by Nancy Radke
The place cleared and soon only the attendant was left, along with myself and Lizzie and Thomas. And James.
“I’ll see Brynn home,” he said.
“Fine with me,” Thomas said.
“What happened to Catherine?” I asked.
“Arthur’s taking her back to the ranch.”
“That was quick.”
“We don’t waste time, here.”
“And Kelly?”
“He brought in his own horse, so he could stay independent. He already left.”
We walked outside and I followed James to his carriage. It was a nice, Sunday-go-to-meeting type, complete with a fringed cover.
He handed me into the carriage and went to the horses’ heads to untie them.
“She’s mine!” The shout was loud enough to alert Thomas, who was starting to drive away. He stopped his team, as James turned to face Victor.
“Who says so?” James demanded.
“Her parents.”
James looked at me. I shook my head. “My father would never allow it,” I said.
“There’s your answer,” he told Victor.
“If you want her, you’re going to have to fight me,” Victor said.
He had won many fights, beating his opponents to the ground and almost killing some. I gasped with alarm as he shouted, “Your friends are gone now. You’ve nowhere to hide.”
“I don’t need to hide from the likes of you,” James said. “I don’t think she wants you.”
Victor looked at me. “Our mothers—”
“I’m not my mother,” I said. “I don’t belong to you. I’ve told you so.”
“Then you don’t get her either,” he said, and charged at James. I saw the flash of a blade, and realized he had a knife in his hand.
I let out a cry, because I couldn’t bear to see James killed or hurt by Victor.
A shot rang out and everyone stopped. Thomas stood there with a pistol in his hand. “Drop the knife, Victor. Then kick it over this way.”
“You, too?” Victor said, his face twisted in disgust.
“Yes. Hand to hand only. Or by heaven, I’ll shoot you.”
Victor dropped the knife and kicked it towards Thomas. “I don’t need a knife,” he snarled and rushed at James.
James had stepped away from the horses to give them more room, and had pulled off his coat while Victor was talking.
He put his hands up in the manner of boxers and I wondered if he had had any experience.
They hit each other for some time, the force and sound of the blows making me wince. I was not a woman who wanted men to fight over her. Yet I could see Victor becoming more cautious as he realized James could give as well as he could.
As the fight went on, Victor began to wear down. The hard work James had done over the years gave him stamina. He stepped in closer to Victor and hit him with a punishment Victor probably hadn’t run into before. He was staggering and beginning to throw up his hands to protect himself.
He shoved James backward over a small log laid down on the side of the walk. As James went down, he kicked him, then dropped on him, pounding with his fists.
I jumped from the carriage and ran up to Victor, grabbed him by the hair and yanked him onto his back.
James was able to get back to his feet. He waited for Victor to stand up again, then knocked him out with a series of quick punches.
“Where do you want him?” he asked Thomas.
“Dump him in with me and we’ll drop him off at his hotel,” Thomas said. “I’ll keep his knife.” He looked at me. “Brynn, why don’t you go with James to his ranch. You can come back with Arthur. Or someone. I’d just as soon you not be in town until I can get Victor shipped off on the train. He’s too unpredictable. He might come after you for pulling his hair. Might think that gave James an edge. Which it didn’t. Victor was fighting dirty.”
Victor was coming around. He stood up, looked at all of us watching him, swore and staggered off.
We watched him till he rounded a corner and went out of sight.
“Do you need help?” Thomas asked James.
“No. I can manage.” He untied the team and got into the buggy and I got in on the other side. James started the team going and I watched him. He seemed to be doing all right.
“James, go ahead and take me to Lizzie’s.”
“Why? You heard Thomas.”
“Yes. But Victor will be looking for me. If I go to your place, he’ll come for both of us.”
“You’ll be safe there.”
“But your ranch is vulnerable. Victor is the type to set fire to the whole thing.”
“He would?”
“Yes. He has a mean streak. You could post guards for awhile, but he would do it at night. We need to wait until Thomas sends him back east. My father and his father can deal with him in a way that should convince him that he will never have me.”
“What will they do?”
“Probably put him on a ship. To England.”
“It seems drastic.”
“His mother dotes on him. She could never see the bad things he did, and never checked him. A child unchecked grows up to be a man who doesn’t know how to check himself. Someone else has to do it. If they don’t send him off, he’ll end up in jail. Perhaps for murdering you. Or your parents. Or me or Thomas. He has lots of targets now. They will realize I won’t ever be safe in Baltimore.”
“I don’t want you to go back to Baltimore.”
“I always intended to go. Sometimes.”
“I want you… I want you to stay. I want…” He stopped the horses. Turned to look at me, his face all battered and bloody. “Would you marry me, Brynn? It would make me the happiest man in the territory, if you would be my wife.”
“I don’t know, James. I hardly know you.” Yet that wasn’t the real reason. I was afraid of saying yes, and then having him find out how much I was lacking. “I need more time,” I added.
He nodded, started up the horses. “I just don’t want to lose you.”
“I’ll let you know, as soon as I can.”
“It may seem fast by Baltimore standards, but not out here.”
“I need time, James.”
“I’ll come see you tomorrow, around noon.”
He got me to Lizzie’s just after they got back. Lizzie was inside while Thomas was putting the horses away.
“Go on home, James, and get those cuts taken care of. I’ll let you know my decision.”
He nodded again, flicked the reins, and left. I went inside to find Lizzie crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“Brynn.” She stopped crying. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d left.”
“I sent James on home. He seemed to be faring all right. Also, I thought if Victor discovered I was at his ranch, he’d do something stupid, like set fire to the place. All the crops are vulnerable. He could do a lot of damage. Maybe kill some people.”
At that moment, Thomas walked in and I explained things again.
“I don’t know if staying here is such a good idea, either. He might come for you while I’m at work. Lizzie wouldn’t be able to protect you.”
“Perhaps I should go back to Baltimore. If he knows I’m going, he won’t get off at the first stop and come back here and cause trouble.”
“But we just got our visit started,” Lizzie protested, starting to weep again.
“Then you go to Baltimore with her,” Thomas said. Lizzie brightened visibly at that. “I’ll round up Victor and bring him on the next train. That way he can’t get off at the first stop.” He grinned at his wife. “Lizzie and I can come back together. We can have a second honeymoon.”
Lizzie threw her arms around him and told him he was the most wonderful husband ever. He agreed, and we all went to bed.
I lay awake for several hours thinking about James. I thought about him all morning as I helped Lizzie pack. Thomas took us to the station, and put us on the train. A passenger-only train, this
time with all Pullman cars.
Lizzie and I both wore our comfortable dresses and left the corsets behind. We had an enjoyable trip, chatting about our childhood and friends we’d had. And about Thomas and Walla Walla, and James.
“I’m sorry I brought Victor out,” she said. “I just never realized how mean he could be.”
“No one told you.”
“My mother always excused things, and I thought she was right.”
“It’s a good thing you’re with me. Together maybe we can make her see.”
We arrived in Baltimore and were met by our fathers. Thomas had sent them each a telegraph, so they would be there. After the initial greetings, I explained to them what had happened with Victor, and how serious it was. “I need him out of my life, completely, and I’m depending upon you two to do it. Otherwise I will start carrying a gun, because I’m afraid of him.”
That got their attention.
“What should we do?” Lizzie’s father asked.
“Send him to Europe or India. A long voyage where he can cool off and maybe get some sense,” Lizzie suggested.
“Your mother—”
“Tell her it’s for his education,” I said. “Send him off right away. Then you can tell her the real reason. She does need to know.”
“She won’t believe me,” Lizzie’s father said.
“She’ll believe me,” Lizzie said. “I’ll make her.”
“You’ve grown up, daughter. Marriage suits you.”
“Yes. Thomas is wise. You must bring mother and come out to visit us sometime. Walla Walla is a wonderful town.”
My father took me home and on the way, I told him about all my adventures. “You were very sneaky, Papa, sending me with Sir Galahad. It forced me out into the world.”
“More than I had planned on. But you handled it well, like I thought you would. Now how about James? What are you going to do with him?”
“Oh, Papa. I don’t know what to tell him. You know I can’t cook or keep a house. I’d make a terrible farm wife.”
“You handled the trip well. You could do it. Don’t base your life on what you can only do today. Besides, a new husband should expect burnt toast.”
“I’m going to take cooking lessons.”
“Couldn’t Mally teach you?”
“Well, yes. But I want to at least know how to boil water. Cook would never let me in the kitchen.”
“You handled the meals for the bulls. I’ll tell cook she is to show you what you want to know, and to help you cook some meals for us.”
“Thank you, Papa.”
“You know you’re going to shock your mother with that dress.”
I smiled. “Of course. Do you like it?”
“Yes. I can hug you without grabbing pieces of bone. Never felt right.”
Mother took one look at me and about fainted. “We should have never sent you out there. Look how brown you are! And that dress!”
“It’s comfortable, Mother. I bought several of them. I’ll wear them this summer.”
“What did Victor have to say about it?”
“Nothing that mattered.”
“Did anything happen on the way back? Did Victor say anything?”
“No. Lizzie came back with me. Thomas is bringing Victor back, when Victor feels better.”
“What happened?”
“He got into… no, he started a fist fight and came out the loser. His father is thinking of sending him on a long sea voyage to recover.”
“The poor lad. I had hoped you and he would get to know each other better.”
“Victor needs the trip, Mother.”
Father came in and stood next to me. “Our daughter’s grown up. She is an independent woman now.”
“Yes. And the first thing I’m going to do is learn to cook.”
“Cook?”
“Yes. I need to learn.”
“I planned to have a soiree for you, so you can tell all our friends about your trip out into the Dangerous West.”
“Thank you, Mother. Right now, I just want to go to my room and rest.”
“You poor thing. Go right ahead.”
I grabbed my small case and started to carry it up the stairs. She looked startled. “Merle will bring it up. You know that.”
“I’ve got it,” I said, and took it up with me. I didn’t want any servant coming in while I slept.
The next day, Thomas and Victor arrived. Victor was belligerent, according to my father, but the three men marched him down to a ship going to India. The ship’s captain was instructed to keep him locked up until after it sailed in two days.
The captain was a friend of Victor’s father. After hearing about the problem, he told them he would put Victor to work, to pay for his passage. He would lock him up each time they came to port, until his “manners” improved.
“Nothing like hard labor to straighten out the mind,” he assured them.
Father came home and I started my cooking lessons. No longer a child, I now attended to my lessons so well that I learned quickly. Maybe I could handle being a farmer’s wife.
I told mother I was marrying James Trahern, and she had a fit. Father tempered her somewhat, so that she finally insisted James come to Baltimore so she could meet him herself. My father could give me away, if they approved of him. Otherwise she would send me to England.
After I had a good cry, I took out my writing packet and dipped my pen in the inkwell. I tried several times to write, and finally ended up with, “My dear Mr. Trahern, I have considered your offer and my answer is ‘yes.’ If you want me, you’ll have to come get me. Yours, Brynn.”
*7*
I decided that if James thought I was worth coming after, if he valued me as much as he did Sir Galahad, he’d come get me. If he didn’t, then I’d be well shut of him before I got to the point I couldn’t recover my heart. I remembered what the young man had said at the dance. That women were scarce and so the men had to grab the available ones. I wanted to be more than available to James.
I addressed it and mailed it off. Why he would want someone who caused him so much grief, I’ll never figure out, but he came.
My father went to meet him at the train and brought him back to our house. James was wearing a dark corded suit that looked much better than most of the men’s clothing here. He stood a head taller than my father and evidently had answered all his questions, because my father looked more than happy to hand me over to him.
My mother wanted me to have a grand marriage, and started to protest when I told her that I only wanted her and father, and my grandmother, Ellie.
James told them, “I only have a month for our wedding and honeymoon, part of which will be the train trip back. So make your preparations quick.”
He tilted his head toward the door and I quickly jumped up and headed out. “I want to show James the bulls,” I said, but I think they all knew I just wanted time alone with him, because no one trailed along.
As soon as we were alone, James kissed me. And I kissed him. I hadn’t realized just how much he meant to me until I finally had him again. I realized that if he hadn’t come for me, I’d have got on a train pretty quick and gone back to him. He was not someone I wanted to miss, especially because of Victor. I would have tried to talk mother around, but left to go back to James. He was the center of my life now.
James said, “Why did you leave so soon? I was telling my folks I was the happiest man in the territory, then you were gone. I thought you were going to stay, after Thomas put Victor on the train. What happened?”
I explained why I left so suddenly, and how Thomas and the fathers had taken care of Victor before he could do any damage.
“I could have protected you.”
“Yes. I don’t doubt that. But if you had to kill Victor to do it, then we would have had all the legal complications. It was best for Victor’s father to handle him. And the ship captain didn’t mind locking him up. Maybe he’ll learn that the world doesn’t revolve around h
im.”
“It’s a lesson everyone needs to know.”
“Then mother proved obstinate, so I had her objections to overcome. Lizzie and Thomas helped, by coming and visiting her, and explaining that I wasn’t marrying a savage. We’ve had quite a storm going on here.”
“And your father? Did he object? At first?”
“No. I told him everything that happened. He’s always been easy to talk to. He helped me make Mother understand. I’d like to have her blessings before I marry, as I’m her only child and I don’t want to cut her out of my life.”
“I figured you were having to deal your parents, so I came right away.”
“Thank you. I’ll never ask that of you again. I will marry you, no matter what she says. She knows that. If you hadn’t come for me, I would have gone back to you. I didn’t quite realize that when I wrote, or I wouldn’t have written such an abrupt note. I’m sorry.”
“This is our busiest time of the year.”
“I know it. I didn’t expect you to come so soon.” I still needed a little longer time to learn to cook.
“Otherwise my parents would be here.”
“We can have a reception there,” I said. “Or the wedding there.”
“We’ll have it here. It’ll make your mother happy.”
“And me happy.”
“So, let’s get married and have a honeymoon.”
“I don’t expect a long one. The train trip back will be enough. A passenger train only this time. Six days.”
“You’ve already made one train trip. How about taking an ocean voyage, around South America? We can take the next ship out.”
“Thank you, but no,” I said. “I get seasick in a sailboat with no waves to speak of. I’ll take the train trip. Just make sure they hold onto our car.”
“When Dad found out I was traveling back here, he ordered ten cows from your father.”
I stared at him, open-mouthed, but before I could say anything, he laughed.
“I brought one of our hands along to take them back. And I’ll make sure they take a different train. I don’t want to split my honeymoon time with a bunch of cows.”
“Don’t you have to get back?”
“No. I told Dad I was coming to get you. He understood. Told me to take all the time I needed. He’d hire someone to help him. We’ll have a large enough wedding to please your mother. Then a train trip to Los Angeles. Some time there. Then return to Walla Walla by another train. How does that sound?”
