“Let me take you.”
“Well, that would be good. I’ll tie my horse to the buggy and ride her back.”
“Yes, certainly tie your horse to the buggy, but I will be happy to take you back home. You really shouldn’t be riding around by yourself anyway.”
“My father warned me about that, too, but I was too worried to wait on someone to ride along with me.”
As they made their way toward the Vernay place, Leoma found herself interested in the Englishman. She said, “It must not be a very pleasant experience for you out here. I’ve always heard how beautiful England is. This is about as wild and woolly a place as you can find, George.”
He was driving the team rather inexpertly and turned and gave her a quick smile. “Well, England is beautiful in a lot of ways. In the summer the grass is so green it almost hurts your eyes. You know, this land has a beauty of its own. It’s stark, strange, and a little bit brutal. The other day I was out riding, and I saw a coyote pull down a young doe. She didn’t have a chance. He tore her to pieces. That kind of reminds me what this land is like. It’s cruel.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Do you like it here?”
“I haven’t known much of any other kind of life.”
He was silent, and finally he said, “You know, maybe sometime you could come and visit England. I could show you some beautiful things there.”
She smiled and said, “We’d have to take a chaperone.”
“Oh, you can always hire one of those,” he said briefly. He smiled at her, and she saw goodness in his face that she didn’t find in many men, and she finally said, “It was kind of you to ask me though. Your family might get upset, your dragging a wild woman home with you.”
“I don’t know. They’ve done nothing but nag me to get married for the last five years.”
“Why do they want you to marry?”
“Oh, you know how it is.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, the land is entailed. It goes to the oldest son of each family, so I need a son to pass the land on to.”
She laughed. “Why don’t you put an ad in the paper. Wanted: Young woman to bear son for titled Englishman.”
“Oh, there’d be a line of them. There was one already. That’s one reason why I left England. Every woman I met was after me, and I know it wasn’t because of my good looks. It was because of the money and the title.”
Leoma found this fascinating. “What about younger sons?”
“Well, I only have one younger brother. If I died, he’d be the earl. I’ve got him enrolled in Oxford. He’s training to be an educator.”
They talked steadily, and the trip seemed very short to Leoma. They pulled up in front of the sheep camp, and Raina came out to meet them along with her father. “We’ve come out to see how Ty’s doing,” Leoma said.
Eddie Vernay said, “Get down and come in. You’re bound to be thirsty after that hot trip.”
“How’s Ty?” Leoma asked Raina as they headed toward the house.
“He’s much better now. He was in pretty bad shape when I found him.”
“A fortunate thing for him,” George said, “that you were out there.”
“I think it was the will of the Lord.” Vernay smiled.
Raina said, “Let me take you in to see him. He’s still in bed. He was dehydrated and just about dead from exposure.” She entered the house and led them down a hall, where she opened a door. “Visitors, Ty.”
They entered the room, and Ty looked up from the bed where he was sitting up with a pillow behind his back. “Well, hello. Good to see you.”
“Good to see you, Ty. How do you feel?” Leoma asked.
“A lot better than I did awhile ago. If Raina there hadn’t come across me, I’d be buzzard bait by now. How are you, George?”
“I’m fine. Just glad to see you’re doing so well. I heard from Leoma that you got shot.”
“The bullet took him real high in his shoulder up above the bone. Made a bad flesh wound,” Raina said, “but Pa got the bullet out.”
They talked for a while, but soon Leoma saw that Ty’s eyes were drooping. “You’re tired,” she said. “We just wanted to find out how you are.”
“Nice of you to come,” Ty said.
The two left, and George looked to the west at the sun going down. George stared at it for a moment and said, “That looks like a big egg yolk going down.”
Leoma laughed and said, “Well, you’ll never be a poet. There should be a better way to describe a beautiful sunset like that than it looks like an egg yolk.”
“What would you say?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m not a poet either, George. I don’t even read poetry much because I don’t understand it.”
“You know, I’ve tried to read some modern poetry, and it seems to me those fellows’ worst fear is that someone will understand what they’ve written.” He laughed and shook his head. “As a matter of fact, I’ve heard some politicians and preachers who did the same thing. They want to sound deep and profound, but if anybody understands them, that means they’ve been shallow.”
The hooves of the team made a clopping sound as they plodded along, sending up a faint cloud of dust. George and Leoma said little for quite some time.
Leoma finally said, “What’s it like to live in England?”
“Well, that depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you have money or not. If you have money, you can live in a fine house with fine furniture, have servants to wait on you, and be recognized by the aristocracy, or at least by the leaders in society.”
“Well, not everyone lives like that, I’m sure.”
“No, as a matter of fact there’s that other side of England. Children working in mills when they are only ten years old, putting in twelve-hour days.”
“That’s frightful.”
“The same thing’s happening here in the United States in some of the woolen mills in New England and some of the big factories in New York and Chicago.”
Leoma turned her head and studied George’s profile. Instant charm and perfect diction were things that she had never encountered before, so she was interested in him. His comment on poetry caught at her attention, and she wondered what he was really like. He was of average height but looked taller because he was slender, and he moved with unusual grace. She guessed that he would make a fine dancer at the waltz and other dances at balls in England. She knew he was well educated in the classics, that he had a patrician face with a rather large, aquiline nose, and that his fair hair waved a trifle extravagantly. She found out that he had a quickness of intelligence, lines of wit and laughter around his mouth, and a hint of temper. At times, the space between his brows revealed his emotions. He had the face of a man of unusual charm, and more than that, one who had never had to suffer from any hard times. “What about you, George?”
“What do you mean, what about me?”
“What will you be doing? You won’t stay in Fort Smith forever. It must seem pretty wild and woolly to you.”
George’s mouth twisted in a strange, sardonic manner, and he gave her a quick look and shook his head. “Well, I’ll have to marry and produce an heir, a male heir.”
Leoma suddenly laughed. “That’s pretty much like a stud horse. I suppose you’ll marry a duchess or someone like that.”
“Oh, not necessarily. The upper class in England is pretty well bred down. Be much more likely to find a good sturdy woman who’s not of the aristocracy.”
A moment of humor came to Leoma then, and she turned and put her hand on his arm. “Well, how about me, George?”
Fairfax was obviously caught off guard by her direct question. The wind ruffled the edges of her hair, and a smile made a small break along her lips. Some private and ridiculous thought amused her, for he saw the effect of it dancing in her eyes.
“Do you think I might make a good wife for you?”
“Well, that’s coming righ
t out with it. I’ll tell you what. I’ll make me out a list of what the woman I marry will have to do to qualify. You know, beautiful, witty, strong-willed…”
“But what if she doesn’t meet all your standards?”
Once again he smiled and said, “Well, I’ll just cross that item off my list.”
They talked nonstop practically until they got to her ranch, and she said, “Too dark to drive into Fort Smith. Come on in. We’ve got a spare bedroom. As a matter of fact, we’ve got three of them.”
“Well, you don’t have to ask anybody’s permission?”
“Oh, it’s about supper time. You can talk to my pa and my brothers about raising cattle.”
“That’ll be a one-sided conversation.” George smiled. “I hardly know one end from another.”
“You know horses though.”
“We ride a lot in England. Ride to the hounds.”
“What does that mean?”
“Oh, all the rich, titled people get together on horseback and wear funny-looking clothes as they chase a fox.”
She stared at him. “I’ve heard about that. What do you do when you catch one? You don’t eat him, do you?”
“Oh bless you, no, we don’t eat them. If anybody’s made an especially good ride, we give him the brush, that is, the tail.”
“That’s a funny way to spend an afternoon.”
“Well, we English are funny people.”
She said no more but was looking forward to his spending the night with them. She had not been entertained by a man so thoroughly in a long time. She knew most of it was the difference between the two of them, and she looked forward to finding out more about his requirements for a wife.
CHAPTER 21
“Sit down, Garth. You’re going to wear the floor out,” Honey Clagg said.
Garth Taylor had been pacing back and forth, running his hand through his hair in a nervous mannerism. He was a man who had to be in action of some sort or other most of the time, and since the death of his brother, he had been even more nervous. He turned quickly and faced Honey Clagg.
Honey was the biggest man in his gang. He had a neck as wide as his jaw, and his muscles were spectacular. He had whipped many men and kicked one to death, but Garth Taylor kept him on for this very reason.
“Don’t tell me what to do, Honey.”
“We need to get out on a job. Everybody’s gettin’ sour just sittin’ around here. All we do is argue, and I’m gettin’ tired of it.”
Garth stared at him. “I can’t stop thinking about Johnny. He was the only living relative I had that I know of, except for one uncle somewhere back East who wouldn’t claim me. He was a good kid.”
Honey Clagg answered, “You might as well forget him. Let’s go out and make some money.”
“I’ll decide when we leave,” Garth said stiffly and continued his walking.
The rest of the gang was engaged at the other end of the room in a lackadaisical poker game. They were playing for penny ante stakes, and nobody really cared.
Honey said, “Those Daltons are gonna bust loose if we don’t give ’em somethin’ to do, Garth.”
“We’ll get along without ’em.”
“They’re pretty handy. All we’d have left is Mexican Jack and Long Tom, of course.”
“That’s all we need.” He suddenly sat down in front of Clagg and said, “I’ve been waiting for the right time to get my revenge, but I can’t get that cowman who killed my brother out of my mind. I can’t let it pass.”
“Well, what you need to do is just go shoot him and forget about it. Get it out of your system.”
Garth sat with a dark look on his face. He was staring down at his strong hands, clasping them nervously together. He didn’t speak for a long time. Finally Garth muttered, “I’d love nothing better, but I don’t want to go to hang for it. I want to be free to enjoy my revenge. In fact, I’d give a big pile of money to any man who’d risk killing Ash Jordan for me.” He got up and returned to his pacing.
Honey smiled. “In that case, I just might take care of that little chore myself.” Clagg obviously took the statement as a challenge. “Shouldn’t be too hard to do,” he said. “He’s out riding the range, chasing those cattle half the time. Shouldn’t be too hard to catch him off by himself.”
Garth stopped his pacing again. “You’d have to bring somethin’ in to prove to me that you shot and killed him.”
Honey smiled again, but this time it looked like pure evil. “That won’t be a problem either.”
Leoma had always been partial to her younger brother, Benny. He was the youngest child and had a sunny disposition in contrast to Ash, who had a hair-trigger temper and could be hard to be around. “What are you going to do with yourself, Benny?”
Benny was five-ten, a well-built young man. He had a trace of the same auburn hair as she did, but his eyes were a warm brown. When he smiled, his whole face grew warm. Now he stared at her with a question in his face. “What do you mean, what am I going to do?”
“Well, are you gonna be a cowpuncher all your life?”
“Never thought about doing anything else.”
“Why, you could be something if you wanted to. Why don’t you become a doctor or something like that?”
“Not smart enough for that.”
“Not all doctors are smart. Some of them are absolute terrors. I wouldn’t want ’em doctoring on me.”
“No, I guess I’ll just stay on the ranch here.”
The two were out leaning against the corral, watching Ash as he broke a buckskin. Ash was a fine rider, and he rode the big steed to a halt finally.
Benny called out, “That’s good, Ash. He’s gonna make a fine mount.” He turned then to Leoma and said, “Why’d you ask me what I was gonna do?”
“Well, you’re getting old enough to make some kind of a career for yourself.”
Benny smiled at her. “Maybe I could get me a fancy vest and some hair oil and become a gambler on a Mississippi riverboat.”
“You’re a terrible gambler. You’d go broke overnight.”
“I guess you’re right, sis.” He turned and stared at her. “You’ve been goin’ over to see Ty Kincaid a couple of times.”
“I have. I like him.”
Benny turned his head to one side. “You mean you like him like a woman likes a man?”
Leoma picked a sliver of wood off the top of the corral, held it up, looked at it, and then threw it away. “I might, but it’s hard to tell.”
“What’s hard to tell, sis? Who’s the right man for you?”
“A woman has to make that decision.”
“Well, a man does, too.”
“It’s harder for women though.”
Benny shrugged. “I think it’d be pretty easy.”
Leoma turned and laughed at him. “You thought you were in love with Joanne Riggs when you were fifteen.”
“I’m surprised you’d bring that up. I was just a kid. Anyway, you interested in marrying this Ty Kincaid?”
“I’m thinking about marriage. Not necessarily with him, but with somebody.”
Ash called out, “Come and give me a hand with this critter, Benny.”
Benny turned at once and left, as he always obeyed Ash’s orders.
Leoma watched him go and then slowly walked up to the porch.
Her mother was sitting there in a rocking chair. She asked, “You went over to see Kincaid yesterday?”
“Yes, I did.”
“How is he?”
“Oh, he’s getting along fine. He’s out of bed now. Walking around. Gonna have a scar on his head where he hit that rock.”
The two talked about Ty, and Leoma suddenly turned and said, “Benny just asked me if I was interested in Ty.”
“Well, you must be. You’ve gone over there two or three times.”
“Well, a woman has to know a man.”
“Just think about all the men you turned down. There was Arlie Hicks. He had money and wasn’t bad loo
king. Why’d you turn him down?”
“He was boring.”
“You want to marry a clown to perform for you?” She named off several other men back in their older home whom Leoma had refused. Finally she said, “Leoma, what about this George Fairfax? He’s a fine-looking man. A little different from most of the men around here.”
“He’s altogether different from most of the men around here.”
“You think he might be interested in you?”
Leoma was nervous. She got up and walked back and forth. “He’ll marry an Englishwoman who has a pile of money.” She turned toward the door. “I’m going in and set the table.”
The supper had been good, but they had a fine cook. Everyone left the table except for Leoma and her father. He stared at her and said, “I’m going to hire some more men to guard the stock.”
“Why don’t you just let the marshal take care of it?”
“You know why,” Pa said shortly. “He doesn’t have enough marshals to handle the territory, much less ride herd on my cattle.” He turned to her and studied her carefully. “What are you worried about? You’ve got everything you want.”
“Nobody ever has everything they want, Pa.”
“Well, I guess that’s right enough.”
“What do you want?” Leoma asked.
“I guess I want a big ranch. Make some money. See you and Benny and Ash grow up and make it in this world.”
“That’s pretty ambitious.”
“Well, I suppose it is.” He stirred in his chair and said, “I heard you went over to Vernay’s sheep camp.”
“Yes, I went to see if Ty Kincaid was all right.”
Instantly, suspicion swept across her father’s face. “You don’t need that kind of man. You need a man with money.”
“I’ve watched people with money. They’re no happier than people without it. They’re just more comfortable.”
“That’s crazy talk, girl. These marshals come and go. You know over fifty of them have been killed carrying out Judge Parker’s orders.”
She did not answer right away, but the thought took root in her mind. Finally she said, “Don’t worry about it, Pa. I don’t know what’s in his heart, or what’s in my own for that matter.”
The Western Justice Trilogy Page 69
