In Town
A man walked into the saloon and stood at the bar. He was tall and had shaggy hair. It was as if he had been on the road for some time and hadn't had the chance to shave or change clothes. He stood beside the barkeep and listened.
"Yeah. Heard the Cartwrights' ranch hand went ahead and married him a squaw. They say he adopted her little brave. Now they all living on the Ponderosa. Both are now ranch hands for Ben." Someone said.
Another conversation went like this: "Canaday got himself a fine piece of Indian, although she dresses like a man. She's stout and can tame horses from what I hear. Did you see that stallion she was riding the day before yesterday when she and Canaday followed Hoss into town? He's a fine piece of horse. I'd love to have him."
The man paid for his drink and stepped out of the saloon. He got directions to the Ponderosa and set out.
On the Ponderosa
Wolf and Candy sat on a table cloth with a picnic basket as Bear played before them. The little boy was chasing a butterfly in the fading light as his parents watched him.
It had been a week since Candy had eaten his words. Sheriff Coffey had come out to the ranch and married the man to his Indian bride. Joe, Ben, and Hoss had been the witnesses to the little wedding. Hop Sing had made a big dinner in celebration.
Wolf spun the little gold ring around her right middle finger. Ben had surprised Candy by having it at the wedding. Candy had been smiling widely as he slid it on her finger. He had been even happier when he was allowed to sleep in the ranch house with her in the upstairs room.
Bear laughed as he chased the butterfly. Then he promptly fell face first in the grass. He got up, shook his head, and started laughing as he ran again. Wolf and Candy laughed at their son's masculinity. He was all boy.
Candy rolled over, propped his head in his hand, and looked at Wolf. His wife was wearing her buckskin with the feather in her hair. She was beautiful as she watched their son play. She seemed happier since they had been married. It was almost like her entire world had been made complete.
It was really good for him. She still worked on the Ponderosa and made sure they weren't given special treatment because they were now married. They still worked as hard as they had when they first met. Hop Sing still watched out for Bear while they were out working. On more than one occasion that had come in and the cook was chasing the toddler around the house because he had something the cook needed in the kitchen. They laughed sometimes until it hurt to laugh anymore. Hop Sing would look at them before he disappeared back into the kitchen with his Chinese going full force.
The nights hadn't changed. They all gathered for supper and then for a little coffee. Candy sometimes read to Bear to get him to go to sleep. If that didn't work, he played with him until it was time for him to go to bed. Most of the time, the little boy had been playing all day long and was dead tired. He would pass out after supper then Candy would carry him upstairs to his crib.
Wolf laid on her back and looked at him. He smiled at her. this was how it was with them. they were very comfortable, so comfortable it didn't matter who saw them.
"I was thinking." He said.
"Uh-oh. Every time you and Little Joe say that, it always means trouble." She replied. He made a face that made her laugh. "Go on."
"Mr. Cartwright has always told me if there was anything I needed to just ask."
"Yes, he's said the same thing to me."
"Well, I want to build a house right here. I want to be able to overlook the lake any time. We're not far from the main house and the corral is just over the hill. We could always be to work on time."
"Are you saying you don't like the ranch house?"
"No, I'm not saying that at all. I like it. The Cartwrights are good people and I love Hop Sing's cooking. But when a man gets married he wants his own house for his family." Wolf laughed at him. "What?"
"You can't have this land."
"Why not?"
"Because I already bought and paid for it. Ben said we could start building whenever."
Candy stared at her for a moment before he laughed and grabbed her, rolling her on to her back. "My wife. My Indian." Then he kissed her. Bear cried happily then jumped both of them. candy grabbed his hat as he turned over. "Looks like little man doesn't like this."
"I know what's wrong with him. He needs a little tickling."
Both jumped at the toddler, Candy grabbing him and Wolf tickling him all the while he squirmed and laughed.
After a little bit they gathered their picnic items and headed back to the ranch house. Bear ran in front of the couple. Every now and then, Bear would turn around to make sure they were following him and then continue on. He beat them back to the house and was swept up by Joe as he ran onto the porch.
"Hey, Little Man. You running away from your Ma and Pa again?" he asked. The boy squirmed in his arms as he tried to get free.
"He's just eaten and thinks he needs to run." Candy said. He tweaked his son's nose.
"Well, we don't need another Hoss."
"I heard that, little brother." Hoss said as he came out of the house. "Wolf, there's someone here to see you."
Wolf frowned and headed into the house. Candy followed after her. he looked at her when she stopped short in the doorway and he ran into her. her face was stony so he looked at the fire place. There was man standing with Ben.
"Wolf, come here please." Ben asked. She didn't move and her face never changed. Candy tried to push her forward but she dug her feet in and stayed where she was. Ben knew something was wrong then. "Candy, this is Mr. Haynes. Mr. Haynes, this is Candy Canaday my top ranch hand."
Candy extended his hand and shook the other man's hand. Even though he knew who he was, he was going to play dumb. "It's good to meet you. What are you here for?"
"I came here to see my daughter. You'll know her as Flying Eagle. She came this way a few months ago. Unfortunately we were separated on our way to California. I've been looking for her for the last two months." Wolf made an unladylike sound in the back of her throat. Candy jerked her hand hard. Mr. Haynes saw that quickly. "You wouldn't happen to have seen her, would you?"
"I can't say we have. The only woman with a Indian background is Wolf there."
Mr. Haynes turned his gaze to the Indian woman. They obviously knew each other and the stare down was lethal. Little Joe and Hoss felt it when they walked in the house. Bear was laughing and stopped suddenly. If he could recognize hostility in a room, anyone could.
"You look so much like her." Haynes said. He looked her over, forcing her hand to tense up in Candy's. "That feather. I recognize it. Was your father a Sioux Indian?"
"Cut the crap, Haynes. They know who you are and they know why you're here." Wolf said.
"Then I'll let them know that I'm your legal guardian."
"Not anymore." Candy said. He jerked Wolf in front of him and held her to him by throwing an arm over her chest. "Just you try to take her. I will kill you."
"That would be murder and murdering a girl's father is immoral."
"You're not her father." Ben said. "We've heard the entire story. We know you killed the Sioux chief. If you think we're going to let you take her anywhere, you are sadly mistaken."
"You can't keep her or the child from me. They are rightfully mine."
Ben decided to crowd the man. "You will not touch one hair on the girl's or the baby's head. If you do, you will be hunted down like a dog. Do I make myself clear?"
Mr. Haynes looked around the room at all the men who were willing to protect the girl. He saw the baby turned away from him in one of the man's shoulders. "You have not seen the last of me." He stormed past everyone and out the door.
Wolf's knees gave way. Luckily Candy was standing there with her. she leaned heavily against him and tried to catch her breath. Joe passed Bear off to Ben and came beside her. he took the picnic stuff from Candy and returned it to the kitchen. He came back with a cup of tea.
"Are you going to be okay?" Hoss asked.
Wolf nodded as she sat down. "He's not going to stop until he has me and Bear. He'll get me through Bear. That's going to be his target."
"What if he comes after you directly?" Joe asked.
"He won't. he'll come at me through someone I'm close to. That's always his style. That's how he got Red Feather. One night Flying Eagle and I were walking with Bear through the woods when she asked me to follow her somewhere. It was right into a trap. Haynes and Flying Eagle orchestrated the entire thing. She helped kill Red Feather then blamed it on Haynes when the tribe found us."
"Now she's gone for the war party." Candy said. He bit his thumbnail in agitation. "Everything's falling on top of us. In a week, the war party will be here and Haynes just shows up. What are we going to do?"
"We're going to turn them against each other." Ben said. They all looked at him for an explanation. "If we can get the tribe to listen to Wolf, we can get them to turn against Haynes."
"They already have a grudge against him." Wolf said.
"Exactly." They all looked at him like he had lost his ever loving mind. "If they find out that you're here and Haynes is on your trail, what will they do?"
"They'll attack anyone and everyone they find. I've seen them do it for lesser wives. This one will be ten times the manslaughter of the others."
"Is there any way to convince them that you living with me is the best thing?" Candy asked.
He was scared to death about losing his family. He had been married once and that had been annulled because he thought the other man was a nut case. In actuality he was the nut case for thinking he had a shot with that woman. She was now happily married and he thought he envied that. Now he understood what it felt like to care for someone absolutely and not care about himself. He was not letting this woman or her baby out of his sight whether she was Indian or not.
Wolf turned those dark eyes on him and he already knew the answer. He stood and paced away from her. "Isn't there some way? Some way at all?" He was begging.
"I don't know. I've never heard of a war party going for an Indian woman who married a white man. I have no idea what they'll do." She replied.
Ben shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We have to figure something out. There's no way these boys will sit back and watch as you and your baby are hauled off to live with another group of people they do not know. and to be completely honest, I'm not sure I can sit back and let that happen either."
Wolf stood and walked to the fire. She took the poker off the rack and stuck it in the fire. Not saying a word, she pulled it out and stuck it against her arm. candy jumped over the table and snatched it from her hands. she looked at him when he gave her a questioning look.
"I don't want to go back. I thought once I married Red Feather I'd be married forever. I had a son and I was happy. Then that man destroyed that and took me from my tribe. I thought I'd be unhappy forever. And I wake up in this lovely house with all of you waiting for me to get better. I found my family and I would rather die than go back to the tribe where I would become another brave's squaw." There was fire in her eyes as she talked. She was dead serious.
Ben looked at his sons. They were grim-faced because they believed every word she said. She wasn't on to lie often or if at all. Joe walked into the kitchen and returned with a bowl of warm water. He sat down to clean her arm and then wrap it.
"You can't work on that arm." he said.
"I'll be fine. I've worked with a broken arm before." She replied. When Joe was done, she tucked it against her stomach. "I don't want to go anywhere and I don't want my son taken from me."
Candy kneeled in front of her and took her hands. "He will not take our son from us. For the last two months I have raised that boy. He's mine and I'm his. I won't see him raised by some other man." He forced her to look at him. "You are my wife and I will not see another man with you." She moved away from him, first to Hoss to get Bear and then up the stairs. When he heard the door shut, Candy kicked the table. "What am I going to do, Mr. Cartwright?"
"You're going to go up those stairs and talk to your wife. She's scared, Candy. She doesn't know what to do. You have to make sure she knows you're going to stand beside her like you say you are." Ben replied.
Candy took a moment to let that sink in before he nodded. He took the stairs two at a time and turned the corner to his room. He knocked to make sure she knew it was him in case she was changing. When he opened the door, it was quiet and the lights were out. He looked at the crib. Bear was asleep and snoring happily.
When he turned to their bed, his throat constricted. Wolf was laying on her side curled up in a little ball. Her shoulder were shaking and he knew she was crying. He kicked his boots off and crawled into bed. When he wrapped her in his arms, she grabbed his wrists.
"Don't say anything, please." She whispered.
He kissed the back of her head and moved closer. "I won't."
They slept like that, comfortable and calm.
