“My turn. Were you really the Howard Sister’s worst student for wife lessons?”
Betsy giggled, and the sound shot straight to his soul. “They say I was but honestly I learned to cook and keep a house I learned to sew and even embroider, but I saw no reason to walk from their place to the church and back every Sunday with my hymn book on my head, for proper posture and grace. Nor did I see any point in sitting for hours at a time doing fancy stitching. So, in their eyes, I was the worst student at that time. It also might have had something to do with refusing to carry a parasol and pulling my corset strings so tight I couldn’t breathe. If it were up to me I’d never wear one of those terrible things.”
Alexzander chuckled then he leaned toward her and kissed her. “If you wish to not wear one then don’t it wouldn’t bother me one bit. I will tell you this when I was younger I spent a great deal of my time in Kentucky with a family of Indians who lived on our mountain. Did you know that Indian women don’t wear all those extra layers of clothing that you women do and I never thought they were less than proper? So, if you wish to forgo a corset, it wouldn’t bother me at all.”
Betsy’s mouth hung open. “I couldn’t not wear one at all, but I refuse to tighten it until I look two inches smaller than I am. I like to breathe and move and that is what I’ll do.”
“Again, that’s fine with me. Are you more relaxed now?”
“Yes.”
“Good then I shall kiss you goodnight and we should try to sleep. Lots to do tomorrow, I’m sure.”
He pulled her close and held back the groan at the feel of her body with only a thin layer of cloth separating them and kissed her. She responded and when they both were dizzy from lack of oxygen, they parted. Betsy rolled on her side facing away from him and he left a few inches space between them, afraid to scare her with his bodies response to her presence. He lay there watching her back, listening as her breath evened out and deepened as sleep claimed her. He sighed softly. Two months was going to feel like an eternity.
Ten
Morning came, and Betsy woke with the weight of Alexzander’s arm around her waist and his breath tickling the back of her neck. He had been so kind last night and all her fears for how it would be to sleep beside him had been unfounded.
She’d relaxed as they’d talked and the kisses before she closed her eyes had stayed with her all night. She was worried because Alexzander was so kind and loving that she could easily forget her pledge to keep Ike firmly in her heart. When the time came that her husband wasn’t willing to wait for his marital rights, she could see herself falling in love with him and that would be disastrous. She’d told him that she couldn’t love him in her letter and she meant to keep that pledge to her dear Ike.
She rolled over to see Alexzander looking at her. “Good morning, Sweet Betsy. How did you sleep?”
She blushed at seeing his well-defined chest without a shirt on. He was certainly fit and muscular. More so than she thought a city dwelling lawman would be. Of course, he admitted last night that while he lived and worked in the city he spent a lot of time in the woods and mountains that might have something to do with his broad shoulders and muscular arms and chest. “Very well, thank you.”
“Shall we get dressed and go have breakfast before we go see this house the Town Council had given us?”
She looked around and blushed. “How are we going to do that? Last night you left so I could get undress and turned the light out before you got undressed but it’s day now.”
He laughed. “How about you turn back around and face away and I’ll get up and dress. Then I can leave and go get us a table at the restaurant, while you get dressed?”
Betsy nodded and purposely turned on her side facing away from Alexzander. Still, a part of her wanted to turn around and see him dressing. She resisted but the desire was there. What was wrong with her? How could she keep wanting things with Alexzander that she never wanted with Ike?
Once he left the room she got up and noticed that he’d left his buckskins from the night before on the floor. Ike would have never done that. He would have picked up his clothes and made sure they were put in the proper place for her. She’d have to mention this to Alexzander this evening.
She dressed and went down to the dining room to have breakfast with her husband and then they were going to look at the house Ike had gotten the Town Council to provide when he’d asked her to marry him. That she’d be living there with Alexzander was hard to swallow, but it wasn’t her husband’s fault that Ike was killed by Charles Little. It was just his fault that Charles was free.
After breakfast, Betsy walked with Alexzander over to the little house behind the jail that the town had included as part of the marshal's pay when Ike had asked to marry Betsy. As they opened the door Betsy’s heart sank. What had been a cute little two-bedroom home was now as filthy as a pig pen.
The furniture that Ike had purchased for her was ruined. There were stains on the parlor furniture and the side tables all had been damaged. In the dining room, the table had been carved into with gouges all along the wooden surface. They found dirty and broken dishes in the kitchen, along with broken shelves and cabinets.
Alexzander sighed, “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done here before we can move in, Betsy. Might be easier to just haul everything off and start new.”
Betsy looked at him with tears in her eyes. “They ruined my things and all you can say is let’s start new?”
Alexzander moved close and pulled her into his arms rubbing her back trying to provide comfort. “Your things?”
“Yes, my things, Everything in this house Ike bought for me! He bought them for our life together. That criminal has destroyed my life and now you’re trying to destroy my happiness.”
Alexzander let go of her and took a step back. “I’m not trying to do any such thing, Betsy. I’m trying to be reasonable so we can move into our home together.”
She shook her head. “You’re trying to erase Ike from my heart and mind every way you can. Well, I won’t let you. Ike would never have treated me so badly. He loved me and bought all this for me. And you’re taking it all away.”
She turned and ran out of the house leaving Alexzander standing there with his mouth open still trying to figure out what had just happened. It seemed like for every step forward he made in getting his sweet little wife to love him, she found a way to take them right back to the beginning again. He hadn’t even been married a full day yet and already his bride had several times made it plain she’d wished she’d never married him. He didn’t know what to do to stop this from happening. As he was trying to figure out what to do there came a knock at the door.
He walked over and opened it to see his father-in-law standing there. “Howdy, heard at the hotel you and my daughter were headed here to look around. Thought I’d come meet you officially.”
The mine owner held out his hand and Alexzander shook it. “Mr. Pike, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The bear of a man laughed. “Don’t be holding with this Mr. Pike, son. I’m just Zeke. Now, where’s my baby girl?”
Alexzander sighed. “I honestly don’t know, Sir. She ran out of here about five minutes ago.”
The older man frowned. “Why?”
Alexzander shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. She doesn’t seem to want to even be married to me. She all but told me so yesterday, after I didn’t bring Little back to jail. Then she apologized and agreed to try and get to know each other and make this marriage work over the next two months. I promised her if she still didn’t want to be married then I’d get her an annulment. Then we came here to see the house and as you can see it’s a mess.”
The older man looked around and nodded as Alexzander continued. “I suggested that we should just have everything removed and start over and she accused me of trying to destroy her happiness and remove any memory of her precious Ike. Then she ran off.”
Zeke sighs and started to mutter under
his breath, pacing back and forth “That girl. Should have told her…. Don’t know why she can’t see it…. “
Zeke stopped and looked back at Alexzander. “Well, you obviously can’t stay here for a while. I’ll have some of my people come over and haul all this away and clean up. You go on down to the Mercantile and have them order you new of everything. Tell them to bill it to me.”
Alexzander started to protest but Zeke held up his hand to stop him. “This ain’t exactly for you son. It’s for my daughter. I’ll try and have her friends track her down and get her calmed down. You just keep trying to woo her. Honestly, she don’t know half the truth about her dead fiancé and that’s my fault. I wouldn’t let anyone tell her what they knew. You, however, I think are a good man and will make her a good husband. 'Till the furniture gets here you and Betsy will stay with me.”
Alexzander looked at the man for a few minutes and then sighed and nodded. “I appreciate that. Staying at the Hotel would have been expensive. I could have done it, but not easily.”
His father-in-law smiled. “No reason to. I got that big ole house and only me in it. You and Betsy can stay in her room until we get this place sorted. You concentrate on catching that outlaw and wooing my daughter. I’ll worry about taking care of this mess.”
Alexzander nodded. “I’ll move my stuff out of the hotel then try and find my wife.”
Zeke shook his head. “She’ll be at the house this evening until then leave her be. You concentrate on getting to know the town you swore to protect. Might want to start by walking over to the Lucky Lady Saloon. I know that Roy Rogers is there waiting for the jail to open. Jaxsum rode out last night and told him you were willing to hire him back as deputy.”
Alexzander nodded. He needed to get to know the town and the business owners. Today was a good day to start to do that. Securing a deputy while he sent out feelers to others was a good start.
“I’ll do that. Thanks again, Zeke.”
The older man clapped him on the back. “Ain’t a problem son. You worry about your bride and job. The rest leave up to ole Zeke here.”
The two men walked out of the house. Both determined to get things settled as quick as possible.
Eleven
Two weeks went by while Betsy and Alexzander waited for new furniture. Betsy felt more and more conflicted as each day went by. Her duty to Ike warred inside her with the new and growing feelings for Alexzander. It caused her to be cross all the time, especially when her husband was near. Yet, he kept being kind and thoughtful.
He brought her little gifts each night and when they retired he would ask her another question about her life and tell her more about his. He had to decide what to tell her because Betsy refused to ask him anything. She didn’t want to know about him or his family or his past. She only asked one question of him the same question every day. “Have you caught Charles Little yet?”
That question always led to her telling him how he wasn’t as good a marshal as Ike or that Ike would have done something better. He didn’t patrol like Ike, he didn’t dress like Ike, he didn’t know what a marshal should do like Ike did. Alexzander was so tired of hearing about Ike. Still every morning he would pull her close and kiss her good morning. When he got home he’d pull her close and kiss her hello, and every night he would hold her and talk with her about her life and tell her about his, then kiss her before allowing her to roll over and go to sleep.
Yet, as much as she responded to his kisses he felt a distance growing between them.
Their new furniture arrived, and they moved into the house the town had given to him for his use. Things went from bad to worse. Besty complained that the furniture Ike bought them was better. She complained that Ike had promised to hire a cook for her, so she could continue to live her life the way she was accustomed too. When he asked why they needed a cook when she could cook, she stormed out of the house and was gone for hours.
That happened a lot. She would disappear for hours at a time and he had no clue where she was. He’d talked with her two best friends Maude James and Tonya Woodson, the daughter of the man who owned the lumber company. Both admitted that she visited with them several times a week, but Maude was helping the Howard sisters teach the younger ladies in their home, and Tonya worked at the lumber mill for her father. So, she only saw them a few times a week. They both admitted that she still seemed to be hung up on Ike and that they didn’t know what to tell him.
He only had so much time he could spend on trying to make his bride fall in love with him and the rest was spent dealing with the town as marshal. He made a circuit of the town and it was during one of those circuits that he realized where his wife was disappearing too. He was just coming out of the gunsmith shop after talking to Gilly and realizing that the man never had any trouble. Most people on this side of the tracks had no trouble .Occasionally he was needed at the livery or the hotel and once at the apothecary after a miner refused to pay the “stinkin’ Indian” after Miss Richards had patched him up from a knife wound in a fight outside the Lucky Lady. He paid real quick like when Alexzander pulled out his Arkansas toothpick and offered to undo the stitches for the Medicine Lady. He'd come out of the gun shop and turned when he saw a familiar female entering the cemetery beside the church.
Alexzander stepped into the shadow of the ally and watched as his wife went up to a headstone and lovingly brushed the dirt and debris from a recent storm off it and then she spread a small quilt on the ground and sat rubbing her hand along the stone. He watched as she just sat there and seemed to talk to the dead person. He wondered who she was visiting but he knew he needed to get back to the jail and make sure that Roy and the recently returned Gene were set on what their shifts were for the week.
Then he was going to ride back up to the timber line and check on Charles Little and his men. They’d not moved on, which worried him. They sat just beyond his jurisdiction and he knew they had to be making trips back into town he just couldn’t catch them.
Alexzander was tired. Tired of trying to win Betsy’s heart when she seemed determined to not let him in at all. Tired of chasing an outlaw who knew exactly how to taunt him. Tired of not having enough deputies to catch the same outlaws when they snuck into town, and he was tired of not hearing from the county sheriff. The man had never responded to his many telegrams and he was beginning to wonder if the man even cared about Silverpines and their outlaw problem.
But most of all, he was tired of feeling alone, even with a wife in his bed every night. Maybe he needed to just turn in his badge, ride to wherever the judge was this week, get an annulment, and then head for the mountains. Because as far as he could tell nothing else was working. He should have never listened to the Tandy’s. He wasn’t anything but a mail order marshal. He sure wasn’t Betsy’s husband. He was just the guy she was forced to marry.
Two weeks later
Betsy was livid. She’d gone to the mercantile today and thought she’d seen Charles Little leaving. When she’d asked Millie Messer if she’d just seen the outlaw leaving her store, the woman nodded she had. How could he be in Silverpines without Alexzander knowing about it? Why wasn’t he paying attention and trying to arrest him? She stormed out of the store and straight over to the jail where she saw Gene Autry sitting behind the desk. The desk that had been moved from where Ike had always had it. Why couldn’t Alexzander just leave things alone and do the job she brought him here to do? Why did he have to try and remove every trace of her beloved Ike from the town? “Where is my husband?”
Gene stood, his arm still in the sling from the bullet that Charles had given him.
“He was called over to the Lucky Lady, Mrs. Sewell. There was a fight broke out over one of the girls.”
“So, he’s off protecting soiled doves while that murdering outlaw rides into town. What is wrong with him?”
Betsy turned and stormed out of the jail, slamming the door behind her. She didn't know what to do. If she goes home and waits for Alexzander to come, then
Charles will once again be safe. She knows the damage it will do her reputation if she sets foot in the Saloon. She was so mad, that the thought of her reputation was nothing next to the rage in her heart. She stormed down the street and through the batwing doors of the Lucky Lady. It took seconds to find Alexzander sitting at a table with a Lumberjack, and a glass of some drink in front of him. That outlaw was running loose in the streets and he’s here having a beer. “Well, now, I see how it is, Mr. Town Marshal! While Charles Little waltzes into town any time he wants, you sit in this saloon drinking and socializing while telling your deputy you're breaking up a fight.”
Every sound in the saloon stops at Betsy’s outburst. Alexzander looks up a startled look on his face. “Betsy, what are you doing in here? This is no place for you.”
“How dare you! This is no place for me? What about you? You’re supposed to be catching criminals and keeping this town safe. Not sitting here drinking and chewing the fat with lumberjacks and miners.”
Alexzander took her by the arm and started hauling her to the door. “We can talk about this at home. You shouldn’t have come here. I just got that man calmed down enough to sit.”
Betsy jerked her arm loose from his hold. “Don’t lie to me Alexzander. You were drinking a beer and having fun. Did you go visit one of those whores upstairs while you were here?”
“Let’s go home and you can tell me what has gotten you so worked up.”
“Worked up! Do you want to know what has gotten me worked up? While you’ve been here breaking your marriage vows and the promises you made to me to be the law in this town and capture the outlaw who killed my Ike, Charles Little has been strolling through town shopping! That’s what has me worked up. You haven’t done one thing you were supposed to do since you came here.”
With that, she ran away from her husband and straight to the cemetery. She couldn’t stand being in his presence on more second. She needed to see Ike, to talk to him, to let him know she would always love him and how much she missed him. She ran to his grave and felled to her knees, wrapping her arm around the tombstone, pouring out her love and devotion to the man she should be married to. She was so busy pouring out her heart that she didn’t hear the gate to the cemetery open or the heavy footsteps that came up behind her. She didn’t realize her husband was there until he spoke. “So, this is where you spend your time. With Ike. I guess I should have known.”
Mail Order Marshal Page 7
