Will We Make It Thru December
Chapter Two
Scott Lancer was meeting his 'little' brother at the saloon in Green River, after the errands that is... Murdoch Lancer, their father, insisted on 'killing two birds with one stone.'
Which in the Scot's point of view meant Johnny was getting the supplies while his elder son did the banking, dropping off papers at the lawyers and picking up the mail.
Scott had heard such sayings before from his grandfather, Harlan Garrett of Boston. Such tidbits as 'waste not, want not', 'never put off tomorrow, what can be done today', he had grown up with such wisdom.
Now his father has his own 'points of wisdom' to impart to his sons.
He smiled as he spotted his brother entering the saloon ahead of him, now his little brother... there was an enigma.
The younger man had been born on Lancer, taken away before the age of two by a mother with an agenda all her own, raised in the poor and decidedly dangerous conditions of Mexican border towns, and grew up fast and hard... Lord... was even a renowned gunfighter.
Yet the boy retained a good heart and was finally tearing down the walls of mistrusts and anger.
Scott also loved his brother's view of life, 'live for today, ain't no promise for tomorrow.'
It was a fatalistic view of life from someone so young, but Scott understood where it had come from, and he hoped with his father and Teresa they could change that stance and show his brother the future is there for the taking.
LANCER
Teresa, hands on hips frowned... only two more days until Scott's birthday. The preparations were coming together, but it just did not seem right.
Scott was from Boston, used to the finer things in life, lavish parties, grandeur... everything the west was not. She was becoming flustered and went in search of her guardian and Scott's father for some assistance.
He saw her coming... that O'Brien set to her shoulders and walk, he wished his sons were here to help him soothe the feathers of the obvious overwrought young woman.
"Murdoch you have to help me, something just isn't right and it's giving me a headache," the young woman stood arms crossed over her chest and sighed.
"Thank you Walt," Murdoch dismissed the ranch hand and took his wards elbow and moved towards the hacienda, "Now darling why don't you tell me what's wrong," the tirade started as the two entered the double patio doors and entered the great room.
LANCER
Johnny flicked the reins over the backs of the Lancer draft horses, and glanced over at his brother, "You know she's fixin' ta have a big party for ya."
Scott put down the letter he was reading, holding it in his lap. He stared at the rumps of the plodding animals before him then glanced over to his brother, "I know... I just... I just wish she did not have her heart set on trying to out do some party back in Boston. When I had told her about some of the lavish doings, my grandfather had arranged... I didn't tell her how much I hated them."
Johnny smiled, "Yeah guess all that high society stuff was just too much, huh big brother?"
"Oh little brother you just don't know how much," Scott sighed and folded the letter putting it in his coat pocket.
"It's just... I didn't get a say in what I wanted, whom I wanted to invite even where it was held," his voice sounded disheartened and Johnny pulled back on the reins stopping the horses.
He turned in the seat to look directly at his brother, "Then ya need ta tell her what you want brother. Ifn' ya let yer manners and social wrappin's allow people ta walk all over you... then there ain't no hope of ever gettin' what ya want."
Scott smiled, his unconventional, brother was right.
However, his smile turned into a frown, "But Teresa's planned everything... guests have been invited... she and Maria have been preparing the menu... I can't disappoint her."
Johnny snorted, "Yeah... yer right Boston, all those manners get in tha way of what makes you happy."
Scott sat up straight, looking to his brother, "You know I can't cancel what she has worked so hard on... it would devastate her."
Johnny flicked the reins and the horses moved out, "You know brother... Teresa is stronger than ya think, she'd understand... she wants ta show you how much she cares an sometimes she gets carried away."
"Use that Lancer stubbornness and stand up for what ya want. Or just be bad-mannered and take off for a few days."
Scott slapped a gentle hand on his brother's thigh, "That sounds more like a Madrid move than a Scott Lancer move. I know what you are saying brother... maybe it is time to assert my self and be..." he leaned into his brothers shoulder, "and be more like my younger brother."
Johnny laughed and flicked the reins, "You can only try big brother... you can only try."
Scott was not looking forward to his confrontation with Teresa... sometimes a man must do what a man must do.
LANCER
Scott sighed and stared over the bowed head of the sobbing Teresa, her eyes were wet with tears, her small shoulders shaking with distress, he placed his hands on her shoulders and drew her to his chest, "I am sorry Teresa, I..."
Her voice was drenched in tears; she grabbed her hands around his back, "I... I only... wanted to do... to do something nice... for ...for your first birthday home," she sobbed.
Johnny raised his eyebrows, he didn't like to see a woman cry... but it usually never changed his mind.
He could see Scott's resolve begin to crumble, as he pushed himself off from the wall he had been leaning on and with a smile and a shake of his ebony-haired head he threw back over his shoulder, "it's up to you Boston."
Feeling abandoned by his coward of a little brother, Scott walked his sister over to the stone bench in the garden and gently sat her down.
Taking her small hands into his bigger ones he rubbed her knuckles with gentle massages, "Darling, it's not that I don't appreciate all you have planned, it's just I really did not like all the hoopla my grandfather's parties entailed."
Turning he took a seat beside the distraught young woman and pulled her into a hug.
"The 'birthday parties' were really not for me, it was always an excuse for a business meeting, later it was to introduce me to a proper young woman and a future, lucrative marriage," Scott felt Teresa pull away and looked down at her tear stained face and red eyes.
He pulled out his handkerchief and handed it to her... she took it in trembling hands, wiped her streaked face, and blew her nose.
Holding the hankie in her hand, she dropped both into her lap, "I'm sorry Scott... I should have checked with you first. I wanted your first birthday at Lancer to be special... I didn't know it would bring back bad memories."
He smiled and wiped a thumb over a spent tear on her cheek'
"Oh sweetheart, they were not all bad memories... why I remember on my fifteenth birthday I got so falling down drunk my grandfather nearly had a coronary, he turned the brightest shade of red I had ever seen."
Scott saw the smile on her lips, "and ...," he tweaked her nose, "I got my first kiss from Miss Mary Lou Bostwick... I was in heaven."
Teresa wrung the hankie between her hands, "Well... I can't un-invite the guests...how about instead of a stuffy formal dinner... I have a bar-b-que."
He kissed the top of her head, "That sounds just fine 'little' sister."
Teresa jumped up and kissed her brother on the cheek, "I've got a lot to do on such short notice... oh you are going to remember this birthday party forever...Maria..."
Scott watched the bundle of petticoated energy bound off in search of the Lancer housekeeper.
Scott heard the chuckle before he heard the tread and unmistakable jingle of his brothers spurs and boots, "Well...," was all that he said as he looked up.
Johnny looked down on the blond-haired top of his brothers' head, "Well is right... I rest my case. Manners, social niceties and a woman's tears, gonna get ya inta trouble one day 'big' brother."
Scott stood up quickly and made a grab at his younger, brother, "Yeah... well I plan on wiping that smirk off your handsome face. Come here and take your thrashing," Scott had to hurry to catch up to his already running brother.
Lord, it felt so good to have a brother, a friend, a confidant, and a family who loved him for himself and not as a bargaining chip for some monetary gain.
He did not see their stoic father and segundo stop and watch the antics of two grown men as they raced across the compound, laughing, grabbing and gently pushing each other. He did not see a father's chest swell with pride and a heart cry with joy.
What the blond-haired elder son of Murdoch Lancer felt was love and contentment of being home.
LANCER
December 19
Scott smiled and stretched his long arms above his head, the quilt hugged his chest and the pillow nestled his blond head.
His birthday... today... at home on Lancer, his first to be exact, he never imagined that this day would happen.
He never imagined he would be here with a father who always loved him, found a 'sister' in Teresa and a 'little' brother in Johnny, whom he had always wanted.
Throwing the covers back, he swung his long legs over the side of the bed... all the while expecting his bedroom door to be shoved open and his energetic younger brother rushing into the room.
It was expected... Johnny would push open the door... uninvited and begin his travels around his room looking at every article in sight as if it was all new to him.
They would banter back and forth as he prepared his morning rituals, Johnny sitting on his bed fingering the quilt... silent... but loud in his adulation of his older brother.
Scott felt ten feet tall, that this young man... yes a man... admired him, trusted him and... in a brotherly way loved him... loved him for what he was unconditionally.
Wiping the last of his shaving lather from his face, Scott smiled at himself in the mirror, "Well Mr. Scott Garrett Lancer shall we take our sorry, older self down stairs and get this day rolling?"
Chuckling to himself, he could not ever remember feeling this happy or carefree. Donning his everyday clothes he made his way downstairs... he was not expected to work today... He was going to have a big, overly luxurious breakfast, open his family's gifts and laze around all day.
Life was good today, December 19, and smiled as he heard the commotion in the kitchen... entering the room, he heard it... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
LANCER
Jellifer B. Hoskins had quite a few words to say when a laughing, smooth talkin' younger son of Lancer dragged him into the haciendas big kitchen.
He felt privileged to be included in a family birthday celebration of the elder Lancer son, Scott. What he did not know was one smart aleck, Mr. Know It All, had told the Lancer's of his own birthday today.
Tears came to his old blue eyes as he was presented with a big breakfast, gifts and a day off, and the knowledge that he was thought of as one of the family.
LANCER
Scott sat on the hill overlooking the small valley below... he had been chased out of the hacienda and the compound when Teresa insisted he had to leave so preparations could be made for his 'surprise' birthday party.
Therefore, he sat and watched his younger brother haze some cattle into the herd being moved to fuller pasture.
Fingering the finely braided reins in his strong hands he smiled, Johnny had done this for him.
His little brother constantly surprised him, the hard-nosed, and cynical ex-gunfighter had many talents yet to be revealed.
He patted the pocket of his new jacket that his father had given him to feel the new leather gloves his sister had presented to him.
He could not have asked for anything else, never in all the gifts he had been given in the past could measure up to the love each person had wrapped up along with their presents.
He had to chuckle as he remembered Jelly's stricken face and the tears that fell from his eyes that, according to the older man, had smoke from the cook stove in them.
Johnny had done a good job on the braided horsehair suspenders the old man had promptly tried on.
Gnarled fingers grasp around them and pulling with pride away from his expanding chest strutted around the room.
It was now early afternoon and he watched his brother ride up the hill towards him. Johnny was to escort his big brother back to the hacienda in enough time to dress for the festivities.
Scott could almost weep when he thought how much he had hated his father growing up, abandoned, betrayed, thrown away... and the day the Pinkerton agent gave him the opportunity to finally address the issue and made the trip to confront the man who sired him.
It was a wise choice on his part... he found a loving home.
He had also found a little brother, a sister, and a man who had truly wanted him all those years past.
Johnny reached his side and smiled, "Well birthday boy ya ready ta dance with all tha pretty girls?"
Scott smiled over at his brother, "Dance and get roaring drunk if I want to, as long as my little brother joins me."
Johnny never liked his entertainment organized; he had led a solitary existence and was only now coming to terms of being part of a whole.
Johnny dipped his head, when it came up he had a wide grin on his handsome face and deviltry in his dancing blue eyes, "Yeah.. for you brother... I'd do it for you."
Scott knew the statement was heart felt, and he was proud and humbled that Johnny let crumble one more wall of the fortress surrounding a gentle and caring heart, all for a brother he had met less than a year ago.
"I'll hold you to it little brother, shall we high-tail it home before Teresa sends out a search party," He whooped as he urged his horse forward, his brother beside him.
Yes, this was one birthday he would never forget, his first at Lancer...his first in a place he could truly call HOME.
Happy Birthday Scott Lander
And
Wayne Maunder
Happy Birthday
Wayne Maunder and
Scott Lancer.