The Trail

by M L Dunn

  “You don’t have to,” she said. “I’ll be fine if you don’t want me there.”

  “I do,” he said nodding. “I think you’d make a fine wife and your past don’t bother me any. It’s just that I want you to know what it would be like with me,” he said. “I’m forty four years old now and except for forty dollars in my pocket and another hundred and fifty in a bank in Abilene, everything I own is what Mr. O’Hara left with you this morning. I live in a room connected to the town’s jail and I work at the whim of the county council who might release me after this incident,” he said before pausing for a moment. “Some days I can’t think of a single thing worth saying. I wouldn’t know how to do anything different than be a lawman and I wouldn’t care to despite being shot three times and asked to leave more times than that. I’m a broken leg or a bad fall from having to live in some cave like a hermit. ”

  July turned to look at her then. “It’s just that I got little to offer you. And you,” July said waving a hand at her. “Well you’re young and pretty and you got a friendly way about you and I would consider myself the luckiest man alive every day you’re with me,” he said smiling at her. “And if you want to go before a judge and make it official, I’ll be more than happy to pay for the license. But if you decide in a day or a week or a month that you’d made a mistake – or if you have already - well then I’ll understand and you could leave without needing to say a word,” July explained. “What do you want to do?”

  “Stay with you,” Rachel said coming up to him.

  “Tomorrow,” July said liking the way she felt pressed up against him. “I think I’ll be ready to travel tomorrow,” he said, letting her help him back to the bed. He smiled at her and lay down and closed his eyes and heard her get up and move about the room. He found he liked the swishing sound her dress made and the soft thump her feet made on the wooden floor.

  Chapter 32

  Caleb judged it was near midnight when he spotted the campfires burning outside Fort Dodge. There was light burning inside of Sally’s place too, and he spotted Mr. O’Hara’s wagon parked near there, so he headed there. Caleb walked inside, holding Mattie asleep in his arms, and found Sally and Mr. O’Hara sitting at a table playing cards.

  “Well I’ll be damned,” Sweet Time said.

  “Merciful Lord,” Sally said when she saw Mattie. “You got her back, after all the terrible things I said.”

  “I did,” Caleb said. “Do you have somewhere I could put her?”

  “Back here,” Sally said gesturing for him to follow her. She lit a candle and led him down a hallway. She entered a small room and lit another candle. The room was small, with an earthen floor and low ceiling and furnished only by a bed and dresser that nearly reached the ceiling. Sally had him lay Mattie on the bed and then she pulled a blanket up over Mattie, before bending and placing a soft kiss on Mattie’s head.

  “You want to sit with her awhile?” Sally asked.

  “I do.”

  “I’ll have something for you to eat when ya come out.”

  Caleb sat down on the floor and looked around the room. Atop the dresser was a daguerreotype and he rose to look at it.

  A family of six populated the oval-shaped picture; a husband, wife and four children, one young enough to be bonneted. The light coming over Caleb’s shoulder was dim and flickering, but it was sufficient enough to identify a much younger and seemingly more hopeful Sally in the frame. She and her husband sat on chairs, each holding a child in their lap, while the two older children stood aside them, each with a hand placed on the shoulder of their nearest parent. The family looked uncomfortable, dressed in collared, stiff, white shirts or pressed, heavy dresses while waiting for the exposure.

  And while none of them had cared to draw their lips apart into a smile, the family seemed the model of contentment. The oldest son Caleb guessed was the one who helped run this establishment and the daughter standing next to Sally in the picture, looked only a few years older than Mattie was now and looked some like her. He looked at her features carefully and noticed the same small mole just by the right side of her lip. He was certain it was the woman he’d seen among the Comanche. He flipped the picture over and learned it had been taken in Independence, Missouri nearly twenty years before and then he returned it to its place on the dresser.

  What to tell of her. Sally would want to know. It is not knowing something that brings the most pain. The unknown is the canvas one’s imagination can draw wild upon. Caleb kissed Mattie on her head and started out the room, leaving the candle burning in case she was to wake.

  He went and joined Sally and Mr. O’Hara at the table, and Sally stood up and retrieved a plate a food prepared for him that was sitting on the counter. Caleb smiled at her as he sat down again and then he said, “I seen your daughter. She’s alive, living with the Comanche. She’s one of them now.”

  Sally stared at him, but seemed unable to speak.

  “I would say she’s happy,” Caleb said, and Sally began to cry then, but she smiled through her tears and called for her son.

  Chapter 33

  July set Rachel up in a room in the town’s hotel. It was a small room, furnished with just a simple bed and pine dresser, but July would be the only man knocking on its door. Standing in the doorway, the room did not take long to take in, but Rachel stood there awhile still.

  “I think I’ll go down and talk to Aaron Hilliard,” he told her.

  “I’ll be here,” she said.

  When the sheriff went into the store, he was glad to find only Mr. Hilliard there.

  “Sheriff,” Mr. Hilliard said rising from the stool he kept behind the counter. “When did you get back?”

  “Just now.”

  “What about Mattie Evans?”

  “I don’t know. I had to let Caleb go on without me. Did my deputy get buried?”

  “He did. We gave him a good spot overlooking the river and I sent your letter.”

  “I’ll go see him as soon as I’m back from visiting Mrs. Evans. I haven’t given her any word yet.”

  “Town was going to order a headstone for Tom.”

  “Good.”

  “What would you like it to say?” Aaron Hilliard asked, taking a pencil out of his pocket.

  “I’ll let ya know. I’ll pay for all this too.”

  “County will pay for it.”

  “No, I’ll take care of it,” July said. “How’s your daughter-in-law?”

  “Her family came and got her. There really wasn’t much for her here now.”

  They borrowed a buckboard from Sam Bartlett and drove out to the Evans’ farm. July had not expected Rachel to accompany him there, but was glad she decided to. Rachel expected Allison Evans would like to hear from her about how Mattie was treated in the camp.

  They found Mrs. Evans around back of her home sitting in the shade with her back propped against the outside wall of the house. She held Abby asleep in her arms and was singing softly to her.

  “Mrs. Evans,” July said.

  She seemed to rush out of her thoughts as she turned to look at July and Rachel. “Sheriff,” she said. “Where’s my husband?”

  “He waiting for a chance to take your child back. We found her. I left him with a cavalry soldier by the Comanche camp.”

  “Why did you leave him?”

  July knew he was going to asked this and he wanted to keep his answer as simple as possible – he could have laid the blame off on the bullet in his leg, but decided not to.

  “It was best I did. Two men is just right for the job and that soldier knew what to do.”

  “Did you try and trade for her?” Allison asked.

  “They wouldn’t trade her, but we found her and Caleb’s gonna take her back.”

  “How?”

  “That soldier will help him. They’ll sneak in and take her. They’re just waiting for an opportunity.”

  “That’s dangerous.”

  “Not if it’s done right. They’ll wait for them braves
to clear out on a hunt or something,” July said, “and then they’ll take her back.” July stuck his hand out towards Rachel then. “This is Rachel Baylis, she was in the camp with Mattie.”

  “You were with Mattie?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you speak to her?”

  “I did. She was expecting her father to come for her.”

  “What were you doing there?”

  “I was a captive also,” Rachel explained.

  “I’m sorry,” Allison said. “You must have family waiting to hear from you?”

  “I haven’t any, but your child knew she had family coming to find her. She was certain of it. That was what kept her going.”

  “How long has it been since you parted ways with Caleb,” Allison asked July.

  “Seven days now.”

  “Seven days,” Allison repeated. “I guess it’s all been decided one way or the other by now.”

  “We was well out there, it would take him some time to get back to Dodge once he took Mattie back. And then a couple days to travel here from there.”

  July was ready to leave, but Mrs. Evans looked away then and began crying. Rachel sat down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. July slunk away and went and sat on the end of the porch. Abby Evans woke and found him there. She sat on his lap playing with his hat and July found he liked her company. He wondered what would become of her if her father never returned.

  He and Rachel had spoken on their way out there, deciding they would begin a new life together someplace altogether different. They’d settled on Arizona, July knowing an old friend that was a marshal there and was in need of some deputies, but first July had said, they’d wait a few days or a week until Caleb Evans returned. If he did not by then, July figured he never would.

  Last Chapter

  Two days later, Allison came out onto the porch to stand and search the western horizon as had become her routine. Abby followed her there and stood beside her. Allison had to hold her hand up in front of her to block the bright sunlight from her eyes so that she was able to scan the bare ground beyond their fields. The open stretch of plain, bare of trees or distant mountains that she had looked on so often now that she felt she could have painted the scene from memory, appeared no different from the last time or half-dozen or even a hundred times before.

  Allison dropped her hand and turned to go back in the house to sit in the chair and wonder or maybe pray, or as was becoming more and more her habit - to just stare at the wall, but then she heard something. She turned back around, lifted up her hand again, and when she saw just a faint outline, her heart pounded once so hard within her breast, she thought it might push its way out.

  She watched the form take shape. Soon she saw a horse and rider - and then as her heart began to beat even faster, she saw it was not one rider but two on the same horse – a child sitting in front of a man. A girl. A blond girl with long hair that the wind seized and blew across her face.

  The rider was hurrying now, spurring his horse toward the house and Allison could hear them, but she could not make out what they yelled.

  And then she lost sight of them as they entered the field of dry cornstalks that had been picked clean of corn, but still they shouted at her and then her heart nearly stopped when she made out the girl shouting ‘Mother’.

  Try as she might Allison could not utter a word in reply. She bent down and picked Abby up and clutched her tightly as Mattie yelled to her. Allison stepped off the porch waiting for her to emerge out the corn.

  She tried to set herself in motion when they appeared, but all she could do was stumble forward and fall to her knees as Mattie slipped off the horse and began running toward her. Allison set Abby on the ground as she spoke Mattie’s name and held out her arms toward her, waiting for Mattie to run into them. When she did, Allison hugged her and was afraid to let her go. She smelt her hair, kissed her cheek and shoulder and felt Mattie’s thin arms around her neck. She pulled Abby towards her also, and then Caleb was there, dropping to his knees as well, wrapping his arms around all of them and then Allison felt him slide her wedding ring back on her finger.

  The End.