Chapter 2 – Blackwood
"Did we have to leave in such a hurry?"
Bart nodded, still chuckling over the way they'd departed Little Bend. "After you insulted all womankind about havin' babies? Yes, sir, if you wanted to live long enough to see that child born."
"Is it really that tough?"
"You know it is, Brother Bret. You were there when Grace was born." Grace was the biological child of Louis Manning, sheriff of Claytonville, and his wife, Kitty. Louis was killed in an accident while leading a posse and Kitty died almost immediately after Grace's birth. Bret and Ginny, their best friends, became her momma and poppa, but Bret was truly uneducated in the difficulties of childbirth.
"I plead ignorance, Brother Bart. The last thing I'd ever want to do was insult a brand new mother."
"You'll find out soon enough, Pappy. And you'll wonder how on earth they do it." The brothers were riding leisurely along the trail, within a few miles of Blackwood, Texas, the next stop on their journey to San Antonio.
"Do you always do this?" Bret asked.
"Do what?"
"Go on a trip before the baby's born."
Bart smiled before answering his brother. "Yep. If I don't get away for a few days, it'll be months before I can go anywhere. Doralice and Ginny are gonna need all the help they can get once those new Maverick's is here. Best you start lookin' for a part-time cook or housekeeper to help out around the place. You're gonna need somebody with two young'uns so close together in age."
"We gonna stay overnight in Blackwood?" was Bret's next question.
"Might as well. Got free accommodations there at the Blackwood Hotel."
"Yeah? How'd you manage that?"
"Owner's a friend of mine. He had a little trouble with a card sharp some years back, and I helped him out. All I gotta do is show up and there's a room waitin' for me. So I sent him a wire yesterday."
Bret shook his head. His brother never ceased to amaze him – there were times when he doubted Bart would live long enough to grow up. Yet here Bart was, a responsible husband and father and a respected businessman and poker player, and it was him that was teaching Bret how to be all those things. "When did you get to be such an adult, little brother?"'
Bart laughed. "You know all that time you and Ginny were still gallivantin' around the country, livin' over there in Claytonville and gettin' to be friends with all the locals? Well, I was doin' all the same over in Little Bend. 'Course, I had a few more things to take care of than you did . . . "
Bret sighed. He still felt guilty about some of the things Bart had to deal with by himself. Beau's permanent move to Baton Rouge, followed by Uncle Ben's leaving for Louisiana. The fire that eventually burned down 'The Mansion,' the big house they'd all lived in at one time or another. Lily Mae's moving in with her daughter and imminent departure for Houston. Life had gone on in Little Bend while Bret and Ginny alternated between traveling the country for Pinkerton or poker.
"Some of that couldn't be helped, you know," Bret reminded his brother. "You were the one that put down roots and more-or-less stayed in one spot."
"Didn't have much choice in the matter. Maude got sick and the babies started comin', and then Cristian got killed in that bank robbery . . . "
"I know, Bart, I remember it all. Sometimes I didn't find out somethin' had happened until long after it was over. And by that time, what was I gonna do?"
Bart shook his head. "Doesn't matter now, that's all over and done with. And you're back here to stay." He paused, looking directly at his brother. "You are back here to stay, aren't you?"
"Yeah, we're back here to stay. I can't imagine us raisin' Grace and the baby anywhere but here."
They rode on a few miles further before Bart brought up another topic he'd been waiting to discuss. "You get a chance to look at the plans for the new barn?"
"I did, but I was hopin' we could talk about that at supper, if that's alright with you."
"Sure. We should be there in just a little while."
Less than twenty minutes later they were checked in to the hotel and on their way to the dining room. Bart's friend John Dunwood had left word that he'd be in later to ensure they had everything they needed and meet the long 'Elusive Brother Bret,' and Bart had been laughing about it ever since. "That's how most everybody knows you, the Elusive Brother Bret. They been listenin' to me talk about you for so long they just figure you're a figment of my imagination."
Bret reached over and laid a hand on his brother's arm just as the waitress arrived to take their order. "What's the special tonight? And bring us two of them. Plus coffee."
"It's pot roast and potatoes, fresh biscuits and apple pie. Just coffee to drink?" the pretty redhead asked. She smiled at the gentlemen, good looking and obviously related, and scampered off to turn in their order.
"Now, about that barn . . ." Bart started.
"Yeah, the barn. Just how much do you figure the barn's gonna cost us?"
"About what we discussed before. Why, is there a problem?"
Bret was really hoping to avoid any talks involving money until they'd returned from San Antonio, but he could see that wasn't going to happen. "Yeah, Bart there's a problem. I been holdin' off tellin' you this until we could play some poker in San Antone. Ever since we moved back to Little Bend, there hasn't been enough money to keep the Denver Regional Office of Pinkerton open at full staff. So Ginny quit takin' a salary. We been livin' off what I could bring in playin' poker. And since I won't take money away from my brother and his wife . . . there hasn't been much comin' in from the other two saloons in town. I had just enough left to have a decent stake for this trip. I can't afford my share of the new barn right now, Bart. This half of the Maverick family is broke."
