by Three Men
Troy heard the appeal in James’ voice. He knew how hard it was for him to make peace and soften his tone. He was a man of authority, used to men and women following his commands without question. That he deferred to the kid enough to consider his feelings and make a request said a powerful lot.
“I reckon,” Chris murmured.
“It’s settled, then.” James gave Chris a squeeze, then reached over to grasp Troy’s shoulder right before a knock sounded on the door.
“You boys awake in there? Breakfast is about ready.”
“We’ll be down directly,” James called, and an answering snicker sounded through the door as Lucy retreated.
“I’m thinking Lucy wouldn’t mind seeing you stay on until we get back,” James said, and Troy laughed, knowing that the woman had instantly taken a motherly shine to the kid. He wondered why she and Caesar didn’t have any kids of their own and remained curious to know their story.
“I’m thinking I wouldn’t mind staying on to help out around the ranch, do my part.” Chris smiled.
James took his face between both hands, drew him close, and gave him a deep and resounding kiss on the lips. “I’m thinking you do more than your share to help out around the ranch just keeping the owner happy.”
Troy’s heart stuttered in his chest when James included him with an intense, secret look that told Troy he had finally found a home here with James and Chris.
Chapter 13
“What bee got in your drawers, chil’?”
Chris glanced up from grooming the horse Troy had loaned him and frowned. “Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me. You’ve been moping around here since those other two left like you done lost your best friend.”
Chris shrugged and continued grooming the horse’s mane.
Lucy put a hand on his to stop him. “Any more grooming and you’ll brush the hair right offa this’un’s hide.”
“Sorry.”
“What’s vexing you, chil’?”
He didn’t want Lucy to think he didn’t appreciate her company. She and Caesar had been going out of their way to make him feel welcome, especially since James and Troy had left. After downing Lucy’s big, appetizing, multi-course breakfast, Chris had gone on a tour of the ranch with Caesar. Just as amiable as Lucy but not as talkative, Caesar took Chris riding with him, then let Chris help him tend the horses and other animals.
He knew that the couple tried to keep him busy so that his mind wouldn’t be on James and Troy. He appreciated their efforts and concern. He didn’t know how to answer Lucy without insulting her, though, or making her think that he’d rather be with James and Troy than her and Caesar, even if the latter proved true.
“You’re missing your friends.”
Chris nodded, but still didn’t say anything.
Lucy came to his side and put an arm around him.
Chris did his darnedest to keep up a brave front, refusing to cuddle close and act like the little kid that James and Troy insisted on treating him as.
“I bet they’re missing you just as much.”
“They didn’t act like it. They acted like they couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”
“What get rid of? Leaving you here in this grand home with trusted friends and caretakers is getting rid of you?”
Chris looked at her and chuckled. “You know what I mean. They wanted me to stay behind because they thought I’d be safer here than with them.”
“Can’t fault them for wanting to take care of you.”
“They treat me like a little kid.”
“Well now…” Lucy grinned and arched a brow without finishing. She ruffled his hair like she agreed with James and Troy’s assessment, and Chris laughed. He couldn’t help himself.
“How old are you anyways, chil’?”
“Twenty-one.”
“You ain’t nothing but a baby. Where your parents at?”
He hadn’t told anyone what had happened to his parents. No one had ever showed any interest, except for James and Troy, and whenever they tried to get any personal information out of him, he’d always shut down and shy away. The most he had revealed to anyone had been last night at dinner, and even then he’d only revealed where he’d come from, not anything more personal.
“They’re dead. Died in a cholera outbreak back in New York.”
“Oh, my poor baby! You’re all alone in the world.”
“Not anymore.” He said it with more confidence than he felt. Despite James and Troy’s assurances and Lucy currently gushing all over him, he felt like he was all alone in the world. Not to mention he feared what would happen to James and Troy on the road or when they got back to Wolf Creek. He feared that Cain outlaw getting a hold of them.
“I reckon you got a point there,” Lucy agreed. “Those two do care a lot about you.”
“How can you tell?” Chris asked, curious to know what she saw and heard that he didn’t.
“Well, for one thing, I’ve never seen James so happy before, so free and laidback, and I’ve known him a good while to see the difference in him.”
Chris just nodded, keeping his own counsel, waiting for her to go on because he knew she would, and Lucy didn’t disappoint.
“And your other fella, I see the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is watching him, the way his eyes shine. And I hear how his voice changes when he talks to you, all husky and low. There’s a lot of love there.”
He liked the way she referred to James and Troy as his. Still, he didn’t want to blind himself to the possibility that Lucy was wrong.
“Could just be plain hankering.”
“Or indigestion.”
Chris laughed out loud at Lucy’s crack, and Lucy squeezed him close to her ample side and leaned in to kiss his cheek.
“You shouldn’t doubt their feelings for you, especially since you’re a right lovable little nipper.”
“I am?”
Lucy nodded. “If James and Troy don’t take care of you the way you should be taken care of, you just remember you’ve got a place with old Lucy and Caesar.”
He wanted to believe her, but he wasn’t so sure Caesar would feel the same way as her about what she was suggesting. “Why don’t you and Caesar have any kids?” Chris blurted, and when he saw the gloomy look that came into Lucy’s dark brown eyes, he immediately regretted letting his mouth run away with him.
“We’ve tried and tried over the years. Reckon it just ain’t in the cards for us.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ve had a good life. We both have. And we’re happy together. It would have been nice to have a few nippers to spoil.”
Chris knew that she would have spoiled them rotten, too, and felt plumb bad for her. He loved her positive attitude, though, and hoped with a little luck that some of it would rub off on him the more he stuck around her, which he planned to do given the chance.
“I reckon I’ve had a good life, too, despite everything.”
“Well, like I said. You’ve got us now—me, Caesar, James, and Troy. You’ve got family, and family looks after each other.”
“So I’ve been adopted, then?”
“For certain.”
Chris wrapped his arm around Lucy and allowed himself to find the comfort he had denied himself earlier, sinking into her warm hug, inhaling her unique woman’s scent. She smelled like fresh-baked apple pie and cinnamon. She smelled like home.
“Anybody ever tell you you’d make a great mother?”
“James has mentioned it a time or two when I get on his hide about one thing or another I think he’s doing wrong or should or shouldn’t be doing.”
Chris laughed and could imagine Lucy mothering James and him allowing her to.
He’d gotten a taste of their relationship last night at dinner and this morning at breakfast, had seen the genuine affection that they had for each other—no judgment—and longed for that in his relationship with James. He longed for the marshal not to see him as a little k
id but as a man who was in love with him and wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
The thought of rejection put a mite anxiety in his heart, but if he listened to Lucy, and she proved right, then he had nothing to worry about.
The approach of a horse and wagon interrupted Chris’ quiet moment of reflection, and he looked at Lucy and raised a brow.
Lucy arched a brow in response and headed toward the barn door, Chris on her heels. They exited just as the horse and wagon with a woman at the helm pulled up several yards away from where they stood.
Recognizing Hannah made Chris’ heart pound for no other reason than he thought she came with bad news of Troy and James. What other possible reason could there be for her to be out here? And when she hurriedly scrambled down from the seat and rushed toward him with an anxious and frightened look on her face, his stomach immediately lurched to know that his instincts might prove right.
“I’m so glad I found you! Troy gave me good directions, he did.”
Chris approached the breathless girl, briefly eyeing her unaccustomed garb of trousers and flannel shirt that she wore. “What happened?”
“There was a shootout. Troy and that Negro marshal were bushwhacked by some gang come to Wolf Creek for Troy.”
“Are they okay?” Chris and Lucy chorused.
“They wanted me to come get you and take you some place safe.”
Lucy placed herself between Chris and Hannah as the young woman reached for his arm. “Well now, I don’t think he’s going to be going anywheres with you. You haven’t answered our question. Besides, Troy and James know there’s no safer place for this chil’ than right where he’s at. That’s why they left him here in the first place.”
“This ain’t no concern a yours, you old heifer.”
“Hannah!”
She didn’t give Chris a chance to express his shock much further before she shoved Lucy out of the way and pulled a revolver from the back of her trousers to point at him. “You’re coming with me now, understand?”
Chris glanced at the gun in disbelief but couldn’t obey, not with Lucy sprawled in the dirt a few feet away. He moved to help her up, then froze when Hannah fired her gun in the air.
“The next one’s in her head. Makes no never mind to me whether she lives or dies, just that you…come…with…me!” Hannah grabbed his arm and pushed him toward the wagon.
Chris stumbled and caught the side of the seat to keep from landing in the dirt.
He hadn’t noticed how strong she was before now, how formidable. He had just been concerned with not hurting her feelings. This Hannah, though, was a far cry from the helpful saloon girl at Barrow’s. This Hannah was violent and far from vulnerable. And she was pointing her gun straight at Lucy’s head.
“No!” Caesar rushed out of the house at a sprint, and Hannah didn’t hesitate to turn the gun on him. He slid to a halt, arms in the air.
“I weren’t about to waste a bullet on your wench, but since you’re here, I could use an extra pair of hands.” Hannah went to the wagon and removed several lengths of rope. She tossed them at Caesar. “Tie bright eyes here to the buckboard behind the seat, and when you’re done, you can tie your woman to that tree.”
Chris watched Caesar’s jaw work as he gritted his teeth.
“I don’t want to waste any bullets, but if I have to, your woman will be the first one I drill one into, believe me.”
“No, don’t. I’ll do what you ask.” Caesar bent to pick up the rope and approached Chris with a rueful look on his face. “Sorry, boy.”
Caesar helped Chris up into the buckboard, then under Hannah’s instructions and watchful gaze, he made Chris sit with his back to the front seat and his wrists behind his back, then tied his wrists to the sturdy wood frame of the wagon seat.
Chris had flashes of Troy and James binding his wrists to the bed last night. He’d never felt safer or more protected then. Not like now. Now he feared for his life and those of his new friends Lucy and Caesar.
Hannah checked the ropes binding Chris’ wrists once Caesar completed his task, grunting with satisfaction. Chris could have saved her the trouble and told her there was absolutely no way he could get out of his restraints, not that Hannah would have believed him, anyway.
At gunpoint, Caesar helped his wife over to the tall, nearby oak and proceeded to tie her to its trunk.
Chris watched them, felt tears in his own eyes as he watched tears roll down the older couple’s faces. Each looked at the other with love and trust shining out of their eyes. It was as if they knew they would come out of this fine because they were together.
A ball of regret and fear tightened in his chest as he thought about dying alone, shot by Hannah without ever have the chance to tell Troy and James how he really felt about them. Shot dead before he could hear from them how they felt about him. Caesar had just finished tying Lucy to the tree when Hannah approached him from behind, raised her gun, and brought the butt down hard against the back of Caesar’s skull.
“No!” Lucy struggled against her bindings, growling low in her throat.
There was such unaccustomed rage on her face, Chris thought had she been able to get out of her ropes she might have killed Hannah with her bare hands.
“You didn’t have to hurt him like that.”
“You should be grateful I didn’t shoot him.”
Lucy glanced up at Hannah with hatred in her eyes, but it didn’t seem to affect the young woman, and Chris wondered why Hannah seemed so heartless. Wondered why she did this.
Hannah pulled a folded piece of paper from a pocket of her trousers and dropped it onto Lucy’s lap. “That’ll explain everything to your precious marshal and Troy when they get back. They’ll know where to find me and their darling…” Hannah paused and turned to Chris, her lips curling in disgust as she said, “Boy.”
“There’s no need to hurt that chil’. Whatever beef you have with James and Troy you take that up with them.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion, you old biddy. Don’t make me change my mind about shooting you, or I’ll just take my chances and trust the marshal and Troy to find my note on your dead body.”
Chris struggled against his ropes and shouted, “Stop threatening her! She hasn’t done anything to you.”
Hannah circled the wagon until she stood next to the buckboard, glaring at him for a long moment before she walked away, out of his line of sight. She returned several moments later, wielding a kerchief and a burlap sack. He tensed as she approached, and she paused, a smile on her face.
“Give me a hard time and I’ll put you to sleep like I did your friend back there.”
Chris sat still as she closed the space between them, determined not to show her his fear.
He knew he needed to keep his wits about him. He needed to stay aware. Even if she did blindfold and gag him, he wouldn’t let himself panic or be totally helpless.
Hannah put the kerchief in his mouth and tied it tight behind his head, then slid the dark sack down over his head.
Chris had to force himself to stay calm despite feeling like he suffocated. He felt like he had when those hands had him bound and gagged in that barn ready to do unspeakable things to him. He felt ashamed and vulnerable, like what happened to him now remained all his fault.
He listened as Hannah climbed up into the wagon seat and clicked her tongue at the horse. The wagon shot forward with Hannah in control.
She wasn’t in control of Chris, though. He wouldn’t let her be.
Chris perked up his ears to listen to his surroundings as the buckboard bumped and jerked over the ground.
They rode for a long while before Chris heard the familiar ebb and flow of a stream.
The memorable aroma of the forest and sounds of a nearby waterfall overwhelmed him so much until he had no doubt where Hannah headed.
His stomach lurched at the idea that Troy’s secret cove would be corrupted by whatever malicious plans she had for him, Troy, and James.
> The wagon stopped without warning, and Chris listened as Hannah jumped down from the seat and walked around the wagon to him. She snatched off the burlap sack, then pulled the kerchief out of his mouth and left it down around his neck.
“Ain’t nobody out here to hear you scream, and if there are, well, I’ll just take care of them right and proper.” She wielded the gun in front of his face as if to remind him that she remained the one giving orders and he remained just a slave to her will.
She leaned back on her heels to stare at him a moment as if trying to decide what to do with him, and Chris stared right back, refusing to be cowed.
He couldn’t, however, stop his curiosity from getting the best of him and blurted, “What now?”
“Now we wait.” She moved her hand so fast Chris didn’t know what hit him. One minute he sat staring at her, and the next the back of his head exploded with exquisite pain until there remained nothing but silent darkness.
Chapter 14
Something was wrong. Troy could feel it in his bones. He’d been feeling off since he and James had hit the road en route to Wolf Creek, and the feeling had only intensified the closer they got to town.
His feelings had not been mistaken.
Troy and James had been bushwhacked by Cain and his gang just after entering the town proper. If it hadn’t been for Bart and several of the other town’s men who’d come to their aid, the undertaker might just be sizing him and James for a pair of coffins now.
Neither Cain nor his men had gone down easily, however, and once James had him and his remaining men, who had only been injured and not killed, in custody and settled in the local jail, Troy had been able to breathe a little easier. He’d thought the misgivings he’d been experiencing since they’d left James’ home were over, that he had no more reason to feel uneasy.
This thought proved wrong, however.
“What’s troubling you, young’un?”
He still hadn’t grown accustomed to James calling him young’un. He’d been on his own, taking care of himself and without anyone much to care whether he lived or died, besides maybe Josie and Josiah, that he didn’t think of himself as anyone’s young’un. Except when James looked at him with the concern and stern look that he looked at him with now, he felt like a teenager still missing his father, still needing guidance.
