about one thing. The reward on Smith’s head could clear up a whole lot of debts.
* * *
“The area was angry with the shooting and it also got the interest of bounty hunters. Eight hundred dollars is a lot of money.”
* * *
“Pastor, I wonder if I pushed Kristian into becoming a bounty hunter,” Bonny said, her worry clear in her voice.
* * *
“Not intentionally, I’m not even sure I knew what a bounty hunter was before I came out here, but with all the pressures of the marriage and explosion over the drinking and the debts, if my husband jumped where, in any other time, he wouldn’t have.
* * *
“I can’t help thinking it’s my fault that he’s out there chasing down a killer.”
* * *
The pastor shook his head. “No, that’s not the case. Kristian may make mistakes like the rest of us, and for a while, he drank too much.
* * *
“If you curl yourself around a bottle, it can take a while to get back straight, but he’s level-headed now. I’m sure he looked at the odds and the pros and the cons and decided this is a good investment.
* * *
“And I really can’t argue with him, from a financial point of view. If he captures his target and collects his bounty, then you will be in the clear.
* * *
“He’s not being irrational at all. He’s being very logical and very clear-headed. I don’t think anyone could argue with him from a rational point of view.”
* * *
“Except for the fact he might get killed.”
* * *
“The outlaw he’s hunting bushwhacked a man. Kristian will be on the lookout for that. No one is going to sneak up on him and shoot him in the back.
* * *
“He grew up in this area and grew up in these forests. He can take care of himself. And he’s determined.
* * *
“He didn’t go off half-cocked. I know you must be upset, but right now, he needs the loving support of a wife.”
* * *
“He has that. If I have any questions, I will let them go until he comes back. All I want to do is to see my husband back breathing.”
* * *
The reverend scratched his lip. “Bonny, how did your husband go into debt? He always seemed level-headed to me.”
* * *
“He got into drinking with money loaned to him by Graves O’hara. And it wasn’t just drinking, he gambled, too, when he was drunk—so he kept losing.”
* * *
“And kept getting loans? That wasn’t too wise of Mr. O’hara. I would think you might back a winner, but not a loser. And especially not a man who kept losing at the table.”
* * *
“Yes, and now Mr. O’hara says he needs his money back.”
* * *
The pastor paused for a moment. Bonny noticed he had sharp eyes to go with the aquiline ears and nose.
* * *
Helooked like he had just seen Judas accept 30 pieces of silver for a few Pharisees.
* * *
“Something wrong, pastor?” she asked.
* * *
“No…” he began, but his voice trailed off.
* * *
“Perhaps not. You know, as a minister, sometimes, you can get suspicious at the smallest things. Sometimes maybe too much so.”
* * *
“Well, you deal with some of the worst of the human condition.” She shook her head. “I heard a slogan once.
* * *
“It went something like, if you believe the worst about the human condition, you won’t be wrong most of the time. I’m sure that’s true in Red Desert and in most other towns.”
* * *
The minister nodded. “Perhaps. I have never seen Mr. O’hara inside the walls of this church.
* * *
“Maybe my sermons don’t appeal to him… You know who Kristian played poker with?”
* * *
She shook her head. “I never asked and Kristian never told me. I didn’t want to know. Why?”
* * *
“Just letting my mind wander a little.”
* * *
He got up, walked to the door, and opened it. Bonny could hear the sound of distant hammering.
* * *
The pastor looked down the hall. He lifted his finger and pointed, “Pete, could you come in here a minute?”
* * *
“Sure, pastor.”
* * *
A burly man with a huge mass of brown hair came in, a hammer in one hand.
* * *
“What can I do you for?” he said. “Oh, hello, ma’am.”
* * *
“Pete, this is Bonny, Kristen’s new mail-order bride. Bonny, Pete is doing a slight re-modeling job on one of our rooms.
* * *
“He’s very helpful to the church. Wish we had more like him.”
* * *
Pete smiled at the compliment.
* * *
“Pete, I know you sometimes like a card game, and I hear you are pretty good at it.” Pete looked embarrassed at first, but the minister raised his hand and laughed.
* * *
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to get on you. I just wanted to know something.”
* * *
“About a poker game?”
* * *
“Yes. For a while, Kristian was regular at the saloon at the tables, wasn’t he?”
* * *
“Er… yes, sir. But, to be honest, he wasn’t much of a player. Usually, he lost. Thing was, he would drink and play, and he would drink too much.
* * *
“If you want to win at cards, you shouldn’t drink. It muddles the mind. You can’t make good decisions when you have one too many.
* * *
“Kristian would have three or four too many. That’s why he was never much of a poker player.”
* * *
“The game at the saloon. Did the same players usually come in for the game?”
* * *
Pete nodded.
* * *
“Most of the time. Occasionally, they would get a new member, and once in a while we’d get a stranger in town who would play a few hands, but we had regulars, too.”
* * *
“You know who the regulars were?”
* * *
“Sure. Ben Adamore was one. He lost more than he won, but he still played. Of course, there was Kristian, who lost almost every time he played.
* * *
“Wade Hardcourt was another regular, who usually broke even. Charlie Fillar also liked the cards; so did Wes Harkly. He was a pretty good player.
* * *
“Unlike Kristian, he never took a drink, not for the entire game. Maybe that’s why he usually won. Wes was mostly the big winner and Kristian was mostly the big user.”
* * *
“Did Graves O’hara ever sit in?”
