38
"You'd think if it's written in English, a person would actually be able to understand it." Jimmy complained about one of the short stories.
"That's because it's written in Ye Old English. We don't speak that aways now. Like how the Bible is sometimes hard to understand. That's even older." Teaspoon explained.
"Read this one next." Jimmy said. "Bee-wolf. Supposed to be about a dragon or somethin'. At least that's what Penny said." Jimmy said.
Jenny went inside to get Cody who had went straight to bed after barely touching his supper. "Cody, Teaspoon's going to read that one story about the dragon. Are you going to come out?" She asked him. He wasn't asleep. He was just laying there.
"I'm fine right here." He mumbled.
"Are you sure?" She asked, concerned.
He rolled over to face the wall. "I can sorta hear from here."
Jenny didn't want to press him so she went back outside. She sat next to Buck. Ike was in Lou's lap. Rachel stood up. "I'm going to head to bed early. I have a headache that just won't quit. I'll see you all in the morning." She turned toward her house. "Don't worry Buck, I can find my way there by myself." She said with a smile.
Teaspoon only got a few pages into this story before Jimmy declared it harder to understand than the others. "Where's Cody? At least he knows all these words." Jimmy said looking around.
"He's inside laying down. I asked him to come out but he didn't." Jenny said.
"Maybe he's got the same thing Rachel's got." Kid suggested.
"Maybe he's just tired. I know I am." Teaspoon said standing up. Teaspoon went to the door and poked his head in. "You doin' ok, Cody?"
"Yeah. I'm alright." He replied.
"I'm goin to the jail and turn in. Y'all keep an eye on him." Teaspoon said, then he looked at Jenny, "Check on Rachel too when you turn in."
Jenny nodded. Teaspoon walked off and Lou went into the bunk house carrying Ike. They kept the fire running but did not turn up a light.
"Cody, you feeling sick?" Lou asked touching his forehead. "You don't feel feverish."
"It's cause I ain't sick." He responded grumpily.
"Then what's wrong?" Kid asked.
"I don't want to talk about it." And he rolled over toward the wall again.
"He was off today." Buck said changing Ike's diaper.
"He went over to the Logan place." Jimmy said. "You think something happened?"
"Fine!" Cody said rolling over. "You all can stop talking about me!"
Everyone was taken aback by Billy Cody's usual happy demeanor being replaced by this gruffness.
"Mr. Logan asked me to stop going over there." He groaned.
"What happened?" Came from several of the riders. Buck sat on his bunk in the semi darkness and Jenny sat next to him. Ike now on Buck's lap.
"Mr. Logan walked in on us in the barn." He said miserably.
"What exactly were you doing?" Noah asked slowly.
"We wasn't doing anything this time. We was just talking and laughing."
"Have you done something some other time that her Pa would be upset about?" Noah questioned.
"No. We've only kissed just a few times. Nothin more. I already live with a baby" Cody explained.
"Hey!" Buck interjected.
"It's nothing against the little feller. I just don't want to do anything to make one of my own."
"Ok, so you're in the barn and Millie's Pa walks in." Noah summarizes. "Where was Her Ma?"
"They were in town. I didn't know that til I got there." Cody said.
"So he assumed something?" Kid asked.
"I suppose. Millie's parents came home and we were laughing in the barn."
"See, if you knew she was home alone, you should have left. Staying there wasn't proper." Noah said.
Cody shrugged. "So he asked to speak with me and he asked what my intentions were. I don't got any and I told him so." Cody said.
"Are you serious about Millie?" Buck asked. "Ike was serious about Emily. He asked her to marry him, even before Baby Ike."
"I don't wanna get married." Cody replied.
"Then you aren't serious." Noah said.
"Do you love her?" Buck asked. He took Jenny's hand in his as he held Ike in the other arm. "Ike knew he loved Emily from the first day. Other people it takes time, but you eventually know." Buck avoided looking in Jenny's direction.
Cody shrugged. "I like her. I like her a lot but we're just having fun. We like talking and dancing. She likes listening to my tales."
"But you don't want to marry her?" Kid asked.
"I don't want to marry anybody right now."
"Like I said, then you aren't serious." Noah said.
"What does Millie think about all this?" Lou asked. "Maybe she ain't serious either."
"I didn't get a chance to talk to her." Cody said. "But I know she don't want to get married. She wants to dance and laugh and see the world."
Jimmy hadn't said anything up until now. "Mr. Logan seems like a reasonable man. Maybe he's just thinking about what's best for his daughter. Maybe he don't want her getting mixed up with the likes of us." Buck suspected Jimmy's comment went beyond a relationship between Cody and Millie.
"I guess fathers are supposed to look out for their daughters." Lou said. She had slipped out of her bed and was sitting curled up next to Kid.
"I wasn't causing her any harm." Cody said.
"Maybe he just wanted to prevent something from happening." Buck said "In all honesty I don't think Mr. Metcalfe took care of Emily very well. In fact I know he didn't. It was more like Emily took care of him, she told me so. I don't think it's US exactly but, Maybe if you give it time, he might let you go visit."
"Maybe." Cody said.
"I'm sorry you're sad Cody. Want me to make you a pie tomorrow?" Jenny asked. She also had not commented during the conversation.
For the first time that evening, Cody smiled. "Thanks Jenny. Millie made great pie."
"But Cody," Jimmy warned, "if you go over to the Logan place after Mr. Logan asked you not to, he's liable to take his shot gun to you and it'll be your own stupid fault."
"Yeah." Noah agreed. "I'm gonna get some sleep."
"I should go to bed now too." Jenny said and stood up.
Buck went to hand the baby to Lou as she still sat with Kid. "I'll take 'em and get him ready for bed." Jimmy offered.
When Buck came back from walking Jenny, Jimmy had Ike asleep in the crook of his arm. He also noticed that Lou had not gone back up to her bunk and was still cuddled up with Kid. He left everyone where they were and went to sleep himself.
—-
Jenny came back from spending the morning at the store. She approached Jimmy when he was in the barn, walking up to him with her hands behind her back. "Hey Jimmy." She said.
"Hey Jenny." Jimmy said shoveling hay. "Buck ain't back yet."
"I know. I came to see Dakota" she said walking up to him. "And to give you this."
She handed him something wrapped in brown paper.
"What is it?" He asked gingerly taking it. He slowly unwrapped the paper. It was a book.
"It's a dictionary. It'll help you spell words correctly and tell you what words mean. So if you find a word you don't know, it will even help you sound it out. It's a great tool. Scholars use them all the time." She said with a smile then walked to Dakota's stall.
Jimmy smiled. "Thanks, Jenny."
"You can use it for your books or when you write to Penny."
Jimmy stopped smiling. "Well that won't be necessary. I ain't gonna write to her no more."
"Oh? Why not?"
"I just ain't." He turned and went back to his work.
—
Buck and Jenny spent the morning on a ride together. They didn't stay very long because Rachel was watching Ike and Buck wanted to get over to the bunk house to work on it some more. Jenny loved any time she could spend on a horse and having Buck for company made it all the better. They got to the station to pick up Ike, when Rachel told Jenny she got a message to meet someone at the store.
"Who is it?" Jenny asked.
"The boy didn't say." Rachel said. "But I was supposed to tell ya as soon as you got back."
Buck asked if he could leave the baby with Rachel longer and she happily agreed. Cody was there to help too. They walked over to the store. Eric was standing behind the counter with a well dressed man. He was looking over the books. "Here she is." Eric said. "Miss Tompkins, this is Mr. Roberts. He's the lawyer I wrote to when you first got here."