Twelve Days by Margaret P.
(Many thanks to my betas, Terri Derr and Cristy Wyndham-Shaw)
Thursday, October 10th, 1872 (2019: Words-1,674)
"I knew something had happened. I just knew it."
"I wanted to talk to you about it last night, but there were too many people around. I couldn't get you alone."
"I know and I'm sorry. It won't be for much longer." Katie snuggled into Scott as they enjoyed the privacy provided by the early morning and the old orange tree behind the hacienda, its boughs now hanging low, heavy with green leaves and slowly ripening fruit. "I'm glad it all worked out in the end. It will be much safer if Johnny and Murdoch go together."
"I hope so." Scott sighed and squeezed her hand. Last night had opened his eyes to some things he had never fully understood.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." He smiled as Katie raised her eyebrows in disbelief. He liked that she could read him so well. "It's just that I'm kicking myself. I've always been a little jealous that Johnny had his mother with him all those years when I didn't. I was a fool."
"I don't think so." Katie turned his hand and traced her finger over the lines and callouses on his palm. "Your earlier lives were blessed and deprived in different ways."
"Only I lived in the lap of luxury while Johnny..." Scott turned away. He was being ridiculous, but he couldn't help it.
Katie reached out and took his hand again. "It's not a competition, Scott."
"No."
"Say it like you believe it. Johnny's life before he came to Lancer is not your fault. And from what he says, it wasn't all bad. He wouldn't want you to feel like this."
"You're right, but Murdoch still feels guilty about what happened to me and Johnny, even though most of it wasn't his fault. Why should I be any more rational?"
"Because you have me, and he didn't have anyone for years. Did he tell you he felt like that?"
"Pretty much. Not exactly those words, but he said a lot of things in the east wing the other day. Some of it didn't sink in until later. It was so unlike him to say any of it."
"He loves you."
"So he said." Scott smiled self-consciously and plucked a leaf from the branch above his head. He'd grown to like and respect Murdoch. Hell, he loved him, but neither of them had been very good at putting those feelings into words, not to each other at any rate.
"He may not show it to you and Johnny often, but I see the pride and love Murdoch has for you both every day."
Scott drew Katie closer and kissed the top of her head. "Are you going to make a habit of saying everything I want to hear?"
"Only when it's true." Her eyes twinkled as she lifted a lock of his hair with her finger. "I don't want you getting big headed."
"Indeed?"
"Indeed. And what's more, I intend to make up for everything your childhood lacked, even if we have to have twelve children to do it."
"Now there's a thought." He brushed his lips against hers.
"Katie! Scott!"
Sighing, Scott leaned back against the tree trunk and looked towards the hacienda. Dressed in her riding gear, Katie's youngest sister appeared in the arch leading from the kitchen courtyard.
"That girl's timing is unbelievable."
Katie laughed.
Then Victoria shouted their names again through cupped hands.
"Oh, there you are," she said, spotting them and marching up to the orange tree. "Stop mooning over each other. Breakfast is ready."
"There were some advantages to being an only child." Scott got to his feet and offered Katie a hand up.
She accepted his gallantry as Victoria spun on her heels and strode off towards the house.
"Hurry up."
Strolling arm in arm behind her, Scott and Katie paused to smell the apricot-coloured roses that twisted and climbed over the arch.
Victoria stopped on the kitchen step. "Katie, please. Mamma won't let me ride out with Emily until we've had breakfast."
"You mean until you've sat down like a lady for twenty minutes with the rest of the family."
Victoria stuck out her tongue and disappeared inside.
"Very lady-like." Scott held the beads back from the kitchen door so Katie could go through.
"Yes, well, one step at a time. We don't need her or Emily this morning. They might as well go looking for wild horses. It will help take Emily's mind off Johnny and Santa Fe."
With only two days left before the wedding, preparations were soon in full flow with Beth in charge. The seamstress from Miss Menzies's Dresses and Gowns arrived from Green River soon after breakfast and whisked Katie and most of the other women upstairs for their final fittings. Even Beth and her mother seemed to be having something made or adjusted. Several ranch hands had been diverted from their normal routine to collect flowers, vases, crockery and linen from neighbouring properties, and yet another postal delivery of wedding presents from back east arrived mid-morning.
While Katie and Beth were still busy upstairs, Teresa, Julia and her grandmother received the various items as they arrived. They took the flowers down to the wine cellar where it was cool and they could arrange them ready to be put out on their stands under the tents on Saturday morning. There were decorations to make, place cards to write, and details of every kind to finalise with those involved.
Housekeeper Maria and other women from the ranch took over the kitchen. Delicious smells filled the hacienda.
Scott popped in at midday, but every time he opened a door someone squawked and ordered him away. The kitchen was out of bounds to hungry men so he had to make do with bread and cheese in the bunkhouse.
Resigned to not seeing Katie again before suppertime, he saddled up a fresh horse from the corral.
"Dang mule. As if I ain't got enough to do." Jelly dragged Jemima out of the barn into the daylight and began harnessing her to a cart laden with ladders. "What you looking at?"
"Not a thing. Is everything all right?"
"Nothing I can't handle."
"Jelly!" Murdoch came striding around the corner. "What's taking you so long with those ladders?"
"I'm coming. I just got to fix something first."
"Do it later. The others are waiting." Murdoch turned his attention to Scott. "Where are you off to?"
"Bull Creek unless you need me?"
"No, no, we can manage. The chairs are nearly all set out now, and we're making a start on the Chinese lanterns—or we will be once we have ladders."
Muttering under his breath, Jelly glared at Murdoch's back and finally got Jemima moving in the right direction.
Murdoch scanned the yard. "Where's Johnny?"
"I haven't seen him, but he arranged last night to take Julia and Teresa up to the hunting cabin this afternoon." Scott smiled. He and Katie had decided to do the same as Johnny and Emily and spend their wedding night away from all the fuss. The best man and matron of honour had been taking care of the details, but they had enlisted a few willing helpers to assist with the finishing touches. On their wedding night the guests could party into the night without them while he and Katie slipped away to the little cabin in the woods. Unlike Johnny and Emily they would come back to the hacienda the following afternoon however, as they were to accompany Katie's family back to San Francisco on Monday.
Murdoch went back to hanging lanterns and arranging chairs, and Scott rode out to inspect the creek that provided water to one of the main pastures.
Cipriano had spotted a problem on his way back to the yard the evening before. "Bull Creek is down to a trickle at the bridge, Señor Scott. I don't like the look of it."
Scott found the cause about half a mile upstream where the roots of a large willow grew out from the bank. A broken branch had washed down from one of the oaks higher up and got stuck across the full width of the creek. Smaller debris was building up fast behind it.
"Damn." He had hoped it could wait until after the wedding, but a crew would need to start clearing the next day, or there would soon be no water for the cattle grazing further down.
Cipriano had several work crews digging culverts nearby, but Scott didn't want to divert any of them if he could help it. The rainy season wasn't far away and the section of road they were working on had flooded last winter. With luck, Frank's men were nearly done with the fence above Thunder Canyon.
When he arrived to check, he was pleasantly surprised to find Freddy still working on the bluff. The crew was digging the final few post holes too so they would be free to move onto the creek the next morning.
"When can we visit the Indian cave?" Freddy asked, wiping sweat off the back of his neck.
"I forgot about the cave. Let's do it next time you come to the ranch. I'm not sure we'll have time now."
"But you promised." Freddy threw the spade down in disgust.
"Not exactly…Look, Freddy, I'm sorry."
But he was already talking to the boy's back.
"You're just like all the rest."
Scott sighed. There wasn't a lot he could do.
"Don't worry, boss; he'll get over it." Frank offered him the canteen as Freddy went to help Luis.
"I hope so." Scott took a swig and frowned. Freddy was hauling posts off the wagon as though they had done him a personal injury.
Putting the top back on the canteen, he returned it to Frank. Shame it contained water and not whisky; he could use something a little stronger to give him strength. All his wedding day needed was a sullen teenager. Maybe he could find a spare hour somewhere—perhaps when Grandfather offered to dig ditches.