Cord had come to see her every day, making plans for the biggest wedding ever seen in Buffalo, and she’d languidly agreed to everything he said.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her” Ella told Cord for the dozenth time. “From the way she’s carrying on, you’d think that old man treated her like a precious treasure instead of a slave.”
“He made his peace with her before he died.”
“It’s easy to say nice words when you know you’re not going to have to live up to them,” Ella said uncharitably. “He was nasty when he was alive, and I don’t see any reason to think he would have been any different now.”
“I don’t care about Ira, then or now,” Cord replied shortly. “I just want Eliza back on her feet again. I never saw her look so miserable.”
“You never saw her lose her only living relative before either.”
“I suppose you’re anxiously awaiting your wedding day,” Jessica Burton said coldly, sitting rigidly across the width of Ella’s parlor from Eliza.
“Of course she is,” Ella answered for her. “Every girl looks forward to her wedding.”
“You couldn’t tell it to look at her,” Jessica replied with a tight smile. “She looks positively haggard. Not at all like someone who has just cornered the most eligible bachelor in the state.”
“She did that long ago, when you were still thinking he was just a cowboy grown too big for his britches.”
“Gossip has it Cord had lost interest, that she got up that posse to keep from losing him.”
Eliza looked stricken.
“Who dared to spread such a lie?” Ella demanded, rising majestically from her chair. “Just tell me their name and I’ll see they don’t spread any more.”
“My dear Ella,” Jessica tittered with false sympathy, “you may be able to intimidate people with your overpowering personality, but you can’t stop them from talking. And they always say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
“The only fire you’re going to see is the one I light under your tail feathers, Jessica Burton, if you repeat one word of that malicious gossip.”
“How dare you,” retorted Jessica, swelling with indignation.
“Easy,” Ella fired back. “Especially when you come into my house intending to mortify this child just because she got the man you couldn’t trap for Melissa. Yes, you can color up, but everybody’s been gossiping about that too. You got your own back when Cord started his own bank and took away half your customers. After what he’s done now, I expect he’ll get the other half.”
“Sanford’s customers are most loyal,” Jessica said emphatically.
“What you mean is Cord wouldn’t do business with the half of them. You don’t fool me, Jessica Burton. You came here meaning to be nasty because you know you won’t be undisputed queen of Buffalo any longer. Eliza’s gone and pushed you right off that pedestal you built for yourself. Well, you’ve got no one but yourself to thank for putting her mere, you with your pushing and shoving ways and Sanford’s determination to corner every dollar in the county.”
“Please,” begged Eliza, feeling like her head was going to burst. “I don’t want to replace anybody, and I don’t want to be queen of anything. All I want is to be left alone.”
“I can assure you that I shall grant your wish,” declaimed Jessica, slamming out of the house with none of her habitual majesty.
“Forget everything that old biddy said,” Ella ordered, shepherding Eliza off to bed. “You get a nice nap and men I’ll fix you some supper.”
“You don’t have to watch over me so. I can still take care of myself.”
“I know that, but your ideas and mine don’t seem to fit too well these days. You used to be the sweetest, most biddable gal, but here lately you’ve become as slippery as a cake of wet soap. All I have to do is turn my back, and you’re up to your neck in trouble.”
“Is there ever going to be any peace here, Ella? It seems ever since I came to this town, everyone’s been fighting everybody else. I’m sick of the killing and I’m sick of living in fear of what’s going to happen next. My uncle is dead, but he might still be alive if I hadn’t fallen in love with the one man he hated. I saw Cord kill a man, and not just some stranger. He killed a man I knew, a man who talked to me and even shared meals with me. And who knows when he’ll have to do it again. Now, just when I think the fighting’s all over, it’s starting all over, only it’s a different kind. Does it ever end?”
“Not for the likes of Jessica. She won’t ever forgive you for being more beautiful than her daughter and getting the man she wanted for a son-in-law. And she won’t forgive Cord for taking away her husband’s customers and choosing you for his wife. Jessica will never be happy unless everything about her family is better than anything anybody else has.”
“All I want is to be left alone to marry Cord and have his children. I don’t want to lead society or have people coming to me for things.”
“Neither you nor Cord is the kind to go after fame—or money, for that matter. All he wanted was his own ranch and you. All you wanted was Cord. But Fate put both of you in the way of great things, and when others were backing away or hurrying to do nothing, you pushed ahead and emerged the winners. You have so much courage and talent and determination you’re always going to be successful at what you do, and people will just naturally look up to you.”
“I don’t think I can stand it,” Eliza said with a hiccupping sob. “This country makes everybody hard and brutal, killing before they can be killed, thinking only of their possessions instead of the human lives being wasted on every side. I can’t live like this. It’ll drive me crazy.”
“You will because you must,” Ella assured her. “You’re still in low spirits because of your uncle, and unless I miss my guess, you’re feeling guilty at finding yourself the owner of a prosperous saloon and rooming house. You can soothe your conscience knowing you had nothing to do with your uncle’s death, and there wouldn’t be any saloon or rooming house if it wasn’t for your singing. Now you get some sleep. You’ve got to stop tormenting yourself with all this thinking and worrying. I don’t say it’s not a bitter draught to swallow, but swallow it you must.”
But after she had gone, Eliza drew a thick, folded paper from under her pillow and reread its contents. “But I do have a choice,” she stated vehemently as she searched for a pen to sign the contract. “And I’m going to take it.”
Cord would follow her, she was sure of it, and she would talk him into selling the ranch. It wouldn’t be easy, but they could be together and there would be no more shooting and hating and violence in their lives. She would miss Ella and Susan, and she knew Cord would miss the Matador, but if he loved her, he would leave Wyoming behind forever.
Two days later Iris came into the Baylis’s store, her agitation obvious from the way she walked. “Have you seen Eliza?” she demanded immediately.
“She went to visit Susan. I was hoping the baby would help get her mind off things.”
“Susan hasn’t seen her.”
“Ask Lucy. She’s been at her side nearly every waking minute.”
“I can’t find Lucy either, and no one at the saloon has seen her since early this morning.”
“Well where do you mink she’s gotten to? She’s not mooning about over at the schoolhouse, is she?”
“No, I’ve been there too. I think she’s left town.”
“What!”
“I think she’s accepted that agent’s offer to go East. She’s been overwhelmed by everything since she saved Cord from that dynamite. And now with the capture of those rustlers, her uncle’s death, and this enormous wedding, I think it’s scared her to death.”
“And I know who’s responsible,” Ella intoned, storm clouds garnering in her eyes. “Have you seen Jessica Burton hanging about Eliza?”
“No, but Susan said Eliza came up to her yesterday when she was out walking, and she looked like she’d seen a ghost. She mumbled something about gossip
, but wouldn’t say any more.”
“Blast that old crone,” Ella said, pulling her apron over her head. “Ed!” she called over her shoulder. “I’m going out, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the stage office. If she’s gone any place, they’ll know.”
“Sold her two tickets to Douglas first thing this morning,” the station master told Ella. “Wanted to get there in time to take the evening train to Chicago.”
“Gus Lewis, you’re the biggest fool that ever a woman birthed, and if I had the time, I’d bash your face in for you.” Ella stormed out of the office, Iris in her wake, leaving the stunned man staring after her with bulging eyes.
“You go see if that colonel of yours can telegraph Douglas and have the stage detained.”
“What am I supposed to tell him?”
“Do I have to think of everything? Tell him she’s got small pox. Tell them she’s robbed the bank and gotten away with all the money. For God’s sake, girl can’t you think of anything?”
“I hope I can do a little better than that.” Iris grinned. “But what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to drive out to the Matador and put a flea in Cord Stedman’s ear. If that man hadn’t held back, trying to treat her kindly and not rush her, everything would be fine. I swear, you can’t ever depend upon a man to know the right time to do a thing. When I told him to sit still, he couldn’t help jumping into the fire every time he got a chance. Now when we could use some action, what does he do but sit at the ranch of his, politely refusing to hurry her and planning a wedding big enough to give one of Lavinia’s floozies palpitations. If he had just swooped down and carried her off, none of this would have happened.”
“You told him to do that?”
“Certainly not,” Ella replied, shocked. “You’d think the man could come up with something on his own. After all, he’s not helpless.”
Ella arrived at the Matador expecting to have to contain all the things she’d spent hours planning to say while someone was sent to find Cord, but he was at the house, standing speechless with an envelope in his hands.
“What’s that?” demanded Ella, marching into the parlor and pouring herself a brandy.
“The deed to the piece of land on Bear Creek I’ve been trying to get my hands on for years. Eliza claimed it for me.”
“Did she include a note?”
“No, not a word.”
Then if you don’t saddle your fastest horse and intercept the stage to Douglas before seven o’clock, that’s the last thing you’ll ever get from her,” Ella stated before draining her brandy.
“What are you talking about?” demanded Cord.
“I don’t stutter, man,” Ella snapped, and poured herself some more brandy. “She’s on the stage to Douglas and she intends to take the evening train to Chicago.”
“What for?”
“There isn’t a particle bit of good asking me that question when she’s the one with the answer”
“What are you going to do?”
“I think I’ll see if I can get drunk on this brandy liqueur of yours. I don’t see why you men should have all the fun.” Cord stared at her. “Don’t stand there gaping, boy. I wouldn’t hurt myself if I was to drink the rest of it, which I promise I won’t. But if you don’t catch that stage, a whole cabinet full of brandy won’t drown the hurt you’ll be feeling.”
Cord ran from the room, and minutes later Ella saw him bowling down the road with a light buggy drawn by the two fastest horses in his stables. “It’s taken a lot of work, Ella honey, but I think we may just pull this one off yet.” She laughed to herself and drank her brandy.
Eliza sat quietly in the corner of the stage as it bounced along the uneven road. She had spent most of her time staring out the window at the passing landscape, trying to tell herself she wouldn’t miss the wide open spaces, the loneliness bred into the land. She also tried to tell herself she was looking forward to the opportunities offered by a big city like Chicago, but she’d never been in a town of more than a few hundred and had no concept of what a city was really like. After spending her entire life on the plains, she doubted she could ever get used to streets that, according to Lucy, were considered empty when they were more crowded man Buffalo on its busiest day.
Lucy had been delighted when Eliza had told her she was going to accept the agent’s offer. She looked forward to resuming her old life, especially since she was positive Eliza would soon become a sensational success, but it wasn’t very long before she began to question whether Eliza really wanted to leave Buffalo. She hadn’t spoken more than a few sentences since they left. Lucy had tried to cheer her up, but after about an hour it was clear Eliza was not going to be cheered, and Lucy thought it best to leave her to her thoughts. “You made your bed, child,” Lucy said, breaking the silence at last. “You mean to tell me now you don’t want to be in it?”
“I never wanted to go to Chicago,” Eliza told her. “I just couldn’t stay in Buffalo.”
“You’re running away” Lucy asserted. “You know that, don’t you? You can say what you like to other people, but there’s no point in telling lies to your own self.”
That’s what Ella says too.”
“Sure she does. Everybody thinks the same thing.”
“And you think I shouldn’t go?”
“Depends on what you’re running toward.”
“There’s not a thing in Chicago I want,” Eliza said bleakly.
“Then you ought to tell that driver to let you off right here. There ain’t enough money in Chicago for me to let some dragon-faced banker’s wife drive me off if I didn’t want to go.”
“You know about Mrs. Burton?”
“Everybody knows about Miss Jessie. She hasn’t shut her mouth since you became the main topic of conversation. That woman can’t stand not to be the center of everything, and you pushed her into the shade right smart.”
“But she said such terrible things.”
“Let her. What harm can it do? Ain’t nobody believing her, so why should anything she says bother you?”
“But people listen to her.”
“Not anymore. It’s you, and maybe Miss Ella, they want to hear from. Miss Jessie was on the wrong side. Besides, she was setting on her broad behind when you were out there raising a ruckus. People pay attention to things like that, and they look up to you.”
“It sounds like you’ve been talking to Ella.”
“Of course it does. Anybody but a newborn babe can see that with one eye closed.”
“And you think I’m failing those people?”
“I ain’t worried about those people. They took care of themselves before you got here, and they’ll go right on no matter what. The one you’re failing is yourself.”
“And Cord,” added Eliza.
“No, just yourself. You think you’re still a little girl, but you’re a woman now, and it’s time you started acting like one. Mr. Cord doesn’t want to be married to a pretty doll baby all his life. No matter what men say, they want a woman to be able to do everything they can. They just don’t want the knowledge shoved in their faces all the time.”
Eliza laughed in spite of herself.
“You’re just hurt now,” Lucy added in a milder voice. “You want to hide and lick your wounds, but what better place than a pair of arms like Mr. Cord’s. Hmmm, hmmm! That’s mighty powerful medicine.”
“After all the hate and the killing, I wanted to get as far away from Wyoming as I could. I kept telling myself I couldn’t live in a place where that kind of misery never stopped. I was sure I would find the kind of life I was looking for in the city, but it’s not that way, is it?”
Lucy shook her head.
“I didn’t think so. I suppose I realized it about twenty minutes after we pulled out of Buffalo. I also realized I couldn’t do it to Cord.”
“What do you mean?” asked Lucy, puzzled.
“I told
myself if he loved me, he would sell the ranch and stay with me. You don’t have to look so astonished. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that for longer than ten minutes. Now you’d better tell the driver to turn around. If I get too far away from my medicine man, I might never get well.”
“Do you mean it?” Lucy asked, beaming hopefully. “I mean, for real?”
“Yes, I mean it, for real.” Lucy leaned her head out the window.
“Turn this dad-blamed contraption around,” she ordered in commanding accents. “We are going back to Buffalo.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Turn it around before I climb up and give you a good rap with this umbrella stick I’m carrying.”
“Lady, this is a stagecoach, not a private carriage. If you want to go back to Buffalo, you’re going to have to go on to Douglas and buy a return ticket.”
“No, we ain’t,” Lucy shouted, jumping up and down so the stage rocked dangerously. “I see a cloud of dust coming up behind us, and if that isn’t Mr. Cord come to fetch his gal you can call me a cross-eyed hound dog.”
“Cord?” stammered Eliza, suddenly vibrantly live. “Are you sure?”
“It’s either him or the Army, and I think Miss Iris already has that one tied up.” Eliza stuck her head out the window, holding on to her bonnet to keep it from being blown away. “I can’t tell yet,” she said, peering hard in the distance. “I don’t know the horses.”
“It ain’t the horses that’s coming after you, gal. It’s the man driving them.”
But now Eliza was able to make out the shape of the man driving the pair at a gallop, and there was no doubt in her mind it was Cord.
“Stop, you fool,” Lucy said, using her umbrella stick to get the driver’s attention. “You are just about to lose the only business you’ve got.”
“Please stop,” Eliza said, adding her entreaties to those of Lucy. “I’ve made a terrible mistake and you’ve got to let me out.”
Wicked Wyoming Nights Page 40
