Chapter 18 – One Last Dance

Bret followed me back to the house, and I told him a little about the mess we'd all been through with Luther Donovan. "So it's really Sam Winston that's dead, huh? This Donovan sure had everybody fooled. I guess I can understand about Doralice not wantin' anybody to give her away. Can't be easy when your own father acts like he don't want you. How's she doin' otherwise?"

"Doin' fine. We work real well together. Sorta think along the same lines. I don't know what took me so long, Bret, but I'm sure glad I finally realized . . . well, here we are."

"Nice house. Wasn't this Maude's place?"

"Yep. Before Maude and Cristian got married they bought a little house on the edge of town, and gave this to Doralice. I been livin' here with her for a while."

"Pappy didn't give you a hard time?"

"Nope. I think he had it figured out before I did."

I opened the door and led Bret inside. "Hey, blue eyes, you home?"

From the back of the house I heard her call, "No, I went to work already. Unless you brought Bret home with you, then I'm here." She came out of what used to be her old bedroom and looked like a dream. Fancy red dress, hair piled up on top of her head; she took my breath away.

I must have stared for a while because I heard Bret mutter, "Yeah, you better get married, son. You got it bad."

She ran right up to Bret and gave him a hug and a kiss, and it was his turn to stare. "I wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into, marryin' this brother of mine, but it looks like you got it all figured out."

She just laughed and went straight to the kitchen. "I got a fresh pot of coffee, just made. Y'all want some?"

We both nodded, and I went to the kitchen to help her. "Nice lookin' place you got here," Bret remarked.

"Thanks. There's some things we'd like to do with it, but they can wait. Things are a little busy right now. I fixed up the spare bedroom for you, in case you wanna stay here tonight instead of goin' out to your Uncle's."

"Pappy and Uncle Ben got no problem with that, long as you come out tomorrow. If you decide to stay in town, Maude's gonna work tonight with Doralice, and I'm takin' off to spend the night with you. It gives them a chance to work out some details about the weddin'."

I carried in coffee for Doralice and me; she brought Bret's and some cookies she'd made just this morning. "All this and you bake, too?" Bret asked with a teasing tone in his voice.

"Bake? Hell, she's a damn fine cook. If I don't quite eatin' so much, I'm gonna be fat like you."

Bret laughed. "That'll be the day. You could still use some weight on you, son."

"That's what I said, but he won't listen to me," my bride-to-be pronounced as she bit into a cookie.

"Just about food. I took your advice about clothes, didn't I?"

"You got him to go shopping? How'd you manage that? He always wanted to look good, he just didn't want to go out and have to buy what he needed. And have you stopped him from buyin' all black?"

Doralice shook her head. "He likes black. He's comfortable in black. But we have added a little variety."

"You gonna dress like Buckley from now on?"

"There's a man I haven't seen in a while. You heard anything from Buckley?" Not that I expected Dandy to track down Bret, given their personal animosity, but I hadn't seen or heard from him in months.

"No. Why would I? You know how we are with each other. Have you met Buckley yet, Doralice?"

"That's the friend goes by Dandy Jim? No, I haven't had the pleasure."

Bret burst out laughing and Doralice looked at me like 'what did I say?' I reached over and patted her hand. "It's alright. Bret just has no manners, that's all."

"Not when it comes to Buckley, I don't." He put down his coffee cup and turned to face Doralice. "Buckley is a no-account con man, a liar and a cheat, and has no affection for anyone or anything in this world except Buckley. And Bart, for some strange reason. And if he ever turns up you'll find that out for yourself."

"Is that all true?"

"Well," I hesitated, "to a certain extent. He's not that bad, you just can't trust him."

"That's bad enough, even if all the rest of it isn't."

"Don't be fooled. Everything I told you is true. Buckley has no redeeming features, other than his friendship for Bart. Don't ever turn your back on him."

Doralice went to the kitchen for the coffee pot, and poured all three of us another cup. "Well, Brother Bret, are you gonna stay here tonight or not? If not, I'll need to be gettin' the buggy ready for the trip."

"No, I think I'll take you up on the offer and stay overnight. Who knows, it might be the last night we're ever alone together."

"I doubt that, Brother Bret. We're gettin' married, I ain't movin' to another country. But a night off would be good."

"Can I trust you two to stay out of trouble?"

"No, probably not," I told her. "But we'll try not to get arrested." I took the empty coffee cups to the kitchen. "You goin' in now?"

"I should. Why don't you two come along and Bret can say hello to Maude? I'm sure she'd love to see him."

"That's not a bad idea, Bret. We can decide what to do, or not do, while we're there."

"Sure, why not? It's been a while since I saw Maude. And I haven't seen the saloon for quite a while."

"Alright then. Let's go."

Ten minutes later Bret was sittin' in Maude's office drinkin' coffee while she had her ever-present brandy. I was behind the bar with Doralice helpin' with some last minute set-up. The saloon was busy, but not ordinarily so, when a cowboy I'd never seen before walked up to the bar and pulled a gun on Doralice. She froze as he told her, "Gimme everything in the cash box, and hurry."

Her face was full of shock as I heard him pull the hammer back. He glanced at me and growled, "Don't move, mister, or I shoot her."

I didn't have a gun on, so there wasn't much I could do. Bret must have heard something, sittin' in Maude's office, because he appeared suddenly in her doorway. Doralice was still frozen in place, so I reached for the cash box. 'Don't shoot her, don't shoot her,' kept racing through my mind, and for some reason the cowboy must have thought I was reachin' for a gun. In that split second I knew just what he was gonna do, and I threw the cash box in his face and jumped in front of Doralice just as he pulled the trigger. 'Good, he missed,' I thought for a second, and then I felt the burning in my chest and knew I'd taken the bullet instead. The cowboy ran for the door and I heard another shot; this one came from Bret. The cowboy went down just as I collapsed, and Doralice was beside me in an instant. My chest was on fire and I couldn't breathe; I could see the tears running down my girls face and I could see her lips moving, but I couldn't hear what she was sayin'. Bret's face appeared right behind her just before everything faded to black, and all I could hear ringing in my ears was my own voice, crying out, 'No! No! Not now, God! Not now!'

TBC