Between the Rivers

by Natalie Jayne

DID this Rivers woman really think now was the best time? Now, whilst Gideon was flat on his back at the mercy of a sawbones and feeling like the biggest idiot ever to fail half-wit training? Sure he had slipped that whole ranger business, and that definitely counted as cause for celebration, but he wasn’t in any mood for Eddie Rivers.

  “It’s about time you and I had a talk,” she informed him.

  Lee had warned Gideon about this. Aspen would be fine, Lee had said. No need to worry there. He had been so relieved Gideon wasn't dead, he wouldn’t throttle him too much. Then again, even Ember had never caused Aspen to be arrested, Gideon had a first there, and he might want to tread easy for a while.

  Aunt Eddie was a different matter. Aunt Eddie, apparently, was a woman to be reckoned with. Aunt Eddie had ‘expectations’. The problem with having expectations though was that, sometimes, people would be so impertinent as to let you down. Gideon kind of figured this would be one of those times.

  “Ma’am,” he replied stiffly, in a tone meant to discourage discussion of any kind.

  “Do you anticipate another occasion when I won’t have to nail you down to get your undivided attention?” Eddie replied, overriding the highly predictable objection.

  Gideon supposed there wasn’t and, moreover, knew what he was expected to say to a woman, especially his elder. Somewhat sourly, he allowed she had a point.

  “Then you listen to me, Gideon Fletcher. We are not a family that specializes in being arrested. You, on the other hand, spend a great deal of time cultivating the habit. I would suggest you acquire some new habits. You might start with following orders.”

  “I ain’t—” Gideon tried to explain.

  “That may be,” Eddie agreed, over-generously in her opinion, “but here you are and here you stay.”

  “Ma’am,” said Gideon.

  “I know that kind of ‘ma’am’ and I’ll not have it, you hear me? A flimsy window dressing of compliance will not make me disappear. If you think otherwise, you are very much mistaken.”

  Gideon switched tactics. He stopped listening. Clearly Eddie wasn’t going to stop talking so, by and large, it equaled out. Without much effort he inserted the required ma’am’s and no’s, brain working entirely on automatic.

  “What happened at the Harris place isn’t going to happen here, Eddie declared eventually.

  This grabbed Gideon by the shirtfront and yanked him back into the driver’s seat of cogitation. He had the distinct impression Eddie was trying to make the statement true by the sheer force of her own personal will. What she did not seem to understand was that tragedy did not care what she thought. It went wherever it liked, squared up to whomever it liked, and wiped out whatever it chose. It did not need a reason and it definitely did not stop to ask permission.

  Even if tragedy did muster up a few basic manners and trot out a do-beggin’-your-pardon, most folks wouldn’t get off their knees anyway because, fundamentally, what people wanted was to not be bothered. What they thought they meant by this was that they wanted to get on with a day’s work, milk the cow, put the chickens to bed, that sort of thing. What it really meant was that they simply couldn’t be bothered— for anything.

  Gideon knew what it was to watch so many do so little. They hid in locked rooms and tucked into remote corners. They shook their heads over the things that ought to be done and things that ought not to be tolerated, whilst carefully making sure their whispers were never overheard, for fear they would become one of those unfortunates everyone knew ought to be helped or, better yet, never have opened their mouths in the first place lest they bring trouble upon us and then our grief would be their fault.

  Oh, yes. Gideon knew that brand and he would sooner be shot than ride for it. He had hunted down Nelson and, months before, started the talk that would eventually ruin Tarlston’s ability to mascaraed as a decent human being. He had promised everything he was or would be to tracking down every last miserable coward who had anything to do with burning the Harris place. It may have been too little too late, but Gideon had learned to stand.

  He couldn’t expect Eddie Rivers to understand this– any of it. You had to have been there. And she hadn’t. Oh well, one more against him.

  Add it to the list, will we?

  If’n ya’d be so kind.

  “And by the way,” said Eddie, “if I hear you’ve run again, you had better run straight to Sheriff Gandy and beg him to lock you up, because behind bars is the only place you’ll be safe from me.”

  Gideon blinked. The woman meant it. And she expected it to matter. And Gideon dang near believed her. Good grief.

  “Aspen?” she called.

  When her nephew arrived, Eddie directed him bring a bowl of soup for Gideon. But Gideon did not want anything. He had not wanted anything when Lee offered and he still did not want anything now.

  “Who’s asking you? Eat,” said Eddie.

  “It’s my stomach,” Gideon argued.

  “And my soup. So eat.”

  Smells good.

  Traitor.

  Aspen cajoled Gideon into trying the soup. No one in their right mind turned down Aunt Eddie’s food. Then again, Aspen wasn’t entirely convinced Gideon was in his right mind. If only he would stop and think for two minutes together, he might not land in so many scrapes. Evidence of such perspicacious forethought was profoundly lacking; Gov was an incorrigible maverick who couldn’t see two steps ahead. Aspen wondered what on earth he was going to do with this latest addition to his brotherly duties. Strangling him seemed like a great idea.

  Lee waited until Eddie took the empty soup bowl to Connell’s kitchen and then slipped into the surgery. He found Gideon, out cold, leaning against Aspen. Perhaps mountains could be moved. Aspen shrugged his acceptance of the unlikely situation and tipped his head by way of inviting Lee in.

  “Told him you wouldn’t strangle him,” Lee said, leaning in close to be heard.

  “I’ll do it later,” Aspen whispered, lowering Gideon gently. “Will you go with Aunt Eddie tonight?”

  “I got as much right to be here as you,” Lee refused, having fully intended to ask Aspen the same thing.

  “Have as much right,” Aspen corrected, “and, yes, you do, but I’d take it as a favor if you’d let me stay.”

  “Maybe we both can,” Lee countered, flicking a furtive glance at the open door.

  “Come on, it’s Aunt Eddie. You know she’ll haul one of us off, will or nil.”

  “Forget it. I’m staying.”

  Lee pulled a blanket over Gideon. Aspen would have to up the ante before he would let himself be nudged to the sidelines again. He’d had quite enough of that lately.

  “I’ll owe you,” Aspen let his inflection suggest this could be leverage indeed to an enterprising sibling.

  A swish of skirt fabric and the tapping of footsteps forewarned the brothers, and they hastily pulled away from each other. Their whispered argument loitered about, pretending not to exist. Eddie gave a wave and her boys nodded in a ‘be right there’ sort of way.

  The moment she turned her back, the brothers resumed their argument, by gesture and nod, over Gideon’s sleeping body. He stirred vaguely and they tucked him in, swapping looks full of meaning all the while. The debate continued until they stood in the waiting room, at which point studied casualness became the attitude of choice.

  “Are you boys about done?” Eddie asked.

  “Done?” they chorused, with equal attempts at radiating perfect innocence.

  “Deciding which of you will be my guest tonight,” Eddie clarified overly sweetly, and completely unnecessarily.

  Aspen answered quickly, giving Lee no chance to edge in. Seeing no reason to let himself be railroaded, Lee immediately voiced his own opinion. Into this hushed argument Tadhg Connell all unknowingly entered.

  “How did the birthing go?” Eddie asked warmly, despite having inserted the question edgewise between her brisk handling of her family.

  “Right as rain and none bette
r, Eddie,” Connell replied, sidestepping to the relative safety of his desk.

  They were far too familiar with each other to bother with the formality of mister and missus. It was this very familiarity, in fact, that made Connell quite willing to leave the field of battle entirely to Eddie. She would have her way in good time.

  “Splendid, Arbuckle’s is on,” Eddie remarked, hustling a reluctant Lee towards the door. “You heard me. Out!”

  The boy tried to protest and found himself doubly harangued as Aspen added his own admonishments. That he was being sacrificed, compliments of his older brother’s machinations, only lent force to Lee’s objections.

  “Out! Need anything?” Eddie tossed the offer to Connell.

  “Supper?” the doctor suggested, in eager anticipation of a yes; coffee was good, but food he did not have to cook was even better.

  “Aspen will be happy to bring a plate back with him.”

  Connell chuckled and slipped into the kitchen as Aspen too was pulled inexorably into the current of Eddie’s will. He poured himself a cup of the steaming coffee and couldn’t help but overhear the arguing. There weren’t many people who could shift Aspen once his mind was made up; it was like trying to shove against a draught horse that simply had no inclination to budge.

  “Did you not just tell your brother to obey his aunt?” Eddie scolded.

  “But I—”

  “Are you back-talking me, Aspen Rivers?” Eddie lifted a hand the not-so-short-distance required to level a finger at her 6’4” nephew. “You are going to have a decent meal with your aunt whilst Tadhg looks after our boy, something at which he is eminently proficient. Go on, or do I have to call you by your given name?”

  The threat hit home and quite suddenly Tadhg Connell’s office was empty. Out on the broad street, Lee took full advantage of the chance to snigger at Aspen’s expense. Aspen caught him in a headlock that was only partially playful.

  “Had you agreed,” Aspen hissed in Lee’s ear.

  “You’re the one who gets to come back, Fr—”

  The indiscreet jibe was cut off by the application of Aspen’s hand over his little brother’s mouth.

  “Don’t start that. You know what will happen,” Aspen cautioned.

  Lee was the only brother who knew Aspen’s full, given name and the satisfaction of being able to rib him so effectively was a balm against the angst of being outmaneuvered by him.