Too Far Down

by Mary Connealy

  Chance pushed open the door and listened. The gunfire had stopped from the east and west. The silence was broken only by the crackling and burning of the house, which sent up clouds of smoke. With the door half open, he wasn’t visible from the bunkhouse. He poked his head out so those on the west could see him, then pulled back just in case they didn’t recognize him from a distance.

  “Let’s hope the men in the bunkhouse don’t expect to shoot at Lauressa and her men. I’m going to get John, Ronnie.” Chance eased forward. “I just saw Justin’s hat—he waved it.”

  When the shooting ceased from the bunkhouse, Chance braced himself and ran for it.

  Cole saw someone dash out and grab John by the legs. Cole whipped out his gun to stop whoever might be meaning harm when he realized what he’d just seen. He held his fire as Pa dragged John inside the barn.

  “Pa? Here? Did I just imagine that because I wish it was true?”

  Sadie came to his side. “You saw Pa?”

  “Yep, I reckon I did.”

  Sadie stared at him a second, as if checking for head wounds. “Maybe that’s why Lauressa quit shooting. Pa got her.”

  She hurried to an open window and shouted, “Pa? Are you in the barn? We’ve got these outlaws tied up in the bunkhouse.”

  Justin stood from behind a boulder on the west and started in, carrying a rifle aimed upward, but in such a way that he could get it into action fast if more trouble presented itself. Walt was right behind him.

  Pa and Ma stepped cautiously out of the barn, Pa limping but looking almighty good. They met in the center of the ranch yard, where Sadie launched herself into her mother’s arms and started crying. Cole didn’t see how that helped the situation any.

  Pa said, “Help me with John. He’s still breathing.”

  The menfolk rushed to the barn, Cole not a bit sorry to leave the tears behind.

  Heath beat them all there and dropped to his knees beside the wounded man. “I need clean rags and warm water and—” Heath turned to the door and glared at what was left of the house—“I need a lot of things that are all burned to ashes now.”

  Rosita came in with her arms loaded. “John’s cabin is well supplied with such things.” She knelt beside John’s outstretched body just as he groaned for the first time.

  It put heart into Cole, and everybody stood a bit straighter.

  Walt said, “I’m riding for the sheriff. I’ll send the doctor out and get more supplies for you all, what with no house to live in.” Walt gave the house a look just as the roof collapsed.

  “Thanks, Walt. Tell Sheriff Joe to bring a wagon.”

  Walt left the barn. Galloping hoofbeats sounded from outside within minutes.

  Cole saw three more outlaws tied up in the barn. “Lauressa and the Suddler brothers. How many did you get, Justin?”

  “There were three men to the west. Not even a fair fight when one of ’em on my side is Walt Blake.”

  Cole found his first smile in some time. John making a sound sure helped. There was no room by John’s side and Cole wasn’t half the doctor Heath was, so he turned to his pa. “I expect you’d like some introductions.”

  Ma was still outside, busy hugging, while Angie and Mel had stayed. Pa nodded. “I know Heath. Understand you married my girl.”

  “Yep.” Heath looked up from his work for just a second and grinned, not one repentant bone in his body over the hasty marriage without Sadie’s parents at the ceremony. “I think John’s gonna be all right. He’s lost a lot of blood but he ain’t even shot. Someone must’ve knocked him over the head and left him there bleeding. Lucky man that these varmints were so busy with their filthy crimes they weren’t thorough.”

  A low hiss came from Señora de Val and drew Cole’s attention. Cole had noticed the bloody scratches on Pa’s face. Fury blazed in the woman’s eyes.

  “Pa, you gagged and bound her for a reason, didn’t you?” Cole approached her cautiously.

  “I think I lost part of my hearing from all her blasted screaming.” Then, turning serious, Pa added, “I don’t think she’s in her right mind.”

  Crouching by her side, Cole said, “Dantalion is dead. His brother Murray is dead, too. We’ve finally caught you all, and Hattie June—that is, Countess de Val—I’d like to know something.”

  “Hattie June, what’s that mean?” Pa asked.

  Cole told them what Murray had said in the caved-in mine. Heath and Justin had heard it as well from outside the cave, so they added more details.

  “She was gone before I ever moved here,” Pa said. “But I always heard she was a poor, deposed countess, or some such nonsense.”

  “She’s an actress who passed herself off as a countess to trick de Val into marrying her,” Cole said. “What I want to know is how did my grandparents get involved in all this?”

  Pa froze. He was already standing still, but Cole could feel the complete end of any motion right down to holding his breath.

  Since Hattie June was gagged, Pa had time to shake himself free. “Whatever caused your grandparents to be in those notes, Cole, it doesn’t matter now. The real evil came from this woman, and we don’t need to fuss over the Bradfords.”

  Cole, still in a crouched position, turned on his toes to look up at his pa. “I don’t want to be shielded from this, Pa. I want the truth.” Cole swallowed hard. “If it helps any, I’ve decided that the CR is where I want to spend my life. Running the mine suits me fine, and I plan to make it my life’s work.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Pa seemed to stand straighter, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

  “It wouldn’t hurt you to herd a cow now and then,” Justin muttered.

  Cole chuckled. He turned back to their growling, hissing prisoner. Though there was no excuse for it, Cole had a feeling the Don had started with his wandering eye mighty quick after his wedding.

  Cole pulled the gag off the phony countess. “How do you know my grandparents, the Bradfords?”

  A cruel smile curved Hattie June’s lips. Honestly, it was almost worse than the screaming.

  “They were greedy people,” she said. “They sent a man to Santa Fe hunting for a way to use their money and make it so you didn’t have a home to come back to. They came to Web and Murray’s attention.”

  Cole noticed her voice fell into a Mexican accent. Until now, she’d been talking English as if born to it—which she had been.

  “They knew I’d want to hear about these people with a grudge against the Bodens, so we made plans to send Murray out to the mines to look around. There were already forces around the governor who’d spent years pushing out the land-grant owners. Dantalion became friends with that group. He’d always been good at ingratiating himself. He explained about the land-grab conspiracy and made up that map to convince the agent your grandparents sent that he was the man who could see to the Bodens being ruined.”

  A low laugh sent a chill up Cole’s spine. Hattie’s eyes gleamed with malicious pleasure.

  “Then your parents would light a shuck and head on down the trail.”

  Her voice changed again. Cole could imagine her now as a girl from Tennessee. He wondered if she’d played so many parts for so long that she no longer knew who she really was.

  “And if there was no Cimarron Ranch for you to come home to, they figured you’d just stay right with them. Your grandparents were generous and funded us well to make our land grab.”

  “Did they pay you to kill my family?” Cole asked.

  Hattie laughed and said, “Did you not notice that we shot you, Cole? Dantalion died that day, but Watts was with him. And after he escaped jail, he got word to me.

  “Are you such a fool, Cole, you think that was your doting grandparents’ wish? No, but they died and left their money in our hands. And then Murray made his gold strike and we had his money, too. But all of it had to be played out slowly because my husband couldn’t know. He hated America and would never agree to return. Then he did what I’d h
oped for years he’d do—he died. Finally, I had the freedom to act on my own.” Her laughter grew louder, almost hysterical.

  Cole was quick to put the gag back on her, and she tried to bite him. He was grateful she’d been tied up. He rose and looked at Pa, then stepped right up and gave him a hug. The kind of hug a man rarely gives another. “I love you, Pa. I know my grandparents always made your life difficult.”

  “My life has been fine, Cole. Mighty fine. We can talk more about this later, but it looks to me like we’ve finally got things settled. Let’s go meet my new daughter and have . . .” Pa stopped talking.

  “What is it?” Cole slid an arm along Pa’s back.

  Justin came to his other side. “Is your leg paining you, Pa? Let’s get you . . .” Justin fell as silent as Pa.

  “What’s the matter with you two?” Cole looked between them.

  Heath said, “I think they both were speaking of plans for the near future that requires the use of your house.”

  Pa glared at Heath, then shook his head. “I’d like to spend some time getting to know you better, Heath. Maybe you can find the courage to ask for my permission to court my daughter.”

  “Yep, maybe.” Heath barely glanced up from where he still knelt by John, doctoring him. He flashed Pa an unrepentant smile, not sounding one speck worried.

  Cole sighed as he led the way outside.

  “This woman,” Justin said, drawing Angie’s attention, who turned and threw herself in his arms, “is my wife, Angie.”

  “She’d better be,” Pa said, but he looked pleased with her show of affection.

  Cole whispered, “She thought Justin was dead. They don’t behave like that all the time.”

  Pa nodded, and Angie got ahold of herself—instead of Justin having hold of her—and faced Pa.

  “Welcome to the family, Angie,” Pa said.

  She smiled, though she had a pale look to her. Probably the only sensible one in the group. Upset by a gunfight. Imagine that.

  Pa’s eyes slid to Seth, who’d come wandering out of the barn behind them. “You look like you’re kin to Heath, is that right?”

  “I’m Seth, Heath’s big brother.” He gave a wild grin that seemed to say a shootout was about the most fun he’d ever had in his life. “I’m the man who burned down your house. Looking at things now, I reckon I didn’t need to do that. Sorry.”

  Pa closed his eyes as if he was in pain.

  Sadie disengaged from Ma and said, “Heath and I have been living in the ramrod’s cabin. Let’s go there now. Pa, how’s your leg?”

  Mel came up to Cole’s side as his family headed for a place to sit down. It looked like Pa could stand to get off his feet for a while.

  “I’m going home now.” Mel patted Cole on the back. “I suppose it’s safe to ride the country alone again.”

  She turned to go, but he caught her arm and turned her right back. He pulled her all the way in to a kiss.

  “No, Cole, you said it was wrong.” Mel pushed against him and turned her head aside, even if it was the hardest thing she’d ever done. “You said you might be leaving and I wasn’t fit to go with you back east.”

  He let her get about an inch away. “First of all, you’re about the finest woman who ever lived. I’d be proud to take you anywhere. But I think you’d hate the city, so I might’ve said you wouldn’t fit in. You’d be ready to start shooting people before you’d been there a week. That’s a whole different thing than thinking I wouldn’t be proud to have you at my side.”

  “That’s probably true about the shooting.” Mel had to concede the point.

  “Second, nothing has ever felt so right as kissing you, so it’s not wrong. In fact, I think it’s a big old sign from God that you’re the perfect woman for me.”

  Cole kissed her again, and Mel was about ready to shove him away again. In just a minute . . . or two.

  “And third and last, Melanie, I’m not going anywhere.”

  This time when he kissed her, she didn’t even pretend to push him away.

  32

  “Will you look at that?” Ronnie stood at the window watching her troublesome oldest son kiss the living daylights out of Mel Blake. Ronnie heartily approved.

  Chance came up beside her. He was limping badly, and Ronnie was going to hog-tie the man to a chair just as soon as she quit watching her son decide his whole life right in front of her. Kissing Mel like that meant choosing a wife and also choosing the Cimarron Ranch as his home.

  Leastways that was how Ronnie read the situation, and since it was exactly how she wanted things, she’d just go ahead and believe whatever suited her.

  “Well, what do you know? Never figured Cole was quite smart enough to pick such a perfect wife.” Chance turned from the window, kissed Ronnie on the cheek, and whispered, “She’s almost as fine a woman as you.”

  Ronnie understood why he was whispering. Because Angie was nearby and she was a surprising choice for Justin. Yet Ronnie could see her sweetness and the love they shared and knew Justin had chosen well, too.

  Cole and Mel quit their kissing and, arm in arm, started walking toward the ramrod’s cabin. Heath trailed after them, on his way to meet up with Sadie. Seth must’ve stayed in the barn with Rosita and John.

  Ronnie wondered how they were all going to fit in this cabin. “Our children have done well for themselves,” she said.

  Chance turned to face the room. “Yep, and I get all the credit for that.”

  She slapped him lightly on the back of the head. He grinned down at her. “It was my demanding they all come home that helped them find mates and saved the ranch.”

  Ronnie stared out the window at the wreckage of her lifelong home and didn’t comment.

  Cole held Mel close like nothing Ronnie had ever seen from her son before.

  “Mel just agreed to marry me,” Cole announced.

  The little room erupted in cheers and applauses.

  Justin shook Cole’s hand.

  Sadie hugged Mel. A small crowd surrounded them with congratulations. They were all happy, but Ronnie noticed that no one seemed overly surprised. She needed to sit Rosita down soon and get a full accounting of all that’d gone on around here while Ronnie was away.

  It was a story she couldn’t wait to hear, and she knew good and well it was one Rosita couldn’t wait to tell.

  As the celebration quieted, Cole’s whole face shone with happiness. Mel blushed and leaned closer to him, resting her hand on his chest as if to touch his heart.

  “Ma and Pa, we’re going to have a wedding ceremony that you can actually attend,” Cole said with a smile.

  Ronnie nudged Chance into sitting in one of the few chairs in the cabin. When he’d finally gotten off his leg, he said, “I have an idea that I hope you’ll like.”

  All three of their children turned to listen. Chance caught Ronnie’s hand and squeezed. “I think instead of rebuilding the ranch house and forcing you to live where you don’t choose, we should build four houses.”

  Ronnie gasped and squeezed Chance’s hand tighter. It was a good idea.

  Cole glanced sideways at Mel, who looked enough in love to live in a cave with him.

  “We can spread them out a bit so you each have a home you can call your own. But we’ll still be close, able to see each other often and all share in the legacy of the Cimarron Ranch.” Chance paused and drew in a deep breath. “No, that’s not right. You can each live where you choose. I want us all together, but I also know you’re grown men and women. You can live where you want. I hope that’ll be close because I love you all and would miss you if you’re gone, but it’s your choice. No more of your pa being a tyrant.”

  Heath nodded and said, “We can share the legacy but maybe not while living right on top of each other.”

  That brought a burst of laughter.

  “In the meantime, I do have a house in town,” Cole said. “It’s a long ride, though, and I’ve found I actually prefer it out here.” He looked at Mel. “We
can stay there while we build closer to your parents, near the property line our ranches share. Because you’re a much better rancher than I am, and you’re going to have the running of your own land.”

  “I’d like that,” Mel said.

  Cole walked over to where Chance sat resting his leg. Ronnie had seen this between them all their lives, the closeness they had since the day they’d pulled a covered wagon into her yard and stayed to win her heart.

  “You’re gonna have to change that will, then, Pa,” Cole said. “It’s a legal document. And if I take Mel to town or to the mine and stay, or to her own folks’ house, and something happened to you before the will’s changed, we could lose the ranch.”

  “I’ll do it before anyone leaves today,” Chance promised. He shifted in his chair, and Ronnie knew he needed to put his leg up. There was only one other chair in the room, and she was sitting in it beside him. She stood and, despite his protest, helped prop up his leg.

  “I know that will I wrote was wrong,” Chance said quietly.

  Everyone fell silent until they could have heard a lark singing on top of Mount Kebbel.

  Justin pulled Angie close. “We understood your reasons, Pa.”

  Cole nodded. “And we were mighty upset at first.”

  “But, Pa, it turned out to be a blessing,” Sadie said. “We needed to move back here. And living here helped me to get to know Heath better. That will you wrote led me to the man I love.”

  Ronnie saw Sadie rest her hand on her middle, right over the child growing there. Sadie had told her the news within a minute of their first hug. Ronnie couldn’t wait to tell Chance that he was going to be a grandfather.

  “Sadie coming home is what prompted Sister Margaret to send for Angie. So it led me to the woman I love.”

  Angie added, “And saved me from a terrible life.”

  “All of this trouble would have been worse if we’d been spread out.” Cole glanced out at the now-smoldering ranch house. Little was left of it now but ashes and a jumble of charred adobe bricks. The walls still stood mostly, but the building had been reduced to ruins. “Instead, because of you, we were together to face the trouble as one, which made all the difference. You didn’t punish us with that last will and testament—you saved us. Thank you, Pa.”