Fight for Glory (My Wounded Soldier #1) (16 page)

“Have to look. He
goes all over.”

“William?”

“Can’t abide it.
You know.”

I nodded. He
didn’t like the smells.
White folks.
He didn’t like
the looks.
The words.
Crowds.
Buildings.
What in tarnal was he doing
here.

“He said you’d
come,” Michael grinned now.

“Jimmy?”

He nodded like he
knew a joke.

I had no wish to
hear it and left. I walked between the buildings then, out back where the
houses were sprawled. I went as far as the field where the poor were buried.
Passed the foul latrines.
Then out further and I whistled
some. It was dusk now, but he’d see me alright. I walked a good piece, and had
nearly given up when I saw him leaning against the back of the store. He smoked
that pipe, and whittled some.

He had the brim
of his hat low. I didn’t want to be glad to see him, but I was.
“Big show.”

He snorted.

“
You seen
‘em?”

“Allie went to Springfield on the
train.”

“He left her to
get on the train by herself?” I asked
,
trying to make
sure I killed Jimmy for just the right reasons.

“Lenora went with
her. I learned to read some. But Mose….”

“Changed his
mind, did he?”

William nodded. “He
thought….”

“You were too
stupid.”

William nodded.

“He
may be right. You been in cahoots against me.”
“We are marrying in Springfield soon as we bring
Monroe in.”

“I won’t even
waste my time beating you within an inch. Mose will kill you soon enough.”

He stared at me. “She
is safe.
Far away from all this.”

“Like that’s good
enough.”

“He did it to
bring you here.”

“Jimmy?”

He nodded.

“Is he even going
to marry Allie?”

William shrugged.
“He says he is.”

“Has he
compromised her?”

“It’s Allie.” He
said this with some pluck.

“I trusted
you…all my life I knew you’d cover me and mine.”

“I cover Allie
now.
From you.”

“From me?”
I said up close, feeling something I never
thought I would, the desire to hurt him. Maybe kill him. I thought of Addie’s
words as William straightened, his eyes flickering to my hand, the one on the
hilt of my knife.

“I promised her. I
promised Lenora. You and Mose are the same.”

“I…I should a
brought Mose with me, and believe me, if I knew what was up I would have.” I
stomped away from him, pushed a couple of fools out of my way and made for the
road and the big man.
If I stayed by him….
I eased my
hand off that knife, but the sound of Jimmy’s voice brought it there again.

He was in a knot
of men, taking names.
“Heberbrand.
Where’d you get a
handle like that, boy?” The crowd laughed, and Jimmy wrote. Now would be the
time to stick him good. While I was thinking such someone bumped my arm and
broke the red trance I’d been in. I shook out my arms and moved my head side to
side. I pushed through that crowd, folks not happy and grumbling about it. I
stood before him and he was surprised. There came that grin. “Tom!” He put an
arm around me, and introduced me to the crowd as his best pard and the hero of
the twenty-seventh. I felt such a fury building in me my eyes watered.

Folks wanted to
shake my hand, but I kept them tight against me. Jimmy excused us and led me to
the jailhouse. When that door closed behind us, something tripped in me, and I
lashed out like a crazy man. I don’t know where they came from, but they were
on me, at least three of them, and I got loosed once, and grabbed me a chair
and held it up. They were already bleeding, Michael, William and Jimmy. “You
son of bitches, come on!” I yelled
,
swinging that
chair at Jimmy first as the other two stormed me. They dragged me in the cell
then, chair and all and I fought them with everything I had, which included the
chair which was now in pieces I was trying to use before they wrested them out
of my hands, and it took some minutes to keep me in while they tried to get
out. If Jimmy hadn’t cuffed me to the corner bar they’d of never got shed of
me. So when they were finally out and huffing, Michael’s shirt shredded,
William’s ear bleeding pretty bad, and Jimmy’s nose broke again, they were
looking at me like I was some animal right off the boat from South America.

“Damn you, Tom,”
Jimmy said, feeling his busted nose. “I’m gonna look like hell for my wedding.”

I pulled against
that cuff growling like a beast. “I’ll kill you Leidner. William you and
me
are done! We’re done!” I didn’t waste words on Michael. He
looked scared though. And well he should.

“I had to do it!”
Jimmy yelled. “A man can’t reason with you!”

“You lying,
sneaking, s.o.b., I’ll die before I see my sister married to the likes of you!”

Folks were at the
door, crammed against the window. Jimmy hurried to pull the shade and bar the
door. “Quiet down,” he said. “This is the only way I could think to get you
here. I need you, Tom. You need to hear me out. I want to marry Allie. We are
in deep and truelove.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“You ain’t gonna
kill nobody. And you ain’t going to stop us. But we want your blessing. We
tried to talk to you, but of course, that proved futile. Did you have to bust
my nose? Damn.” He was tearing his handkerchief in strips so he could roll them
careful and plug his nostrils to catch the blood.

The red haze was
pulling back some. I couldn’t accomplish a thing by yelling and thrashing,
other than hurting my wrist. And I’d need it to kill them later, so I started
to calm a bit.
My own sister planning against me, too.
Addie. Allie. Jimmy. William.
Even Michael.
I had
nothing.

But oddly enough,
I felt kind of still inside. Going crazy was its own kind of medicine for a man
like me. I’d been restraining myself all-day, ever since my dispute with Addie
in the wee hours. I hadn’t slept much, had walked miles, harvested corn, ridden
hard to get here,
then
gone plumb loco. I was feeling
ready for a good nap. But first I had me a laugh, a good crazy man’s laugh, and
this scared them more than the fighting had. And when I was done, I hunkered
down best I could with my hand in such a fix, and I settled to sleep. I was
known for it in the war, and still had the talent. I could sleep in a
hurricane. And now, I was smiling.

“Tom,” Jimmy
called, my need to sleep somehow alarming to him. “I ain’t told you the plan
yet, the one where we send these sodbusters on a cold trail and you, me and the
boys go after the prize. A man could marry with money like that. A man could
get a start.”

I ignored him, I
ignored them all as I let sleep claim me.

What prize?

Tom
Tanner

Chapter
Twenty

When I asked what
prize I could feel their hope. They all perked up, even William. Jimmy was
tripping over himself trying to talk fast with his nose swollen and those rolls
in his nostrils looking like bloody tusks. Boyle Monroe would laugh in his beer
if he saw them now, the great menacing lawmen about to take him down.

“Here’s the
thing,” Jimmy was saying, all clogged in the voice, “that reward is a goodly
piece among four men know what they’re doing minus fifty or so.”

“Ain’t I said so
from the first,” I remind.

“We will put
these ones wanting a taste of the trail toward Springfield. Bimes is fixing to lead them as
he was over supplies in Hoopdale and ain’t ever got over it. I have made him my
right hand and he has worked like a train of mules. Off they go with Bimes
leading. And we head straight for Monroe’s
camp.”

“His camp?”

“William and
me
been trailing him for months. He’s set up in the south of
our fine state and the governor blesses any lawman can apprehend him, and we
will be given five thousand dollars to bring him in and another two if we can
get him here alive so they can have their display in court.”

It was then I
realized my lips, barely out of distress, save for their foray over Addie’s beautiful
skin, were so swollen once again I could not whistle like I wanted to when I
heard such an amount.

“And the minus
fifty, what’s that?” I said getting greedy, for I had already forged ahead in
my mind, seeing Addie’s farm made new. That would give me the funds to get
enough machinery for joining the farms and making her a house that she and the
children could flourish in. That’s if she’d have me, which she would not, and
if she could try…try mind you…not to marry Cousin. She was the most exasperating…I
needed to give her up. I didn’t say I would, even though I’d said that in times
of trouble, but I surely needed to.

They were having
a confab among themselves, but Jimmy prevailed. “
That
fifty dollars be for Gaylin. I said he could ride along. He
ain’t
never
seen so much.”

I pulled at the
cuffs again. Then I remembered I was done with that futile display. “Why?”

“He…I…..”

“If you say you
will keep him safe I will chew off my hand to get to you.”

He took a big
breath in…through his mouth, “Some point he can stay with the horses. But he
wants to come…and frankly, this may keep him from worse. He’s fixed on running
away.”

“Then let him
run.”

“He can’t run
when you’re running. Are you still running? Anyway, your pa needs hands.”

“You let him run,
I’ll bring him home.
But not in a box.
Not nearly.”

“You always try
to lead through me! You ain’t got a submissive bone in your ass-hole riddled
body! I’m sick of it…sick of you!” He winced and held his nose again. “I’m
sheriff,” he said more controlled. “And I say he goes, and you need to get out
of your bad mood
cause
I’m fixing to let my gun
accidently fire one of these times.”

“You talk big
when a man is handcuffed and caged and you got your lackeys round you. You fire
at
me,
best make sure your aim is smart.”

He got het up
then, grabbing the keys off the hook by the door, rattling around opening the
cell, stepping in. He stopped then and drew his gun. “You think I couldn’t do
it? Wasn’t for Allie I might have done it already.”

“Oooheee!”
I yelled, loving when he got like this. “That’s
it. That’s our good sheriff.”

He pulled the
hammer. “Shut your yapper you pigsticker. I done put up with all of your
shit….”

“My shit?”

“…through the war, and after.
I’ve had more from you than a
man should ever allow another.”

“Cap,” William
said coming close.

“You want to
blame me for Garrett, go on. But come down to it you weren’t man enough to do
it. Weren’t for me you’d of let him in that fix for hours more. I said enough. And
I say enough now,” Jimmy said.

I pulled hard
against the cuff. I wanted him to fire so I could grab that gun when he dropped
down and begged my forgiveness, and I could kill him before I died.

“I’m giving you a
chance to make something. You want to go west, go to hell and lick on the
devil,
I say go and good riddance. You told me we were
through and I was dead to you, well before you go burying folks maybe you ought
to know it feels like shit to be anywhere near you. You pulled that trigger on
Garrett
cause
you wanted to. You had promised and you
didn’t have the grit to do it so you used me threatening you into it and now I
got to pay for it. You’re a punisher, that’s what, and Garrett was here he’d
slap the shit out of you himself. You got your whole family on the run.”

“Cap,” William
said again
cause
there was a goodly amount of hate in
this.

“Even that woman.
She’s leaving with that fella, ain’t she? Gaylin,
Allie. The shame ain’t in losing Garrett, but that’s where you like to put it. The
shame is in everyone else you’re running off.
It’s
gonna be you, Pa and Ma. That’s it. That’s what you’ll have. That’s all you’ll
have
cause
they’re getting too old to fight you.”

“Thanks for
helping me see the light, Sheriff,” I said.

William
snickered, and turned away. Michael was carrying on about his new shirt being
ruined.

Jimmy waved his
gun at me and walked out, but they did not lock the door this time.

And finally I
could get me some shut eye.

But it wasn’t
long before I was rousted from sleep by the carrying on in the streets. I was
the only one in here and Lord I had to take me a piss something fierce. I was
hungry too. And mad they would pull me from a dream about Addie. Even if it was
a study in patheticness,
me begging and her
rejecting
me.

Where was she
right now?
With him.
I couldn’t think about it. I had
to believe that somewhere in there she couldn’t get shod of me no more than I
could her. I knew she needed me to back off and simmer down. But I left her
with nothing solid to go on.

Michael burst in.
He saw me still cuffed there. He had on another shirt, and looked like he’d
just got woken up himself. He looked around for the keys, I reckon, said, “He’s
got ‘em. I’ll be right back.”

“What’s all the
fuss?” I asked, meaning on the streets.

“Ah…train to Springfield got robbed.
But…just thievin’.
The womenfolk should be fine.”

“Should be fine?”
I roared. “Get me outta these things!”

He ran out then.

I didn’t want to
start the day like this. I could feel the red rush, and I didn’t want it now. I
had to piss. “I have to piss,” I shouted. A boy stuck his head in then, and his
eyes grew wide.
 
“Get!” I said, and he
did.

If one hair on
Allie’s head was out of place, one hair….

Here he came then
looking like almighty hell with that broken nose and his heavy eyes. “She’s
fine. The
boys is
back, and looks like it was Monroe robbing trains up
and down the line now. He
don’t
take hostages at
least.
Got my goldurn wedding ring though.
She had it
on her finger for safekeeping and he made her hand it over. There goes five
dollars down the shit-hole.”

“He got that
close!” I was seeing red again.

“I said she’s
fine! She sent me her love
an
all!”

“Send Gaylin to
find her and stay by her side,” I ordered.

He nodded. “I
done sent Lem. Allie is staying with my aunt, her and Lenora. They should be
there by now, all safe.”

He was unlocking
those cuffs, and I had to rub my wrist it was so sore. My hand had no blood and
if it did I might
of
wrung his neck.

“Fool plan….” I
said. “All of it, these busters…Allie…fool plan.”

“There’s a bright
side. Bimer led the posse out at dawn to follow that fresh trail from where
they overtook the train. Couldn’t have planned it better myself. They’ll have
that trail so churned up, should keep them busy for a few days. Should
of
seen them riding to glory like a herd of buffalo.” He
laughed.

I stood then and
pushed him aside. It was bright outside, and already hot. It was some quiet
with the posse gone. I went round back of the jail and pissed, took a sniff of
myself while I did, and it was none too good. Had some dried blood on my chin, and
one hand holding my
willy
the other working that blood
from my whiskers. I buttoned and tucked a few things, dug grit from my eyes and
scratched on my teeth. I needed my knapsack and my kit. But first I needed to
find Gaylin and send him home.

I checked my
pocket and pulled out that bandana. I held it tight in my hand, and just felt
that girl in my mind. Lord God…did she not know she was mine? Did she not know?

I couldn’t get
soft, I couldn’t stay crazy. I had to think now. I would go for this Monroe. Coming round Allie
made it personal. Too many of these outlaws were springing up. I might have
gone that way myself if I were William or Jimmy or like the others with no one
to care. But now I’d stand in the rushing water, like she said, I’d be the
boulder, the good and the bad of it, I’d be the one taking a stand, and I’d
turn that meanness where it belonged, onto Monroe and his band. I’d go up
against their dark sides and maybe, somehow, rid myself of my own.

Gaylin was not to
be found. I knew his pards and a couple of them were stuffing their mouths in
the diner. Reckon they didn’t feel the call same as Gaylin and they’d stayed
behind. “Where Gaylin be?” I said standing by their table.

One, Cooter they
called him, looked at me and ate faster. The other had his mouth open and I saw
the nearly chewed food in there.

“Speak!” said I,
and folks looked.

The serving girl
went by, then, holding a tray full of beef seemed like. “You’re Tom Tanner,”
she said.

“Yes Ma’am,” I
removed my hat.

“Been through
hard times,” she said, walking past, taking food to folks.

I ran my hand
through my hair and looked away from her. I had cleaned up some. “You
boys
best tell me where he be. I know he don’t want found by
me, but his ma and pa need to speak with him. So tell me now and I won’t shove
this table over and pound your livers into jelly.” I said this civil.

“Reckon you need
to sit and I’ll bring you coffee,” serving girl said, going past with the big
tray empty now.

“Hear me boys?” I
said, but they were stuck, not wanting to be the first to break. “I’ll be at
this table right here. I’m gonna drink a cup of coffee, and after that, you
don’t come spill to me I’ll be flipping that table like Jesus did with the
money changers.”

I moved to the
next table and sat. Serving girl brought the coffee pot, turned the tin cup
that sat on the table over and filled it with dark strong brew. “Thanks Miss,”
said I.

“You don’t
remember me, do you?” she said, me keeping my eyes nailed on those boys and not
the two ample breasts she had very near. I didn’t want them, but I wasn’t dead,
as I must keep explaining to folks, or I had told Seth at least and
myself
more than a few times.

“My name is
Purdy. I went through school with you and the boys.”

“Reckon I should
apologize, just in case.”

“You should,” she
said, not unfriendly, but not friendly either. “You were the meanest. Reckon
you called me fat so many times. And when you threw a snowball, might as well
been a rock.
Don’t start no
trouble in here with those
boys. Not in here.”

I was in a fix, sorry
to her, but
more mad
than anything that she accosted
me like this.

I looked at those
boys, still eating
quick,
wanting to get it all down
before I beat them. “Reckon that’s their call,” I said.

“Haven’t changed.
Heard you came through the war. Always thought
you were the handsomest, maybe Garrett was more, but you always had the looks,
so full of yourself.”

Her hand was on
her hip, and those breasts were getting bigger or closer, I couldn’t tell. I
kept my eyes on those boys.

“He was the good
one, that Garrett.
Always tried to keep you in line, all of
you’ins.
I wondered how you would do without him. Jimmy stepped in, and
William, you never really know what he’s thinking, but you…they say you keep to
yourself. Folks say you came back broken.”

I looked at her
now. “Is that right?”

The minute I took
my eyes off them, those two got on their feet and scurried out. I was quick
too. I maneuvered around those breasts, dug in my pocket for coin and slapped
it against the table. Then I hurried after those two. I caught one in the
gangway and smashed the side of his face against the wall. “Where’s he at?”

“I don’t know, I
swear, they told us not to tell.”

“Who told you
that?” I flipped him around. He was huffing, and I had to leap back when he
lost his breakfast all over the front of him, and damn if he didn’t hit my
boots and I could smell the whiskey in it.

“Don’t rightly
remember it all. We was passing the jar…going to ride out this morning…and
Gaylin was there, these two fella’s, older and fearsome looking, and Gaylin had
him that star Jimmy made pinned there on his shirt cause he was officially
deputized, and they took him.”