by Chloe Garner
“You throw me, you lose my bags, I’ll hobble you for a week,” she said. “You got that?”
The horse stamped the ground again and she undid the rope across the entry to the stall, letting him wander free as she got out her rifle and assembled it, then, propping it against a wall, went to get Flower’s tack.
“You ever have one get away from you?” Jimmy called. She came back with a saddle propped against her hip and a tangle of bridle over her shoulder.
“Ain’t how I look at it,” she said, looking out the stable door after the white horse, who was trying to graze the red sand. “Dumber than duck’s feet.” She sighed. “They wander off, weren’t my horse nohow.”
Jimmy chuckled, leaning against his mount as Sarah tracked Flower out into the yard. The great beast looked at her sideways and skittered away on clodding feet.
Sarah cursed at him and dropped the bridle.
“You’ve got no sense of how to own a thing, Sarah,” Jimmy called. “That’s your horse, whether or not he’s in on it.”
“Tell that to the horse under you in a gunfight with no cover,” Sarah answered, squaring off with the white horse. He threw his head up, great white mane flying against the red hills behind him, then he hopped, kicking his hind feet out in a giant twisting motion, and he trotted away, putting his gray muzzle back to the ground to attempt to graze the barren ground again.
“Gotta get out of the habit of that one,” she murmured. “Ain’t nothin’ growin’ this side of that line of rocks, there, worth eatin’.”
The white horse whuffed, kicking up a little cloud of red dust, and she shook her head, waiting.
Finally, he picked up his head and ambled over to her, nosing at her boots.
“You bite ‘em, you’ll get a kick,” she said. Jimmy chuckled, already horseback, waiting as she tacked the white horse and tied the two bags across his hips. She gave Jimmy a defiant look, and he shrugged.
“You’re the one who survived this place,” he said. “You do it however you like.”
She raised her eyebrows, and he booted his horse into motion. Flower followed out of a sense of solidarity, and while Sarah thought long and hard about jerking him back to a stop and making him take his cue from her, it weren’t the worst thing in the world for a horse to follow Jimmy when he took off.
Sarah spent the ride home taking in the feel of Lawrence, not basking so much as recalibrating. She’d taken off in a sandstorm without noticing it coming up, and that was without almost a month back. She wasn’t going to let something show up on the horizon that she missed on account of not watchin’ for it.
She dropped Flower off for the stable boy to untack, then slapped Gremlin’s neck on the way past, heading into the house after Jimmy.
“Well,” she said, standing in the entryway. “We made it. Anything that comes for us now has to storm the castle.”
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She did consider wearing the blue and maroon monstrosity to dinner, just to disturb everyone, but she didn’t think about it for long. Instead, she left it hanging, out, in her room for Kayla to admire on her own time after dinner. She went into the dining room in boots and a hat, her duster hanging on the first peg in the entryway.
Little Peter and Lise had taken Jimmy up on his offer to live at the house. The rest of the family arrived as one, three Lawson wives arriving in a handsome cart under the control of Rhoda’s confident hands. The boys tied their horses out front and the women came in together, Rhoda and Kayla whispering to each other as Lise made her entrance down the stairs. Jimmy had told her to get her things ready to go back to town that night, but she came down in a pale gold dress that was a little vague on whether it intended to cover her body or just tint it. Peter came in with the rest of the brothers.
“Good evening,” Lise said, holding out her hand to Jimmy.
“That git’s gonna be hell on horseback,” Sarah said, turning to go back into the dining room. She heard Kayla giggle.
They took seats, Peter at the head of the table and Lise next to him, Jimmy sitting next to Peter. Wade sat next to Lise and Kayla by him. Thomas left an open spot next to Jimmy and Rhoda sat next to him. Rich sat next to Kayla, and Sunny took the far end of the table, her cold, olive-skinned face as impassive as ever.
Sarah looked at that open seat from the wall as the staff clogged the door between the dining room and the kitchen, having expected the Lawsons to all be seated.
She’d been given her place in the Lawson order.
Her place was next to Jimmy, without question, but she resented how the rest of the family formed around her like it was just known how the rest of them fit to her.
Yes, if any one of the boys but Thomas had tried to take that seat, she’d have had a mind to tip them onto the floor, but it was all so… orderly.
She was sorely tempted to take the empty chair by Kayla, just to break it.
Sorely tempted.
“Sarah,” Jimmy breathed, and she sighed, letting Thomas pull out her chair for her.
“No sense, treatin’ a woman in ridin’ boots like a lady,” she said to him, but neither one of them actually stopped him from pushing the chair in under her.
The staff had showed up over the course of the day from town, disappearing into the kitchen mostly, but shuffling around the house doing this or that where they thought Sarah couldn’t hear them, and now they came in, delivering plates in unison to the Lawson family. Sarah scowled at the artistic pile of spineless sea-creature on her plate.
Looked at Jimmy.
He did not look back at her as he leaned out over his plate to slurp broth out of a spoon.
“Okay,” Rhoda said. “I made it all the way here, but I’m not waiting any longer. You have to tell me about my brother now.”
Sarah sighed again. Sucked on her back tooth.
Shouldn’t’a told her about it at all. Certainly not like that.
“Sarah,” Kayla said. “You were there. You have to tell her what happened.”
“Saw your ma, too,” Sarah said. Kayla grinned.
“I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
Sarah shrugged.
“Sunny’s secret second husband in Oxala sends his regards.”
She flicked the sea creature to see how much force it would take to make it fall over, but it rebounded like a putty. She grimaced at it.
“Sarah,” Rhoda said, standing. Sarah looked at her, feeling the definite assumption that there was a social bond that demanded something of her. Generally she took great glee in shattering those things, but she took just long enough making up her mind to notice how red Rhoda’s eyes were.
“He’s fine,” Jimmy said, his voice even, low. “There are more important things to discuss tonight.”
“No,” Sarah said. “There ain’t.” She licked her lips, looking at Rhoda. “I’m sorry. I got a grudge with you over how you done with Jimmy, but it ain’t enough to be how I been. It’s as good a place to start the story as there is.”
Jimmy snorted.
“Inside out,” he said, taking another slurp of soup. “As you wish.”
Sarah gave him a cool look and, once more, he ignored her. She picked up the sea creature from her plate between her thumb and middle finger, dropping it from a height into his bowl. Broth sloshed over the edge into his lap and speckled across his chest. Her expression did not change, outside a slight increase of her eyebrow arch, and he turned his head very slowly to look at her.
The entire table was very, very quiet, and Rhoda might have gripped the table with both hands.
Jimmy swallowed, using his entire jaw.
Picked up his napkin and dabbed at the corners of his mouth.
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said after a very long moment. “I’ve made a mess of myself. Sarah’s going to tell you why she was in Elsewhere, and then answer all your questions.”
Might not’a been worth it, dependin’, but the satisfaction was immense.
With great, slow control, Jimmy
stood and left.
Sarah scanned the table, letting her eyes stay on Little Peter for a long time as she saw him weighing his options. He thought he had a shot at taking control of the table, just now, but that weren’t his place, no more. After Jimmy came Sarah, and after Sarah, it didn’t matter who was next. She pursed her lips, then looked at Rhoda again.
“I was in Elsewhere on account of the men what broke into the Lawson house in Intec, lookin’ to kill Jimmy.”
A silent table grew quieter and stiller, yet. Sarah gave Rhoda a slow blink and the woman sat.
“Okay,” she said. “How did Gun get shot?”
“Is my mom okay?” Kayla asked.
“Your ma ain’t a part of nothin’ interestin’,” Sarah said to Kayla. She looked back at Rhoda. “They came at night. Your ma, your brothers’ wives, and your bitty niece hid under the barn while your pa and Temis held the house. Gun and I rounded ‘em, and I took ‘em out with a rifle. Hit ‘em all clean, save one, and he got Gun from the ground when we came in to check ‘em. Fool boy was supposed to stay behind me, but he thought it were all over and he got outa place. Took a shot to the gut and I filled him up with pink foam what stopped the bleedin’ and put him right until your doc could get out to him. He slept in his own bed.”
Rhoda swallowed, putting a finger to one eye.
“It happened… a few times, growing up. When you’re there…” She shook her head. “It’s different, just hearing about it.”
Sarah nodded.
“Ain’t nothin’ you can do to put it right,” she said. Rhoda pressed her lips hard.
“You saw Melia?”
“She walks,” Sarah said. “Workin’ out ‘ma’ and ‘pa’, but I think she broke both their hearts when her first word was ‘doggie’.”
Rhoda’s shoulders shook and she turned away. Sarah looked around the table.
“So why are they hunting Jimmy?” Thomas asked.
“Because they think I know how to find absenta,” Jimmy said from the doorway. He came to sit next to Sarah again, adjusting his chair carefully and not looking at her. She didn’t take it personal.
“Why would someone want to kill you for that?” Thomas asked.
“Take you captive, more like,” Wade said. “Make you tell them.”
Jimmy shook his head.
“We don’t know. But we chose to come back to our own territory. From now on, I want two of our trusted agents at the train station, observing everyone who arrives.”
“What are they watching for?” Peter asked.
“Carryin’ a gun’s a good start,” Sarah said, sniffing at the soup broth in front of her. It smelled of salt and baby vomit. She left her spoon on the table.
“They sent six men to Elsewhere in an attempt to kill or take Sarah, in hopes that she would lead them to me, or in hopes that I’d joined her.”
“You sent her to my family,” Rhoda said.
“Family’s family,” Jimmy said. “Only ones I trust, right now.”
“You got my brother shot,” Rhoda persisted.
“If you and Thomas want to leave this table, pack your things and find a safer place to live your lives, you are welcome, but otherwise, you married a Lawson, you are a Lawson, and I will choose as I see fit how to run this family.”
Rhoda had another answer for that, but Thomas rested his hand on her wrist and she bit it back. Sarah would have liked to hear it.
“We’re fighting back,” Wade said.
“Gotta know who it is to fight back,” Rich answered.
“So we got find out,” Wade said. “We’ve got plenty of contacts out there.”
“We’re strong here,” Jimmy said. “No one leaves Lawrence unless I have a specific reason.”
“We’re strong in Preston,” Peter said. “We’re stronger in Intec.”
“It’s where all of our allies are,” Lise said.
Jimmy looked at them, and Peter wasn’t drunk enough to hold his brother’s eye, but Lise didn’t back down.
Jimmy smiled.
It was a flat, terrifying smile, but Lise was either oblivious or suicidal, because she smiled back.
“I see,” he said. “And would you like to go back to the Lawson house there, or your father’s?”
She gave him a little shrug with her mouth, almost a pout.
“I’m a woman of independent means,” she said. “I don’t have to do either one, if I don’t choose.”
Jimmy dropped his head a fraction.
“Are you suggesting you would make Petey a kept man?”
The same little shrug, nonchalance.
“I’m saying I’m not afraid of you.”
Jimmy licked his lips.
“I see.” He picked up his silverware, chopping one of the tentacles off of his meal and chewing it thoughtfully. No one interrupted him, and sea monsters around the table grew cooler. He set his knife down, using his fork to gesture at Lise. “You are an asset to this family,” he said, his eyebrows speaking more than his lips. “I acquired you, and I can divest you, should you prove to cost more than you produce.”
“I’m producing the most important thing in the world to you, Jimmy,” she said coolly. He swallowed, setting down his fork like his next motion might have been to draw a gun.
“You have friends in Intec,” he said. “And your father and uncle are very powerful men.” Jimmy’s eyes came up, electric. “But if you think that, even in the midst of a war, that I don’t have the reach to recover a Lawson heir from wherever you go in the world, you are mistaken.”
He looked down the table.
“You knew who we were when you married us. You know what it means to be a Lawson, and while you are all free to go, I will not hold you, your children will all be Lawsons. They will belong with us.”
He looked back at Lise again.
“I’d rather kill it,” she hissed, and he smiled, then looked at Peter.
“I believe that your wife is unhappy,” he said. “You should tend to her better.”
He turned his attention back down to his meal, and Sarah crossed her arms as the rest of the table slowly turned their faces down to their bowls.
After the kraken stew, there were three other courses of maddeningly delicate delicacies, none of which Sarah touched. As a dessert of flaming something-or-other made its way onto the table in front of her, Sarah reached into her pocket and pulled out a length of jerky that she would have otherwise reserved for Dog. The animal was staying down at the barn because that’s where the people were who had been feeding him for the last month, but he’d bounced at Sarah’s feet the entire time she’d been trying to get Flower put up.
Shame to steal from the innocent animal, but when there weren’t nothin’ better to eat, you did what you had to.
“It was a nice meal,” Kayla said as the staff retrieved plates. “Thank you, Jimmy.”
Sarah wondered if Kayla meant it, and if the girl knew that Jimmy had done it to needle Sarah, not please the rest of the family.
“Making a point,” Sunny said, standing. “Nothing more.”
Sarah watched as the woman made her way to the front room, out of sight, with Rich not far behind her. Wade helped Kayla out of her chair and followed.
“How deep of pockets are we up against?” Thomas asked.
“Deeper than ours,” Jimmy said. “But whoever is funding this is right to be afraid of us.”
“Afraid?” Lise asked. “There are men out there who could swat you with the back of a hand.”
Jimmy looked at her with intensity.
“Not for long,” he said. “And if you didn’t believe that, you wouldn’t have ever married my brother.”
He stood, offering Sarah a hand. She glowered, pushing her chair out with the backs of her knees and standing, grabbing her hat from the back of her chair.
The rest of the family followed to the front room where everyone sat in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. Sarah edged over to where Kayla was on a bench.
“Your ma made a dress for me,” she said quietly. “If you promise not to nose around while you’re in there, it’s hanging in my room.”
Kayla’s eyes flew open and she nodded quickly, flitting out of the room.
No one marked her leaving.
“I did some asking around, while I was in Intec,” Jimmy said. “The worldwide supply of absenta has dropped another order of magnitude since we left Preston. If even two or three of the mines pay off like the one we control, we will have the outlet of the biggest stream of absenta in the world. We are strong here because this is where our assets are. We have to be careful. Don’t trust anyone who isn’t family if we don’t have to. But if we manage what I see… We aren’t going to bring Lawrence to the world. We’re going to bring the world to Lawrence.”
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Sarah was putting the dress away as Jimmy walked into the bedroom, unbuttoning his jacket and hanging it up before he spoke to her.
“You push me too far,” he said, not looking at her.
“I know,” she said. “But you bein’ you and me bein’ me, that’s just gonna keep happenin’.”
He nodded, pulling a soft sleeping shirt from over a rail and draping it over his shoulder. He toed his shoes off and turned to look at her.
“Good night.”
She frowned as he left, then went to stand in the doorway, watching as he went around the corner into the front foyer, toward the stairs.
He was going to sleep upstairs, in the master suite, tonight.
She stood for a full minute, weighing out whether he was punishing her by separation or by forcing her to come upstairs with him, but the cool farewell settled for her, and she closed the door again, going back to the wardrobe and getting out her own sleeping clothes.
She’d seen Lise off, so she was sure that wasn’t it; he was mad at her, and he damn well deserved to be. Not that she regretted it a whit.
Rhoda deserved to know why her kin had taken to a gunfight for Jimmy, and Sarah wasn’t about to let Jimmy steal that from her just because he had the power to do it.
That was who they were.
It was what they were.
And neither of them anticipated it changing.
She’d have his back in a fight from outside without an instant’s thought, but on the inside…
