by Duane Boehm
“I can tell you what changed. Mr. Druthers knows that the money is going to have to come from somewhere to buy all that land and he wants to make sure it is his bank’s money that does it and he would rather loan it to somebody like you than a lot of the other ranchers around here,” she said.
“You think that’s what it is?” he asked.
“Sure I do. Mr. Druthers is not known for his warm sunny disposition. It’s just good business to him,” Sarah said.
“So what do you think we should do?” Ethan asked.
“Ethan, I gave you such a hard time about buying the Holden place and then we had to go through all that worry with Benjamin’s kidnapping. All that changed my perspective on life. As long as our family is happy and healthy, I’m not going to worry about the rest. I’m leaving the land decisions up to you. Buy what you think that we need, but you are going to have to find a good ranch hand. Joey Jones was not a good choice,” she said.
“You mean it, I can buy what I want and you won’t worry about it?” Ethan asked.
“You have my word,” Sarah said.
“Joey promised me that he would stay off the bottle. He was a heck of a cowboy in his day before the bottle got to him. I hated letting him go, but you are right, he was a bad choice. I promise you that I will do better next time,” he said.
“You better make this work, Ethan Oakes, or you won’t be getting any loving here,” Sarah said to put an end to the conversation.
Chapter 6
Enough time had passed since Joann had arrived in Last Stand that she was starting to put the fears of the stagecoach robber behind her and feel better with each passing day. Awakening early that morning and in a great mood, she was ready to go visit the man that Abby was divorcing, Marcus.
“Abs, take me to go see Marcus today,” Joann said at the breakfast table.
“Honey, I am probably the last person in the world that he wants to see right now. We are not on the best of terms as the lawyers wrangle over divvying up things. You and Winnie can go see him. She needs to visit him anyway,” Abby said.
“I don’t know. What about the outlaw that’s still on the loose? It might be asking for trouble,” Joann said.
“I don’t think he is coming or he would be here by now and besides, the ranch is south of town and all that happened north. I doubt he would ever be down that way,” Abby said.
“Are you sure?” Joann asked.
“Honey, I would not let you go if I had any worries about it whatsoever,” Abby said.
“How would we get there?” Joann asked.
“We can walk down to the livery stable and I’ll rent you a buggy for the day,” Abby said before getting up and making sure that Winnie was still asleep. “I need to tell you something. Marcus figured out that Gideon is your father. He’s a good man and I don’t think that he will treat you any differently, but I thought that you should know.”
“He figured it out, that’s interesting. Do we have to keep it a secret any longer? I don’t see the point anymore unless you are worried about the backlash towards you,” Joann said.
Abby chuckled before taking a sip of coffee. “I don’t think that most of these old ladies around here could dislike me any more than they already do for divorcing Marcus and being seen with Gideon. Gideon and I have already talked about this and we felt the same way, but thought that it should be your decision,” she said.
“What about Winnie?” Joann asked.
“Well, it will probably be another shock to her, but I doubt that she is going to be brokenhearted over learning that you two are sisters,” Abby said.
“I hope not. We really have been like sisters since the first time I met her anyway,” Joann said.
Winnie was notoriously slow in shaking off sleep in the mornings so Abby waited until after she had eaten breakfast and had played a little before calling her and Joann into the parlor.
“Am I in trouble?” Winnie asked as she entered the room.
“No. No, Joann and I have something that we want to share with you. Come sit here between us,” Abby said.
Abby waited until her dawdling daughter took her seat before continuing. “You know how you found out the other night from Gideon that he was my boyfriend before I married your daddy? Well, Gideon and I had a baby together back then,” she said.
Winnie looked up at her mother with a puzzled look on her face. “You mean that you were married to him?” she said.
“No, we weren’t and people have a poor opinion of girls that have babies out of wedlock. That is why I had to give the baby away. I gave her to my Aunt Rita and Uncle Jake and she is sitting right beside you now. Joann is really your sister,” Abby said.
Abby watched Winnie’s expression as the girl processed the information. Her eyes were looking up towards the ceiling and she looked as if the wheels were spinning like a pocket watch with the back of the case removed. “But we have different daddies,” Winnie said.
“Yes, you have different daddies, but you are still sisters because you both came from me,” Abby said.
Joann tapped Winnie on the shoulder. “Isn’t it great that we are sisters?” she said before hugging the child.
Winnie finally smiled. “I have a big sister,” she said. “Does it change anything?”
“No, not a thing. We just are not going to keep it a secret any longer,” Abby said.
“Does Daddy know?” Winnie asked.
“Yes, he knows. Which reminds me that we need to walk to the stable and rent a carriage. You and Joann are going to go visit him today,” Abby said.
After returning to the house in the carriage, the girls excitedly grabbed jackets and were storming towards the door when Abby called out, “Hold it there a second, girls.”
“What is it, Momma?” Winnie asked.
Reaching above the parlor door, Abby retrieved her Winchester 73 and handed it to Joann. “You remember how to shoot that thing don’t you?” she asked.
Joann smiled as she gripped the rifle. “Sure, I’m a better shot than Poppa now and I gave Marcus a run for his money last summer,” she said.
“Good. Take it with you just to be safe. It’s loaded, but the chamber is empty. I’ll see you girls this evening,” Abby said.
They waved goodbye and Joann popped the reins to get the horse moving. The sun was warm on the girls’ faces though the air had a fall chill to it as they rode the carriage out into the country. The terrain was flat here and some of the best ranching land around with tall grasses still green from recent rains. The landscape was dotted with groves of trees and the sweet smell of pines hung heavy in the air. To the west, the mountain ranges loomed in the clear blue sky like titans guarding their kingdom, ready to wreak havoc on their enemies. It made for an idyllic backdrop for a morning carriage ride.
The girls were giggling and talking a mile a minute as they followed the road towards the ranch. Once the astonishment had worn off from her mother’s revelation, Winnie was thrilled beyond words to know that Joann was her big sister. It didn’t really change how she felt about Joann, but there was something reassuring in knowing that she had an older sibling.
Ted McClean watched the carriage approaching from a cottonwood grove where he was hunkered down and in an ill mood from all that had gone wrong in the last few days. He blamed himself for insisting on making camp in the box canyon and getting his brother captured and Shaggy killed. After escaping from the canyon, he had been close enough to get a glimpse of the sheriff, the kid that they had waylaid, and his brother riding away from there, but the opportunity for a shot never presented itself and he feared that he would have gotten his brother killed in the process anyway. His horse had then gone lame the morning after escaping the trap. He had gotten lazy about checking its feet and a pebble had lodged in the cleft of the frog causing an abscess. It had taken him two days to find a couple of horses worth stealing and now he was running low on food. Fearing that the sheriff would be looking for him from the north, he had made a wide ber
th around the town and found the cottonwood grove to stay in until he figured out how to get Tom free.
As the carriage got closer, he could see that it carried a child and from the size of the other, a young lady in her prime. He hadn’t had a woman in a month of Sundays and his brother had ruined his one opportunity during the stagecoach holdup. He mounted his horse and began riding towards the girls. They did not see him as he rode in from the side and as he got closer, he recognized the girl from the robbery. The sight of her made him grin at the thought that he was going to get to keep the promise that he had made her.
From the corner of her eye, Winnie caught sight of the rider first and pointed him out to Joann. Joann casually glanced in the direction her sister was pointing, not scared until she saw the cowboy and recognized the clothes as that of the outlaw from the robbery. He was maybe forty yards away and had the same smirk on his face that he had when he pulled his mask down and held her body against his, telling her that they would meet again. Joann pulled hard on the reins, bringing the buggy to a sudden stop, and grabbed the rifle and cocked it. The advice of her poppa and Marcus on shooting ran through her mind. They both had told her to pull the trigger the moment that she had aim for the most accurate shot, but her hands were shaking badly as she sighted on the man’s chest. He wasn’t smirking now but looked frozen with surprise as she pulled the trigger. The shot missed the outlaw but blew the tip off his horse’s ear and the animal shot straight up in the air with all four feet off the ground. It started kicking its rear legs high into the air with its head down and nose touching the ground. The rider grabbed the saddle horn with both hands and held on for dear life, but the third buck sent him sailing over the head of the horse and slamming him into the ground.
Joann turned the buggy around and laid the whip to the horse. “Winnie, watch him and see what he does,” she called out.
“What is happening?” Winnie asked in a panic.
“That is the man that robbed the stagecoach. We are going to be fine, but let me know what he does,” Joann reassured her.
“He’s getting to his feet, but he looks kind of wobbly and his horse ran off into the trees,” Winnie said.
“Good. We’re safe then. It’s not that far to town,” Joann said.
Ted McClean had been riding horses since he was five years old, but never in his life had he ever hit the ground as hard as he just had. His mind felt as if it had been turned into scrambled eggs and his eyes were slow to focus every time he looked in a different direction. As he attempted to hobble back to the cottonwood grove, his right knee would barely support his weight.
McClean’s horse was standing in the trees and scared out of its mind. Every time he would get within a few feet of the animal, it would bolt away from him. Ted’s vision cleared enough that he saw the chunk blown off its ear, comprehending why it had bucked so wildly and was so frightened. He realized how closely he had come to getting shot, embarrassed to think that he had ridden up as if he were there for target practice for a girl. Outlaws that had been dead for twenty years were still the butt of jokes for their ungainly deaths and he had almost added his name to the lore.
Remembering what is brother had said about people getting mean when they felt threatened, he started to panic. He had visions of half the town of Last Stand headed his way to lynch him. Talking to his horse in a soothing voice, he was finally able to catch it after a couple more tries. Riding was the last thing that he felt like doing but he headed west towards the mountains, figuring that if the townsfolk followed him that he would have a chance to defend himself from higher ground.
Abby had just stepped out into yard when she saw the buggy with its horse in a heavy lather and both the girls’ faces lined with tensions. She had fixed her hair and put on one of her nicer dresses with plans to go inform Gideon that she was alone if he got a chance for a visit. Her actions had made her feel naughty, but she had been waiting a lifetime for Gideon Johann and opportunities for some loving were going to be few and far between for a while.
“What’s the matter?” Abby asked as she ran to meet them.
“We saw the robber and he was coming for us. I shot at him. I don’t think I hit him, but his horse bucked him off and we got away,” Joann said in a rush of words.
“Scoot over. We have to go see Gideon,” Abby said as she took the reins from Joann and coaxed the exhausted horse to move.
Gideon was sitting at his desk drinking coffee with Doc Abram when Abby and the girls burst through the door, causing them both to jump. “Abby, that’s the second time you have done that,” he said before looking at their faces and knowing that something was wrong. “What is it?”
“Gideon, I let the girls take a buggy to go see Marcus and they saw the outlaw,” Abby said before Joann could begin talking.
“He was coming for us and I shot at him, but I think I missed. His horse bucked him off hard and we got back here,” Joann said.
“Are either of you hurt?” Gideon asked.
When the girls shook their heads no, Gideon turned his attention to Abby. “How in the hell did you ever think that it would be a good idea to let them go alone out in the country right now?” he said.
“Gideon Johann, don’t you curse at me. I don’t know. I just thought that if he was coming he would have been here by now and that there was no way that he would be south of town even if he did,” Abby said, straightening her posture and pulling her shoulders back further with each word.
“Well, it seems like a poorly thought out plan to me,” Gideon said.
Doc Abram popped his hand on the table to get everyone’s attention. “The main thing is that no one was hurt and I don’t have anyone to mend. We all make mistakes and everybody will live through this one. At least we know now that he is coming,” he said.
Nobody spoke but Abby was staring a hole through Gideon, looking as if she would shoot him if she had the chance. He expected that she was madder at herself than she was anything, but that he made a handy scapegoat.
“Where did you see him?” Gideon finally asked.
“He came out of that first cottonwood grove on the left outside of town,” Winnie said.
“I’ll ride out there, but I doubt I will find anything now. I’ll stop by and check on things when I get back,” Gideon said as he grabbed his hat and headed out the door.
Gideon found the spot where the buggy had turned around and the camp that Ted McClean had made, but little else. He decided that it would be better to head back to keep watch over the town than try tracking the outlaw and leave Last Stand defenseless if the robber tried to rescue his brother before he could hunt him down.
On returning to town, Gideon stopped in as promised to see Abby and the girls. “Did you find him?” Abby asked when she met him at the door.
“No sign of him. How is everybody?” Gideon asked.
“Winnie fell asleep in my arms when we got back here. She was scared and exhausted. Joann can’t be still and keeps pacing in the parlor. I really made a mess of things this time, didn’t I?” Abby said.
“It was a mistake and we’ve both made them before,” he said.
“The first thing that I thought about when Joann wanted to go see Marcus was that it would give me and you a chance to be alone. I let my own needs get the better of my judgment,” she said.
“Abby, no matter what you had in mind, you would’ve never endangered the girls if you really thought that there was a chance that they would cross paths with him. It was plain old bad luck is all there is to it. At least the girls weren’t hurt,” he said.
“I don’t know about that. Joann was just getting over her fears and now both the girls are terrified,” she said.
“This will be over with soon enough and then things can get back to normal. Any outlaw stupid enough to let it be known that he is around by chasing girls is going to make a mistake again and I will make him pay the next time,” Gideon said.
“I hope you are right. Will you please go talk to Joann
and see if you can calm her down?” Abby said.
Gideon kissed Abby, grinning mischievously. “I will have to say that now that I know that I missed out on an opportunity to be alone with you that it does seem to be an even bigger tragedy,” he said.
“Gideon Johann, get out of here before you risk never being alone with me again,” Abby said as she pushed him towards the parlor.
Gideon found Joann in the parlor still pacing the room. “You said that he wouldn’t come after me,” she said upon seeing him.
“I didn’t know that you were going to leave town. It wasn’t a good idea. The main thing is that neither of you were hurt,” Gideon said.
“You didn’t find him, did you? Do you think he followed us?” Joann said.
“No, I didn’t, but I can assure you that he did not follow you. He headed west,” Gideon said.
“I almost killed a man today. I never want to do that again. Was I wrong?” she asked.
Gideon rubbed the scar on his cheekbone. “The only thing that you did wrong was that you missed. The next time you need to take better aim. We all would be better off if you had blown him straight to hell,” he said.
Joann let out a small laugh and sat down on the sofa. “He does deserve it, doesn’t he?” she said.
Gideon sat down beside her and patted her leg. “Yes, he does and I promise you that I will get him. I can see that you are strong like Abby and you are going to be okay. Quit thinking about it and please don’t be mad at Abby. She made a mistake, but don’t be hard on her. She is doing enough of that to herself. I got to get back to the jail now,” he said.
Chapter 7
Gideon walked into the general store, looking around until he found a small bell attached to a bracket and designed to hang above a door. He was a light sleeper, but now that he was sure that Ted McClean would be coming, he did not want to take the chance of being surprised by a quiet entry into the jail. Upon returning to the office, he mounted the bell above the jail door. He decided to slide his chair behind the potbelly stove to size up his ability to shoot without exposing himself from its cover and see if he could comfortably sleep there. Satisfied with the arrangement, he grabbed the cell keys and his rifle to take a walk around the town.
