A/N: Sorry for the delay between chapters, I'll try and upload another one soon. If you like this one, that is ;)
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Three hundred dollars?" JD said incredulously. "That's near a year's wages!"
Casey had told him of Aggie's inheritance and he was confirming it now with Ezra, who sat across the table from him, idly shuffling a deck of cards. Chris and Buck sat one on each side of him, faces thoughtful.
"The kid's right, that's not too bad."
"Indeed, it is a tidy little sum," Ezra agreed. "I have every intention of offering my services to retrieve it for her from Lone Pine myself."
"You?" Chris snorted.
"Why not I?" Ezra retorted.
"You've said yourself, you're no Good Samaritan. You're going to go out of your way for the girl? Tell me you'd be doin' the same if it was ten dollars instead."
"Are you suggesting I have ulterior motives?" Ezra's voice hinted at anger.
"Damn right I am. I wouldn't let you within fifty feet of that money," Chris said hotly. "You as much as told me not to when you asked me not to 'burden you with other people's money' if I recall correctly. Might have saved your life that day but it don't mean you weren't stealing it. You aren't trustworthy."
The tension between the two men snapped like a taut wire, and Ezra's face took on a reddish hue; his voice turned deadly.
"You truly believe I would steal from an orphaned woman who has cheated death, not once, but twice?" He stood up and pushed his chair back violently. "I may be a scoundrel and perhaps, at times, I have been untrue, but to know you think so little of me is very revealing, indeed. Goodnight, gentlemen. And I use the term loosely."
With that he turned and went upstairs to the second floor. Only a few seconds later they heard the door of his room slam shut.
"You were a bit hard on him, weren't you Chris?" Buck asked. JD looked like he wanted to say the same thing but was too scared to pipe up.
"Hard on him? You know the man. He'd rob a church collection plate if he thought he could get away with it. Hell, maybe even if he couldn't get away with it."
"What's this about robbing the collection plate?" A voice asked behind them. Josiah pulled up a chair and sank his large frame down onto it, waving at Inez behind the bar who began to fill a mug with beer.
Buck explained the altercation between Chris and Ezra and what it had been about. Vin came in in time to hear the tail end of it and Inez, who was carrying over Josiah's beer, made a swift turn and filled up a second mug before delivering them both.
"That was Ezra when we met him, sure," he said. "But the man's changed. We've all changed, Chris."
"It's none of my business," Inez began.
"That ain't never stopped a lady before," Buck joked under his breath to JD. Inez shot him a fiery glare.
"It's none of my business what you do or what you say, but Mr. Standish is a good man. Beneath all of his card sharking and brazen attitude is a true Southern gentleman. Trust me, I know."
"And just how do you know, Inez?" Buck persisted, waggling his eyebrows.
Inez threw her arms up in the air in a gesture of defeat, turned on her heel and stalked away. "Hombres," she said in an exasperated voice. "You can't tell them anything."
"Josiah's gotta be the most trustworthy of any of us. He's a preacher, ain't he?" JD asked.
"I'll go happily if it's what the child wants," Josiah answered.
"She's hardly a child," Vin commented.
"She's a child of God."
"What I mean is, why don't you ask her what she wants. Lord, all this fussin' and fightin' and ain't nobody even bothered to talk to her. For all you know she's already got a mail wagon or some such bringin' it over and it'll be safe in her apron pocket this time tomorrow," Vin said, draining his beer.
He stood up and pushed his chair calmly back under the table. People confused him, and more than that they sure could give him a headache. It was time to retire to his wagon for the night.
"I'm going out to see her in the morning and I'm going over to Lone Pine," Chris said with an air of finality.
"We only just got back, the dust ain't even settled on my britches yet," Buck whined.
"I didn't say anything about you, did I Buck?" Chris replied. He finished his beer as well and left the saloon, spurs jangling down the boardwalk outside.
"Morning, Nettie," Chris said, tipping his hat. "Is Aggie about?"
"Sure, Mr. Larabee. The girls are over in the barn, throwing down hay. You'll know 'em by all the giggling and girl talk."
Chris didn't bother to dismount, just touched the brim of his hat again and turned his horse in the direction of the barn. Nettie eyed him good naturedly. "You come courtin', Chris?"
His heart nearly leaped up into his throat. What was it in a woman that always had to look for meaning beyond any meaning that was there? They were always trying to figure something out about you.
"No ma'am, only come to offer some help," he answered, a little color rising under his collar nonetheless.
Nettie nodded and went back inside. An old woman's learned many things, and one of them is patience, she thought to herself. Time will tell.
Sure enough, Chris could hear Casey chattering away before he reached the barn door. Stepping down off of his horse he left him groundtied and walked out of the light into the darkness of the barn. It took his eyes a minute to adjust and neither Aggie nor Casey noticed him at first.
He couldn't hear exactly what Casey had said, but whatever it was set off a beautiful, lilting laughter above his head. At first he was confused, then he realized it was Aggie; he only hadn't recognized it because he'd never heard her laugh before. He thought how much he'd like to make her laugh again, how it would be enough to see her smile - maybe everyday if he was lucky, and a good enough man.
He shook his head to clear the thoughts. That was the problem, wasn't it? He never had been a good enough man, not ever.
"Morning girls," he said cordially.
Casey started, then grinned broadly at him. "Morning, Chris," she said. "Is JD with you?"
"Sorry, he's on patrol back in town."
A shower of hay fell down on his black hat and his black clad shoulders. He looked up in time to see Aggie hanging half over the edge of the hay loft, smiling at him. He could see the scarred skin around her collarbone, but it didn't matter. All that drew his attention was that wide smile and the two rows of small, white teeth.
"Aren't you two happy as crows," he said, smiling back, despite himself.
"It's a fine Irish morning," Agatha replied, green eyes like Ezra's watching him.
He looked away while he still could. "Ain't never been to Ireland," he said, curiosity in his voice.
"Me neither," Aggie said, crawling over the ladder and stepping carefully on the rungs. "I'm from Scotland."
Casey stood looking between Chris and Aggie, wondering who would be the next to say something, but the silence stretched on. Oddly enough, it didn't seem uncomfortable, it was almost as if everything that ever needed to be said had been, and so why say anything more.
"What brings you out, Chris?" Casey asked, once it became clear that she would have to start the conversation again.
"I've come to make you an offer," Chris said, looking at Agatha.
"What would that be, Mr. Larabee?"
"I hear you've got a considerable sum waiting on you in the bank in Lone Pine. I'm offering to go and get it for you. It ain't something you want to trust to just anyone."
"No, I suppose you're right," she replied, picking hay from her hair and dress.
"I can leave today."
"You can leave?"
"Sure, for Lone Pine," Chris felt confused by the change in her tone.
"You're not going without me," Aggie said. "I'd be happy if you'd escort me there and back, but I want to come along, too."
Chris paused, considering. He'd never thought she'd want to come along.
"It's a fair ways, you'll get tired."
"I know I will, but it has to be done."
"I can go, I don't mind. You don't want to get sick."
"I'm as good as useless in this country if I can't go a couple days ride there and back. I'll never be strong again if all I do is wait around to die. You might as well ship me back East where I could embroider and hold quilting circles and read the Bible until consumption or some other foul end comes for me."
Chris was taken aback by the passion in her statement. He could read the frustration on her face and he knew that she felt like an invalid. She wanted to take charge and prove to the world nothing was going to hold her down or claim her. He could even see that familiar anger in her he'd carried himself, anger at a situation you had no control over. It was a worrisome thing.
"When can you leave?"
"Right away as long as Nettie doesn't need me."
"I'll go and ask," Casey offered, eager to be away from the sudden tension that had brewed up around her friend.
Nettie packed them a good lunch and a few days dry rations, "just in case", and the two set off before the sun reached full force in the sky. Aggie wore her wide brimmed hat and a pair of britches so that she could ride astraddle and not have any skin on her legs exposed.
"Keep your strength up," Nettie warned, passing up a canteen of water. "I put a little mint in it. Just how you like it."
"Nettie, you're too kind," Aggie thanked her, laying her hand over the older woman's and basking in the affection she felt there.
"Pshaw," Nettie blew air through her lips dismissively, and just to prove she wasn't too sentimental she gave Aggie's horse a good slap on the rump, sending him leaping forward.
There it was again, that laugh Chris had fallen in love with less than an hour before. His horse pranced along beside the gelding, picking up on his high emotion.
"You ready?"
Aggie readjusted her hat and tied the canteen tight around the saddle horn. "I believe I am."
"Let's go then."