Part III – Clarke
July 1882
Chapter 12
Revelations
When the train chugged into the station at Stockton a small, blonde little boy was shaking in his miniature cowboy boots. He was standing with Heath Barkley, Jarrod Barkley, Sheriff Madden, and Reverend Billings. He'd already had to make his confession to the latter two and now he would have to face Clarke Hansen, all by himself.
After receiving the telegram from Nick containing the information about Clarke and the vague details about Scotty's accident, it was a consensus between Jarrod, Heath, Victoria and Ben that part of Luke's punishment be that he met and confessed to Clarke what he had done. Still though, they had decided, that it would have to be up to Scotty if further punishment were needed, though they would plea his case as to what had already been taken care of.
But it was not merely the confession that Luke was worried about. Ben had told him of the telegram's contents and he shrank from the fact that his prank had nearly caused two lives to be lost. He understood, from both the sheriff and reverend's lectures that he had almost caused Clarke to be lynched by not so well meaning neighbors, and if proof could not have been procured for the man he might have been sentenced to hang anyway.
And while he felt a terrible guiltiness about what could have happened to Clarke, he felt extremely guilty over the fact that his mother had nearly lost her life. Being as young yet as he was, he had no way of even thinking of the domino affect his actions could have on everyone around him. And the thought that he might have lost his mother and that at that very moment she was suffering made him what to run all the way home and hide under his bed, weeping. He could not imagine being alone again.
The train hissed with steam as it stopped and passengers climbed off. Among them the tall, blonde gentleman. "Hello sheriff!" he called waving as he weaved through the crowd. "I see you got Nick's telegram." He handed the briefcase to the reverend who immediately began checking the contents. "I added an extra $20, Reverend," He said before turning back to Fred Madden.
"We did," the sheriff nodded. "How is Scotty?"
"Better. It's a long story that I'll tell once I've had a chance to wash."
"Before we proceed," the dark haired lawyer interrupted. "I believe we have one young man who would like to say something."
Heath gently pushed the young boy forward encouragingly. Clarke glanced from one to the other of the older folks before bending a knee to be eye level with the little boy. "What's the matter Luke?" he noted the pale face of the mischievous child and stifled the urge to smile. For some reason the boy's look reminded him of himself, many years before.
"I was naughty," Luke said. "I hid your briefcase so you couldn't find it."
"Ah. I see now," Clarke smiled warmly.
"I'm sorry," the boy mumbled low.
"You're forgiven," and he gave the child a hug. "Now," he straightened. "Let me get a hotel and wash and we'll talk about Scotty and Nick."
"No you're not," Jarrod responded. "You're coming out to the ranch with us. And no arguments."
Scotty felt peevish. She'd snapped at the doctor, his kind wife, Ellie and the children, Mrs. Hansen and even Nick. She knew she should not, but the walls were beginning to get to her.
Nick had bought and borrowed several books for her to read. She'd found them interesting especially James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. But even so, she ached to be up, moving, doing something. She wasn't a particularly good seamstress, but she'd given it a stab, and had ended up stabbing her finger, making her all the more angry.
She knew she was being unreasonable. It wasn't really anyone's fault that she was laying up waiting for the wound to heal. The strange thing to her was that Nick seemed to be being…well, patient with her. Not only had he brought her books, but almost anything else she wanted.
Scotty had the feeling that he understood how she felt, but that still did not explain to her why he was doing all of this. He could have very easily packed up and gone back to Stockton. There truly wasn't anything he could do that the doctor and his wife couldn't do and Mrs. Hansen had volunteered to keep an eye on her. There was plenty of time for her to puzzle it out, but she seemed to be missing what she felt was sitting right under her nose.
The first week had been the best week because she had not felt like doing anything but sleep, she reflected as the days began to inch along. That had made the days fly by, but by the middle of the second week she had slept as long as she could. Now her legs seemed to ache to move to be up in the saddle to work. She felt as if she could crawl up one wall and down the other. Her blankets and sheets were uncomfortable, her hair was uncomfortable, her clothes were uncomfortable. Everything was uncomfortable.
It didn't help that it was the middle of summer and the heat was stifling. She and Nick began playing checkers to break up the monotony, but that soon became boring. They played cards for a time, the doctor now and again, when his duties permitted, joining them for a game. But that grew old quickly.
When she could sleep, which seemed almost impossible some nights, she dreamed of being back on her ranch, helping her boys and Nellie, working hard, sweating, feeling the wind blowing. But, to her surprise, Nick seemed to appear in some of those dreams, though when she thought about it, it did make sense since she was spending so much time with him.
One afternoon when she was in a particularly antsy mood, Nick began to reminisce. It had almost been startling when he began, talking about his childhood, growing up. She was fascinated though. It brought up memories she had thought well buried in her mind. "So what about you?" he asked after a while, he smiled at her slightly as she frowned.
"Ah wouldn't want to bore ya," she sighed, shifting under the covers, trying to find a better position. "It's a long story."
"We got time," Nick shifted in his seat and leaned back.
"Whale, ya know ah was born and raised in Tennessee?" he nodded. "Back in the hill country. We were in the sticks were we barely knew of a world beyond. Some knew, some had been and seen, others had dealings with some folks to sell their moonshine. My maw, was as red headed as ah am. Ah don't really remember, but she told me my paw was a dark headed, tall man. Guess ah got my size from her too," Scotty chuckled. "But my paw got hisself killed one day when they were out hunting. Whale a widowed woman in those hills with two kids at her skirts ain't got much of options for taking care of herself. That's when she married Hampton.
"When ah first knew Hampton ah thought he was a nice enough fellar and would be good for Maw. He took to my little brother Chester, purty well. Took 'im fishing and hunting. Thought we had it made too. He seemed to be better equipped to take care of us than my paw was, though he did his best.
"But after the first year, we began to notice that he drank an awful lot. Maw didn't say anything to me and ah didn't say anything to Chess, but ah noticed it and one day Chess mentioned it to me. That was the first time Hampton came home and beat Maw. From there it only got worse. Maw tried to put the best face on it and pretend nothin' was happening, but we saw. It's had not to in a small one room cabin with just a loft above that me and Chess shared. He had us a curtain between for privacy, but that was it.
"It all went like that for about five years; ah was fifteen by then and he came home stone drunk. And he started in and he didn't stop," she swallowed hard. "Ah couldn't hardly bear it no more, but Chess, he was beyond it and grabbed the shot gun and shot him point blank in the head." She shivered. She had been retelling the whole incident without pause and without a quaver of her voice, but here she felt sorrow well up inside.
"It was too late for Maw. We should have left right then and there. There was no way justice would have been served anyway you look at it since Hampton's older brother was the sheriff of sorts in those parts. Hampton's family was fairly influential. It was an hour later 'fore some of his kin came riding up and we didn't rightly know what to do. The came in there asked what had happened and we told 'em the truth. They immediately strung up Chester," she swallowed around the lump rising in her throat. "Took me and married me off to a cousin of Hampton's. Paul weren't too bad a fellow. He was, ah guess, the black sheep of the family. We probably coulda been purty happy together, but they roped him into helping out with the feud.
"Ya see, my paw's family got angry cause of them hanging my brother. Week after we was married Paul got shot. Ah was really frightened by this point. Ah knew Hampton's family didn't care who they married me off to and the next might be worse than Hampton himself. So ah took the money Paul kept under our mattress and ah lit a shuck out of there."
She was quiet, reflective for several moments. Nick sat, waiting patiently, reflecting on the life she'd had to live himself. "So where did you go?"
Her eyes lifted to him and she smiled slightly. "Whale, ah went to Georgia. Almost died too, but there was a family of freed slaves and they took me in for a while. They worked for a plantation that hired most if it's workers. They were good to me and ah worked alongside them for a time. But the war broke out right after then. Didn't really affect us much at first, but things kept getting tighter and tighter. And then, of course, ya had Sherman marching to the sea in '64. We all got separated.
"Ah managed to hide out until they passed, but when they'd passed, that's when I found my first two. Jimmy's mama had been a servant of Louisa's and they'd pretty much been raised together. Ah found those two huddled together in the back of an old corn crib. Ah don't really know what they saw. They never told me, but ah always figured it was pretty bad.
"But with the war on the way to a close and me barely able to keep bread in our mouths we headed west. Sometimes ah had to steal food just to keep are bellies from starving." She sighed. "Never liked doing that much, but we managed to make it to Texas. Ah cut my hair and dressed in men's pants and all, fellar hired me on to his ranch. He weren't as badly effected as some others were from the war, so he could afford us. Ah could have a cabin to myself since I had the young'uns. We did fairly good there too. Made enough money to keep us clothed and fed, but then one of the fellars figured out my secret. We got thrown out on my ear after then.
"Ah started looking for any kind of respectable job and finally got a one doing laundry, but I'd loved ranching. We finally packed up and moved further west. That's when ah found Joel. He was a small little thing, his ma had died and nobody else would take him in. Ah wasn't too sure how I was gonna feed us all, but I couldn't just leave 'im behind. So, the three of us arrived at another ranch, and this time I told the fellar the truth. He hired me after ah proved to him ah could rope as good as any of his men. Ah proved to him later ah could do a lot of things as good as any of his men."
She had paused and took a sip of water from the stand next to the bed. "So who was Arnold Croft?" Nick asked. Scotty looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"How do ya know about him?"
"You were talking when you were delirious," he replied, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.
"Well, Arnold was the ranch owner, and he'd taken a shine to me. But he weren't no good. He was pretty much stuck on himself. And he was doing all sorts of things, like cutting in neighboring rancher's cattle. Ah got out of there with enough savings to keep us fed for a few months. But that weren't what ah was wanting. The next stop was a little longer spell, but I made up enough money for a stake and we went to Colorado and bought ourselves a ranch of our own.
"Eventually we made it pretty big and ah had enough to start a second ranch. By this time Louisa was about to be married and Jim, he'd found him a girl in Texas and they'd been exchanging letters and finally she came to Colorado and married him. So ah divided up the ranch and moved west again. That's how we come to California."
They were silent for several moments. "Sound's like you've had it pretty rough a few times," Nick responded, patting her hand. Scotty shrugged.
"Don't seem like it now, but ah reckon you're right."
After that evening of discussion, the time didn't seem to go by quite so slowly.
"Ah wish we'd ridden our horses," Scotty complained for the twentieth time.
"I wish we had too," Nick growled in response for the eighteenth. "Then I wouldn't have to hear you complain about the train ride."
Scotty sighed. No, she was actually rather thankful they'd decided to ride the train back to Stockton and rent a car for the horses. It got her home quicker and she was more than ready to be home and see the children. She hoped they hadn't run Heath, Jarrod, Audra and Leah crazy yet.
"How much longer?"
Nick grunted as if she'd hit him. "I'm just as ready to be back as you are," he growled. "And it won't be too much longer."
"I'm sorry Nick," she laid a hand on his arm. "Ah don't mean to be a nuisance." He covered her hand with his and grinned at her.
"I know you don't, Essie, you just keep on pestering me is all."
Scotty sighed and glanced out the window. "You ain't gonna call me that in front of everybody else are ya?"
"Call you what? Oh, no, I won't," he pushed his hat forward and she fell silent.
That gave her time to think, but she really didn't want to think. She'd had too much time to think already as it was and she was beginning to feel uncomfortable where her thoughts seemed to be going.
She was pleased when she saw the Stockton depot roll into view. She poked Nick in the ribs, to which he responded with a grunt. "We're here," she replied happily.
"So I gathered," he sat up and adjusted his hat. The train had been slowing to a stop and now jolted them slightly as it came to rest and steam hissed. He stood up and pulled down the satchels they'd acquired and then helped her up. "You okay?" he asked, searching her face.
"I'm fine Nick, just lead the way and I'll follow ya."
He nodded, but when they arrived to the platform he helped her down. "Ma!" she heard two joyful voices and bent down to catch both of them in her arms. "Oh Ma you're all right!" Luke exclaimed happily, laughing. "I've been so worried about you!"
"But haven't you been getting Nick's telegrams?" she looked from Nick to Jarrod, who had strode over with Ben and Jon, puzzled.
"It's been more of a matter of conscience," Jarrod responded.
"Conscience?"
"Let's get you home before we explain." With that they were taken to the Barkley buggy and conveyed to home, a sight she was very thankful to see.
Several days had passed and the Scott family had been invited to spend the evening with the Barkleys. They had dined on steak and potatoes and many various vegetables and were just finishing up a delightful desert when Heath Barkley rose from his seat. "I have an announcement to make."
"Do you now little brother?" Nick teased, grinning.
"I do," Heath responded with a crooked grin back and a happy glance in the direction of Leah, who, along with Clarke, were also guests of the evening. "I have asked Leah O'Leary to be my wife, and she has accepted."
After a brief pause for everyone to take in the news, there was a flurry of congratulations. Scotty smiled to herself as she glanced down the table where Audra sat next to Clarke Hansen. She didn't doubt that it wouldn't be much longer before the two of them would have an announcement to make.
But it was Mrs. Victoria Barkley who saw where Scotty's own eyes finally rested, and met, with a pair of hazel ones, and she had her own suspicions of who would be the next of her children to announce an engagement.
(To be continued…)
With Part IV. Dr. Eugene Barkley has just arrived back in the states, but before he returns to Stockton he's persuaded to stay a few days with an old friend and colleague, but is his memory truly consistent with the man he now is visiting? And what can he do to help a poor Swedish maiden?
