I hope Everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a great New Year! Thanks again to Bethie88 for all the text in 'bold' print.
Chapter 25
Tuesday morning, Jesse got the whole family together for visiting hours at the jail. He hoped that this would serve as a warning to the younger boys to stay out of trouble, though he sincerely doubted it. They had stopped at the garage before heading over to see Luke.
Cooter said, "If ya'll let me see what this customer wants I'll run over and see Luke with ya'll." He headed out to the car. "What can I do for you?"
Ruby turned to Cooter, "Just ten in gas, Cooter. How have you been?"
"I've been good." He said as he began pumping her gas.
"Say you ain't seen Luke around have you?" Ruby asked.
Cooter knew that Ruby had been Luke's on again off again playmate when he and Robin were at odds and he guessed they were about as at odds right now as they could get. "Well I was just getting ready to go over with Uncle Mister Jesse and the boys to see him."
"Over to see him?" Ruby asked.
Cooter nodded, "Yeah, you do know he's in jail right?"
"No I didn't. Why?" Ruby asked with concern.
"Weren't you up at the lake the night they were all racing?" Cooter thought sure that she had been.
"Yeah, but I left pretty early. Then after school was out I went out of town." Ruby explained.
"So you didn't know that him and Ralph got into it just before Rosco showed up?" Cooter asked.
"I must have been gone before then. I sorta heard something about them getting into it but not about Rosco. Surely he didn't get into that much trouble." Ruby said.
"Surely he did, but he should be home tomorrow. Just don't plan on him drivin' ya anywhere for awhile." Cooter said.
"Awhile?" Ruby asked.
Cooter nodded, "At least a couple weeks or so."
"Do you think Mr. Duke would mind if I went with ya'll to see Luke?" Ruby asked.
Cooter replied as he finished pumping the gas, "I don't think so but come on and we'll ask.
Jesse looked up to see the young lady following Cooter back into the garage. He knew what was coming even before Cooter opened his mouth.
"Uncle Mister Jesse, ..." Cooter was cut off.
"I ain't your uncle Cooter." Jesse said.
"Yeah, right, Mr. Duke, Ruby was wondering if you'd mind if she went with us to see Luke?" Cooter finished.
Jesse saw no polite way to say no to the girl, but he'd had rather seen Luke with just the family. He figured tomorrow would be time enough for the family and replied as he held in the sigh, "I suppose that will be fine."
Jesse and the two younger Duke boys were the first to walk into the downstairs room. They were followed by Cooter and Ruby.
"Hey, y'a..." Luke said, choking halfway through the word when he saw Ruby.
The girl looked at him with a smirk. She knew that she had his attention. And for any red blooded American man, it was plain to see why. She was wearing a pair of jeans that fit just a little too tight, and a crimson red top that was cut just a little lower than proper.
Luke's jaw dropped, and he looked her up and down. "U...Uncle Jesse, everybody..." he said, by way of greeting, hoping like heck that no one saw him with his mouth hanging open. Trouble was it was not just Luke's mouth that betrayed him. His eye's were locked on Ruby, which caused other body parts to react. His mind also went into gear as to what it could and would do had the three quarter of inch steel bars not have been confining him to the cell.
In the mean time, Ralph who had just that morning been moved back downstairs, was looking Ruby up and down.
While Luke was distracted by Ruby, the rest were concerned with Luke.
Ruby stepped up to the bars close enough for only Luke to hear, "Sugar it sure is ashamed that you are all locked up here. I really could show you a time otherwise."
Luke looked at Jesse hoping that he hadn't heard what Ruby had said. As far as he could tell Jesse hadn't heard a thing. Luke managed to get out, "It's only a few hours now. I hope at least."
"A few HOURS." Ruby repeated. "I've seen ya ready to explode after only a few minutes."
Luke nearly turned purple and hoped that Jesse hadn't heard Ruby.
If Jesse had heard Ruby's comment, he was good enough not to show it. Luke was somewhat relieved, but still really wished she hadn't come. It was more than a little uncomfortable.
Ruby asked, "What do you mean you hope that it's only a few hours?"
Luke glanced at Ruby, shaking his head a little at her to let her know that now wasn't the time to talk about it.
Ruby raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean, Luke?"
Luke groaned, not wanting to talk about this in front of Bo and Jeb. "There was a little problem here last weekend, and I've got to talk to the judge about it before I can leave." Luke rubbed the back of his neck knowing his cousins were paying more attention to the conversation than he'd had liked.
Jeb looked from Luke to Jesse for an explanation, while Bo shouted out, "What in the world, Luke? You been in this dang jail too long already! Why ain't you gettin' out on time?"
Luke sighed. He had hoped that Jesse would have at least told Bo something so he wouldn't have to find this out here and now. "I didn't say that I wasn't coming home tomorrow, Bo. I just said I have to talk to the Judge first." Luke looked to Jesse for help.
Jesse glanced at his younger nephew. "That's enough, Bo."
This was exactly why he hadn't wanted Ruby here. This was something that only family and close friends should be there for.
Bo being Bo said, "But Uncle Jesse, I just wanted to know, ..."
Jesse gave Luke a reassuring look, "I'll tell you about it at home Bo."
Ruby was still standing close to the bars and being that she was a might shorter than Luke, he had a real good view.
"I don't know if I can wait much longer, Luke," Ruby said, looking up at him with a very falsely innocent look.
"I'll be callin' ya as soon as I get out," he said softly. "That is if Uncle Jesse don't hang me first."
Bo was extremely put off by Ruby taking all of their visiting time with Luke. He wanted to talk to his cousin, and he wasn't fond of this girl messing things up.
Jesse saw Ruby and Luke talking in obvious hushed tones, Jesse decided to leave the young to their youth. "Luke we'll just be gettin' back to the farm now. I'm sure we'll be by tomorrow."
Bo said, "But Uncle Jesse."
Jesse motioned for Jeb to move out hoping Bo would follow.
Bo started to protest, but a stern look from Jesse was enough to shut even him up at the moment.
Jesse and the others moved to the gate for Deputy Petticord to open it. Even Cooter took the hint and went with them.
Luke wanted to object as they headed up the steps, but felt Ruby's hand caressing his own hand. All Luke could say was, "Yeah. See ya'll then."
Ruby dropped her hand lower, "About that call."
Luke gritted his teeth, turned so that Ralph couldn't see Ruby's hand. He knew he should back away but there was no way to convience his body of that as he leaned closer to Ruby.
For the next several minutes Luke's eyes were shut, but he jerked away quickly when he heard the gate to the room open.
"Ms. Ruby, you're gonna have to leave," said Rosco.
"Time's up," Ralph taunted, laughing at Luke, who was decidedly less comfortable than before.
Luke swore to himself. He knew that only a few seconds more of Ruby's touch would have driven him to ecstasy. She had already pulled her hand away from him as Rosco had spoken. Luke tried to get a grip on his feelings but his body betrayed him, wanting and needing more of Ruby's touch. It was as if Rosco had thrown ice water on him from head to toe.
01~~~~~~~~~~~~01
Back at the farm, Bo's feet wasn't on the ground a full second when he said, "What's going on with Luke? And why didn't you tell me before?"
Jeb was all ears too waiting for Jesse to tell Bo what was going on.
Daisy came out of the house to see the tension in the front yard, "What on Earth is wrong?"
Knowing that even the wooded area of the Duke farm occasionally had unwanted eyes and ears, Jesse replied. "Let's go in the house." He may as well set them down and tell them now if he had even the slimiest chance of getting any work out of the three today.
With Pauline and Jeb there, Daisy had managed to get out of going to the jail since Saturday when Luke and Ralph had gotten into it.
Jesse was the only one that had a clue something was a miss at the jail as Luke had called him back for a couple private minutes on the Sunday that Pauline had visited. So while Pauline was trying to think of a way to not let Jeb stay, Luke had told Jesse that he and Ralph had some 'problems' which was why Ralph was upstairs. Unfortunately, that is about all the time Luke had to go into detail. Then, yesterday Jeb, Bo and Luke had spent the time catching up. Jesse wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on since Ralph was still upstairs, but Luke hadn't opened up to any of them the entire time he'd been there like he was now. Jesse had bi-dded his time, knowing Luke would tell him soon enough. Now, here was Tuesday and what happened but that young girl that Jesse knew Lavinia would have surely labeled a trollop had tagged along. Jesse didn't approve of Luke's relationship, whatever that may be, with the girl, but knew opposing it would only make Luke see her that much more. He also knew Bo was upset that Luke had paid the girl so much attention and that Luke had let her take up most of the visitation time. As for himself, Jesse didn't talk family business around those who were not family, if not by blood, but by actions. Jesse, himself, had been surprised to hear that Luke had to see the Judge before being released tomorrow, which just might not prove to be a good thing. Obviously Luke was thinking along those lines too when he said he 'hoped' to be out in what was now a few hours compared to the previous eight days that he had been there. Jesse tried to tell the 'kids' what he knew for sure, he'd leave out as much as he could about what he figured would happen, "As you know, I haven't talked to Luke more than a couple minutes since Sunday alone. While you two went out after Pauline, Luke called me back and had just enough time to tell me that he and Ralph had some problems and that is why Ralph had been moved up stairs. I'm sure you can see why he didn't want to go into this with Pauline there. Then Monday, with Ralph upstairs, Luke could be more open to you two and I let you all catch up, figuring that I'd talk to him today..."
"Yeah, well, no one got to talk to him today except for Ruby!" He pouted like he was closer to twelve than sixteen.
Daisy frowned, "Ruby? Wait. I missed something here."
Jesse replied, "I'll get to that later. But, I knew better than to try to talk to Luke today. All I know is what you two know, he said he'd have to talk to the Judge before being released."
"No, he said before he 'HOPED' to get out." Bo said.
Jesse wished he'd listened to his teachers that well. "Yes, he did." Jesse stood corrected. "Look kids I dont' know what happened, but Judge Hardcastle could have stuck it to Luke and didn't. Now depending on what happened and who is at fault. He just may not be so understanding this time."
01~~~~~~~~~~~~01
Happy New Year! Here is the definition of an older word that my grandmother used a lot, so it may not be familiar to younger readers. Please review.
***** Trollop - Per encarta dictionary
Definition: 1. an offensive term that deliberately insults a woman who is a prostitute or who is reputed to be sexually promiscuous ( dated insult )
2. an offensive term that deliberately insults a girl or woman regarded as slovenly or as having untidy habits ( insult )