Rebellion in the Valley

by Robyn Leatherman

  When Bruce found his daughter, she stood perched in front of a tall glass cabinet housing several glass bottles of various fragrances, colors, and sizes. Just the sight of it caused one of his eyebrows to arch when he wondered how females went about their selection process in such feminine matters.

  This should be a mother’s place, he shook his head as he kept his fatherly role distant at the back of the store; even a father could see she hadn’t chosen quite as many items as she wanted to; she appeared to be having a great amount of difficulty in deciding whether or not to get the fragrance in the tall greenish bottle or the shorter rose-colored one. She held the shorter bottle in her hands, indicating that she was close to making her mind up to take that fragrance.

  When he saw the store clerk wrapping all the items in butcher paper, Bruce made his way to the shelves lined in books, confident that his daughter had taken care of her most delicate needs.

  Choosing, in the end, one last amber-colored bottle, both father and daughter made their final selections and paid for them at the wooden counter in the back of the store.

  Handing the store owner some cash, Bruce inquired about how his children were and asked him to please send his greetings back home to the wife.

  “I’ll stop by before we head back up the pass to settle up with you for the charges my ranch hands sign for, Todd,” Bruce reminded the man as he reached out to shake his hand.

  “That sounds fine, Bruce, sounds fine,” he agreed.

  The pair turned with packages in tow and found the sun already setting.

  “Tobias wondered about that steak and taters place down there,” he pointed to the end of Main Street. “How’s that sound for dinner?”

  Hailee would eat mud-covered biscuits if Tobias suggested them.

  “Sounds great to me. When are we supposed to meet up with everyone else, Daddy? And are we staying at Cassiday’s hotel again?”

  Bruce grinned. He certainly enjoyed seeing his daughter so relaxed and happy; if only Cammi were there to make sure their daughter made it home with the proper items a young girl should have in her dresser drawers.

  “Six o’clock sharp, and yes, if that’s what you want.” He answered both of her questions at once, moving his eyes up and down the street, through the mass of people and fading sunlight.

  Surrounded by a multitude of faces, the girl assisted her father's search through the busy crowd, spying a few of the ranch hands standing in front of the restaurant.

  “There they are, Daddy,” she pointed them out to her father.

  Once decisions finalized on where to eat, Bruce handed each man a generous amount of greenbacks for their meals, rooms, and evening entertainment; he figured the men might enjoy a drink or two at Jenkin’s Tavern before turning in, seeing as how he didn’t allow them to have any on the ranch.

  He explained to the men, once again, that they were to sign for any supplies they needed and he would make good on the payments by four o’clock tomorrow, so they best be finished with their lists by that time.

  The group agreed to meet back at the same spot the day after next, at precisely six in the morning and parted ways for the evening, each group heading off into different parts of the bustling little town of Canon City.

  Chapter 4

  Gus Hyde, owner of Canon City’s blacksmith shop, struggled as he bent over the chunk of iron ore situated in the flame. Glowing a red-orange, the shape in the man’s hand really didn’t resembling anything in particular, not yet. Sweat poured from his entire face and neck, each drop sizzling when it hit the iron; the shirt clung to his back muscles, drenched from the intense heat and physical labor.

  The sledgehammer, which he made himself, sat next to his right side for the ease of grabbing it in a hurry.

  As the iron rotated around in the center of the fire, Gus introduced a gentle blast of air near the piece, waiting patiently until it began to glow an even darker shade of orange.

  With a pair of tongs held tightly in his hands, Gus gripped the glowing ore and turned it over to examine the entire piece of work. Satisfaction came to his face when the ore turned a shade closer to the color of a harvest moon in September, and he reached down for that sledge hammer; bringing it down with such massive force, a few flecks of bright orange flew off from the glowing chunk he held firmly in the tongs.

  Once, twice, three times, he came smashing down on it, turned the chunk, and repeated the process another five or six times.

  Hailee wanted to visit with him, but she could see that he was already a busy man today and decided to come back later on in the day to visit with the man she had come to call a friend of their family.

  She glanced into a few shop windows, not really shopping, but just taking in all the sights and smells. The city certainly looked and sounded much different than the mountains of Rosita! In the mountains, she could hear her own heartbeat and smell the pine needles after a big rain. The city carried heavy coal smoke and she smelled liquor on every other man’s breath who passed by.

  Main Street stretched down about eight buildings on one side of the packed-dirt street and five on the opposing side; in the business district of Rosita, only a couple of stores were available for shopping, which wouldn’t have been so bad, she thought, if it wasn’t for the fact that the town's five saloons contrasted their shopping choices so drastically. And the stores in Rosita certainly did not appeal to a young woman. Not unless she found herself interested in hardware or farming implements.

  Her blue eyes wandered to the farthest end of the street and saw it littered with horses and donkeys laden down with huge packages. Manure droppings lay everywhere and she wondered whose job it was to clean up the streets, because they were either lacking in their skills or didn't care to tend to their duties.

  Hailee watched an older woman dodging a mess in the street, maneuvering herself as if she'd done it a hundred times and it was second nature; Hailee’s hair swayed as she shook her head, certain she could never live this way and felt sorry for those who had no other choice but to live in it.

  When the wagon pulled up with passengers and let them off at Cassiday’s hotel, she wondered where the people came from and what their lives were like; a girl that looked pretty close to her own age was the last one off the stage wagon and she looked to Hailee like she’d never been in Canon City before; the young woman’s eyes scraped over the people’s faces as if she were looking around to get her bearings or maybe searching for someone.

  Hailee thought about offering her some help when out of nowhere, Tobias stood in front of her, hands on his hips and a scowl on his face.

  “Oh, no, you don’t, young lady!”

  She was taken aback.

  “Excuse me?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

  He lowered his gaze to hers and tried not to grin.

  “You were just about to go over and start talking to that girl, weren’t you?” he accused with accuracy.

  “What are you doing? Just standing in the shadows, lurking after my every move?” she wanted to know. “Don’t you find that just a little bit…odd?”

  He laughed.

  “No, not really. Not when someone cares about another person and looks after their well-being,” he defended himself.

  Hailee found herself taken aback.

  So he did care about her!

  The pretty young woman twisted a finger around a lock of hair and felt her heart soften; the annoyance she might have felt when Tobias first appeared at her side left her mind altogether as he explained he'd seen that same girl the previous night at the saloon.

  “Apparently,” Tobias explained, “she came into town to play the part of some young thing in distress, in need of financial assistance to get back home to her dear old daddy, who - according to the ‘damsel in distress’ - is dying of some mysterious disease.”

  Hailee had never heard of a person being so dishonest!

  “I don’t believe you!” she let him know. “People don’t just go around doing things like
that!”

  Tobias took a worn leather money case from his pocket and handed her a quarter.

  “Go introduce yourself to her, then. You’ll be needing this when you feel the urge to donate to her traveling expenses,” he teased as he plunked the coin in her hand.

  Hailee grinned and her fingers wrapped around the coin. She was off to prove Tobias was just overprotective of her. Which was a good thing, she told herself as she walked away.

  Only a couple of yards from the girl in the red hat, she looked back at Tobias, who glued his eyes to her every step. He grinned and waved her onward.

  “Go ahead,” he mouthed.

  The girl held one white-gloved hand up to her eyes as if she were shielding them from the blazing sun while she took inventory and looked around. At her feet were two pieces of luggage, expensive-looking paisley print.

  The girl smiled when Hailee came near.

  “Step one,” Tobias whispered out loud, leaning up against the men’s barber pole.

  The girl and Hailee appeared to exchange conversation, but Hailee gave no indication anything out of the ordinary came from the other young lady, from the way she carried herself. She even shook the girl’s hand before parting ways with her.

  “Well, what happened?” he wanted to know.

  Hailee looked up into his eyes and shook her head.

  “You were right. I asked her if she was new in town, and that's when she started telling me a story about how she'd been on her way home and got robbed; apparently, she is now trying to find work along the way to fund her wagon fare back to her family.”

  She yanked down on her bonnet strings, untying and retying them as she added, “So I asked her if her father was still sick.”

  Tobias let out a shout of surprise and slapped his open palm on his leg.

  “You did not!”

  “I most certainly did! And when she opened her mouth like some pond fish, I asked her if she could see a tall, handsome man in front of the barber shop. She nodded, so I told her that was my husband, and he overheard her story last night in the saloon.”

  Hailee stalled, looking Tobias straight in the eye while she shifted her weight from one foot to the other and added, “I might have also told her that you were the sheriff’s nephew.”

  He cocked his head to one side and chuckled.

  “It just gets better and better with you, doesn’t it?”

  She began walking toward the entrance of the restaurant across the dirt-covered street, knowing the man of her affections would follow. He did.

  “She wants to assure the sheriff of her departure on the next train out of town and offered to never return back to these parts,” Hailee offered as the last bite of her encounter with the stranger.

  Still laughing when they sat down in the restaurant, he ordered two tall sweet teas.

  Hailee removed her bonnet and allowed her hair to fall down about her shoulders; how he wished what she said was true, that he really was hers to call husband!

  She found his eyes full of concern and asked him what he was thinking about.

  Tobias shook his head.

  “Nothing. I was just wondering what might have happened to you if that girl had of taken advantage of your generosity. Bruce has always taught you to be that way, to give of yourself. You’ve been a good student and learned well, but Hailee,” he warned her in a more serious tone, “you really have to be careful. Especially here,” he tapped on the table, “in town. She might have taken every cent you had in your handbag and you would have never seen her again. Or worse. She might have hurt you.”

  She heard his voice crackle at that last thought, and catching it himself; he cleared his throat in attempts to cover it up and took a long gulp of his tea.

  “Thank you. For lurking in the shadows, I mean,” she half-way teased. “Have you been doing that for very long?”

  He leaned a little bit closer to her and allowed his eyes to lock with hers when he inquired, “Today or in general?”

  Before she could even allow her heart to resume its beating, Hailee’s attention diverted to a couple outside, strolling cozily along the walkway.

  With a nod of her head in that direction, she inquired of Tobias, “Have you ever known a girl like that?”

  He shrugged, shook his head.

  “No. You’ve known me for how long now? Have you ever known me to be in love?”

  Her young heart skipped a beat when he said the words, in love.

  The palms of her hands began to perspire and tremble, so she kept them hidden under the table.

  Changing the subject, he returned his focus back to the pretty girl sitting across from him.

  “So…now I’m related to the sheriff, huh?”

  She blushed, sat up taller and answered, “And maybe someone else, too.”

  “Yeah. Caught that.”

  They sat still, eyes locked and hearts beating.

  When he felt a measure of composure creep back into his head, he swallowed hard and lowered his eyes, sipped the tea. He was afraid to look back up.

  What had he just started here?

  He knew it could not possibly go anywhere, but good Lord, this woman wanted him just as much as he wanted her.

  Hailee sniffed and he looked up to tears swelling up in her eyes.

  “No, oh, no! Hailee, no...”

  She wiped the red and white checkerboard napkin across her eyes, sopping the tears up before they could fall and add even more ebarrasssment to the situation.

  “I’ve made a fool out of myself, haven’t I? Here I’ve been pining away for something that clearly doesn’t belong to me anyway.”

  She began to push herself away from the table, but Tobias grabbed her hand and begged her to stay right where she was.

  “Don’t make me beg you, Hailee. Please sit back down.”

  She did.

  Tobias began to sweat.

  “Look. I guess I have to tell you something, Hailee; I’ve been keepin’ this to myself but it looks like I’ve got no other choice now, but to confess myself to you,” he began with a nervous hand raking through his dark brown mop. “Have you ever looked at something real nice, real expensive, and wanted it real bad? You knew you wouldn’t ever have it, but you still wanted it? Do you know what that’s like?” he asked in an almost whisper.

  “I suppose everyone has had that feeling at one time or another.”

  He shifted his weight in the chair and lowered his gaze toward the table, twisted his napkin as he tried to find the right words.

  “Hailee, you’re the thing I can’t have, as much as I’ve wanted it…wanted you. For one thing, if your Pa ever found out that I looked at you like this, he’d have me packing faster than I could blink. Can’t say that I’d blame him. Just look at me.”

  Hailee tilted her head to one side and whispered across the table, “Tobias, I have looked at you! I have looked at you every day for the last year and a half, and nobody else. I was afraid I could never have you!”

  Their eyes met, an understanding growing between them.

  “So now what? We can’t exactly go to your Pa - “

  She let out a quiet giggle and nodded her head. “He is a bit protective, isn’t he? He loves me, Tobias; I’m all he has now, with Mamma gone,” she explained. “We don’t have to say anything right away. But -,“ she stopped herself short.

  Tobias gave her a curious glance. “What?”

  She shook her head and blushed again. “I just don’t know how long I can keep it a secret. Knowing how you feel, every time I look at you, it will be different.”

  He blew out a long breath and leaned back in his chair, ran his hand back through his hair.

  “What am I thinking?” he asked himself out loud.

  It was just about then when Bruce walked up to the table.

  “Yes, just what are you thinking here?” he inquired.

  Tobias sat up straight at the sound of Bruce’s voice and with eyes wide open, found himself staring into the face of
the one man he was most afraid of at that moment in time.

  Hailee reached up and grabbed her father’s arm.

  “Daddy, Tobias was just telling me when we get back home, he might want to repair that old bunk house on the back of the property. You know, the one that's been on the verge of falling since forever; he was nervous to ask for your permission, but I told him we never use it anyway, and you haven’t even been near it for the longest time.“

  Bruce grinned and held his hands out in front of his body.

  “Consider it all yours! I never even look at it, myself, and nobody else has given it any thought. What are you going to do with it?” he asked as he looked around for another chair to pull up to the table.

  “Uh, well,” he stammered, shooting Hailee a look of deep appreciation for saving his hide. “I haven’t really thought about it for very long, and that’s the truth. But now that you say I can have it, I’ll let you know what I come up with.”

  “Take your time, I plan on having you around the ranch for a long time to come, Tobias,” Bruce told him with a nod of his head and a wave of his hand to the food server.

  P

  Once the three returned to the matter of discussion, which was filling their shopping lists, Hailee remembered she still had not spoken to Gus yet and would need to make a special trip into the general store for a few pieces of candy; he was especially fond of jellybeans.

  Her father praised Gus’ skills to many people in the valley, since he made most of the horseshoes the ranch hands used. He even made some of the things Richard used in his kitchen.

  A tired-looking Gus was found wiping his face down with a wet cloth and sitting on an old tree stump he’d fashioned into a sitting chair when Hailee entered his blacksmith area.

  He looked up from behind the rag and a toothy smile emerged.

  “Well, if it ain’t Miss Johnson!” he blurt out, getting up on his feet. “I’d surely like to give you a big squeeze,” he began, glancing down at his filthy apron and dungarees. “But you wouldn’t much appreciate me for that right now! So how have you and your father been? I didn’t even know you were in town.”

  She produced the bag of candy, opening it up to show him the contents.