Chapter 36
St. Joseph, Missouri-1870
The hard packed dirt streets of St. Joseph were bustling with activity as evening approached. Wagons of all shapes and sizes crowded the narrow streets as the owners hastened to do their business before night fell. The wooden sidewalks along each side of Main Street was teeming with activity as women in colorful dresses hurried to finish their shopping, while men in various styles of dress stood around the store fronts chewing tobacco and swapping stories. Dark, menacing thunderclouds appeared in the expanse of sky above St. Joseph, their swollen bellies threatening to let loose a torrent of water down upon the unsuspecting citizens below.
A large black carriage moved slowly through the congested streets, its exterior polished to a brilliant shine. An elderly Negro in an immaculate set of livery sat upon the carriage's outer seat and quietly issued commands to the matching pair of white thoroughbreds. Inside the enclosed carriage sat a handsome young man in a pair of denim trousers, blue flannel shirt, denim jacket and scuffed boots. His coal black hair was tousled, his usually clean-shaven chin covered with stubble, and his deep blue eyes rimmed in red for lack of sleep. At the moment those tiered eyes were riveted on the frail, motionless form of a young woman on the carriage seat opposite him.
Braum Bertram Wicks gazed at the sleeping form of his ailing wife Mary Lucinda Wicks. He had met Maricinda Daniels four months earlier when he had accompanied his Uncle Caleb on a business trip to Kansas City. Independence, Missouri had been one of the stops the stagecoach driver had stopped in overnight. Uncle Caleb had been pleased by the growing town and immediately bought a lot of land at the end of the town to build a saloon. He had left Braum there to take charge of the building and finding someone they could trust to run it in their absence.
He was only in town one day, when he had spotted Maricinda outside the local mercantile. She had been accompanied by a couple of other young women. But he had eyes only for her. Maricinda's rich auburn hair had been tied loosely back away from her face with a green ribbon. The simple emerald green cotton dress was tastefully made and fit her petite form perfectly. He had never seen anyone so beautiful and found it hard to imagine that she was from such a tiny town. Over the next few months, he found out all he could about her before calling at her family's farm.
Under the pretext of buying dairy products from her father, Braum had introduced himself to Maricinda, and that was the beginning of their courtship. Unfortunately Braum was called back to St. Joseph to attend to other business.
During his absence, an influenza epidemic broke out in a town north of Independence. Both of Maricinda's parents were among the first victims in Independence who contracted the disease. Maricinda's father, Joseph, traveled frequently to neighboring towns selling butter, milk, eggs, and other products produced on the farm. Joseph succumbed to the disease two days after he contracted it. The burden of carrying for ailing mother and the farm had fallen on Maricinda's slim shoulders. The same day he returned to Independence was the day Lucinda Daniels was laid to rest beside her husband, and Maricinda collapsed with the disease.
Braum had personally seen to her care during the illness, and slowly nursed Maricinda back to health. Once she was truly on the mend he had proposed to her and she had readily accepted. They were married with some of her surrogate family, the Cines', in attendance. They waited for the sale of the family farm to go through, before leaving Independence and heading toward St. Joseph.
On the way, Braum had shared stories about his life, including his trip with his father to Rock Creek, Nebraska. Maricinda had comforted him when she had learned of his watching his father being murdered. He didn't mention the fact that his uncles and he had exacted revenge against the people responsible, except for Louise McCloud.
Nor did he mention the fact that Maricinda looked enough like Louise McCloud to be her twin. He would set some men hunting through Maricinda's family history to find out if she was, in fact, a relation to Louise McCloud. Even if she wasn't, he had already concocted a plan to exact revenge against Louise McCloud and anyone who tried to protect her. While she hadn't been the one to pull the trigger that killed his father, she had been a factor in his death. It was because of her and the other Pony Express riders that his father had been tied up and taken to the Marshal's office in Rock Creek where Travis McKay had murdered him. When he and his uncles were finished, Louise McCloud and her friends would wish they had never heard of the name Wicks.
The carriage came to a stop in front of the Wild Aces saloon. Braum didn't wait for Jeffrey, the driver, to hop down from his seat and open the carriage door, but opened it himself. He climbed out, then reached in and scooped his sleeping wife into his arms, and moved toward the batwing doors of the saloon. Braum didn't like the idea of taking Maricinda into the saloon, but he didn't really have a choice. Too many people would be in attendance in the lobbies of any of the local establishments, and he didn't want to chance running into someone who knew Maricinda by sight. If his plan was going to work, the less people knew about Maricinda, the better off they would all be.
Jeffrey rushed to hold the batwing doors open so that Braum could walk through them with his unconscious wife. He paid no attention to the patrons already inside the saloon, but made his way up the stairs and down the hallway toward the room that had once been occupied by his parents. He kicked open the door, strolled through the doorway and over to the bed, where he deposited Maricinda. He covered her up and moved back toward the door just as his Uncle Caleb came through it.
"Braum! When did you get back in town?" Caleb boomed.
"Ssh!" Braum said, ushering his uncle out of the room and closing the door behind them.
"What's wrong? Jeffrey said you brought a little filly back with you." Caleb asked. "Who is she?"
"My wife.' Braum replied as he headed down the hallway toward the staircase. "Her name is Maricinda and she's still recovering from fatigue and the influenza."
"Your wife? Why did you go and do a blasted thing like that for?"
"Because I love her…and because she's going to help us exact vengeance on Louise McCloud once and for all for her part in father's death."
"Just how is she going to do that?"
"Come downstairs and I will you tell you."
Caleb moved into step with his nephew as the two men reached the top of the stairs and descended the staircase together.