Enchanted by The Lord (Historical Victorian Romance) (9 page)

              “I’ve been thinking. I can’t get that girl off my mind. Y’all didn’t do so fair by her, if you ask me.”

              He shrugged. “You act like you had no part in it.”

              “I didn’t! I told you that I didn’t approve of you misleading her.”

              “But you did say Tom should marry, didn’t you?” He was finding the beef tough to cut and, frustrated, stopped and sat  back in his chair. “Aw, you’re right. When you’re right, you're right. I guess it’s my conscience bothering me.”

              She leaned forward. “Maybe, dear brother, you’d feel a bit better if you told her your role in all this? If you’re going to keep running into her, seems you might clear the air.”

              Jeb considered this proposal. “I can see how that would be best. Lying is a sin, and I guess my not telling the whole tale is a lie of sorts.”

              “A lie of omission?”

              “That’s the phrase.” He sighed. “I’ll need to drop in on Gertie again sooner than later.”

*****

              Jeb rode into town the next morning and was surprised when he tied up his horse outside of Daisy’s to see dozens of customers inside. He was able to find a table and soon found there was a respectable wait for help. Eventually, Gertie came around to his table.

              “What can I get for you, Jeb?”

              “You mind if I wait for Louisa? I wanted to have a few words with her, if it ain’t too much trouble.”

              The woman gave him a knowing smile. “I’ll see she comes around your way.”

              After a short wait, Louisa walked over. She wore a plain, dark-blue dress with a long smock covering most of it, and a bow in her hair. She gave him a half-smile. “Ann makes a powerfully good breakfast. Surprised to see you here, unless you plan to fatten up a little before getting to work?”

              Jeb grinned. “Tempting to try more of Gertie’s fare for a snack, but I was hoping I might be able to talk to you during a break.”

              She glanced around at the tables. “You might have a bit of a wait. We’re not usually this busy, I’m told.”

              “Word of mouth about the lovely new waitress, I’m sure.” He suggested.

              Louisa gave him a skeptical glance. “I’m fairly sure it was that you stood up to Frank. People don’t care very much for him, it seems.”

              “So I may visit you during your break?”

              “I suppose so. Try around noon.”

              Jeb spent the morning visiting with folks in the town, people he’d come to know very well in the past decade. Though the banter was familiar and he was interested in their stories, he felt distracted the entire time. It was strange, and he couldn’t place where the feeling was coming from, but there was an unpleasant feeling in his stomach, a tension that shouldn’t have been there.

              When Louisa was finally free, he escorted her along the plank sidewalk of town towards the outskirts. There, the prairie ran directly up against the final building, stretching for long distances out into the fenced off ranges of the cattle ranchers. They stepped off the planks and strolled along the roadside, finishing up the necessary polite talk that such company called for.

              “I understand you’ve had little chance to acquaint yourself with the country since you’ve arrived. I thought it might be nice to see some of it.”

              “It is indeed lovely.” She agreed readily. The view of the Rockies in the near distance helped give the place a border; otherwise, it would have seemed as though a great sea of land stretched out before them endlessly beneath a blazing sun and big sky.

              “I fear I have something to confess.” He began, clearing his throat. “I am not proud of this, but you must know.”

              Louisa shook her head. “That is a shame. I had a more favorable impression from you from your act of courage yesterday. I suppose if you must say something upsetting, it would be best if you do so and do it quickly.”

              “Thomas wasn’t so keen to write, so it fell to me. I wrote the letters.”

              “I see.” She breathed in sharply, then let it all out in a single rush of air. “Fine. You were the one with whom I wrote. That which is done is done and there seems little point in dwelling upon it.”

              Despite her words, he could sense the disappointment and hurt in her voice. He didn’t understand why in the short time he had known her that it had already begun to regret his part in the matter.

              He apologized once more. “Had I realized how much it would wrong you, I’d have never agreed to it.”

              “I only ask that we never speak of it again. It’s past.” She let that sink in and then took his arm. “I’ve had to let a lot of things from the past go, Jeb. I don’t choose to live there anymore. I’m here, and I’m ready to see what my future holds.”

              “That’s a good way of seeing things.” He agreed, feeling warm and comfortable in her presence. The nervousness passed and he instead he felt he was right where he belonged. “You have, if you don’t mind my saying, Miss Louisa, the proper attitude about life.”

              “I do try.” They walked for some time before each of them had to get back to their work.

              As Jeb rode out on the range to check up on the livestock that evening, he thought back on the afternoon with Louisa. “I have to see her again,” He said to himself with a smile. He tried to think of a way to make that work.

              He was deep in thought as the riders crossed the plain, keeping close to the shadows.

*****

              Curly thought he had the drop on Jeb and lowered his rifle.

              “Not yet, you idiot.” Brock muttered. They were still a long distance away from their target. The sun was beginning to set. From long experience as a gunman, Brock knew he wanted to catch Jeb in the perfect light, from the right, safe distance. There were no heights from which he’d be able to shoot adequately; otherwise, he’d have chosen that approach.

              “I got him, though” Curly complained.

              Brock gritted his teeth. He wasn’t pleased to be working with these local guys. Johnny, the lean man to his left on the pinto, might have half a brain, but Curly and Ike were pure morons. He wished that Frank had let him work on his own.

              “You got him? Great. Wait until I give the word. If you miss him, it’s going to be your ass Frank takes it out on. Not mine.”

              “Yeah, okay.” Curly glumly agreed.

              “In fact, ride on the hell out of here. You’re getting on my last nerve. We’ll do this ourselves. You boys just follow my lead.”

              Curly turned his horse angrily and left. The man wouldn’t normally take guff from anyone, but Brock had a reputation as a skilled killer. None of them wanted to cross him.

              The three remaining men watched as Jeb rode along and finally stopped and got off his horse. The man was checking something on a sheep, possibly its hoof. Brock judged the light to be just right.

              “All right boys. Draw on him. After you take your shot, ride in and finish him if he don’t go down. We clear?”

              “You got it.” Johnny said, pulling out his gun.

              “Let’s go. Wait.” He saw a glint of metal flashing from behind the sheep.

              The gun blasted three times. He felt a sharp pain along his shoulder blade and a moment later Ike was spinning and falling off his horse.

              “Damn it!” He shot, but the shots went wide. Johnny’s missed their mark as well. Once it was clear they’d failed, they spurred their horses forward.

              It was less than ideal, but Brock felt reasonably sure he could still put the man in the ground. It’d be his fiftieth kill, and he hated the idea of missing that magic number.

              They closed the distance quickly, but from a stationary position with a dead sheep in front of him- one of them had apparently gunned down the sheep- he was taking his time and picking his target. Brock unloaded and was about to give Johnny another order when he saw the man was slumped over the neck of his horse. He slid and fell off.

              It was just him and the target now, and he was in a far worse position than he had been when he’d started off. He slowed the horse and, from his higher position, assumed he’d get the shot off without a problem. As Brock gained control over his horse, he smiled and began to lower his gun.

              Unfortunately for Brock, his gun fell from his lifeless hands as a shot rang out from his intended target. The gunman followed his gun as he dropped off the horse.

              Jeb stood up, letting himself breath for the first time since the ambush had begun. He’d seen them from a distance minutes before they’d begun their attack. He’d expected he’d there would be retribution for his showdown at the Daisy, but he hadn’t expected it would be so blunt.

              “The Sheriff be damned.” Jeb said to himself, looking down at the dead body before him. “Time to take a ride into town.”

              Jeb rode into Oak Ridge half-expecting there would be a gunfight right on the streets as he rushed in to call out Frank. No one confronted him. But with three killers lying in pools of their own blood on his property, two of whom everyone knew to be in the employ of Frank Durant, he felt confident that it was time to confront his brother’s killer. If the Sheriff wanted to step in, that’d be his mistake.

              As he tied up at the Lucky Star, he thought he did spy Sheriff Robert Tate hanging back in the shadows along the side of the road, disinterested in the wild music, shouting, and cursing taking place in the tavern. A couple of ladies of the night were hanging about from the balcony on the building’s second story, and they called down to Jeb to grab his attention. He ignored them.

              “Watcha doing’ here, Jeb?” A man called out. It was, as he suspected, the Sheriff.

              “Ike Harmon and Johnny Gould are out on my property, same men that likely killed Tom. If you want to know, Bob, I intend to ask Frank a few direct questions about it.”

              Sheriff Tate stepped out of the shadows. “Well, that’s a mighty shame, Jeb. Always thought you were smarter than your brother. But I guess you don’t care much about that lady friend of yours, if you think it’s okay to be so brazen about your line of questioning.”

              The words caught in his throat. “I- I don’t know what you mean, Bob. Make that clear.”

              “I mean I just saw Curly Roberts escorting that Forest woman, the one from Baltimore you’ve been keeping’ company with today. He thought she could do with a bit of better company up in here. You go in there looking to cause trouble, you might not like what you find.”

              That settled his mind. “I’ll be going in there and bringing her back out. You plan to stop me?”

              The Sheriff considered the matter by looking down at his boot. “Well, I guess all of you can settle your own affairs. I may not be the best sheriff-”

              “You’re in Durant’s pocket. We all know that.”

              “I may not be the best sheriff, but I am still sheriff. Anyone other than Durant and his boys gets hurt in there, I’ll see to the law. You understand?”

              Jeb gave the man a slow smile. “Yes, Sheriff Tate. I think we understand each other.”

              “Good luck.” The man turned his back and walked away purposefully, clearly not wanting to be anywhere nearby when the shooting started.

              “Guess I better go in.” Jeb said to himself, steeling his nerve. “Don’t nobody live forever anyhow.”

*****

              On the second floor of the Lucky Star, Louisa was laying on a bed, bound, gagged, and terrified. So far, her abductor had tried nothing to harm her. He was sitting in a corner, looking bored and unhappy.

              Curly had come to her boarding house and caught her off-guard by drawing a gun on her. With only a few words, he’d made it clear she had to follow him. His behavior was bizarre, though. There was almost no pleasure in what he did, while at the restaurant it had seemed that he had nothing but lasciviousness about him.

              She tried pleading with him with her eyes. He saw it, looked away. After she started to make a great deal of incessant noise under the gag. He tried to ignore her, but as she grew louder, he finally got up and went over, pulling down her gag unkindly.

              “You keep making noise, I’ll plug you, got it? Just keep it shut.”

              “Water. Please! That’s all I ask for.”

              He huffed in annoyance. “Later.”

              “Please! I’m so thirsty. Or at least leave the gag off for a bit. I promise, I’ll be quiet.”

              Curly shook his head. “I don’t know.”

              Louisa tried to gather her thoughts and speak clearly. “Curly, whoever told you- it was Frank right? If Frank told you to do this thing, he mostly wanted to keep me quiet so I wouldn’t shout, right? That makes sense. So if I’m not noisy, there’s no reason to keep this on me. I don’t want you to hurt me. Therefore, you can trust me. Is that okay then?”