A Path Worth Taking

by Mariella Starr

  Although they walked around on guard all the time, there were no more sightings of the Indians.

  Eight days went by, and Garret still had not returned. She knew it was a six to eight-day round trip, provided he didn’t linger in town. On the ninth day, her worry escalated into near panic. She tried not to show it in front of Jasper, yet her eyes rarely left the horizon, and her heart was painful in her chest with missing her husband. Sometimes there was a lump of fear in her throat. In the afternoon, Jasper said he would do the milking for her.

  Beth had taken cornbread from the oven when she noticed Jasper was still gone, and she looked out the kitchen window. She saw a three-man unit of soldiers ride from around the side of the barn and dismount. They were Army soldiers, so she went outside to greet them and see if they had brought any news.

  Two of the men stayed back some distance and never removed their hats, which was unmannerly. They seemed to be searching the area for something, looking this way and that for something or someone.

  Beth noticed something different too. These men were wearing the same Calvary uniforms as Captain Sumners’ troop who had stopped by several times, with warnings. Except these men were not neat and orderly. These men were dirty, slovenly, and threadbare. These men resembled the soldiers who had passed through her property at the end of the war.

  “Morning, ma’am,” the sergeant said dismounting, but failing to remove his hat as a gentleman would. “Are you out here alone?”

  “No, my husband is around,” Beth lied.

  The three men laughed.

  “I don’t think so,” the sergeant said closing the distance between them. “We’ve been watching, and it’s only you and the boy. Now, it’s only you and us.”

  “What do you mean?” Beth demanded.

  “It means we got rid of him,” The another man, with a corporal stripe said, dismounting and advancing toward her. “We ain’t gonna hurt you unless we have to, we just want some fun.”

  Beth backed away from them as the third man dismounted. “Get off this property.”

  “Honey, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” the sergeant said unbuckling his gun belt and hanging it on his saddle horn. He unbuckled his trouser belt.

  Beth had been easing her way backward to the bench outside the cabin door. She grabbed the Spencer rifle and pointed it directly at the man’s face.

  The sergeant was startled, but he laughed. “Honey, you ain’t gonna shoot me.”

  “Yes, I will,” disagreed Beth, cocking the chamber. “If you take another step, I will shoot.”

  The man stepped forward grinning and laughing when she didn’t shoot. “Come on fellows, we’ve got us a feisty one.”

  Beth brought up her other hand to steady her grip and pulled the trigger.

  The sergeant’s hat was shot off his head. He cursed, but he stopped in his tracks.

  “I missed on purpose,” Beth said. “The next shot will be between your eyes.”

  “There’s three of us, girlie, and only one of you,” he snarled.

  “There is only one of you, and I have five bullets left,” Beth warned. “After my next shot, it won’t matter much to you which one of your buddies I shoot next.”

  “I’ll shoot the next one,” Jasper said from behind the men as he stepped out from the side of the barn pointing a double-barreled shotgun at them. There was a gash on his cheek and blood dripped down his face. “I think the rest of you had better be dropping your guns.”

  The sergeant made a move to grab his sidearm from his saddle, and Jasper fired one of the chambers. The man screamed and fell to the ground.

  “The rest of you, drop your guns,” Beth said. “Our next shots will be to kill.”

  The two remaining men unbuckled and tossed their guns aside while Jasper ordered them to lie on their stomachs. Before Beth could even think of what to do with them, the boy hobbled over and smashed the barrel end of his rifle against their heads rendering them unconscious. He looked to her for direction.

  “What are we going to do with them, now?”

  ***

  It was dusk when Garret pulled the wagon in front of their cabin and jumped down to greet his wife. He saw the curtain on the window pushed aside cautiously before Beth flew out the door and burrowed into her husband’s arms. It took a few seconds for Garret to realize something was wrong. Beth’s tears were not joyous, but near hysterical. She was blubbering almost incoherent.

  “Honey, what happened?”

  “We’ve got three men tied up in the oxen barn,” Jasper explained joining them.

  The boy’s foot was still bandaged, and now he had a raw looking cut on his cheek.

  Garret pushed Beth away from him so he could inspect her. “Beth! Have you been hurt?”

  She nearly buried herself into his body again, but she shook her head no.

  “We captured three men who would have hurt her,” Jasper explained. “She got the drop on the first one, between the two of us we took down the other two.”

  “You killed three men?”

  “Would have if we needed to,” Jasper answered steadily. “Miss Beth would have too, only we were able to get the advantage.”

  It took a while to get the full story. Jasper took Garret out to the barn where three men wearing Cavalry uniforms were tied to the corner posts, one in each stall. Two of the men were conscious. One was unconscious slumped against the ropes and bleeding from a shoulder wound.

  “What are we going to do with them?” Jasper asked.

  Garret scratched his head and looked at the injured boy. “For now, I’m leaving well enough, alone. I’ll check the ropes, but they don’t look as if they’re going anywhere. We’ll have a good supper, and I’ll worry about them later. After what they tried, they don’t deserve sympathy. I’ll come out later, and bandage the one with a bullet in him. That’s as far as I am willing to go toward making them comfortable. They’re going to have one hell of a ride to Fort Morgan where I will turn them over to the soldiers.”

  “I don’t want you to leave again,” Beth complained when they retired to their bedroom.

  “I don’t have a choice, honey,” Garret answered. “We can’t keep them tied up in the barn.”

  “Fort Morgan is eighty miles away. It will take weeks for you to go there and back.”

  “We have their horses,” Garret said. “The trip will be a lot faster on horseback. If I don’t run into bad weather, and I push real hard, we can be there in four days. Let’s worry about it later. Why don’t you think about rewarding your husband for bringing you the prettiest hat in the territory?”

  Beth batted her eyes at Garret, and he grinned and slid down under the covers. A few minutes later, they were tossing off the covers and the cool evening air felt good against their hot skin.

  “Did you miss me?”

  “Terribly,” Beth whispered pushing her husband so he would lie on his back. She straddled him and lowered herself onto him slowly.

  “Turn around the other way,” Garret suggested, and Beth followed his instructions. Soon he was holding her hips as she bent forward and rocked against him. He met her downward strokes with his upward thrusts. Faster and faster, she rode him until he couldn’t stand it another second and he needed to be in control. He lifted her up on her knees and spread her further apart. He pushed her down into the mattress with her ass in the air and wrapped her hands around the rails of the footboard. God, he loved it when she was spread wide open for his pleasure.

  “Hold on, sweetheart,” he breathed as he thrust his full length into her tightness and began a rough ride pumping into her deeper and deeper.

  Beth loved it when Garret impaled her as a stallion did a mare. It took her breath away and made her female parts thrum with anticipation. When her body seized with an orgasm, she became the one out of control as he drove into her harder and made her orgasm last longer and longer. Her shuddering finally stopped, yet he was not through with her.

  He flipped her onto her
back wanting more from her and pushed her legs apart. He washed her sex, not wanting to taste his own semen, and he buried his mouth into her kissing and sucking until she could feel her belly extending with another release.

  “Yes,” he whispered knowing he possessed this part of her. This was a pleasure only he could give her. With his tongue swirling and darting inside and around her most sensitive parts, he nipped at her with his teeth until she exploded again. Beth was floating away, but Garret dragged her back to reality when he gently positioned her legs one by one over his shoulders. He rose on his forearms and thrust into her powerfully.

  He had gone from gentle to masterful, and it was his turn for pleasure although he knew she enjoyed it too. Watching as he thrust in and out of her, feeling her warm wet sex around him was testing his endurance, yet he still wanted to enjoy every second of it. He had been waking in the middle of the night wanting and desiring his wife. Now here she was, his for the taking. When he could no longer contain himself, he expelled his seed into her once, twice, three times, until he lowered himself to lie on her to kiss her breasts and her lips. Suddenly, he realized he was exhausted with no more to give.

  “I must be the luckiest man in the territory,” he breathed.

  “You missed me,” Beth answered taking large gasps of air.

  “I did,” Garret admitted.

  “Good.” She snuggled into him and closed her eyes.

  Garret was awakened with Beth thrashing around in disturbed sleep.

  “Easy, baby, easy,” he crooned as he stroked her.

  “So scared,” she whispered.

  “I have you,” Garret assured her as she wrapped herself around him.

  “Want to feel safe,” she mumbled, and she raised a leg around him.

  He thought it was an invitation for more lovemaking, so he slid into her and began to rock against her gently. His wife murmured something so softly he could barely make it out at first, and then he realized she was thanking him for making her feel safe. It was not sex she wanted or needed. She needed comfort.

  Garret shifted slightly and continued to rock gently inside her. This was not about him. This was about the reassurance she needed. As she cooed in her troubled sleep, he rocked inside her gently until it calmed her. He ran his fingertips over her breasts lightly and aroused her nipples with his thumbs with a feather light touch. She stirred and whispered words that made his patience worth it.

  “My husband, my love.”

  “Good morning,” Garret crooned in his wife’s ear when he felt her begin to stir in his arms.

  “Hmmm.” Beth opened her eyes and stretched out her arms like a yawning kitten. “Last night was wonderful.”

  “I didn’t do anything special.”

  “Sometimes it’s not what you do, but how you do it,” Beth whispered.

  “You were asleep.”

  “Not totally. You made me feel precious and safe.”

  “You are both,” Garret said, turning to her.

  Beth could feel him exuding a different kind of need. She understood the unspoken urgency between them. She slid her hand down his body, touched his heat, and felt it harden. “It’s my turn to comfort you,” she acknowledged and opened herself to him.

  Chapter Nine

  “I’ve got to check on those idiots,” Garret growled as he gave Beth a slight smack on her bottom. “Keep the revolver close!”

  The men were awake. The one with the bullet in him was demanding to be set free. He made threats, but Garret’s response was to tie a gag in his mouth. For good measure, he gagged the other two.

  “They’ll live,” was his verdict to Beth and Jasper when he finished the morning chores and returned to the cabin. He kissed his wife and held her as he looked deeply into her eyes. “Are you sure they never touched you?”

  “They didn’t get near me,” Beth promised. “Although I did help Jasper drag them to the barn after he tied them up.”

  “I have to finish unloading the supplies and do a few things around here before I can take them to Fort Morgan.”

  “If the bullet stays in his shoulder, it will set up blood poisoning,” Beth said.

  “Have you ever cut a bullet out of a man?”

  She paled and shook her head no.

  “Neither have I,” Garret admitted. “I don’t aim to start with him, either. As far as I’m concerned, he didn’t get half of what he deserved.”

  Garret dug into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. “Jasper, I took your portion of the money for the furniture to the bank and the teller wrote down how much you have in the account. You’re building a nice nest egg. Are you healed enough to help me unload the supplies?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Only if your foot is wrapped properly,” Beth cautioned.

  When Garret stepped outside, he noticed something he had missed seeing earlier. He walked to the side of the house and stood looking at the War Lance stuck deep in the log above the window frame.

  “Black Crow stopped by,” Beth said joining him. “He scared us at first and then he said he came by to see you. He said he would come again, but he didn’t leave a message.”

  “Yes, he did,” replied Garret nodding toward the lance. “Leaving the War Lance there is a warning to others that this cabin and everyone in it is under his protection.”

  “He is a wanted Renegade, a murderer according to the Army,” Beth challenged her husband. “He said you were his friend.”

  Garret gave his wife a wry smile. “I’m not sure I would consider myself a friend. He saved my life a time or two and I returned the favor. Being under the protection of Black Crow means a lot. The Army may consider him a Renegade, but he is a hero and a powerful warrior to his people.”

  They spent the next several hours unloading the wagon. Garret had already given Beth a fancy flowered hat, which she had exclaimed over declaring he was not to waste any more money on her. He kept back the package of dress yardage he had bought in case they were snowed in at Christmas time.

  Garret had used about every excuse he could think of for postponing his trip to Fort Morgan, now he knew he had to do it. He had no intention of untying the men. He stuffed a piece of cornbread in the mouths of the two who were awake. He offered them a drink of water from a cup before gagging them again and strapping them into their saddles. He tied the horses together in a caravan of sorts.

  He was saying his goodbyes to Beth when she turned and ran from him. She returned with her rifle and Jasper on her heels with his.

  “It’s all right, I know these men,” Garret assured them, putting out his hand and lowering the barrel of her rifle to the ground. He greeted Captain James Sumners and his troop of Calvary.

  “Wakefield,” Captain Sumners said with a nod of his head as he brought his mounted troops to a halt. He observed the men tied to their horses. “What do you have here?”

  “Deserters probably,” Garret said. “They tried to assault my wife. She and my boy successfully disarmed them.”

  The captain rode his horse to the men, looked them over, and raised the head of the man slumped in his saddle. He rode back, dismounted, and took off his hat to Beth. He offered her his hand to shake and then shook Jasper’s before turning to Garret.

  “Ma’am, you have captured Charles Clinton, Burl Clinton, and Alton Beale. They are indeed deserters who have been terrorizing the territory for some time disguised in these Calvary uniforms. I don’t know how they got the uniforms, but they didn’t earn them. All three of these men were buck privates facing trials for dereliction of duty. They have robbed countless settlers and at least two stages.”

  “Can you take them off my hands and save me a trip to Fort Morgan?” Garret asked.

  “I most certainly will remove them from your custody,” Captain Sumners agreed. “These men are poor excuses for soldiers who give a bad name to the honorable men wearing our uniform. They will be put before a review board and most likely hanged for desertion and their crimes.

 
; “It’s good you caught these three. Fort Morgan is about to be closed. With the Medicine Lodge Treaty signed, by this time next year, most of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Dakota tribes will have moved to the Indian Territories. We’re rounding up what we hope is the last of them. The railroad should be completed soon, and we won’t be needed out in this godforsaken country. We have already received orders to close Fort Morgan and move our troops to Fort Laramie. Red Cloud has declared war there and organized so many tribes and bands under his leadership, he’s going to be hard to beat.”

  The captain had several of his men fall out of formation, and he detailed them to take the deserters to Fort Morgan. Garret stood with his arm wrapped around his wife’s shoulders as they watched the Calvary troop move forward in force again.

  “It’s one war after another,” Beth complained. “Won’t men ever learn?”

  “They’re trying to civilize this country, Beth,” Garret protested.

  “Is that what the war with the South was about?” she asked rolling her eyes. “I didn’t consider it very civilized.”

  “Women don’t understand,” Garret said. “Besides the war is over and done with. It will be a good thing when the tribes are relocated to the Indian Territories.”

  “I’m sure Marie will be thrilled when she returns and can’t find her family,” Beth retorted.

  With Garret back and Jasper’s foot healing nicely, Beth was able to return to doing only her chores. There was no need for her to rush around trying to do everything. Garret was also teaching Jasper how to be a cowman, and she was excluded from whatever that entailed. She didn’t even ask, as she knew his standard answer—it was men’s work.

  She brought out several cookbooks she had found in the abandoned trunks and set herself the task of learning how to bake bread. She was not very good at baking beyond basic biscuits and cornbread. Lettie had baked the bread and taken care of most of the kitchen duties on the farm.