by Cyndi Raye
Grace gasped. “How rude of me. Yes, let’s get you two cleaned up and out of those awful, dirty clothes. I have something that will fit you for now. The other women can help. Ruby! Lily! Hannah! Charity!”
Four women rushed from the other room, curious to see what was going on. After a lengthy explanation, all of the women got busy. Ruby and Charity began to make some tea and warm up broth for the ladies. Lilly and Hannah got some warm water ready for the ladies to clean up. For over two hours, the ladies took care of business.
All of them were sitting around the dark, pine table having tea when Miss Addie tapped on the glass then burst through the door.
“Why isn’t that door locked?”
Grace smiled. “It was, up until about two hours ago. Miss Addie, this is Sophie, she helped to rescue our Rebecca.”
Rebecca let those words flow all around her. She was welcomed here in this town with open arms. No longer an orphan, the ugly past was always something she never quite got over, until now. Tonight, she felt as if she belonged to a group of people who loved her.
The others listened as Sophie told her story. Rebecca kept watching the door in hopes her husband would walk through but after a few hours, he never did.
Fear rose up. It was so simple a task and obviously her husband was trained for this. After all, he had put on that badge. All he had to do was go in and clear out the varmints in that awful town. “Shouldn’t they be back by now?” Rebecca asked the one question no one else was wanting to speak up about.
Miss Addie tried to keep up everyone’s spirits. “It may be they had to stay put, wait for daylight before heading back. I can’t rightly send any man out there this time of night. It’s too dark and dangerous.”
That was what Rebecca was afraid of.
“Perhaps you should try to get a few hours sleep. I can clearly see you’re exhausted.” Miss Addie’s concerned voice was like honey to a swarm of bees.
“I can’t possibly close my eyes. Not until I know Jackson is alive and well.”
“I don’t think you have to worry. That knock on the head didn’t keep him down for long. He was up and stirring up a posse not long afterwards. We are proud to have him as our sheriff.”
Rebecca let a tear slip down her cheek. “I’m proud to have him as my husband.” She looked up to the ceiling. “Please, God, keep him safe.”
“Amen.” The others followed suit, taking the hand of the one sitting next to them, starting a prayer chain around the oblong table. The oil lamp flickered through the room, providing a glow for the women as they prayed for the safety and return of their men.
Chapter 8
Jackson stood at the edge of town, his memory filled with the last time he entered this God-forsaken town. The place looked deserted, even though he knew halfway through town there was a saloon that stayed open most of the night. It was in that place the rotten men who feared no man were occupied with booze and ill-fated talk.
The posse was ready. They had ridden hell bent for leather until the horses needed to rest to get here in one piece. Jackson scanned the buildings. Where was she? Fear for his wife rose up from within. He had never asked God for a darn thing but tonight he raised his head to the clouds.
“I may not be worthy of you, but I ask for the safety of the woman I love.” He didn’t care who heard him. Rebecca had become his life. If he had to openly pray for her, he didn’t give a darn who heard.
But the tiny mumbles behind him gave courage and strength to his weary body and mind. “Amen,” he heard clear as a bell, muttered in monotones and in panicked men’s voices.
He was a leader. His role as sheriff made him so. He looked behind and beside him. The men who had claimed Wichita Falls as their own stood beside him, ready to help rescue his wife.
It was a matter of principle in Wichita Falls. The men were filled with obligation and duty, full of love, honor and respect for their neighbor. He turned in his saddle. “I’m proud of every man here tonight. Thank you for bearing this with me.”
He felt a strong hand on his shoulder. Marshall Montgomery nodded. “We’re in this together, Sheriff. Now let’s get this done.”
There were so many men who rode with him tonight, it almost had Jackson smiling. He was so proud of them. Marshall had brought in five of his best ranch hands, including Maximilian, an older gentleman who was quick with a gun. There were stories of Mac riding with a famous gang that was not talked about in Wichita Falls. No one knew for sure if it was true because it had happened when he was a young man.
Dawson and Ben Sloan rode beside him, ready to help. Dawson owned the Land Office and his brother owned the only hotel in Wichita Falls. They didn’t hesitate to saddle up when the Sheriff needed help.
Max Ward, the richest ranch man in the whole territory had twenty five men in his wake. They were all spread in various places around Mill’s Ridge, ready to jump in at the first signal. The cowboys were brave and fearless.
Daniel hung back, wanting to take it all in as he was the owner of the only newspaper in the region. He was no lightweight though, and would assist as necessary.
“Well, then, are you ready?” Marshall Montgomery urged.
Sheriff nodded. “I don’t want my wife harmed. I will give my life before there is a hair on her body damaged. Do you all understand? No matter what, she leaves here in one piece.”
The others nodded, even though he couldn’t see them in the darkness. But he knew, if it came down to it, his life was not as important as his beloved wife. It was clear now and going into battle would be easier knowing all these men understood.
“Let’s take them by surprise!”
<><>
One man was left at the bar, his back to Jackson. The others put up a good fight, but most were on the ground, hurt or dead. Some tried to flee in to the night to no avail. Every single man was stopped. It took less than fifteen minutes.
Except for the one man in front of him Jackson wanted to put a slug through his heart for kidnapping his wife. “Where is she?”
“Gone.”
Ripples of dread ran down his spine. “Gone where? What did you do with my wife?” Jackson took a step closer to him. He had to be careful, with the man’s back to him, he could be holding a weapon that Jackson couldn’t see.
“How should I know! I’m not going to tell you where she is! Do you think I am an idiot?” John Abbott’s slurred voice got under his skin. He wanted to hurt him, bad. He had to keep his cool. Drunken men were dangerous.
Taking another step towards the bar, Jackson pulled the hammer back. The sound of the click made it obvious he would shoot if Abbott made the wrong move. “Where is my wife?
The man shrugged. “Ask Willy. He’s the dumb jerk who let them overtake him. I left him back in the sod house across the street, stuffed his mouth shut after he told me they escaped. Idiot let two women lock him in there.”
Hope escalated. Jackson almost smiled at the thought of his wife escaping from here. “That’s twice now she foiled you. Don’t you think by now, Abbott, there is no escaping the consequences of your actions? I should let you hang on the tree outside this saloon the moment the sun comes up. Instead, I am going to watch you rot in a jail and when you’re trial comes up, I’ll be there to watch you hang by the hands of justice served.”
“I won’t be foiled again.” For an oversized man, he moved quickly. Jackson was ready for him. He pumped the trigger, watching as the man jerked from the impact of the bullet hitting his chest. But right before he slid to the ground, the knife in his hand came flying towards Jackson. Too late, it hit him in the shoulder, causing blood to squirt and soil his shirt.
Jackson was knocked back a bit. He stumbled before reaching up and pulling the blade from the flesh. Blood gushed even more. He held the palm of his hand over the wound as he strolled to the body on the ground. Jackson wanted to make sure the man was dead.
He stared at the man who had abducted his wife. Anger so strong pushed him to pull the hammer back again. He wanted to
empty his gun in the man’s gut.
“He’s dead.” Marshall Montgomery fell in beside him. “No use wasting a bullet. Let’s get that wound looked at.”
Jackson slowly let the trigger back. He was glad Montgomery showed up just now. “Guess you’re right. But not here, we need to search this place and see where my wife is hiding out. I’m sure she didn’t leave in the thick of night, not with it so dark outside.” Even as he said the words, he figured that was exactly what she did. Who would want to stick around a horrible place like this?
Most of the men gathered in the street. A smell so pungent permeated through the air. Men coughed and spit, gagging at the retched odor. “Found this man tied up in that little shod house over yonder,” one of the ranch hands offered.
Jackson recognized the stinky man as one of the guards from the wagon in Wichita Falls. Even though it was hard to stand next to him, he walked over and yanked the cloth from the man’s mouth.
A yelp so loud and painful came from his throat. He wailed into the night like a wounded bear.
“Shut yer mouth, stinkpot!” Someone from the crowd hollered.
The rest of the men began to laugh at the pathetic excuse of a man standing in their midst. “That’s enough!” Jackson ordered. “Each man has their own story. This here one, I’m not sure but from the looks of things, he met a chamberpot head on.”
The man cringed. “Those two women came at me like wild cats from the jungles of the Amazon! I didn’t stand a chance. By the time I figured out what they were doing, I was knocked out.”
Jackson laughed. “You let two dainty women knock you out with a chamberpot?”
“Like I said, they took me by surprise!”
Jackson almost gagged, but got closer to the man. “Where are they? You tell me right now or I’ll hand you over to this rowdy crowd.”
Cheers went up all around the man. He looked around, fear in his eyes at the multitudes of men surrounding him. “I swear, man, I don’t know. The only thing I remember after I came to was the sound of horse’s hooves fading in the distance. Figured it was them women bailing out.”
Jackson was relieved to know they were smart enough to take a horse. What scared him more than anything was the fact they would be out in the night, without any weapons to protect themselves. He was glad to know she wasn’t alone. The woman in the last wagon must be with her. Relief went through him. Jackson swayed a bit at the loss of blood but he wanted to find his wife.
He turned to get on his horse.
A shot rang out.
He felt something whip past his head and knock his hat to the ground. Wetness trailed down his temple, past his chin. He stood swaying back and forth. Guns slid from leather, triggers cocked so fast it was hard to keep the noises straight. Shot after shot rang out from the crowd of men surrounding him.
Jackson stared in silence at the bloody mass that had been the guard. No longer able to focus, everything became a blur. He felt the hard leather of his saddle as it pressed into his back.
“He’s going down.” The words sounded like they were spoken in slow motion. Jackson didn’t care. All he wanted was to see his wife. Her name formed on his lips. “Becky,” he whispered. “Becky.” Desperation made him hold on.
But gravity and blood loss took him over the edge of reality into a world of dismal dreams.
<><>
Rebecca paced back and forth. She was sure by now someone would have rode in with some answers. The last few hours had been way too quiet. Even though she knew better, sleep evaded her. There was no sleeping with Jackson in Mill’s Ridge. She turned to the other ladies. “I need some air.”
“We’ll come with you.”
Seven women wrapped shawls around their shoulders and took to the porch of the Land Office. No one stopped them. Addie had been out on the porch already, a rifle slung over her lap. When she saw the other ladies, she smiled. “No sense in just sitting there, waiting and pacing the floor. I’m helping to guard this town.”
That was the thing in Wichita Falls. Women, men, even strangers that come upon this small, growing town who decide to stay begin to feel protective of every single person there.
“You’ve been here a long time, Miss Addie?” Sophie asked, her fingers making a rhythmic sound along the wooden porch rail.
“I’ve been here since day one,” the older woman said softly.
Grace spoke up. “Forgive me for asking, but have you ever been in love?”
Addie shifted in her seat. “Once. A long time ago. I came here as a mail-order bride, you know. I wanted to get far away from my father. He was so mean and had ordered me to marry a man I didn’t care for. After doing some research and contacting a matrimonial agency, I picked up and left. I was set to marry this rich farmer who had a big ranch out here. Turned out he was trying to swindle my land certificates that I had inherited from a family member.”
“What did you do, Miss Addie?”
She grinned. “This stranger in town warned me not to marry him. Back then Wichita Falls was filled with outlaws and questionable men. But this one man, he informed me what the man was trying to do. Through our letters, I had told him about my certificates and he came up with the idea to have me believe he was rich with a farm beyond the town. I ate it up like a little kitten on warm milk at first.”
“How did you know he wanted to swindle you.”
“Because he bragged about it in the saloon. If you ever want to know what is going on with anyone in town, just sit in a saloon.”
“We can’t rightly do that, Miss Addie.”
“That’s why I listened when this stranger told me how I was going to be swindled. I asked him why he’d care about a girl like me. Then he kissed me and I knew right then and there I’d never marry another soul. No matter what they were trying to do.”
“What a romantic story.”
“It’s not over.” Miss Addie sighed, her hand resting on the barrel of the gun as she stared into the night. “I refused to marry the swindler and vowed to never let anyone dupe me again. My handsome stranger became my admirer. He courted me for many months after that. He asked me to marry him. I told him I would think about it.”
“You did what? Why, Miss Addie, he sounded as if he was so in love with you.”
“I felt deep down there was something he wasn’t telling me. Turned out to be right. Ever since the first man tried to swindle me, I have had this knack for feeling a person out. I wasn’t wrong even if he was the love of my life.”
“Oh, dear, what happened to him?”
“I built my boarding house and became a business woman. I told him if he wanted to marry me, he’d have to accept the fact that I was going to become an independent woman. Back then, this town was wild, too many rowdy men and not enough women. I knew I should marry, but I had already begun to set myself apart as someone who didn’t take no sass from any man. I vowed this town would become a town where families could grow and decent men and women would walk the street. They laughed at me back then.”
“They’re not laughing now,” Rebecca spoke aloud.
“No, they are not.”
“But what happened to this man you loved?” Charity wondered.
“Two Pinkerton men came to town one day looking for him. Turned out he was an outlaw wanted for some crimes while he rode with a gang. The day they carted him off, I must have cried for two weeks straight. The man had lied. He had me believe he was a decent man, ready to settle down and he was an outlaw trying not to get caught.”
Rebecca pondered on her words. “Actually, Miss Addie, and I don’t mean no disrespect, but it sounds like he was an outlaw trying to reform himself.”
Miss Addie frowned. Regret showered her face, her eyes hauntingly sad. “He spent his time in prison. Paid his dues. When he was relieved from that place, he came back to find me. Wanted to apologize for lying to me. He even asked if we could start over again but it was too late.”
“That’s a beautiful but sad story, Miss Addie.”<
br />
“It didn’t end well. By then I was helping to build this town. We had decent people here, families were coming every day to start a new life and all the riff-raff were long gone after the railroad was built. People trusted me. I had even began my matchmaking services to bring more decent women here. When he came back to this town, I knew he couldn’t stay. He was a confirmed outlaw.”
“He did his time. He had to start over somewhere.”
“I rebuked him. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh. But I told him in front of God and everyone it would be a cold day in the land of the dead before I would marry a convict.”
“Oh, you didn’t, Miss Addie. Did you love him still?”
She hung her head. “To this very day. But I had made a promise that I would not go back on.”
“What did he do, leave?”
She shook her head. “No, he’s still here. I doubt anyone today would know about him anymore. Most of the folks that knew about our relationship are gone or moved on.”
“He’s here?” Rebecca asked in wonder. “In this town?”
“Not exactly in town. He is close by. Back then, he refused to leave. Told me he would love me forever, even if I hated him. I never told him that I didn’t hate him so he took that as I still cared.”
“Oh, Miss Addie. Yours is truly a tale of woe. Why don’t you just swallow your pride and tell him how you feel?” Rebecca could never keep her love for Jackson to herself.
“Because a promise is a promise. My word is the only thing I have.”
The seven women shook their heads in unison. “No, Miss Addie, you have worked with every one of us to bring love in to our lives. All the while, you have been starving yourself of what is truly the most important thing of all. We can’t let this happen to you.”
Miss Addie shrugged. “Not much you can do, Rebecca. My mind was made up many years ago.”
The women all looked at each other. Ideas began to form in Rebecca’s head. There had to be a way to change her mind. After all, it was a modern age now, unlike the past where times were a bit more strict. She noticed the others were pondering the same thing and knew right then they would work together to find out who the love of her life was.
