Chapter 11

Suggests rape, women as second class citizens and seriously messing up the time line neither which I personally condone. (Especially taking credit for other people's inventions)

With so many projects in the works, and actually needing money to complete some of them. Chris decided that Zoe needed more than her 6 cent earned from her chores and Buck agreed, She still did all her chores and was given 6 cents that was her pocket money, but for any all projects she just needed to tell Chris what she needed, and give specifics of the What, where, Why, How, Who, and possible outcomes. And Chris would usually give her the money, buy it for himself, or wire Mr. Willis to take care of it. If it was a large enough amount. Like creating a scholarship fund so that Olivia Morgan could go to Vassar, or buying the materials so she could invent Band aids and Butterfly closures, and sketchpads and other art materials so she could design the Modern Zipper, an improved barbed wire fence, and Tampons with applicator. All of which was Sent by Mr. Willis to be patented.

After Maude's initial injury there was talk about putting her in a care home. But While Ezra had substantial savings those were for his children, he couldn't use them on his mother's care. Nor did he have the time or ability to care for her himself, and she could in time mostly take care of herself with the help of a nurse, but that was a few years away, Zoe convinced Chris to let her pay for her care. They were family after all. They contacted the most state of the art Care home in Colorado Springs, and inquired about vacancies and then had Mr. Willis wire the money and Maude's spot was secured. Then got a buckboard wagon and hitched Nathan's Horse to it so Maude lay down in the back, while Buck, Vin and Ezra rode their own.

When the five of them arrived at the Chatterton Care Home and Sanatorium. He spoke to the admitting doctor, Dr. Edwin Bilson, and the head nurse Mrs. Cordell. His Mother would have a private room on the first floor, with a small gated patio. His mother was fitted for a wheelchair, and was brought to her room. Which had a private bath, and a toilet. It was a state of the art facility with indoor plumbing after all. He Spoke to Dr. Bilson.

"We appreciate you paying in advance Mr. Standish your mother will get the best of care we are a state of the art facility. We have the best doctors in the West, I myself was educated at Harvard Medical School." Dr. Bilson said.

"Thank you, Ah live so fah away in Four Corners, Ah have responsibilities as one of the Peacekeepers there, and Ah also have two children ta take care of, I don't have the time ta be worrying about Ma mother I need to know she is well taken care of."

"I assure you Mister Standish she is the best possible care."

"I would appreciate updates on ma mother's care." Ezra said.

"Of course I will write to you, weekly about your mother's progress." He said. they shook hands he really was grateful to Zoe. He had money but he might not have been able to afford this place without her help. It was a top of the line facility, and his mother wouldn't have been happy anywhere else. This was practically a resort, anywhere he could have afforded for an extended period of time would not have been as nice, and his mother would have taken that personally, and refused to stay. "Come, I'll show you to your mother's room."

The Doctor showed him, to his Mother's room, his fellow peacekeepers, where waiting outside on the grounds, the orderlies were already helping put her things away. His Mother was in her Wheelchair looking around the adapted room. It had a beautiful view, a writing desk adapted for someone in a wheelchair, one of the Orderlies was setting up mother's Music box and it's discs. The other putting her clothes away in the Bureau. Mrs. Cordell was speaking with my mother.

"We have an indoor pool, a Sauna, we have massages, we play card games, we have sing-a-longs, we have salons, and readings, it's certainly never dull here…."

"Cards." His mother's eyes lit up. "I of course haven't played in years, but I was fairly decent card player in my youth. It might be fun to get back into it."

"You do that mother." Ezra Said. He's already had a discussion on the way here about how this was her permanent home now and she couldn't be conning people, he hoped she understood. After she was settled, the orderlies, the doctors and nurse left him with his mother.

"Mother, ah have some spending Money for you."

"Ah thought Mr. Wilmington's daughter was paying for ma stay."

"She is, But ahm am still going to contribute to your stay here. Ahm giving you $100 A Mix of coins, including double Eagles, Half Eagles, and Dollar Coins."

"Thank you, Son."

"You know you can't get caught conning anyone or cheating them at cards, you cannot be thrown out of this facility. You must be shown as the perfect patient."

"I know."

"Eventually Zoe is willing to set you up in a city with a nurse."

"Why should she care about my well being?"

"Zoe considers all the seven of us peacekeepers her family, and by extension you are family. Zoe would do anything for her family. I would urge you not to take advantage of her, Mother. She is the niece of Chris Larabee, and though she has different sense of justice and vengeance she is just as vindictive as him when need be." Thinking of the fights Zoe had gotten into on the playground, to Protect Al, Oswald and Emily.

"Ah have no intention of taking advantage of her or of conning anyone here. Ah Am retired now."

"Of course mother." He handed her the bag of coins. "I love you mother, I will write you soon, and so will the twins."

Maude had gotten to know her grandchildren and actually liked them. Or at least pretended to. One never knew with his mother. But it was a kindness even if she was only pretending. Meanwhile back in Four Corners Josiah's House was ready. Zoe, Casey, Miz Nettie, Mary, and Kat were helping him get the place ready. He had already spoken to the Eagle Bend Orphan Home ran by Mr. and Mrs. Eastland, and was getting some orphans, Franny Sullivan and her three younger brothers. Franny was 13, and her brothers were Connor were 12, 8 and 7. Franny was apparently very smart and read and did math very well, and was a little adult, Connor was a gifted artist, 8 year old Sean was obsessed with Cowboys, and 7 year old Aiden was bundle of Curiosity and Energy and loved trains. They were coming on Friday. Bennett and Nathan were getting married on Saturday.

"Zoe you really helped make this place look wonderful, it actually looks like a house back east." Mary said. "How did you do this?"

"Styling tips from the future I suppose. But the Ryland's did an amazing job, this house is very well built."

"Yes it is." Josiah rumbled. Now they were working on helping fix the church. Bennett's best friend Levi Ryland and his Brother Charles were also expecting their Mail order brides any day now. In the Middle of town the stage arrived, and Levi and Charles arrived, Temperance Monroe and 5 months pregnant sister Eve got off the stage, got off the stage. Eve had gotten pregnant through rape, and she had refused to marry her rapist or anyone else. Temperance who had already been writing Charles wrote Charles for help, he suggested Levi, And they started writing letters Levi proposed, she accepted and everyone was happy. She didn't care if he was Homosexual as long as she and her child was protected. If she couldn't have more children the natural way, they could adopt. She was actually turned off by sex at the moment anyway. But he would be kind to her, and supportive.

"Charles!" Temperance shouted. Having seen his picture went over to him and hugged him she was a very affectionate person. She looked at him

"You're much more handsome in person."

"And You're even more beautiful in person."

"Hello, you must be Eve." Levi said.

"Yes."

"Thank you for everything you've done. My father didn't care that it was rape, only that I got pregnant out of Wedlock, he was ashamed of me. From Everything Temperance said you'll protect me, and take care of me."

"I will Eve, I promise. I will protect you, and treat your child as my own, he or she will have the protection of my name, and so will you." He meant it. Those letters send back and forth made him care for her. Not just because she got dealt a lousy hand, because she was kind, and compassionate and didn't care about his proclivities. "We have your room set up you'll share until we marry in two weeks, and then we'll each have our own cottage on the grounds of our family's lands. They're already been built."

"Of Course."

"The Wagon's this way." Charles said. They brought the women and their things to wagon. They brought them to Ryland's house, and settled them in their room. They introduced them, to their father Rick Ryland, and their Brothers Noah, and Aaron, Stating Oswald was still at School. Rick insisted they call him Rick. And asked if they needed anything.

"No, Rick it's fine. We appreciate everything you're doing for us." Temperance said.

"Well, Charles loves you very much, and Levi well he cares for Eve, I know he wants to protect her, and marrying her will protect both of them."

"You're not bothered by it." Eve asked.

"No, actually I'm not we're all made in God's image and God doesn't make mistakes."

"The Bible…."

"The Bible says a lot of things, Like though shall not kill, if I'm protecting my family killing is something necessary, and that thing with Abraham and Isaac I have faith, I don't care if God himself told me to kill one of my son's I wouldn't do it. And look what he did to Job, tortured the poor man just to prove to the Devil the man was Faithful. The Bible is full of stories like that. And Don't get me started on what they thought of women."

"I suppose you're right, how do you know about this?"

"My wife was the daughter of a Preacher, and went to Bethlehem Female Seminary in Pennsylvania before she met me. She was a true believer though. She just thought the Bible has more than a little bias in those who wrote it down, and then translated it. She thought if she could get her hands on older translations and translate it herself she might be able to learn more."

"She could translate?"

"Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Latin, Ancient Latin, Greek, Attic Greek, she was very learned, then so were her parents they were very learned."

"I'm Sorry what did she die of, if you don't mind me asking." Eve asked.

"She just died in the middle of the night when Oswald was 3, when he lived back east, the Autopsy revealed she had a hole in her heart, the doctor told me she had probably always had and could have died at any time and it was a blessing she died in sleep and therefore felt no pain. I had to agree with that."

"That you thought of remarrying."

"Well, I am in competition with Mr. Porter the pig farmer for the affections of Constance Grayson, she's a widow that runs one of the boarding houses but neither one of us is truly serious about it if either one of us was, the other one would stop pursuing her. Jake Porter is my friend and has been since I moved to the area 7 years ago. We both like her, and like to flirt with her, and give her tokens of our affection, but if I thought for a minute he was serious about courting her, I'd help him, not be a rival for his affections, he deserves to be happy. His wife has been gone longer than mine, and she didn't die in her sleep like mine did, She died when the Railroad forced them off their land in Kansas.

"A boy, a girl doesn't have to worry about protecting himself. But I'll just be happy with whatever I get. I'm just happy that Levi wants to marry me, and is going to take my child as his own."

"Of course he is. Have you decided any names yet?"

"Well, for a boy I was thinking Samuel Levi Ryland, and a girl, Margaret Grace Ryland." She said

"I like it." Levi comes in. "So if he's a boy we'll call him Sammy, and if she's a girl, Gracie."

"I like that, Love." She said. He smiled brightly at the term of affection. Back on the road. Nathan, Ezra, Buck and Vin were about a day and half from Four Corners.

"It's hard to believe Zoe owns all this land isn't it." Buck said with a grin.

"Any idea what she's going to do with it."

"That's up to her and Chris, and Mr. Willis, and I guess her Denver Lawyer Mr. Bryant." They had turned the corner of the road, and were set upon five teenage boys, between 13 and 15.

"This here is our land, you need to pay a toll to pass."

"I happened to know it ain't yer land." Buck said. and the four Peacekeepers went for their guns. "And yer gunna have to do a lot better than if Ya don't wanna be full of holes. Now let us pass. Now yet just boys we don't want to have to hurt ya."

"I don't think so, Pay the toll." The largest one who was tall, and very skinny said.

"If there's anything ah I can't stand it's stupid Criminals." Ezra said.

"True dat." Vin said echoing a phrase from Zoe. The Criminals went for their guns and all four Peacekeepers fired. Shooting four out of the five, killing three and seriously wounded one. The Fifth had gotten is weapon in his hand and now all four were aimed at him.

"Be Smart, and don't force us to kill you." The Stand-off took long enough the Forth died, eventually he put his weapon back, and eased his arms up, and then backed away and rode off. They continued on their way.

"I don't think for a minute that, that's over." Nathan said.

"I recognize them, that's the Winston gang, or some of them." Vin said. "It's run by an Old coot named Jem Winston he's kind of insane, he adopted runaways at a young age like when they're Junior's age, or even Younger and raises them as his sons, and teaches them how to rob banks, hold people up, attack people, everything you could imagine. I can't imagine these are his only sons."

"So there will be a confrontation just what we need." Nathan said.

"He may not be able to figure out who we were."

"Maybe not, but This might have been kind of rite of passage initiation, in that case Ahm sure they knew exactly who we were." Ezra said.

Tuesday August 15, Zoe rose, and got ready for School. She had work to do, she would do it mostly away from school, but she still had to check in at school. She was doing most of her work away from school these days, as she had many special projects. She did her chores and helped Mrs. Grayson. Mrs. Grayson was in a good mood, she had Mr. Porter and Mr. Ryland vying for her affections again. She said both were good friends, and suitors but neither wanted her to be his wife. They just helped each other not be lonely. She figured they probably had sex but didn't want to think too much about it. It wasn't like any of them were that old. None of them were 55 yet. In her time that wasn't that old. I mean Tony Randall became a father at 76, and Betty White was in her 90s when she hosted SNL, and did that snickers commercial. Zoe went to school handed in her science report on Newton's three laws, and was given a Shakespeare Project to do Which sounded interesting She had to Pick a Shakespeare Play and change the Genre and change it to a more modern setting, but keep the plot mostly the same, some Math homework, and a Project on the three branches of American Government. Looks like Miss Dawson wants her to actually have a lot of work to do. It was all due at the end of the week, except the Shakespeare Project for that she had a Month. She was going to change Romeo and Juliet to a Romantic Comedy, and set it in Post-Civil War West Virginia. After Miss Dawson released her. She went to find her Uncle as her father hadn't come back yet. Uncle Chris was in the Jail. Calvin Porter was in a Jail Cell, he was Jake Porter's Second Youngest Son, he had a really bad temper, he usually got locked up for causing something and then his dad had to come and get him out. He was only 16.

"Hi, Uncle Chris."

"Zoe Miss Dawson let you out already."

"With plenty of work to keep me busy."

"Ah, well I think you should go back to the Boarding House and get working on that."

"Not the church?" She worked at the church often with Josiah helping her.

"The Ryland's are working on it, If anyone wants to speak to Josiah they need to use his home office. I suppose you can go to his house, if you want to, but I think you should go home. That's why we got you that writing desk." They had gotten her a writing desk, and a drawing table ordered and brought to her room, and chairs for them. It took her awhile to get used to the oil lamps, but when she did, it was easy to use them even at night.

"Yes, Sir."

"Is there anything you need me to order you right now?"

"Have you gotten any information from Mr. Willis about the sketches I sent him?"

"Yes, the patents should go through. It will take a while though, until Mr. Willis can mass-market anything, but you can still make anything you want for Nathan and Bennett."

"Good. Has he found me a Chemist yet?"

"He's still looking, it's hard to find one that will not get suspicious."

"And has be approached the Underwood family?"

"They're willing to do more than making Ribbons and carbon paper. You sent him the schematics for The Typewriter you want them to build?"

"We need to find someone to actually build it. Mr. Willis found someone to build that as well. A German named Wagner. Just like you asked."

"Good." In the End Zoe will sell the Machine to Understood at a decent price since his people invented it in the first place, making sure Wagner is a profit Participant they'll invest in the stock. And she'll insure she's among the first to buy the first truly Modern typewriter that came out 20 years early.

"Alright you go on Zoe." Zoe left the room. and Calvin Porter looked at the Head Peacemaker.

"Uh, Mr. Larabee did you send for my dad yet?" He asked embarrassed.

"He was at Mrs. Grayson's earlier, I asked him if he wanted to come get you, he said you can spend a night in jail. I'm sorry Son. Mrs. Grayson will make you some lunch and a nice dinner though don't worry."

"I'm sorry I made such a scene, It's just ever since My Mama died….I've been so angry I was there you know. I don't remember much, but the fire, we lost Mama, and Samantha, after the fire we left for the west, Mama and Samantha were burned to Ashes not sure how, but Papa keeps them in a jar." Mr. Porter had three sons, Jacob Junior or JJ, Lucas and Calvin, a daughter named Alice. Samantha had been the baby, and had died with her mother. JD came in.

"Chris, I need to stop early today, Casey is sick and she needs me to do the farm chores for her and our place and Aunt Nettie's." He's been calling her Aunt since the wedding

"Of Course JD, is she alright."

"She's fine, she's just with child, she said that's normal."

"It is."

"The only reason I came in at all was because the others are away."

"Go ahead JD, and don't come in at all tomorrow, they should be here this afternoon, and congratulations."

"Thanks Chris." He went back to his farm. Back in her room Zoe was working on her weekly homework first. Trying to remember what the three branches were like during the 1870s, It would take days of research on it. Of course that's why Miss Dawson gave it to her, and not someone else, she didn't want a simple explanation that anyone could give, she would have made it due the next day. Zoe knew that. Zoe did the first couple problems which she actually had to work to solve. She would do more tomorrow. Then she got started on her Shakespeare project. By the time homework time was finished she went to work with Sky. Meanwhile while she was working with Sky, Buck, Vin, Ezra and Nathan returned home. They brought the Buckboard back to Yosemite, and got their horses settled and ran into Zoe who was grooming Sky, after having shoveled her stall.

"Papa!" She called Excitedly and ran to hug Buck, who smiled and hugged him back. Hugging his child felt good.