Long Road Out of Eden
Chapter 1 – Althea Taylor
'A week after Bret and Beau left for Mexico, Fred Taylor and his father were killed out at their ranch. They were gettin' ready to start a cattle drive and had money in the house to pay all the hands, and some damn fool tried to rob 'em. Didn't get the cash, but dead is dead. Mrs. Taylor lost the baby some months back, and now she's lost Fred, too. And she needs somebody to boss her cattle drive. Fred did so much talkin' to her about growin' up with you boys that she's gonna be comin' round, askin' you to be her trail bosses.'
Those words had stuck in Bart Maverick's head ever since he first heard them uttered by his father weeks ago in this very room. It had taken longer than expected, but Mrs. Fred Taylor had eventually shown up at the front door to Uncle Bentley's house, looking solemn and dressed in black. Lily Mae ushered her in and offered her a chair in front of the fireplace, then scrambled to get both a cup of coffee for the new widow and the Maverick brothers, who'd only just emerged from their bedrooms after a day of sleeping. Poker playing was their business, their game of choice, and most nights were spent at that business in the town of Little Bend, Texas. They were still in their hometown only until Bart's wounds from their last escapade healed; then they would venture off to new and even more dangerous locations.
On this late afternoon they were dawdling over coffee in Lily Mae's kitchen, neither in any hurry to do anything more productive than discuss what happened last night at 'Maude's'. Since that involved a wild five card stud game that hadn't broken up until three in the morning and ended with Bart trying to talk his way out of a gunfight with a rather inebriated ranch foreman who'd accused him of dealing from the bottom of the deck, there was a rather lively discourse going. It had taken half the town to convince the foreman that he was new to the territory and didn't know the Maverick brothers, but you'd never find more honest gamblers anywhere, and if he was fond of continuing to breathe he'd best sit down and shut up. Sometimes plying your trade in your hometown was a good thing.
This was the meeting both Mavericks had been dreading. Fred Taylor was a good friend to all three Maverick boys growing up, and no one in Little Bend felt the loss any more deeply, save for his widow. So it was with reluctance that they followed Lily Mae back into the main room, to meet the widow for the first time. To their surprise she was smiling and eager to meet 'the boys' her late husband had told her so much about.
"You must be Bret," she said, and stuck out her hand to the oldest brother. "Fred described you perfectly. As if I could miss those dimples." Then she turned her attention to the youngest Maverick. "And that makes you Bart-of-the-dancing-eyes," she added, almost laughing. "Fred was right. I'd know you anywhere as long as I could see your eyes. But there's one missing. Where's Beau?"
Lily Mae stepped in to explain since the brothers both seemed to have lost the ability to speak. "Mr. Beau's come down with some sort of illness and has been miserable-to-be-around for almost a week. Oops, I mean sick. He sends his apologies but doesn't want to pass along whatever it is he's caught. If you'll have a seat, Mrs. Taylor, I have your coffee."
"Oh thank you, Lily Mae. Please, everyone, call me Althea. I hope you don't mind, Bret and Bart, if we just by-pass the 'Mr.' and 'Mrs.' formalities. I've been listening to tall tales about all of you for so long I feel as if we've known each other for years. Of course I'm sure that most of the stories I heard were just that, stories."
"No, ma'am," Bret volunteered. "Anything that Fred told you was probably true."
"Especially if it involved us getting into trouble of some sort," Bart added.
She did laugh at that remark. "And here I though Fred had made up all those tales just to keep me amused. Particularly the one about trying to chop down the schoolhouse."
"Oh no, ma'am, that one was true from beginning to end. But it was all Beau's fault. He was certain – "
"That if we could just destroy the schoolhouse they'd have to let us go home until a new one got built. It didn't work out quite that way," Bart finished for his brother, and all three were now laughing. "And Beau couldn't sit down the whole time we worked on repairing the building. But he got even with all of us for pointing the finger at him."
"That he did," Bret asserted. The laughter stopped and he continued. "We were sorry to hear about Fred's death. And that we weren't here for the burial. We were in Mexico and had no idea until we got back."
Althea Taylor nodded her head. "Yes, I've heard that story, too. Seems like the Mavericks can still find their way into troubles, even without Fred to help steer them there." She took a swallow of coffee and then got to the reason for her visit. "I'm sure your fathers told you about the cattle drive that Fred and Sam had committed to. With both of them gone, I'm left with the obligation of fulfilling the contract they entered into, to deliver between eight and ten thousand head to Western Shippers in Abilene, Kansas. With a herd that size I can't hire just any old trail boss, and everyone has told me there should be at least two men who know what they're doing.
"That's why I'm here. After all of Fred's stories were done he told me what exciting and varied lives you two lead. And all about your experience with cattle drives. I know you've done this kind of thing before, and I'm here to ask if you'd be willing to take over the job of trail boss, or in this case bosses?"
The look that had gone between the brothers when Pappy first told them of Fred's murder reappeared; they'd made a decision as soon as they heard about the death of their friend and his widow's plight. "Mrs. Taylor – Althea – you know that our chosen profession involves absolutely nothin' that even vaguely resembles work, don't you?" It was Bret that asked the question.
"Yes, Bret, I know that. But I also know that Fred trusted you with his life, and I'm asking you to help me finish this last task."
"Help?" Bart wanted to make sure he'd heard her correctly.
"Yes, gentlemen, help. I fully intend to go along to assist with the cooking and whatever else is needed. This was Fred's undertaking, and I'm going to see it through to completion. I'll not presume to direct the drive itself in any way. That will be strictly up to the two of you. The route we take, the speed at which we proceed, all the decisions regarding the herd and anything to do with them will be completely under your control. And I'll pay you twenty-five cents a head to get them to Abilene. Each."
They'd decided weeks ago that the honorable thing to do was take the job, even if it paid nothing. To hear that they could make between two thousand and twenty-five hundred dollars each merely sweetened the pot beyond their expectations.
So there was no decision left to make. "Yes, ma'am, we'll take the job," Bret agreed, in answer to her offer.
"And when do you want to start?" Bart questioned.