DISCLAIMER: AS ALWAYS, I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE WALKER, TEXAS RANGER CHARACTERS NOR IS ANY OWNERSHIP IMPLIED.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: IN THE HAYES COOPER FLASHBACKS OF THE LAST EPISODES OF WTR, SYDNEY'S CHARACTER WAS NOT NAMED. SINCE SHE IS A VITAL CHARACTER IN THESE STORIES, SHE NEEDED A NAME, SO I TOOK THE LIBERTY OF CHOOSING A NAME FOR HER.
"Mornin', Cooper," Deputy Judd Weaver closed the door to the jail behind him and crossed the room to the crackling woodstove, whistling cheerfully as he went. He helped himself to a cup of strong coffee from the pot on top of the stove and sat down on the wooden chair across from Sheriff Hayes Cooper. Still whistling his cheerful tune, he took off his hat and tossed it on the table between him and the sheriff, who grimaced at the puff of dust it released as it hit the worn wooden surface.
"Sorry, boss," Judd's face reddened when he saw the small dust cloud rise from his old hat and drift into his boss's face, directed by the late summer morning's breeze through the open window.
Hayes Cooper's face showed the slightest sign of a smile. It was really hard to get or stay angry at the young deputy for any length of time for most any reason, especially when he reminded Cooper so much of himself at that age: young, fiery, and with a true passion for justice.
"You seem to be in an especially good mood this morning, Weaver," Cooper noted. "Any particular reason why?"
"Yes, sir, there is." A broad grin spread across Judd Weaver's face. "I stopped at the general store this morning. I ordered something real special and it just arrived on last night's stage. Take a look at this."
Weaver stood and pulled a small velveteen bag from his hip pocket. He untied the string that held it shut and then turned the bag upside down above the wooden tabletop. A delicate golden band sang out a metallic ringing noise as it fell to the worn surface and circled to a stop, gleaming in the sunlight that streamed through the window.
"Well, I'll be…" Cooper began, letting out a low whistle.
"That's right, boss. I made up my mind and bought Lily a wedding ring. I'm going to ask her to marry me."
Cooper picked the ring up and studied it closely. The thin gold band was etched with a scrolled pattern and was quite lovely, much nicer than the plain band Althea wore. Yet Althea was a no-nonsense kind of woman and her wedding band suited her. This fancy band was definitely more suited for Lily, who had been raised back east and had a certain flair about her that came from her theater background and her years of singing in the saloon she now owned. Yes, this ring was definitely more her style.
"So, what do you think?" Weaver asked nervously. "Do you think she'll like it?"
"I think I'm paying you too damn much is what I think," Cooper joked, handing the ring back to the young deputy. "And yes. Yes. I think she'll like it very much. When are you going to ask her?"
Judd Weaver let out a long sigh and scratched his fingers through his long blond hair. "I don't know. Do you know it took me well over a year and a gunfight to get up the nerve to talk to her in the first place? I don't want to wait a year and I'm definitely not in the mood for getting shot at."
Hayes Cooper looked thoughtful for a moment. "Althea and I were thinking about riding out to the old homestead this Sunday after church to look around and to see how Matt and Berkey are doing with the horses out there. Why don't you and Lily come with us? There are some pretty places along the creek where you could take a walk," Cooper grinned and winked, knowing Weaver would understand that he was giving him a perfect opportunity to steal Lily away and propose to her in private.
"But shouldn't one of us stay here in town in case there's a problem?" Weaver asked.
"I'll leave word with the mayor where we'll be. If there's a problem, he can send for us. We won't be that far away. Besides, I don't think there will be any problems, not on a Sunday, at least," Cooper replied. They were lucky. As far as cattle towns in Texas went, Bovine was pretty quiet, and their two jail cells usually only housed drunken cowboys who needed to cool off and sober up after a night of drinking and fighting at the Red Ox Saloon.
"I suppose you're right," Weaver replied. "It is pretty quiet around here."
"Since you became deputy and Matt and Berkey took to managing that herd of horses, we don't get much excitement anymore," Cooper chuckled.
Judd Weaver felt his face redden once again. It was true. Back in the day, he and his friends used to spend a lot of nights drinking and tearing up the town. Since he and his former roughnecking buddies had settled down, though, so had things in Bovine. Ah, well, they had sowed their wild oats and it was fun while it lasted, he thought with more than a twinge of shame.
"I suppose I had better ask Lily about Sunday." Weaver stood and picked his hat up off the table and strode out of the jail, as Cooper grinned at the young deputy's obvious embarrassment. Funny how falling head over heels in love could whip a young man into line and change his whole life, he mused, recalling how the same thing had happened to him when he had met a certain Miss Althea Bloom not all that long ago.
Liliana Westfall rifled through the pile of dresses on her bed, mentally dismissing dress after dress for reason after reason: too lacy, too frilly, too much, too little, too bright, too flouncy, too everything. She pushed her hair off her brow and sighed in frustration as the pile of discarded dresses grew. Why, oh, why did she ever let Althea Cooper talk her in to going to church with her and her husband that morning? She had nothing to wear that was even appropriate for church. She had been part of a traveling theater troupe and a saloon singer. The latter alone was enough to keep her from setting foot inside a church lest lightning strike it and the depths of Hell yawn open beneath it. It wasn't that she didn't believe in God; it was that after all she had been through, she felt that God no longer believed in her.
At least that's what she thought up until last spring when that handsome roughneck finally found both his tongue and his nerve at the same moment and spoke to her. Judd Weaver had been coming to the Red Ox Saloon for almost a year to drink or play poker. He always seemed to find a seat right close to the piano and he always found a way to make eye contact or put himself in her path if she was crossing the room, but all he ever seemed to do was tip his hat and smile at her. If some drunken cowboy was giving her trouble, he always stood up for her, but he never spoke directly to her, not until the day of the shootout with Moon Lavocat's gang when her dear friend Clarence was killed. Funny, the day she lost her dearest and closest friend in Bovine, the day she felt God had abandoned her the most – more than the day she awoke to find that Albert had taken the early stage back east and had left her, broke and all alone in that dusty, forsaken cattle town – was the day her luck had changed for the better. That was the day Judd Weaver finally spoke to her. Two weeks later, she was the proud owner of a house and a saloon thanks to Clarence, and not long after that, Judd was courting her. All was right in Lily's world, so maybe God hadn't forgotten her after all. The very least she could do was go to church and thank Him.
Lily poked through the mass of ruffles and lace once more time. Surely there was something in that heap of fabric suitable for Sunday church services. Her dark eyes settled on an errant ruffle at the bottom of the pile. She pulled out what was probably the plainest dress she owned, a pale lavender dress with elbow-length fitted sleeves and an ankle-length scalloped hem adorned with a single ruffle. The waistline was cinched with a dark purple sash that tied in a large bow at the back. Somewhere, she had a hat with the same dark purple ribbon. The neckline of the dress was a bit too low for church, but she dug around in a trunk and found a crocheted shawl she could throw over her shoulders and pin closed over the too-revealing neckline with a cameo brooch. Lily found the hat in a hatbox and let out another frustrated sigh. She had forgotten about the feathers on the hat, and feathers just wouldn't do for church. She studied the hat closely and found that the feathers were just loosely stitched on to the hat underneath the ribbon. She pulled them off and smoothed the dark purple material to hide the broken stitches and set the hat atop her dark hair. She had just finished tying her hat in place when she heard Judd's knock at her front door.
Judd Weaver was never a church-going man. Any praying he did took place over the graves of fallen soldiers he helped to dig at the end of the Civil War, the few that were lucky enough to have graves dug for them. Most of the time he just prayed as they passed by the fallen on their way to the next battle, averting his eyes and begging God for mercy on their souls. He had lucked out in the war and had spent most of his time away from the front lines, digging trenches, scouting, and tending horses for the high-ranking brass after a kind-hearted colonel realized that he was underage. After the war, he drifted west. He'd heard stories about land and wealth and with little to nothing left for him at home, he saddled his horse, a half-starved creature he won in a poker game, and took off opposite the direction of the sunrise. There was land aplenty, that much was true; however, the stories about wealth were just that. Stories. Stories made up by other men just like him. Men who had survived the war and didn't have much, if anything to go back home to, but had a lot of hope in their hearts and dreams in their heads. As Judd struggled to eke out some kind of living in the west, the idea of God drifted farther and farther from his mind; not a difficult thing to do when churches and preachers were few and far between and praying was something one only tended to do when faced with imminent danger. When Hayes Cooper told him that his wife had suggested inviting him and Lily to join them at church that Sunday before riding out to their old homestead for a picnic, Weaver was apprehensive. The idea of being in a church made him feel uncomfortable, but with his plan to ask Lily to marry him, he knew he was going to have to set foot in a church at some point so he felt it was best to get it over with sooner than later.
Any apprehension Judd felt that morning melted away the moment Lily opened her door and greeted him with a pleasant smile.
"Ready?" Judd asked, holding his arm out for Lily.
Lily nodded in return, closing the door behind her.
"I must say, we do make a very respectable-looking couple," Judd observed with a smile.
"Let's hope the church-going folks of Bovine think the same way," Lily replied, nervously fidgeting with her shawl and the brooch that held it closed over the neckline of her dress.
"I can't see why they wouldn't," Judd squeezed Lily's hand and smiled at her. "And if they don't, I wouldn't care anyway."
They met Althea and Hayes Cooper outside the church. Althea was holding a cranky baby Jane who was struggling in her mother's arms to be let down. The baby girl had just recently taken her very first steps and was anxious for her mother to put her down and let her explore, but Althea was having none of it.
"I'm hoping she tires herself out and falls asleep soon, otherwise the pastor and the entire congregation are going to be very upset with me," Althea told Lily as they walked toward the church where the pastor greeted them warmly.
"Deputy Weaver, welcome, it's good to see you here." Pastor Gibson extended his hand to Judd.
"Pastor," Althea spoke, "this is Lily Westfall. She is a friend of ours."
The pastor held his hand out welcomingly to Lily as well. "Miss Westfall, it's good to see you here, too. We're always pleased to welcome new faces to our congregation."
Lily nodded her head shyly. "Thank you," she replied. She could already feel the curious eyes upon her as Judd guided her into the church ahead of him and they took their seats in the pew next to Althea and Cooper.
Behind them, Lily could hear the whispers. Her face felt hot and she felt sick to her stomach. In the pew behind them, Rose Tinsley spoke just loud enough for Judd, Lily, and the Coopers to hear.
"What is she doing here? This is no place for her kind."
Beside Lily in the pew, Althea shifted Jane in her arms and pressed her lips tightly together in a hard line.
"I'm telling you, Leroy, it's an abomination for that, that woman to be here. The pastor should be ashamed to let her through the door."
The whispering and tittering continued and hot, shameful tears stung Lily's eyes. She turned to Judd.
"They're right," she whispered hoarsely. "I don't belong here. I should go."
"No, Lily. You belong here just as much as anyone else," Judd replied, his bright blue eyes filled with sympathy. "It doesn't matter what they think. It's what God thinks that's important."
Lily gave Judd a pained look and settled back uncomfortably in the pew between him and Althea. Behind them, Rose Tinsley continued her stream of vitriol.
"Althea Cooper, just what were you thinking? And with a young child to worry about, too. Have you lost your mind?"
Althea heard all she intended to hear. She turned and shot Rose Tinsley an icy glare.
"Rose Tinsley, how absolutely unchristian of you. I'll thank you to keep your thoughts to yourself," Althea snapped harshly. The sharp tone of her voice awakened the dozing baby in her arms and Jane squirmed and squealed her displeasure. Althea cringed. She had hoped that Jane would sleep through the service. She rocked the baby and murmured calming words to her, allowing the baby to suck on her fingertip to soothe herself back to sleep.
"I can't help how I feel, Althea. If that makes me a poor Christian, then so be it. I'll answer to the Lord, and not to you and your choice of company." Rose Tinsley's voice was shrill, drawing the attention of the other churchgoers. Lily squeezed her eyes shut, fighting the tears that were threatening to fall at any second. She couldn't let these people see her break and cry. She started to stand to leave, but Pastor Gibson's voice boomed throughout the sanctuary, welcoming the congregation and signaling the start of the service. Lily let out a ragged breath and settled herself once again in the pew between Althea and Judd. At least with Pastor Gibson speaking, Rose Tinsley would be quiet.
Judd Weaver was painfully aware of Lily's discomfort and was growing angrier and angrier by the second at the vicious commentary coming from the pew behind them. He longed to take Lily's hand and reassure her but he knew that was inappropriate behavior for church. Instead, he rubbed his elbow as inconspicuously as he could against Lily's arm. He heard her sigh softly and felt her seem to relax slightly, but that did little to calm his anger. He knew that Mrs. Tinsley had no issue at all with the money that Lily's saloon made for her husband's bank, and he had a good mind to point that fact out to the woman the first chance he had.
The ebb and flow of Pastor Gibson's voice and words as he spoke the scripture had a calming effect on Lily and a peacefulness fell over her despite the morning's unpleasantness. She had to admit, it was a feeling she had long missed. When the pastor asked the congregation to stand and sing, Lily was pleased to find he had chosen a hymn that had been one of her favorites since childhood. Her crystal-clear soprano soared above the other voices in the room until she remembered herself and who and where she was. She dropped her voice and finished the song at barely a whisper. Pastor Gibson noticed and made mention of it.
"Somebody brought a lovely singing voice with them today. I wish they would have finished the song for us," he said with a kind smile before he continued with the sermon.
Lily could feel the piercing eyes on the back of her neck and wanted to crawl beneath the pew and hide. She could barely concentrate on the rest of the sermon and sang the rest of the morning's hymns in a hushed voice, praying that the service would end soon. She was thankful when she heard Pastor Gibson give the final prayer and bid the congregation farewell for the week. As she stood to leave with Judd, Althea, and Cooper, she tried to make herself as small as possible so as not to draw any further attention to herself.
Pastor Gibson stopped them at the door. "Deputy Weaver, it was good to see you today. I hope you'll come back. And Miss Westfall, was that your beautiful voice I heard singing?"
Lily nodded shyly. "It may have been, Pastor."
"Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Everyone is welcome here, you know. Everyone. I do hope you'll come back, too," Pastor Gibson smiled warmly.
Not a chance, Lily thought to herself. Not a chance in hell.