The Wyoming Debt

by April Hill

  * * * *

  Cathy was having no such difficulty with regard to her new husband, and all she could think about as they rode on was how she could get away, once they had finally arrived at what she suspected would be Hell on Earth, Wyoming. A grimy one-room cabin, two whining, hateful half-literate children, and a husband with the personality of a scorpion. Welcome home! It was hard for her to believe that only two days ago, she had found Will Cameron attractive.

  Still, she was not unaware that he was astonishingly tall, well built, with a broad chest, deep blue eyes, and a head of dark hair. He was tall, dark, and handsome, exactly as the dime novels always described it. Agreeable characteristics in a man she didn’t despise, and a in a man who hadn’t just threatened her with God only knew what.

  As they came closer to the small ranch house, Cathy noticed two figures watching their approach, and she knew without asking that she was being scrutinized by Cameron’s two children. When they were within hailing range, the boy shouted to his father, and ran the remaining distance to greet him.

  “Where you been, Pa?” he cried, giving Cathy only a cursory glance. “We been lookin’ for you since yesterday, and Hannah’s near crazy, worryin’.”

  “I got tied up for while. Where are your manners, boy? This is Miss … This is Cathy. She’ll be staying with us for a while.”

  The boy gave Cathy a suspicious look. “Stayin’ here? With us, in the cabin, you mean?”

  “Yep. She’ll help Hannah with the chores, and she’s promised to give the two of you your lessons.”

  “I don’t need no lessons!”

  Will laughed, and tousled the boy’s fair hair. “Yeah, so I see. Cathy, I’d like you to meet the man of the house, when I’m away, at least. Caleb Gideon Cameron, eight, going on nine in four months.” Will leaned down and swept the boy up in front of him in the saddle. As they rode up to the house, the girl stood where she was, and made no move to greet them.

  “The young lady ignoring us, there, is Hannah Elizabeth,” Will explained, dumping Caleb off the horse, and onto his feet. He winked at his unsmiling daughter. “She’s on the shy side, and right now, it looks to me like she’s sizing you up. Hannah, come over here and introduce yourself to the lady. She’s here to help you with the house.”

  “I don’t want help.” The sullen tone in the girl’s voice made her sound older than her years.

  Will sighed. “You see why those lessons are needed. Maddie always kept after them about their grammar, but I’m away a lot, and there’s no school close at hand. They do know better, I promise you, but Hannah’s got her heart set on being a rancher. I don’t think she sees schooling as necessary.” After dismounting, he surprised Cathy by stepping forward to lift her down from her horse. The girl, Hannah, shot Cathy a venomous look, and stormed into the house.

  “There ain’t no supper!” she yelled though the door. “How was I to know you was comin’ anyway? And bringin’ company?”

  “I’ll have a talk with her,” Will said, chuckling, “but it looks like you’re going have your hands full.” He turned to Caleb, who was still standing next to his father, watching Cathy with a wary eye. “Where’s Gideon?”

  The boy pointed to a grove of cottonwoods in the distance. “He went up there a little while ago. Said he heard somethin’. Told Hannah to keep the shotgun by the door ‘til he come back.”

  “‘Til he came back,” Will corrected, frowning. “Take Cathy on inside, now, and show her around, while I tend to the horses.”

  “She ain’t crippled is she?” the boy grumbled, with a dismissive glance in Cathy’s direction. “Seems to me I should be helpin’ you with the horses, not …”

  “It seems to me you should be doing what you’re told,” Will replied. “And mind your manners while you’re doing it.” He handed Cathy’s bag to his son, and pointed toward the cabin. His face red with embarrassment at the reprimand, Caleb took the bag and motioned Cathy to follow him.

  As Cathy started toward the house, Will touched her arm. “He’ll be all right. It’ll just take a while. Caleb’s a good kid. Hannah’s going to be the hard one.” He grinned. “You might want to watch what you eat, tonight.”

  “Thank you for the warning, Mr. Cameron,” she said coldly. “But after today, I seem to have lost my appetite.” She walked away, but when she reached the steps of the cabin, she turned briefly, and looked back. Will Cameron wasn’t taking the horses to the barn, as he’d said. He was standing in the yard with his rifle in his hand, watching the grove of cottonwoods. The look on his face made it plain that he was worried about something.

  Chapter Five

  The interior of the cabin was larger than Cathy had expected, with one very large, L-shaped room containing the kitchen, a pantry and dining area, and the common living space. One corner of the central area had been partitioned off into a separate room with a gingham curtain. Later, she would learn later that this was where Will’s friend Gideon slept when he was at the cabin. Just to the left of the kitchen was the door to a second, smaller room–presumably Will Cameron’s bedroom. A massive stone fireplace dominated the wall at the far end of the larger room, and an apparatus resembling a steep staircase rather than a ladder led up to the loft. The four downstairs windows were covered with hand-sewn curtains of blue and yellow flowered calico, giving the big room a cheerful, cozy appearance. Cathy could see that the cabin was tidy and spotlessly clean, and despite Hannah’s insolent remark that there was no supper, a large iron kettle bubbled on the stove, giving off the delectable aroma of beef stew. A loaf of fresh-baked bread still fragrant from the oven was cooling on the counter, covered with a clean, white cloth. Neither Cathy nor Will had eaten much that day, and despite her earlier remarks, she began to anticipate her first supper at the Cameron cabin with pleasure.

  That first supper in her new home turned out to be uncomfortable, and mostly silent. When they first sat down, Cathy tried making light conversation, asking small, friendly questions of the children, but when Cameron was the only one to offer a response to her remarks, she began to lose her appetite, and finally gave up the effort entirely. Dishes were passed back and forth without comment, until at last, Will cleared his throat and broke the uneasy silence. Hannah sat stone-faced, and Caleb looked nervously back and forth from his sister to his father, as if he was preparing to bolt from the table.

  “I’ve got something to tell the both of you,” Will began. “And I expect you to hear me out before you start asking a lot of questions. Miss Reynolds, here, is going to be staying–living here–with us.” He paused for a moment. “We were married in town, yesterday, and …”

  Hannah slammed her fork down and leapt up from the table, knocking her chair over and spilling a jug of milk as she stormed out of the cabin onto the porch. Caleb sat with his mouth open, staring at his father, and then at Cathy, in disbelief. When the boy shoved his chair back and started to leave the table as well, Will pointed sternly.

  “Sit down and stay where you are,” he ordered. “Hannah, get back in here! Now!”

  Hannah didn’t answer, and when she wasn’t back in the house when it began to get dark, Will and Caleb took lanterns and went looking for her. When she came in a few minutes later, it was obvious that she had been crying. Cathy tried to speak to her, but the girl simply shot her a malevolent look and went directly up the ladder to the loft. Will and Caleb came in just afterward and the boy scurried upstairs, as well, without a word to her, or to his father.

  Will shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders. “They’re not usually this way. It’ll be better tomorrow, when they’ve had time to work things out for themselves.”

  But Cathy wasn’t so sure that “things” would work out that easily–or that quickly. Caleb wouldn’t be too difficult, but Hannah would take time. Will Cameron’s daughter wasn’t a woman, yet, but she was showing all of the signs of grown-up jealousy. Hannah hadn’t chosen to be the “woman of the house.” That job had been thrust upon her with the untimely d
eath of her mother and while it was obvious to Cathy that the girl took great pride in the job, it was just as obvious that she was handling that job almost too well. Her father and little brother had come to need and depend on her. And now, at a time when she was struggling with the new and tumultuous emotions of actually becoming a woman, she was being asked to surrender her place and her job to another woman–a woman she saw not as a helpmate, and certainly not as a mother–but as a threat, and a rival.

  The children had been upstairs for close to an hour when a tall, bearded old man pushed open the front door and stepped inside. He was carrying a rifle in a handsomely beaded leather sheath, and his hair, which came well below his shoulders, was tied at the nape of his neck with a rawhide thong. When he removed his hat, Cathy saw that despite his age, the old man’s hair was still more gray than white. She also noticed that he didn’t hang the rifle over the mantel with the other weapons, but set it in the corner, close to the door.

  Gideon was home.

  Will didn’t get up from his chair, but exchanged a glance and a nod with the older man that puzzled Cathy, but seemed to mean something to both of them.

  “We missed you at supper, Gid,” Cameron said.

  Gideon grunted. “I figured the two of you had things to talk about,” he said. “Hannah and Caleb, too.” He looked over at Cathy and shook his head, but the gesture was impossible to read. She was unsure whether she had just been judged and found wanting, or simply dismissed.

  “How did you know?” she asked curiously. “About me, I mean?”

  “My ma was Kiowa,” Gideon explained. “Indians can sense stuff like that. I knew it when I got a half-mile from the cabin. Smelled somethin’ new on the wind, like a storm comin’.”

  Will chuckled. “All right, Gid, which one of them told you?”

  The old man grinned. “Caleb was sittin’ out on the porch roof, waitin’ for me to ride in.” He extended his hand to Cathy. “Gideon Copple. Don’t get your feathers ruffled, though. I ain’t permanent. Usually winter north of here, in the high country. I’ll be outta’ your hair come first frost–maybe sooner.”

  He turned to Will. “The boy says you’re married legal and proper. That right?”

  Will nodded. “That’s right.”

  “Kinda sudden, was it?”

  Cathy waited for Will to speak, but when he didn’t, she answered the question, herself. “Mr. Cameron was kind enough to take on a debt I owed, Mr. Copple. I was simply bonded out to him until the debt is satisfied. It was the judge who insisted we marry–because of the children.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Will said quietly. “Tell him the whole …”

  Cathy’s eyes flashed. “Yes, I did, and you should have done it first, Mr. Cameron. What you decide to tell your children is one thing. This is another.”

  “Well, ma’am, I appreciate your bein’ honest with me,” Gideon said, looking over at Will. “Seems Will, here, might have forgot some of what he was taught as a young’un.”

  Will remained silent, but Cathy flushed, and dropped her eyes. Being complimented on her honesty wasn’t something she was accustomed to. When she glanced up, again, the old man was regarding her with open curiosity. He took a chair by the fireplace and pulled a battered pipe from his pocket.

  “All right, now,” he drawled. “I don’t know what’s goin’ on, here, and it prob’ly ain’t my business, anyway, but there’s one thing I know for sure about bein’ married. When I took Willow to wife, we done it the Cheyenne way, and that was always good enough for both of us, our whole lives. But nowadays, they tell me it’s different.” He scratched a wooden match on the edge of the hearth and lit the pipe. “Legal’s legal, and married is married. You best remember that, the both of you.”

  A few minutes later, the old man stood up from the chair and stretched, then picked up his rifle and headed for the door.

  “Kinda warm in here, tonight,” he said. “Reckon I’ll just bunk out in the barn tonight, see if I can catch a breeze. You both sleep good, now. See you in the mornin’, Will boy.”

  When Gideon had gone, Will went to the bedroom and returned with a pile of clothing, a pillow, and a light blanket, He tossed them onto the narrow bunk in the far corner of the room–Gideon’s bed, presumably. “I’ll clear out the rest of my belongings in the morning.”

  “I’ll be just fine on the cot, Mr. Cameron, “ Cathy said softly. “There’s no need to give up your bedroom.”

  “Yes there is,” he replied, and Cathy noticed that he was slightly red in the face. “Besides, it’ll be easier that way. Gideon and I are always up pretty early, most days before first light.”

  “What about breakfast?”

  “Hannah usually leaves a plate of cold biscuits and bacon out the night before. That and a cup of coffee is about all we have time for. When I get the time, tomorrow, I’ll fix the room up some–get a mirror up, and nail a couple of hooks to the wall. The bed’s a good one, so you’ll be comfortable enough. There’s clean towels on the bottom shelf, in there, and … Anyway, it’s been a long day, and you’re probably tired, so if there’s nothing more you need, I’ll say goodnight now. It’s getting late.”

  Cathy nodded. “I know,” she said, her tone cool. “You have to be up before first light.”

  He nodded. “Gideon and I are heading out to round up a couple of heifers that wandered off, so I probably won’t see you, again, ‘til close to dark. You can ask Hannah for whatever you need, though.”

  Later, Cathy lay awake in the wide four-poster, listening to the night noises, and to the distant sound of someone weeping. Hannah, she thought, sadly. She wondered whether Will Cameron was listening, as well, and what he was thinking. Somewhere not far away, a coyote began to howl, and the mournful sound made her suddenly lonely–lonelier than she could ever recall feeling before. Before long, she was weeping, too, muffling her sobs in her absent husband’s pillow.

  As she finally drifted off to sleep, Cathy’s last thought was that while it was not the wedding night of which most brides dream, at least she had gotten through the miserable evening without getting herself spanked, again.

  * * * *

  She had planned to be up in time to have breakfast with Will and Gideon, but by the time she dressed and wandered in to the kitchen, they were already up and out of the cabin. Someone was chopping wood in the yard, and when she stepped out on the porch to say good morning, she found that it was Hannah, dressed in a pair of men’s trousers cut down to almost fit her, and a worn work shirt that reached her knees.

  “Good morning, Hannah,” she said cheerfully. “It looks like it’s going to be a nice day, doesn’t it?”

  The girl didn’t stop what she was doing, but gestured skyward, indicating the few white clouds that still seemed a long way off. “I reckon, if you’re partial to sandstorms, and dry wind hot enough to take the hide off you. Just hope Pa and Gideon get back before it breaks loose.”

  “He–your father–said they were going out to look for some lost cows.”

  Hannah snorted. “No they ain’t. They’re out trackin’ the bunch of Shoshone we seen yesterday. That’s just what he told you.”

  Cathy’s face went white. “Indians? Here?”

  “Sure, here.” Cathy was certain she saw a small, satisfied smile cross the girl’s face. “You scared of Indians?”

  “No,” Cathy lied. “Should I be? They’re not hostile, are they?”

  The girl snorted. “They’re always hostile—underneath. But this bunch was more’n likely just hungry. There’s no buffalo left, so they cut our fences, sometimes, and run off a few head. As long as it don’t happen too often, Pa usually just lets it go. He says they got a right to eat, just like us, an account of they were here first.”

  “Then why is he looking for them?”

  “It’s not Pa, it’s Gideon. He don’t trust ‘em. It was Shoshone took his wife from her people, all those years back. She was Cheyenne, not much older than I am, now. Gideon was an
army scout, back then, and it was him that found her and brought her back. When she got old enough, they was married. Anyway, these fellas looked to be Shoshone, too, as far as I could tell. Caleb seen ‘em, first, and they was a long ways off. Pa said not to tell you, so you wouldn’t get all skittish and weepy-like. Pa purely hates it when women get weepy.”

  Cathy eyed her young adversary with a hard eye. Hannah was looking for a fight, and Cathy had never backed down from a fight in her life–certainly not with a half-grown girl. But it was much too early to start a war. Cathy needed a place to hide, and this was the safest hiding place she could imagine. Jack would be looking for her in big towns–towns with gaudy saloons and busy gambling houses–not on some little cattle ranch in the middle of an empty prairie. It would take months, maybe a year or longer to pay Will Cameron what she owed him, and until she either paid him back, or got away, she was stuck here–sharing a log cabin with a man who didn’t trust her, two sullen brats who detested her, and an old man who already suspected too much.

  So, Cathy swallowed her pride, smiled at her young rival, and retired to the cabin to explore what might be her home for months to come.

  Will and Gideon rode in just before dark, looking tired and hot. Cathy marched down to the barn and accosted Will while he was unsaddling the horses.

  “You could have told me the truth,” she began irritably. “Instead of allowing your children to see me as a helpless ninny and a burden.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, just as irritably.