Wild Winds

by Janelle Taylor

His body seemed to experience a crazy itch and warmth from her radiance and he was glad when she moved out of his sight. Maybe it was a good thing he hadn’t joined forces with her; she would make it most difficult to concentrate on his work and avenging his lost loved ones.

  After eating at a nice restaurant on Main Street, Tom left the three women to tour the town while he tended to prison business.

  At a slow pace, Lucy guided the carriage up and down the streets while Abby pointed out the sights and certain people to Maggie. They paused at the Chinese Gardens on Gila Street but didn’t get out to look around since many people were working there and they lacked a male escort. On Madison Avenue, Maggie saw the large onestory courthouse, many homes, and the Quartermaster Depot near the river.

  As a steamship approached the swing drawbridge, Abby tugged at her mother’s arm and asked if they could ride it. Lucy was reluctant to give her permission until a soldier standing nearby overheard the request and offered to escort and protect the two ladies during the adventure.

  After walking them to a safe position and cautioning them to hold on for balance, the bridge began to move out of the steamer’s watery path. A river breeze tugged at their hair and clothing, evoking laughter from both women. The current was swift, but the ship was powerful and its captain skilled. During the entire event, the soldier behind them didn’t utter a single word, as if he were either too shy or too enthralled by them to speak.

  After the bridge was in place again, the two women thanked the man, whose cheeks rosed slightly as he smiled and nodded his return gratitude before assisting them into the carriage.

  They halted again for a while at the west end of Main to watch a ferry work its way across the river carrying a flat-bedded wagon along with several people.

  At that point, Maggie realized that without a road bridge it would take soldiers from Fort Yuma in California a long time to reach this side of the bank if they were summoned for an emergency. Hopefully Ben would be long gone or well hidden before help arrived on the scene. Her only concerns now were the guards and Indians.

  As the ride continued, Maggie saw many kinds of businesses, shops, homes, animal pens, and rough fences. Though Yuma lacked the social amenities of a large town or city like St. Louis, it was better and safer than many of the western locations she had visited.

  During their outing, Lucy halted four other times to introduce Maggie to certain people: Sheriff and Tax Collector Andy Tyner, two members of the prison board who were local businessmen, and the commanding officer from the nearby fort. She saw a variety of people who lived or worked near the town: farmers, Mexican ranchers, railroad men, cowboys, and a few Quechan Indians at the outskirts of town.

  Since she could come into unwanted contact with those Indians, she queried Abby about them. The ones she saw were tall and muscular with a proud demeanor and Abby revealed, didn’t hang around the town or the fort waiting for government subsidies. It was clear those past warriors had made honorable peace and weren’t disrespected or disliked by the local residents. She was relieved when Abby told her that the ones who hired on as trackers lived and did other work around the fort, across the time-consuming river.

  During those hours of sightseeing, Maggie was always aware of the high bluff where the prison stood and her stepbrother was incarcerated.

  By the time the tour ended, the women were hot, dusty, and weary. Lucy returned the carriage to the stable owner before they headed to the hotel so they could bathe and rest before dinner.

  On Thursday, April nineteenth, Maggie’s menses began shortly after breakfast. She was prepared with clean and thick cloths for the monthly event which always came on schedule and flowed lightly for only three days. Though it rarely troubled her, Lucy Mercer advised her to stay out of the heat and take it easy for that first day.

  For a while, Maggie stayed with Lucy and Abby in the Mercers’ “suite,” which consisted of a nice sitting room and a bedroom with two beds. The large second room contained a curtained-off area for bathing and dressing and a white chamber pot with red trim. Maggie was told it lacked a kitchen because the owner and his wife had cooked and eaten downstairs in their restaurant. She was also told the couple had built a small adobe home to the hotel’s rear shortly before the birth of their baby, who was now two months old. The owner’s old lodgings had been kept as a “suite” for wealthy travelers passing through or visiting Yuma, or for renting to locals during times of need, as was the case with the Mercers.

  As the three sewed and chatted, Lucy asked about Maggie’s mother.

  Abby responded for her so Maggie would know what she had told her parents about Catherine. “Maggie told me her mother is doing fine in Tucson and is blissfully happy in her marriage. She and her husband are away on a trip so Maggie plans to go see them later this summer. I’m sure they’re all looking forward to a visit because they haven’t been together since last spring.” Abby laughed and said, “Maggie and I have teased each other about becoming spinsters if we don’t find husbands soon. Of course, my dear friend stays too busy and on the road to have enough time to get to know any man well enough to consider him as a suitor.”

  “Is your work dangerous, my dear?” Lucy asked her guest.

  Maggie noticed that Abby avoided revealing Newl’s whole name and Catherine’s new married name and how Abby cleverly changed the subject. “Not often, ma’am. A few people I investigate become angry with me for snooping and reporting their foul deeds, but only a couple have tried to harm me. I was fortunate to receive training in how to recognize and thwart such threats; and I become more skilled and experienced with each case.”

  “I can’t imagine having my daughter traipsing around alone and placing herself in possible jeopardy, although Abigail does show a wild streak ever so often. Thankfully she’s curbed her mischievous impulses before they got her into deep trouble or caused us embarrassment. I recall receiving letters about some of the foolish pranks you two pulled at boarding school.”

  “But they were never serious or dangerous ones, Mother. Besides, we’re grown now and those days are far behind us. Right, Maggie?”

  Maggie nodded agreement. “I know I try my best to stay out of trouble and harm’s way, and I’m sure Abby does, too.”

  “I must confess, Margaret Anne, though it sounds biased, Abigail is a fine young lady and we’re so proud of her. Of you, too, my dear. Actually, I must also confess that your work and travels sound exciting and rewarding.”

  “See, Maggie,” Abby jested, “that’s where I get my wild streak from; my dear mother is a closet adventuress. I’ve seen her reading action novels and daydreaming about their contents. She particularly enjoys those Little Nell dime novels about a daring heroine who has all kinds of adventures in the Wild West.”

  “You mustn’t tease me, Abigail, or tell your father that little secret.”

  The three women laughed before they began discussing the books they had read and the ones they liked best.

  Following the midday meal, Maggie and Abby went to her room to visit while Lucy took a nap to rid herself of a headache. Before doing so, Abby scolded her mother in a gentle tone about needing to remedy the reason for those occasional headaches: sewing or reading too long without using glasses to prevent straining her eyes.

  In Maggie’s room, Abby whispered, “I don’t know why Mother won’t admit she needs spectacles. I suppose she thinks they’ll make her look or feel old, but that isn’t true.”

  “I guess she’s like everyone else, she has to deal with her feelings in her own time and way. Once she realizes how many lines she’s creating on her face with squinting, she’ll rush to the doctor’s office and demand a pair that very day.”

  “If she can see well enough to detect the wrinkles,” Abby said with a grin.

  “Abigail Mercer, you’re a naughty girl,” Maggie teased.

  “What I said is true, but I would never make fun of my mother with a mean spirit. I love her dearly and respect her greatly.”

 
“I feel the same way about my mother. That’s why I know I’m doing the right thing in this matter. If she disagreed with Newl or thought I would be in terrible danger, she would have insisted I not take on this job, no matter how much she loves Newl and wants to please him.”

  “Knowing your mother, I’m certain you’re right about her. So, what’s our plan to extricate Ben? He appeared well guarded on the road. There’s no way you can get close to him to pass along a message, and you certainly can’t risk calling attention to yourself by visiting him before his escape.”

  “I have an idea that might work with your assistance,” Maggie began, then explained it to Abby, who smiled and nodded agreement.

  The two friends discussed their venture some more, then Abby posed a question she had been wondering about. “You told Mother and implied to Father that your work isn’t dangerous, Maggie, but that isn’t totally true, is it? At least not all of the time, right?”

  “I don’t want to worry them, so I colored the truth a little bit. I have to do the same with Mother or she would live in constant fear of me getting slain or seriously injured. I’ve had a few close calls, but I handled them without being harmed. The worst time was when I was investigating a bank teller in Denver who was pocketing deposits. The owner suspected him but couldn’t accuse him without proof, and the man was too clever to get caught red-handed. I went to work there and snared him in the process of secreting money into a slit on the inside of his coat. He drew a weapon on me and the owner to make his escape, but I used a few moves another agent had taught me and disabled him. I not only received my salary but I also got a bonus for saving the owner’s life.”

  “That’s wonderful! What were you doing in Sante Fe recently?”

  Maggie sent her a playful grin. “Would you believe I was pretending to be a dancehall singer, wearing colorful face paints and dressing in gaudy and risqué gowns and entertaining leering strangers?”

  “You didn’t?” Abby saw her nod and grin. “Tell me every detail.”

  “I was sent there to catch a bartender in the act of watering down the establishment’s whiskey, then selling the leftovers to men who peddled it to Indians, which is a crime that earns a man six months to a year in prison. Since the owner was the one who hired me on the sly through my agency, he told the manager I was an entertainer ‘downstairs only,’ if you grasp my meaning.”

  “I heard you sing back in school and in church choirs, so I know you gave more than a credible performance. How did you entrap him?”

  “I hid in the backroom on the day a shipment of whiskey arrived, watched him pour a third from each bottle, refill them with water, then let his cohorts collect it after we closed. I trailed them to their camp and observed their meeting the next day with the Indians. I overheard their names and plans, so I reported them to the owner and my agency.”

  “You spied on them all night?” Abby watched her nod. “You stayed out there all alone?” Abby saw her nod again. “What if you’d been seen and captured? They would have murdered you, and probably done worse things before doing so. Were you scared?”

  “I was careful. I wore dark clothing, covered my hair with a black scarf and sooted my face so I would blend into the shadows. My horse is well trained, intelligent, and loyal, so she wouldn’t make any noise to give me away. Mother and Newl are keeping Blaze for me until I finish my work for Ben. As for being scared, a good dose of fear is wise and healthy, under such circumstances, it keeps one alert and alive.”

  “Tell me about some of your other adventures; you’ve had so many.”

  For the next hour, Maggie complied, pausing here and there to sip water or to let Abby make comments or ask questions.

  “I would be terrified and I would probably make mistakes and get hurt, but I envy you for your skills, courage, intelligence, and stimulating work.” Abby confessed. “I’m glad you’ll let me have a tiny sample of what it’s like to do something wild and wonderful. I promise, no matter how scared I get, I won’t disappoint you.”

  Maggie hugged her and said, “I do love and miss you so, dear Abby. I’m almost glad this happened so it could reunite us for a while; isn’t that awful of me?”

  “Only a tiny bit. Besides, you can tell me anything and I would never betray you.”

  “I know; that’s why I told you about Ben and my plans. Now, you do some of the talking for a change; tell me more about your many suitors.”

  After Abby responded in colorful detail, she asked, “You will take time off from your busy job to come to my wedding, won’t you?”

  “Of course, I will. As soon as you’ve decided on a husband and set a date, let me know. But I think I can already guess which man it will be. Every time you say Matthew Lawrence’s name or talk about him, your eyes glow and you end each sentence with a dreamy sigh.”

  “He is handsome and wonderful, Maggie, and I quiver with desire just thinking about him. If he takes my elbow or accidentally touches me or just smiles at me or I hear his voice, I almost melt like butter in the sun. I do hope he feels the same way about me, but until I know for certain, I must keep my feelings for him concealed. I would simply die if I revealed them and he rejected me. When you meet him on Sunday, put those keen instincts and observations to work to see what you think. No matter how it hurts me, tell me the truth about your impression.”

  “I promise, because I wouldn’t want you chasing a dream.”

  “Mother and Father will be so happy when I marry and give them grandchildren, but they haven’t pressured me to take those steps because they want me to marry only for love, not to avoid spinsterhood.”

  “I wish my father were alive. I still miss him and our ranch terribly. He taught me many things I know and use in my work: riding, tracking, self-defense, shooting. But he never tried to make a son of me; he was always proud to have a daughter, and one who loved to shadow him. He was a good and strong man, and I loved and respected him greatly. He was so different from Newl, but I don’t begrudge Mother her happiness. I’m sure she was lonely after Father died, and I’m sure that move to St. Louis was scary and difficult. I suppose that’s what helped her endure Father’s loss. Until Newl came into the scene, it was just the two of us. I don’t even have grandparents; they were all gathered at Mother’s home when the Union swept through Virginia and blasted the house, killing everybody inside. It was fortunate for me that Mother was away helping to tend the wounded and Father was away fighting and I was attending a makeshift school that awful day or none of us would have survived. That’s why Father moved us to Fort Worth and started ranching, to make a fresh start far away. You’re fortunate to have both sets of your grandparents back in Virginia.”

  “You’re right, I am lucky. It’s almost strange, Maggie, but I recall little about that ghastly war, and I’m glad of that. It’s also strange that you and I wound up at the same boarding school when we were both born in Virginia. You know that’s why the head mistress had us room together: two southern girls attending a fancy northern school. Remember how some of those little Yankees teased us spitefully about our accents and lost cause?”

  “Yes, and I remember how we played mischievous pranks on the worst of our offenders. We would have been yanked out of school by our parents or tossed out by the headmistress if they only knew one-tenth of the wild things we did there.”

  “I can close my eyes and envision Evelyn’s face when she opened her desktop that morning and found it filled with spiders and bugs.” Abby laughed at the memory. “I thought she would scream her head off before the teacher calmed her down.”

  As they sat on the bed facing each other, Maggie added, “Or when we put that warty toad in Mary’s shoe and she almost squished it. She cried like a baby and refused to wear those shoes again.”

  After suppressing her giggles, Abby reminded, “Or when we hid Mr. Zimmer’s lessons and he had to reschedule class to redo them. His face was red as a beet and he could hardly speak without sputtering. We were lucky we didn’t get caught and punished
. Even if or when they suspected us, they could never prove we did those devilish things. We were so daring and stealthy in those days.”

  “We had some wild and wonderful times repaying those mean Yanks, didn’t we? Mercy, how we and our lives have changed. Just think, Abby, by this time next year, you’ll probably be married and having a baby.”

  “Have you ever met a man who made you feel the way I do now?”

  Maggie shrugged. “Not really. I’ve been out for nice evenings with handsome, well-mannered, educated, and even wealthy men, but none of them made my heart race and my body surge with desire. When I meet a man who does, believe me, I’ll grab him fast and—”

  A knock on the door interrupted Maggie.

  “It’s time to get ready for supper, girls,” Lucy said. “I thought I should come over because I was certain you two had lost track of time.”

  Abby laughed and replied. “As always, Mother, you’re right. We were reminescing about old times and having so much fun. I’ll come freshen up while Maggie does the same.”

  Long after midnight, Maggie took the next step in her plan. She was attired in a black shirt and pants, and had a strip of black cloth secured around her hair to prevent reflections on the golden strands. She had darkened her hands and face by rubbing charcoal on them. Barefoot, she crept to the back door of the hotel where she donned men’s shoes; if prints were found by those Indian trackers, they would imply a male cohort. Her gaze scanned every direction several times and she listened for any sound that would indicate somebody was nearby, though it appeared as if the entire town was asleep.

  From her trip on the train, her tour of Yuma, and from window observations, Maggie was certain she knew where every animal was located so she could avoid startling one in passing and have it sound an alarm to its owner. She sneaked to the end of the block on Main Street, worked her way down First, turned left on Gila at the Colorado Hotel, and located the site she had chosen for hiding the items for Ben. From the progress the convicts had made and by the pace they were laboring, Maggie surmised the gang would be in that area while she and Abby were present to distract the nearest guard in order for her to make contact with him.