One Bright Morning

by Duncan, Alice

  “Shit.” Jubal still held onto Maggie’s arm when he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

  When she saw his huge, hairy thighs, Maggie’s eyes got big. Then she squeezed them tightly shut. “You’re not supposed to get out of bed, Mr. Green,” she choked out. “You promised.”

  “Yeah, I know I promised, Mrs. Bright. But that was before Mulrooney’s men showed up. I get dispensation when somebody’s trying to kill me.”

  Jubal tugged on his britches. The magic bark was still working, and his leg didn’t hurt too much. He limped over to the chest against the wall and grabbed his guns.

  Maggie was standing in the doorway, staring at him, her insides roiling with fear, anger, and confusion. She held her baby tightly. Annie’s chubby little legs straddled her mama’s hips, and her fist was crammed into her mouth. Jubal strode over to them with a little less of a limp.

  “The two of you stay here. Get down. Sit beside the bed and don’t move.”

  He had taken Maggie’s shoulders in his two hands and he was squeezing her tight and looking at her with an intensity Maggie’s startled brain couldn’t quite take in.

  “Maybe I can help you,” she suggested in a strangled voice.

  “No!”

  Jubal hollered the word and Maggie winced. “Don’t yell at us,” she cried, her voice a tangy blend of fear and anger.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, more softly. “No. You can’t help. Just stay in here with your baby and keep her safe. Don’t go anywhere, and stay down. Promise me,” he demanded.

  Maggie stared up at him and her brain registered something akin to terror. She finally nodded, knowing she’d just waste everybody’s time if she argued. Besides, Jubal was right; she had to keep track of Annie.

  Jubal nodded and started for the kitchen. He stopped suddenly and jerked around. When he kissed Maggie hard on the lips, she was too startled to respond. He was gone again in a second, and she could only press her fingers to her lips and wonder what that kiss had meant.

  Gunfire erupted moments later, and then Maggie was too busy being scared and furious and cradling her daughter’s small head against her shoulder to wonder about anything at all. She could hear Jubal, Dan, and Four Toes in the kitchen, discussing tactics. Maggie didn’t know anything about tactics.

  “Oh, Lordy, Annie, I just want all of those dratted Mulrooney people to go away and leave us alone. And not only that,” she admitted to her daughter, willing to say it out loud because there was only Annie to hear her, “I want those three men to stay with us and make our lives easier forever, too.”

  She sniffed unhappily and sat on the floor, squashed up against the bed, and hugged Annie to her breast. Annie was frightened, too, mostly because her mother was, and she didn’t squirm to get free of Maggie’s arms. She wriggled up closer against Maggie at each burst of gunfire.

  Maggie felt a moment of sheer panic when she heard Dan and Jubal arguing. Their fussing began after what seemed like hours and hours of the noisy fighting. Actually, only several minutes had passed.

  “Damn it, Jubal, you can’t do it. You’re crippled, for God’s sake. You’d never make it.” Dan was obviously annoyed.

  “It’s me he wants, Danny, damn it. I’d be able to draw their fire better.”

  “He wants us all, Jubal, and you know that as well as I do. That man out there don’t care who’s who. He’s just hired to kill us all, and the woman and baby, too. I ain’t a cripple, so I’m going.”

  “Shit,” Jubal said furiously. “I don’t like it.”

  “I don’t like it, either, but it’s got to be done, and it’s got to be done by somebody who can run like hell, and you can’t.”

  “I guess not,” admitted Jubal. He was obviously not pleased to admit it, either.

  “I guess you’ll listen to your nurse from now on.” Four Toes popped into the conversation with a grin in his voice.

  “Shit,” Jubal said again.

  Maggie held her breath when, during the next lull in the shooting, she heard the back door creak open. She prayed into her daughter’s soft curls when the silence stretched out for what seemed like decades. Then she jumped a foot when shots rang out again, and she finally gave up trying to be brave and was crying when she heard the thundering of horse hooves and the peltering sound of running feet. Then came what sounded like a series of measured, calculated shots. A man screamed after one of those shots, and Maggie tried to cover Annie’s ears with her own shaking hands.

  Then there was silence. The only sound Maggie could hear was that of her own hiccoughing sobs.

  For some reason this interruption of her peace was much more terrifying than that first time when Jubal had been lying wounded on her bed and Dan Blue Gully had left to track French Jack. She knew the reason for her increased terror now was that she had come to care for these men. A lot. All of them. And she didn’t want them to die.

  The quiet grew and grew and grew, until Maggie thought she and Annie must be the only two people left alive in the whole world.

  Then, all of a sudden, there was another sudden, furious volley of shots. Maggie tried to stifle her shriek, but she wasn’t sure how successful she was. Annie whimpered into Maggie’s shoulder.

  “All right. It’s all right. All clear.”

  Dan Blue Gully’s voice sounded faint and far-away, floating over the dusky, smoky, early spring evening to the little house in the clearing. It penetrated the ringing in Maggie’s ears slowly, and she only gradually realized what it must mean.

  Then she sucked in a huge gasp of air that tasted sharply of cordite. She wanted to run to the kitchen to see for herself that everything really was all right, as Dan Blue Gully’s words implied, but her knees were shaking too much and she couldn’t stand up.

  Jubal Green limped into the bedroom and stopped just inside the door, looking down at the two females who were clutching each other and staring at him. Two pairs of eyes, one a big, soft brown, and the other a big, vivid blue, held him captive. Both Maggie and Annie were petrified.

  His leg hurt like crazy when he squatted down in front of Maggie. His big, callused hand reached out and stroked her cheek. Then his hand moved over to Annie’s soft hair, and he leaned over and kissed the baby’s head. He wanted to kiss the baby’s mama, but he didn’t quite dare.

  He said softly, “It’s all right. It’s all over now.”

  Suddenly Maggie was in his arms. She didn’t know how she got there. She only knew that with one enormous effort, she propelled herself and her daughter off the floor and into Jubal Green’s arms, and his embrace was big enough for the both of them.

  He rocked them for a long time, whispering nothing into Maggie’s ear while she sobbed onto his shoulder. The effects of Dan’s magic bark were wearing off, and Jubal thought he was going to die from the pain in his leg and his arm. But he wasn’t about to let Maggie Bright go until she wasn’t scared anymore.

  That took a long time, and it was only the dawning realization that Jubal Green’s wounds must be hurting him that finally made Maggie draw away from the comfort of his arms.

  The mood in the little cabin was very subdued when she finally served up supper that evening. The rice had cooked too long during the gunfight and was somewhat dry, but nobody except Maggie seemed to notice.

  # # #

  Prometheus Mulrooney’s entire body quivered when he read the wire Ferrett’s shaky hand had just delivered to him. The color drained from Mulrooney’s normally florid face, he was breathing erratically, and Ferrett thought for a hopeful moment that the man might be going to suffer a spasm.

  He didn’t.

  Instead, Mulrooney slowly lowered the wire onto his cluttered desk and pinned Ferrett with a lance-like glare that set his secretary to shivering wretchedly.

  “Fetch Pelch,” Mulrooney said softly.

  His voice was drenched in throbbing malevolence, and Ferrett was sure that both he and Pelch were done for. They hadn’t done anything wrong, but Ferrett knew that didn’t make m
uch difference when their employer was in one of these moods.

  “Yes, sir,” he said in a voice that squeaked pitifully.

  His knees shook as he made for the door, and his progress was hampered somewhat by the unsteadiness of his gait.

  Ferrett was stirred into bullet-like propulsion when Mulrooney’s fist slammed down on the desk and he roared, “Now,” so loudly that the windows in his office shook.

  Ferrett was still trembling when he and Pelch trod up the big staircase to Mulrooney’s office.

  “Oh, Lord, Mr. Pelch,” Ferrett said in strained tones. “It must have been real bad news.”

  Pelch shook his head. “It’s always bad news to me, Mr. Ferrett,” he whispered miserably. “The man’s a devil.”

  Ferrett nodded.

  “I’m no better than a murderer myself, Mr. Ferrett,” Pelch said, shaking his head sadly. “I arrange for these things.”

  “Well, Mr. Pelch,” said Ferrett softly, “you don’t have much choice. There’s no quitting Mr. Mulrooney’s employ, you know.”

  “If I had a shred of courage, Mr. Ferrett, I would have resigned my post months ago, when I realized what kind of person Mr. Mulrooney was.”

  Ferrett’s brow furrowed. “I suppose that may be true, Mr. Pelch,” he said with considered gravity. “But you have to own that you would also be a dead man right now.”

  Pelch heaved a heavy sigh. “Aye,” he said.

  Ferrett knocked on Mulrooney’s door and he and Pelch entered after a bellowed command from their boss.

  Mulrooney staked them both to the floor with his furious gaze.

  “We’re going to New Mexico Territory, you two miserable toads,” Mulrooney told them. His voice sounded more strained than usual.

  Ferrett and Pelch exchanged a look of bewildered fright. Ferrett cleared his throat discreetly. He looked as though he were very worried about his boss’s announcement.

  “Ahem. Do you mean, sir, that all three of us are going to the Territory, Mr. Mulrooney? Mr. Pelch and me, as well as yourself? Sir?”

  Mulrooney’s eyes began to bug out. Little flecks of foam appeared at the corners of his mouth. He drew his brows over his buggy eyes in a way that made both Ferrett and Pelch shrink into themselves so tightly they seemed to shrivel under Mulrooney’s glare.

  “What did I just say, you slimy worm?” Mulrooney said in a rasping, grating whisper.

  “You—you said we were going to New Mexico Territory, sir,” Ferrett whimpered.

  “And do you doubt my words, you disgusting scum?” Mulrooney asked, still maintaining his blood-thirsty whisper.

  “N-no, sir,” stammered Ferrett.

  “Then see to it!” Mulrooney roared.

  His roar made Ferrett’s knees buckle, and the poor man found himself kneeling in front of his boss next to Pelch, who was visibly shaking.

  Mulrooney stood up behind his desk then and leaned over it, bracing himself on two hands the size of pork butts.

  “Pelch, wire that imbecile of an agent in Texas and tell him to expect us. We should be in Santa Fe by the end of next week. Ferrett, see to arranging transportation. I’ll use my own railway carriage.”

  “Yes, sir,” both Ferrett and Pelch uttered together in a terrified duet.

  Mulrooney’s glare transferred to his desk, and he ogled the wire Ferrett had handed him earlier with such a hot glower that Ferrett would not have been surprised to see the paper burst into flames.

  “The idiot hired another fool and Green and his Indian friends are still alive. So is that wretched woman who took them in. This Jose Escobar—”Mulrooney gestured to the wire “—was as incompetent as Jack Gauthier. Neither one of them were worth the price of the ammunition it took to kill them.”

  Ferrett and Pelch could only stare. Ferrett had managed to drag himself upright and now stood, trembling in agonized apprehension, next to Pelch. He was clutching one of Pelch’s coat tails for security.

  A vile grin greased its way across Mulrooney’s fat face.

  “So I guess I’ll just have to take over the job, since my hired help is incompetent,” he said to his two petrified underlings.

  Then he seemed to realize the two men were still there. “Well?” he thundered. “What are you waiting for?”

  Ferrett and Pelch bolted for the door of Mulrooney’s library like a couple of frightened antelopes.

  “New Mexico,” breathed Pelch when the door had shut behind them. He had to wipe the sweat off of his brow, and his white handkerchief fluttered in his shaky hand.

  “Oh, Lord,” muttered Ferrett miserably.

  They walked down the stairs slowly, their shoulders drooping, their heads bowed under the weight of their employment.

  Ferrett looked at his companion sadly. “Do you have a will made up, Mr. Pelch?” he asked.

  “Yes,” replied Pelch. “Do you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” said Pelch.

  “Yes,” Ferrett repeated.

  # # #

  “But I can’t leave my home!”

  It was a week after Mulrooney’s last attack, and Maggie felt as though the fabric of her life had just been ripped to shreds in front of her face. After several heated minutes and quite a few angry exchanges between herself and Jubal Green, her temper tantrum had still not worn itself out.

  But now, as her eyes made the circuit from man to man to man as she peered around the table, what she saw in their expressions was not encouraging. She could tell they weren’t going to budge.

  Dan Blue Gully looked stoic and his face was unreadable. Four Toes Smith bounced Annie on his knee. He was giving the little girl horsy rides. Four Toes watched Maggie with enormous compassion recognizable in his dark brown eyes, but not a shred of compromise.

  Jubal Green was furious. He knew he’d just yell at her again if he opened his mouth, so he sat stiffly at the table and let Dan do the talking. He’d already said his piece, at the top of his lungs, and she was still arguing.

  Women, he grumped to himself. Just when you think you like one of them, she up and gets unreasonable on you.

  Dan Blue Gully’s voice was soothing.

  “It’s not safe for you here, Mrs. Bright. You and your daughter will be safer on Jubal’s spread in El Paso.”

  Maggie’s eyes darted again from man to man. Jubal thought she looked a little wild, and he had a sudden urge to scoop her up, settle her on his lap, soothe her, and tell her that everything was going to be all right. Lord, those bullets must have done him more damage than he thought. He was getting soft as mush.

  “But won’t they just come for you there? If you go away from here, won’t they leave me alone?”

  Her voice cracked and she had trouble getting the words out. She had been furious when they first said she’d have to go with them to El Paso, and had fought and kicked and screamed until she was nearly hoarse. Now that she was calmer and was thinking more rationally, the plain truth of her feelings struck her as almost more idiotic than her fit of pique.

  The truth, Maggie acknowledged against her will, was that she didn’t want these men to leave her. She wanted them to stay here with her and Annie and for everything to be peaceful and for all of them to be happy together. An infinitely practical woman, Maggie knew that wish was unreasonable, but still, she couldn’t help what she wanted.

  “I’m afraid Mulrooney doesn’t work that way, Mrs. Bright. He considers anybody who helps an enemy of his to be his enemy, too. He won’t leave you and your daughter alone just because we go away. In fact, to tell you the truth, we’re the only protection you have.”

  Maggie put her face in her hands and stared at the table top through her fingers.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered.

  “Jubal’s got a nice ranch near El Paso, Mrs. Bright. And he’s got a regular army guarding it.”

  Dan’s attempt to make Maggie feel better wasn’t working.

  “Well, I’ve got a nice farm right here, and I don’t want to leave it!”

/>   “We know that, Mrs. Bright.” Dan’s voice was a sigh. “We’re really sorry about this. But we’ll be able to guard you better in El Paso.”

  “Oh, yes? They killed his brother there,” she reminded him.

  “That was because his sister-in-law wouldn’t listen to reason, Mrs. Bright. She was very foolish and took their daughter and tried to get to town without an escort. When Jubal’s brother went after them without waiting for help, they were all wiped out.”

  Maggie shuddered. She knew he was right. They were trying to protect her and Annie. She knew that. Even if it was their fault that she and Annie needed to be protected in the first place.

  But they were asking her to leave everything she’d ever had in her life, and she simply couldn’t do it. This was her home, the only real home she’d ever known. Kenny had built it. She had learned love here. Kenny was still here, for God’s sake, buried in the back yard. Although she’d never say it to a soul, she like to think his spirit still lived on here, protecting them. She was sure it would break her heart to leave that spirit behind.

  “My—my husband’s buried here,” she whispered, her words now thick with tears.

  Jubal’s chair scraped away from the table and he stood up. He limped, scowling, over to the window and stared out into the black night. For some reason, he didn’t want to hear about Maggie’s husband.

  Dan watched him, his face expressionless. “You can come back to your farm when the danger is over, Mrs. Bright.”

  “Will it ever be over?” Maggie asked in a bitter whisper.

  “I sure hope so, ma’am,” the Indian said.

  “You hope so?” Maggie knew she sounded vaguely hysterical and didn’t care. “You hope so? I’m supposed to leave my home and everything I have in the world because you hope so? What if I can’t ever come back here? What then?”

  Nobody had an answer for her. She gave them a full minute, eyeing each one in turn, before she exhaled a huge sigh and resumed staring miserably at the table top.

  Jubal suddenly turned away from the window to face the trio at the table.