The Wildes of the West #1: The Daughters of Half Breed Haven: Old west fiction of action adventure, romance & western family drama (The Wildes of the West/Half Breed Haven)

by A. M. Van Dorn

“You put that explosive down!” Barthalomeau screeched, looking completely shaken.

  “Not until I tell everyone how this is goin’ to go down!” Cattie dictated, getting out of the car and stepping towards everyone.

  Every man scampered back, staring at her as if she was the devil incarnate sent to eat up his soul.

  “Miss Allie is gonna keep that gun on you, while Mr. Kincaid here uses some of your own rope to tie you all up,” Cattie instructed, her eyes displaying how displeased she would be if none of her instructions weren’t strictly followed. “right after you put poor old Walt in the trunk,” she turned to Connor who had frozen on a spot. “Then the four of you are goin’ to drive into Alamieda and hash this whole thing out with the authorities. Maybe you can explain what happened to Walt was an accident, but you best hope you can get some lawyers as good as Mr. Kincaid is supposed to be, to try and defend yourself for his attempted murder!”

  A silence filled the air over the north pasture.

  “Now get movin’, everyone!” She yelled, getting each man as anxious as an outlaw on the run.

  As expected, it didn’t take long to get everything done. All four men had been bound and shoved into the auto. Allie stood beside the car, the guns lowered in her hands while Cattie still held on to the dynamite and lighter, though her arms were at her sides now.

  “We best be on our way into town,” Connor said, motioning Allie over. “Once everything is sorted out, I promise I will return for you, to bring you back to your hotel,” he said.

  Allie nodded, but Connor wouldn’t have just that. He grasped one of her wrists and smiled warmly. “Thank you, Allie. If it weren’t for you and Miss Wilde, I would be underneath that cold hard earth. I should wonder what I might have done to have the good fortune of you appearing in my life at the time and place that you have. It almost feels—destined …” he said, his voice trailing off.

  Allie mirrored his happy look back at him, staring into his eyes. “I was very happy to save you, Mr. Kincaid, and perhaps, there just may be something to what you just said. Anyway, you are a good person, and I am thankful our rescue worked,” she enthused good naturedly.

  “Yes, you are a good person, aren’t you, Mr. Kincaid?” Cattie questioned, appearing behind them.

  Connor fluttered his eyes uneasily. He was still shaken by the near miss with death as well as being leery about a stick of dynamite still in such close proximity to an oil rig, which was undeniably bad news. He didn’t have to be an oilman to know that! However, there were deeper, truer reasons he should be nervous in the presence of Catalina Wilde.

  “I would like to think so, Miss Wilde,” Connor finally found himself speaking. “I was just thanking Miss Mastluehr for my rescue, and I am deeply in your debt for your coming up with the plan to accomplish that.”

  “My sisters and I used to think on the fly like that all the time,” Cattie smirked glibly at him. “Of course, that was before the darkness that fell on our family and ruin came to Cedar Ledge,” Cattie added, the humor on her face disappearing abruptly as her eyes locked with Connor’s for a long moment.

  “Can we get on with this?! I swear, you old witch, I will indeed get us clear of all this … and when I do, I am going to come back here and take what is mine!!” Barthalomeau snorted behind them, turning Cattie’s attention from Connor.

  The sight of the boastful Barthalomeau brought a look of scorn to her face and her eyes swept across the entire drill sight, burning with unmistakable disgust. “You mean the oil with this fancy derrick thing?” she asked with a mischievous frown. “Well, maybe we will just see about that now, won’t we?!”

  Gasps filled the air as she held up the stick of dynamite, this time around, igniting the lighter into a small globe of fire.

  *****

  “Uh, may I kindly inquire as to what you are doing, Miss Catalina?”

  Everyone froze on the spot and a clueless and totally nervous Allie had her eyes wide and gawking at Cattie as if the older woman had suddenly turned to a dreadful she-devil. Cattie, merely, kept her mischievous smile intact. She grimly glanced at Allie and Connor first, before focusing her gaze on an extremely agitated Barthalomeau. His eyes fixated on the tiny flame, and he began to tremble.

  “Drive your tin can out of here, Mr. Kincaid and you step back, Allie!” was Catalina’s firm command. Watching her warily, Connor engaged the crank and brought the car to life.

  “No! No! You can’t! We had a deal! We did everything you asked! Don’t you dare! It’s not fair, you old harpy!” Barthalomeau blurted, each word leaving his quivering lips with a tinge of desperation.

  Cattie toyed with the lighter, lowering it to the oil beneath them just to show how serious she was. She gave Barthalomeau a long scowling look before finally lighting the stick of the dynamite, shocking everyone for the second time. Connor must have doubted her before too. Immediately with the wick ablaze, his eyes went wide while his legs became light. In a dash, he had jumped into the car and was engaging the gear shift.

  “Take a look around at what’s left of this ranch and my family!” The sorrow in the older woman’s voice was not lost on Allie as she spit the words at Barthalomeau, Cattie’s eyes mirroring the burning flame of the wick and the pain she had felt all through the years since everything changed for her family. “Fairness and Cedar Ledge parted company a long time ago,” those final words barely audible before finally tossing the TNT stick into the air.

  No one bothered to see where the explosive landed. As it went flying into the air, Connor quickly accelerated the car, whirling it round and driving it straight away from the rig, while Allie, with Cattie on her heels, scampered away, hurrying towards the group of boulders and slipping into the enclave originally intended to be Connor’s final resting place. Barthalomeau, Steeples and the oilmen were frantically hollering, filling the air with astonished curses that encouraged Connor to drive as fast as possible.

  With a soft thud, the TNT dropped at the middle of the rig cap, followed by a mushroom of orange flame and its accompanying roar ten seconds later.

  *****

  Connor slammed on the brakes, quickly whirling the car around so everyone could see the black smoke that engulfed the middle of the rig after the explosion. A bigger blast had been expected; the kind of fire that would eat up the entire area, destroying the well. However, instead of the entire rig pulsating with various cracking sounds as fire consumed it, only the cap was destroyed and everyone watched still, mouths agape as oil began to breezily gush up out of the well.

  “Well, sugar! That sure wasn’t supposed to go down that way, I think!” Cattie murmured.

  Connor couldn’t have agreed more. Cattie had appeared from the boulders, frowning at the surprisingly low outcome of the blast, while a panting Allie stepped in beside her, her lips clasping together to form a perfect thin line as she glared at the gushing well too.

  “Either that dynamite went bad over the years and lost its juice or Dutch bought some of low quality in the first place,” Cattie said dejectedly, shaking her head. “It’s not like we still had a ton of money for such things.”

  The entire oil rig suddenly caught fire before she could finish, shooting a jet of red and yellow flame up the derrick with an extremely loud tremor. Cattie’s frown dissolved into one of widespread amusement immediately, her hands clasping together in complete excitement as the earth beneath them shook and as the flaming oil of the derrick became totally extinguished. Instead of more oil, mud shot up from the well, splashing wet and thick sand all over the surrounding fields and shocking everyone even more.

  Cattie was laughing now, her cracking voice rhyming with the sounds of mud splattering all over the place.

  “I-I … don’t understand,” Steeples’ baffled voice emerged from inside the car.

  Neither did Connor, nor everyone else except the men from Pennsylvania. Everyone turned immediately to one of the oilmen who cleared his throat and turned to Barthalomeau with an I-told-you-so look.

/>   “We shouldn’t have capped that as quickly as we did, but Barthalomeau didn’t want to waste a single drop,” the oilman chided.

  “What do you mean?” Steeples queried, still shaken by the sudden change of events.

  “He means,” the other oilman chipped in, “we must have just hit a pocket of oil that was floating on top of all that mud.”

  “You-you mean to say that’s all there is?” Barthalomeau whimpered like a wounded hound.

  “You should have let it gush longer and we would have found out that this is all there was.” The first oil man looked away, apparently blaming Barthalomeau for all the trouble they were in now.

  Barthalomeau buried his face in his palms, heaving a long-exasperated sigh.

  “Arizona is surely the eighth circle of hell,” he mumbled bitterly.

  For a moment, silence prevailed as everyone turned to the well one last time, watching as the last flicker of fire went out, sending a puff of smoke into the air to accompany the gushing mud.

  “Let’s get going,” Connor said wearily, slowly turning the car towards the road that led out of the Cedar Ledge premises. “Allie, I will be back later!” his warm smile passed from Allie’s view as they motored off.

  “Enjoy going to jail for nothin’, Mr. Barthalomeau!” Cattie yelled as the car pulled away, “Half Breed Haven never surrenders its treasures this easy! It didn’t when Hale Everett made that first run at it, all the way up until you!”

  Cattie wrapped her arm around Allie’s shoulders as they both watched the car grow smaller before disappearing over the hill.

  “C’mon, let’s go home,” she said gently. “I’m gonna whip us up one heck of a dinner. Nothin’ gives one an appetite like savin’ the day. Sure was fun to do it again one more time, especially with you at my side, Miss Allie. Now what do you say to that dinner?”

  “I am indeed famished, so whatever you’ve got planned, I would say deal me in, Peppercorn!” Allie giggled.

  Cattie exchanged a cheerful look with her as they laughed together, arm in arm walking away from the wrecked derrick as it continued to churn out its endless supply of mud.

  *****

  It was dark, lukewarm, and silent outside. Allie rested on the couch beside Cattie in the sitting room, staring sleepily through the opened shutters at the half moon and the dark cloudless sky. Despite that it was night, a warm breeze blew in through the windows, filling the room with the weather’s love and flapping soothing wind across their faces. God knew they needed it, Allie thought with her eyes closed, after everything that had happened during the day. Smiling, she turned to Cattie and noticed that her eyes were glued to the window as well.

  “That was a wonderful meal,” she said headily, unable to forget the piquancy nor the aroma of the meal that she had hurriedly downed and finished over ten minutes ago.

  “Thank you, Miss. I haven’t cooked that much since Dutch and Rachel were still alive,” Cattie yawned, her gaze turning to Allie feeling a contentment she had not felt in so long. “And even that was nothin’ compared to the big family dinners we used to have so long ago. Honor oversaw the ranch house and she would turn our dinners into affairs to remember. Used to drive Mrs. Chow crazy, mind you!” she laughed at the memory.

  “Hey, can you finish the story now?” Allie begged, grasping Cattie’s hand. “I know there is more to it. I want to know what it was all about. What did that evil Mr. Everett tell Cassandra out there in the desert?”

  Cattie didn’t look like she yawned a few seconds ago anymore. Her eyes lit up dreamily as if she could vividly replay in her head the events she seemed willing to narrate once more.

  “Oh, yes, I should tell you, shouldn’t I?” she said as her eyes fell on the family portrait. “She didn’t tell us immediately either.”

  Allie waited patiently for her to continue.

  “Some weeks went by before she did. She wanted to wait until Papa was on the mend. So maybe it was a month later. We all loaded up into canoes and went on a family picnic. She picked the place along the Rock River that Everett had tricked Honor into selling to him. It was that very same day that she made her grand announcement.”

  “Grand announcement?” Allie asked.

  Cattie nodded and adjusted her body comfortably on the couch. Allie mouth turned up with an excited grin and did the same, certain that she was about to be told the part of the tale that would explain it all.

  *****

  July 1868

  The entire family cuddled close on a couple of blankets on the bank of the river, beaming at each other. Whip was in a leg cast and was grinning appreciatively at Honor as she poured him another cup of water. They had just finished a large round of picnic food and everyone couldn’t have been happier to spend such a lovely time together. Dutch held on to Bright Feather as if he was afraid the morning breeze could ferry her away from him while Blue River sat beside them, rolling his eyes in amusement at their public display of affection.

  “This has been so wonderful,” Cassandra said, rising to her feet, “having us all together like this. I’m glad we had the chance to do it before the girls head back to school.”

  “We don’t have to go back. We can pick up again in the fall,” Lijuan suggested beside her.

  “Missing a month on my account is bad enough. I won’t hear of it,” was Whip’s rebuke at that notion.

  “For you, Daddy, we would do anything,” Honor warmly admitted.

  “Then you’ll get yourselves back to school and catch up on what you’ve missed,” Whip smiled, staring at everyone’s beaming faces with love in his eyes.

  “Well, I want to say a few things,” Cassandra continued. “First, congratulations to you, Bright Feather. I heard the Army finally approved your position with them at Fort McCallister.”

  “Thank you. It is going to be very wonderful.”

  “Bright Feather is going to be a very welcome addition to the fort and I’m going to enjoy having her there with me very much,” Dutch’s joy was apparent and his eyes were luminous with adoration for her as he kissed her cheek.

  Blue River shook his head, trying as much as possible not to laugh at how fixated on each other they both were.

  “By now, you’ve surely told your Chief?” Lijuan coolly asked. “How was this news received?”

  “Well …” Bright Feather shrugged her shoulders reluctantly.

  “Let’s just say it didn’t go over too good at first, but I did come to the chief’s aid. It’s quite a story, actually,” Dutch teased, wrapping his arm around Bright Feather’s shoulder. “I will tell you all about it later, but let’s say it made the difference with Thunder Cloud. She has his reluctant blessing!”

  Bright Feather pursed her lips and nodded to indicate that his summary was right, while an apparently unsatisfied Lijuan looked away, focusing on the blue waters of the Rock River. Cassandra noticed this with a sigh, but smiled once again as she went on with her announcement.

  “Now, here is some more really big news,” she said. “I’m going back east, but just long enough to tender my resignation with Mr. Pinkerton personally.”

  “What? No!” Honor squealed. “You cannot quit! You love your job!

  “I do, but I’m needed here. I have spoken with Pop, and during his long recovery, I’m going to be running the ranch,” she said without preamble.

  Lijuan snapped back around immediately, looking bewildered, “Now, hold on! The whole point of me going to school is to learn business, accounting and the like. I am the one who is supposed to be running Cedar Ledge!” she fumed.

  “And you will, my little Daisy,” Whip replied calmly, “as soon as you are done with school, as we’ve always planned. This is just in the short term while I get better,” he explained.

  “Yes, I have no interest in running the ranch long term. The plan has always been for you to do it, Lijuan, so Daddy can focus more on his judicial career,” Cassandra soothed. Left unspoken was that first Dutch and then Cassandra had been chosen for the r
ole but they had desired other careers and third in line Lijuan had suddenly been the designee and they all knew it.

  “Then if it’s only for a short time, why give up your job with Pinkerton?” Lijuan asked reasonably. “Why not take a leave of absence?”

  “The answer has many sides to it, Lijuan, but the long and short of it is because of all of you,” Cassandra she said with a warm smile directed at the family that were her life. “I don’t want to live on the other side of the country far from the people I love most. I want to be here with those that I need most in my life and to be here for any of you that might need me.”

  She locked eyes with Honor, who nodded in understanding before turning to Lijuan once more. “Coming back here for this crisis just showed me what I knew inside all along. This is where I belong—in the West. Where we all belong. We are the Wildes of the West, aren’t we?”

  All the family, including Lijuan, laughed amongst themselves, agreeing with her.

  “Still, it is too bad that this great man you speak of, Mr. Allan Pinkerton has no agencies here,” Blue River mused, interrupting their rounds of laughter. “All of those skills you have are like a gift from the Great Spirit. It would be a shame not to be able to use them,” he concluded.

  “Aw, thank you, Blue River,” Cassandra beamed. “That’s another part of my news. When I went to see Uncle Nate, he made me an offer,” she said.

  “What kind of offer, Sunflower?” Whip asked, surprised.

  “He knows what I can do,” Cassandra shrugged. “He saw it when I put an end to Everett’s scheme against you and he heard about the business in Carlyle Springs with the Wendells. He wants to make me a special lawman, use my skills of going undercover, for instance, whenever a serious need presents itself. Very few would know about me and that would allow me to operate in the territory as his special marshal.”

  “You’re going to do all this while running Cedar Ledge?” Lijuan asked in a disbelieving voice. flinging her arms about in frustration.

  “Lannie!” Honor scolded. “Obviously, this is for after Daddy is back on his feet. Right, Cassie?”