Swamp Things
"Whoa!"
Alex turned swiftly to see who had spoken from inside the barn. Jeb emerged from the darkness, a currying brush in his hand. He shook his head at Alex.
"You need to make sure you're alone before you go talking like that, Alex," he said. "'Cause even though I'm not thinking about reporting you – sounds to me like you'd be doing the world a favor getting rid of the scoundrel – but for all you know, there could be a dozen men in this barn, and every one of them just itching to run off and tell what he heard."
Alex nodded. "You're right, of course. It's been too many years since I left the army behind me; I think I've gotten soft."
Rhett smiled. "I know I have," he said, cheerfully. "But in this case, having Jeb on board may not be a bad thing, especially if we end up having to track Rodney."
"Track him?" Wade said. "Why, that city boy would be lost the minute he set foot in the woods."
"Which doesn't mean he might not be stupid enough to do it," Beau said, entering the conversation for the first time. "But when I saw him this afternoon, he was headed towards Jonesboro, so my first thought would be to look for him in the boarding house there, before we got out Jeb's dogs and start trying to track him through the swamps."
"My father's dogs, actually," Jeb said, but only Alex and Young Doc heard him. The other two were looking at Beau, and their misgivings showed plainly on their faces.
"Did you talk to him?" Wade said at last. Beau nodded, his mouth tightening.
"For a few minutes," he said. "He was as unpleasant as he could be, naturally, but we can talk about that later. For now, let's deal with making sure that Rodney can't let loose his venom on Sally Jo and William."
Wade looked at Beau, then nodded sharply and turned away. Rhett studied him a minute longer, probably wondering if Scarlett was going to have problems with him, but after a moment, he, too turned away and concentrated on the immediate problem.
"The easiest place to start probably would be Jonesboro," he told Alex. "Because 'city boy' describes Rodney pretty accurately; if he's ever been in the country at all, it would be to someone's estate, where the worst problem he might encounter would be a bee sting, or mud on his shoes, not panthers, or miles and miles of swamp."
"Maybe you'll get lucky and he actually will wander off into the swamp and get lost," Jeb said.
Rhett sighed. "I doubt it, somehow. Unpleasant characters like Rodney have a way of turning up, no matter how much better we would all be if they didn't."
Alex nodded. "So there are enough of us to split up," he suggested. "Rhett, you and I and Wade could go to go into Jonesboro and look for him this afternoon," he said. "Beau and Young Doc and Jeb can head south, towards Irondale, see if he's there. I can't imagine why he would be; it's not much more than a wide spot in the road, not even a boarding house, but he might have talked someone into taking him in. If he has, it'll be known. Jeb, you have some relatives that live around there, would you be willing to go and talk to them for us? Seeing as how they're – um – a little reclusive."
Jeb laughed. "Is that what you'd call them?" he asked. "I would have called 'em a bunch of hillbilly moonshiners, myself, but it's true that they know everyone who goes in or out of Irondale, cause they keep an eye out for the sheriff or his deputies. Not that there's a big problem there; if we didn't know what a fine bunch of fellows them deputies are, we might be tempted to think that someone is on cousin Clem's payroll, and sends word to him when they plan a raid."
Alex shrugged. "But of course, we all know it can't be anything like that," he said with heavy irony. "The point is, will you take Beau and Young Doc in to see them? They'll at least warn you, before they start shooting."
Jeb shrugged. "Sure, we can go ask them. I think it's a long shot, though."
"We have to cover all the territory, though. We'll meet back here for supper at six. We can compare notes then."
Beau slogged across the swampy ground, glad that Jeb had made them put on heavy rubber boots. Otherwise, he would be soaked to the skin instead of merely hot, tired, and mosquito-bitten. They had left the tiny community of Irondale behind an hour before; why anyone would live this far back in the swamp was a mystery to him, and he said as much to Jeb. He nodded pausing in his slog through the knee-deep water and mud to uncap the canteen he had slung around his neck. After taking several swallows of water, he handed the container to Beau, who took it gratefully.
"Most of the time, I don't see it, either," he told the other two. "But I admit, sometimes I do get tired of so-called civilization, enough that I can see why men would be willing to do without the comforts of it to live the way they choose. The problems come up when someone decides they want to go back."
"Like your ma?" Young Doc said, accepting the canteen in his turn. Beau felt a moment of resentment towards him; though he lived a much more sedentary life than Beau, he wasn't puffing and sweating from exertion. In fact, he looked perfectly at ease.
"Yeah. She met my pa, and wanted to marry him and live in town. And they – the whole group of them – pretty much shunned her for it. She lived for ten years after that, and she never saw her mother or her sisters again. If I hadn't met up with them by accident and proven to be useful to them a time or two, my cousins still wouldn't talk to me. The old man is dead now, but the patriarchy just swapped leaders; nothing's changed."
"So how did you get on your cousin's good side?" Beau asked, curiously.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm on their good side," Jeb said, laughing. "They just don't hate me enough to shoot me on sight anymore. And contrary to what Alex said, I doubt if they would have shot you, either."
"Why's that?"
"'Cause they consider that they owe a debt to your Mama and your Aunt Scarlett," Jeb said. Slinging the canteen back around his neck, he began to move again, headed steadily north.
"What did Aunt Scarlett do for them?" Young Doc asked.
"She and Beau's Mama took in a lot of men, after the war was over. Tara became known as a safe haven for returning soldiers. When my grandfather came back, he didn't intend to stop there; he was so close to home that even though he was really sick, he went on. He collapsed on the road, and Will Benteen carried him back to Tara where Wade and Beau's mamas nursed him back to health. He stayed around and did some chores as payback, but he never thought it was enough. So he considered that he owed them, and he passed the debt on to his family. They wouldn't do anything to hurt Wade's mama, and if Rodney was hiding among them, once they find out he's after her son, they won't let him stay. Might even be willing to hold him for ya."
Beau nodded. He didn't remember the aftermath of the war, but his mother had told him about it, and Aunt Suellen complained to this day about the gouges the soldiers' boots had left on the floors at Tara.
"The house is just over this next little hill," Jeb said.
"Should we holler or something? Let them know we're here?" Young Doc asked.
Jeb cast him an amused glance. "They've known we were here since we first left the road," he said. "I haven't made any effort to hide our presence – not that I really think I could – and this is their territory."
"Have you seen them?" Beau asked, curiously.
"No. But stop for a minute."
Obediently, they stopped.
"Now listen."
Except for the incessantly buzzing mosquitoes, Beau heard nothing. After a moment, he said so.
"That's the point," Jeb said. "There should be sounds. Birds, squirrels, all the normal animal sounds of the woods. Instead, there's nothing. Now, why do you suppose that is?"
To Beau's shock, the answer came in the form of a soft laugh that sounded close enough to make him flinch. With a thud, someone dropped from a branch overhead to land on the path only a few feet ahead of them.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd lost your touch, Cousin," a deep voice said.
Jeb shrugged. "I don't spend as much time here as I once did," he said. "How are you and Cassie doing, Clay?"
"We're all right. Older. Cassie's married, got a young'un on the way," Clay said carelessly. Behind the dirt and the beginnings of a straggly beard, he looked about eighteen, with eyes as feral as the packs of dogs rumored to live out here in this swampland. "Who have you brought into our woods, Cuz? Outsiders?"
"This is Beau Wilkes," Jeb said, "and Young Doctor Joe. One of the Fontaines."
"I remember the Fontaines," Clay answered, but his gaze examined Beau carefully, giving only momentary attention to Young Doc. "And the Wilkes', of course. My father used to say that your mother was a lovely lady."
"Thank you," Beau said. It felt a little odd to be exchanging polite comments about his mother with this half-wild boy.
"And why're they here?"
"There's a man, an Englishman, who has come to this country lookin' to do harm to both the Wilkes and the Hamiltons," Jeb said. 'He might try to stay hidden. If he does, he might try to hide in Irondale. If you see him, will you let us know?"
Clay frowned. "We have better things to do with our time than be traipsin' up and down the road, looking for you," he said, his chin tightening aggressively.
"'Course you do," Jeb said, his eyes widening to deny ever having thought differently. "I never meant to say that you didn't. Only if you see him, could you tie a piece of this ribbon on the corner post at the crossroad with Buckley Road? That way, we'd know you got something to tell, and we'll come find you."
Clay considered. "Reckon that'd be all right," he allowed after a minute. Taking the little spool of bright red ribbon that Jeb handed him, he looked at it. "Pretty," he said.
"Give the rest of it to Cassie," Jeb said. "Tell her I said congratulations on the baby."
Clay laughed. "She'll have to hide it from Billy Bob," he said, grinning."He won't let her have it if he knows it's from you."
"Tell him it came from one of the town ladies," Jeb advised. "It's true enough; it I bought it off Mrs Ivey in the general store in town."
"Oh, that's sneaky," Clay said, his tone completely approving.
"I learned from the best," Jeb said, and Clay laughed outright.
"That you did, cuz, that you did!" Clay turned away with a chortle, his lean body disappearing in the trees within seconds. Jeb and friends began walking back the way they had come.
When the three men had almost gotten back to the road, Beau asked, "What was the deal about Cassie – you cousin, I presume – not being able to keep the ribbon if her husband knew it was from you?"
Jeb shrugged, and looked a little uncomfortable. "The people who live back here are different," he said.
"I'll agree with that," Young Doc said, smiling.
"One of the problems with small isolated communities like these is finding partners for the young ones," Jeb said. "If there aren't enough suitable mates of an age for each other, the young people tend to marry out. Like my mother did. One of the results of this is that for the boys, any girl who isn't their sister is eligible, including first cousins."
Beau shrugged. "I can't say much about cousins marrying," he admitted. "My mother and father were second cousins, after all."
"Well, first cousins are frowned on, pretty much everywhere that I know of," Jeb said. "But not here. So when I started coming around, Billy Bob thought I had my eye on Cassie, while I thought I was just being nice to my cousin. And since she was the only girl who was the right age for him, he hated me even though he didn't really care much about Cassie. One day I caught him smacking her around – his stamp of ownership, you might say – and I stopped him, which made him even madder."
"It's a hard life," Beau said. "Especially for the women."
"Yeah. The men aren't exactly noted for their gentleness. But they make excellent moonshine, and they can track better than anyone except maybe the Indians that used to live here. They sent them all west though, so my swamp-kin are probably the best you could get. That's why the sheriff calls on me when they need to hunt someone in the woods, although I've made it clear to them that I won't go in the swamp. And that's why your Uncle Rhett, Wade, and Will Benteen hired me to spend a little time this summer teaching their boys a little woods craft."
"Woods craft? Aren't they a young for that?" Beau asked.
"Oh, I wasn't teaching them to hunt," Jeb said. "More common sense kind of things. How to tell directions by the sun. How to find water. What plants are safe to eat, and which ones are poison. Which kinds of snakes are poisonous. How to tell poison ivy and poison sumac from other scrubs. Stuff that boys who are going to live in the country and play near the woods need to know."
"How come I didn't know you did that?" Young Doc asked.
"Probably 'cause you ain't got no kids yet," Jeb said. "Though that may change soon, if Susan Thompson has her way. She's got her eye on you, I think."
Young Doc laughed. "She's a pretty girl," was all he said.
"And Beau, your child is a girl, and too young. Although considering the trouble Lanie got in with poison ivy last summer, a few lessons for the girls might not be such a bad thing, either."
"That's true, although in Lanie's case, I'm not sure it would have done any good. Girl doesn't listen to anyone."
"Like her Ma, I think," Jeb said. "But I bet you'd be surprised to know which one of the boys was far and away the best at woods craft. Enough that I've already taken him out to show him how to scout for game?"
"Which one?" Beau asked, mildly interested.
"William. Little English boy. Who'd have thought, huh?"
Beau shrugged. "I guess it shows they can't breed all the sense out of them. Although in Rodney's case, they seem to have made an excellent attempt. Do you think Rhett and Wade and Alex had any better luck than we did at finding him?"
"Probably not," Jeb said. "Men like him are usually pretty cunning. They know when they're being hunted, and they go to ground."
Beau had a sinking feeling that Jeb was right, and so it proved. When they got back to Pine Bloom and compared notes with the rest of their group, all they had was a lengthy list of places where Rodney wasn't.
So Rodney has the good sense to hide. After what he's done, I would think so!
The swamp conversation may seem a little pointless, but it there is a reason for it, I promise, and we're going to get to it soon!
Next chapter tomorrow, I hope again. This one is late, I know, but I just had to have a nap this afternoon.
Remember, I love reviews!
