2
Sarah drove the buggy into town, regretting not having the time to put a skirt and blouse on. It wasn't the first time that she had gone into town in her working clothes. But she suspected that she would run into the new deputy in town. He'd asked her once to go out riding with him, and once to the church picnic. It wouldn't do to ride into town looking all dirty and boyish.
But a man's life was at stake and Sarah would make the sacrifice, she decided. She went to Doc Eustice's office first and told him there was a man gut shot in their guest house and he'd better get there quick. She asked him if he wanted to ride in her buggy, but he said he'd take his own rig out there. Sarah told him she'd be along once she had talked to the sheriff.
"Fella told Becky he had kin in town. Spect I oughta check for 'em."
Her next stop was the sheriff's office. She parked the buggy outside and wished she had a mirror to at least wipe any dirt off her face, or pull a lock of curls down from under the hat. Even the slightest feminine touch would be better than nothing. She set the brake on the buggy and sighed softly, accepting her fate. She didn't expect the deep voice at her side offering to help her down.
There was something about a man dressed all in black that was supposed to warn a girl to stay away. Men who snuck about in the night time doing dastardly things were the sort to wear all black. And this gentleman had a dastardly smile to him. He also had jet black hair, and broad shoulders, and stood at least a foot taller than she was. His hands were twice the size of hers, and when her boots hit the dirt she felt like from above or below, this man just didn't have a bad side.
Too handsome. He was a sneaky one for sure. Sarah gave him a tight smile and said, "Thank you."
"Are you going to see the sheriff?"
"I am." Sarah said, stepping up on the board walk without pausing to speak to the man directly.
"He's not there." The man said.
Sarah stopped then spun on the heels of her boots. "Is his deputy in there?"
"No. They're both down at the livery stable on 15th street. A man hung himself not an hour ago."
A part of Sarah wanted to poke her head into the office just for the pure stubbornness of it. Who knew if this jasper was telling her the truth. Instead she strode down the boardwalk to cover the three blocks. She would just deliver her message, let the sheriff or Deputy Vince know the name of the wounded man and his pa, and then she would turn back.
Seemed tall, dark and dangerous wasn't interested in being strangers passing in the night.
"I don't think it's any place for a lady to be. It was mighty gruesome." He said.
"You seem to know an awful lot about it. Was he a friend of yourn?"
"Not a friend, no. But he was watching some property of mine."
"How come you're down here then?"
"The sheriff asked me to watch the office, in case anybody came by with information about the dead man."
Sarah narrowed her eyes and shook her head. Of all the lame excuses a man could give, this was on the low end of the scale.
"Well I got a message to deliver and then I gotta skedaddle outta town. I ain't sure you can be trusted to get that message to the sheriff, so I'll tuck in there and write him a note. You can keep on'a watchin' from out here." Sarah said, then turned and stepped up onto the porch of the jail.
To her delight the dark man stayed outside the jail. Stepping into the cool of the adobe building was a sweet relief, and Sarah pulled her hat off and fanned her face with it while she looked around for paper and pencil. When she found it, she did her best to write out the fella's name, and his pa's name, then put her name and the name of their ranch down. As an after thought she put down the time. She stuck the note in the very middle of the blotter on the sheriff's desk, then stepped back out onto the porch.
There was Stretch the Dark Knight offering to help her into the buggy again. She took his hand but let him have it back just as soon as she was seated. He tipped his hat to her when she backed the horse into the street, and she ignored him once she was sure he wasn't going to get caught up in the wheels.
"Men. Every day, Reno has more and more of the wild ones, and fewer and fewer of the decent, marryin' kind." She said to herself, whipping up the horses.
Adam watched the lady leave and wondered what he had done or said to make her treat him like a bank robber. He checked to make sure all his buttons were buttoned correctly, and his fly done up. He'd certainly been as polite as possible. Maybe it was just the town.
Adam shrugged and stepped up into the sheriff's office and out of the heat. He'd been nearly to the office when he saw her buggy pull up, happy to sit in the building in the sheriff's stead while he looked into the suicide that Ben and Adam both felt was not at all a suicide. The man had been barely over 20, worked for the livery, and had taken an extra ten dollars from Ben to watch their saddlebags. They hadn't more than supplies in the bags, but Ben had been in a good mood, and the stable attendant had been capable. There hadn't even been horses to look after. When they returned the man had apparently hung himself, and the saddle bags were gone. The combination of events didn't add up and the sheriff was one of those keen on seeing the crime scene for himself.
Ben had offered, Adam had accepted, and here he was, being suspected of grand larceny by a cute, little blonde with long lashes, and dirt on her face. Adam would have watched her leave town but she seemed to want nothing to do with him, so he'd bowed out. He couldn't resist reading the note however. As it turned out, he was forever grateful he had.
Adam covered the two blocks to the livery as fast as he could, nearly knocking over three women and plowing right into a store clerk.
"Pa!"
Ben's face paled as he snapped his head around to see his son tearing down the boardwalk. "Adam, what…"
"Little Joe's been shot. A lady just came into town to leave a note for the sheriff. He's out at her ranch."
"Where's her ranch? Did she say?" Ben asked.
"No, but if I can get a horse saddled now, I can catch her."
Ben looked to the sheriff who pointed at a black in the farthest stall from the door. "That one's mine. Saddle is in the stall."
Deputy Vince called down from the loft, "She give you her name?"
"No." Adam called up, hastily saddling the animal. "She was short, blonde, petite."
"That sounds like Sarah. They're place isn't far. 15 mile or so, southeast of town."
"Hopefully she came into town for a doctor as well as the sheriff." Ben said, slapping the rump of the black as it passed him, Adam still swinging into the saddle.
Adam tore out into the street and raced down past the sheriff's office, dodging wagons and pedestrians. He pushed the horse to its highest speed once he was free of the crowded streets and spotted a cloud of dust to the southeast that had to be the buggy.
He hunched over in the saddle, giving the animal the least amount of resistance, intent on catching up with the rig. When he got close enough to be heard he tried hailing the girl, barely remembering that Vince had told him her name was Sarah. His second shout caught her attention, but instead of slowing, she whipped her horses up even faster.
"What? Hey! You've got my brother! Slow the buggy!" It was to no avail. The more he shouted the more Sarah whipped the horses and the faster she went. The faster she went the more the buggy swayed and Adam realized that if he didn't let off, she would crash the buggy.
With a growl of frustration Adam slowed the sheriff's horse. The dust cloud she was throwing up was big enough that he'd be able to follow her easily. No point in terrifying the woman.
They rode like that for the whole 15 miles. Adam hanging back, Sarah riding ahead, casting nervous glances back at him. When she pulled into the ranch gate Adam kicked the horse up to a run again covering the distance quickly. She seemed to gain more confidence on familiar roads and pushed her horse faster than before, the buggy wheels settling into the grooves. Adam lost sight of her around a rise in the land and kept the horse at a trot, trying to figure out how to appear as harmless as possible while riding on someone else's property.
When he rounded the same rise a shot took his hat off his head and Adam dove off the horse, rescued his hat, then ducked behind a boulder marking the bend in the road.
"You stay right there, mister. I don't know why you followed me but you're going to get back on your horse and tear outta here."
Adam's mouth hung open for a few minutes. He put a finger through the new hole in the crown of his hat, then searched the part of the rise that he could see from behind cover.
"You could'a killed me with that shot, you know."
"Could'a, but I didn't. Git."
"My name is Adam-"
"I don't care what your name is. I said, git!" A shot wanged off the boulder as a punctuation to the command.
"You have my-"
Another shot.
"Brother!" Adam screamed at the top of his lungs.
The shooting stopped long enough for the word to echo a little before the woman called. "What?"
"I said, you have my brother. Joseph Cartwright is my brother."
There was another long pause before she said, "How do I know you ain't the one who shot him. Maybe you're here to finish him off."
"You're the most suspicious woman I've ever met." Adam snarled, poking his head up above cover. "If I planned on murdering someone would I have followed you in broad daylight? Did you not hear me shouting?"
When no shots came his way Adam stood up all the way, his hands out far enough from his hips that he hoped it was obvious he didn't plan to shoot anybody.
"You don't have to be a smart assassin, to be an assassin."
"I'm no assassin. I can't really prove that to you unless you take me to my brother. Now...you can do that with my gun in your hand if you want, but I'd like to see Joe."
Adam waited, the wind whistling through the hole in his hat.
"Step out from behind that boulder. Get the reins of your horse, but you'll stay afoot. One false move and you won't need to worry about that hole in your hat no more."
Adam walked the rest of the way to the guest house, trailing the sheriff's horse behind him, his hands on his hat, watching Sarah bounce around backwards on the buggy, her rifle pointed at his head.
The guest house was no more than a one room cabin, surrounded by flowers and decorated with an exuberance that could only come from a household of women. It looked more like an English cottage, than it did a western shack. A second buggy was parked outside and once Sarah had parked her own rig and followed him inside the cabin, still at gun point, he could confirm that the rig belonged to a doctor who was tending Joe.
The man gave them a perturbed and confused glance, but immediately put Adam to work.
"I need someone to hold down his leg so I can get the bullet out. Ms. Becky doesn't seem quite up to it." The doc said, pointing to a girl who looked like she'd already lost her lunch once.
"His leg?" He heard Sarah say from behind him.
Adam ignored her and tossed his hat and coat to the side, rolling his sleeves up before he went in. He held Joe's leg pinned to the bed while the doc probed around, wondering why he was probing from the back of Joe's leg, and not the front. A glance under the towel that covered Joe's side told him his brother had also been back shot, if low and to the side. The list of questions Adam wanted answered continued to grow.
"Becky, what happened?"
"It was an accident, Sarah, leave me be."
"You're an accident. Get on into the house and help with supper."
"Well, who's he?"
"That's his brother, Adam."
"They look nothin' alike."
"Maybe one of 'em is adopted. You just git." Sarah hissed, ending the short spat.
Becky pouted, stomping out of the shack and slamming the door behind her.
The doc met Adam's eyes and rolled his own before shaking his head and finishing up.
"You're kin to this young man?" The doctor asked, swabbing the wound then binding it with a bandage.
"Yes." Adam said, his hands taking over when needed with the surety of experience.
"You might have noticed that these wounds started in the back." The doc said.
"I noticed." Adam said, glancing to Sarah.
"No, son. Becky accidentally shot him in the leg, but that back wound is much older. Several hours I'd say."
"He was on his way to Reno with our horses, he could've been anywhere between the Ponderosa and the city." Adam said, checking his brother's fever, before they both bent to the second wound.
"Whatever the case, this is a bad infection. I've got to get into town to make up the right medicines. I'll get back here soon as I can, but someone needs to stay with him, keep him cool, and keep him still."
"That's why I'm here." Adam said softly. "I'd appreciate your telling the sheriff that Joe is alive, explaining his condition. The rest of my family is in town, worried sick by now."
"I'll do that, son."
The doctor left and Adam moved to the small bedside table, washing his hands in the basin of water before he moved to dump it outside. Sarah watched his every move, still holding the rifle, but no longer pointed at him, thankfully. Adam used the pump in the small house to refill the basin, then covered his brother with the quilt and wiped his face and shoulders down.
He heard Joe mutter something that ended in "women…"
"You ain't kiddin'." Adam muttered back. He sat on the stool that the doc had pulled up to the bedside then looked over his shoulder. "You plan to guard me all afternoon?"
The woman behind him let out an exasperated sigh and left the building, slamming the door behind her.
"I don't know what you stumbled on, little brother. But whatever it is...we're in for a treat."
Sarah took the buggy up to the main house where she stabled the horse, and the black. She wanted to drag into the house, tired as she was, flop down on the settee and go to sleep, but she knew better. She straightened her back and lifted her head and walked into the home she shared with her sisters and mother with the dignity she'd been raised to. Her mother sat at the head of the dining table, her hair snow white compared to the blonde of her daughters. Becky was no where to be seen, and Jenny sat by their mother at the table.
"We've been waitin' supper." Ma said.
"I had to make sure that jaspar out there didn't mean more ill to our guest." Sarah said, putting her rifle up with the others. "I'll wash up and change."
Ma's face softened a little. "You needn't change, Sarah. Come wash your face and hands. You look half starved."
"Where's Becky?"
"You know how she is with blood." Jenny said, shooting an apologetic glance to her mother. "She said she wouldn't take any supper."
Sarah went to the basin and washed, sighing softly at the smell of the soap she and Jenny had spent two days making. It was rose scented, a soft pink color, and felt like pure silk on her hands. It had been worth the effort, and Sarah loathed the day she'd run out of it.
"Will the young man survive?" Ma asked as Sarah sat at the table.
"Doc Eustice is hopeful. He went back to town to get medicine. With Joe's brother here, he shouldn't charge us for the doctorin'."
"We would have handled the expense either way." Ma said, making Sarah blush.
They bowed their heads and said their blessings before eating. There wasn't a scrap of meat on the table. They hadn't had more than a little rabbit or chicken in over two years. And goat herders didn't eat their stock. The ample garden in the back provided what was on their table most days, such that when they thanked the Lord for the hands that prepared it, their prayers were entirely self-serving.
"How are you feeling?" Sarah asked once their plates were loaded with beans, beets, bread, slices of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers with vinegar.
"I'm healing, child. You must stop fussin'." Ma said. "I would rather you tell me what happened when you went into town."
The expectant tone in her mother's voice brought a frown to Sarah's face. "Nothin' happened, Ma. Deputy Vince was off investigatin' a dreadful death when I arrived."
"Dressed as you are, I suppose it's a blessing."
"There wasn't time-"
"Darling, you acted wisely, and did what you could for an injured soul, I'm not judgin'."
"Besides, he hasn't called since the picnic. He spends his time in town with those Yates sisters ready and waiting. There's too much to do out here for me to worry about a single man in town." Sarah said, biting harshly into a green bean.
"Impatience will get you nowhere, Sarah." Ma said.
"Becky told me that 'jaspar' and his brother are quite handsome." Jenny said, her eyes sparkling.
"They ride astride, don't they? Of course she thinks them handsome."
"Sarah." Ma hissed, but she was smiling.
"I caught a glimpse of the one in black. A strong man, well defined." Jenny teased.
"Are you talking about the horse or the one in the hat?" Sarah asked.
"My, what a mood." Jenny said. "She only gets this way when she's taken with someone."
"I'm near to takin' you out back to the wood shed, Jenny, if you don't mind your own business."
"Temper, temper." Jenny said with an exasperated sigh, clucking her tongue.
"Girls." Ma said, just a little heat in her voice. "We haven't visited Miss Amelia's Book of Etiquette in quite some time but if we must, we will."
"What sort of etiquette will rescue a girl who's being pestered in town by strangers?" Sarah asked.
"Pestered? Who pestered you?"
"That jaspar! The minute I pulled the buggy up to the sheriff's office, there he was with his deep voice and his big hands."
"You DO like him!" Jenny declared triumphantly.
Sarah's face flooded crimson and she set her napkin down on her half-finished meal. "Pardon me, mother, but I think I need to go finish that fencin'."
Sarah stood and took her plate to the kitchen, leaving through the kitchen door instead of going back through the dining room, certain that laughter would follow her if she did. She'd claw Jenny's eyes out if she brought it up again. That would teach Jenny to keep her mouth closed and her thoughts to herself.
Sarah stormed to the barn to get her horse, intent on riding out to the fence line and finishing the job herself. She nodded a hello to Doc Eustice when he turned onto the ranch road, two more men riding in the buggy with him. Sarah resisted the urge to shoot them both on sight, given that the older one looked to be the decent sort.
Ben watched the young woman ride past them, then leaned forward in the seat. "You say this ranch is run entirely by women?"
"Yes, sir. Mrs. Tungsten and her daughters do most of the work. They have a french lady that cooks sometimes, and helps them clean, a young lady or two who see to the grounds work. A few sheepherders that come down from up Montana way a few years ago to help with the flocks. All ladies. They hire out when it's time to sell some of the stock, but the men have to camp in the pastures with the animals. The Tungsten women hold no truck with men near the main house. I expect you and your boys are the first to stay in that guest house since Mr. Tungsten passed."
"I suppose I should be grateful they were good enough to take in my son." Ben said.
"They wouldn't have turned him away. Not in his condition. They're good folk, if cautious."
"That's the guest house?" Hoss asked, pointing at the gaily appointed cottage.
"Yessir. They're first homestead."
"Ain't that cute."
Ben laughed a little, nodding. "Certainly is."
The three men stepped down from the buggy once the brake was set and Ben held the door open to the cottage so that the doctor and Hoss could carry his supplies into the small building. The five of them hardly fit into the building comfortably. Ben couldn't imagine a whole family living in just that one room.
Adam stood so that the Doc could use the stool and Ben went around to the other side of the bed, feeling his son's forehead. When the doc peeled back the bandages to get at the wound again Joe came around, the creases in his forehead disappearing when he saw his father leaning over him.
"Hey, Pa."
"Son...feeling alright?"
"Hurtin', feel hot."
Ben nodded. "The doctor told me you gave yourself an infection when you stuffed that kerchief into your wounds. But, it also kept you from bleeding out."
"Guess I need to do laundry..more often." Joe said.
"Wouldn't hurt." Adam added, smirking at his brother.
"Do you know who did this to you?" Ben asked gently.
Joe shook his head. "B-becky shot my leg. But the other one...there was a wagon on fire...it exploded. I set the horses loose a-and they shot me."
"This will hurt, Mr. Cartwright, I'd hold him down."
Ben, Adam and Hoss moved in at once, holding Joe to the bed while the doctor scoured the wound on one side, than the other. The pain sent Joe back to sleep leaving Ben with questions and no answers.
"Who is this Becky?"
"The youngest Tungsten girl." Doc Gerald said. "She dropped your boy's gun when she was trying to get at the wounds. Didn't think it would be loaded. The gun went off and the bullet hit his leg. It's a clean wound."
Ben looked up at his boys, who looked at each other, all thinking the same thing. Ben shook his head and asked, "How many times will you need to do that...that cleaning?"
"All depends on what it looks like tomorrow. Til then I'll give you something to help kill the pain and lower the fever. Keep him cool, keep the wound dry and covered. I'll be back in the morning."
"Wait a minute.." Ben said as the doctor stood. "You said the Tungsten hold no truck with men on their ranch. What makes you think they'll let us stay here?"
"I can vouch for ya. Let them know you all will stay out here."
"What about the saddle bags, Pa?" Hoss asked.
"The sheriff told me he'd send a rider out in the morning if there's news. I'd rather all of us stayed together for the time being." Ben said quietly, settling onto the mattress by Joe and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Hoss and Adam walked the doctor to the door of the cabin and saw him to his buggy, taking instructions and the medicine before the man walked up to the main house and knocked at the door. His conversation was brief, and took place without him setting so much as his big toe over the threshold. When he was done talking he went to his buggy and headed off the Tungsten ranch.