"Creo que este lugar se ve fantástico."
"I agree. We picked out some very nice sets of sheets and towels, the comforters, everything, to make it look pretty ..."
"But masculine."
"Right. I think Joshua and Thaddeus like nice things. I know they will appreciate it," Mary Travis said. The beautiful blonde smiled at her friend, from whom she had learned to understand much Spanish, though lacked the skill at speaking it that her young son Billy had picked up, no doubt assisted in that effort by the man who helped in teaching the youth of their town and spoke several languages, including the one spoken by his on again, off again love interest by the name of Inez Rocios. Things seemed to be turning in the right direction for Inez and Ezra Standish. Mary saw it as a major side line in her life in Four Corners to push the pair in the right direction whenever she could. She looked out the window to see today's workers, her fiancé Chris Larabee and his longtime friend and fellow lawman Buck Wilmington, finishing up the work on the fencing that was in good shape, save for a few pickets on the approach to the outhouse. That part had been completed along with some shrubs planted to help hide the outhouse from obvious view. The two friends moved on to finishing the gate leading out from the side of the back yard. That gate from the yard opened to a path that veered right to the large driveway where a small barn stood on the far side. The drive continued past that barn and merged with the main trail back to Four Corners at about a half of a mile. Taking a left from the same gate led to the large barn that occupied the property to the east.
"Should we start supper?" Inez asked. The stove had been lit up a while back. A little more prep and they would be ready to cook. "They have been working all morning and early afternoon with just a short break to eat that sack of pastries from Dottie's place. I believe they must all be hungry."
"Maybe not all of them," the publisher of the Clarion News said.
"No. Joshua is feeling less well than expected, I think," the saloon manager and the woman who hoped one day to be the future Mrs. Standish noted. Inez and Ezra were doing better over the course of the last week as Mary and Inez got the cottage on Chris Larabee's property set up for habitation. Assorted members of The Magnificent Seven and others from town helped the man they knew as Thaddeus Jones fix up the outhouse, made sure the connections for the water in the kitchen and "bathing" room worked, checked the pump out near the barn, assured the chimney and flue were sound and that the fireplace functioned well. There were other wells throughout the property that would require checking, but the plan currently was to make the house and near corral and pasture habitable for man and beast. The living and dining area fireplace, until looked at this week, was an unknown entity for heating the place, unlike the known entities of the small wood stove in the main bedroom and the stove in the kitchen, known not only because of the meal that the pretty ladies from Four Corners would cook this day, but because Ezra had already used the stove to good effect with a meal that he liked to think helped to convince the men known to all in Four Corners, save for he and Chris, as Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones, to stay on and work toward assuring Joshua found his way back to good health. Chris and Ezra were the only ones in Four Corners who knew that those names were aliases and that these two men, sent to them by Judge Oren Travis, were really Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry.
"Well, according to Dottie, he likes eggs, scrambled and fluffy. Just like Chris," Mary said with a sly grin. "He loves tomatoes, and we have had such a good growing season that we still have tomatoes ripening on the vines throughout town, and at Nettie's. And he is a big fan of your chile cornbread, Inez, so I made a batch of that last night."
Inez smiled. She was happy that they would be able to convince the ill man to eat. He might not have a huge appetite but, much like Ezra, there were certain foods that, unless he was extremely sick, he could not say no when the meal was placed before him. Anything with peaches. Grits. Fruit pies. The gambler, however, had been eating well since fully recovering from the events of the previous weeks. Getting shot by Mason Grant, then the complication of infection, followed by what he'd done to his own ears and equilibrium with a mean whistle, laid him low for a while. He'd not been sick or injured in quite some time, save for the migraine headaches that seemed to come back with a vengeance following Fred's death. The southerner had spent little time anywhere in the months since his dog died other than an hour or two at the poker table, his turn on patrol, but most of his time had been spent holed up in his room. The sweet orange and white hound dog was a member of the Merton family, where he was loved well and mourned still, all these months later, but Fred had chosen Ezra as his person. Everyone in town knew that, deep down, the reverse was passionately so as well.
The pretty Mexican walked to the back door and looked out the newly-installed screen door. The screens that had been placed on the windows of the room where Heyes and Curry spent these last weeks convinced Chris that it would be worth the time and investment to put them on all of the windows of this small cottage as well as at his home on the other side of his expanded valley. Inez saw four handsome men, all with their shirts off, working hard. Chris and Buck were concentrating on the gate, not far from where she stood. She looked left and saw Ezra and Thaddeus painting the new clapboard walls of the outhouse. She and Mary ordered a new toilet seat, the same one that Mary purchased for Chris' place after Ezra designed the former gunslinger's outhouse, based on the one that Thomas Jefferson fashioned for his Poplar Forest property in southern Virginia. This outhouse here had been solidly built, just not considered part of the home, therefore the outer wood was not protected so well against the weather as the outside of the cottage.
"It's a handsome sight, isn't it?" Mary asked.
Inez turned to her good friend. "It is not considered eavesdropping if you are standing just feet away and not hiding."
"Did I say anything?" Mary asked with a knowing grin.
"No, you did not." Inez sighed as she admired her view, muscled men moving, skin shiny from sweat, muscles rippling, sweat dripping and occasionally splashing from their bodies. "Oh. My goodness, I must stop watching," she said as she turned back inside. Mary peeked out the door, saw her man, admired the other three as well – she was taken by her handsome man, not dead – and then walked back inside to continue preparing the planned meal for the hard-working men.
"Joshua must be refreshing the water," Mary said.
"I hope he is not overdoing it." Inez sighed.
"What?"
"I would wish for this time of year all year long," Inez said. "All of these vegetables still being harvested, the chiles in season. Do you think Robert makes a profit still when he sells some of his beef to the men?"
"I think he would think it was worth it even if he didn't, but I think Robert Merton is too smart of a businessman not to make some money on the deal," Mary assured her friend.
"Good. Let us get everything cooking and then one of us will have to go outside and tell everyone that they should clean up," Inez said.
"One of us? Which one of us?" Mary asked, her eyebrow raised, challenge in her tone. They stared each other down, neither budging from their spot.
"You could both go out and tell them," Hannibal Heyes, alias Joshua Smith, offered reasonably.
"Now you see, that is eavesdropping," Inez said as she waved her hand toward the handsome man.
"I'm sorry, ladies. I was just coming in to tell you that they are finishing up out there."
"And we were kidding about eavesdropping," Mary said.
"All kidding aside, I was eavesdropping, just a little. You might like what you see out there, but I can guarantee you that my friends out there, and I as well, find the view far more appealing in here." Mary and Inez looked demurely to the floor, and then with wide smiles to each other. Heyes offered a dimpled smile as they raised their heads. "Did you need some help with anything?" Heyes looked around the room and found that all of the windows were dressed, a couple of woven throws had been placed, one on the sofa, one on one of the arm chairs. A rug was rolled out in the living room. New lamps were in place on two tables in the living area. "It looks wonderful in here."
"It was a sweet casa pequeña before we started planning how to make it nice once more."
"Inez, it is beautiful. I am standing in a beautiful house with two beautiful women. I'm a lucky man today."
"You are a charming man, that is for certain," Inez replied with a smile, her eyelashes blinking over her beautiful brown eyes.
"Mistah Smith, are you flirting with mah and Chris' beloveds?" Ezra asked from the window.
"He was," Inez replied. "He is very good at it," she added. She smiled widely at Ezra referring to her as his beloved.
"Yes, Ah have noticed that Dottie … and Abigail, Gloria, Casey, Nettie and many others, are quite taken with you and your partner."
"And I never really get what they see in him," the darker one of the reforming outlaw duo answered jokingly, showing off his dimples nicely.
Kid Curry walked up beside Ezra at the window. "You need to get some new material, Joshua."
The two women smiled at what they were looking at. And they continued to smile. Heyes looked from the women and then over to the two men who were wiping their bare chests of dirt and sweat. And then he looked at his fully dressed self. He looked back to Mary and Inez, who were no longer paying him much mind, then shook his head and smiled again, and then said, "I cannot win today." Ezra and Kid laughed. "I think the ladies wanted to let you know that you should clean up out at the well." Water had been pulled from the well in buckets, soap and towels left for the worst of the dirt and sweat.
"Oh, yes," Mary said, shaken from her reverie. "Please do, if you are all done for the day. Your clean clothes are all in the bags in the second bedroom," Mary reminded Ezra and Kid. "Remember, soap and towels are at the well and in the wash room. It really is quite wonderful that Mr. Warren was so forward thinking to put that room in this small cottage."
"I figure that adding a well and running a line on that side of the house might make sense at some point," Heyes said.
"No doubt," Kid agreed. "I'll let Chris and Buck know that we're officially done with the outhouse," he added.
"Ah will go rinse off and then use the indoor facilities first," Ezra said.
"We will have warm water ready," Inez said to the man she loved. She smiled as he left and then said, "Thaddeus, would you tell Chris and Buck that we will be eating in about thirty to forty minutes?" Inez asked.
"Sure will," he replied with a dazzling smile and headed off on the requested errand.
Inez turned to Mary and said, right in front of Heyes, "Madre de dios."
Heyes laughed. "You know I am standing right here."
"You are included in our good fortune," Mary said as she gave the man a gentle pat on the back and headed to the kitchen.
"You figure they got everything done that they expected to today?" J.D. Dunne asked as he enjoyed a late afternoon meal with his fellow lawmen.
"I know that Ezra knows how to plan out work, even if he's not so big on doin' the work," Nathan Jackson said.
"He's more inclined to do the work now than he ever has been before," Josiah Sanchez said. "He's home now, he's happy to do for his people."
"Yer right, 'siah. Think we're all home now," Vin Tanner added.
"I think you're right, Vin," Josiah replied. They all enjoyed some more of their food, a breakfast in the late afternoon, breakfast being the specialty of Inez' helper, Tommy.
"Mary and Inez were planning a feast for the fellas once they finished prettying up the inside of that cottage," Nathan said.
"Chris did good getting those extra acres. Got some nice all-year water running through," J.D. said as he shoveled a large forkful of eggs into his mouth, followed by a bite of biscuit.
"It ain't just a creek or fed by a spring. Water's fed by the river. He can catch fish up at that big bend," Vin said.
"It's nice that he's got that cottage for visitors to use," J.D. added. "Vin, you and Ez got so much work done on it before Smith and Jones showed up." He shook his head. J.D. made it clear to Buck that he didn't think Smith and Jones were their real names, but he'd stopped commenting on the Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry theory. Buck flat out didn't believe it, J.D. figured that others of his fellow lawmen would not be inclined to believe that Chris and Ezra couldn't have figured that out by now, if it was true. "It's been pretty easy finishing it up."
"Might've been easy because so many of us helped, but a whole lotta work's been done out there in the last five days," Nathan countered.
"Looks like they might be movin' in early," Vin said.
"Good. I don't think Joshua's getting the rest he needs here in town. It'll be more peaceful out there," Nathan said. "Think maybe Dottie's gonna miss those fellas."
"Dottie is gonna miss 'em. She's gonna miss Ez, too," Josiah said. "You know he'll be spending some time out there. He'll figure it's his responsibility that they don't get too bored and then start doin' stuff with Thaddeus that'll be too strenuous for Joshua. Thaddeus, that's a good, Biblical name. Hope to talk with him about that sometime."
"How do ya figure Judge Travis found these guys?" J.D. asked. Vin looked at J.D., wondering what he was getting at, because the tracker felt certain that there was a specific purpose to the question. Vin thought the kid had given up on this line of thought.
"Think you were there when they explained that the judge's friends recommended them for clearing out mountain lions from the area," Vin said. "Guess they're good at it."
"What did Joshua say, he was a 'Champeen tracker in all of southern Utah'?" Josiah asked with an affectionate grin.
"So, ya think they're from Utah?" J.D. asked.
Nathan chewed the last of his food and asked, "Why're you so curious, J.D.?" The healer took his napkin, wiped his mouth, set the napkin next to his plate, then sat back to enjoy the rest of his coffee, clearly curious about their young sheriff's curiosity about the two recent arrivals to Four Corners.
J.D. remembered what Buck and Chris each said about pursuing his suspicions about Smith and Jones. He had argued with Buck about continuing his investigation, planning a conversation with Mary Travis. The town's renowned Lothario convinced him that addressing his suspicions with Mary would only bring on grief as the newspaper publisher would likely go to her father-in-law as her first source to confirm or deny such a rumor. J.D. did step away from pursuing his reservations about the two men, though if he were to speak of them openly, he would state unequivocally that the two men spending time in their town were indeed Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West.
"J.D.?" Josiah asked.
"Oh. Yeah. Nothin'. I just thought, remember when you had to do that surgery on Smith?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"Ya done good with that surgery, Nate," Vin said, hoping to redirect the conversation. Vin had some suspicions about the two men who would be spending time out at the cottage on Chris's expanded ranch, but he'd spent enough time with the two in these last days that he was more confused about why he felt uneasy about them than by anything they said or did to support any such feelings.
"Thank you, Vin. It was tricky surgery, a delicate organ. Needed a gentle touch. You were real good assisting. Appreciated your help, too, J.D.," Nathan said. "And Joshua did everything I asked him to do, not that he could do anything but follow orders with Thaddeus watching him like a hawk." J.D. couldn't rightly continue his attempts to gather information after being called out for helping Nathan save the life of one of the two men that the entire town seemed to have adopted and were tripping all over themselves to help. "So, J.D., what are your concerns about Joshua and Thaddeus?"
J.D. hesitated, but finally said, "Naw, Nate, I don't really have concerns. Just kind of curious about them."
"Do you think the judge sending them here is worrisome?" Josiah asked. "From what I understand, they helped out the judge and then Joshua couldn't find a doctor who could help him."
"We haven't gotten too far on that, Josiah," Nathan muttered unhappily. "If they end up spending the night out there tonight, I'll be heading out tomorrow to make sure they understand what Joshua should and should not do."
"Think he likely knows what to do, Nate. Think both of 'em want Joshua healed. Like you said, reckon Thaddeus is worse than you about watchin' his partner," Vin countered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nathan retorted, not especially pleased with the suggestion.
"Nothin' against you, Nate. Did you see Thaddeus lookin' at Chris after he pushed Joshua, after Mary was taken hostage? He looked at Chris fer days as though he wanted ta kill 'im," Vin suggested.
"I think he would have tried to kill Chris if Joshua had been hurt worse. I figure Chris is lucky to have come away from that whole thing without even a scratch," Josiah said.
"Think the only reason he didn't hurt Chris was because he had Joshua talkin' in his head not to," Vin replied. The former bounty hunter could see that Nathan was still mad about what he said. "Nate, Thaddeus is very close to Joshua. Only natural he would have an opinion 'bout how his partner should act, that he should follow all the rules. Jest don't think you need to be on 'im like you need to be sometimes with Ezra."
"Or you," Nathan said, a slight grin offered. Vin looked at the smile as a good sign that the healer understood the Texan's point. Vin grinned back, knowing that Nathan's words were not a lie.
"Is everything finished that you were hoping to finish?" Mary asked the man she would one day marry. She didn't know when that would happen, they had not really discussed when, as far back as shortly after he proposed. Neither seemed in a hurry. They knew they had in each other what they wanted. There were many who asked both of them, separately, what they were waiting for. Nobody, thus far, had the desire or the nerve to bring the topic up in front of both of them, together.
"I think we're good for now," Chris said as he dried the dishes that Mary washed. The tall blond stacked them to the side, where Inez picked them up, and she and Kid put them back in their place on shelves and the hand-hewn cabinet in the dining area. "Thaddeus has offered his services to tackle clearing out the barns. They could use it. We took care of a few stalls earlier in the week for three horses. And the two near corrals and the lean-tos out in them are all good. Also, the closest pasture. Troughs are clean, grass looks good. Figure maybe I'll come back after they've had a chance to settle in, maybe the beginning of the week, and take Thaddeus up on his offer."
"They seem like good men," Mary suggested. It was a loaded comment, one that he was sure Mary was expecting him to reply to. He wished that he didn't have to, and as it turned out, Ezra saved him from needing to.
"Did you two plan to continue with the dishes, or were you hoping for wrinkled hands for the remainder of the day, Mary?" the professional poker player asked. As one whose hands meant a great deal to him, his 'tactile sensitivity' allowing him to feel the cards, shuffle them with both hands, cut them with just one, and be able to sense with his fingers whether someone had attempted to mark a deck of them, allowing his hands to remain in water with soap intended for washing dishes and not for soothing such a most precious of appendage, he himself would never have allowed his hands to remain in the water so long.
"We are almost done, Ezra," she said as she looked beyond her friend to see how Heyes was doing. "Is he all right?" she asked as Thaddeus and Inez waited for the answer. It was obvious from where they all stood that Heyes had fallen asleep.
"He is fine. He worked very hard today to remain awake, to bring all of us a drink of water. When we did convince him to rest, he only allowed himself a seat at the tail end of the wagon, even though we had all agreed that he should allot some of his time during the day for a nap," Ezra noted.
"He's frustrating that way," Kid said as he picked up a pile of plates to put back in their place.
"I believe he will do better about resting when there are not so many men working to improve a place where he feels he should also do his part." Ezra, Chris and Buck looked at the pretty Mexican woman. "Oh, don't be so ridiculous. You are all the same way." They stood there and stared at her, dumbfounded. "Ach, ridículo!" she said as she brushed past the lawmen. "Do not be like them," she said quietly to Kid as she grabbed a large platter and headed to the cabinet to put it away.
"Do you make her mad like that a lot?" Kid asked.
"Yes," Chris and Ezra replied, with a 'Yes' followed by Mary in confirmation. Buck said 'No'. Kid laughed as he took the now-dried pitcher Chris passed him and followed Inez to the cabinet. Chris, Ezra and Mary laughed at Buck.
"Well, I don't … not like that," he added with a wink.
"I think we're done," Mary said with a smirk. She looked around. "It is amazing how fast things can get done when there is more than one person doing the work," she added, her eyebrow raised at the man she loved.
"Since we are finished so expeditiously, shall we retire to the living room for a libation before heading back to town?" Ezra asked.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Chris answered as he reached for the bottle of bourbon on the far end of the kitchen counter. Ezra and Buck gathered glasses for everyone. Both Mary and Inez were known to enjoy a taste of the good stuff.
"It's nice that J.D. and Casey could help Tommy at the saloon tonight," Mary said.
"So long as those two can keep their eyes and their hands off each other, you shouldn't lose too much money tonight," Buck joked as he handed the poured glasses from Chris the bartender to each of the people heading to the living area of the cottage.
"Hey … Joshua," Kid said, catching himself from saying his partner's real name as he patted Heyes' arm firmly enough to wake him. "Wake up. Here," he added, handing the resting man his drink.
Buck frowned at what he heard, and then turned his head to look at Chris, who was frowning himself as he looked to Heyes. 'Hell', the former Texas Ranger thought to himself as he watched Heyes and Curry chatting quietly. He scowled briefly as he selected the best seat in the house, at least today.
"Thanks. How long have I been sleeping?"
Chris brought one of the dining chairs into the living area. The sofa sat three people comfortably, plus two upholstered chairs, meant two chairs from the dining table were needed. Ezra grabbed the other one. When they got there, they found Buck sitting in the middle of the sofa. Chris shook his head and grinned as everyone took their expected seats.
"Only about a half of an hour," Ezra answered as he sat in the dining chair between the fireplace and the sofa. Inez sat beside Buck on that end of the sofa, Mary on the other beside Chris in the other dining chair. Kid sat in the other cushioned chair near where Heyes had been resting.
"Sorry," he said as he held his glass, waiting for others to take a drink before he did.
"Please don't apologize," Mary said. "You are expected to take it easy. There were plenty of warm bodies to clear up our dinner table."
"I appreciate that. I know it's early to expect any great strides."
"Patience is a virtue, Joshua," Kid said as he enjoyed the smooth bourbon.
"Yeah," Heyes agreed. The ailing man set his glass down on the side table, without tasting it, and rubbed his forehead. Kid set his glass next to the one not yet touched, kneeled in front of the dearest person in his life, and asked, "What's goin' on?"
Heyes forced his hand from his head and smiled. "I'm … " he started, but stopped as he saw the worry and love writ all over his partner's face. He knew he had others in the room who cared for him, too. Maybe not everyone here, but he decided to answer truthfully. He owed it to these people who were so willing to help him, he owed honesty to his best friend rather than an answer to simply make his partner feel better. "I've got a headache. And I'm pretty tired."
"You don't have to head back to town," Chris suggested. "You could stay here," Chris said as he enjoyed his glass of bourbon.
"Chris, could Ah speak with you for one moment?" Ezra asked.
"Sure. Take a walk with me." Chris looked to Buck, who held an upset, even angry expression. "We won't be long." The leader of the lawmen of Four Corners frowned at his oldest friend. Buck looked toward Heyes and Curry, and then back to Chris.
The two men who knew the reforming outlaws' secret walked out the front door and headed across the drive to the small barn. Ezra kept his eye on the house to assure no one would hear their conversation.
"Did you see Buck?"
"Yes, Ah did. Do you believe that J.D. has expressed concerns to him about who Joshua and Thaddeus really are?" Ezra asked.
"I do. Damn it." They looked each other in the eye. "Think we should bring Buck in on the secret?"
"Ah really would rather that we not do that. Joshua has not had an opportunity to truly rest, to relax as though he had one and only one care in the world. If he is not afforded the opportunity to get bettah, he will not get bettah."
"No. We know that's the truth." Chris didn't remind his friend that Ezra's physical concerns, mostly resolved, had now made way for the need to heal his emotional ones. That was still a work in progress.
"Ah do not believe that, with Joshua not feelin' well, that they should remain here alone. But Ah also do not like the stress to be placed upon him of riding for forty-five minutes with his headache. We should have insisted that he sleep today."
"We all thought that just resting would be good enough, except for Nate."
"No, our fine healer knew bettah." They both heard boots heading their way, a familiar gait. "Mistah Wilmington?"
"Ezra? Somethin' I need to know?" he asked, a hint of suspicion impossible to hide in the ladies' man's tone.
"Just talking about whether we should subject Joshua to the ride back to town," Chris said.
"Uh-huh."
"Ah believe Ah shall be spendin' the night," Ezra explained.
"Good thing that main bedroom still got decked out with two beds," Buck said. "Whose idea was it to make sure the other room had beds in it, all ready to use?" he asked, not really interested in that topic. He wanted to ask the question that J.D. had been pestering him with. But it didn't seem that his old friend Chris Larabee was much into that topic. Buck had known Chris for a very long time, and he could read, even in the shade of the small barn, that Chris would not be a fount of information even if Buck did broach the topic. He'd save that for another time.
"I think Mary suggested it," Chris replied.
"Mary and Inez felt that it might be necessary for Nathan or others to overnight during Joshua's convalescence. Considerate forethought which Ah certainly appreciate," Ezra admitted. "Ah did forget to supply a feather pillow in the furnishings list."
"You gave the ladies a furnishings list?" Chris asked.
"They were simply suggestions which were not, as it turns out, required as Inez and Mary had finished sourcing a goodly number of items before receiving mah list."
"Well, since Ez here is stayin', you mind if we get goin', old pard? I got me something soft 'n' purdy I got to get back to."
"Buck, is there evah a night when you are in Four Corners when you do not have somethin' 'soft 'n' purdy' waiting for you?" Ezra asked, using the town Lothario's phrasing, perfectly mimicked.
"Now Ez, that's just about the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say."
Ezra looked to Chris. "If it's not, it's close."
"Let us advise everyone inside of the plans. We would not wish Buck to ruin his record."
The three lawmen walked back to the house. "You sure there isn't anything you need to tell me?"
"Don't forget to change your shirt," Chris said as he moved past his old friend and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Ezra just ahead.
Buck looked down to his shirt. "Do I got a spot?" he asked as he looked up … and a thick branch of an overgrown bush thwacked him in the face.
"Ah will be certain to prune that tomorrah."
"Mary, Inez? Ready to head back?" Chris asked. The former notorious gunslinger moved toward the table where he had set his drink. He helped Mary up from her seat, then grabbed his half-empty glass, and Mary's empty one. He downed the rest of his as he walked to set the glasses in the sink.
"What about … " Mary started as she turned toward Hannibal Heyes, but Ezra interrupted her.
"Ah shall be spending the night."
"Good," Mary and Inez both said.
"Not sure it's the best that your girl thinks that's good, Ezra."
"Buck, I am no man's girl," Inez said as she walked over to Ezra. She reached up and pulled his head down with one hand, massaged one side of his chest with the other, ever so slowly, and gave him a passionate, long, sizzlingly hot kiss. She finished the kiss, pushed Ezra away, grabbed Mary's hand and said, "¡Ahora vamos!" The fiery Mexican pulled her good friend out the door as Mary laughed heartily. Heyes and Curry were laughing as well as they observed the stunned and oh-so-pleased look on the face of their new friend Ezra Standish.
"What just happened, there?" the card sharp asked.
"I would definitely call that not girl-like," Kid said.
"Not at all," Heyes agreed.
"Come on, Buck. Let's get out of here," Chris said as he pushed his friend out the door. "See you fellas tomorrow."
"Goodnight," Heyes called. Kid rushed to the door and said, "Chris." The former notorious gunslinger turned to the current notorious fast draw, but turned back to Buck. "Can you bring the wagon around?"
"Sure can," he said as he rushed to the side yard near the barn to bring the wagon around front that the three lawmen had put back together for the return to town just after their early dinner but before they helped with the dishes.
"Yeah," Chris said to the blond member of the famous outlaw pair.
"I just wanted to say again how much I appreciate you offering this place. It's really very decent of you, generous beyond anything that we expected. He … well, I know you know what it's like to have people care for you … Mary, your other lawmen friends, all those townspeople. For us," he said, nodding his head toward the inside of the cottage, "it's just us. It's been just us for a long, long time."
"Well, we've got Lom. And Clementine," Heyes corrected.
"Sure, we've got Clem when she's not tryin' to con us. And we've got Lom, but what has that gotten us lately?" Kid asked angrily though not loudly. He saw how being yelled at was upsetting his partner. He walked up and said softly, "Sorry. That … I didn't … I'm not mad at you." Heyes nodded, but looked away from Kid, Chris and Ezra.
"Okay. Let's talk about this more tomorrow. I'll head out with Nate, try to convince him to let you keep the rental horse he rides out on. Can't see how an easy ride would be a problem, Joshua. He can take Mabel and the runabout back." Heyes looked back to Chris with a sad smile. "You two," Chris said, speaking to Heyes and Curry, "don't stay mad at each other. Sounds to me like neither one of you is wrong." Ezra laughed faintly. "What's so funny?"
"Well, you giving advice for these two not to remain at odds is, well, odd."
"Shut up, Ezra."
Ezra pushed Chris out the door. "And a fine good day to you as well." He closed the door and put his finger up to his lips. Heyes and Kid remained quiet. They heard the wagon moving and heard Chris' horse following and then Ezra said, "Thaddeus and Joshua, shall we head to the barn and assure that Rex and Mabel are all set for the evening and overnight hours? It will be dark soon enough."
"Sure. Why'd we have to be quiet?"
"Mostly to make sure Mistah Wilmington was not still outside. He seems a mite suspicious of you two."
"Damn," Kid said.
Heyes walked up and patted his friend on his stomach. "What he means is, we could sense that."
"We will continue as we have been. Ah suspect young J.D. has been spending an inordinate amount of time with wanted posters. Ah had expressed to Chris that our most worrisome concerns were J.D. and Nettie Wells."
"Nettie?" Heyes queried.
"Ah have decided that she is the lesser of our concerns now. The woman is clearly infatuated with you."
"Don't know if that's the word I would use," Heyes grouched. "But I would be lying if I said I didn't have special feelings for that woman."
"She is quite a woman. Ah will have to tell you of our first meeting." Ezra blushed and then looked away.
"Not good, huh?" Kid asked.
"It was an interaction that Ah, to this day, hold great shame in remembering."
"I don't think that it's necessary for you to feel that way. Nettie obviously feels affection towards you," Heyes said. "By the way, 'affection' would have been a better word than 'infatuated'."
"You are most assuredly correct."
The three men walked into the barn. Ezra petted Rex, knowing that he would be waiting for something tasty to eat. He set out oats and alfalfa for the handsome gelding. He did the same for Mabel. Heyes and Curry headed to the well and pulled fresh water up to top off the trough in the near pasture. The trough in the corral had a pump that poured water directly into it. The two horses most of the day enjoyed the expansive pasture with Arnie, the large draft horse used to pull the wagon that just left the property. They had grazed in the sun and dappled shade throughout the day, and would spend the evening hours in the near large grassy corral attached to the barn. The sun was beginning to move just under the tops of the trees to the back of the barn on its way to setting later in the evening. Once the sun set, Ezra would come out and lead the friendly sorrel and the lovely Mabel into the barn for the night.
With three men doing the work, it left some time for the rental horse to be groomed; Mabel did not require it as the card sharp had taken care of giving his favorite work horse a full grooming the previous day. Within less than a half of an hour, Ezra, Heyes and Curry left the horses to finish their light dinner and were back in the house.
"Coffee? And some more pie?" Ezra asked.
"You know, just because I'm not allowed any more bourbon doesn't mean you two can't have some," Heyes said as he sat heavily into the comfortable couch. Ezra and Kid settled into each of the well-cushioned arm chairs.
"Ah am used to abstaining, to be honest, Joshua. Ah have had Nathan tell me many times to refrain. Ah have found mahself drinking less since our trip to Denver, save for some, well, difficult times these last months. The doctors are not wrong when they say less alcohol is helpful in fending off the worst of nearly every ill. But as you can see, Ah am by no means a teetotaler, and you will not be, either. It is only for this period where Nathan and Dr. Wharton are working to move you to health once again."
"And you," Kid said. "You've got as much to do with how we get Joshua healthy as the doctors."
"That would be nice if it turned out to be true. Ah wish simply for you to achieve your goal, Joshua, as Ah was successful doin' mahself, for the most part," Ezra added with a crooked smile. "Mah role in this drama was determined by the good Judge Travis wishing that 'his boys', of whom both he and his wife had grown quite fond, did make it to a point where your health was improved such that the two of you would be able to live a good, long life once your amnesty finally came through."
"Well, we are very fond of the judge and Evie, too. And I guess it's all right to talk about the amnesty out here, but we should talk about it as little as possible, I would think," Heyes reminded all in the room.
"We are through for the duration, then," Ezra agreed. "Now, coffee and pie?" Heyes looked to his partner. "Very good, coffee and pie. Thaddeus, you may spike yours with this fine Kentucky bourbon, should you choose."
Ezra stoked the fire in the stove back to life and put the coffee on. Kid replaced the dining chairs back to their proper spots at the table. Heyes pulled out mugs, plates, forks and spoons for their second dessert.
"Some poker?" Kid asked.
"For a while. We will need to remember that one of the enhancements we would want to make to this area is additional lighting. We could install an oil lamp on either side of the window. Ah wonder why that would not have been done by the previous owners?" Ezra questioned.
"Could be they got used to carrying lamps from one room to the next. Might just have spent time as a family by the fire as it got dark," Heyes said.
"Like we did," Kid said.
"Well, like you did. I spent lots more time with a lamp in my room, reading."
"You will not be doing that any longer. Ah have broken mahself of that habit. Daylight is far bettah for your eyes when reading as well as for staving off headaches when reading."
"I figure there are a lot of things I'll need to adjust to from now on. So, because of that, why don't we play a little poker before we lose the light?"
The three men played cards for only an hour before the light grew too dim. Heyes was ahead, which meant more poker would be played during daylight hours the next day to allow Ezra and Kid a chance to win some of their money back. They might have better luck playing later once more oil lamps were added, but they all agreed that starting their poker playing earlier would be best as they all three held great interest in assuring Heyes slept peacefully, without reading-induced headaches, for the duration of his convalescence.
"I'm heading out to your cottage with Jeremiah," Dottie said.
"Yeah!" Jeremiah said. "We're gonna see Joshua and Thaddeus and Mister EZRA!"
"He's excited," Dottie laughed.
"It's hard to tell," Nathan said with an amused chuckle.
"How come I didn't know about this?" Chris asked as he and Nathan rode alongside the wagon heading out of town. "Do you know where you're going?"
"Ezra told me how to get there."
"Well, we're going there, too. Mind if we escort you?"
"That would be great. I'm bringing out some supplies that Ezra ordered."
"Ben can't do that?" Nathan asked.
"It is Ben's turn to mind the store, if you know what I mean."
"I guess we do. I'm a little surprised that Ben's letting you go alone," Chris said.
"She's not going alone. I'm going with Mama," Jeremiah said.
"See, I'm not going alone," Dottie said as she winked at her son.
"You know that it's forty-five minutes each way, right?"
"Yes, I do. But I figure this will," she held the reins in one hand as she placed both hands over her little boy's ears, "be the first and last time Ben lets me do this 'alone'."
"Mama!"
"Here you go."
"What did you say?" Jeremiah asked.
"Something I didn't want you to hear."
"I figured that part out," the boy said with a whine.
"You've got an order that Ezra placed? What've you got?"
"Vegetables. Some eggs. Fruit. Steak. Liquor. Candy for Ezra's horse. A few more lamps. A washboard."
"A washboard? Is Ezra going to make those two wash his clothes?" Nathan asked.
"Might use it as a weapon," Chris reminded his partner in crime fighting.
"He's done it before," the healer agreed.
"Sounds like a story," Dottie said. "They are cleaning things while they're staying out there. They need to be able to clean the rags and towels that they use. We are planning to start a weekly visit to come out and help them."
"Help them?"
"Cleaning. Cooking. Enjoying their company. Right little man?"
"I can't wait to see them. It's been days!"
"Well, it's been a little over a day, Jeremiah."
"Yeah, but it seems like days."
"Can we go back to the washboard?" Chris asked.
"Sure."
"There isn't a washboard there?" Chris asked.
"Did you see a washboard there?" Dottie answered.
"I, well, I didn't look for one."
"Ezra and Mary took a look around. It's one of the things in the back that is not food."
"Huh," Chris said as he cocked his head.
"That's one way of putting it. Did you notice that the two of them were walking around the house and the property with Ezra's journal in hand?"
"I was busy yesterday." Dottie stared at her blond friend as the horse remained at a steady, straight pace without her intervention. "Yeah, yeah, I know he was, too."
"Just pay him back for the supplies. He's happy to pay for the food."
"I don't know about that, Dottie. I doubt 'happy' is the right word," Nathan suggested.
"Well, Nathan, I think you are wrong and I would appreciate it if you did not castigate Ezra in front of my son."
"Mama? Is everything all right?" Jeremiah asked worriedly.
"Everything is fine, my man."
"What does cas-ti-gate mean?"
"So, what is one of the things you wanted to ask Mr. Ezra?" Dottie asked, knowing that a question can easily distract a child.
"We have homework and since I'm gonna be with him today, I thought he could help me with a couple of my vocabulary words."
Dottie laughed. "His father and I have already been through the list of vocabulary words, but Jeremiah, conveniently, still has questions about some of them." The mother poked the son with her finger, into his side, and then proceeded to tickle him. Jeremiah's loud giggle could most assuredly be heard back in town and out to some of the homes near to town.
"Stop! Mama, stop! Stop!"
"What? Did that tickle?" she asked as she stopped tickling the little boy.
Jeremiah finally stopped laughing, caught his breath and answered, "No."
"Oh, so it's okay if I keeping doing it?" she asked as she started right back up.
"No!" the adorable little boy shrieked as he scooted away from his mother's reach.
"Oh. All right. Come on, sit close. I promise I won't tickle you, at least not until we get out to see Mr. Ezra, Joshua and Thaddeus."
"You won't do it then, either," Jeremiah replied.
"You're right. I won't." Dottie turned to Nathan. "Are you going out to give Joshua a check-up, make sure he didn't work too much yesterday?"
Nathan turned to Chris. "You didn't make him work, did you?" the healer asked accusingly.
Chris frowned, annoyed at the co-owner, with her husband, of the mercantile and the new bakery.
"Sorry. No, Nathan, I was kidding. I'm sure if there is anything to worry about, you will find it," Dottie said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Nathan asked.
"Let me answer that. Joshua didn't sleep yesterday. He was a little tired at the end of the day. I'm sure Ezra and Thaddeus made sure it was an early night."
"Oops," Dottie whispered to her son. To her aggravated friend, she said, "Sorry, Chris. I don't mean to cause trouble. I need to learn to temper what I'm saying. Not everyone gets me, not even my husband."
"Daddy gets you, mama. He gets you every day." Dottie worked hard not to laugh. Chris and Nathan were too shocked by the comment offered by the innocent child.
"Thank you, Jeremiah. That is very sweet of you to defend your mama."
"I love you, Mama." Innocence abounded from the sweet child. Dottie hugged her son, who was happy to hug her right back, and stayed there as the movement of the wagon and the consistent noise of the forward momentum lulled him to sleep.
"Thank the lord," she said. Chris and Nathan laughed. "Sure, it's funny to you two. My tongue is purple from having to watch what I say around this child."
"Well, don't change, Dottie," Chris said. "Seems to me that the way you and Ben are with Jeremiah is working out just fine. If Adam had … " Chris started, but he stopped short of going on.
"Oh, Chris," Dottie said as she reached out her hand. Chris took it and they clasped hands for a good moment. Chris Larabee had become closer friends with Dottie Pike than he had become with her husband. It was simply a matter of spending more time in her presence. Mary and Dottie's friendship certainly helped. But Dottie Pike was an extraordinary person: friendly, warm, funny, smart, strong, compassionate. She and Ben were wonderful additions to the Four Corners community.
Chris released their hold. "What you and Ben have done with Jeremiah is exactly how I would have hoped my Adam would have turned out."
"Thank you. There is no greater compliment you could have offered, Chris."
"It's not really a compliment. Just a fact."
"Well, thank you, anyway. So, how far along is everything that you wanted to get done on the property this week? Obviously, enough was done that Joshua, Thaddeus and Ezra could stay there last night."
"I think the house is in great shape. Some more work on the grounds and the barn, but the barn is in good shape for three horses, for now. The buildings are all solid structures, period. The near corrals and the nearest pasture are good. I think it's livable, and that's why Ezra agreed to stay last night."
"How about the outhouse?" Nathan asked.
"It's fine. Still waiting on that new seat that Mary ordered."
"What's there now?" Dottie asked.
"The old seat," Chris admitted.
"And Ezra agreed to stay?" Nathan asked.
"It's not like he had a lot of choice. Smith wasn't in any shape to head back to town, and Ezra wasn't comfortable leaving them there alone."
"Is Joshua sick?" Jeremiah asked as he woke from his short nap.
"Sweetie, we talked about that. He's not been well, but Mr. Nathan and Mr. Ezra and that nice doctor from Durango are all going to get him better. And we're going help, right?"
"Yeah. I want him to get better. He's real nice."
"He is, and he'll get better," Dottie said as she hugged her son again while she looked to Nathan and Chris and hoped that she wasn't lying to her little boy.
"Mama?"
"Yep?"
"If there's no seat in the outhouse, how are they, you know … "
Nathan snorted lightly. Chris answered, "There's a seat, it's just old. Don't want Mr. Ezra to get a splinter, right?"
Jeremiah thought about that, then said, "No, that would be a pretty bad day for everyone."
All of the adults burst out laughing. Jeremiah joined in with a loud giggle.
Dottie put her hands over her son's ears once more. "I will blame you, Chris Larabee, if Jeremiah brings this up in front of Ezra."
"Maaa-ma!"
"Twelve thousand? That's what caused the wagon to take down that staircase?" Buck Wilmington asked. He and Josiah were sitting outside the jailhouse as they listened to Robert Merton. The rancher had been asked by the lawmen and Mary Travis and Gloria Potter, two of the leaders of the town, to investigate what happened with the wagon crashing into the staircase that was the only access to Nathan Jackson's clinic. There was no access possible to the clinic, or Nathan's room in the back of it, until the stairs were replaced, except for from a tall, rickety ladder, or from the loft of the livery, through the temporary door that had been cut through to get in to move Nathan's supplies, a far safer option over using the ladder. It was a messy effort, so only the critical items were removed for the time being. Nathan had been working in the cramped confines of the back room of the saloon, and using a room at the boarding house to sleep in that he never used previously since he already considered the back of the clinic his home. That room at the back of the saloon needed to be cleared out soon as, though the harvest festival would be held in the grange hall, the grange hall was in need of reinforcement on the side of the building that received the worst of the weather. A top builder from Eagle Bend, along with Josiah and a couple of the more accomplished woodworkers in town determined that it would be all right for the annual celebration of the end of the harvest season, but there was a need to perform restoration on the grain exchange building before the winter shut down any chance of getting those repairs complete. This closer inspection of the building exposed the reason the weathervane fell years ago, causing serious injury to the town's resident poker player. Though the building was erected in the hopes of encouraging the buying and selling of grain commodities, the more remote aspect of the town was never able to encourage the move of the commodity trading from Eagle Bend, and the cost of tearing the building down was prohibitive. Once the wall was reinforced, there would be a new effort to find a use for the largest building in town.
"Twelve thousand dollars is not a large volume of silver. Was there something else in the wagon?" Josiah asked as he welcomed Mary and Gloria to the boardwalk. He offered the two chairs there to the ladies.
"Thank you, Josiah," Gloria said. "It has been a long, busy day at the shop, and the day isn't even half over."
"You're talking about the wagon?" Mary asked.
"I am. So, fellas, it was full, but it wasn't full of silver. There's a bunch of rocks and, well, dust," Robert said.
"Gold dust," Mary said. Gloria shook her head.
"Gold dust? Real gold?" Buck asked.
"Confirmed by a couple of samples of the rock and a couple of handfuls given to Dave Randolph."
"He would know," Josiah said. The local jeweler was a popular man when booms, and busts, happened in the area.
"Why's the wagon still here? And where is all of the, uh … " Buck looked around to see if anyone else was around listening in, "…loot?"
"Andrew, J.D., Josiah and I moved the loot to another wagon and left Graham's in its spot. Didn't want anything more tumbling down until we were ready to deal with the whole teardown. The loot is safe, Buck," Robert said.
"Glad to hear it."
"I know we released Martin Graham from jail," Josiah said. "Does anyone know where he is?"
"We tried to find him yesterday to discuss paying for the new staircase up to the clinic," Mary replied. "He couldn't be found, so I started asking around. He'd drunk as much as Inez would allow him the night before last. She thought he moved over to Digger Dave's. Mel said he was there, that he drank all night. Mel cut him off at about midnight or one o'clock and watched him head out toward the back exit. He figured he was heading to the public outhouse. He hasn't seen him since."
"Kind of odd for a drunk to not go back to drink the next night at either place," Robert said.
"Even more odd that he wouldn't have come to check on his silver. I assume he hasn't," Buck said.
"No, he hasn't," Mary said.
"I hope something untoward hasn't happened to him. I do not approve of his drinking or the damage that it caused an important part of our town, but I would not wish that something happen to him when he was incapacitated with the drink," Gloria said.
"We'll take another look around town," Josiah said. "Maybe we can get Marty Ellison and Dave Landon to help look. If we have no luck there, then maybe when J.D. gets back from visiting Nettie and Casey, Buck, the two of you can take a ride outside of town, see if there are any signs he got lost."
"Josiah, if he's been out there, well, it has been very cold these last two nights," Gloria said.
"I don't think it's been cold enough for him not to survive," Josiah said.
"I hope you're right," the shop owner and town leader said. Gloria Potter lost her husband to gun violence the day the men who would become famously known as The Magnificent Seven returned from helping the folks at the Seminole village fend off the crazy Confederate general Anderson and his men. She'd been raising her two now-teen aged children by herself, except that she really hadn't. She had the assistance of any number of people in her town, most importantly the help of Mary Travis, a fellow single mother whose husband was also murdered. And Ezra Standish's influence, as a teacher and, just as importantly, as the regular male presence in their lives that the children lost when they lost their father? Gloria could never place a high-enough value on what the gambler brought to their lives. What all seven lawmen brought to her family, a feeling of safety in their home, in what was now their hometown? There was no price she could place on the value of that.
"I hope I am, too."
"I think they are."
"Oh, J.D., you're nuts."
"Casey, I'm right. I can feel it in my bones. I've been studyin' their wanted posters."
"I think you'd think differently if you spent better time with them. They're good people: kind, fun, smart, interesting. And they aren't afraid to show how much they care for each other. All of these things are the opposite of people who are wanted by the law."
"Casey, I'm sure there are outlaws out there that fool people all the time. That's how they get close enough to steal from folks."
"That's not how they get into banks, J.D." The young sheriff's love interest looked around to make sure no one was listening in, and lowered her voice. "And that's not how Heyes and Curry open up safes. You can't convince me that Joshua and Thaddeus are Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry. And I think you should stop this. Joshua needs some stress-free time so that he can get better. If he hears that you're blabbin' about him being Heyes, he won't relax because he'll want to defend himself. You're gonna have a lot of us mad at you if you do that."
"What is wrong with you? Buck wants me to drop it, too. Why should I? If they are who I think they are, then they could be spending all that time out there at that house on Chris' property scheming to rob the bank. Or the jewelry store. Or both."
"Buck wants you to stop because you're wrong and you're gonna make a fool of yourself if you suggest that to anyone."
"Well, I'm not stopping with looking into it just because you and Buck think I should. Or anyone else."
"You better keep it to yourself until you have absolute proof. Just sayin' you think it's them is gonna make you look dumb."
"Already do. To me," Nettie Wells said as she came upon them on her return from speaking with Ben Pike about what they might want her to add to her gardens to keep supplied at the grocery. Nettie and Casey could only manage so large of a garden and orchards, but they had room to add something, or increase something, for sale at Ben and Dottie's store, or to use at the bakery.
Both J.D. and Casey jumped. "Jeez," Casey said.
"You two. Come with me." The old rancher walked across the main avenue of town and headed down the street between the saloon and the hardware store.
"How much do you think she heard?" J.D. whispered.
Casey shook her head, rolled her eyes, and followed her aunt.
"Damn it. I'm gonna kill that gambler. I'm gonna kill his long-haired friend. I'm gonna kill Larabee. I'll kill all of 'em if I can." The man trudged along in the rough rock-strewn, tall grass as he paralleled the road to the next town, the small village two towns west and south of Four Corners. He'd left behind a wagon with two dead men and a third running farther south as the man dodged each bullet the escaped prisoner fired from the weapon of the man who had ridden shotgun on the prison wagon. He gave the running man an ultimatum, and he figured he had what he needed from him ... his word. Shooting at him was just a game, though he figured the man knew that he'd be tracked down and dispensed with if he didn't follow through on the agreement. The man with the near-empty weapon had twisted his knee, and his firing arm was bruised and ruined his aim, though he wasn't aiming to hit, not just yet. It would take the man a while to get to the next town heading south. Hopefully it would be enough time for the limping man to re-stock and get done what he needed, and for his "partner" from the back of the wagon to get what was needed for his plan. His revenge would be sweet.
"Wow, what time did you get up to get all this done?" Chris asked as he and Nathan dismounted and tied their horses' reins to the hitching post.
"Mr. Ezra! Thaddeus!" Jeremiah yelled as he prepared to jump from the wagon's seat to the ground.
"Hold on, there. I'll come get ya," Thaddeus said. But Jeremiah couldn't wait and he jumped from the edge of the bench seat on the wagon and flew into Kid's arms.
"Hi!" the little boy said as he landed and hugged one of his newest friends.
Kid laughed. "Hi, yourself," he said with a dazzling smile. "Did you have a good ride out?"
"Yeah. Mama's good at driving. I navigated."
"And we got here, so obviously he's good at that," Dottie said as she removed herself from the wagon with an assist from the gentlemanly southerner.
"So, Thaddeus, what time did you get Ezra up to get all of this cleared?" Chris askd again. The overgrown grasses, the bush that whacked Buck the previous day and some branches on a couple of trees had all been cleared and removed to a pile well to the right side of the barn across the driveway.
"Didn't have to. He already had coffee going. Early. The scent had me up before I planned. We ate early and decided to start in early."
"You all right, Ezra?" Nathan asked as he walked up to his friend, reaching his hand to the southerner's forehead.
"Desist. Ah have been known to rise early, Nathan."
"That's usually because you couldn't sleep," Chris noted. Ezra's partners in crime fighting had come to know him well. Showing up much earlier than noon was usually a sign that something was awry with the poker playing lawman, either physically or emotionally.
"Ah slept well. The beds that Mary procured are quite comfortable."
"Where's Joshua?" the healer asked.
"He was up. Had breakfast with us. Went back to bed with a book," Kid said. Nathan frowned. "The light's real good in there in the morning. If he's reading, he'll be all right. But if he did fall back asleep, it's probably time for him to get up."
"I'm going to go check on him."
"Let me come with you, Nathan. Don't need any accidents because he was startled," Kid said.
"I'm not going to argue with that," the black man said as he followed the blond into the house. Nathan Jackson and every other lawman had plenty of experience being careful about waking one Ezra P. Standish should they show at his door to wake him at an indecent hour.
"Well, that happened fast," Dottie said. "I will need all hands helping," she added as she went to the back of the wagon.
"You sure you're okay?" Chris asked quietly of his fellow lawman.
"Ah am fine. Ah appreciate the concern." As they approached the rear of the wagon, they found Dottie handing a sack to her son.
"Hold on to this." Jeremiah did as he was told as his mother grabbed a couple of heavier sacks. "There's a crate and a heavy sack in there," she said, nodding to the back of the wagon. "Then we'll have to do another trip."
"This is a lot of stuff," Chris said.
"Joshua and Thaddeus will be here a while, and Ah will be spending some time out here. Ah see no reason to lack civilized comfort."
"I agree, Ezra," Dottie said. "Follow me, gentlemen." Jeremiah followed behind his mother, Ezra was second, and Chris followed with the crate.
"Place everything on the table, for now. We will go fetch everything else and then return to put it all away," Ezra suggested.
"I can help," Thaddeus said. "Nathan's with Joshua."
"Alone?" Chris asked.
Dottie looked at Chris as though he'd grown a second head. "Maybe it's just me, but I think most examinations by doctors or healers are not done with an audience. Maybe that's how you like it, Chris." Ezra laughed.
"Mama, you're with me when Mr. Nathan looks at me."
"That's different."
"That's what I figured," Jeremiah said with the sing-song sound of a happy child who trusted his mother implicitly. Chris and Ezra laughed at the response. Thaddeus seemed disinclined to enjoy the humor after Chris' earlier question.
"Ignore him," Ezra said. "Chris will soon realize there is no need for such concern.
"I'm not sure he's capable," Kid said.
"I am. Sorry about that." Kid forged ahead of Chris and Ezra.
"You will need to do bettah than that."
"I know."
They all made it to the wagon and retrieved everything else that was for the house. Ezra and Kid went out for the rest of the supplies that were for the barn and the horses and returned to the house within fifteen minutes.
"We placed everything that made sense for the pantry," Dottie said. "Cold cellar for the rest of the vegetables and the beef?"
"Oh. Sorry," Chris said. He'd clearly been more worried about Hannibal Heyes spilling the beans on who he was, letting the proverbial cat out of the bag with Nathan, than he was with getting the cold groceries put away. And he'd pissed off Heyes' partner. Again. "Could you step back, Dottie, Jeremiah and Thaddeus? Just off of the rug." They all stepped away from the rug. Chris and Ezra each took a corner of the area rug and folded it over on itself. There was an inset trap door. Chris opened it as Ezra lit a kerosene lamp. The former gunslinger took the lamp and took the staircase into the cellar.
"Oh my goodness. He fits in there?" Dottie asked, shocked.
"I want to go down," Jeremiah nearly whined.
"I want to go down," Dottie said.
"It's no surprise where Jeremiah gets it," Ezra said to Thaddeus.
"Gets what?" the little boy asked.
"Your intrepid spirit," the former con man said to the brave and bright child.
"What's intrepid mean?"
"Well, Jeremiah, it means you are fearless and adventurous and even courageous," Ezra said as he looked down to the small boy. Jeremiah was small for his age, but he had shown the same grit and spunk that both his mother and his father displayed. And Ezra learned quite early-on that the boy did not like to be treated like one; he frowned to the point of a Larabee glare when anyone would kneel to his level in order to speak with him. It had happened more than once that a member of The Magnificent Seven would walk away from a long chat with the little boy rubbing a stiff neck.
"Really?"
"Really."
"I'm not that all the time. Some things scare me," Jeremiah admitted, his eyes grown wide.
"That would make you no different than anyone else currently in this house, as well as most everyone back in town. It is wise to show a proper level of fear. We need to be aware of those things that could harm ourselves or others. A rattlesnake bite, for example, is something to fear. But as our fine tracker Mistah Tanner has shown us, we know what to look for with regard to signs of the snakes, or places where we might normally find them, as well as what to do when we find one within our midst."
"That's right."
Thaddeus smiled at the boy as he listened to the child's friend and teacher, and then his smile grew wider as he watched Heyes and the healer enter the room with smiles on their faces.
"I don't know, Thaddeus. Seems to me they suggested a bad place to stay if between the time I went back for a nap and now, a sink hole has formed in the middle of the house," Heyes joked.
"It's not a sink hole, Mr. Joshua, it's a cellar."
"Oh, well, that's different," Heyes replied.
"Mr. Chris is down there."
"He is? That's a deep cellar."
"Dottie and Jeremiah are thinking about taking a tour down there. Are you interested?" Kid asked his partner.
"I think maybe I'll pass. How about some coffee?"
"Coffee's a good idea. Leave that sack I put over on the kitchen counter there," Dottie called as she headed down the staircase. She stopped halfway down to take her child from Kid, and then handed Jeremiah to Chris.
"There aren't any snakes in here, are there?" Jeremiah asked as he held tight to Chris until he got his answer.
"Nope. This cellar is also the foundation, a rock and block foundation."
"It's cold."
"Yep. It's a real good cold cellar," Chris said.
"Go on down. I know you want to," Heyes said to Kid.
"Maybe another time," his partner replied sourly.
Heyes looked around the room and caught Ezra's expression. Something had happened. "Everything all right?" one Kansan asked the other.
"Yeah." Heyes didn't like the answer or how it was offered. Ezra shook his head, indicating that the dark-haired reforming outlaw should save his questions for later. "Here you go," Kid said as he handed the sacks with the items for the cellar to Ezra.
Ezra handed the items down for the 'cold room', a large cabinet made of oak. Once that was complete, Chris took Dottie and Jeremiah on a quick tour. There were stores of canned goods. Jugs were in place should there be a need to store water. A serious storm seemed unlikely to cause difficulties on this property, but the former owner was from Arkansas; he had survived a number of tornadoes. He told Chris that he would always have a place to stay should the worst happen.
As the tour continued, Ezra walked over to Heyes. "Are you well?"
The man smiled. "I am. Nathan says I didn't do myself any favors yesterday. He's not kidding about me not doing things. Even wants me to refrain from riding that nice horse he brought out, for a while longer."
Ezra looked out to the back yard, shook his head, and then looked back to Heyes. "Ah apologize for mah part in how yesterday went. Ah should have insisted that you rest, completely. Ah knew bettah."
"You did," Nathan said. "But so did all of you who were here yesterday, even the ladies. Even Joshua. Don't take on any more guilt than you deserve, Ezra," the former slave said. "I think we all know where we stand now."
"We do," Thaddeus said as he returned from the kitchen. The coffee was cooking, the stove having remained heated as Heyes remained inside. It was a cool morning. "And I will be watching like a hawk."
"Good," Nathan said. At that moment, they heard Chris, Dottie and Jeremiah coming back up the stairs.
"That was fun!" Jeremiah said, loud with enthusiasm.
"It was. That's amazing down there," Dottie said.
"One might call Mistah Warren paranoid when you consider how that cellar was built," Ezra suggested.
"A man after Thaddeus' heart," Heyes joked.
"Funny that you can't tell you're not bein' funny," Kid replied. Heyes shrugged his should and offered a dimpled smile in answer.
"I don't know about your paranoid tendencies, Thaddeus, but it could be Mr. Warren was real paranoid," Dottie said. "Chris showed us the structure, how solidly it's built. Huge timbers. The rock and block. The effort. Wow."
"You said coffee would be a good idea. Why is that, Dottie?" Thaddeus asked.
"Well, you know that sack I told you to leave be a while back?"
"Yeah."
"Go ahead and open it," she said.
Thaddeus grabbed the bag as though it was his Christmas present. He whistled, and then began to remove the contents.
"Missus Pike is certainly the most adventurous of our wondrous bakers, possibly the best," Ezra said.
"And that's sayin' a lot considering how much time he spends at Gloria's or how often he volunteers to head out to Nettie's," Chris said.
"And let me add that bringing up my mother-in-law when we were talking about what I brought out here might well prevent you from having more than one of what I brought out, MISTAH Standish," Dottie said. She grabbed a platter so that Kid could lay out all of the baked bounty that made its way out of the large sack.
"What … " Ezra started.
"Nobody here has ever called me Mrs. Pike, not even Joshua and Thaddeus," she said as she looked toward Heyes and Curry and offered a wicked wink and bit down on her lip to stop from laughing.
"Apologies, dear lady. Ah did not mean to offend … " he started, but was unable to finish as Dottie could hold her guffaw no longer. Ezra stared her down. He knew her Achilles heel, and he wasn't afraid to cash in that knowledge in front of all of these men … and one little boy. "You realize you must pay," the card sharp said as he moved slowly toward his nemesis. He knew she would have to barrel through and around all of these men to avoid him, but he also knew that she had a man trying to heal from sickness and recent injury going one way, and Nathan and Chris the other. And trampling her child was out of the question.
"I am doomed."
"You are, Mama. Mr. Ezra is really good at it," her young son said.
"I know," Dottie said, not bothering to move, steeling herself for what was to come.
"Um, may I ask … really good at what?" Heyes asked.
Ezra Standish moved in quickly and placed his hands at Dottie Pike's waist, and used his hands, the ones with which he had developed heightened tactile sensitivity for his non-law enforcement profession, and tickled his friend.
Dottie screeched and wiggled, and her son screamed and giggled.
"Mama is really ticklish, just like me," Jeremiah said.
"Just like you, huh?" Thaddeus asked as he grabbed the little boy and started tickling him.
The two Pikes screamed and laughed and squirmed. The rest of the men watched in amazement at the spectacle.
"Ezra! Stop! I'm … going to … pass … out," she yelled, little breath left to say even that. Thaddeus stopped his efforts, but not for long. Besides, refraining from tickling the little boy wasn't going to help his mother one bit.
"No! It's fun!" Jeremiah said. Heyes lifted the boy, who despite his mother's protestations of how strong he was remained just a little boy and light enough for even the healing, reforming outlaw to handle, over to the sofa, and continued the tickling on that side of the room.
"Ezra!" Dottie said.
Ezra stopped. Dottie walked up to him, face-to-face, chest-to-chest. They burst out laughing as they hugged.
"Your husband know Ezra does that?" Nathan asked.
"What, tickle me?" Dottie responded as her breathing approached a more normal level.
"Dad … Daddy knows," Jeremiah said, short of breath. "Sometimes … " Jeremiah tried to continue, but he needed to squirm out of Heyes' touch; the boy found his new friend a little too good at the tickling thing. With heavy breaths, little Jeremiah said, "Sometimes Daddy … and Mr. Ezra, attack … Mama. They're all … over her. She likes it," he added as he jumped from his seat and ran to reach for his favorite pastry.
The room went momentarily silent, but Ezra broke the shock of all of the adults by saying, "Out of the mouth of babes. He is speaking strictly of tickling." He looked to Dottie and said, "Ah feel our ménage à trois is out of the bag." Dottie punched him hard on his chest.
"You are SO lucky," she said as she poked the poker player in his side, "he is hyper-focused," she added, poking him on both 'hyper' and 'focused', "on that raisin bun." Ezra frowned, massaging the spot on his chest and reaching to rub the spot where Dottie had poked him hard three times straight. But that movement hurt, too.
"Is ména … " Chris started, planning to ask about the 'ménage à trois', but Dottie interrupted him.
"Ezra, how's your side feel?" she asked smartly.
"Not good," the former con man growled, looking like he didn't feel so good. He glared at the leader of The Seven, warning him to halt his line of questioning. The man formerly known as notorious and who convinced many with just a glance that he still was, raised his hands and closed his mouth.
Jeremiah continued to ignore the adults in the room and, with his one fist full of a raisin swirl, reached his other fist for something with dark, gooey fruit in the center.
"Oh, no you don't," Dottie said as she intercepted the hand just an inch from its target. "Finish what you have, then come to see me when you're ready for another."
"Hey, Jeremiah, why don't you join Thaddeus and me out with the horses?" Chris asked. He could sense that tempers were high between Dottie and Ezra, and Jeremiah didn't need to see any of those sparks, should they light up.
"Okay. I love horses." The little boy headed to the door through which he entered the house not that long ago, his pastry held carefully in his small hand. Chris looked to Kid in apology. The two men followed Dottie's little man out to the large barn.
"Ezra Standish, are you out of your mind? Not everyone has the same sense of humor. You and Ben, and me, we are good, we can do all kind of things and make a little boy think it's all fun and games." Dottie frowned at what she just said, and then turned to find Heyes and Nathan open-mouthed. "It IS all fun and games." Ezra laughed, but stopped quickly as even the simple movement from that laugh hurt his chest. "We can't say things about ménage à trois in front of him. Ben would think it's funny, but the man standing at the counter in my store might not when Jeremiah repeats it, and then it will be all over town. So, knock it off." For emphasis, she shoved him hard in the chest. He was caught unawares; he thought his abuse at the hands of the strong and determined and justifiably aggrieved woman was through. Ezra flew backwards. Luckily, Nathan was standing behind the southerner – and not Heyes – and he was caught before he tripped down to the floor.
"Ow," the gamester said, groaning and really not feeling so game after the punching and poking and shoving from Dottie Pike.
"Y'all right?" Nathan asked.
"Might Ah sit for a moment?" Ezra didn't wait for a reply and stepped to the nearest chair. He sat at the dining table and rubbed his chest. Then he started to rub his side, but his entire side was sore from just a couple of hard pokes of an unforgiving finger. He left his side alone and kept a hand firm to his chest.
"Y'all right?" Nathan asked again.
"Ah am sore from … good lord, Dottie! That hurts." He looked to the healer. "Nathan, she couldn't have hurt me from all of that, could she?" Ezra asked.
"Don't be a baby," Dottie said.
"Dottie," Heyes started, but the shop owner and accomplished baker was angry.
"You're not taking his side," she warned.
Heyes stepped back. "You were pushing Ezra around pretty bad. You know, he's good at hiding that he hurts, but it wasn't all that long ago that Nathan performed surgery on him. Twice."
Dottie turned quickly and saw Nathan kneeling beside her friend. "Oh, shit, shit, shit. Ezra," she continued, starting toward her friend, but Nathan stood, turned and stopped her from reaching the gambler.
"Have a seat, Dottie. Over there." She stepped to the chair at the table, farthest from Ezra, and sat down. "All right. I need you two to calm down. We all know you play around like you're brother and sister. But Dottie, I need you to, you know, be gentle with him for a while longer."
"Ah am fine, Nathan," Ezra said softly.
"Nah, now, you ain't feelin' good or we would have heard you better. Come sit over on the sofa." The former slave helped his friend to the nice, soft couch.
"Oh, no. No!" Dottie said as she stood from her chair and sat beside one of her favorite people. The entire Pike family had fallen hard for Ezra Standish. Sure, Dottie never failed to show her love for the professional poker player, and she did it in such a way to, as often as possible, embarrass both Ezra and her husband Ben. But it was truly fun and games. Ezra contributed as much to the frivolity as Dottie did, which was a surprise to the con man, that he was able to expose that side of himself. Being friends with these people? It was all about the friendships he had made with his partners in crime fighting. True friendship. Brotherhood. He hadn't had it, not since Daniel. He thought he had lost the ability to feel that way about people. His life, the war, his mother … Daniel's death, all of this had worked to wring such feelings out of him. But seven men and a community and friends, it was a balm that he felt might one day heal the broken heart he was left long ago and nearly forgot about when he lost his brother, and more recently, when Fred left him.
"Dottie, Ah apologize."
"Oh, for heavens sake. It's my fault."
"No, it most certainly is not. Ménage à trois?" Ezra rubbed his forehead. "Ah do not know what Ah was thinkin'."
"Come on," Dottie said as she snuggled in close to her friend. She didn't want to hurt him more so she just got as close as she could without touching any areas she had violated earlier, or pulling him in for the hug that she so desperately wished to offer. "I was egging you on the whole time."
"That may be so, but it is mah job as a gentleman to not allow it to trickle over to, well, to where it went." Ezra leaned in, the two now touching heads.
"And Ben knows about this?" Nathan asked. "Do you want me to examine you? See if there's anything to worry about?"
"Nathan, as strong as this insane woman is, Ah do not feel Ah have been damaged more than simply resting will serve to soothe."
"Oh. Damn it. What is wrong with me?"
"Dottie, please stop. We are fine," Ezra said as he settled further into his friend's shoulder.
"All right. If you're sure," Nathan said. The healer frowned. "Does Inez know about this?"
"Good lord, no. Ah have not felt … prepared to tell her about Missus Pike and mahself."
"She can take it," Dottie said. "I think she'd participate."
"Would that be a ménage à quattre?" Heyes asked as he poured a cup of coffee. Dottie glared at him. "Hey, it's a joke. Also, I am in a state of perpetual healing. You don't want my partner to retaliate if you hurt me." Dottie smiled. "I think he's spending another night here," Heyes said as he delivered a cup of coffee to Nathan.
"Thank you," the former stretcher bearer during the war said. That Nathan had learned so much from the medics in the field hospitals he worked in said legions about character, intelligence, his desire to help people. Heyes wondered why no one with means had offered to assist in paying for the schooling he would need to become a real doctor.
"Would either of you like a cup of coffee?" Heyes asked the pair on the sofa.
"Yes, but you should sit. I'll get it," Dottie said as she reluctantly removed herself from beside her friend. "I brought some tasty pastry to enjoy with Ezra's nice coffee," she added as she gave Heyes a warm hug on the way to the kitchen.
"I'll help you get everything ready. I just saw Thaddeus walk by the window." Within moments, Chris and Jeremiah were inside, followed by Kid.
"That coffee smells good," Chris said.
"Sit. Coffee's ready and pastry awaits," Dottie said. Chris frowned at the look on her face, mildly distraught would be what he would call it. He turned to Ezra, who shook his head.
"Mr. Ezra, we groomed the horses. Thaddeus held me up while I brushed their backs."
"Well done, Jeremiah. Come sit with me," he said, knowing that the little boy's mother was upset and would not need her son under foot.
"Are you all right. You look kind of pale," the observant child said.
"Ah am all right. Ah am still somewhat tired from mah recent ordeal."
"You know," Jeremiah said, thinking that he was talking loud enough only for Ezra. He wasn't. "I think you should tell Mr. Chris that you quit being a lawman. You keep getting hurt," the child added with a sad sigh. "What happens the next time?"
Ezra reached his arm around the boy, unable to mute the moan from his hurts inflicted upon his person by Jeremiah's mother. Dottie had been watching, but she turned away and helped Heyes pour more cups of coffee.
"Everything will be fine," Heyes said to his new friend.
"It won't likely be. I feel the same way about Ezra remaining one of The Seven as Jeremiah does." Dottie turned to Heyes and said softly, knowing that the rest of the room was now focused on her son. "When he dies, I will be inconsolable. I worry for Ben and for Jeremiah. I think I will be like Ezra is with Fred. It's not right, how often he has been hurt. I feel like he's got some sort of a wish to be dead."
"That's not true, I can guarantee you of that. When a man is in that business, he has to understand the dangers, the potential for injury, possibly death. And all those who love him need to learn to live with that possibility," Heyes explained. They both looked to the living room. Ezra and Jeremiah continued to talk, Chris and Nathan watched and listened without being obvious. Kid stood away, listening in on both conversations. He saw that Dottie and his best friend knew he had heard at least some of what they said to one another. He walked over to them.
"Joshua's right. Ezra loves his life, as it is. He loves his lady, he loves his friends. He loves so much," Kid said. "And he misses Fred. But he won't stop doing one of the things that he loves."
"We've had a lot of time to talk, Thaddeus, Ezra and me. He figures he has to live his life. There's no point in living less than a full life. Thaddeus and I know that better than most. We don't risk our lives like these seven men do," Heyes said, knowing the untruth he just spoke. "A man cannot change his spots, at least not a man like Ezra. He couldn't change anything important about who he is. He just can't. He cannot be much different than who he is, the man that everyone loves so much. Ezra might not have been a lawman before he came here, but he is one now, and there is nothing anyone could say or do to stop him from protecting his own, whether it's a woman who may or may not be his forever, or a child who is not his by blood but is in his heart. And he would never choose to leave his brothers, to not be there for them when they need him. He is the man you love, your child and your husband love, the entire town of Four Corners loves."
Kid stepped closer to his partner and whispered for only one person in the room to hear, a loving smile on his face. "Silvery tongue." Heyes smiled with affection at his friend. He felt the warmth of Kid's hand on his back.
Chris joined in. "And as much as we may not have wanted it when we first met, or didn't think it could ever happen," he said as he looked to Nathan, who watched over Jeremiah and Ezra, who everyone else in the room could now see had fallen asleep, "we do love him." Chris looked to Hannibal Heyes, and then Kid Curry, and added, "Don't tell him I said that."
"Oh my god!" Dottie said as she brought her hands up to her face. She wiped the tears away and said, "You people are not going to make me cry. All I have to say is that I will need to go home today and close the shop because it was Ben's call, he chose Four Corners. I will need to thank him, as Vin might say, 'proper, like,' when I get home." Smiles and smirks were visible on all of the faces in the dining area. "So, let's wake them both up and get them fed." More smiles now than smirks. "Oh, wasn't Ezra going to go with Nathan over to Jeremy's to get Chaucer today?"
"I think we should convince him to postpone that for at least a day," Nathan suggested.
"I doubt that he'll have a problem with that," Hannibal Heyes said.
"Son of a bitch!"
"Hey, keep that down, Buck. There could be kids walking by," J.D. said.
The door to the jail opened. "Or someone like me," Mary Travis said.
"Sorry, Mary."
"Apology accepted. Is there a problem?" the pretty newspaper publisher asked.
"Come on in and shut the door," the ladies' man said.
"Sit here, Mary," J.D. said.
"I can't stay. I have to meet the harvest festival committee."
"That's this weekend, right? What else do you have to meet about?"
"Well, Buck, today we are just finalizing that everything is ready, and then we're heading over to the grain exchange to decorate."
"Nice. Do you need any help?" J.D. asked.
"No. We've got plenty of people helping. We should be done by four or so. Plenty of time for all of us to be home in time to make supper," Mary said with a brilliant smile. "So, what's wrong?"
"Got two telegrams. Both from the judge. First one just said that Mason Grant escaped from the prison transport."
"Escaped? How could that be? It's the latest, greatest version of a prison wagon. The judge said they had two of their best men on this run," Mary replied, alarmed. "And the second telegram?"
"The prison wagon didn't show up to one of the check-ins on the way to Yuma. Picked up only one of the others they were scheduled to pick up. Took two days to find the wagon, posses spent the next three days looking for the men. Figure the team of horses carting the wagon moved on looking for water. They found the wagon still hitched to both horses, over a mile away from where they found the two prisoners missing and the driver and security fella dead."
"Dead? How?"
"Heads bashed in with a rock."
"Oh, dear. And Grant is missing still?"
"They're still lookin' for him. The other one, too. They figure he's heading back this way. He ain't got money but he's still in regular clothes, won't look like a prisoner."
"I wonder why he didn't take one of the horses," J.D. said. "And where's the other prisoner?"
"Figure he's long gone or dead somewhere or has his own revenge he wants to take care of."
"Grant will be coming back to go after Ezra and Josiah, won't he?" Mary asked, concerned.
"Well, Mary, we figure he won't care how many of us he takes out before he's caught. But he's out in the desert closer to Yuma than to here. Might take him a while to get here," Buck said.
"Or he stole someone's horse and wagon and left a family dead. He could be here now."
"Now, Mary … "
"No, Buck. You know it's true. We should send someone out to Chris' place."
"Mary, he and Nate are most likely on their way back already. We'll figure out what to do when he gets here," J.D. said.
"I think it's a mistake to wait." Buck and J.D. didn't reply as the town leader headed to the telegraph office.
"Guess we should let everyone know what's happening just in case whatever Mary hears back from the judge changes what we're doing now."
"J.D., I don't think she's wrong about us at least getting prepared. Go ahead and let Josiah and Vin know what's happening. I'll track down Robert, Dave and Marty. When you're done, go ahead and get an update to Ben, just in case Grant decides to head into town from that end. I'll make sure the fellas at the stage office keep their eyes open on the north end of town. Let's meet back here in thirty minutes."
"Thank you for helping your mom bring us these supplies," Hannibal Heyes said to the little boy. The reforming outlaw and his partner learned pretty early on that Jeremiah Pike was not very keen on people kneeling down to speak to him. He preferred that everyone stand. He was a fan, however, of sitting or standing on something that placed him at eye level with the adults, which was currently the case.
"You're welcome. We were happy to do it." Dottie Pike, proud mama, stood between Ezra and Chris. All three, as well as Kid Curry, smiled at the interaction between the kind, smiling man and the happy, smart little boy. "When do you think you might be coming into town? I already miss you."
"I think maybe we will come in for the festival this weekend," Kid said as he joined his friend beside the wagon that Jeremiah currently stood in. "Can't miss out on some of Miss Nettie's apple cider." Kid turned to Dottie and said, "I reckon there will be all kinds of special baked goods of the pumpkin and apple variety."
"Oh, Mama's making … "
"No, no, Jeremiah. That's a surprise, remember?" Dottie asked. She elbowed Ezra, lightly on the arm, because she already knew that one of the baked specialties of hers was one of Ezra's favorites. Ezra elbowed her back.
"I think that's probably enough, you two," Nathan said quietly from the rear. He saw Ezra present an obvious twinge of pain after she elbowed him, even though his arm protected his abused side from further hurt. The healer was sitting in the pony runabout. The plan had been for Nathan to drive Ezra in the runabout to Jeremy Logan's ranch to pick up Chaucer. But Nathan and Ezra agreed that taking a couple of days of rest would do Ezra and Heyes both some good. The rental horse that Nathan rode would remain here at Chris' ranch until all three men joined the festivities to celebrate the harvest on Saturday. Chris brought another horse from his corrals for there to be one available to each man. Tiny would choose a horse for Ezra to ride back to Jeremy's place for extra training when they returned to the cottage later in the day, picking up Chaucer at that time. Then Ezra would head back to town on Sunday, leaving Heyes and Kid alone out at the ranch until the next delivery of any food or supplies, which would likely be the following Monday, when Doc Wharton was scheduled to return to Four Corners and check on Heyes' progress. The cold nights being experienced now as the harvest season neared the end would keep all foodstuffs edible until then.
"I forgot, Mama."
"That's all right, sweetie. Say goodbye to Thaddeus, Joshua and Ezra."
"Goodbye, Joshua!" Jeremiah said. He reached out and Heyes stepped up to give him a warm hug. "Goodbye, Thaddeus!" He reached his arms out to Kid and he gave the little boy the same, warm hug. "Goodbye, Mr. Ezra!" Ezra stepped up and gave the sweet child a hug, a little longer than Heyes and Kid but, as they both heard, Ezra Standish was one of his most favorite people in the whole, wide world.
"Be a good navigator for your mothah, Jeremiah," Ezra said. "Keep an eye on the shadows cast by the sun."
"I will."
"We'll see you all on Saturday."
"Can't wait!"
Dottie started her wagon, following the healer's pony runabout, but stopped it quickly. "You have to sit, little man." The men left behind all stood in a line and tried not to laugh. "Sit." Jeremiah sat, Dottie started the horse moving forward once more, and Jeremiah twisted as far back as he could yet still remain in his seat. He waved frantically to his friends.
"Bye!"
Heyes, Kid and Ezra all waved and kept their mouths shut, not wanting to encourage the boy to continue yelling into his mother's ear.
Chris turned to Ezra and said, "If you don't have to be in town, why don't you stay out here until Saturday?"
Ezra replied quickly, "Ah believe that to be wise counsel. Would you let Inez know? Also, please tell Gloria that Ah will get to her monthly accounting just after the weekend. Also, please tell Tiny that Ah will catch up on some of the in-town training next week."
"Is that everything?" Chris asked with a crooked grin.
"Ah believe so."
"All right. You fellas take care." Goodbyes were offered by all three of the men remaining at the cottage on Chris' newly added acreage. He had Pony at a good gallop to catch up to Nathan, Dottie and Jeremiah
"Lord, that child is full of energy," Ezra said. "Ah require more rest because of Jeremiah than Ah do because of his mothah."
"His mother is a handful, though," Heyes said. "All that waving at Jeremiah had to hurt."
Ezra sighed. "It did." He turned to the front door of the small house. "Let us retire to the cottage. There are still pastries left to consume," he said as they walked back into the small ranch house.
"We could just wait until we have lunch," Thaddeus said.
"We could enjoy the pastries as dessert to our luncheon," Ezra suggested.
"While we play cards," Heyes said as they all stood around the dining area.
"In the meantime, Ah believe Ah will have a nap. Shall we gather here at one o'clock?"
"Sure," Heyes said. Then he frowned and asked, "Are you sure you're all right? She got you pretty good on your chest."
Ezra rubbed that sore spot. "She did. Ah must remembah that it is not in the interests of mah good health to anger Missus Dorothy Pike. But Ah am fine, sore but fine."
"Okay. We'll see you in a couple of hours." The partners watched Ezra head to the spare room, and then looked to each other.
"I could nap," Heyes said.
"Good," Kid replied.
"But I'll want to make sure he's sleeping comfortably in the next thirty minutes or so."
"I'll check on him."
"Are you gonna nap?"
"No. Think I'll grab a book," Kid said.
"You're gonna have another cup of coffee and pastry, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't want it to go bad."
"Damned MAGNIFICENT Seven. People watchin' out for their neighbors. Shit! Can't steal a gun, can't steal a horse! Hell!" The filthy man continued to trudge toward Four Corners.
By the morning of the first day of the Harvest Festival, there was still no sign of Mason Grant. The Magnificent Seven, minus Ezra Standish who, per his chat with Chris upon his departure from the cottage earlier in the week would remain out with Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, had been vigilant in watching over the town. Nobody from town ventured out to inform them that Grant was on the loose, but the town held a full complement of men who had been watchful for days now. They were ready to act.
Ezra desired one thing, something that his heart and soul desperately needed filled ever since they got Heyes and Curry settled in the cottage on Chris' land, land that not that long ago seemed out of reach for the former notorious gunslinger. Jake Warren sold the land for a price that Chris could simply not say not to. And he'd found a way to make money on the venture immediately as he leased out some of the land to cattle rancher and sometime lawman Robert Merton. As much as Ezra enjoyed the down time at the now far side of his friend's ranch, the accompanying excellent poker, and preparing an occasional special meal for he and his roommates, being there did not satisfy all of his desires. How could it? And as much as he loved Inez, as much as he hoped they could re-kindle the flame in their relationship? He missed Chaucer. There were moments these last days, as he'd had over the months since Fred's passing, where all that could possibly satisfy his sadness and loneliness was time spent with his extraordinary equine. In the years of ups and downs he suffered with Inez, he had Chaucer and Fred by his side, good listeners both. With Fred gone, he felt more and more like the days before he stumbled into the town of Four Corners, his only friend his magnificent horse. He was and would always be grateful for the brotherhood of his law enforcement partners who had become good friends, but it was Chaucer who was most able to help him talk through his troubles. And he just plain missed him, missed riding him, missed grooming him, missed their talks.
The previous day, he and the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West talked about stopping in to pick Chaucer up on the way into town for the festival. Ezra's joy and appreciation for the suggestion could not have shone brighter in his handsome face.
"An incredible day for the festival," Kid said as they neared Jeremy Logan's sprawling ranch. "It's been chilly the last couple of days, but this? This is nice."
"The festival was to be held in the grange hall, and it certainly will still, all of the food and beverage and extensive seating will be set up there. But this weather affords the citizens of our dusty burg an opportunity to spend a goodly amount of time enjoying one another's company on a beautiful late autumn day. What an amazing day it is," the southerner said as he looked up and enjoyed the nearly cloudless morning. "There could be nothin' bettah for one's health or one's spirit than to practice community on a temperate, sunny day with these clear blue skies," Ezra said with a smile.
"I was wondering when you were planning to take a breath," Heyes said.
"Mah, mah, such a funny man. How do you stand it, Thaddeus?"
"A lot of the time? I can't," Kid said with a wide smile.
Heyes offered a crooked grin to his partner.
"Jeremy's place seems a bit off from a direct route to town," Kid said.
"It is only a short distance further." The three men on horseback continued on at a leisurely pace. They would have to take it slow with Thaddeus Jones, aka Kid Curry, watching his partner like a hawk. It seemed, though, that Kid would not need to worry about his partner overdoing it. Hannibal Heyes learned these last days the benefits of the life of leisure that had been forced upon him. He didn't feel it was a burden. He knew well enough that Nathan Jackson and Dr. Wharton and Joe Martin, as well as the other doctors involved in the research and advice offered in trying to address the severe illness that Heyes had been suffering these last two months, all of these men held to the same goal, and Heyes knew that he was the fortunate beneficiary of all of their intelligence, schooling and compassionate care. There was no choice for him but to abide by the rules that others had put into a plan of care to make Hannibal Heyes healthy again. His own personal warden in the person of Jedediah 'Kid' Curry would see to it that those rules were followed.
"This is pretty country. Jeremy owns all of this land?" Heyes saw a hawk resting majestically in a cottonwood along a mostly dried-out bosque. "Kid!" he called, pointing to the bird. "Hell. Sorry," he said, apologizing for not sticking to his own rule of calling he and his partner Joshua and Thaddeus.
"Joshua, you two have been doing so well. You are in the middle of nowhere. It is fine," Ezra said.
"It's not fine!" Heyes yelled, but he immediately shook his head, looking to where he had seen the beautiful bird of prey. "Ezra, I'm sorry. I shouldn't take out my frustrations on you. I … we … "
"I'll tell 'im," Kid said. "We used to take this book we had, it was eagles, owls, other raptors and birds of prey, and head out to the forests and fields and see how many we could spot. Our lives were good, before the border wars." He looked over to his oldest friend, his "cousin", but Heyes was looking away from Kid and Ezra. The blond shook his head and continued. "We had a small schoolhouse, we had a wall full of books we could borrow, and we borrowed that book all the time." Kid looked to Heyes, but the man who meant everything to him remained turned away. The gambler encouraged Kid to continue. "We always dreamed of gettin' a copy of Audubon's book."
"We were stupid kids," Heyes said, still not looking back to his companions.
"That may be so, but during those years, all I remember was being outside all the time, finding dozens of birds, and then gettin' home to a snack and doing chores and never thinking any of it was actually a chore."
"It was just two dozen, you moaned about chores, just like I did," the dark-haired reforming outlaw responded, finally turning to look at Ezra and Kid.
Kid moved Rex over to ride closer to Heyes. "Then it was you who made it seem not so bad, just like you did after we found our families dead, and just like you did at the orphanage." They rode on. Kid said, "You got nothin' to feel bad about. You didn't back then, and you don't today. Ezra already knows who we are." The blond reached over to his partner. He rubbed his back. "Come on."
Heyes smiled and said, "Did you catch that hawk?"
"He was a beauty," Kid said with a toothy smile.
"Sure was." Heyes turned to Ezra. "Sorry."
"As Ah said, no apology required. Now, in answer to your question, not all of this land belongs to Jeremy. Farther east is Mason Grant's land."
"Whoa," Kid said, inadvertently slowing his horse down. He urged the rental horse forward at the previous easy walk. "The one who shot you?" Kid asked. "Frank Grant's father?"
"Indeed. Father of the man who shot Joshua," Ezra said.
"That was just a scratch," Heyes corrected. "That whistle of yours hurt more."
"You need not remind me," Ezra agreed. The whistle worked its magic, putting a fright in the not yet fully trained horse that Frank Grant stole from the livery. The horse reared violently and threw Grant from his saddle, breaking his neck and killing him instantly.
"I'm not too keen on getting too close to Grant's place," Kid said.
"Thaddeus is a little bit superstitious," Heyes explained.
"There is no need to worry. Grant's place is another twenty or so minutes in that direction," Ezra said, pointing toward the east. "Once we leave Jeremy's, we will backtrack to the next crossroads and then head to town."
"Good," both Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry said, each man's inflection decidedly different from one another. The reforming outlaws smiled at one another. Ezra laughed. These two were different in many ways, but in the most important way, in how they thought about their lives and how they worked so hard now to have a future so different from what it might have been, they were completely as one. This was no doubt true in regard to their successes at robbing banks and trains, their shared affinity for stealing other peoples' money palatable until the thrills and easy access to money no longer trumped the dangers and the understanding that their ill-gotten gains were not hurting only the wealthy bankers and owners of those trains. And then there was the knowledge that what they did likely spurred copycat robberies by outlaws who were not so worried about leaving everyone behind uninjured.
They road on a little further. Heyes brought each of his trail companions out of their private musings when he said, "Aw, look at that old dog. The coloring is different." They were a distance away when Ezra urged his horse into a fast trot, needing to get to the dog faster than remaining at a walk, but having to prepare to stop fast as the dog wasn't that far up the drive to the ranch.
"Stay back," Ezra warned. When he reached the dog, he jumped off of the rental horse, Bailey, and gently stepped up to Button, who had stopped moving forward when she saw the not-so-familiar horse carrying the familiar man heading her way. Button was named by Jeremy's visiting niece, Gemma. The dog was a stray, Jeremy searched but never found the mother or evidence of any other puppies. Gemma wanted to take the dog with her back home to St. Louis, but her mother, Jeremy's only surviving relative other than his little niece, was disinclined to have to mind – on a long train ride - a chatty, personable eight-year-old and a young dog they had learned little about in two days. The dog hadn't bit anyone, but the dog also wasn't overly affectionate with anyone but Jeremy ... until she met Ezra P. Standish.
"Button, darlin', come here." The little terrier mix whimpered and scooted forward on her tummy. "No, sweetheart, let me come to you." Button fell onto her side. Ezra picked her up and did his best to examine her. He listened to her breathing as she snuggled her head up into the crook of his neck.
"What happened?" Kid asked. He ponied Bailey as he looked down at Ezra with the little dog, not so little, about a twenty, maybe thirty-pounder, the unusual extra coloring obviously blood on the longer and, other than the blood, silky-looking fur. "Did she get kicked by a horse?"
"Maybe a coyote got to her," Heyes said.
Ezra looked around the ranch. They were close enough to the barns nearest the house that they should have been recognized by Jeremy or some of the people who worked on his ranch. No one had seen them yet, or so it appeared, and there was no sign of men or horses about. But this was a horse ranch, there were horses to be found. Some of the men would be left at the ranch to mind the horses, even if most of the men were on their way to enjoy the day's festivities in town.
"Something is wrong. Joshua, would you take Button? She does not seem to be injured, just frightened. The blood …." Ezra said as he handed the dog over to Heyes. He pulled his gun from his holster, so did Kid. "Joshua, would you take Button over to that stand of trees? Thaddeus, Ah will ride up to the house. That will have me pass the edge of the barn nearest the house. Follow mah lead."
"I don't like … "
"It's fine, Joshua. We'll be fine," Kid said.
"Damn it," Heyes protested as he sat astride his horse and watched Kid and Ezra head into possible danger.
Once Ezra made it beyond the corner of the barn, he found what had made Button all bloody. He jumped from his horse.
"Jeremy?" he asked as he ran to his friend. "Jeremy?"
"Ezra? Shit. That fucker shot me."
"Where are you hit? Where is everyone?" the gambler asked as he pulled the bloody, bunched rag from the bullet hole at his friend's waist. There was another bandage tied to his leg, tight, a stick fitted under the tied piece of cloth. A tourniquet.
"Rob and Jorge … are heading to … town, for Nathan. They were … afraid to move me. My leg."
"Thaddeus," Ezra called. "They left you here alone?"
"Yeah," Kid said.
"This is Thaddeus, Jeremy. Jeremy, Thaddeus."
"Where is Button? She w … was here. He tried to … to shoot her. And Buddy. I haven't seen … Buddy. I hit that … piece of shit. I think. Buddy … Jason …"
"Settle down, Jeremy. We have Button. She appears fine, except that she'd been tryin' to wipe the blood from your person. Jason? Where is Jason? Is he here?"
"Where is Button?"
"Thaddeus, have Joshua bring Button." Ezra turned back to Jeremy. "Thaddeus will bring Button to you. Is anyone else here? Is Jason here?"
"He shot into the cor … corral. I shot him."
"Who?"
"Grant."
"Grant? Mason Grant?"
"Yeah. He's headin' to town. Said he'll k … kill you. J'siah. It's a little ch … chilly," he added with a shiver.
"It is," Ezra agreed. It wasn't, but the card sharp didn't want to worry the expert horseman any more than necessary. Heyes kneeled down beside Ezra.
"I think she's all right. Just scared. Trembling now that she's near her man," Heyes said with a worried frown.
"Ah will take her. Could you get us some blankets from the office? That door on the right." Heyes left, though he made eye contact with his new friend, so worried for the man bleeding on the ground. Ezra seemed unsure about how Jeremy was, or he didn't want to let on in any way, for his friend, even for the dog. "Thaddeus, could you take a walk around, see if you can find Buddy, he's Jeremy's Beagle. And check the corrals and near pastures to see if there are any horses …. " Ezra choked at the end. Kid placed his hand on Ezra's shoulder. They were stopping here to pick up Ezra's horse. If Chaucer was dead, not so long after losing Fred … and with his friend so seriously wounded, there was no telling what the town would be dealing with in regard to one of their favored sons.
Would Ezra Standish remain here if he was forced to deal with additional blows to a not-yet-healed psyche?
"I'll take a look around," Kid assured the man who had been so welcoming and helpful to he and his partner.
"Thank you." Under his voice, so that Jeremy could not hear, Ezra added, "Jason is supposed to be here. He is tall, dark hair. Ah have yet to ascertain from Jeremy Jason's whereabouts. He mentioned him, but that is all Ah know." The two locked eyes, silent understanding between them that if Jason was supposed to be at the ranch, what other explanation could there be but a very bad one for why he would not be with his boss and friend as he suffered through two bullet wounds, let alone for why he had not come out to meet the three new arrivals?
"I'll check around," Thaddeus said. Ezra sat more comfortably beside Jeremy and started talking to him quietly.
"Jeremy, is Jason here with you?" Jeremy had become less animated now that he held Button beside him. Ezra was not likely to get any more information from his friend. The former con man tried once more. He touched his friend's arm gently and asked, "When did Rob and Jorge leave?"
"A while," was all the rancher replied. Ezra, henceforth, kept the talk to topics that did not require a response, and he did not get any from his injured friend who lay in the dirt, his little dog curled up against him. An occasional blink, pained breaths, a soft moan, that was Jeremy Logan's whole life, as blood seeped slowly from both wounds. Ezra feared making any changes, except to tighten the tourniquet when it loosened. He hoped he was doing the right thing. He kept talking to the man beside him as he made the decision to check the wound on Jeremy's side, knowing that further change to the other wound could be life-threatening.
Heyes met Thaddeus as he returned with the blankets.
"I'm going to check around the property. There's another dog, a Beagle. And Mason Grant did this. Jeremy says that he shot toward the horses. Might be someone here, somewhere. Jason, works for Jeremy."
"Hell," Heyes said as he looked toward Ezra and the downed rancher. "I'll stick near here, in case Ezra, well, just in case. A Beagle?" he asked. He knew that Fred was a Beagle. "Damn it." The partners shared a worried look. "Be careful."
"Yeah." Kid walked toward the first of several corrals lining the large dirt drive. He checked inside all of the buildings as he made his way around the near grounds of the property. The reforming outlaw was relieved to find no trouble in the first barn and attached large corral, obviously used for training. He hoped he continued to be so lucky during the remainder of his survey of Jeremy Logan's ranch.
"Ezra said they'd be here by now."
"Hell, Nate, you know how Ezra can be. Did you really think he'd make it out of bed early enough to be … "
"Nathan! Nathan!" The healer and the ladies' man stood from their seats in front of the saloon.
Jorge Vasquez and Rob Morton brought their horses to a fast stop.
"What's wrong?"
"Jeremy's been shot. Twice. Mason Grant," Jorge said, heaving to catch his breath.
"You gotta come. It's bad," Rob added. Chris walked up as he heard both the horses coming in fast, and the yelling for Nathan.
"What's wrong?"
"Mason Grant shot Jeremy. He shot at the horses and Buddy. We don't know if he hit any of the animals. Jeremy's bad," Jorge said. "Jason's still there."
"I'm heading for my gear. I'll need a horse," Nathan said.
"What about … "
"The runabout will be too slow. I'll need one of you to come back with me," the healer said.
"The other we'll need to stay here, help with protecting the town," Chris said.
"We'll need to cancel the festival," Buck said.
"Buck, grab J.D. I'll go talk to Mary and Robert, tell them what needs to happen."
"If Grant did this, then he's right outside of town, biding his time," Buck said.
"Yeah. Go ahead, Nate. Get your gear. We'll have Tiny get his best rental horse ready for you." Nathan was off in a rush with no reply. "Buck, I'm gonna go talk to Tiny, then swing by Robert's and head with him to Mary's. Make the rounds with all the fellas and tell 'em that we're canceling, that folks should stay inside 'til this thing is done."
"You bet," Buck said as he headed to wake up J.D. at the boarding house. The list of men they needed to find reached well beyond the rest of The Seven. Knowledge that Mason Grant was on his way was known to all of the people who normally helped out the official lawmen of Four Corners. Robert Merton, Dave Landon and Marty Ellison were the men who would make up the next three in an expanded Magnificent Ten. Ben Pike, Rolf Heidegger, Andrew Patterson, Robert's chief foreman and, when he was in town, a dab hand with a rifle. The fathers who lived in town with their families would be sure to remain available. Mary would work with Gloria Potter to notify those families, as well as put together the chain that would notify all of the families in town, and not far outside, that the Harvest Festival would be canceled for today. There was hope that this concern with Grant would be resolved this day, and as soon as possible before the children started pestering their parents to get outside on such a beautiful fall day.
Following a quick visit with Tiny, Chris knocked on the side door of Robert and Abigail Merton's in town home.
"Chris? Come on in."
"No. Um, Jeremy Logan's been shot by Mason Grant. Jorge and Rob are here. They left Jason at the ranch. They say it's bad."
"Damn it."
"Nathan's heading there with Jorge. Rob'll stay here to help protect the town."
"Isn't Ezra coming back to town today with Joshua and Thaddeus?" Robert asked.
"He is. I hope he didn't meet up with that bastard." Chris paused and looked Robert square in the eye. "He's late."
"Hell."
Robert Merton and Ezra Standish developed a deep friendship after Robert and his wife Abigail adopted the two children of the murdered undertaker and veterinarian and Ezra's good friend, Tom Arthur. The saga of what might not have been the expanded Merton family had Ezra and Judge Travis at odds for some time before all was put to rights and Annie and Aaron Arthur were returned from family back East. The decision to send the orphaned Arthur children to distant family was one of the worst in the inimitable Judge Oren Travis' illustrious career. Fortunately, right prevailed and the brother and sister were reunited with their adoptive family, their new sister Emily and their new parents. Ezra and Robert would always share a special bond because of Ezra's commitment to make the new family whole again. They would do anything for each other. Robert's worry was palpable.
"You want me somewhere in particular?" he asked the leader of The Seven.
"Grant never spent much time in town. I'd like to have you wait inside Ben and Dottie's garden. The trees and bushes and that outhouse should hide you well there."
"Let me go tell Abigail and the kids that the festival is off for today. Hopefully we can have a big celebration tomorrow."
"Hopefully. Oh, hell. We have to go tell Mary that the festival is off today."
"We do?" Robert said.
"Damn straight. You also have to stop in and let Ben know that you'll be using his garden."
"That's easy. I could use a nice cup of coffee."
"I'll meet you at the The Clarion."
"Be there in five minutes."
Chris walked over to the saloon, where he found Josiah and Vin speaking with Jorge and Rob.
"Ezra's late," Vin said.
"I tried to explain that Ezra bein' late doesn't actually mean anything," the town's preacher said.
"Don't know, J'siah. He's got Joshua and Thaddeus. He's not gonna disappoint guests. He and everyone else have been talking up all the pumpkin and apple stuff, the cider, the regular kind and the harder stuff," Vin said.
"Vin, I know you ain't suggesting that the town be left shorthanded."
"No, Josiah," Chris agreed. "He's not." He looked at Vin and he knew without any further discussion that Vin would insist on heading out with Nathan. There was no time to argue it. "Tell ya what. Jorge and Rob, you two stay here." Both men were good with their weapons. "Vin, head on out to Jeremy's with Nate. If you aren't needed and you don't run across those three on your way out there, keep heading to the cottage."
"All right." Vin turned for the livery.
"Vin. Watch yer backs," he said as the town's healer rode up on the rental horse, laden with two smaller sacks and a large satchel.
"Sorry, Nate."
"That's all right, Chris. I knew what I needed better than anyone else would."
"I'll take that, Nate," Vin said as he hurried to the livery.
"Vin's comin'?"
"Yeah. If you don't need him at Jeremy's and you don't run into Ezra, Smith and Jones, he's gonna move on to the cottage. But if you need him, you use him for what you need."
"All right." The two men looked at each other. Neither one needed to state how much Vin Tanner would not like it if he couldn't move on to look for the professional poker player if he was still among the missing by the time they got to Jeremy Logan's ranch. Wouldn't like it one little bit.
The tracker was ready and on his horse beside Nathan in no time.
"Let's haul ass, Nate," Vin said as he headed toward the south side of town. Nathan looked to all of the men standing before him.
"See ya."
"Ezra," Heyes said softly. The gambler looked up. The expression on Hannibal Heyes' face was not one he could ever use to win at the poker table. Ezra leaned over to see Kid Curry standing behind his partner, a tortured countenance on the handsome face. "Do you have a minute?"
Ezra rose with difficulty from the position he'd held beside his friend for over half an hour. Heyes grabbed his arm to prevent him from falling forward into the ground.
"Thank you."
"Let's step away a moment." They took the several feet walk to get to Kid.
"Lord," Ezra said. He blinked his eyes, trying to keep the tears away. "It is bad?" he asked Kid.
"Yeah." Kid kept his voice down. Though it looked like Jeremy was out cold, he didn't want the man to wake and hear what he had to report. "I found two horses dead. Both shot in the head, from a distance. Grant got 'em in the head, a blessing." Ezra's eyes closed. He knew it was true, but it didn't hurt any less. "Neither one is Chaucer. He was on the far side of the pasture with a herd, grazing, when I found him. He's a beautiful animal."
"Yes," Ezra choked out. Two dead horses. What kind of a man …?
"Jason. I found a dead body up at the top of the drive, in some tall grass. A large prickly pear hid him when we rode in. Jason is tall, dark hair, nearly black, with some gray?"
"Yes." Ezra lowered his head. Jason, Jeremy, all of the men on this ranch were so understanding of his need to be away from town, to spend time with the horses but, especially at the beginning, when he was finally able to move from his room overtop of the saloon, yet still not able to speak of the loss of his cherished Fred. Button and Buddy and the horses had been his dearest companions once he was able to remove himself from town and his severe despondency. He'd spent so much time inside, after the sweet orange and white Beagle passed away, except for when he needed to speak with Fred, time spent at "Fred's spot" often the only balm he could find, his trusted Chaucer by his side, until Jeremy suggested he get away. More time away, quality time with Chris and Vin at Chris' place, and now the distraction of Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, had helped. But today's distraction? There could be no worse event to stall his efforts to get better if the next words were what he thought they would be.
"A horse was grazing up there, that's the only reason I checked. Must've been Jason's. Looks like he had a horse ready to chase after Grant, but Grant got 'im."
"Yes."
Kid looked to Heyes. Neither man wanted to say it, but it needed to be said.
"Ezra … " Heyes started, but the southerner cut him off.
"Yes. Buddy is dead."
"I'm so sorry," Heyes said. He stepped closer to his new friend, but Ezra stopped that forward momentum with a hand in the air.
"Ah … can … not … not just now," Ezra said. He looked up, tears pooled in his eyes. "We should not say anything about this to Jeremy." The former con man wiped the tears from his face. "He requires all of his concentration to recover."
Heyes and Kid nodded. They agreed that such trauma would require all of Jeremy's will focused on getting better. They watched as Ezra returned to his friend. Heyes reached out to his partner, his lifelong friend. He knew that he had to be hurting, having found so much death in these few short minutes. They placed their arms on each other's backs, their looks to one another saying without words how much it hurt to think of Ezra not receiving the recovery he sought for his friend.
"Come on. Let's go get some blankets for Jason and Buddy, bring 'em over to that barn," Kid nodded toward the one farthest from Jeremy, though there was no doubt that Jeremy wasn't able to see anything going on around him. The Beagle was found just down from Jason's body. Kid figured that Buddy started after Grant once his friend had been shot. Grant could easily have gotten well ahead of the dog, but now that he was officially a murderer, what would someone like Mason Grant care whether he left behind a dead dog along with dead men? It seemed wrong to use Jason's horse for this deed; Kid grabbed the reins to his rental horse while Heyes went in for another blanket.
By the time they finished wrapping the blanket around the dead man, and another around Jeremy's dog, they heard horses coming in fast.
"Hell," Vin said. They stopped at the end of the drive.
"He's fine," Kid said. "Well, he's with Jeremy. Hurry." Both Vin and Nathan stormed down the long drive.
"Damn it, Kid."
"I know. Let's tie him down and get a wagon together."
"Lord," Ezra said, mostly to himself, when he heard Peso's familiar gait, and the sound of a second horse, obviously Nathan. He lowered his head.
Vin reached the two men, one prone on the ground, blood easy to see, the other sitting in the dirt, his black pants dusty, his red jacket not as clean as it would have been an hour ago. The little dog lay between the two.
"Ezra," the black man said.
"He's barely alive, Nathan," at least that's how it appeared to the distraught southerner.
"Then we got something to work with, Ez." The healer turned to his patient. "Jeremy?"
"He has not replied in a while." The former con man coughed. "Ah stopped speaking to him, thinking that rest might be bettah." Ezra coughed again.
"Vin, get Ezra a drink of water." Heyes and Curry walked up, staying away, worried that Jeremy not see what they had with them, but there was no real reason for concern in that regard. "Ezra, is there a stove in this building?"
"I started a fire in it," Heyes said, knowing that if there was to be any chance for the rancher, that the healer would have to get moving. "There should be some water hot."
"I'm going to take this over there," Kid said as he nodded his head to the storage barn.
"All right," Heyes said. To Nathan he asked, "What do you need me to do?"
"I'd like you to go find a place to sit."
"And I can do that after we get this done."
Nathan knew he would not successfully convince this man to sit around when help was needed. "Find a container, make sure it's clean, and bring out some hot water as soon as it's ready. Make sure there's plenty of hot water until I say we're done." Nathan turned to Ezra, who was drinking from Vin's canteen. "I'll need you to move, Ezra."
"Ah can assist."
"No. If Vin wasn't here, I'd take ya up on that. But Vin is. You can go grab some clean cloths. I brought some, but we're gonna need more."
"How does … that is to say, do you think … "
"Ezra, need ya to move so I can get a good look."
The professional poker player scooted carefully away to make room for the healer and the tracker to take a look at the wounded rancher. He watched as Nathan spent a good amount of time examining the man who appeared to be bleeding to death right before his eyes. It seemed far too much blood to Ezra. That, combined with the silence from Jeremy for too long? Ezra shook his head. Nathan had asked for more cloths. He went to stand. He wasn't very long up on his feet when he tried to step away, but he lost his footing and tripped in the direction of the barn when the timing of one Kid Curry was as impeccable as Vin Tanner's.
"Hey, y'all right?" Kid asked. He prevented what had every likelihood of a painful face plant into the dirt driveway for his new friend.
"Ezra?" Vin asked.
"Ah am fine. Worry about Jeremy."
Vin looked toward Ezra, could see that he was all right physically. The sensitive Texan could also see that there would be no way to make the same conclusion about Ezra's mental state.
"Ezra, clean cloths, clean blankets," Nathan said.
"Yes."
"I'll come help," Kid said.
"Ah am able … "
"Ezra, let Thaddeus help. We'll need a door or solid piece of wood to move him."
"Move him where?" Heyes asked as he returned with what appeared to be a new bucket.
"Best I could find," he said.
"Looks good to me," the former stretcher bearer during the war said.
"Move him where?" Heyes asked again.
"Some place clean. I can figure out what's what here, but if I have to perform any surgery, I need something cleaner than this."
"Joshua, let us find what Nathan needs, then we will fire the stove up in the kitchen of the house, the fireplace in the hallway and living room, then go set up the table in the kitchen with a tarp."
"I'll go get the tarps. Are they back in the storage barn?"
"Yes. Thank you, Thaddeus. Retrieve two, one for the floor, one for the table. Button, come with me." The terrier mix looked to his man, and then to Ezra. It was as though the dog sensed that he might be underfoot. He followed Ezra.
"Sure," Kid replied. They all three walked away as Nathan continued his examination. Vin assisted but watched worriedly as his clearly troubled friend walked toward the house. Ezra turned to Kid.
"Thaddeus," he said as he walked toward the man who was walking away from he and Heyes, "once we have supplied Nathan with what he requires, and then set up the kitchen, would you assist me with collecting more tarpaulins to place over the horses." Ezra's sob wasn't even remotely hidden from the reforming outlaws.
"I'm so sorry, Ezra," Heyes said. "I can help Thaddeus with that."
"We will require assistance shoveling holes and moving them. They cannot be buried in that pasture. Jeremy has a con … contraption for lifting." Ezra rubbed his forehead. "Good lord," he said as he saw the horses laying in the pasture.
"No, I agree, that would not be the right thing to do. And I can help Thaddeus, for now."
"You need to not overexert yourself."
"I know. I'll finish when this part is done," Heyes assured the gambler. "Can we get folks in town to come out and help today?"
"Ah will wish to see which of the horses …. " Ezra choked up.
"Sure," Heyes said as his eyes met those of his partner. "Let's hurry and get everything done so that we can be ready for when Nathan needs whatever he'll need."
Ezra nodded his head. "Yes," he said as Heyes followed him toward the house and Kid went out to get the tarps.
"Josiah, you need to stay up in the steeple. Don't come down until I tell you to. Me, or Chris. No one else."
"That's fine with me, Buck. I like my chances from up there," the big former preacher said.
"Lock and block the back door. Lock the front. Know you don't like that, but you need to do it for today."
"Ain't never had to lock it before," Josiah lamented.
"I know, but still … "
"I know. I hope it's the last time I ever have to lock these doors," the big preacher replied.
"Me, too."
"I sure hope Nathan and Vin stay out there at Jeremy's," J.D. said. "Doubt that if Jeremy makes it, Nathan will want him in a wagon too soon."
"You're probably right. I don't like that Ezra ain't back yet. And those two stayin' in that place on Chris' extra land? Grant won't care if he has to kill all three of 'em, so long as he kills Ezra."
"I think Grant's comin' straight here, Josiah. Figure they're okay out there, except you know Ezra. He ain't gonna miss out on all that baking." The three partners looked to one another. Buck finally said, "All right. Let's all get in place. Need you to lock up tight, Josiah. Then get on up in the steeple."
Buck and J.D. waited to hear that the back door was locked, then went around to the front and made sure the church was empty inside before they waited for the sound of Josiah latching that door, too. Between Robert tucked away in the Pike's garden, his horse at the ready at the front of the bakery, Ben Pike keeping a look out from his store and the group of Tiny, Yosemite and Tiny's son watching from the livery, this end of town would be covered if Grant tried to go for Josiah.
Chris and Robert's task to talk to Mary about canceling the day's festival events was made easy by the first words out of Mary's mouth, once she heard about Jeremy Logan's shooting.
"Oh my god! Jeremy. He's one of the sweetest men. We'll have to cancel today."
"Yeah. I'm sorry," Chris said.
"You have nothing to be sorry about. You did everything right. The judge got him tried and convicted and out of town, on the most secure transport that's been built. I have to think that he was able to subdue them while he was out of the wagon." There was no need for her to note that he would only have been allowed out to take care of 'personal' business. "I'll get the regular list of people together to notify all of the families that today's events are canceled and that they should keep their children in their homes or yards."
"We'll need to notify some of the families out of town," Robert said. Some of those families were of men who worked for him.
"We'll send notice to those nearest town," Chris agreed. "I don't think Grant will be looking to stop anywhere on his way here. He probably stole a horse from Jeremy's place. A gun, too, if he didn't already have one."
"Oh, Chris. I hope Jeremy is all right." Chris took the beautiful town leader and his fiancé in his arms and hugged her tight.
"You and Billy should stay inside."
"I'll go over to Robert and Abigail's so that the kids can play together. I'll have Dottie bring Jeremiah, too. I think we're all safer there."
"That's smart."
"I can't disagree with that," Robert said.
Mary looked to Robert with a grateful smile, and then she turned to Chris. "You finally figured out that I'm smart?" Mary asked with a wry smile and a seductive look up into her man's eyes.
"Ahem, I'm going to leave you two to this conversation. I'll go grab my horse and get in position."
"Thanks, Robert," Chris said.
"Thank you, Robert," Mary said at the same time.
The engaged couple hugged and kissed and went their separate ways.
"Damn," Mason Grant complained to himself. "Too quiet," he grumbled as he looked into the town. He went to the other side of town to enter, thinking that if those men he left behind at Logan's place rushed to town, they would tell whoever they found what happened. He'd had to finish his way into town on foot as he forced the animal he stole from Logan's ranch to move too hard and fast through a rough patch of road. The horse came up lame after it fell and Grant was thrown to the ground. The horse limped quickly away, in the wrong direction. If he hadn't been in a rush he would have shot the bastard, except that he couldn't do that even if he wanted to if he hoped to have enough bullets for his goals this day. Neither Jeremy nor Jason had holsters on with extra bullets. Jason only had two bullets in his gun. He left the horse to stroll off the side of the road as it headed to tall grass for grazing. He walked the remainder of the way, and was finally in town. He hadn't seen anyone coming down the road toward Four Corners from Logan's ranch or he would have shot them. The two he saw behind him on horseback must have turned down a shortcut. "Damn it all to hell," he groused as he worked his way back to behind the cigar shop and the boarding house. He'd found an old, floppy hat and a lighter-colored jacket to change into. He knew the gambler lived up above the saloon. It was time to take care of his first act of revenge on this day.
"You believe he will survive?" Ezra asked hesitantly.
Vin was drying his hands at the kitchen sink. Heyes and Kid watched while Nathan replied to his friend as Jeremy Logan lay silently, but no longer pale as death, on the table.
"He lost a lot of blood, Ezra. It's going to take a while for him to get better. But he will."
"Lord, Ah was certain, as Ah watched him lying in the dirt … he seemed to be losing the fight." The card sharp looked to the man he had befriended due to a love of horses but truly grew close to because of a shared love of dogs. Ezra Standish knew he had a long way to go before he was psychologically healthy; losing Fred had quite frankly broken him, for a long time. There were still cracks in his façade, he knew that. His friends in his adopted hometown of Four Corners could attest to that. Vin had helped him so much, Chris, too. Jeremy Logan was next in line of the men who had taken those many hard steps toward putting him back together. This loss, if it should happen, not all that long after Fred's passing? He didn't know if he would survive, despite all of the love of his brothers in arms and the kind and loving women of the town. The love of one woman in particular. He stepped up to Nathan. "Thank you," he said as he stepped right up to the man and gave him a hug. Ezra let out the smallest sigh, just short of a sob. Vin stepped up and rubbed his tormented friend's back.
After just a moment's hold, Nathan called, "Whoa, whoa," as he felt the solid weight of the gambler fall toward the floor.
"Ezra?" Vin asked. Thaddeus grabbed a chair and set it behind the faint man as Nathan and Vin placed him in the seat. The healer kneeled before his fellow from the south and tapped his cheek. "Ezra?"
Heyes brought over a glass of water. "We didn't eat before we left, thought we'd save up for all the special stuff the ladies had planned," he said.
"Shit," Nathan said. "Between stressin' over Jeremy, Jason dead, dead horses and Buddy," saying these things softly, just in case Jeremy came to sooner than expected, "it's not really a surprise he gave in to all of it. Ezra," Nathan tried again, tapping his friend on the cheek once again. Ezra swatted away the hand as though shooing away a fly.
"Ah am … ugh, woozy. What happened?"
"You fainted."
"Ah apologize, Nathan. Ah didn't … "
"It's been a hard morning for all of us, Ezra. Don't apologize," Heyes said as he handed him the glass of water. "How about you come in here and sit with me. I'm sure Nathan would like for us both to relax a bit."
"I would. Go on," the healer said. To Thaddeus and Vin, Nathan said, "We should get a wagon set up."
"You believe it is safe to transport Jeremy to town?" Ezra asked as Heyes kept a close eye on his new friend's move to the living room.
"I do. Vin said Jeremy has a really smooth suspension wagon. We can go slow."
"That is good," Ezra said tiredly.
"The wagon is all set, we put it together earlier. The horse we'll be using is in the near corral," Kid said. Kid placed some bales of hay on either side at the forward part of the wagon, and tossed some on the floor, with several blankets covering the floor and the top of the bales. With Nathan's confirmation, Vin and Kid left the house to get the horse hooked up to the wagon.
"Come on, let's rest until that wagon is all ready to go," Heyes said as he shadowed Ezra into the cozy living area with the nearly burned-out fire. The embers were providing just enough warmth for Ezra and Heyes to be comfortable. The stove in the kitchen would also only contain embers by the time Jeremy was loaded onto the wagon, and Jason's body added at the rear.
"Joshua, Ah need to ride Chaucer back to town."
"That's fine. Looking forward to meeting him." Ezra smiled at this man. Hannibal Heyes had made it clear in so many ways that he was a lover of animals, but especially horses. Both of these reforming outlaws had a fondness for them. Maybe they could find work for these two here at the ranch while Jeremy recovered. The gambler would speak to his friend and equine expert when he was well enough, and Jorge and Rob as well.
"He's here," Buck said.
"I'm feelin' it, too," Chris agreed. "But it's best we stick with the plan," he added as Buck stopped by the saloon to check on things. "We've got a lot of people covering the town. He'll come out from the shadows, he's got his revenge to take care of. Can't happen if he stays hid."
"Señor Chris?"
"Yeah, Inez."
"I believe there is someone up in Ezra's room. There are noises coming from up there, but I have no one up there, we do not have anyone in the extra rooms. Ezra has not returned, correct?"
"No, not yet. Buck?"
"I'll take the back staircase," the ladies' man said as he headed into the saloon and down the hall to the back of the building.
"Inez, could you go to the kitchen?"
"I can go behind the bar."
"Inez," Chris started, but the fiery Mexican wasn't having any of it.
"Tommy is with me, I will have my rifle nearby. Also, I know how to use a bottle as a weapon."
Chris knew he would not win this fight, and he would rather encounter Grant upstairs than in the saloon. He said, "Stay behind the bar. Please." And then he left to take the stairs. He was lucky to not be wearing his spurs this day.
As the tall blond reached the hallway at the second floor, he heard two gunshots at the end of the hall. He ran to the back stairs, headed down, careful, gun in hand. At the bottom of the stairs, he found Buck and Mason Grant, each pointing a gun at the other.
"Grant," Chris said.
"Stay back, Larabee. I ain't against shootin' all of you." Chris looked closely at his oldest friend. He saw the blood on his sleeve.
"Buck?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. It's just a scratch."
"Whaddya want, Grant?" the tall blond from Indiana asked.
"I want Sanchez. I want Standish, and I want that joke of a sheriff." Grant seemed to be bleeding from both arms, but he held the gun steady in his right.
"He's got a name," Buck growled.
Grant replied, "Well, if you just tell me where your friend who's got a name is, I'll get out of your hair. In fact, why don't you move on away from the door," Grant said, turning to Chris. He waved his gun, directing Chris to move down and join Buck. "I'll find 'im myself." The former Texas Ranger was standing at the doorway to the saloon, Grant at the door leading to the back of the building. Chris remained on the landing of the staircase.
"We ain't lettin' you go, Grant," Chris warned, not following the escaped convict's direction.
"You murdered two law enforcement officers. You're headed for a rope," Buck reminded the escaped felon. Chris didn't remember the last time he saw his old friend so agitated, so angry.
"Buck. Settle down." To Grant, Chris said, "You escaped from a prison transport. The least you have facing you is another trip back to Yuma. Nobody saw you kill those two who were transporting you. You might not be found … " Before Chris finished his thought, Grant took that moment to fire his weapon at the leader of The Magnificent Seven. He'd been pointing his gun at Buck, but Chris was nominally distracted by keeping his partner calm and talking Grant into dropping his gun. There were people in and around the saloon who could get hit by gunfire, people he cared about. Chris flew down to the floor to avoid the bullet. Grant moved fast and shot at Buck. Buck fired back as he, too, dove for cover. The bullet from the territory's famed Lothario's gun got Grant in the left arm, but Grant also had a clear opening to head out the back door. He took it and ran back the way he'd initially ventured toward the saloon. He remembered seeing a horse tied to a post beside the boarding house: easy pickins.
"Buck, grab the horses," Chris called as he followed Grant out the back. He looked both ways and decided the crazed man would not have headed toward the main avenue. He ran left, edged up against the corner of the hotel opposite the boarding house and saw Grant take the turn at the back of the building that several of the lawmen used for sleeping while in town. He moved to the corner, witnessed the fleeing man take the horse and then watched as Grant turned and took a shot at him. He moved back, the bullet whizzing past the brim of his hat. He heard Buck with Clyde and Pony behind him.
"He there?" Buck asked.
"Stole a horse. Let's get after him," the man from Indiana said. Dave Landon ran up behind the two men.
"Was that Grant?" he asked. J.D. ran up as Dave asked the question.
"Yeah. Let everyone know. J.D., you and Dave, take a look around, make sure everyone is okay. Stay alert in case he rounds and comes back."
"We will, Chris. Be careful!" the sometime lawman called as he and the sheriff ate the dust of Chris and Buck's horses.
Grant pushed the horse fast toward the north, along the back of the boarding house, Gordon's cigar shop, the vacant building between the cigar shop and the hotel. The vacant building had housed half a dozen businesses in the time The Seven had spent protecting the citizens of Four Corners, most recently a scent, candle, lotions and potions shop. The venture recently failed, the potions deemed nothing more than snake oil by Nathan and the leaders of the town. Grant jumped from the horse, letting the animal continue on its way north as the felon ran across the avenue and headed behind the stage company building. He ran as fast as his tired and hurting body would allow, past both hotels. He saw the fenced in area behind the Clarion News. He knew the publisher was Chris Larabee's woman. She might be a good one to grab in order to safely make his way from the town. He opened the gate, shoved the door hard and made it inside. Searching the building, he found nothing that he hoped for. Mary Travis wasn't there, nor her son.
"Fuck!" he said, far too loudly. "Shit," he continued quietly. He headed out the back and kept himself up along the back of the buildings on the west side of the main street. He stopped at the telegraph office, looked carefully toward the jailhouse, saw no one in the back of the buildings, and continued to race toward the south end of town. He knew the livery extended its corrals toward the west, well behind the Virginia Hotel, the bank and Gloria Potter's store. He would have to head around that fencing, away from the protection of the shadow of the buildings. As he reached the outer fencing, he heard yelling from one of the roofs.
"He is behind the corrals! He is behind the bank now!"
"That damn German," Grant said, recognizing Heidegger's accented voice. "Shit.
"Stop!" Heidegger called.
"Like hell!" Grant yelled as he knelt to follow the fence, keeping low so that the hotel and restaurant owner would have to risk shooting the horses.
On the other side of town, Chris and Buck found the horse Grant stole just beyond the stage company, grazing on grass beneath one of the trees planted during the first wave of trees placed by Ezra, Gloria and the rest of the "beautification" committee. Other plants followed, all an effort to make the town more appealing to visitors and, with the trees, cooler for residents.
"Hell! He's back in town. Let's go," Chris said. "I'll go on the east side, you take the west, Buck. Behind the buildings. He can't risk being seen."
"You bet," Buck said as he took Clyde to the rear of the buildings. He knew that Grant couldn't count on protection for very long, the new corrals took up quality space up closer to the livery, and closed off access through the back doors of the buildings approaching the livery. Buck reached the corrals and saw the horses milling about. He knew that Grant was in there somewhere. He saw J.D. crouching at the tree at the edge of the corrals. Suddenly, Grant threw open the corral gate and charged out, bareback, on a large black horse. Buck and Grant raced toward each other, Grant remaining down and to the side, an impossible shot for the former Texas Ranger who loved his horse and would never take a shot if it meant potentially taking out one of these magnificent animals. As they neared each other, Grant rose in his seat and took a long, solid piece of wood and slammed it into Buck's shoulder. The handsome ladies' man flew from his horse. Clyde slowed as J.D. came to his best friend's side.
"Buck!"
"Take Clyde. Go after him," Buck said.
"You're okay?"
"Go, J.D.!" J.D. jumped on Clyde and tore from the corrals back north along the back of the buildings that Grant had snuck along the back of in order to get to the south side of town. As J.D. reached the alley beside the clothing store, he turned there to reach the main street. He saw Chris at the far end of town. He whistled, Chris turned to see J.D. wave him to follow. The leader of The Magnificent Seven rode as fast as he safely could up the avenue. As he reached The Ritz, he called to Andrew Patterson.
"Let's ride!" Andrew was on his horse in no time, following Chris and J.D. out of town.
Josiah ran from the church to check on Buck. Robert and Ben followed behind to see what they could do.
"Are you okay?" the preacher asked as he knelt beside Buck.
"Help me up."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Robert said, "I'm gonna go follow Chris and J.D."
"Ow. Watch your back," the injured member of The Seven said. Robert aimed his horse in the direction that Chris and J.D. headed.
"You're gonna have a helluva bruise, Buck," Ben said.
"I know." The tall, dark and handsome man rubbed his shoulder. "Let's go make sure everything's okay here in town." The three men started a canvass of Four Corners. Heidegger met them in the street.
"I vill let everyone else know that ve should stay on guard but that Mr. Grant has left town."
"Thank you, Rolf," Josiah said as he kept an eye on his injured partner in law enforcement.
The caravan from the Logan Ranch was heading back to Four Corners. They knew there was a chance that Mason Grant could be lying in wait, but they also figured that Grant thought he'd left for dead the man he was after there and was heading back to town to take care of some or all of The Seven for getting him sent to prison, and a little bit for his son being dead.
Vin and Kid Curry took care of placing tarpaulins over the two dead horses, placing as much around the tarps as they could find to keep potential wildlife away. Chris would need to gather a contingent of men to return with Jorge and Rob to find the proper location to bury the two large animals. Ezra had taken a walk out to the two horses. He was familiar with most all of the equine stock at Jeremy's ranch. He was sorry to see that the beautiful old mare Rose was one of the dead horses. She was a large draft horse, the spitting image of Chaucer. Jeremy and Ezra often joked that the gambler's cherished horse could fit inside the big girl. And Gertrude. Ezra Standish shed tears at the sight of Jeremy's beautiful girl.
Buddy was placed in a box. Ezra said that he would speak with Jeremy as soon as he was able to handle the news of his beloved dog's death and find out from his friend where he would want the Beagle buried. The southerner hoped that his friend woke soon in order for him to give the smaller hound, slightly smaller than Fred, a proper burial. The two dogs were similar in shape and size but very different in coloring, Fred being the unusual orange and white color with the mesmerizing amber-colored eyes, Buddy a more typical Beagle look with the tri-color brown, black and white, the black a perfect "saddle" on his back. The box was left in a storage bin just outside one of the barns.
It was determined that Ezra should drive the wagon back to town, rather than ride Chaucer. His fainting episode was part of the reason, but Nathan needed to be with his patient, leaving Chaucer and Nathan's rental horse Calypso needing a rider to pony them back to town. Jason's body at the back of the wagon might have been tolerated by Chaucer, but Calypso was an unknown entity. Vin ponied Chaucer back; Ezra was in no mood to leave his horse behind with the possibility that Grant might come back for more revenge on the ranch owner. They left the horse Chris brought for Ezra to ride in a far corral, just in case Grant headed back for more vengeance at Jeremy's ranch. All of the horses were moved to distant areas to make any more similar carnage more difficult. Kid held the reins to Calypso. The body of Jeremy's friend and employee Jason was placed at the rear of the wagon. Button lay beside his man just behind Ezra, and Nathan was seated next to Jeremy on the other side, keeping a close eye on his patient. The wagon was as smooth a ride as expected, and they were able to make good time back to town.
The trek back to town was quiet, no one had a desire to verbalize the awful of all that they had just dealt with at the ranch, or about the potential of danger ahead for them or for what the townsfolk and Ezra, Vin and Nathan's partners might be dealing with because of Grant. They were within a few miles of town when they heard the gunfire.
"Hell," Ezra said.
"Can we get this wagon off the road, at least?" Nathan asked.
"We will have to, but no matter how good this suspension is, it will be a rocky attempt," the professional poker player said.
"I'll shift over and hold onto Jeremy," the healer said as he stood up, lifted Button to the other side of the little dog's person, and then lay down close up against his patient. It was all he could do at this point to help the still unconscious horseman.
All of the horses were moved off of the road as well. There was little other than a few small boulders and a stand of trees, a few leaves still on them after a recent storm removed most of the leaves of assorted colors, blanketing the ground along the side of the trail. The cover turned out to be not very good as a bullet screamed by Ezra. It missed him, hit one of the boulders, ricocheted off, slowed its movement significantly, and landed in Kid Curry's upper arm. The 'oomph' from his partner alerted Hannibal Heyes that his best friend had been shot.
"Shit." Heyes was aware enough to not say the nickname he'd used for Curry since their young teen years and for their entire adulthood, but he was so upset with seeing the blood start to spread that the name he should use was momentarily lost on him. "You're hit," he said as he jumped from his horse and rushed to Kid.
"I'm all right."
"You're not all right. Get down." Kid agreed to that action, but he was not in the mood to be manhandled by his partner, not until they were all out of jeopardy from bullets.
"Let's get everyone safe," Kid started, then added, "As safe we can be. Horses, too."
"Is the bullet still in your arm?" Nathan called.
"Yeah. I'll stop moving as soon as I can."
"Stubborn," Heyes complained.
"Yeah," Kid replied sarcastically as he glared at his friend, as though he was any more stubborn than his stubborn partner.
Another bullet slammed into the back of the wagon.
"Ezra, get down," Vin called worriedly. "Can't do anything more about the horses."
"In that case, Vin, Ah will concentrate on shooting that son-of-a-bitch," Ezra said as he jumped from the wagon and positioned himself up toward the direction he heard the gunfire. There seemed little chance that it wasn't Grant heading back their way, which meant that there was every likelihood that some of their fellow lawmen were chasing him. "Our brethren could be following him."
"We'll be careful, Ezra," Vin said. The gambler knew that they would all be careful, but Vin knew that his friend was still recovering from the loss of his beloved Fred, and today had definitely done a number on him. Jason dead, a dog and two horses dead, and Jeremy terribly injured. Vin could forgive his friend saying something that need not have been spoken out loud. The tracker took a position up near Ezra, behind the largest boulder. Heyes and Curry were forced to their stomachs on the ground, the remaining boulders too small for decent cover otherwise. More gunfire, closer, had all of the men at the ready. Nathan remained with Jeremy, but he kept himself prepared to jump into the fray, if necessary.
The curve in the road made it easy to see what was happening. Grant was moving fast, too fast for the horse or the health of any rider on this stretch of the road. At the same moment, Ezra and Heyes shouted, "Grant!" and "Stop!" It was enough of a distraction that the horse slowed down on his own. Grant saw the red jacket peeked to the side of the rock Ezra hid behind. He further slowed the horse's momentum as he aimed at the red coat and fired. Heyes took that moment to aim his weapon at Grant's arm. He knew he risked missing, his aim potentially killing the man, or flying past him. But he also saw no one close enough behind the escaped convict, he saw no one and heard no additional sound of horses following the man. He took the shot.
Grant flew from the horse. The horse barreled past Ezra and Heyes and the rest of them and continued on down the road in the direction of Jeremy's place. Grant landed hard and up against the boulder between the ones that Ezra and Heyes were using as protection.
"Give yourself up, Grant!" Ezra called.
"Like hell I will!"
"There's more of us than there is of you!" Vin called.
"And you're runnin' from someone!" Heyes called. At that moment he heard horses galloping their way.
Grant just started firing. It depended on how many firearms he had on him as to how quickly he would spend all of his bullets. As it turned out, he seemingly had only one. As he fired and came up empty, he threw his gun toward the boulder where he'd seen the red jacket. Ezra moved back to avoid the flying gun. Heyes jumped up at the same time as Vin, both running toward the escaped convict. Grant ran to the wagon. Whether he thought it was sitting empty would remain a question as he jumped up on to the driver's seat. He found Nathan crouched in the back with Jeremy Logan.
"That bastard!" he yelled as he saw the rancher. Nathan stood to show his full size and his intent to protect his patient. Grant growled and charged at the healer. As the crazed man forced himself close, the former slave used his considerable strength to slam his arm into Grant's chest. Grant flew from the wagon and landed hard into the ground. Despite his wounds from now four bullets and having his breath knocked from him, he tried to get up and run, but Vin and Heyes caught him. Vin, knowing that Heyes was thinking more about making sure the man didn't get away after Grant's bullet made it into his partner and less about the fact that he was still supposed to be taking it easy, grabbed Grant, turned him around with a hard squeeze on the shoulder that had one of Hannibal Heyes' bullets possibly still in it, but definitely, at minimum, made its way through it, and punched him, first in the stomach and then without apology, hard in the face. Grant twirled from the force of the hit and would have fallen back into Heyes but for some quick footwork on the part of the darker haired half of the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West. Grant fell to the ground with no assist from men close enough to ease the fall.
Vin kneeled, checked that Grant was knocked unconscious and not dead and asked, "Anybody got any rope?
Chris, J.D. and Andrew all made it to the group now standing around Grant's prone body. J.D. said, "I'll tie him up," as he jumped down, rope in hand. Robert followed not long behind the other three; his horse was known to be one of the fastest around.
"Nah," Nathan said. "I need to look at him. Might not be best to tie him up if we want him to live to stand trial."
"Look at him quick, Nate." Chris saw Jeremy in the wagon and the wrapped body. "How's Jeremy?" he asked, followed by, "Is that Jason?"
"Yes. Jason was shot by that miscreant, as well as Buddy and two horses," Ezra replied.
"Son-of-a-bitch," the leader of The Seven said. A gun firing had all of the men looking toward Grant.
"He was moving his hand inside his pocket," Robert said as he holstered his gun. He'd fired into the ground near Grant; the bullet skittered away down the trail.
"Hell, Robert. He could've shot one of us," J.D. said.
"If Robert wasn't as good with his gun, he could have shot one of us," Andrew said. "Kind a tight here, Robert."
"That's why target practice is so important," the rancher replied to his foreman. Kid Curry nodded knowingly, turned to his partner and smiled, also knowingly. Heyes shook his head, lowered it toward the ground, his dimple evidence of the smile that only his partner would have seen as everyone else was consumed with the mayhem caused by Mason Grant.
"Nate?" Chris asked, angry that this man had wreaked so much havoc on so many people he cared about. That number now included Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry. "Look him over, tell me how we can secure him."
Nathan hurried to do just that. "He's fine," the former slave said.
"Fine? What the hell?" Grant growled.
"Shut up," Vin said.
"I can put some alcohol on these wounds, wrap them, and then take care of them at the jail."
"Jail? You should fix me up at your damn clinic," the bloodied murderer said.
"Shut up!" Vin, Chris and Ezra yelled, Chris in a particularly threatening manner.
"So, we can tie him up when you're finished?" Chris asked.
"Yeah. Not too tight on his arms, only in the front. We can tie his legs and ankles."
"Let's double tie him at his knees and ankles and then attach a rope to the wagon to his tied hands and feet," Andrew said. He was mad, too, at this man. "He ran that horse kind o' hard heading out of town."
"Ah will retrieve that poor horse," Ezra said.
"No, you won't," Nathan said as he stood from giving a cursory look to make sure Grant didn't have any further worrisome injuries. The man was still a little woozy from the punch to the face, but alive, with no other injuries that wouldn't keep until they returned to town. Two of the four bullet wounds had only scraped the skin, one had an exit wound in the fleshy part of his upper arm. The bullet from Hannibal Heyes is what slowed the man down the most; surgery would be needed to remove it.
"Ah won't?" the gamester asked, confused.
"You don't feel that, Ezra?" Chris asked as he stared at Ezra's head on his left side, near his hairline.
Ezra turned to the former gunslinger, and completely lost his balance. He tilted in toward Chris, realizing the tumble he was taking in that direction. He reached his hand out, but missed whatever he thought he might be touching next, which would have been his friend's chest. Chris and Nathan knew what was coming next; each man grabbed an arm and eased the card sharp to the ground.
"What is happening here?" Ezra asked.
"Looks like you got clipped by a bullet," Nathan said. "J.D., can you grab my bags in the wagon?"
"You bet."
"Vin, go get that horse," Chris said.
"I'll get it," Andrew said.
"Thanks."
"Hey! Why'm I hog tied?" Grant asked from the wagon. He'd passed out briefly, but was now fully awake once more.
"Shut up," Chris said. "How's it look?" he asked Nathan.
"Ah have a headache," Ezra practically whispered.
"Joshua, go sit with Jeremy," Nathan said.
"I'll take him over," Kid said.
"Let me look at your arm until Nathan is done with Ezra," Heyes said.
"It'll wait. It's just a scratch."
"You're sure," Heyes asked, blinking tiredly.
"Yeah. It's been a helluva a day already and it's … " Kid stopped, reached in for Heyes' watch, checked it and said, " … just a little after eleven."
Heyes rubbed his forehead. "I feel a nap might be in the cards. D'you think Dottie and Ben'll let us use that room today?"
"Joshua, I think Dottie would let you do whatever you asked," Kid said with an amused smile.
"She's taken with you, too. Don't know why."
"Shut up. You got a headache?"
"Yeah."
"Come on, get on up there with Jeremy and Button."
Heyes smiled. "Button and me, we're pals."
"Sure you are." Kid really was sure that they were, or would be. He looked into the wagon. Jeremy was still breathing, didn't seem to be struggling in any way to do so. Heyes started to sit in the driver's seat. "No, get back there with Jeremy and Button."
"All right." Heyes sat in the back and closed his eyes.
"I'll be right back."
Kid walked over to where Nathan was working on Ezra. "I hope that's only a graze," he said.
"It is," Nathan, Ezra and Chris replied in unison.
"You couldn't feel that?" Kid asked. He saw Vin standing a little farther away, speaking with Andrew, who held the reins of the horse that Grant stole.
"Ah was othahwise preoccupied."
"He's also got a bitch of a headache," Chris said.
"I'm gonna put this bandanna around your eyes, Ez," the healer said.
"Bandanna around his eyes?" Kid asked.
"Seems like we got a sick head … I mean a migraine starting. Chris, Vin, help me get him in the wagon."
"Oh. Um, I put Joshua in the back of the wagon. Is that gonna be too much weight?"
"What's wrong with Joshua?" Nathan asked as he finished tying the cloth around Ezra's eyes to look toward where Heyes sat in the back of the wagon. It was clear that Ezra agreed with the possibility of the sick headache when he agreed to allow Nathan to place the blindfold over his eyes. They all walked to the wagon. Ezra was helped up and sat next to Heyes, where he proceeded to lean against the reforming outlaw.
"The morning was rough and all this activity hasn't helped. Has a headache. He's pretty tired."
"Damn," Nathan said.
"Not much we could have done to avoid it, other than stayin' put this morning. And you know, he wanted to see all of his lady friends," Kid said with a sad smile.
"We need to keep him out at the cottage," Chris said.
"Yeah, I think we do," Kid agreed. "Figure we'll beg Dottie and Ben for that room again tonight, maybe tomorrow, then head out for a good, long stretch at the cottage."
"Ah have another idea," Ezra slurred as he fell asleep, his head sagging heavily into Heyes' shoulder. Heyes didn't feel a thing.
Chris walked up to the side entry of the building that housed Dottie and Ben Pike's bakery, and the room that Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry used for the first weeks of their stay in Four Corners. He found Kid Curry sitting outside, a pot of coffee, a tray with cups and milk and sugar, and a basket covered with a cloth, but no doubt hiding some delicious offerings from the shop at the front of the building. Kid had a book in his hand as he read and chewed his pastry.
"Mrnung," he said as he noticed the new arrival while taking his first big bite of something tasty from the basket.
"Good morning," Chris laughed. "Mind if I join you?"
Kid chewed what he had in his mouth and said, "Sure, have a seat. Well, have some coffee and something to eat, then sit."
"Thanks," Chris said as he gathered both of those things.
"It's a shame that I don't exercise, because after spending time here, I really need to exercise," Kid said as he took another bite of his cinnamon-something with icing. "Joshua, he doesn't gain weight no matter what he eats. If we're related, he's the one with the system that would let him eat five of these to each one I eat."
"But you'd hope he had your ability to eat and put on weight these last months," Chris said as he took his first taste of Ezra's delicious coffee.
Kid shook his head sadly. "Wish I had enough money and, you know, magic skills, to pay to make that happen."
Chris nodded his head. "They still sleeping?"
Kid took another bite of his pastry as he nodded his head. He swallowed some coffee, chewed the bite and swallowed, then said, "Joshua got up to hit the outhouse earlier, then went back to bed."
"Overdid it yesterday?"
"Another helluva day. Hell." He looked to his coffee cup and asked, "Is it too early to steal something from Ezra's flask?"
Chris smiled sadly. "Probably."
"Yeah."
"Ezra?"
"Yeah. That's not the greatest story. He's sleeping now, but he didn't sleep great much of the night."
"Was he sick overnight?" Chris asked worriedly.
"No. Lots of tossing and turning. Moaning. It was quiet and dark all night, but it didn't seem to stop him being in pain." Kid took a taste from his mug. "Nathan gave him some of the stuff the doctors from that Denver trip suggested, but it didn't seem to work."
"Might've been that blow from Grant's bullet. Speaking of which, how's your arm?"
"It's fine. The bullet really did just skim me."
"Good."
"Sort of, I guess. But I got a hole in one of my favorite shirts."
"Gloria or Abigail can fix that." Both men ate more breakfast and drank more coffee. "You know, I heard from Vin and Nathan what you two did to help out at Jeremy's." Kid watched as Chris continued. "You two aren't anything like outlaws, not in any way. Why is that?"
"I don't know if here is the best place to talk about that."
Chris grinned. "I know you were distracted by Joshua's troubles when you were staying in town, but this is not a town that rises this early. We could see Vin, except he and J.D. left early to get to Nettie's to take final measurements for the barn roof. Nathan will be coming over later, but he's checking on Jeremy first, then heading out to the Martinez family to check on Orlando's broken arm. They live on the way to Nettie's, only a left instead of a right at the crossroads. He won't be back here before ten."
"I don't know …."
"We'll speak quietly. It'll be fine."
"I'll keep it short. First, we wanted to quit way before the amnesty was offered. Except for the challenge of the new safes for Joshua, we really no longer had the desire for the work. You may have noticed that, despite all the obstacles that keep gettin' thrown up, my partner is working hard to get better."
"You're working hard at that, too," Chris noted.
"Yeah. It was beginning to feel like we were risking too much. And there was a little regret. Even though it was mostly railroads and bank owners we were stealing from, at least that's what we told each other, here," Kid said, pointing to his head, "we knew that regular folk were being affected, and that was hurting more and more, here," the famed fast draw admitted as he tapped at his heart.
"You just didn't want to do it, anymore."
"We didn't. But we needed to live, Hey … he had an entire gang he was responsible for," Kid said, almost saying Heyes' name out loud. "Sorry. Anyway, we decided the gang would have to have a new leader and we stepped away. And all those jobs, hard work, running from posses, not able to stay safe and unperforated, as Ezra would say …."
"He would," Chris nodded with a warm smile.
"It's been really hard for both of us. The amnesty not coming through yet. I think Joshua thinks he's letting me down, first with how hard life not stealing is, and then with his illness. He's not. He would only be letting me down if he gave up, and he's not doing that. A lot of that positive attitude I can look to all of these people here who have been more than welcoming. We are so grateful."
"You've made it easy for people to like you, to accept you into this community."
"I think giving up our outlaw ways made us remember back to our youths, our families." Kid nodded his head toward the room he shared with his partner, and Ezra last night. "He always jokes that my mother was a crook, but she wasn't. She was a good person, so was his mother. M…Mama did get caught once taking some apples from someone's property." How long had it been since he'd called his mother by that name he would always remember her by? He saw the sympathy in Chris Larabee's eyes. "It's all right. It was a long time ago. Anyway, the apples, they were on the ground and weren't getting picked up by anyone. I was too little to understand, it wasn't long before … well, she came home one day with all of these apples. She made all kinds of stuff. Then the sheriff came. They took her away. My siblings and I had to go stay with Joshua and his mom. Joshua said they made my mom pay back the cost of the apples by cleaning and cooking for folks for two weeks. I only knew that I missed my mama. We were good folk back in Kansas. What they made her do wasn't right, making her leave her kids. Both of our dads left us for long periods of time. It wasn't until we were the only ones not killed in our families that we realized that what we thought were good families weren't so good, neither were our dads. They happened to be back during that time during the border wars. When all of our family got killed, nobody would take in the two of us. Our brothers and sisters and our mothers were dead and not one friend or neighbor would take us in. Our fathers were dead, too, but they never really acted like fathers, and were never around. We didn't miss them, but our neighbors remembered our dads. Heyes never forgave those people. I was too little to remember too much, and he shielded me from a lot of the worst that was goin' on. Anyway, our mothers were good people, loving, nurturing. We were slow to come around after we realized how good we were at robbing trains and he was at breaking into safes. But we did."
"That's quite a story."
"It's not a story. It's just our lives," Heyes said as he stepped closer to the two men huddled together, talking.
"Sorry, I didn't mean … "
"No, no apology needed. We know that our history is difficult, our childhoods informed how we turned out as adults. We regret all of that." Heyes looked to Kid. "I think mostly we regret that we might have disappointed our mothers."
"Not in the end, and that is the most important thing." Kid smiled at Heyes as he spoke. Heyes smiled back as he placed his hand on Kid's shoulder. The dark-haired one poured himself a cup of coffee. Black, clearly not his favorite, based on the look on his face.
"Does Judge Travis know your background?" Chris asked.
"He does," Kid said.
"He does?" Heyes asked.
"You were real sick for a while. We talked to you about it, but you had some real bad days."
"Then I'm glad I missed all that," Heyes said. "Ezra's sleeping well right now."
"Finally," Kid said. He looked to Chris. "Would he do better in his own room?"
"I doubt it. It'll pass, but he may need a day or two. I think maybe laying low here is the best idea. I might go talk to Dottie, though. See if she could be gentle with him. Inez, too, for that matter."
"The women here are passionate about him," Heyes said. Chris laughed. "What's so funny?"
"These women are passionate about you two. You know that, right?"
"Tell me, Chris. Objectively, what do you suppose it is that they see in him?" Heyes asked as he nodded to his best friend.
"Knock it off," Kid replied as he pretended to shove his friend out of the way and went for his third cup of coffee.
"I thought you were going to stop that."
"Buck, I never said that. Did you look at Smith today? He got a haircut and his beard trimmed," J.D. said.
"Kid, I do not look at men that closely."
"He looks more like Heyes now."
"J.D., he ain't Hannibal Heyes."
"He is. And the other one, he's Kid Curry."
"J.D., I need you to keep your voice down," Chris said as he walked up onto the boardwalk in front of the jail.
"Chris," Buck said, accusatory. The town Lothario had grown downright irritable as he was forced to talk J.D. out of what he determinedly knew to be true. He remembered the conversation he had with Chris and Ezra out at the cottage where Smith and Jones were staying. He knew they were hiding something. What else could it be? "Why does he have to keep his voice down?"
"Aren't Josiah and Dave coming to relieve you soon?" Chris asked.
"In about fifteen minutes."
"I need you both to stop this conversation. Any discussion of who Smith is. Once Dave and Josiah show up, you two come find me at the saloon."
"Why?" both Buck and J.D. asked.
"You know, just meet me at the livery in fifteen minutes."
"Why?" they both asked again.
"Because I said so."
"Is everything all right?" Ezra asked. "There seems to be some tension here. Please do not tell me that Mistah Grant has escaped."
"Ezra, what the hell are you doing out here? And why the hell don't you have your hat on? You might as well have yer eyes closed you're squintin' 'em so much. You look like hell."
"Buck, your vocabulary seems to have tumbled into the unimaginative and inconsequential."
"And your attitude, Ezra, has … "
"Cut it out, Buck. Ezra, sit down."
"Ah thought to seek you out for a discussion, Chris," Ezra said as he really did hardly have his eyes open. He also seemed to be swaying in place.
"Can it wait? I'll come see you later."
"Very well." The gambler turned to head back toward the Pike's buildings. He reached out to the hitching post as he seemed to lose his balance.
"How about if I walk you back? I only have a few minutes right now, but I'll come see you," Chris said.
"Ah need to see how Jeremy is doing."
"Nathan didn't send for you?"
"No. But it has been too long since Ah have heard anything. Ah need to speak with him about the horses and Buddy and Jason."
"We've already dealt with all of that, Ezra."
"You have? Ah wished to … that is to say … Ah wanted to express mah condolences … "
"Let me walk you back to Smith and Jones' room and I'll tell you about it."
"Why … "
Chris walked up close to his friend. He turned and said to J.D. and Buck, "I'll meet you in half an hour."
"All right," J.D. said sadly as he watched Chris and Ezra leave.
"I feel bad for him."
"Me, too, J.D. He wanted to be the one to be there when Jeremy was told about Buddy and Jason and those two horses. Those damn headaches."
Chris walked Ezra back down the avenue. "Ez, you've been sick and headachy for goin' on two days. Jeremy woke up. He's doin' pretty good. He asked about Grant and if anyone else got hurt or injured. We had to tell him."
"Jeremy is awake and alert?" Ezra asked as he looked toward Chris. That little bit of head movement had Ezra tumble into Chris' side. "Apologies," the card sharp said as he put his hand to his head.
"You okay? Don't know why you left your bed. Joshua and Thaddeus let you go?"
"I did not let him go," Kid said as he reached the two men as they stood on the street in front of the vacant building beside Virginia's Hotel. "Joshua's sleeping. Well, he was. He's awake now. I told him to rest while I went looking for you," he said to Ezra, angry that his new friend would leave, knowing that Kid could not leave his partner unattended, not while he slept, in any event.
"Ah am sorry, Thaddeus. Ah needed information."
"And I told you that I would run and ask Nathan to come give you an update," Kid explained.
"Thaddeus, let's get him back to the room and I'll tell him all that's happened," Chris said, not wanting this discussion to escalate out on the street.
They reached the room. Heyes was reading, but he put the book down when he saw Chris and Kid on either side of Ezra, and Ezra looking pretty bad.
"What happened?" he asked.
"He needs to sit," Chris said. "Sit," he ordered his law enforcement partner and friend.
"Ah am not a dog."
"Sit down!"
"Ah'm sitting."
"No, take this chair," Heyes said. Ezra started to sit at one of the dining chairs, but all of the other men felt that a chair other than one with two arms and no way to fall out of it was probably a mistake. Heyes sat in the other one. Chris brought one of the dining chairs over and set it in front of his fellow lawman.
"Thaddeus, could you get Ezra a glass of water?"
"Sure."
"All right. First, Jeremy is going to be fine. He will be recovering for a couple of months. He lost a lot of blood. And that leg wound skimmed past an artery. He needs to stay off it."
"Ah wish to see him. Ah know that he cannot leave his sickbed, but Ah can."
Chris shook his head. "You know what Nathan said. He said that bullet to the head didn't necessarily bring on the migraine, it's just making it a little worse than it's been these last months. And you'll probably be a lot better tomorrow. Why don't you wait until tomorrow?"
It was Ezra's turn to shake his head, but it did him no good as it clearly made him feel woozy and sick. "Hell," he said as he reached for the spot where the bullet hit. Heyes caught his forearm as Chris went to block the hand moving to his friend's head.
"Ezra, he's okay. He's sad, he'll want to see you. He knows why you haven't been to see him yet. Robert sent some of his men out with Vin and J.D. and they all took care of the horses. Buddy is buried where all of Jeremy's other dogs are buried on the ranch. He's as worried for you as you are for him."
"Ah … Ah … Ah wish Ah could have been there when they buried Buddy." The men with Ezra in the room could hear his throat growing tight as he spoke the dog's name.
"I know. Jeremy knows, too. He would want you to feel better before you start moving around too much." One of the migraines Ezra suffered since Fred's death was while he was visiting with Jeremy, and Buddy and Button. Jeremy had invited him out to work with a particularly unruly colt, but before he'd had time to get to meet the horse, he felt a sick headache come on. Jeremy set him up in the far bedroom and told his men to keep all activity away from the corral and pasture that the two windows in that room backed to. Buddy and Button spent time cuddled up on the bed while Ezra slept most of three days away. Nathan came to check on him and left the blends of healing tea that worked best when Ezra suffered these what had been newly minted by the medical profession as 'migraines'. No doubt that in addition to the two men's shared love of dogs and horses, Jeremy caring for Ezra during that illness, including the very personal need to help him through bouts of nausea and cleaning him up afterwards, contributed to their bonding so closely and quickly.
"Ah suppose."
"Good. Let's get you back in bed."
By the time the professional poker player had used the chamber pot, drank some water and had a mug of tea, sweetened with honey and lemon added at Hannibal Heyes' request, the ill man was near ready for sleep.
"Chris?"
"Ezra, go to sleep."
"We need to speak … " he started, but he fell asleep before he got anything more out.
"Shit," Chris said. "Do either of you know what he wanted to talk to me about?"
"Not me, but I've been sleeping almost as much as he has since getting back to town," Heyes said.
"No," Kid answered.
"All right. I've got to go. See you later."
"Bye," Kid said.
"So long," Heyes followed. He turned to Kid and said, "Can you believe I could use another nap?"
"I'm glad you're not fighting it. You can use all the rest you can get. I might lock the door and snooze some myself."
Heyes smiled, rubbed his friend's shoulder warmly and said, "Let's do it."
"Inez, maybe you should go see him," Mary Travis said. Her dear friend, Inez Rocios, seemed hesitant to go see the man that she loved, the love of her life. "I saw Ezra speaking with Buck and J.D. just a little while ago."
"No. He does not like me around when he suffers the headaches."
"He must be feeling better if he was over at the jail."
"Maybe they needed to speak briefly about the man in the jail," Inez countered. "He might only have gone there for a short talk. I do not wish to bother or upset him."
"Well, you are the one who knows whether he would want to see you."
"Mary, he has been sick for two days. He is most likely going to be fine tomorrow. He is not supposed to be going back out to the cottage with Joshua and Thaddeus. I am more comfortable waiting for him to come and see me."
"Okay. I need to go see Gloria about the town Christmas party." Mary saw that Inez seemed upset by their conversation. She reached out and took her friend's hand. "I am only trying to help. I want you two together so bad. You are meant to be together."
"I want that, too. But I know that we do not always get what we wish for."
"I know. Please don't give up. Don't give up on him."
"I will not. Not yet." Inez looked down to their clasped hands. She shook them and then looked up, the pooled tears somehow managing not to fall. "Are we still going to have an afternoon meal tomorrow with Nettie and Casey?"
"Yes. I will see you all at the Clarion at one o'clock?"
"Yes." The two women went in opposite directions to continue with their day.
"Hey! Hey! What the hell! When do I eat?!"
Josiah and Chris walked into the jail. "Quiet down, Grant. We've got your food," Josiah told him as he reached for the keys to the outer cell door. "Step away," he warned. He had everything on a tray. There were two cups of coffee on the tray. Considering that Grant had escaped from a highly secure situation with the fancy new prison wagon, they were not taking any chances with anyone getting too close to their prisoner, therefore, no pot of coffee, which would be too high to shove through the opening they'd had cut into a small section of each cell. Since his earlier conviction, Grant had shot and seriously injured one of their own citizens, killed another, in addition to the guard and driver he killed during his escape. Killing the animals, injuring another and riding another as though he cared not for whether he caused a broken limb on the stolen horse, all of these things were what was keeping him in the cell with no possibility of even a walk to the outhouse or a chance at a bath, a spit bath the best he had earned. When the chamber pot needed to be emptied, they made sure the man placed his hands through the bars well away from the door in preparation for its removal. They made it clear that Grant should remain as tidy about using the pot as possible. Chris threatened to place him in the smallest stall at the livery if he stunk up the jail. It was already quite cold at night, and the aromas were what one might expect with horses and other equines filling the surrounding stalls and the corrals. So far, except for this outburst, Grant had been behaving himself.
"I'm giving you fair warning, Grant," Chris said. "Eat. Other than eating and drinking what's on that tray, keep your mouth shut."
"I don't get a smoke?"
"No. Now shut up." Grant ate his food and drank his coffee. And then he started to talk.
"When do I get out of here?" Josiah laughed. "Come on, Josiah."
"When do J.D. and Marty start?" Chris asked. He had only taken over for a short stint at the jail since Nathan, who only infrequently took a turn patrolling and minding the jail anymore with all of his responsibilities as the only healer in their growing town, had been called away to check on one of Robert's men whose foot was stepped on by one of the cattle at the nearby stockades.
"Thirty blessed minutes," Josiah replied as he enjoyed a cup of good coffee. They'd stopped at Digger Dave's, knowing that it was the worst food in town, and definitely the worst coffee in the territory, save for anything Vin made out on the trail. But the coffee in the pot on the stove was made with the latest beans that Ezra had shipped in from New Orleans. It was a damned fine cup of coffee.
"I guess I can stand it that long. We always have our fall-back position of stuffing one of Vin's dirty socks in his mouth and tyin' it tight with one of Buck's dirty bandanas."
Grant remained quiet the remainder of the night.
"Ah apologize for not bein' there when your sweet Buddy was buried."
Jeremy looked at his friend sadly. It had been such a hard time for Ezra, months of mourning. The rancher did what he could during these months to help, and he knew in his heart that he had helped. And now he knew what Ezra knew. Buddy wasn't the first dog he had to dig a grave for in his life. His father and he had done it enough as he grew up in east Texas. Buddy was the fifth dog he said goodbye to on his ranch, though the first one he'd done so from afar. It was clear he wasn't the only one in the room upset that he couldn't be there to say his final goodbye to such a good and loyal friend. But he would never feel again what Ezra had felt for the first time all those months ago when Fred died. It was a hard thing, saying that final goodbye to someone you loved. The first time Jeremy and his father had done it, he was but a child. He remembered crying himself to sleep nights on end. But doing it for the first time as an adult, having enjoyed the love of a dog, his own dog, even if it was shared with the Mertons and the town? Jeremy understood why it was taking Ezra so long to recover from that loss.
"Ezra, you don't have anything to apologize for."
"Ah do not know, Jeremy. Maybe Ah could have avoided gettin' shot," the southerner said as he looked at his friend in the bed. His eyes burned, and then he was forced to blink as tears pooled, the burn intensifying. He looked away and added, "Again."
"Hell, Ezra. Grant is a sadistic lunatic. You and I are both lucky we're not dead. He killed Jason. God damn it!"
Ezra looked back at the healing rancher. "Calm down, Jeremy. You are to remain calm during your convalescence, remembah? Nathan would have mah hide if Ah caused you to suffer a setback."
"I'm fine. I don't want you to get in trouble on my account."
"You are not wrong. Damn Mason Grant's very soul," the gambler agreed. Ezra breathed in deeply, closed his eyes and rubbed his head.
"Why are you here? You aren't over this latest migraine, anybody can to see that." Jeremy paused and then said, "Are you hiding from Nathan, or one of the fellas? This isn't exactly the best place to try to avoid any of them. Nathan'll be here anytime now. The others've been checking in regularly. They told you that, right?"
"Ah … Ah believe Ah remember that, yes."
"Shit. This was a bad one, huh?" Ezra didn't answer the question. Jeremy chose to change the subject officially, even though the card sharp already had by not acknowledging how bad this migraine had been.
"They've brought almost all of Nathan's stuff down from his clinic. This here nice big bed was brought down from … oh, wait. You gave him this bed, right? When you bought that new one last year."
"Yes, Ah am quite familiar with this bed," Ezra answered, as he chose that moment to sink into that very same bed.
"Whoa, there." Jeremy reached for the former con man and was able to steady him on the edge of the soft-yet-firm featherbed. "Ezra, what in the hell?"
"Ah apologize," the still unwell man said as he started to rise.
"Forget about that. Lay down here until you feel better."
"Ah am not goin' to take up space in your bed."
"Lay the hell down. There's a couple o' pillows right over there on that chair." The chair was hardly a half a step from the bed. "Take them. I know you don't like to lay flat when you're feeling dizzy. And don't tell me you aren't, it's written all over your face, especially the pretty green color."
"Shut up."
"That's not a very nice way to speak to someone who almost died," Jeremy joked. Ezra handed the two extra pillows to the man in the bed. He shook his head, and did not lay back into the pillows. He placed both hands over his face.
"Jeremy," Ezra said sadly.
"Ezra, I need you to stop." He waited as his friend kept his face covered. "Ezra, come on, lay back." The southerner removed his jacket and did as he was told. "There is nothing that you have done that you have the least bit of blame for. He is insane. He did terrible things. Inhumane things. He killed people. He tried to kill me, and you."
"He killed Jason."
"I know."
Tears fell, unwelcome, from Ezra's eyes. He placed his arm over them and said, his voice choked with grief, "If we … if Ah had not shot him, if we had not caused his son's death … "
"Ezra, I am not kidding. Stop this. You would be dead if you had not shot him. You had to fire. Him shooting you so easily means he wouldn't have blinked killing J.D., so you did the only thing you could have that day. And his son? I cannot believe it's possible, but he was crazier than his father. He caused his own death by riding a young horse hell for leather out of town. If your whistle hadn't caused that horse to start, a bird flying over the road or a fox scurrying across the trail would have."
"But … " Ezra said, but Jeremy stopped him with a hand up, and then a clasp of his friend's wrist.
"Sometimes awful things happen. Sometimes they happen to us." Jeremy knew about Ezra's brother Daniel, about how he died just as an older teenaged Ezra returned to the home where his younger brother was staying, where the brother five years younger than Ezra had a nice married couple who loved him dearly, and Ezra was fortunate enough to feel residual love from the people who wanted Daniel to be theirs, who acted like he was theirs, and where Daniel died after getting swept up into the rushing waters of the Shenandoah River. Daniel's death and Fred's death were so similar, with Ezra arriving just barely too late for either Daniel or Fred to know that the man who loved Fred, and the boy who loved Daniel, so much, could do nothing but watch them die. Jeremy felt that the southerner had never really gotten over losing his brother. He doubted that Ezra would ever get over losing Fred. This man beside him loved deeply, even if he wasn't so forward about showing that side of himself. His friends knew better now after watching him love a woman and despair over multiple separations when he thought he could never really have her. The denouement to that story was yet to be written. But truth be told, quite a lot about Ezra P. Standish was a story with many chapters left, even the chapters that, to an untrained eye, an eye not in the know about one poker playing lawman, were complete portions of the plot of the life of the fanciful, fancily dressed and always interesting citizen of Four Corners.
"Sometimes terrible people do their best to tear us down. But Ezra, we do not have to let them win. The Grants of the world will get what they deserve. The son did, so will the father."
"Ah do not like that Ah think this, but Ah would wish worse than prison on the man."
"I would, too. I figure he'll get worse. If the judge doesn't sentence him to hang, maybe it'll happen in prison." Jeremy grabbed Ezra's hand and squeezed it affectionately. "You know that Buddy and Fred are acting crazy together now," Jeremy said with a sad smile.
"Jeremy, you know Ah do not believe … "
"I'm not askin' you to. It's just something nice to imagine, you don't have to believe in a higher power to think that maybe the right thing would be that all of the animals who stood by us would have a chance to know one another. I know you haven't had many animals of your own, except for Chaucer and Fred, but I had dogs growin' up on the ranch in Texas, and six dogs total here. Many other farm animals and great, great horses, some who live to amazing old age." Jeremy looked at Ezra. "Close your eyes."
"Jeremy … "
"Close. Your. Eyes."
"Everyone is so pushy."
"Your eyes are not closed."
"Mah eyes are now closed."
"Now, think about Fred. Put his face, his sweet orange and white body, those big, thick ears, the amber eyes, in your vision. His tail sticking practically straight out from his body, wagging like the pendulum rod of a metronome." Another shared love of both men was music. They both played guitar and piano. When he couldn't find Ezra in any of the barns on the property, and he knew he wasn't out on the property riding or helping to train a horse, Jeremy always knew that, if Ezra wasn't making something fantastic in the kitchen, the next place to look for him was at Jeremy's mother's piano. Both of the horseman's parents were deceased, and his mother's will bequeathed the only piece of her property that Jeremy held dear, to him. "You've got a good picture of Fred?"
Ezra smiled. "Ah do."
"All right." Jeremy squeezed Ezra's hand more firmly. "What happens when Fred turns to the right?" Jeremy shifted his voice, just a bit quieter.
Ezra's smile grew bigger, his gold tooth showing. "Buddy. Buddy is staring at Fred. He is at the ready."
"Why is that?" Jeremy could feel Ezra settle more comfortably into the pillows, finally at better rest on the very comfortable and familiar bed.
"It is because Buddy found Fred's eyes mesmirizin'."
"That's right." Jeremy spoke quieter still next. "You'd think he'd just think of Fred as his buddy, so to speak, but Buddy just couldn't get enough of Fred."
"No. He could not. You always said it was the eyes."
"How many dogs do you think have deep amber-colored eyes?" Jeremy asked, his voice softer again.
"Not v'ry many." Jeremy smiled, deeper, affectionate, a warmth overcoming him as he knew he was talking his friend to sleep.
"Who's hanging at the fence of the near corral?"
"Gertrude."
"Trudy."
"Her name was Gertr'de," Ezra slurred.
"I named her, she was my horse," Jeremy whispered, loud enough, only just barely, to keep Ezra awake, to wait for the smile. Ezra smiled at their joke. The expert poker player loved Trudy, a large, stubborn Shire. She was beautiful, and such a handful. She didn't want to work, despite all of Jeremy's efforts. She was much better for Ezra. Trudy adored Ezra, as much as Ezra loved her, but she still didn't want to get hooked up to any damned piece of equipment. Ezra fell asleep with a smile on his face. Jeremy leaned his head back into his pillow, and cried for his girl. He and Ezra had talked about what to do with a work horse who didn't want to work. They'd gotten drunk sitting on chairs inside the big pasture, watching Trudy do her second favorite thing: graze. Her number one most favorite thing? Resting her heavy head on Ezra's bad shoulder. She didn't really rest it on him, not fully, but enough. Jeremy laughed through his tears at all of the times the gambler told him not to tell Nathan about the abuse. They'd spoken on a drunken early evening weeks ago as they watched Trudy enjoy the warmth of the day that they would need to re-visit what options they had for her, but Mason Grant stole the need for further discussion from them. He patted Ezra's arm, and fell asleep.
Fifteen minutes later, Nathan found Inez Rocios standing inside the back room of the saloon. It was where he'd set up shop after the staircase was destroyed by a drunk and reckless Martin Graham, whose wagon laden with some silver and lots of gold dust pulled the entire staircase and landing down from the side of the livery. Nathan could see the dried stream of tears on the pretty Mexican woman's cheek. He looked over to the bed and saw Ezra sleeping soundly beside a similarly comfortable-looking Jeremy Logan. He was happy to see both men comfortable, though he'd stopped by Smith and Jones' room to look in on both Ezra and Joshua, to find Joshua doing well and Ezra nowhere to be found. Both men apologized for losing the gambler. Nathan told them not to worry, it'd happened to him a couple of dozen times over the years.
"Everything all right?" the healer asked.
"Yes."
"Doesn't look like you think everything is all right."
Inez turned to the former slave. "Why should I think that it is? He could have come to me if he was feeling well enough to come to see him," she said, anger sparking at just the right words for emphasis. 'Should', 'could', 'me', 'well', 'him'. She kept her anger low in volume so as not to wake either man.
"Inez, I don't think he's there yet. Plus, he is having to mourn, again … "
"I know that!" she said, raising her voice. Nathan looked toward the two healing men, then grabbed Inez' arm forcefully and removed her from the room.
"Inez, I know you are upset. I am sorry about that. But I cannot have Jeremy waking in an anxious way, or have him jump from his bed because he thinks something might be wrong. Ezra is at the end of one of the worst sick headaches he's had." Inez blinked back more tears as she accepted being chastised by a man who only ever wanted to do good, to help people, to heal them. "I get that his reaction to Buddy and Trudy and … I forget the name of the other one."
"Do you mean Jason?" the Mexican beauty asked snidely, the beauty wearing thin in her anger. Inez knew that the former slave and stretcher-bearer during the war was trying to recall the name of the other horse. She knew her retort had been anything but kind. She wanted to be decent as she waited for Ezra, but her frustrations were taking over her good sense. As she readied to apologize to the kind and caring man, she heard her name called: quiet, firm, authoritative … disappointed.
"Inez." Gloria Potter stood behind two people she considered friends, but that question from Inez had shocked her to her core. "How dare you?" she asked, not needing to raise her voice to express her deep feelings on what she'd just heard. "Jason and Ezra were friends, you know that. If you think that he is mourning the loss of Jason less than he is those poor animals, then you do not know that man very well." The look Gloria offered to the saloon manager did not hide how disappointed she was in hearing such an out of character utterance from Ezra's on again, off again lady. She should know him better, she should be ashamed of what she said. Gloria knew that she did not have to say any of that out loud, she knew that how she felt was written all over her face. She turned to Nathan. "I have breakfast for Jeremy, and then I was going to give him a washdown."
"Ezra's in there, they're both sleeping," Nathan said.
"Oh. Well, then I will ask Inez to keep this food warm. Nathan, would you get Jeremy his food when he is ready?"
"Sure."
"Could you also give him his washdown? I need to get back to my kitchen and take breakfast over to Thaddeus and Joshua. And then I have to get the shop opened up."
"I can take care of Jeremy's bath. I need to do a full examination later, I'll take care of it then," the healer replied.
"Does Buddy need a walk?"
"Thaddeus was here earlier for that," Inez said. She stepped over to Gloria and took the sack she was handed. "Gloria, I … "
"I am sorry, dear. I do have to go. We can chat another time." Inez lowered her eyes to the floor. "Inez," the general store owner said, "I am not mad at you, but I am disappointed. I know that you know better. I trust you will think about that?"
"Of course."
"Good. Goodbye." Gloria hurried out through the front of the saloon.
"What happened?" Mary asked.
"I don't know," Inez answered.
"You do. You just don't want to admit it."
"I … I … "
"You were jealous of what you saw," Nettie said.
"I don't … no, I don't think … "
"Inez. Gloria told me what happened," the old rancher said.
"She … why … "
"Inez," Mary said softly, "you can't feel envious of what these men have with one another. You especially can't with Ezra. He has been through some terrible times, both very recently and over these last nearly nine months. And you know, as much as he loves you, and," the beautiful and empathetic town leader reached out her hand and rubbed Inez' arm, "my god does he love you, you have shown a tendency to leave when things become too heated or difficult. How many times have you taken unexpected trips to Las Cruces?"
"It becomes too much. When we quarrel, I am sure it will be our last fight. How long will he remain patient with me?" the pretty Mexican woman asked, her eyes blinking to keep the tears away.
"I don't think everything is your fault, Inez. Ezra, he can be oblivious just like lots of men," Casey said.
Nettie smiled. "She's not wrong, about men and about Mr. Fancy Pants. He licks his wounds up in his room, from what I understand, instead of leaving town. But it's running away, either way."
"He also goes out to visit Fred," Casey said.
"We all handle conflict differently, Inez. But you do need to remember that his losses have been painful, as have his remembrances," Mary said. All four of these women were aware of how Ezra was brought to remember about his brother Daniel, and how he exposed the story of Daniel inadvertently when he was delirious from fever and a very hard hit to his head. "You worry about Ezra no longer trying with you, that your many separations will one day not lead to a reconciliation. We know how he feels about you, we know he will always want you, forever. But he has had so much trouble, it's a lot to ask a man to handle and also think that he has the power to remember to woo you when he is so tortured, or sick or otherwise occupied, with work or worries over a friend who helped him so much after losing Fred. Jeremy is as important to Ezra as Vin and Ezra are to Chris. I know that I have Chris, he is mine forever. But I also know that he has many demons, from his past, and he sometimes needs his friends more than he needs me. Right now, Jeremy needs Ezra, and Ezra needs to do everything he can to help Jeremy. Ezra feels the losses that happened out at Jeremy's ranch very deeply, not necessarily as deeply as Jeremy, but pretty nearly so."
"You need to give him time and space. It's a lot for him to deal with, his recent injuries, those damned headaches, Chris asking him to mind Joshua and Thaddeus. He needs this time to work through many troubles. You should'nt feel that he's ignoring you. He is trying to protect you." Nettie made sure Inez was looking at her when she added, "Be mindful of that. You can take to the bank that he wants the best for you and that right now that means a little bit of distance, still."
"He loves you, 'nez. We all know it. You know it. You need to give Ezra time, because of a lot of good reasons, just like I need to give J.D. time for all the wrong ones." Casey's comment had all of the ladies laughing as their meals were brought to their table.
"Hey, look who's back," Kid said as he stood from the comfortable chair and set his book down. Heyes remained in his seat, smiling as he watched Ezra walk into the room.
"The Prodigal Son returns," Ezra said as Kid gave him a warm pat on the back.
"Come sit." Ezra walked toward the two chairs and shook Heyes' hand.
"You feeling all right?" the reforming outlaw asked. "Sit."
"Ah am much bettah."
"Good."
"You are looking well," Ezra said to the man who was sent to Four Corners by Judge Oren Travis to try to find a solution to his now months-long illness.
"Good doctoring, good rest. I can't complain."
"Today," Kid said as he handed Ezra a glass of bourbon.
"Thank you. And yes, it does often depend on the day," the professional poker player agreed.
"That is the truth," Heyes agreed. "How's Jeremy?"
"As well as can be expected. He will have a long period of recovery." Ezra looked at his glass but did not drink.
Kid pulled a chair over from the table as his partner asked, "Did you get to spend some time with your lady?"
"No," the gambler replied as he took a good swallow of the excellent liquor.
"No? You were gone much of the day," Kid said.
"Yes, well, Ah was clearly not especially ready to make the trek to the saloon. Ah was convinced to sit upon Jeremy's bed as Ah appeared unsteady to him. He talked me into lying down, we chatted. And we both fell asleep. Everyone felt it important that we sleep rather than eat, or anything else for that mattah."
"You look much better, but … something's wrong. Did something happen with Inez?"
"No, Joshua. Ah really did not see her," Ezra said as he set his glass down. He turned to face both men. "Ah was waiting for Chris to join us."
"Uh-oh," Kid said as he looked to his partner, confused. "I swear nothing happened."
Heyes looked annoyed. Ezra asked, "Why might something have happened that you say did not happen?"
Heyes answered with a nod to Kid. "He wasn't supposed to go out while I slept."
"But I did and nothing happened. And just so you understand how dumb H … his complaint is," the blond said, nearly letting slip his partner's real name, "all I did was walk to the bakery. It's right out in front of this room! I had a nice talk with Casey, a delicious scone, and then I took a stroll around Ben and Dottie's store," Kid said in his defense.
Heyes stared at his long-time friend. "Go ahead, tell him the rest." Kid stared angrily at his partner. "Tell him."
"Nothing happened. I just, you know, there were some kids, little friends of Jeremiah. He came running out from the back to spend time with them, and then he dragged them over to me. Dottie assured the parents that it was all right for them to spend time with me. But Jeremiah wanted me to show them my gun. And then he wanted me to show them how fast of a fast draw I was."
Ezra frowned and then asked, "Really?"
"Shit, Ezra. I know what you're gonna say," Kid said.
"Ah doubt that. Was anyone left overly suspicious?"
"No, and that's because I made it a game," Kid started as he looked at Ezra, then finished, turning to Heyes, "which it was."
"You fail to see the point. You're being purposefully obtuse," Heyes accused.
"And you're being stupid."
"Ditto, cousin!" Heyes said as he rose quickly from his chair and stormed over to the windows looking out to Dottie and Ben's garden
"Nothing. Happened." Kid and Heyes were clearly at odds on this event. Ezra stepped in as mediator.
"Very well, you two. Thaddeus, something could have happened. Indeed, it could have been very bad. It could have meant that you two gentlemen would need to make yourselves scarce well-sooner than your partner would be ready. Ah have experience within mah own inner circle of friends not listening about considering mah health when taking certain actions in the past. Ah am afraid Ah must side with Joshua. But Ah would wish for you two not to be at odds ovah this. It will not benefit either one of you."
"That's fine. We never stay mad at each other for very long, anyway. But you were being obtuse, Thaddeus."
"Yeah? Well, I'll accept that, so long as you'll accept that you … weren't being stupid." Kid smiled. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that about you. It's never true. I guess … " Kid started, but he stopped as he combed his fingers through his hair. Heyes walked back and stood before his partner.
"I accept your apology," he said, his dimples showing, deep and warm against the loving smile. They hugged lightly.
"Nicely done. Now, please sit. It seems that Chris is not going to make it. We have something to discuss."
"We do?" Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry asked in unison.
Ezra smiled. "We do. Ah was hoping that Chris would be here to report on whether he had heard back from the judge."
"Chris is getting a telegraph from the judge about us?" Kid asked. He looked to Heyes. "That doesn't sound good."
"It is fine," Ezra answered as he looked to the exit. "The telegraph isn't directly about you two. What could be taking him so long?" The three men sat quietly for just a moment before they heard the jingle of spurs. "Ah, here he comes."
"Door's open!" Kid called. Chris Larabee walked in.
"You are late," Ezra accused.
"Yeah, well, you'll like the reason why."
"Is that so?" Chris grabbed another chair and pulled it over to where Heyes and Ezra sat in the comfortable, cushioned chairs, and Kid sat in one of the dining chairs. "It's getting a little cool out there. You might want to start a fire in that stove."
Ezra, Heyes and Kid looked to one another. "He's not wrong," Heyes said. He moved to get up.
"I'll do it," Thaddeus said as he first headed around the room to close the windows.
"So, Ah will be happy with the reason you are late. Would you care to enlighten me?"
"Sure. Can I get a glass of that first?"
"Be our guest," Heyes said. "Or actually, I guess I should say be Ezra's guest."
"No, this is your bourbon. You should do with it as you wish."
"Then go ahead and pour yourself a drink, Chris."
"Thanks. So, Ezra, you know that wagon full of some silver but a lot of gold dust?"
"Ah would imagine the 'a lot' is yet to be determined."
"Yeah. Martin Graham was found. Dead. About three miles out of town, just off the road to Cramer's mine."
"Ah am feelin' rather disconcerted that you would think Ah would be happy that a man was found dead."
"No, not about that. Graham had no surviving relatives. However much money that wagon full of silver and gold can get, it belongs to the town now," Chris explained.
"Really? That is interesting," Ezra said. He looked about the room, but said nothing more as he took a sip of his drink.
Chris frowned. He knew Ezra was thinking about how to spend all of that money, he wouldn't be Ezra Standish if he didn't have ideas about how to spend found money.
"The town is going to pay for the stairs to be rebuilt up to the clinic. They're also going to spend some money to lure other towns to pitch in to get the grain exchange going."
"Is that right?"
Chris was growing irritated. Why wasn't Ezra excited about the news about this money and how the town decided to use the money.
"What is wrong with you? You think that money shouldn't be used for rebuilding the stairs? Or for the exchange?"
"Firstly, allow me to say that Ah am sorry to hear about Mistah Graham. Ah know that several attempts were made to find the man. It is a shame that he could not have been found and that he could not have used his strikes to improve his lot in life. His fathah left him with, for a man like Graham, a small fortune. It could have done him much good save for his relationship with the drink."
"Yeah, it is a shame. But what do you think of the plans for the money?"
"Ah most certainly do believe that some of that money should go toward rebuilding the stairs, it seems apropos. Is there an estimate on how much money the wagonload will bring?"
"Not yet. But the silver alone is at about fourteen thousand." Kid and Heyes both whistled. Chris gave them a dirty look.
"Sorry," Kid replied to the expression sent their way from the former gunslinger. "That's a lot of money."
"It will cost far less than $500 for a much better staircase than was there previously. And some large portion of this money was suggested for use to attempt to lure business for an exchange building that has been mostly vacant for nearly the entire history of this town?" Ezra asked.
"I know you think it's a waste of money to fix up the building and get the exchange moved here from Eagle Bend."
"No, Chris. Ah have nevah said that. Ah said it was a waste of time and any funds whatsoevah to lure the exchange here from Eagle Bend. We do not have a railroad. We will not be able to gain that business without a spur, and there is no plan for a spur. The last railroad line, as you are fully aware, bypassed Four Corners."
"I know that, Ezra," Chris answered, growing angrier the longer he argued. Mary and Robert and several of the business owners had met and discussed the best use of the money. They decided to place a large portion of it in the bank, in an account in Denver, just to have a nest egg for the town and any future endeavors. They had determined that taking the chance to go for the grain exchange made sense in order to make the building worth keeping around.
"Ah believe that, as things stand currently for the town, placing money into any marketing to lure the grain exchange will be a losing effort. Ah believe that renovating the building, in full, is worth the investment. It may be that, without the railroad, we will nevah be in the position to gain the grain exchange. But that building might be appealing to othah business … "
"Like what?" Chris asked, cutting Ezra off.
"Ah do not know, Chris. Ah … "
"Why shut down the chance at using the building for its original purpose if you don't have any suggestion for something else?"
"Was any thought given at all amongst the people who made this decision about how to use the money to possibly take some time to think about what other businesses might be interested in renting or purchasing the building?" Ezra asked.
"I doubt it."
"Well, then you are suggesting that this is, without doubt, the best possible use of the building, even though this town has been shot down in both of the attempts to lure the business from Eagle Bend since we have all made Four Corners our home?"
Chris stared at his law enforcement partner. Damn Ezra Standish for his common sense and logical thinking. "Shit. Okay. I'll take your concerns back to Mary and Robert and the others."
"Were two of the others, by chance, Conklin and Howard?"
"Yes."
"Hm."
"Ezra," Chris growled. Kid and Heyes were growing more uncomfortable as the minutes progressed with these two men going back and forth. Ezra remained relatively calm, but Chris' anger ebbed and flowed. Heyes felt the need to intercede.
"I know I don't have any say in what goes on here, but it seems to me that Ezra has an idea, don't you, Ezra?"
Hannibal Heyes was a very observant man. Ezra smiled. "Ah do. This is not what we were to meet about, but Ah feel that a smarter use of these funds, which would leave a very large portion of the quoted amount for the silver available to place in that account in Denver, is to rent this portion of Ben and Dottie's building."
"Rent this? For what?" Chris asked. "And why would we refurbish the exchange building without figuring out a use for it?"
"The refurbished building gives the town something to show, a very large, newly updated, well lit, nicely ventilated facility for use for rentals, for large regional events, for seasonal festivals like the recent Harvest Festival that Joshua and Ah both missed but that Ah understand was a huge success despite it being reduced to just one day." Both men knew that Dottie had brought Kid some of the tasty offerings made by the ladies of the town. Ezra and Heyes were both down for the full day, days for Ezra, and nearly two for Heyes.
"So, you have ideas for possible uses?" Chris asked.
Ezra sighed. "Ah do, Chris, but Ah would be lyin' to you if Ah said Ah wished to be lured into this particular project to figure out the various options for that building." Ezra looked to Heyes and Curry. "We are here to discuss something else."
"I know we are, but we can't move on to that until we talk about this room and renting it from Ben and Dottie."
Ezra closed and rubbed his eyes.
"Ezra?" Heyes asked, reaching over and patting the gambler's hand. The reforming outlaw felt a kindship with this man, nurtured by significant time spent together these last weeks as well as a shared history of frustrating illness. "You sure you're recovered from your migraine?"
Ezra snorted sarcastically. "Ah nevah said Ah was completely over it, though, truth be told, Ah thought that Ah was. But if Ah recall, Ah said Ah was feelin' bettah."
"All right." Heyes leaned back in his chair. "Why don't we talk about your idea for this room? Then you and I can have a nap," he added with a smile. Heyes would only admit this to Kid, but he really had gotten used to these afternoon naps. He knew that he would not need them, when and if he started feeling like his old self, but he really appreciated them now. "Then we can have supper brought here and we can talk about the judge's telegraph and what you two wanted to talk to us about." He turned to Chris. "Can you join us, say at seven?"
"Yeah, that sounds fine. And maybe we should save talking about this room for then, too. Are you all right with that, Ezra?"
"Ah am amenable to that. Thank you for the suggestion, Joshua. Chris, would you ask Inez to have four of tonight's special prepared for us? As well, could you see if Gloria has any pie available? And we are runnin' low on this delectable bourbon. There is one more bottle that Inez has of this … no worries, Ah have a shipment due in at the beginning of next week."
"I can speak for all of us when I say, thank you for that. But I have to go see Mary and Robert and make sure that they stop with the plans for the marketing campaign."
"Campaign? Oh, good lord, were they already planning to hire a company from Denver or Saint Louis for this?"
"San Francisco."
"Then yes, you have a more important job," Ezra replied. "Thaddeus, do you think you can stay out of trouble long enough to order our food, pick up our liquor and check in with Gloria?" Heyes snorted a laugh.
"That's so funny," Thaddeus said, a little bit amused.
"I ain't afraid o' yer judge. I'll be out o' here before he arrives."
Josiah laughed and said, "Grant, there is no chance that you will escape from this jail. You got no family left. You've made no friends here who're gonna come and break you out. Why don't you just relax and contemplate what you've done. Maybe you can pray for forgiveness."
"You don't know nothin', Josiah. You had your chance when you and those other Magnificent Seven came to rescue that sheriff o' yours. What you did was a mistake. And I was escaped long enough to make arrangements. You just sit back and think on that! You're the ones who'll be hopin' for forgiveness."
Josiah stared into the cell at Mason Grant and did his very best not to project his worry about what the man could possibly mean.
"Vin, I'm tellin' ya, they are Heyes and Curry."
"Now it's both of ya who're bein' stupid," Vin said as he rode back from Nettie Wells' ranch with Buck and J.D. They spent one final afternoon taking measurements of the barn roof. Vin brought back the rough measurements and ordered the materials at the hardware store already, but they wanted to be ready to jump on the build once all of the supplies arrived. They were starting late and there was a necessity that they move quickly and were able to get the roof on in as short a period of time as possible. They would tarp on days where they were forced to leave any work incomplete should bad weather surprise them once the old roof was disassembled and the new one begun. As soon as they had the materials in hand, delivery via freight train being especially fickle out in the high desert, Nettie would work with Vin to schedule all of the volunteer "go-fers" along with Vin, Josiah, Dave Landon, whose father was a builder, and Luigi Del Rossi, who was an expert builder, an immigrant who moved his wife Silvia and daughter Stella from Italy, to start the work and hopefully, with so many hands, finish it in just a couple of days.
"Well, thanks, Vin," Buck said. "But I'm tellin' ya that Chris and Ezra were actin' funny. And you know the kid has a good grip on all those wanted posters. He hasn't let us down yet when he's noticed someone in town whose description or face was something he saw on a poster. Well," Buck added after he realized what he said, "not since that one time …."
"Thanks for the reminder, Buck."
"Sorry, J.D."
"And that's happened, three times?" Vin challenged. And he stared at J.D., making sure he recalled that the one time he messed up had been costly.
"So?" J.D. asked.
"J.D., they ain't Heyes and Curry. It makes no sense. Judge Travis sent them."
"So?" J.D. asked again.
"J.D., you're not doin' much of a job convincing Vin that you have cause to suspect them."
"You think I do," J.D. said.
"I believe ya. But I don't have a track record … "
"You mean you can't have a track record, Buck. You don't see anything different from one man to the next. You got too many women's faces flittin' around in yer head."
"Flitting around? That's an interesting word choice there, Junior," Buck said.
"Believe me, it's the right word choice," Vin responded sharply.
"It don't really matter. If they are Heyes and Curry, we have an obligation to make sure the town is safe."
"Buck, if you feel you have an obligation, then I would suggest you have a discussion with Chris and the judge when he arrives in a few days. But what you need to do until he gets here is to keep quiet about this. If they ain't Heyes and Curry, you could be jeopardizing the lives of two innocent men and other innocent people if bounty hunters find out that those two could be here. And there are a few bad elements around this town who might take it upon themselves to shoot 'em and bring in the bodies to claim the reward. Hell, Joshua is here to have Nathan help him get better." Vin stopped Peso and turned to Buck and J.D. "If ya get 'em killed, I'll be the first ta let Travis know what you were doin'. Ya got no right ta be doin' this."
"Vin … "
"No," Vin said in a simmering whisper. "I'll talk to Chris. You two, keep quiet. If you wanna keep busy with somethin', spend some extra time at the jail. We think Grant doesn't have anyone who will try to help him get outta jail. But I got a bad feelin' about him. So, fer now, any time you'd think about thinkin' any more about Smith and Jones, go help out at the jail. You understand?"
"Fine," Buck said. Both Buck and Vin waited for the agreement from the young easterner. They didn't hear it.
"J.D.?" Vin demanded.
"Fine!"
Vin figured it was anything but fine.
"Inez cooks like this all the time?" Kid asked.
"You must remembah, this is the cuisine of her people. Her mothah and grandmothah were the most important people in her life. These women made her the strong woman that she is today. She lost both of them before she turned twenty and she believes that the most cherished way to honor them is to remembah the dishes that she learned from them, the cooking that was handed down to her by the people she loved since she was a little girl."
"It's delicious. It seems simple, but it's not, not flavors, texture," Heyes said. "I know we're all familiar with similar dishes that are supposed to have been from Mexico, but this is nothing like those." Many restaurants and saloons would offer up "Mexican" food, but those meals were usually woeful offerings compared to the real thing.
"She will be pleased to hear that you enjoyed her food," Ezra said.
"It's not too spicy for you?" Chris asked. He locked eyes with Ezra and they smiled. The former gunslinger knew that he and Ezra could take it. Chris learned the hard way to be more mindful of what his constitution really could handle. One time on the trail back to town, Chris was sure he had suffered a heart attack when he was, due to a far too spirited consumption, before heading out of the town the judge sent them to help the sheriff with a larger-than-normal gang of thieves and general riff raff, of some of Señorita Juanita's shockingly spicy food, enhanced with her self-described 'salsa muy caliente'. It was heartburn, but Ezra was hard pressed to convince his partner of that fact. It was quite a day, a day most would have said would convince Ezra Standish to never partner with that particular partner on the trail ever again. But something happened on that excursion that convinced Chris Larabee that Ezra Standish really was a man he could trust, someone who, shockingly so, had turned into an excellent lawman and, most surprisingly of all, a good friend.
"Oh, it's spicy, but it's not too much. I guess it depends whether you developed a tolerance for it. We're from Kansas and have spent most of our time as adults up in Wyoming and Utah, but the last couple of years we've been in Texas a lot. And even though we were from Kansas, our moms both liked cooking with peppers. They were easy to grow there," Kid said as he smiled at his best friend.
"Inez will usually announce when she's only made one version of a dish, and it's always the spicier version when she does. Somehow Buck has missed the announcement a couple of times," Chris said with a smirk.
"What Chris is saying is that Buck is easily distracted by Inez' beauty. Ah understand his dilemma," Ezra said with a smile. "But there is nothin' more enjoyable than watching Buck attempt to tolerate something extra spicy that is not one of his women that he has described as such."
"I'll bet," Joshua said with a laugh as he wiped his mouth with his napkin.
"That was a delicious supper. Let's go sit and talk about what we originally were supposed to talk about today," Chris said. "Joshua, help me pour some drinks?"
"Sure."
"And Thaddeus, you can assist me with clearing the table. We have two large baskets for these empty plates and glasses, and for the ones we will dirty for the pie."
"Happy to help, Ezra."
It took no time to pour the drinks or clear the table.
"So. What's going on?" Heyes asked. He declined a glass of bourbon and poured himself a cup of coffee. Nathan and the doctors suggested reducing the intake of both beverages from his diet, but when pressed, Nathan conceded that coffee was the lesser of the two evils.
Chris watched Heyes take a good swallow from his coffee. "How're you feeling?"
Heyes stopped drinking, the coffee cup still touching his lips as he stared at the man who asked the question. And then he remembered that Chris was waiting on a telegraph from Judge Travis. He set the cup on the table between the two upholstered chairs and asked, "Are you asking because the judge wants to know?"
"No, not exactly." Chris looked to the former con man. "Ezra?"
"Jeremy is doing well, but Nathan said … " Ezra started, his throat choking up before he could continue. He tasted his bourbon as he got himself under control and continued, "Nathan says that Jeremy needs to remain in town for the next several weeks, possibly longer. He says that the sutures in that vein need time to heal. He says that he will need to perform another surgery to remove those internal stitches, and then Jeremy will need to remain another week. He must remain still and Nathan wishes for him to recuperate where he can check on him regularly. Only a week after that second surgery, which is four to five weeks from now, will Jeremy be able to return to his home and ranch. He will be on limited activity even after returning to the ranch."
"That sounds rough," Heyes said. "But Jeremy seems pretty smart, practical, from what you've said about him. I'm sure he understands how important it is to listen to Nathan on this."
"He does. But he does not have someone who can run the ranch. Jorge and Rob are very good ranch hands, but they do not have the requisite skills or, perhaps expertise is more appropriate … to run the place. Judge Travis feels that you two do."
Heyes and Curry looked to one another and said, together, "No."
"Is that no because you do not feel up to doing the work, Joshua?" Ezra asked.
"Yes," Kid said, followed by Heyes responding, "No."
"Thaddeus?" Heyes asked.
"You aren't well, you know that."
"I know that. Chris and Ezra know that. But I doubt very much anyone expected me to be back to one hundred percent by now." The dark-haired former outlaw turned to the two lawmen. "So, you are asking both of us to do this because you know I am not up to working full time or doing anything at all physical, right?"
"Forget about that. What about stressful?" Kid asked. "We have said, and Chris and Ezra and the judge know this, that we do not want to jeopardize anyone's lives or well-beings in any way by staying around too long. We've grown fond of a lot of people here. We always said we would not stay if it meant jeopardizing people we cared about."
"But you had agreed to stay at Chris' cottage. You would just be moving in a different direction, the same distance from town," Ezra said.
"Yeah, but we're bound to be in contact with lots more people," Kid suggested.
"Some," Chris agreed. "But Jorge already does some of the greeting of visitors because Jeremy has quite a lot of customers from Mexico. I think we figured that you could handle the scheduling and ordering and things like that, Joshua, and Thaddeus, you could work out with Jorge and Rob and the other ranch hands."
"How many others are there?" Kid asked. "I don't think it makes a lot of sense to be dealing with lots of people."
"There are about a dozen other men, all part-time. They have all been with Jeremy for a very long time."
"Thaddeus, you love horses. You would be good at this. I'm a planner, I'd be good at the management of things."
"Ah do Jeremy's books so Ah could get you started, Joshua. And Ah come out once every othah week or so to help with training the horses." Ezra smiled at Heyes as they both remembered the dressing down Heyes received from the sharp tongue of Nettie Wells when it was revealed that a poker playing dandy might have the requisite skills to be good with horses. Hannibal Heyes had learned a lot since that day, most importantly, to not underestimate what Ezra Standish might be good at.
"Are we doing this for room and board?" Kid asked.
"Yes, as well as ten dollars a week each."
"Whaddya think, Thaddeus?" Heyes asked his oldest, dearest friend. He knew that Kid thought this a bad idea. But he also knew that his friend wanted to make sure they stayed in one place for as long as they possibly could to make sure Heyes had enough time to heal, if that was, as they say, in the cards.
"I'm not real crazy about this. I think it exposes us a little too much. But I want you to have the time you need to get better," Kid said to Heyes. "I feel a bit stuck in a corner here," Kid admitted. "When we were going to be out at your place," he said, nodding to Chris, "it seemed more remote. It felt like we could be safe there, and you and your town could be safe."
"And as you have found out, there is no guarantee that any of us is truly safe," Ezra said. "Jason is dead. We all have to understand that we live in a world where people will do terrible things, even in our relatively peaceful area of the world, and we might be exposed to injury or worse."
"But we think that you should be able to feel comfortable out there. Mason Grant will be found guilty of murder and other crimes, and then he will be sentenced to hang. The fellas who work out there are all good people, they will want to help you both because they want to do what's best for Jeremy. And Ezra and Nathan will still be visiting regularly," Chris assured Heyes and Curry.
"I think we should do it," Heyes said. "We can save up a little money for when we do finally leave."
"Maybe your amnesty will come through and you won't have to," Chris suggested.
"We won't be holding our breaths on that," Kid said. It was obvious to the two lawmen that the reforming outlaws were not holding out much hope that their amnesty would ever come through.
"But we really appreciate the thought, Chris, especially considering how things started out when we first got here," Heyes said.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Chris apologized.
Heyes smiled as he listened to at least the second apology from the leader of The Magnificent Seven. Then Heyes, Chris and Ezra turned to Kid Curry, waiting on him to make the final call, because Hannibal Heyes knew that forcing his partner to stay would be, at best, a recipe for disaster, and at worst, an excuse for him to bolt. He had to be the decider on this.
Heyes leaned forward, placed his hand on the wrist of the dearest person in his life and said, ever so softly, just barely loud enough for Ezra and Chris to hear, "Kid? It's your call. Whatever you want."
Kid Curry turned to Hannibal Heyes. That look. Kid had seen it hundreds of times in his life. But somehow this time, at this moment, the need and the hope, the friendship and the love … Kid blinked, his eyes suddenly stung with held back tears. He took the hand not held down by the warmth emanating from his best friend, and tapped the hand holding his down. It was an action more often taken by Hannibal Heyes, he had always been more demonstrative of their love. But Kid Curry had before him a man who he had looked up to all of their lives. He'd learned well. He learned that, sometimes, indeed most times, his partner had not steered him wrong.
"All right. We'll do this thing."
"Good," Chris and Ezra said at the same time.
Kid stood, grabbed his napkin and wiped his eyes dry. He turned back to the three men and said, "There was something else you wanted to talk to us about?"
"Yes. We are going to suggest to the town that some of that money from the silver and alleged gold … "
"Ezra, they say it's gold," Chris assured his friend.
"Ah say we should say it is not until it has been officially determined that it is."
"All right. So, what is this idea you have for this room?"
"This room should be the new clinic."
Chris' eyes grew wide as he looked around the room, realized the benefit of the indoor water, the outhouse just steps away. And speaking of steps … no stairs.
"Hell, Ezra. Why did it take you so long to come up with this idea?"
"Chris? Um," Heyes started, not wanting to anger the man. He purposefully went nice and slow. "He's had quite a few distractions since we've been here, not the least of which is minding the two of us," he said with a grin. "And you all only recently found out that the money now belonged to the town. And the staircase, I'm thinking, was your trigger," he looked to Ezra, "for putting this all together, am I right?" Heyes asked.
Chris looked to Kid. "These two are way too much alike."
"It's a little scary."
"Shut up," Ezra and Heyes said to their respective partners.
Chris and Kid laughed. Chris said, "So what did you want to talk to all three of us for?"
"To be fair, Ah just wished to try the presentation on someone with a bit of a history of hair trigger reactions."
"I'm thinking he must be talking about you," Chris said to Kid.
"If it was true that I was like that, you'd already be dead," Kid returned.
Chris looked to Heyes. "He's not lyin'," the dark-haired half of the reforming outlaw pair said.
"You are so amusing, Chris." Ezra looked to the other two men in the room. "As though there were people in this town who would not know exactly about whom Ah spoke." The card sharp turned back to Chris. "So, you think it a good use of some of the funds? Ah believe there might be some improvements to the wet room, add a drain for a bath. The main room is quite large, it currently contains three beds, a small dining table, four dining chairs, two upholstered chairs, several occasional tables. When you consider the space up in the current clinic, Ah feel there is nearly four times as much room here. We could cordon off a room for Nathan's quarters and still have an amazing space. There could be room for three beds. Much more storage area."
"How much of the money do you think would be needed to make this a functioning clinic?"
"Ah am not certain, but Ah have been thinkin' about it quite a lot. To do it just once, without anything outlandish, Ah believe one thousand dollars would be sufficient."
"But you've got an outlandish idea in the back of your mind?" Heyes asked.
"I'm looking forward to hearing this," Kid said.
"Me, too," Chris agreed with a frown. Did Ezra come up with a shinier plan now that he knew there was money to fund it?
"Mah thought was that we would build a loft for Nathan's quarters, accessed by a full staircase, under which would be positioned significant built-in storage. The loft would be built at the front, the elevation inset from the bakery. That new wall would be where one of two windows would be included. The window would be framed to go along with other enhancements to the front of the building to give Ben and Dottie what they might desire to add charm to the bakery. We would want to assure that, should this town still be around when a more modern sewer system were to be considered, we would be able to easily add in an indoor toilet. The room itself, except for the staircase and storage, does not require significant change. We simply need to decide the most effective positioning of beds, decide if two or three are needed, how much room to allocate to Nathan's workspace."
Chris, Heyes and Kid sat back, dumbfounded at how complete and vivid were Ezra's descriptions of what the space could be.
"Wow," Kid finally said.
"That's one way of putting it, Thaddeus," Chris added. "It will be quite a place, Ez. I would have no qualms about suggesting this to the committee figuring out the best use of the funds from the silver. How many times has, well, everyone suggested that Nate needed to have the clinic on the ground floor?"
"Ah know that Ah would appreciate not having to be carted up rickety stairs by Josiah, or Buck and Tiny, or any other of the large men who Ah was certain would one day take the staircase down, mah person flying out of their arms and covered in wood and large humans."
"You might not be a behemoth like Buck, but you are a damned solid human. I know that because I had you plastered on top of me when the schoolhouse blew up." Chris looked at Heyes and Kid's perplexed expressions. "It's a long story."
"I feel like we're gonna have to play catch up on some of these stories," Heyes said.
"All right." Chris stood, then said, "I guess I should go let Mary know what we're thinking."
"Are you sure you wish to do that just now?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Chris asked.
"Well," Ezra said as he looked to the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West, "Ah suppose we could split Chris' piece of pie equitably amongst we three."
"Like hell," Chris said as he sat his ass back down in his chair.
"I don't know why he won't listen."
"J.D., he explained how it is. I think you need to accept it. Besides, those two have made a lot of friends here. They seem like decent fellas. Smith likely saved you from gettin' shot."
"Buck, I don't see how they're friends of the judge. And it don't matter that he might've kept Grant from shooting me if he turns around and robs the bank. Aren't they a little young to be his friends, anyway?" the young sheriff asked as he and his 'big brother' sat in front of the jail. They had kept their voices down, not wanting the prisoner to hear their conversation.
"Kid, I hope you don't talk like that around Nettie," Buck said.
"Why would I talk like that around Nettie?"
"Why do you say things like that about the judge? Has Judge Travis ever given you the impression that he couldn't handle himself, in spite of his age?" J.D. looked beyond his friend, his expression changing immediately. "What's wrong?"
"Vin and Chris are heading in this direction from Ben and Dottie's place. They're looking right at us."
Chris joined the two of them at the livery the previous day, at the appointed time. He took Buck and J.D. out behind the corrals and stood under the big cottonwood. And he let them have it.
"I have heard enough from both of you. I am going to tell you how it is. You're going to stop this nonsense. Judge Travis sent those two here because he cares about them. Evie thinks of them as her sons. They love them. They are praying back in Santa Fe for them."
"But Chris, that doesn't mean … "
"What, J.D.? That doesn't mean that they aren't Heyes and Curry? I don't understand this. We've had plenty of other things to keep us busy lately, but you seem extra focused on those two. It's a good thing that you've kept your concerns to yourself, for the most part," Chris said as he turned to look at his oldest friend. Buck hadn't helped matters, seeming to side with J.D. on the question of whether Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones were really Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry. But Chris had grown to like the two men. They seemed earnest in their desire to refrain from criminal activity. They made more friends more quickly with the citizens of his town than anybody ever had. The women loved them, so did the kids. They were damned good company. And they both had made it their job to help Ezra, through recent injury and illness, now with this recent loss and serious injury to Jeremy, even with Ezra's continuing recovery from the loss of Fred. Chris Larabee would be damned if he would allow this 'investigation' he'd heard that J.D. had undertaken – thank god for Vin's calm demeanor and level head – to continue. Once again, Ezra had been right: J.D. Dunne was the one to worry about. The former con man turned out to be wrong about Nettie Wells, but Chris doubted there was a woman in town who hadn't been charmed by one or the other, or both, of the visitors.
"Whaddya mean?" J.D. asked.
"Because you'd look pretty dumb to the entire town if you started spouting off rumors like this."
"I wouldn't call it rumors," J.D. said. He looked ready to say more, but Chris cut him off.
"If it ain't rumors then what it is is lies." Chris walked up closer to the town's sheriff. "Heyes and Curry are wanted by the law. If what you've been sayin' about Joshua and Thaddeus got out, you could be responsible for getting two innocent men killed."
Buck said, "Don't you think you're goin' a little overboard, old pard?"
"No, Buck. Innocent men. One's sick, the other is worried sick. They're here for peace and quiet. I was hoping we wouldn't see much of them once they agreed to stay at the cottage. Do you know why they were heading in for the Harvest Festival?"
"Probably to drink and eat some of Dottie Pikes pretty pastries," Buck said. "I, on the other hand, was planning to stick close to see pretties of another kind." Even in the middle of a serious discussion, Buck could be counted on to bring his favorite pastime up to lighten the atmosphere.
"Nobody cares about that, Buck," J.D. said. The ladies' man reached over quickly and knocked his 'little brother's' Bat Masterson-like hat off his head.
"Buck!" J.D. yelled.
"Settle down, both of you. And keep it down. Joshua wanted to come to town, against his partner's wishes, because there's nothing Thaddeus wants more than to get his best friend healthy and to keep him healthy a good, long time. I should think you two would understand that. But Joshua? He wants to see Nettie. That day him and Thaddeus, Vin, Ezra and Nate headed out there, apparently the two of them hit it off like they'd known each other forever. It didn't start off like that. I hear Nettie took offense to something Joshua said about Ez. Don't know all the details, but he cares for an old woman that he met just a couple of weeks ago, and he was willing to accept a setback in any progress he was making in getting better to make sure he saw her. Does that sound like something Hannibal Heyes or Kid Curry would do?"
"You know, Chris, them two never hurt or killed anyone in all the trains and banks they robbed."
"Really, Buck?"
"I'm just sayin', just because a man gets stuck in a life of crime doesn't mean that he can't have warm feelins for someone."
Chris shook his head. "You two are driving me nuts. I am asking you nice to drop this. If you can't drop it, I promise you I will find you a job to do that you won't like, and you'll be on the road doin' it until they are ready to leave. I cannot have Judge Travis come storming back here because he heard what you've been hinting at, J.D., or worse, having to come back to check on one of them being taken or injured or killed because a bounty hunter knew they were Heyes and Curry because two of the law of Four Corners said they were. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I hear and I understand," Buck said, a clear indication that J.D. should answer in the same manner. J.D. did … sort of.
"Yeah." The young man paused briefly, then added, "Where would you be sending us?"
Chris and Buck stared the easterner down. "I … I don't need to know," J.D. conceded.
Chris stormed away from the two men and would-be brothers. And Buck looked to J.D, telling him without saying word one that this line of investigation, hell, that this line of thought, was through. He followed Chris away from the corrals. The tall blond headed behind the buildings, obviously making his way to Mary at her place at the back of The Clarion. Buck appeared headed to the Gem Hotel, or maybe Virginia's Hotel, for a late afternoon rendezvous. And J.D.? He needed to think so he started a walk around town, dusk soon approaching.
"Do you think they'll still be here at Christmas?" Casey Wells asked her fellow planners of the Christmas party. Several days had passed since Ezra offered up his idea about the building owned by Dottie and Ben to be used as the new clinic, with a loft added for Nathan's private quarters. The owners of the building were thrilled by the idea. Mary, Gloria and Robert, too, found the idea "inspired", "thoughtful" and "genius" by the three town leaders, not so much by the Conklin types of the town, who were most likely upset that one of their vacant buildings wasn't chosen and they would lose out on the rental income from the money from the silver and gold that was now legally owned by the town. Gloria and Mary just finished telling their fellow planners of the plan for the clinic, but some were overly focused on "Smith and Jones" after Mary mentioned how beneficial the room would be for a clinic after it had been used as a surgery for both Ezra and Heyes.
"I don't know, Casey. They are still working over at Jeremy's ranch. But Ezra's had to go there quite a lot to help out. Joshua's just not able to put in as many hours as he had hoped," Mary said.
"It's so strange. Some days he seems perfectly fine," Gloria said. "I feel just terrible for him."
"And poor Thaddeus. He wants him better so badly, but I can see him thinking that he may never get better," Dottie said.
"You've seen them lately?" Casey asked.
"Yeah. Ben let me take supplies out there, so long as I had a chaperone."
"Who was your chaperone?"
"Nettie," Dottie said with a smile.
"Nettie?" Mary asked, looking to her fellow party planner.
"Me and my Spencer carbine," the old rancher explained.
"Ben is impressed by Nettie. For a change, it's not because of her baking," Dottie said with a laugh.
"How is everyone out there? I had breakfast with Jeremy this morning. He's so disappointed that he hasn't improved more," Gloria said.
"He's disappointed that he hasn't healed fast enough to get him back out to his ranch," Mary said. "Back home."
"Can't blame him for that," Nettie said. "Jeremy's been under Mr. Jackson's care now for four weeks. He wants to make sure there is no chance that vein might burst from walking. It's important that Jeremy heal completely."
"We know. At least he's feeling better," Dottie said. "And Button has been a joy to have around." She sighed and shook her head. "Thank goodness you were able to make a nice space for him in your back room, Gloria. I know I would have gone mad with all that noise from the saloon."
"I had to make it happen. I wish I'd offered it sooner. It's a shame we didn't think of that before the work started on your place, Dottie."
"I think the move is part of what has him feeling so much better." Dottie sighed again. "Unfortunately, you can't say the same for how Joshua's feeling on any given day." Everyone knew the truth of that sentiment. They also were all pretty sure that this sigh from the young mother and business owner was about many things: a little about how important that little dog had been to Jeremy's healing, mind if not yet body. Some was about how Dottie wished that Ezra Standish still had the dog that had done the same for him so many times. But much of it was her worry for how the man they had all fallen for, Joshua Smith, was having such difficulty in his own recovery.
"Joshua is very open about his troubles. I understand that Doc Wharton, when he was visiting last week, gave him a serious talking to about what it means to be restful. What he's been doing isn't enough," Mary explained.
"It must be very hard to remain in the office when there are things he wants to help with out at the ranch that he would have been able to do with little effort and little danger to his health in his past," Nettie explained.
"Doc Wharton has told Joshua and Thaddeus, and I heard this from Chris so please don't say anything to anyone outside of our group here," Mary said as she looked to Casey, "that Joshua needs to work a short day, that he's not resting when he grows tired and that he really does need to not do anything physical. Chris said that when he was out there with the doctor that Joshua took two potential customers to the corral behind the house and pulled the gate open for the visitors to inspect two horses. They stood out there, walked around each of the horses, then Joshua opened the gate again and took them to the large barn where Jeremy keeps some examples of wagons that he can have fabricated by a man he works with in Las Vegas, New Mexico, not far from Oren's ranch."
"Why would he do that?" Casey asked. "Doesn't be want to get better?"
"I don't think we can blame Joshua. There are many reasons why he feels that he can't just sit there. He doesn't seem to be able to get it into his head that walking around actually is a strain on his body. I wonder how good of an idea this was to have him help Jeremy through this time," Dottie said.
"I think it's going to be a moot point after today. Chris doesn't want to give Oren a bad update when he and Evie arrive the day after tomorrow. He's going to ask Ezra if he would stay out there while Jeremy's still here," Mary said.
"That's a good decision," Nettie said. The judge had been delayed in getting to Four Corners for several weeks due to a couple of last-minute trials in Santa Fe and then a very bad cold that had him in bed for nearly two weeks. Mason Grant was still in their jail, awaiting his own trial. Only Mary among this group of the townspeople knew about how unstable Grant had been acting. The newspaper publisher was anxious for this trial to be over with and for Grant to be gone from her town. Chris' worry about the man and the comments he'd made about escaping put the former gunslinger on edge. Mary sensed her man's tension increase every day that Grant remained in their town.
"What about the children?" Gloria asked. "I know that Ezra has lessons planned for the next weeks. I have the reading lists for my children. I know that it takes the children through next week."
"We're going to have to handle that ourselves, Gloria," Mary said. "We've agreed that the parents need to make sure the children read their assigned books and do their homework and special assignments. The Christmas break will be longer, there just is no way that Ezra can keep things going with the children while he's out at Jeremy's. Abigail and I will lead the instruction for the rest of this week. We have to do this. That poor man has to be given a better chance to recover if he ever will. I know that we all want that for him. He's a lovely man, isn't he?"
"He is," Dottie said. "I know they've lived a hard life. I hope that, once he is feeling better, that maybe he and Thaddeus could settle down, maybe here in Four Corners."
"Well, I know we didn't meet today to discuss Joshua, Thaddeus, Ezra and Jeremy," Gloria said. "Shall we get down to business on final plans for the Christmas party?"
"We should," Nettie said. "Casey and I still have to do our shopping and get back to do a final look at that new roof the fellas have been installing."
"I'm sure it's fine, Nettie," Casey said.
"I agree. Vin and Josiah will make sure of it," Mary said. "Now, first on the agenda: the menu."
Early evening saw a gathering at the jail.
"Josiah, you're late," Buck said as the town's man of the cloth stepped into the jail.
"'m here now," he replied. He walked over to the desk, sat in the chair, folded his arms over his chest and proceeded to sit and say nothing more.
Buck looked to Marty Ellison. Marty shrugged his shoulders. Buck said, "Josiah, you awake under there?" The man who continued to perform his penance by fixing up the church had tipped his hat over his face.
"Yeah."
"You know that you're here to watch the prisoner, right?"
"He ain't goin' nowhere," Josiah replied.
"Josiah, I know he's been here a long time, but we still need to keep alert," Marty said.
"I can hear, I ain't deaf. We'll be fine watchin' 'im."
"Josiah, you been drinkin'?" Buck asked. He didn't feel right about leaving Marty with Josiah when he got like this. And even if the big man hadn't been drinking, there was obviously something wrong. Josiah did tend to dwell on things, drunk or sober. But when it came to watching a prisoner, dwelling on something other than the task at hand could be dangerous. Chris and the rest of The Seven didn't think there was anything to the garbage Mason Grant continued to spew about getting sprung from the jail, but that was no reason to not be completely awake and aware while any of them took a turn watching the jail, especially when there was a murderer in one of the jail cells.
"I'm fine."
Buck looked to Marty and said, "I'll send Chris over."
"I think that's a good idea," Marty answered.
Buck left the jail. Marty tried speaking to his partner this night. He was only scheduled to work the first two hours of the shift. Chris wanted the men who helped out at the jail when it was full or when their own number were short to always get home to wives and kids. Marty was one of the few who had both.
"Josiah, do you wanna talk about it?"
"There ain't no it, Marty," Josiah groused.
"I dunno. Seems to me that there is. How's everything at Nettie's?"
"Roof's done."
"That's good. Nettie happy with it?"
"How would I know?"
Marty decided at that point that he would stop trying to engage Josiah in conversation. There seemed little point. He knew that Nettie was heading back home to take a look at the work that had been done at the old rancher's place. He helped her load her wagon as he was heading home for a late afternoon meal with his wife and kids, knowing that he would be arriving home after his children were already in bed this night. Nettie told him how grateful she was for everyone who helped get the roof up in just a matter of days. A complete new roof in two and a half days could not have happened without all of those hard workers and the extra hands who volunteered to keep the supplies coming, the water and cloths at the ready to keep everyone hydrated and the sweat sopped up. She said she was told to head back to inspect the roof by four o'clock. So, either Josiah was being obstinate in not answering, or he had not stayed long enough for Nettie to arrive back at her place. There was a story to hear, one way or another. But Marty chose to stay quiet and remain alert since he was the only one fully doing so of the two lawmen in the building, even if he was only of the part-time variety.
A jingle of spurs out on the boardwalk announced that Chris Larabee had arrived. Marty smiled as, no doubt, Buck had some other obligation to attend to and sent Chris back alone to check on Josiah. The door opened.
"Hey, Chris," Marty said. The door opened further and Marty Ellison realized too late his mistake.
"Nope." A gun fired. A man was thrown to the floor by the force of the bullet.
"Hell!" was yelled. Another bullet was fired from the same gun. Another man fell to the floor. The person with the gun grabbed the keys from the post, rushed to unlock the outer cell, tossed the keys to Grant, who, after weeks of watching the keys being handled by various people as they came to remove his chamber pot and have one of the maids from the Gem come and clean the cell weekly, knew which key he needed to grab to get out of his cell quickly.
"Horses are the two in front of Potter's store. Follow me. Heard that Standish is headin' out to Logan's ranch."
"Good. I can get both of 'em." Grant and the other man were out the door fast, neither man left on the floor inside the jailhouse in any shape to follow. They mounted the horses and walked them slowly south, away from the jail, the hat Grant was handed doing a good job in the low light of dusk to keep his identity hidden as the man leisurely riding the second horse also hid his identity as Chris came running from the saloon, Buck ran from the direction of the Ritz hotel, others rushed out into the main avenue, looking to see from where the shots might have been fired.
Mason Grant and the other felon who escaped the prison wagon reached the livery, turned to look at the brand-new staircase leading up to the clinic, then started their horses on the trot that would turn to a gallop once they breeched the space between the church and the grain exchange. With all of the building supplies stacked up on both sides of the avenue for the ongoing work to get the room in Ben and Dottie Pike's building remodeled into the new clinic and Nathan's living quarters, as well as the work just getting started on the exchange building, their escape from town would be made invisible to anyone searching south in just a moment's time.
Grant needed to get out of town. He had planned to find someplace safe to hole up and plan his next moves. But the knowledge that he might be able to take care of two of the men who had wronged him and his family had him single-mindedly hurrying out to Jeremy Logan's place. He would not fail again in his efforts to make this town and certain of its citizens pay. Oh, would they pay.
Gloria Potter ran onto the boardwalk in front of her mercantile. She watched as Chris Larabee and Buck Wilmington came running toward the jail, one from the saloon, the other from the direction of the Ritz Hotel. Robert Merton also stormed over from the in-town home he shared with his wife Abigail and their three children. One more person ran toward her, or rather toward the jailhouse, which was housed just next door to her store. He carried a leather bag and came from the direction of the alley between the saloon and the hardware store. Nathan Jackson still had all of his gear in the back room of the saloon, but that would not be the case for more than after today. As many as would be around to help would do just that as they transferred all of the healer's things back to the room above the livery, up the new staircase. It would be a temporary shift of all of his supplies until the work at the building beside the Pike's store was finished being worked on and would, finally, be open for business as the healer's new clinic, the added loft his new living space. The saloon's back room was needed for the annual Christmas party.
"Chris," she called to the leader of The Seven.
"I'll be right back," he said as he ran into the jail. "Hell," she heard him say as he peered into the window and then rushed through the open door.
"Ah, damn it," Buck said as he ran up not far behind his old friend. Robert was next to enter. "I'm gonna go get Nate."
"He's coming," Robert said. "Damn it," the rancher said as he saw Marty Ellison on the floor, seemingly unconscious, bleeding high on his chest, his red shirt stained dark with blood. He leaned out the door. "Nate! Hurry!" He looked to Chris. "How's Josiah?"
"I'm fine. Leave me alone!" the big man bellowed. He started to remove himself from the floor, but Chris held him down.
"Stay down, Josiah. You've been shot."
"Get out of my way, Chris," the preacher said. He got to his feet, and then fell back into the chair.
"Stay there, Josiah."
"Chris," Josiah growled.
"Damn," Nathan said as he skidded to a stop, on his knees beside Marty. "Who knows what happened."
"Need you to stay at least long enough to tell us what happened."
"Where do you think you're goin', old man? You got blood all down the side of your face."
"Bullet just skimmed my forehead."
"I'll decide what the bullet did," Nathan replied. "But you're conscious," he added as he started checking on the occasional lawman. He removed Marty's shirt as much as he could to get an initial look. "This isn't good, but it's not why he's not conscious. Josiah, did they hit him?" No answer had Nathan look toward his friend. "Josiah?" No response.
"Josiah?" Chris asked.
"Damn," Nathan said. He showed his fingers to Chris. "Blood, on the back of his head. Marty," the healer called loudly. He tapped his cheek. "Marty!" The lawman's eyes moved under still-closed lids. He groaned. "Good, Marty. Come on, can you wake for me?"
"Josiah, did you see what happened?" Chris asked. "It could help Nathan … "
"I didn't see! By the time I raised my head, Marty was already shot, then I got hit. Then I … I … "
"Nath'n," Marty murmured. Vin showed up.
"Hell," he said. "Grant?" he asked Chris.
"That's good," Nathan said. "Don't move," the healer added as he set a folded-up set of towels under Marty's head. "I'm going to check this wound first," Nathan said as he began to wipe the blood from the bullet hole, now able to see that the shot hit the part-time lawman well up on his shoulder. He didn't even feel that there had been any damage to bone.
"He's escaped, Vin," Chris replied to his best friend.
"He'll go after Jeremy. Who's with Jeremy?" the tracker asked.
"Gotta follow Grant," Marty said painfully.
J.D. arrived at that moment. "Oh, no!" he said.
"Marty's right. We've gotta check on Jeremy," Vin insisted. Marty tried to get up.
"No, you don't," the black man said, keeping his hand on Marty's chest. "Don't move."
"Not me. Chris. Buck. Grant's goin' to Jer'my's place," Marty said.
"Jeremy's still here, Marty," Buck said. "He's safe."
"Shit. Ezra," Vin said. His distress at what Marty just said was profound.
"No. Ezra," Marty said at the same time.
"Shit. Ezra's on his way out to Jeremy's to help out Joshua and Thaddeus," Chris reminded them all.
"Hell," Buck said.
"J.D., stay with Nathan. I'll have Gloria come over, or get her to get Mary. Vin, Buck, Robert, you're with me. Let's ride."
The four men left the jail in a hurry. Chris saw Gloria Potter.
"Gloria, can you help Nate and J.D. Or find Mary?"
"Yes, but Chris. I saw the man who helped Mr. Grant escape. They are riding horses that were tied up in front of my store. Mr. Grant has a large hat, similar to Josiah's. He's got a black jacket. The other man has a brown hat, brown coat. One horse is nearly pitch black. The other looks a little like Buck's Clyde. They headed south."
"Thanks, Gloria. We know they're heading out to Jeremy's place."
"Oh, no. Mr. Smith is there, as well as Mr. Jones. But Mr. Smith … "
"I know. Ezra's on his way out there, too." Chris rubbed her arm. "It'll be fine. We've got to go."
"I will close early and help Nathan and J.D. Please be careful," she implored the leader of The Magnificent Seven."
"We will."
Ezra arrived at the ranch just as dusk turned to dark. He tied Chaucer out in front of the house. The front door opened and Kid Curry greeted him.
"Come on in. We're just getting ready to eat."
"Ah would wish to get Chaucer comfortable in a stall in the barn first."
"Let me tell Joshua. Be right back." And he was, just a moment later. "Does he have a preferred stall?"
Ezra smiled. "He does. How did you know that?"
"He seems the type. Or maybe it's his owner that seems the type," Kid smiled back.
"Well, he does indeed prefer the front stall on the far side of the barn, away from the drive."
"That's the one I would choose."
"Ah as well. How is Joshua today?" They led Chaucer over to the barn, let him into the corral where he could, and would, get a good drink of water and graze for a few minutes while they prepared the stall with fresh grain and another layer of fresh straw. Ezra pulled a brush out for a quick grooming.
Kid shook his head. "It's harder for him than we thought it would be. He wants to do those things that he's always done, but a lot of that just leaves him spent. Today, he struggled with it, but he did stay in the office a lot. The guys and I handled everything. When I came inside, he was mad as hell. He'd been bored all day. I can tell he's embarrassed by doing nothing. I don't know, Ezra. This might not be working out. I mean, I know it's helping Jeremy, and for that I know Joshua is glad to do his part. But I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure the stress of worrying about not overworking himself combined with the stress and frustration of doing nothing isn't making him look worse."
"Ah am sorry to hear this. Perhaps mah presence will alleviate some of those feelings of frustration and embarrassment. He and Ah can discuss in more detail some plans for the next while over these next days. We can perform some very simple tasks that will not tax his strength. There are no doubt some simple things that we can do around here. And then we can spend more time in discussions of other things to bide his time."
"I don't know how you'll have enough to occupy his time. He's always thinking, planning. He demands a lot of himself."
"Ah know. But it was nevah a plan for him to work full days. He will need to learn that a full fifty percent of his day – his work day - should be spend resting and relaxing. The remainder of his day must be completely restful. Ah can certainly help him learn to relax. Ah excel at leisure."
"That sounds good," Kid said we a smile. "Let's go retrieve your beautiful horse. I'm hungry."
"Very well."
Grant and his helper arrived at the ranch.
"All right. You got a gun and bullets for me?"
"Um, no, I don't. I couldn't get those things. I ain't got no money."
"What the hell good are ya?" Grant yelled. He looked around and quieted down. "Shit. Damn it. If I had a gun, I'd shoot you."
"Guess it's good you don't have one, then. Good luck. Seems like you're gonna need it." The man who escaped from the prison transport turned his horse in the direction of town and headed back the way they came.
"God damn it. I'll just have to get a weapon from one of Logan's barns." He dismounted and started walking up the drive, moving closer to his prey as quietly as possible.
Not far behind, Chris, Buck, Vin and Robert were just a couple of miles from Jeremy's ranch. Chris, Vin and Robert had been back and forth to the ranch to help with various tasks, delivering supplies and spending some time with Heyes and Kid over the last couple of weeks. Robert was eyeing some fresh stock for the wagons he used on this cattle drives. They were well familiar with the road and were able to take their horses on a fairly fast gallop.
When they arrived at Jeremy's drive, they stopped and re-grouped.
"Go in hard?" Vin asked.
"Don't see any reason why not," Chris said.
"I don't know, fellas. Someone shooting at us might be a reason," Buck challenged his friends' thinking.
"How about we fire off some shots. That'll let the fellas know that something's up. We can yell out to them that it's us," Robert suggested.
"Let me head in. Give me five minutes to get to the house. I'll … " Vin's explanation of his plan was interrupted by loud banging and the sound of men fighting. "Hell," Vin said.
"Let's go," Chris said. They charged down the drive and pulled the horses up short when they saw Mason Grant and Ezra fighting.
"Grant!" Chris yelled, echoed by Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes doing the same. Both men were approaching the fight as Chris dismounted, followed by the rest of the riders following from Four Corners. Grant kept on fighting. Ezra seemed to be landing some good hits, though it looked like he was favoring his left side.
"Grant!" Kid called once more, taking a piece of wood from a pile of firewood outside the house and shoving it hard into the escaped felon's back. Grant turned and started to go for the reforming outlaw. Ezra took a couple of steps away and sagged to the ground.
"Thaddeus, step aside." Heyes' partner did as he was told, and Heyes shot at Grant's feet. There was nobody standing behind him, no animals nearby that would be hit. It was worth taking the shot. But Grant would not be deterred until he came for what he wanted. He turned and went after Heyes. Kid stepped in front of Grant's planned trajectory and slammed him hard in the stomach with the same piece of wood he'd attacked him with from the back.
"Oomph," he uttered as he grabbed his stomach. He'd hardly recovered from the multiple gunshot wounds he'd received when he first came back to town to attempt his revenge. But he was a man enraged by his trial and conviction and, to a lesser degree, it seemed, by the death of his son. He went for Kid.
"What the hell with this guy?" the handsome blond said to his partner. He dropped the piece of wood, and when Grant got close, he hauled off and punched him hard on his jaw. Grant crumpled to the ground.
"Good punch," Heyes said as he stepped up to his best friend.
"Ouch," Kid said as he nestled his hand up against his stomach.
"Buck, tie this son-of-a-bitch up. Tight," Chris said as he stepped over to Ezra and Vin. "How ya doin', Ezra?" he asked.
"Shoulder's out," Vin answered for his hurt partner.
"How did … that … " Ezra started, panting through the pain of another separated shoulder, "vile excuse for … a man … escape from our … jail?" the professional poker player asked.
"Grant did have someone help him get out. He wasn't lyin' about that after all," Chris said.
"Wonderful. Was J … Josiah on duty … when this … jailbreak … occurred?"
"Hell," Vin said. "Why ya askin' that? Here, lean against me fer a minute. We'll git ya inside once we get Grant settled.
"Good idea," Ezra said as he leaned heavily against Vin's chest.
"Ezra, answer the question," Chris ordered.
"You all right, Thaddeus?" Buck asked. He hadn't spent too much time in the company of these two men, but one story after another of these men doing the right thing had convinced him that, even if they were Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, they had earned the benefit of the doubt in leaving that knowledge aside. For now.
"Yeah. Punching people in the mouth always stings for a while," Kid answered. Heyes stood by his partner's side, worry written all over his face. He didn't like all these people around. It was too easy for someone to recognize one or both of them.
"All right," Heyes said as he patted Kid's back and ushered them toward where Ezra still rested on the ground. "Ezra, you ready to get up and inside?" he asked. Kid followed behind. The moon and the light cast from the lamps inside the house was the only reason anybody could see now. Heyes stepped around Grant's legs, but he didn't step far enough away. Grant kicked out at him and caught him just right behind the knee. His leg dropped out from under him and he fell to the ground, landing hard as he dove to the left so that he wouldn't fall on Ezra and Vin.
"Hey … Joshua, are you hurt?" Kid asked. He took his leg and shoved hard into Grant's legs, easily moving him six feet away from anyone's reach.
"Robert and Buck, could you tie him up against this hitching post until we're ready to head back to town? Tight!" Chris said, his teeth grinding hard at the added instruction.
"You bet," Robert said.
"Will do, old pard," Buck agreed.
"Joshua?" Ezra asked. He started to rise.
"Sit still," Vin ordered.
"No. Vin, help me up." Ezra was scrambling about enough that he could hurt himself worse than his separated shoulder with another fall.
"All right. Just a minute," Vin said. He stood quickly, then helped Ezra to his feet. The gambler placed his left arm in his vest, between two of the buttons, and then joined Heyes and Curry.
"Joshua?" Ezra asked.
"I'm all right. Grant kicked out at my legs."
"You're sure you're okay?" Kid asked.
"Give me a hand up." Heyes reached his hand to his partner. "Not that hand," Heyes said, annoyed that his partner would offer him the hand that must still be sore from punching Grant.
"Joshua, you are so predictable. That was a joke."
"Then it's no wonder you aren't on the circuit," Heyes grumbled. "Can we leave him out here while we all go inside and check on Ezra's arm and Thaddeus' hand? Is anybody else hurt?" he asked.
"Just you. Looks like you skinned your arm, you're bleeding," Chris said.
Heyes looked at his arm. "That's nothin'. Think we can leave him out here? Looks pretty well tied up."
"Yeah."
"Where's Logan!" Mason Grant yelled.
"Shut up!" Chris said as he followed Ezra and Vin and Heyes and Curry into Jeremy Logan's house.
"'s he in there? Tell that chicken shit to come out and face me!"
"He's not here, Grant. He's still in town, healing," Robert Merton said as he passed by the tied up man.
"What the damn hell!" Grant yelled. "You all knew … " Grant spoke no more as Buck stuffed a piece of cloth in his mouth, and then tied a ready bandanna on to keep it tight.
"Shut up," the handsome ladies' man said as he joined the others inside the house.
"The room looks so festive," Kid Curry said as he sat at a table with his partner, Hannibal Heyes, Ben and Dottie Pike and their son Jeremiah, and Oren and Evie Travis. One of the neighboring tables included Chris Larabee, Mary Travis and her son Billy, Vin Tanner, Nettie Wells and J.D. Dunne and Casey Wells. Ezra Standish's back was to Ben and catty-corner to Dottie at a third table. He was joined at his table by Inez Rocios, Buck Wilmington and one of his lady friends, Nathan Jackson and Jeremy Logan. Nathan agreed to allow Jeremy to join the gathering, but only if he agreed to the babysitting. Jeremy was more than ready to agree to that deal.
Josiah was conspicuously absent. Chris relieved him of duty, for the time being, until the preacher agreed to speak of what was bothering him the day Grant escaped from the jail. Marty, Buck and Chris all agreed that they needed to hear the truth from Josiah and that until they did, there was every possibility for a similar outcome the next time Josiah lacked the ability to focus on his work and not on his problems, whatever they may be. They knew that he had not been to Vista City to visit his sister recently. Whether that was what bothered the man was impossible to know as he continued to refuse to answer any questions about his actions the day both he and Marty were shot during Grant's escape. The discussion that others could have been hurt or killed, with Gloria right next door, others just across the street at the saloon or anybody making their way to and from businesses in town that evening, even children running home for dinner, none of those points would convince the big man who continued his penance fixing up the church to supply a reason for his actions. Josiah told Chris that he would not be in attendance and would spend time in contemplation at the church before retiring early.
All of the people at the tables in the large back room of the saloon managed a good job of alternating men and women. And at the rest of the tables sat more of the well-known faces of the town, including Gloria Potter and her children, Tiny and his family, Yosemite and his, Rafe Mosley and his new wife, Ellen, Rolf and Lisette Heidegger, Robert and Abigail Merton and their three children, Dave Landon, Marty Ellison, his wife and children, the two different Martinez families, the Del Rossi family, Andrew Patterson, many of the men who worked for Robert Merton and Jeremy Logan, and others. Some who did not show up included the usual suspects: Stuart James, Guy Royal, Conklin, Howard, the latest unhelpful banker. There were certainly others who had not taken kindly to the gunmen that Judge Travis hired four years ago to protect their town. They could not have been more wrong about the seven men, plus the addition of the part-time members of the law enforcement team who worked diligently to keep the peace and contributed greatly to making Four Corners the safe and prospering town it was becoming.
Because so many families RSVPd that they would attend, the saloon was closed down for the evening and the room was set up for overflow for the town Christmas party. The tables were tight, some needed to be fabricated to accommodate all of the expected guests. Mary, Chris, Ezra and others were concerned about the number of people packed into the building. The good thing was that the weather was mild, only two stoves were in use, the large cookstove in the kitchen, and the small wood stove in the corner of the back room, where only an occasional log was needed to keep the room comfortable. Much of the food for the feast could be served room temperature. Thick, heavy crocks of varying sizes would hold those foods that needed to be served hot.
"It's so pretty," Gloria said as she turned toward Mary at her table. "We were fortunate to have an excellent year, weather-wise. All of the pine boughs look so healthy and smell so wonderful."
"Mary, you and the ladies did a great job decorating," Chris said. The handsome leader of the law enforcers of Four Corners leaned over and kissed the radiant blonde.
"Thank you, Chris. I would say that we were particularly inspired once we knew that we would no longer need to fear another celebration being ruined by … "
"Might Ah suggest, Mary, that we move on to another topic," Ezra suggested from the nearest table. "Ah see that the judge and the lovely Missus Travis are still in town. How long have they been here now?"
"I think you know how long we've been here now, Ezra," Oren responded, just loud enough for everyone at the two adjoining tables to hear. They smiled at each other as Oren continued, "It was near enough to Christmas that we decided to remain here until a few days before the new year." They were celebrating the holiday on the Saturday before the Monday of the holiday in order for more families to be able to attend. Oren and Evie had been in town for nearly two weeks. Oren arrived, immediately took care of Mason Grant's trial, and sentenced him to hang at dawn the following day. It was an unfortunate circumstance to take place at the holidays, but justice was properly served with the guilty verdict and the hanging, giving everyone a chance to put those unfortunate events to bed for today's celebration.
"You do recall that we have a grandson here, don't you, Ezra?" Evelyn Travis asked as she pulled her grandson over to stand beside her.
"Gramma!" Evie released him, knowing that she would be grabbing for him again before the night was through.
Ezra whispered to Inez, she smiled shyly, and then the gambler rose from his seat, kissing her hand before leaving her to her fellow partiers at their table. "Well, Ah do indeed, Missus Travis," he said as he grabbed a chair and insinuated himself between Heyes and Dottie. "But Ah wonder if these two visitors to our town," he said, pointing his index finger first to Kid and then to Heyes, "might also have been part of your reason for remainin' here so long," Ezra stated emphatically. He knew there were still those among their group who were convinced that Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones were Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry. The only ones who knew as fact the truth of the matter were Ezra and Chris, the judge, Doc Wharton, and this beautiful woman who seemed to lack any trouble in keeping their secret. Ezra wondered if she'd done some acting on the stage in her past. He turned to look at Heyes and Curry and saw that neither of those two men seemed to be very good thespians at the moment.
"I know I can understand why Judge Travis and Mrs. Travis would want to still be here," Dottie said as she sat beside her husband but had Kid Curry in her eyesight beyond Hannibal Heyes and Ezra Standish, who sat to her right. She winked at Heyes and Curry and placed her hand on Ezra's thigh. Ezra rolled his eyes. Chris and Mary laughed, as did some others at both tables. Even Inez rolled her eyes at Dottie's antics.
Chris looked from Dottie to Heyes and Curry, then Ezra, and then he looked at Dottie's husband. "Ben, I think you might be a saint."
"I'm not," Ben said.
"He's not," Dottie said at the same time as her husband. "We have an agreement."
"You do?" Heyes asked, as did Kid, Chris and Ezra. The ladies all laughed.
"Do you ladies all know what the agreement is?" Kid asked.
"We do," Mary and Nettie replied, one from each table.
"Are you going to tell us what it is?" Chris queried.
"No," Dottie, Nettie and Mary answered.
"Are you going to tell me?" Evie Travis asked.
"Of course," Dottie said.
"And me?" Evie's husband questioned, like a judge. He could see from the expressions on Evie and Dottie's faces what the answer was before it was supplied, once again, in unison.
"No," the three ladies who'd answered before answered again.
"But Ben knows?" Kid asked.
"Of course," Dottie offered verbally, followed by an expression that questioned Kid Curry's intelligence.
"We might wish to place our collective heads together and investigate this secret agreement," Ezra said. Inez rolled her eyes at her man and then shook her head.
"Or we could mind our own business," Heyes said, his eyes on his water glass. He looked up at the sudden silence and then around to see worried expressions all around. "I'm sorry, Ezra, that was rude of me. I apologize." He squinted his eyes and seemed to pale immediately.
"Are you trying to stress out my patient, Mr. Standish?" Doc Wharton asked as he pulled a chair up beside Heyes. "It's quite crowded at this table," he said, looking to Ezra. "Behave yourself," the kindly doctor from Durango chastised the gambler. Ezra raised his eyebrows and put his hand to his chest. Doc Wharton raised his hand and waved it in dismissal to the card sharp. "Joshua, are you feeling all right?"
"Sure, Doc," Heyes said quietly. Heyes had admitted to his partner during a recent long night at Jeremy Logan's ranch, just before Ezra started to spend more nights and days with them, that the longer they remained in Four Corners, the more nervous he was feeling. He'd been losing sleep every night for nearly a week with worry. Kid, being a little bit superstitious, decided to let Heyes talk about his worries, but he didn't want to talk about it himself, concerned that whatever he might say, not being the one in their partnership with the silvery tongue, would talk Heyes into leaving when Kid had finally been convinced that they needed to stay for as long as it took for his partner to be truly recovered. To Kid, any danger they might be to the people of this town who had been so kind and welcoming to them, had to take second place to getting Heyes to the point where he wouldn't suddenly keel over dead.
"Come with me a moment?" the kind and observant physician asked. Kid's eyebrows rose and his eyes grew wide at the request.
"Sure, Doc." Heyes stood. Kid started to rise, but his shoulder pressed back down by his partner convinced Kid to remain in his seat. "Be right back," he said to all at the table. "I am truly sorry for what I said earlier," he noted with a smile and an apologetic look toward the professional poker player. He followed the doctor out through the saloon.
"He's not going to steal him, Thaddeus," Dottie said.
"I know, but I … "
"You worry about your partner. I know. But don't worry. Whatever Doc Wharton has to say to him, I'm sure you'll know soon enough."
"I guess … I guess you're right." To the youngest Pike, Kid said, "Hey, Jeremiah, did you write Santa Claus a letter?"
"Yeah. Come with me," the little boy said. He took Kid's hand and dragged him away from the table.
"I guess it's a secret," Ben said to the entire table.
"I guess so," Evie said. The grandmother in her couldn't hide her smile.
"I know what Jeremiah wants," Billy said. Everyone at both tables who could hear Billy were worried that he would reveal the secret, but he immediately continued with, "I'm not sayin'."
"Good boy," Oren, the proud grandfather, said. Evie smiled this time at her husband and grandson.
Conversation continued, Ezra visited from table to table, eliciting smiles and laughter all along the way.
"Do you think he's eyeing a run for mayor?" Evie asked her daughter-in-law.
"I am sure he would if we had a mayor's job. We are still a little small for such worries," Mary replied.
"Not for too much longer, Mary," Oren countered. "I think you might need to begin the efforts to incorporate your town and start thinking about, officially, who would be in charge of things here."
Jeremiah came running back, Kid Curry following behind. Jeremiah continued over to his friend Billy, who stood as he spoke with his mother and Chris, while Kid sat back down in his chair.
"So, did you get the scoop?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, I know what Jeremiah wants, but I'm not sayin'," he answered with a smile, parroting Billy's comment from earlier.
"Good boy," Oren said as the adults at the table laughed. Kid could imagine why he received such a reaction from both the judge and everyone else.
"Well, looks like we're going to have to bring out the equipment," Dottie said to Ben, only loud enough for Ben and Kid to hear.
"The equipment?" Kid asked. He saw Evie look to Oren, both of them smiling with a shake of their heads. He frowned.
"Yeah." The Pikes moved over to sit in the chairs recently vacated by Heyes and Ezra. "We don't know what Jeremiah wants for Christmas," Ben said under his breath. "This is the first year that we are completely in the dark," he said. He leaned over closer to the reforming outlaw, leaning in front of his wife, and whispered again so that only Kid and Dottie could hear. "We're going to have to beat it out of you. You can choose which way you want to do it. A: You can have a straight forward beating, or B: we can throw in the whips and chains." Kid's face paled, at first, then it started to flush up a pretty pink. He looked from one Pike to the next, and then back again, and then Ben and Dottie burst out in wild, loud guffaws.
Judge Oren Travis laughed as he said, "You haven't been here long enough to learn their tricks, Thaddeus?" He hadn't heard any of the detail of this conversation, but the old judge had a pretty good imagination.
Kid's visage paled once again. He pointed his thumb towards the still chuckling couple and asked, "Did you hear wh … what …."
"No, we didn't hear, dear. But we have seen the results of some of Ben and Dottie's jokes," Evie responded.
Thaddeus looked back to the two people who'd nearly caused him to have a heart attack and said, "B."
The Pikes burst into snorts of more uproarious laughter. Kid shook his head and turned to Oren and Evie. "Joshua and the Doc?"
"Still not back," the senior jurist replied.
"I'm thinking …." he started and he made to rise from his chair once more.
"Sit."
Kid Curry knew that sound. From the very moment he'd met Evie Travis, he had thoughts of his and Heyes' mothers. Immediately. And he found, just like his mother and Heyes' mom, he could not say no to this woman, either. He sat back down.
"I'm sure as soon as Joshua can get you someplace quiet, that he will tell you everything that Dr. Wharton told him," Evie said. "Why don't you go chat with Jeremy and Nettie?"
"No. I'll wait for Joshua and the doctor."
Evie leaned over and gave Kid a kiss. "Don't worry," she said as she took his hand in hers, under the table. Then she and Oren turned to watch as Chris and Mary entertained Billy and Jeremiah as the two children animatedly talking as they stood between them.
"Yeah. Like Evie said," Dottie Pike added. Her inflection said that she wasn't through. "You don't tell us Jeremiah's secret and you'll really have something to worry about."
Kid's humor had failed him. He stood and said, "I need some fresh air," and he walked out the back door of the saloon's large event room. Evie looked to the couple and offered a disappointment look.
"Uh-oh," Ben said to his wife.
"I wonder if I'm losing my touch?"
Ben took his wife's hand and pulled it up to his mouth. He kissed it and answered, "Not in the most important way, my love." They shared a chaste kiss as their eyes revealed to each other what un-chaste thoughts they currently shared, with the knowledge of the un-chaste actions they would partake in later in the evening as Jeremiah and Billy enjoyed a sleep-over with the Merton siblings.
"I'd like to spend every minute with you this evening, but I can see it's time to go bring out tonight's feast." Dottie stood to join Inez, Mary, Gloria, Casey and a few of the men to make several trips to the kitchen to bring out all of the food. It was a serve yourself affair, and people lined up at the serving stations quickly.
In the food line, Ezra's face grew worried. "You wanna go check on 'im," Vin stated simply.
"Ah do, but he is a grown man. No doubt he does not need me to run aftah him and hold his hand."
"That ain't what it is. Think you know that."
Ezra turned to look at his good friend. The southerner had been busy this last while. His responsibility to their two visitors, the commitment he'd made to Chris and Oren, to be watchful of his two charges, had kept him away from many of the things that he loved about his now hometown. Heyes' injury early on, then both Heyes' and his own health concerns, followed by what happened with Jeremy, a devastating injury to the man who had helped him through so much, and the loss of their friend and Buddy and the two beautiful horses; Jeremy had needed him, and Ezra was doing everything that he could to assure that the rancher healed well. That effort had taken some of his attention from Hannibal Heyes which, after hearing Nathan's admonishments, he knew what the good doctor from Durango was saying to Heyes, despite having not been apprised of any details. But through all of these weeks of watching and minding and hurting and healing with these two reforming outlaws, two 'very good bad men' as some in the press had dubbed them, and being there for Jeremy, he knew that he had left aside a friendship that was as dear to him as any he'd ever had. That was saying quite a lot after Ezra told the tracker the details of the life, and untimely death, of his brother Daniel. Vin Tanner was the man who helped Ezra the most at the most painful points after his sweet Fred died, a shocking, stunning loss. Vin helped him through the pain of that loss, but also to understand better how he could have forsaken the love of a brother, or rather, allowed his mother to make that so. Ezra owed Vin more than he could ever repay. He felt guilt over the distance he'd forced upon their friendship, but these two simple sentences from his friend told him that Vin understood, that he understood it all, as he usually did.
How had he gotten so lucky? "Do Ah?" Ezra asked.
"Keep goin'. Food's gonna git cold."
"We cannot have that," the professional poker player said with a smile. He wanted to say more, to tell Vin how grateful he was for their friendship. He would not get that chance, because Vin got to it first.
"Know it. Ya don't have ta say it," the former bounty hunter said as he scooped up some potatoes to go with the ham and turkey, the fruit concoction and its tantalizingly wondrous aroma, and the candied yams.
"And now Ah understand."
"What?"
"Your mindreading ability. It explains much of why you are so much bettah than all othahs at tracking."
Vin nodded his head, smiled, then said, "Let's go eat. There's extra seats at my table." He nodded his head that way. J.D. and Casey had switched to Ezra's table. "'Nez won't be back fer a while. Can tell you only took a little food so you could eat with her later."
"Ah would enjoy taking this meal with you, Vin," Ezra replied. "Ah should also say that thank goodness you are on our side. You would be dangerous to have as an enemy."
"Move," Vin said as he pushed his friend forward.
Kid Curry's walk took him to the alley, along beside Digger Dan's Saloon, then to the right, on the boardwalk in front of the cigar shop where Chris Larabee had accosted his partner very early in their time in Four Corners. Kid turned to look back up the avenue, toward the church and noticed the silhouette of Heyes' hat as he sat in a chair on the boardwalk in front of the jail. He knew the other man must be Doc Wharton. He decided to join them, because the skin he had in this game meant that whatever the doctor had to say, Kid had earned the right to hear it. He knew the sound of his boots could be heard, and he knew his partner would recognize the echo of Kid's boots on the wood planks.
"Thaddeus?" Heyes asked.
"You two plan to stay out here all night? Might miss out on the food at this rate," Kid said.
"Did you eat?" Heyes asked.
"No. Figured I'd wait for you two."
"Do you want to go back now, or do you want to hear what I just said to your partner?"
"Can I get in on this?" Chris Larabee asked.
Kid and Heyes shared a look. Then they looked to the doctor.
"It's up to you two," Doc Wharton said.
"Mind if we borrow your office?" Heyes asked Chris.
"Sure. Come on in." They all entered the empty jail as Chris lit a couple of oil lamps. Heyes made sure the door was bolted to avoid being interrupted.
"Can we keep our voices down? I'd rather we not have this information, well, I think it would be best that we keep this knowledge under wraps as best we can," Heyes said. "And it's only a suggestion until you say it's all right, anyway," he said as he looked at Chris.
"Okay. Sit," he said, looking to both Heyes and the doctor. There were only two chairs in the jailhouse; other chairs often made their way to the boardwalk out front. "So, what's the suggestion."
"I think you know that Nathan and I have been dissatisfied Joshua's recovery. No doubt Joshua is more dissatisfied than Nathan and I. I am recommending that these two remain here longer. In fact, I would recommend that they make this their permanent residence for the foreseeable future."
"I would like to make it understood that my agreement with this suggestion is being supplied under duress," Heyes said.
"Joshua, I don't think that is the correct terminology. I understand that you feel that your presence here places every resident here in possible danger. But I feel fairly confident that Chris would courteously disagree with you, considering the amount of danger the two of you have been placed in, and considering how much the two of you have helped so many of the citizens here, protecting them from serious harm, during some of these recent incidents."
"I get that, Doc, but just because we have not brought criminals and underhanded bounty hunters or others who could not care less about injuring others to get to us, to this town, does not mean it's still not a concern." Heyes turned to his partner. "I know you kept your tongue this last while, I know you don't want to say anything that might convince me to tear out of this town and never look back."
"What … " Kid started to say, but Chris spoke passionately and fervently before Kid could say what he wanted to say.
"I hope you would never do that, just leave and never look back. You have made an impression on this town that is almost entirely good. I know I can speak for the entire town … "
"Except for maybe J.D.," Heyes said.
"Yeah, well, he's been kind of quiet lately. I'm hoping Nettie put the fear of, well, Nettie in him." All four men laughed at that. "Look, if the Doc and Nate think you can get over this by making this your home, for however long you need, then I don't see any reason why it can't happen."
"His suggestion includes a whole bunch of caveats," Heyes said.
"What's a caveat?" Kid asked.
"Thank you," Chris said.
"Why don't I tell you what Nathan and I expect and then you'll not need a definition," Doc Wharton said.
"Go ahead."
"Chris, I want them to move back to your cottage. Immediately."
"All right."
"No, Chris, it is not all right. Thaddeus and I made a commitment to Jeremy and Ezra. We are not comfortable leavin' them in a lurch."
"You need to speak for yourself, partner. If Nathan and the Doc think this is what you need, then I am happy to make today my last day that you work there. I can keep working," Kid said.
"Joshua … "
"Doc, don't … "
"Joshua, when was the last time you had one of those seizure-like fainting spells?" the doctor from Durango asked.
"It's been a while since one of them," Kid said. "He's had other tr … troubles … wait a minute. You've had one of them recently?" Kid asked, his eyes pleading with his partner that he was misreading the situation.
Heyes sighed. "Day before yesterday. You, Ezra and the boys at Jeremy's needed to collect all the horses from the far pastures and move them up closer, during those storms. You were all worried about them gettin' stuck out there if there was some bad snow. Turned out to be just a little rain and a lot of wind … "
"Hey!" Kid yelled, not saying his partner's name by mistake, but demanding his partner's attention. He was using all of his not considerable patience to remain where he stood and not walk right up to Heyes and punch him in the face. Heyes could see it even if the others didn't. "I know what the weather was, I was out in it. But I didn't know about this." Kid's short fuse had him walk up to his partner, lean in and poke him hard in the chest. With gritted teeth, he emphasized with a hard finger to Heyes' chest on every other word, "I didn't know about this."
"Hey!" Heyes said.
"That's enough," Chris said as he stepped in between the two men. "Thaddeus, I get why you're mad, but we're here to talk about why you two aren't goin' anywhere. Stop doin' that to him," the tall blond ordered the other tall blond. To Heyes, who was rubbing his now sore chest, Chris said, "This doesn't work if everyone isn't honest about what's happening. Doc? Go ahead."
"Joshua has gone nearly a week sleeping poorly, hardly sleeping, really, eating poorly."
"What?" Kid yelled angrily.
"Thaddeus … "
"I'll take this, Joshua. Thaddeus, shut up. Doc?"
"He has been telling you that he has eaten something earlier when he hasn't, and then only eaten a little when eating with you, for afternoon and evening meals. You have lost weight when you seemed to be doing well," Doc Wharton accused as he looked at Heyes with concern.
Heyes raised one hand as he kept another one resting on his chest. "I admit that I have not been feeling well. Thaddeus, I told you that. And I told you I had not been sleeping well."
"You lied to me. You didn't tell me that you'd hardly been sleeping at all."
"You knew that I wasn't sleeping well, we share a room. I held off telling you about the fainting, or whatever we want to call it, because it was the first one in a very long time. I figured it was lack of sleep and that it wouldn't happen again if, well, maybe it was just wishful thinking," he added as he rubbed his chest some more. "I can only eat so much. It's just … I can't."
"You can, and you will," Doc Wharton insisted. "You and Nathan and I will get together tomorrow and put together a specific diet that will help. I apologize for not doing this sooner. It isn't your fault your body is reacting to things, except, of course, for working too much and not resting enough. That was not news that it was required. Those were my instructions. Nathan is upset with himself for not catching all this sooner."
"Well, he shouldn't be. I didn't see how bad it was and I live with him and have known him all my life," Kid said with an accusatory tone.
Doc Wharton continued. "And that is why you have to leave Jeremy's ranch."
"I know."
"How do we …."
Before Kid could continue, there was a shaking of the door knob, and then a knock at the door, followed by a familiar voice, "Might Ah join the party?" Chris unlocked and then opened the door.
"Come on in."
"Thank you, Chris. Your absence has been noted by far too many. No one has necessarily put together that you are all together. But Ah would suggest placing a bookmark on your discussions and then returning to complete these discussions tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Chris said. He turned to Doc Wharton. "Could we finish this early tomorrow? I know you're catching the noon stage to Eagle Bend to catch the train back to Durango."
"Sure. Is nine o'clock all right?"
"Might Ah suggest that we meet in mah room for the remainder of this meeting? Ah will have Tommy bring up some of the chairs from the back room to mah room tonight so that it is not so obvious to our Detective J.D. Dunne."
"He's not been saying anything tonight, has he?" Chris asked.
"No. The lovely Casey is quite mesmerizing in her holiday attire. Ah believe it is only the third or fourth time we have seen her in such finery. Young J.D. has not left her side, and Miss Casey's smile is truly radiant," Ezra noted with a smile.
"I'd like to get back to see that," Heyes said. "And, don't laugh, I am feeling hungry."
"I hope there's food left for all of us," Kid grumbled.
"Ah will see you all tomorrow at nine in the morning."
"You sure you can do that, Ezra?" Chris asked with a smirk.
"Come along. There will be questions. Luckily, Ah have only been removed from the festivities long enough to hunt you all down. The questions are all yours to answer," Ezra said as he turned for the door. "Do not return all at once." He turned around and said to Heyes, Kid and the doctor, "You three may return together. Just give me a few minutes to return ahead of you. Chris? Ah will tell your lovely fiancée and the others at your table that you left in order to place another bit of salve on Pony's knee."
"They ain't gonna believe that, Ezra."
"Very well. Please do come up with your own story," the gambler said as he shut the door behind him.
"He's not much for giving you a chance to say yes or no."
"That's not true," Heyes said. "Chris said no, more or less. Ezra figured the deal was done."
"Ezra's a pain in the ass," Chris said as he left the jail and turned right toward the livery stable.
"I haven't found that to be the case," Heyes said.
"Me, either," Kid agreed. The partners headed out the door.
"Maybe a little," Doc Wharton said to himself as he followed the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West back to the Christmas party.
"Everything is done?" Inez asked as Ezra unlocked the door and entered his room. He looked up to find the beautiful Mexican woman lazing naked up against his pillows. Lord she was a sight for tired eyes. It took precisely seconds for his eyes to feast on her voluptuousness and for his other parts to recognize what they would be up to in no time.
"Yes. Ah see Tommy has moved some chairs up for tomorrow's meeting." He turned to lock the door.
"He did. He wished me a 'fine good night'. I wonder where he learned such language."
Ezra smiled. "Yes, Ah wonder."
"Why do you need so many chairs?"
"Ah preferred that Mistah Smith and Dr. Wharton have more privacy to discuss his findings after he and Nathan examined Joshua. Ah am afraid the findings are not what he or his partner had hoped. There are too many distractions eating downstairs, even early in the morning." Ezra proceeded to remove his weapons – only two for this festive night – made sure the curtains were fully closed, which they were, but it did not hurt to make sure. He continued to remove his clothes, keeping his eyes from taking in the extraordinary woman in his bed. He hoped that he could make love to this woman, to make the lovemaking last, despite how he sensed that this was likely a losing bet. His presence at Jeremy's place these last weeks had kept him from giving his relationship with Inez the time it needed, the time she deserved. He and Inez had not spent time in the same bed for far too long. Injury, illness, worry, other obligations … Fred. They were terrible excuses, even if they were real ones.
"You are such a good person," Inez said, her voice sultry in her anticipation. Ezra swallowed, took a deep breath, and then turned, naked, to face the gift in his bed.
"Good Lord," he said as he walked up to her. She moved closer to the edge of the feather bed, scooting effortlessly on her knees. They met at the edge. He kissed her, passion, longing, love, all surging through that kiss.
"Oh, god," Inez said. She 'mmmm'd and cried the next utterance. "Madre de dios," she sighed as she pulled Ezra's talented lips down to her breasts. The gambler was naked, and well-hard, certainly ready to join his body with this beautiful woman in his bed. He lifted her, sat on the edge of the bed, resting her on his lap. She fitted herself down, rubbing herself on him with moans of anticipation.
"Ah see," he said as he took first one nipple, laved it, and then moved to take the other one into his mouth, laved and suckled that one and said, "we are through," he continued, stopping to suckle longer on one side, "with the talking ph … phase of the … pro … proceedings." Ezra's mouth remained quite busy outside of the words coming out of it, but Inez not remaining stationary on top of his manhood was going to ruin everything if he didn't stop her right quick. He stood up, lifting her with little effort, placed her still writing body in the center of the bed, and then straddled her, remaining high up and preventing them from touching body-to-body as he looked at her. It wasn't hard as he remained hard, his penis erect and oozing on his own stomach.
Inez' eyes were nearly black with her desire. "We are." Ezra kept casting his eyes up and down at what he had. "What are you doing? Come down here."
"Your wish is mah command," he said as he dove in for a kiss. Hunger took over as they made love, though not as the first time but definitely as one of the most passionate couplings they would ever remember. Ezra began simply and kissed her once more. He left a trail of kisses once he, for the moment, finished with her mouth, moving to her neck, some more attention on her breasts, the sensual rise and fall of her nipples in and out of his mouth as she breathed driving him mad with lust. "Lord, Inez," he said. "Ah want you. Ah need you."
Inez had waited as long as Ezra for this, and she was clearly tired of waiting any longer. She could tell he had slowed things down. She wanted this to last as much as he did, but they had called it an early night when they said goodnight to their fellow revelers. He closed the saloon as she started in on … other things. She was more than ready. She raised herself up to meet him. All of him as she wrapped her legs around him to keep them fitted in place. He smiled at the wonton action.
"¿A qué estamos esperando?" she asked as she pulled him down on top of her. He did not allow his body to rest on her fully. But they were fitted just right. Perfectly, in fact.
"Ni una cosa más, querida." He started to move.
The meal they were to share was left uneaten on the dresser.
"You all right?"
"Why wouldn't I be all right?"
"Kid, now that right there tells me that you're not all right."
Kid Curry stood, grabbed the only chair in their room and set it beside Heyes' bed. Straddling the chair and looking right at his partner, he pointed at Heyes, resting his wrist on the back of the chair and said, "You weren't ever gonna tell me, were you?"
"Kid," the older of the lifelong friends said, but Kid Curry was not having any of what Hannibal Heyes was about to say.
"I ain't a kid, He …!" he yelled, catching himself before he yelled Hannibal Heyes' last name for all to hear who were still in the building, said building being the saloon where he knew – at minimum – Ezra and Inez slept, and were hopefully doing more, down the hall. He knew the other rooms were likely full up with some partiers being offered a bed rather than try to make it home out of town in their inebriated states. But the window was open, too. There were others who might have heard, too, had Kid Curry really let Hannibal Heyes have it.
"I know that. It's a nickname, a sobriquet … "
"Don't do that. You know I don't know what that is. Why do you have to do that?" Kid yelled.
"Kid, you have to keep your voice down. People are trying to sleep," Heyes said, speaking softly for more than just the hope that it would encourage his partner to do the same. He wasn't feeling well, he wasn't sleeping well, he had a headache all the time, and now he was arguing with the person who meant the most to him in the entire world, which was really making him feel like shit.
"Why? Because you still ain't in the mood to be honest?" Heyes stared at his partner, his friend, his 'cousin', then shook his head and turned to look away from the disappointment in his partner's face. He wanted to correct him, they'd both learned that the word ain't never got them very far, that trying to use the language correctly had helped them more than once as they continued to hide in front of the law, in plain sight. But Heyes was smart enough to know that correcting his partner this night was exactly the wrong time for that lesson. "Hey!" Kid said as he slammed his hand onto the mattress. He made Heyes jump, an action that didn't do much for the man's headache or his queasy stomach. "Are you going to answer me?"
"Which question?" Heyes asked, his head now down, as though looking to his clasped hands for guidance in how to handle an extremely aggravated Kid Curry.
"Is that really how the famous Hannibal Heyes, the man known for his skills at planning, at running a gang, at talking himself out of a jam, is that how you're gonna handle this?" his partner asked, his voice finally down to a decent level for the overnight hours. Kid's temper was simmering, that Heyes could tell. But the ill man's head was grateful for at least that. "Have you counted how many times you've called me 'Kid' since we got in this room?" The quiet questiont shut Heyes down right quick. More yelling would have been better than hearing that accusatory tone. A quiet knock on the door interrupted their argument.
Kid had his gun handy and opened the door. "Sorry. Come on in."
"You are fortunate that we have primarily revelers sleeping off their revelry in these rooms tonight."
"Did we wake you and Inez."
"Inez is sleeping soundly. Ah have years of sleeping out in nature that have honed mah instincts to rouse upon hearing unpleasant sounds." Ezra looked over to Heyes. "Are you all right?"
"I've had better nights."
"You don't look very well."
"Thanks for noticing," Heyes said as he rested his head back into his pillows.
"So now you're accusing me of not noticing that you ain't feeling good?"
"Jesus," Heyes said softly as he took another pillow, turned on his side, away from Kid and Ezra, and clasped it searching for some comfort, his eyes closed as he hoped for the throbbing in his head to ease.
"That's very mature of you, Heyes."
"Joshua," Ezra said.
The one word seemed to pull Kid Curry out of his funk. He looked at Heyes and said, "Joshua."
"Leave me alone."
"I don't think I can do that."
"Thaddeus," Ezra said. "Could you go down to the bar, find the bottle of cognac on the far right of the second shelf, behind the wine glasses. Pour you and Ah a drink. Ah will be down shortly."
"I don't … I didn't mean …."
"Please. We will fix whatevah this is." Kid looked sadly at Heyes' back. "Go on."
Kid Curry left the room.
Ezra walked to the far side of the bed and sat on it next to the reforming outlaw. "Is there anything Ah can do for you?"
"Doc left me some, um, pain powder, for the headaches."
"Where?"
Heyes turned to lay on his back. "In the bottom drawer, under the blue shirt."
"Were you hiding this from your partner."
"He … he would only want to argue about it."
"And yet you ended up arguing anyway," Ezra noted as he stood to find the powder. "Does this require warm water?"
"Doc said no."
"Very well." Ezra poured a glass of water and dissolved the powder per the note with instructions sitting in the leather pouch. He brought the glass over. He found Heyes laying with his arm over his eyes. "Joshua," Ezra said gently.
Heyes opened his eyes. "Yeah, sorry." He pushed himself up against the pillows and the headboard. He took the glass.
"You need not apologize," Ezra said as he leaned against the wall near the window. He could see the hints of dampness at Heyes' eyes. The tears did not have to be because of this blowout with his partner, they could just as easily have been because of a blistering headache. Ezra had been there before.
"Sit," Heyes said. Ezra sat on the edge of the bed. The reforming outlaw finished his headache medicine and set the glass on the nightstand. He reached for the glass of water. "That stuff is bitter," he said as he finished the glass.
"Ah wonder how it tastes compared to Nathan's miserable curatives?"
"'Bout the same, 'cept no grit."
"Then bettah?"
"Yep." Heyes closed his eyes again. Ezra watched quietly, but he knew that the man in the bed would, or at least should, fall asleep any moment. But that's not what the gambler wanted. He reached his hand over and rubbed Heyes' forearm. Ezra could see the warm brown eyes once again.
"What happened?"
Heyes shook his head and said, "I did what he and I agreed not to do, ever again. I lied." Heyes scooched up to the headboard once more. "I swear, Ezra, at the time, I felt that I had to. He … he would … I couldn't risk him running. If I told him how poorly I'd been feeling, he would have remembered what we always said, that we shouldn't stay, that we should haul ass when we thought people we cared about might be in danger. He would have figured out what to say to you or Larabee, because he's smarter than he acts, and he would have made sure that I was watched, taken care of, and not be allowed to leave until I really was better, or until it was determined that I might not be able to achieve that."
"That is not going to happen."
"I'm glad someone believes it. Anyway, I messed this up."
"Well, that is not for you to worry about any longer. Your partner now knows most of what the good doctor is suggesting, am Ah right on that?"
Heyes blinked as he thought back on the day. "I, um," he squinted as the pain of his headache and of thinking too hard seemed to bring him a spike of added pain. "I think?" he said, obviously questioning what he remembered from the day.
"You need to sleep. Do you wish for something to help you sleep? Ah can bring something back up from the kitchen. Inez keeps some of the medications that the doctors in Denver recommended for mah headaches and something to help with sleep."
"I feel like I couldn't not sleep, but I've thought that every night for the last week."
"Ah will send your partner back with something to help you sleep. You must be nice, even when he wakes you up because you, mah friend, will be asleep as soon as Ah shut your door. Ah shall take this key," Ezra continued as he stopped at the dresser to pick up the room key, "and hand it off to Thaddeus aftah he and Ah have a drink and a talk." He turned back to Heyes. "Ah will have him …." Ezra smiled sadly at the man now asleep in the bed. His expression told the tale of the pain he felt as he slept.
"Sleep well. We will fix this between you."
When Ezra arrived downstairs, he watched a morose Kid Curry playing with his glass. He seemed to have had the self-control to refrain from drinking. Yet.
"He is asleep," Ezra said, placing the key beside Kid's glass. The gambler took his and sipped it, enjoying the smooth brandy from France. "Go ahead, you obviously need it."
The fast draw kept looking at his glass and finally took a taste of it, understanding how wrong it would be to drink the entire amount in one gulp, which he so desired to do. "It's good," he said, followed by, "I guess the question is why do I need it?"
"Thaddeus, there is nothing wrong with you that the stresses of what you and your partner have been experiencing might demand that you have a drink to help settle your senses," Ezra said as Kid finished off his glass of cognac. Ezra poured him another while he nursed the one drink he would be having. He did need to be available for their nine o'clock meeting the next morning.
"Usually, our need to drink is because of outrunning a posse or a bounty hunter or some other danger from outside our circle of two. We separated for a while, though I think if we had our choice on how things had gone with our lives, we never would have." Kid looked up and smiled as Ezra listened. "It's not likely we'll find ourselves some nice girl to settle down with, especially not until the amnesty comes through. And," he added as he nodded up the stairs, "this setback in his illness, his recovery is more important to me … he is more important to me than even seriously considering finding a woman and settling down." Kid looked at Ezra and said, "I don't have any," he waved his hand about his head," image of a house, a wife, kids and a dog in what I imagine for a future life." He looked away, absently took his glass and took another swallow of the cognac he could barely taste, and then said, "I know we've told you this before, but it's been mostly him and me, for much of our lives. And even when we had others in our lives, since our families died – Clem, Lom, the boys at Devil's Hole, Soapy and Silky, none of 'em meant, really meant anything close to what we mean to each other." He combed his curls away from his forehead and continued, "I guess it's best that we're talking quietly with only sleeping folks around. There are those that would not look so kind on talk like that."
"Well, it isn't like that, so even if othahs heard, you could easily set them straight." Ezra yawned. "Apologies."
"I'm sorry to have woken you. Joshua was just resting there. And then he asked me how I was doin'. It was the worst thing he could have said to me."
"He's very protective of you."
"He'll always have it in his head that he needs to watch out for me. He's a couple o' years older, and he did that when we were kids and all our family was killed."
"Ah know that you watch out for each other. You think that he does it more, but he doesn't. And you feel it as smothering sometimes, but it is not. Ah know, that's easy for me say, someone who has only known you two for a few months."
"No, Ezra. Your objectivity helps. I know I owe him a huge apology."
"Well, he is a good man, he is your partner and best friend. He loves you and is not afraid to show it. You are lucky to have him in your life. The reverse is true as well. He will accept your apology and you will both move on because that is what happens with people who are fortunate to have a bond like you two do."
"In the past, we've had to take time away from each other. We would often work separate jobs, long distances from each other. I don't know if I can do that now. Leaving him behind, I don't know, I worry about comin' back and him being …." Ezra stood, not needing to hear this scenario, he'd already lived it, once with Daniel, once with Fred.
"Excuse me one moment." The card sharp headed to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later, he returned with a mug, warm with the water from the kettle that remained on top of the cooking stove. "This is for Joshua's sleeplessness. You will need to wake him, he really should take this. Be gentle with him. Remembah that his frustration is compounded by having to suffer through this condition. His situation is worse than yours, even if it is hard to see it sometimes. Also, you won't have to worry about finding him … gone. We will do what the good doctor tells us must be done for Joshua." Ezra yawned again. "Ah must get to bed if Ah wish to have any chance of makin' it to our meetin' tomorrow or, rathah, latah this mornin'."
"Go on up and enjoy your lady. Thank you, for the cognac, for the key," Kid said and he swallowed the rest of the smooth liquor from France and lifted the key to show the southerner that he had what he needed to get back into his room, "and mostly for the talk. I needed it."
Ezra took the glasses and set them behind the bar. He smiled at Kid. "They will keep until the mornin'."
"You lose your g's and a lot of your r's when you're tired," Kid said.
"Very observant, though Ah am certain you have heard me lose them in frustration and anger and sickness as well since we first met."
"Probably." The two men headed up the staircase, Kid with the mug of medicine for his partner. Ezra moved left at the top of the stairs, Kid right.
"Goodnight," they said quietly to each other.
"Whoa-ho-ho-ho. Wow. Sorry. Did I do that to do?" Kid asked as he and Heyes entered Ezra's room.
"It is just as well that you two gentlemen are remaining in Four Corners because, you, good sir," he said to Kid as he sipped his second cup of coffee, the dark smudges around his eyes appearing nearly like black eyes from a punch by each of little Jeremiah Pike's tiny fists, "will pay."
"I do think you probably owe him, Thaddeus. First you woke him up in the middle of the night, and then when you finally let him get back to his pretty lady, you came to wake me up from a sound sleep."
"You weren't gonna be sleeping sound for very long. Been over a week since ya did that."
"Good point." Heyes looked to the gambler. "Didn't get back to sleep last night?"
"No. Inez was downright, how shall Ah say … frisky upon mah return."
"Was I?" the beautiful Mexican woman said as she opened the door and waltzed in with a tray full of food. "Did you wish something different?" she asked as she set the tray down. "Tommy will be arriving in one moment with plates, flatware and napkins." Tommy entered at that moment. "And Señor Chris will follow with … "
"Juice, biscuits and jam. Whoa, who'd you annoy so much to earn those black eyes?" Chris asked as he placed the tray on the tall dresser.
"No one," the former conman replied.
"You do not wish to continue to tell everyone about how fr …." She would say no more as Ezra leaned in and shut her up with a blistering kiss.
"Must've been pretty bad, what Miss Inez was gonna say."
Inez stopped the kiss, turned, gave Tommy a 'You're lucky you are such a good boy and a great help to me,' look, grabbed his hand and hauled him out of the room. She shut the door firmly behind her.
"Huh," Chris said as he turned toward Heyes and Curry. "Was it gonna be pretty bad?" Chris asked as he set his tray down.
Heyes and Kid looked to each other, then turned to Chris. "We'll never tell," they said together. Kid offered a smile with his pearly whites showing. Heyes' dimple was never deeper after his slight snort at his partner's smile.
"Nicely done, gentlemen." A knock at the door heralded another visitor. Ezra opened the door.
"Entrez, s'il vous plait," he said as first Dr. Wharton and then Nathan entered his room.
"What happened to you?" Nathan asked. He set his medical bag down and then asked, "You feelin' all right?" as he first put his hand to Ezra's forehead and then palpated his neck and his glands around his throat. He stood in the doorway, allowing the intrusion in front of all of these men.
"You do realize that Ah am not the reason we are meeting here this mornin'."
"I know. You look like you had a rough night." Nathan blinked, then said, "Oh." Then he offered Ezra a knowing smile and headed to grab a plate. "No point in letting the food get cold."
Ezra smiled as everyone dove in. Heyes took a biscuit, smothered it in peach preserves and added a healthy spoonful of scrambled eggs to his plate. Ezra started with pouring himself a cup of coffee and set his coffee and a small glass of apple juice at his side table next to his bed. He returned, last in line for food, grabbed what he wanted and then stopped to see that Hannibal Heyes had the exact same configuration of food on his plate. He raised his eyebrow. "Some might say that we could be spendin' too much time together."
"That wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened to me," Heyes said as he enjoyed the soft, fluffy eggs.
"Nor Ah."
"Silence ruled as everyone enjoyed the eggs and bacon, biscuits and jam. Ezra's special imported coffee, and juice fermented to just short of hard was a special treat, from the orchard of Juan Raphael "John" Martinez, a farmer and owner of a large orchard between Four Corners and Eagle Bend, who came to this area of his new country from Mexico just a couple of years ago with his wife Imelda and children Ricardo and Benito. The family were at the previous evening's Christmas party and headed home early, early enough to arrive with the moon helping to light the way.
"What an amazing breakfast," Doc Wharton said. "This is why we will be enlisting the ladies in our plan of attack to help Joshua toward healing."
"Let's go ahead and talk this through. Thaddeus and I are expected back at Jeremy's place today."
"Well, as I said, Joshua, you will need to cut well back on your efforts there," the doctor said.
"I know. But I want everyone here to understand that assuring that Jeremy's ranch is run properly is as important to me as this plan for healing, as you and Nate are calling it. But I also don't want Ezra spending all of his time there when he has people here that mean something to him."
"Joshua," Ezra started, but Heyes knew the objection coming his way.
"No. I made a commitment. That means something to me."
Thaddeus was readying to offer his two cents worth.
"No, partner. You know how it is. And I understand that I need to resist doing too much."
"Ah will enlist Mistah Tanner to assist with the physical aspects of working with Thaddeus and Jeremy's men. Ah can as well, as needed," Ezra said. "Primarily you and Ah will run the day-to-day organization of the ranch."
"But it's important for you to see Inez, work with the kids. I don't want this … " he waved his hand in the air, indicating his body as a whole that had been giving him so much trouble now for many months, "to stop you from living your life. You and your lady are doing better and distance is not going to help that."
"And that is why we have a plan," Nathan said. "Two days a week at the ranch for you, Joshua, and you spend the night. Ezra spends three days, he spends two nights and Inez heads out to stay with him on his second night."
"That leaves two days that need to have the office aspects of the job covered," Chris said. "Robert Merton and Andrew Patterson will come out and cover those days."
"There will be no office hours at the ranch on the weekends until Jeremy's return. His men can continue caring for and lightly exercising the horses on the weekends, as usual."
"Thaddeus, you'll work just four days because someone needs to watch your partner," Nathan explained.
"Really?" Heyes asked.
"Yes, really," the healer said. "And you'll have regular visitors to bring you nutritious food."
"I'm not going to object to that," the famed former leader of the Devil's Hole Gang said with a smile.
"Your friends in town, and you have a lot of them," Chris said, "are all pretty intent on helping you."
Heyes' smile faded. "Yeah. I appreciate that. I just wonder how smart it is to have people leaving regularly to come here, setting a pattern."
"Ah apologize, gentlemen. Nathan, would you come with me to see Jeremy? Somethin' came up the othah day that he and Ah wished to discuss with you. It has bearing on these discussions."
"I guess so." The black man rose from his chair. "We'll be right back."
Ezra and Nathan left the room.
"Hell, that was close," Chris said. "Ezra's damned quick."
"What?" Heyes asked.
"The pattern," Kid said.
"Yeah. It's dangerous, setting a pat … pattern. Oh, god. I forgot. Nathan. Damn it!" Heyes jumped up from his chair and charged to the other side of the small room. He turned to pace, but there was no room for such action, the size of the room and the number of people in it undercutting that as an outlet for the upset man. He was disgusted and embarrassed that he'd almost given Nathan a very large reason to ask why a pattern of behavior would matter. Heyes turned to the window but immediately turned back to face his partner. In this room, that now meant he faced all three men. "I told you, this is what can happen. I'm too comfortable, I'm saying things … "
"Joshua, calm down. You're sick, you are not yourself. And yes, you have become very comfortable with many townspeople," Doc Wharton said.
"See?" Hannibal Heyes pleaded. He looked straight at Kid. "Too close," he said, his voice showing his despair even if his face had already done the same.
"Joshua, being friendly and having warm relationships with the people of this town has got to be a good thing, right Doc?" Chris asked. Chris Larabee knew that it was, the relationships he built over these years cured him of the devastation he lived with for years after his wife and son were burned to death in their own home, their murders the result of the crazed actions of an insane woman.
"You're right, Chris, it is a good thing, not a bad one. You must look at it like this, Joshua. But removing you from the regular, day-to-day interactions is probably for the best, for now."
"A pattern. Damn it. I'm so sorry. Chris. Kid," Heyes said.
Kid Curry walked up to his friend. He put one hand on Heyes' shoulder and the other on his stomach, an intimate action only Kid Curry could ever do with Hannibal Heyes, and said, "Thaddeus."
Heyes' eyes grew wide with horror. "God," he said. He shook his head, lowered his chin to his chest, and covered his face with his free hand. Kid ushered his partner gently over to the bed.
"Lay down." Heyes followed the direction because he wasn't too certain he could stand on his shaky legs much longer. Kid removed Heyes' boots and then moved to the head of this bed, where he combed his partner's tousled hair back, a soothing action as he said, "Relax."
Doc Wharton pulled his bag up onto one of the chairs, looked around for something inside, and pulled his hand out, holding a vial. "Chris, a glass of water?" The doctor took a pill from the vial. "Joshua, this is a light sedative." He handed the pill to Heyes, who placed it, without thought, into his mouth. Chris handed the glass to Kid, who handed it to Heyes, who drank what he needed. "Lean up." Heyes did. Doc Wharton pulled one of the pillows from behind the famed outlaw leader. "Lay down." Heyes did, as the doctor and Kid eased him down. "Close your eyes." Heyes followed that instruction, too. Doc Wharton looked to Chris and Kid and placed his index finger to his lips. Heyes seemed spent by the realization that he'd almost let his and Kid's secret out to the town's healer. Only moments later, Heyes was breathing easy, asleep. The three men decided not to speak until Ezra and Nathan returned.
"He's not wrong," Kid whispered a while later. He knew Hannibal Heyes better than anyone, and he could tell that Heyes was out enough for quiet conversation. "It is setting a pattern. Don't know if I like that, for us and for you folks, and these fine people, these friends we have made here."
"Look, young man. You are very lucky to have so many people who want to help," Doc Wharton said. "There will be no pattern, per se. The first thing we need to work on is a calendar of who heads out to supply you and your partner with the things you'll need. We know that Ezra, Vin, Robert and Andrew will be coming to Jeremy's place. They can bring out supplies as needed. And the ladies have all made it quite clear to Nathan, Chris, Ezra and me that, though they understand the need to keep you from overdoing it while you recuperate, they will not agree to not seeing you. They will be taking their turns supplying Chris's cottage, with an assist from any one of your men, Ben, others," the doctor indicated, speaking to Chris.
"Do we know how much longer it'll be before Jeremy can head back to his place?" Thaddeus asked.
"Nathan and I talked about that after examining him the other day," the doctor said. "He'll be heading out in a week, but he will not be doing anything that requires him to sit up too long or walk around the property. And physical actions that he needs to have done, he needs to have someone other than himself and Joshua to do it," he said softly as he looked toward the bed. "That's for at least three or four weeks. Then limited activity until he is finally, hopefully, back to normal after two months back home."
"Wow. And he's been down for weeks," Thaddeus said.
"And last night he had to head back early to his room behind Mrs. Potter's place. He just can't have that leg in that position for too long. Or walk very far." Doc Wharton shook his head. "Nathan has been working with Ezra to make sure Jeremy's body continues moving and doesn't lose too much muscle mass, since he's only allowed to walk very short distances now. Ezra will continue that daily while he's there. Nathan will head out to Jeremy's once a week." Doc Wharton stopped, frowned, then said, "Who will be putting this schedule together?"
"Mary volunteered to do it," Chris said.
A long silence took over the room. Kid reached over and started to put his hand on Heyes' chest, but he stopped himself, not wanting to risk waking him up. Kid nodded down to the man who meant everything to him. "I know I'm gonna sound like Joshua but, Doc, you're sure this practically doing nothing is going to do the trick? He wouldn't want to waste peoples' time. I know you said if we do it right, it will work. "
"I think he said should, Thaddeus," Heyes said quietly from the bed.
"Sometimes I think you don't want to get better," Kid said, ignoring the fact that Heyes should be sleeping. Heyes' eyes blinked as though he wouldn't be awake much longer, but then they opened to offer a look of grave disappointment to his longtime friend.
Ezra and Nathan returned, with Chris warning them with his eyes and then a tilt of his head to Ezra's bed.
"What happened?" Nathan whispered.
"Nothing that the sedative I gave you shouldn't have taken care of," Doc Wharton said to Heyes. "He was worrying himself over nothing that he needs to worry over."
"It's not that. I just, I thought I was taking it easy. Thaddeus, what really have I done?"
"You must do less, Joshua," Doc Wharton insisted.
Hannibal Heyes didn't think he could do it. And if he couldn't do it, how would it work? And how did he agree to let all of these good people take so much time from their lives to mind him, to make sure he got better, to sacrifice time with their families and their friends to help a virtual stranger?
"Joshua," Ezra said tiredly. "You think this won't work. Ah was certain Ah would not recover from the loss of Fred. Ah know that Ah still have work there, but Ah had convinced mahself that, in mah despondency, I could nevah allow Inez back in mah life. It took many, many months, but we are on the road to overcoming those worries. You will need to give yourself time. And we all here are committed to making that time bearable for you, for as long as it takes."
"You're going to have to get used to seeing me more. I apologize for not having been more attentive to your situation, Joshua," Nathan said.
"Don't apologize. You are a busy man, and Jeremy needed you in a life or death kind of way." Heyes could sense Kid getting annoyed. "Life or death, Thaddeus. You know it's different, what's been going on with me."
"Let's get back to what Ezra just said. 'For as long as it takes'."
"As long as it takes, huh?" Heyes asked. He was still listening to the conversation, but his eyes were no longer participating. They were closed, seemingly for the duration.
"You heard the man, partner," Kid said as he did press his hand once more on Heyes' shoulder. Heyes patted the hand affectionately, lazily, notice that the silent apology was accepted, and forced his eyes open. He looked around at all these men, so willing to help, and all of the others, who had been, even the ones who suspected the truth of their identities, so nice to them. Heyes had reservations about this, so many questions, so many misgivings about just how right this plan was, but right now, it seemed that he was David to the entire town standing in as Goliath.
"Okay." He breathed as though heading to sleep, then added, "Let's do this." And then he was truly out for the next hours ahead.
They all left the room after Doc Wharton and Nathan took a look at Heyes and agreed that he would sleep for hours. They reconvened at Mary's newspaper office to talk through and have Mary document the plans for the foreseeable future to assure that the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West would remain in the town that was home to the famous Magnificent Seven, for some time to come. Doc Wharton excused himself to catch his stagecoach to start his journey back to Durango. Kid Curry only remained long enough to listen to the plans, then excused himself as well in order to head back to Ezra's room and his sleeping partner. He waited patiently through the lunch that Inez brought up to him, and for Ezra to come in at the late afternoon and gather his things and a change of clothes for an infrequent full evening at his table downstairs as several new arrivals on the stage were interested in a good poker game.
"He's been sleeping a while," Ezra said.
"Doc and Nathan said that he would. I'm sure he needed the sleep."
"No doubt. Are you all right?"
Kid snorted a somewhat bitter laugh. He watched the man in the bed as he replied, "I'm fine. And I am hoping that staying so far south, in territory we have spent such little time in, will help us remain out of the path of those who would be happy to find us and return us – dead or alive – for a big pay day." He turned to look at Ezra as he waited with his clothes and his grooming kit in his hands. "Is that wrong? Because it feels kinda wrong."
Ezra offered a sympathetic smile. "It is not wrong. You and your partner are not using anyone here for nefarious purposes. Everyone here wants to help you. Remind Joshua of that fact. Bring the key with you after you've locked up. Ah will reserve two seats for you both. It is far past time that we have a real poker game rather than one played with just pennies." Ezra left the room. Kid locked the door behind him and turned to find Heyes blinking his eyes. They looked to be trying to focus.
"Kid?"
Kid Curry would forgive him, this once, for forgetting. Heyes closed his eyes again. "Joshua? You awake?"
"Hm. Sorry. Yeah. 'm awake, Thaddeus. D'we need to get over to The Clarion?" He tried to force himself up against the headboard of the very comfortable bed, but his arms seemed to lack any strength at the moment.
"Did that earlier," Kid said as he pushed Heyes forward and placed another pillow behind him.
"We did?"
"Not you. The rest of us."
"Oh. Then should we get over to the stage office to say goodbye to the doc?"
"Doc Wharton got on the stage and it left on time," Kid said, his smile at his friend warm and loving.
"Okay. Then why don't you just tell me how much I missed?"
"Not too much. Inez brought up a delicious lunch." Heyes looked around the room. "That was hours ago. And Ezra's got a table downstairs tonight."
"Oh yeah?" Heyes replied, his eyes bright, his interest in getting a seat down there quite high.
"Yep. You wanna go downstairs and have supper before we get started?"
Heyes rubbed his eyes. "'s a little early for that, isn't it?"
"I hate to tell you this, but it's six thirty."
"It is not!" Heyes said as he looked toward the window. He saw no light coming in from outside. He turned to Kid and said, "Thaddeus, I don't want any more of that sedative."
"I suppose that's between you and Nathan at this point. For me, I think it did you some good, getting some restful sleep." There was little of the stress of these last months showing in Kid Curry's face. It did Heyes a lot of good to see it.
"You're probably right."
Hannibal Heyes had so many worries, but at this moment, the thought of putting this illness behind him and avoiding the pain in the face of the person he loved better than any other, he knew this was how it would be. There was a knock at the door. Kid went to the door, his hand on his gun, but not pulled from its holster.
"Yes?"
"It's Chris."
"And Mary."
Kid opened the door as Heyes forced his legs over the side of the bed. "Evenin'," Kid said.
"Good evening," Chris and Mary said at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled. Mary held a leather covered folder. She handed it to Kid.
"Your copy of the schedule."
"That was fast," Heyes said.
"We aim to please," Mary said with a smile. "Did you rest well?"
Heyes laughed. "How many people know I was sleeping up here?"
"Only the usual suspects," Mary answered.
"Don't worry. Thaddeus was here for just about the entire time," Chris said.
"Of course he was." The partners offered each other familiar smiles. "I hear there's to be a game tonight. Did Ezra get some sleep? I'll have to apologize for usurping his bed."
"He rested well," Mary said.
"At least for most of the afternoon," Chris added. Mary slapped him on his arm.
"We're here to see if you'd like to join us for supper over at Herr Heidegger's. Rolf and Lisette are offering a four course French meal tonight."
"We promise to have you back in time for the game," Chris said. "I already told Ezra to leave you each a seat at the table."
Heyes smiled. "And Thaddeus spoke with him, too. That sounds like a nice evening, in every way. Could I get fifteen minutes?"
"Of course. We'll see you downstairs." Mary looked at Chris and then at Heyes and Curry; she could tell they wanted to discuss something. "I'll be down behind the bar with Inez. Come get me when you're through."
"Thank you," Chris said as he leaned down to give her a kiss. "We won't be long." Mary left. Chris waited to make sure he heard her taking the steps down to the first level. He turned to Heyes.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Apparently. I feel good, but I was dead to the world. I don't think I'm interested in that sedative again."
Chris smirked. "Well, I can see from your faces that Thaddeus was happy for how it worked for you. You should be, too."
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Heyes asked as he put his boots on.
"Just that everyone is ready to help put that plan that Mary documented into action," he said, looking toward the folder that was now resting on the bed. "You've made a lot of friends here. Lots of hoping and praying going on right now."
"I'll be honest with you, Chris. I am not a believer. My partner is," Heyes said as he stood from the bed. "But I can feel the positive feelings for me, for us," he added, looking to Kid, who had suffered equally but differently throughout these months of Heyes' illness. "There is no way that I could ever say properly how much we appreciate what you and the folks here have done."
"Well, we're not done. So, let's have a nice supper, you two have a good night at the poker table, and then let's get to work."
They shook hands and Chris said he and Mary would meet them out on the boardwalk in front of Heidegger's hotel in fifteen minutes.
"Let's go to our room and freshen up," Heyes said. He started to straighten up the bedcovers. He had only slept on top of the comforter, with the extra blanket from the closet placed on top of him while he slept.
"I already did that, too, while you slept," Kid said, showing off his good vest and jacket.
"I'd like to shave and get a fresh shirt and my other jacket." Heyes stood back, nodded his head at the bed, turned … and was enveloped in a standard issue though rarely used, at least on anyone other than tonight's recipient, bear hug from Jedediah "Kid" Curry. Hannibal Heyes had been on the receiving end of a real bear "hug" once, so he knew that what he was feeling from his cousin was a whole lot the same. Both would end the same, with Heyes feeling all the love from the man who, both literally once and figuratively every day, saved his life. He hugged Kid back with the same level of love and gratitude for what they'd been given, the chance to spend this difficult time in their lives in this place, of all places. The people of Four Corners might be their savior yet.
That was the kind of faith that could turn Heyes into a believer, even if it was simply as a believer in the goodness of strangers.
"Kid," Heyes whispered, his lips up against Kid's ear.
"I know." They held tightly, then stepped away from each other. They each wiped their eyes, no need to speak of that action. Kid slapped Heyes on his back.
"Let's go."
The End … for now
