Pray for the Dead

by Dusty Richards

  “I heard him, darling. Oh, I heard him good. Hell, Chet I really appreciate you even considering me for the job.”

  “I’m not just considering you. If I buy in, will you run it?”

  Cole looked hard at his wife. She nodded frantically with her fists clenched tight.

  “Damn straight, boss man.”

  Valerie jumped across the table and kissed Chet on the mouth, spilling coffee all over. “Chet Byrnes, I love you. You saved my life, and you’ve been so generous to the both of us. We’re going to go get your boy—what’s his name?”

  He was laughing too hard to talk for a moment. “I love you, too, Val. But we’ll just have to call him Junior until we find out. She never said it in her letter.”

  “What a mess I made,” she said, scooting out of the booth. “I’ll be right back.”

  “What’s happened?” Liz asked, coming over with Jenn. She looked concerned.

  “My wife just had a fit.” Cole laughed, red faced.

  “About the boy or the job?”

  “Both.”

  Jenn shook her head. “And me losing my best help I suppose?”

  “Tradition.” Chet held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve been hiring your friends and help since I came to this place.”

  “Chet Byrnes, this place wouldn’t be here if not for you. Liz also mentioned your new addition to the family. What are you getting into next?”

  “Big secret. A stage line, if it will work.”

  “Can I buy stock in it?”

  “Ask me later.”

  Valerie returned with a towel to clean up the mess, and Jenn poured fresh coffee for everyone. Val sat on her husband’s lap; Liz moved in with Chet with Jenn on the other side.

  Jenn covered Chet’s hand on the table with her own. “I bet you must be all torn up about this.”

  A shrug. “It’s been a long time. But if I’d even suspected she was pregnant—I’d have done something besides leave her to have him by herself.”

  “Oh, she knew good and well you had to leave Texas,” Liz said. “She had one piece of you left inside her, and she wasn’t going to blackmail you with it. That was her memory of what you two had together. I would’ve done the same thing.”

  Chet agreed. “Well, these two are going after him.”

  With the matter of going after his son settled, he went by Bo’s office and they discussed the stage line and the stations they’d need if it came to be.

  “When you’re ready, we can make the trips,” Bo told him. “Choose the sites and make the land deals.”

  “How’s your life at home now?” Chet asked.

  “Oh, a damn sight better, Chet. We should have done that a year ago, thanks. Good luck on arranging this deal. It sounds like a moneymaker to me.”

  Chet put his hat back on. “We’ll see.”

  “So now you need to meet this Hannagen, right?” Liz asked when he came out to get on the buckboard.

  “I’m having Tanner at the bank check him out first. I don’t want an under-the-table card shuffle deal pulled on me.”

  “I always wonder about how you think. Two letters came in the mail. One about a boy you didn’t know about, the other a big business proposal. Twenty-four hours later, it’s all sorted out and you’re ready for the next event. That’s decisive. Isn’t that the English word?”

  “Yep. In Spanish I think you say, decisivo?”

  “Yes, that’s the word.” She hugged his arm. They were headed home between the snow piled on both sides of the road. The ground under the horses’ hooves and iron rims of the buckboard was melted and a little muddy.

  “And you are the definition of that word.” She paused. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “About her?” It was obvious from her voice.

  “Yes.”

  “We went to school together, but I never caught her eye. I was pretty wild in those days, so I know why not. She married a man much older than her. They had one child—that girl, Cady. One day he left her, and along with some of the Reynolds, stole my remuda. Reg and JD were boys then. We needed those horses for our cattle drive. The three of us went after them. We caught them this side of the Red River, hung them all, and brought our horses home. It was hard on those boys to lynch them. They went to school with some of them. Their mothers said it was just a joke, that they weren’t really stealing them. But you don’t drive horses hard for over a hundred fifty miles for a joke.”

  “No. They meant to steal them.”

  “I told the boys not to say a word. They didn’t. But somehow the Reynolds found out and had their bodies brought back for burial. That probably really put fire under the feud. Kathren’s husband’s still buried up there, though.

  “When she and I got together later, she told me he left her with the ranch and his daughter. He told her, that day, that he wasn’t coming back. She never said why. Perhaps she didn’t know. I think he had a problem and he couldn’t make love to her—but why else leave a beautiful woman and your own daughter with a working ranch?”

  “I see,” Liz said thoughtfully. “And she was the one you originally wanted and did not get with her until then.”

  “Exactly. But things in Texas were going from bad to worse. A bushwhacker even shot me at her house.”

  “Your time in Texas was growing shorter.”

  “Yes. I came out here. I brought Heck along, my nephew. He was one of May’s stepsons and those young boys had her treed. I told the younger ones to get along better with her, or else. Then I packed him up to bring along out here.”

  “Those two boys play piano with her now.”

  “Yeah, things have changed. One’s going to college for her, too, in a few years.” He shifted his grip on the reins. “The stage was robbed south of here. They took Heck as a hostage. I took a rifle and a coach horse and chased them down up in the Bradshaw Mountains. When I finally caught them, the boy wasn’t with them. I made them tell me what they did with him. They’d cut his throat and threw him off in a canyon. I—I lost control. I killed them,” he whispered. “Every one. Then I went back to look for him. Found his bloody body deep in a canyon, and carried him up to the road in my arms.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  “Marge arrived in a buggy to help. She saved my life, Liz. I was so unstable mentally . . . she really did save me in the days afterward. But we never did anything. I was still obligated to Kathren. I came back to Texas in shock over my loss of that boy and then she couldn’t come with us to Arizona. I left and came back here, to Marge’s delight. Poor woman had a bad case on me, I guess.”

  “You do that to women in your life.”

  “Liz, you aren’t upset, are you?” he asked suddenly. “About all this business happening?”

  “Not at all. I have you. Our life is definitely not what I thought it would be. But it’s always interesting—more so than my ballroom dancing with stiff shirts.”

  He stopped the team and kissed her. “We don’t have to do much of that, thank God.” With her still in his arms he kissed her some more.

  And holding his treasure tight, he told himself, You are the luckiest man in the world to even be alive.

  CHAPTER 16

  On a cold night under the stars, with most of the snow gone, Chet sent Cole and Valerie off on the stage to find his little man and bring him home. Those two were still mad lovers. They’d make a honeymoon out of their trip. And he didn’t begrudge them any of it.

  “You’d think they’d just got married,” Jesus said, laughing.

  “Worse than Chet and I?” Liz asked him.

  “Maybe not that bad,” Chet teased as they mounted the buckboards to head back home. “Maybe we’ll learn his name before they get back.”

  “Have you tried to guess it?” She hugged his arm as he drove home under the stars.

  “Not really. There are so many things I’ve wondered about since I learned there was another son, but not that. Kathren and I could have been married, but her strong loyalty to her parents ke
pt her from doing that. The tables had been turned on me and I flat could not have stayed.”

  “It really was a tragedy.”

  “It was. But the real tragedy in my family was back when the Comanche took my brothers and sister. They took a boy one summer and a year later a pair of twins, a boy and girl. My father went out to find him. He stayed out too long with no water and food, and some rangers found and brought him back, but he was never right mentally after that. That loss about killed my mother. It was a bad deal, but really nothing he or she could have done about it. At fifteen I was running the ranch on my own. We never heard a word about those kids. Lots of children were taken by the Comanche in those days. They said their women rode horses and lost babies and they needed replacements. There were some boys that escaped, and came home, then went back to the Comanche.”

  “Why would they do that?” she asked.

  “The tribal men were warriors. The women did all the work. Back home, they had to work cotton and crops and hay. It was a damn site easier being an Indian male than all that work they found back at home.”

  “I’d never even dreamed of anything like that,” she said. “I guess this new boy is really your first son, then?”

  “I guess he is. If he was a prince, he’d be in line for the king’s job.”

  “Firstborns they say are the leaders. Look at you.”

  “Well, my poor younger brother never wanted to lead,” Chet said with a shake of his head. “Bless his heart, it was hard to get him to do anything when it required him to make a decision. But he could sure bitch all day about how I did it.”

  She laughed. “That stage line is in your thoughts right now, isn’t it?”

  “I think since the railroad is coming so slow, it could make some money for us. Lot depends on Hannagen. He may not be all he says he is. Some guys talk a good game, but when it comes to putting up, they don’t have anything.”

  “They have them in Mexico, too. But I like that you never hesitated offering Cole the job.”

  “Cole’s not some common cowboy. What he does, he does well. He’s not a braggart or a drunk. He can handle himself in tight places. He expects things of people and has a good way about him. And he can figure someone out in just a short conversation with them.”

  “I noticed all that, riding with you guys. You said on the first cattle drive he shot two Indians.”

  “One was attacking us, the other I took prisoner, gave him to Cole. He came back alone. The Apache drew a knife on him. I knew right there I had a good hand.”

  “Those two are like your sons after all this law and ranch business, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “You have a replacement for him?”

  “Not yet. But this deal hasn’t gone through—yet.”

  She nuzzled against his shoulder when they drove in the yard. “Oh, it will. I know how you are.”

  “You know we need to work on Christmas. It won’t be long away.”

  “I’ll start tomorrow.”

  “Good. I’ll work on the books some more.”

  “Any problems?”

  “No, except it sure takes lots of damn money to run these places.”

  “Are we in a bind anywhere?” She stood as they pulled up in front of the ranch house.

  “Not at all.” He helped her down. “But it always pays to know what’s going on.”

  Jesus pulled up behind and told Chet that he and the stable boy would put up the horses and he’d be at breakfast if he were needed.

  “Better come eat with us.”

  “I’ll be there. ’Night, you two.”

  Later in bed, she told him, “What a different turn your life would have taken if she had come here and married you. I’ve been thinking about it.”

  “I was sad about it, but she had to stay with her family, and I had to leave Texas to save mine.”

  “Oh, I know. But how different the fork in the road makes things.”

  “I am very pleased where it led me.” He kissed and hugged her.

  CHAPTER 17

  A few telegrams later, Albert Jefferson Hannagen and three of his staff agreed to meet Chet at the Windmill Ranch in two weeks to discuss the stage line plan. Chet’s principal business advisor, Bo Evans, was invited to join them. With the meeting set, Chet, Liz, and Jesus drove up there to talk to Susie about the meeting.

  They stopped at the Verde Ranch on the way, partly to play with Adam, and partly to fill Rhea and Victor in about the boy in Texas. Tom and Millie ended up joining them, too.

  Millie shook her head and said with a teasing smile, “They call that sowing wild oats, Chet.”

  He hugged her close. “I had high intentions of marrying her.”

  “Oh, I am only giving you guff. I was glad you came to Arizona in the first place. Tom’d lost his job and things were slim at our house. I can’t believe she didn’t use him for bait to get you back, though.”

  He shook his head. “Kathren wasn’t like that. She was a very nice lady. I think she kept the secret to hold on to something of our affair. It was not an easy thing for us to part.”

  Millie hugged him back. “I am just so glad you came. Will Rhea raise him, too?”

  “Cole and Valerie will do that. I sent them to collect him because nobody there knows he works for me. Rhea has her hands full, and I am sure she and Vic will have children of their own, too.”

  “More than anything,” she said, “I want you and Elizabeth happy.”

  “We are,” Chet assured her. “I am very lucky to have her.”

  And he meant it.

  Later, he and Tom talked about Victor taking over the farming of the Verde Ranch.

  “He’s using my cowboys to reinforce all his fences while things are slack,” Tom reported. “He has his own men rebuilding every mower and piece of farm machinery we own. We’ve talked about fencing some more ground that we can water. He also wants a new hay field up at the Hereford herd area. There’s water enough up there for it. It would be a damn sight easier to feed them up there than haul hay, so I guess we’ll build more fence.”

  “I’d say he was taking a hold.”

  “Oh, he’s a new broom but I agree with what he wants to do. I didn’t have the time for much more farming.” He wiped his brow. “Say, what’s this meeting up at Windmill all about?”

  “A man named Hannagen wants to run a stage line from Gallup to the Colorado River on the Marcy Road where the train will run someday.”

  “That’s a big deal, isn’t it?”

  “It could take as many as two dozen way stations,” Chet replied. “Hay, grain, horses, people to staff them. An upkeep station and blacksmiths to rebuild coaches, wheels, and repair harness. Several horse handlers, drivers, and cooks. It’ll be a big operation.”

  “Didn’t a man named Butterfield do that before the war?”

  “Yes. Made a run from Saint Louis to San Francisco.”

  “You going to be in his boots?” Tom asked.

  “First, they have to prove to me they’re authentic. But if we go into it, all of us may have to put some effort in to make it work. I think there’s a mail contract involved.”

  “Whew. You think too big for me sometimes, boss.”

  “No, Tom.” Chet shook his head. “Arizona needs lots of things to become a state—jobs, industry, and more people. And if a new stage line starts it, so much the better.”

  “Well good luck there, chief.”

  “Thanks. I may need lots of it.”

  “Millie said she teased you about this son?”

  He laughed and waved it away. “She’s a lovely woman and a good friend. I wasn’t offended. I’ve gone over that whole case a hundred times out loud and in my mind. Kathren couldn’t come with me, simple as that. She had him and wasn’t going to share. I might have done the same thing. But I had no choice. I had to get my family out of Texas for them to survive.”

  Tom agreed. “Well, we’re damn glad you came here.”

  “S
o am I. And we’ll see about the stage business in just a few days.”

  They drove on to the Windmill the next day. With a big smile on her face, Susie ran out and hugged them all, coatless despite the freezing north wind.

  “I want to hear more about the story behind this boy without a name. I can’t imagine she never wrote you anything. I knew you leaving tore her up. It did you, too. But not to ever say anything—” She shook her head.

  “Sis, I don’t know. But Cole and Valerie have gone to get him.”

  “I can’t wait to see him. I want to write her daughter and tell her thank you, as well.” She frowned for a moment, thinking. “But that’s not why you’re here.”

  “No. We’ve got another deal in the works.”

  “A stage line.” She nodded. “You told me in your letter. Now who all is coming to this meeting here?”

  “Three men, and probably some others will come with them. I’ll be here with Bo and Jesus, and Cole, if he’s back by then. We can bring some help if we need to. Lea can come over from the big house at Verde to help you with the cooking. You all can make a list of supplies you’ll need while we’re here. We may need the big tent set up down here, too.”

  “Must be serious,” his sister said. “That’s only a few weeks before Christmas.”

  “I think,” he said, heading for the house and out of the wind, “there’s a large mail contract in this plan that has to be completed by a certain date.”

  “Can we do that?”

  “If we have to use a buckboard to haul the mail until we get the line running, we will.”

  Susie grinned at him slyly. “You’ve been thinking about this a lot.”

  “Maybe.”

  “And,” Liz added, “his family is getting bigger.”

  “Oh, my, Liz. That was a shock. But I bet she knew she had his baby in her before we ever left. She had a rough life with her first husband. We all knew that, and I think she told Chet some about him. She did me, too. I loved her like a sister. Like I love you. My brother had finally found a woman. Then it all blew up.”

  “Well, we won’t have much time to think about it,” Liz said. “This conference is coming up fast, and so is Christmas.”