Pleasant lived up to his name and was not a burden by any means. He helped Ruth with the cooking and he helped Kid with the horses. He used "yes ma'am, no ma'am" and "yes sir and no sir" unfailingly. A more respectful 16-year-old couldn't have been found. He even took time to speak with the children.
Mercy was working very hard at learning to write her name. Right now her writing looked like something a chicken might have scratched haphazardly in the dust, but she practiced at it everyday and it was coming along.
"That's pretty good," Pleasant said, looking at the small slate and chalk. "You'll be writing the whole alphabet before you know it."
Mercy glowed under a stranger's praise and encouragement.
Which all added up to making his crime all the more puzzling. "I wonder what it was he did that they thought deserved hanging. He's so polite and helpful. You can tell he's a good kid," Ruth said to Kid when they were standing alone together.
"My guess is he was messing around with a married woman. If she'd been single, they could've just gotten him to marry her."
"That seems the most reasonable explanation," she agreed. "But listen to us standing here and speculating, creating a wild story. It could be much simpler and more innocent than that."
"Could be."
That evening, Kid drove the stakes into the ground to tie the horses to, so the animals could have a chance to graze, and Pleasant tied the knots.
Kid squatted down for a closer inspection. He stood back up and patted Pleasant on the shoulder. "That's a good job. I never seen a knot tied that way, but it's right sturdy."
He looked intensely embarrassed by Kid's touch. "My grandfather was a ship captain. I learned it from him."
"You'll have to teach it to me before you go."
Pleasant didn't go to sleep right after supper though he sat on the pile of blankets he'd been given as if it were his intention. He stared forlornly at the rugged, snow-capped mountains, reflecting red in the setting sun like the blood of Christ for which the Sangre de Christo mountain range was named.
"He seems so unhappy," Ruth clucked in a motherly fashion and she was old enough to be his mother.
"Well, he's got a right to be, I guess. His own pa just tried to hang him and who knows how bad the trouble was that got him in that mess to begin with."
"He's just so young. I hate the thought of him being forced to fend for himself with nobody he knows around for support."
"I struck out on my own when I was 16 and I did alright. Some younger than that are forced out into the world."
"Yeah, but you knew how to take care of yourself and look at all the mistakes you made because of your youth. Does he look like he's got the grit for watching out for himself?"
"I reckon he doesn't look like he does, but looks can be deceiving."
"I'll talk to him and see what I can get out of him and maybe when he helps you water the horses in the morning, you could talk to him too?"
Kid did want to talk to him to see if he could find the reason for the crowd's anger. It was eating at him in spite of himself. Maybe he wouldn't have thought about it so much if he was a single man, but he had Mercy and Isaiah to think about. "Sure. Be glad to."
Ruth sat down beside Pleasant. She didn't say anything right away. She just admired the beauty of the sunset with him.
Pleasant spoke first. "Why'd Mr. Cole save me when he didn't even know me or what I'd done?"
"That's what it means to love your neighbor. And he'd rather you just call him Kid."
"He wouldn't have if he'd known why they were hanging me," he said with absolute surety.
"That's nonsense. Ain't nothing you could've done that God can't forgive you of if you ask Him."
"I should tell you both what it is. You'd leave me sitting right here though."
"I don't believe that, but you go ahead and tell us when you're good and ready."
"You're very kind," he said, trying to work up a smile but failing.
"Hey, listen, you got anybody you know outside of Taos that we can take you to? I'd feel better if we dropped you with someone."
He shrugged as teenagers were prone to do. "I do have a widowed aunt in Albuquerque, but what if Pa writes to her and tells her? She won't want me if he does."
"That's not too far south from here if I remember the map correctly. I think it'd be a good idea to try. We could always travel on if need me." She'd noticed his eyes kept dropping to the Bible beside her during the course of their conversation. "You want to read it? I don't mind loaning it to you."
He shook his head. "I just want to get to Albaquerque or wherever it is I end up."
She thought about giving him a hug as he looked like he needed one, but she didn't want to make him any jumpier than he was already. "I'll let you get some sleep then."
Mercy and Isaiah slept in the wagon. Kid had pitched a tent to give him and Ruth their privacy and Pleasant slept on the other side of the wagon under the stars.
Sometime around midnight a heavy thud woke Kid and Ruth. Kid quickly crawled out of the tent, not knowing exactly what he'd find. What he found was another teenager beating up Pleasant.
The boy didn't appear to have a weapon other than his fists, but he was making good use of them and dealing out hard blows. Pleasant just lay there, taking it.
Kid hauled to boy off of Pleasant. "Stop it. Stop it, I said. Do you really want to commit murder?"
Ruth had crawled out of the tent too by this time and used a blanket to cover her nightwear. She watched from a distance.
"You bet I do. He corrupted my brother. My pa wouldn't have killed him if it hadn't been for him. I won't let him get away with it." The boy sounded close to tears though he spoke in anger.
"I don't know the whole story, but I know we all choose our own paths. Your brother included." The boy only glared at Kid viciously. "Now I suggest you go home or I've got a pair of handcuffs I can use to haul you in and I know people in and around Santa Fe, who would be only too glad to do me a favor by locking you up until you see reason."
The boy turned a murderous glare towards Pleasant. His anger wasn't appeased by a long shot, but he got up on his horse and headed back the way he came.
Ruth went over to Pleasant to see how badly he was injured. His nose was bloodied, one eye was swollen shut, and there was a knot growing on his left cheek. She used the corner of her blanket top wipe off some of the fresh blood. "Is anything broke?"
He shook his head.
"Why didn't you fight back or at least cry out? Were you going to let that fellow kill you?" she asked.
Pleasant shrugged.
"Well, I can tell you one thing," Kid said. "You better learn to fight or shoot or both."
He didn't have anything to say to that either.
"Unless, I miss my guess that boy will be back sooner or later," Kid said. "And you're going to be ready for it if I have anything to say about it."
