Both men looked and felt like death-warmed-over by the time they arrived at the Cummings' house. They were sporting massive headaches, Vin's bandage had bled through, and Chris' ribs hurt on both sides now – makin' it damn-near impossible to breathe.
Ezra and Maude were just returning from their sight-seeing trip in the carriage when they saw the figures stumbling up the street. Ezra jumped down and ran to the two men. "What in God's name happened to you?"
"Long story," Chris started.
"Never mind," Ezra interrupted. "Let's just get you two inside."
Ezra put his arm around Vin, and they climbed the steps to the residence with Chris following slowly behind. Mrs. Standish held open the door. "Take them into the parlor," she instructed and headed further into the house to get some water and medical supplies.
"Where do I start?" Ezra asked.
"Vin's head," Chris answered. "He's got a bloody knot on the back. He won't admit it, but I'm sure his head hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. Likely got a concussion."
"What happened to Mr. Tanner's head, exactly?" Ezra removed the make-shift bandage to take a look.
"I'm right here, you know," Vin said, although he regretted it immediately afterwards. Talking or movement of any kind seemed to make the pain in his head 10 times worse. He had to close his eyes and swallow hard to fight the overwhelming urge to throw up.
"Some men attacked us, and they slammed Vin's head into a brick wall. He was out for a while," Chris sighed and closed his eyes. "Ezra, they took the money."
"I noticed the suitcases were missing," he said as he continued to probe the area of the wound in Vin's long, brown hair. "Do you believe the attackers knew what you were carrying?"
"I do," Chris felt around his left eye to see how bad the swelling was.
"How?" was all Ezra replied.
"I don't know," Chris winced as he tried to sit up straighter. "Maybe the telegraph operator in San Diego put two and two together. He knew we were goin' to San Francisco." Chris stopped, and then locked his own green eyes with Ezra's. "Vin and I were talkin' about it in his room last night. Maybe one of the staff overheard?"
"I have not said a single word to anyone; you know it is not my inclination to share the wealth," Ezra assured his friends.
Maude came back with supplies, and Ezra turned over the wound cleaning and bandaging to his mother. He doubted she had much experience tending wounded folks, but at least she had full use of both of her hands.
"Was that Mr. Tanner's only injury?" Ezra asked to Chris, as he sat down on the couch beside him.
"I think so. They hit him and kicked him a few times, but Vin didn't seem to be favoring anything else." Chris was sick of feeling tired and beat up all the time.
"And how about you, Mr. Larabee?" Ezra turned Chris' face towards him so he could get a better look at the damage. "How many miscreants did you fight?
"There were only two men," Chris admitted, "but they took us by surprise. Vin was out first thing. I was able to hurt one pretty good, but the other one….well, he pretty much kicked my ass," Chris smirked.
"Were you knocked out as well?"
"Maybe for a little while; don't really remember," Chris answered truthfully and rested his forehead on his hand.
Maude was just finishing up re-wrapping Vin's head, when she said, "why don't you go lie down for a spell. I imagine you both have terrible headaches."
Ezra helped Chris up off the couch and then supported Vin's elbow, as they walked up the stairs to the two injured men's rooms. Once in bed, on of Maude's servant girls appeared and placed cool cloths on their foreheads. As he was leaving the rooms, Ezra said, "I'll be back to wake you gentlemen in two hours….as I've watched Nathan do with head injuries."
"Should I summon a doctor?" Maude asked once they made it back to the parlor.
"No, I think they'll be ok. Thank you for your assistance, Mother." Ezra replied. He was torn whether to ask Maude for her help in figuring out who was behind the attack. He did not believe that she was involved, but he also didn't know how she would react to accusations that there are criminals amongst her house staff.
"So much for taking those two out in public for supper, I suppose," Ezra smiled sheepishly at Maude.
"It's fine. The staff can prepare just as fine of a meal right here," she smiled and touched Ezra on the shoulder as she walked to the kitchen.
After a couple of hours, Ezra walked in Chris' room to find him putting on a new shirt. The gunslinger's back was to the door, and Chris visibly jumped when Ezra said loudly, "Good Lord, Mr. Larabee." Chris' back and sides were covered in scrapes and bruises . "I think you sustained more damage than you originally disclosed. Should I ask Mother to call a doctor?" Larabee didn't think he had broken anything, but any kind of movement was painful right now.
"I'm fine, Ezra; just got banged up a bit," Chris winced as he tried to put his arm in the shirt sleeve.
"A bit?" Ezra shook his head, "at least let me help you with your shirt." Chris could take a beating, no doubt about it. The bruises on his face were more pronounced now, and the blackness around his left eye seemed to be spreading to his right. The swelling wasn't much worse though; Larabee was thankful that he could still see out of both eyes.
"How large was this man you fought?" Ezra was serious, but Chris just laughed.
"Big enough, I guess," laughing, talking – everything hurt right now. "Vin still sleepin'?"
"Yes, Mr. Tanner was sleeping the last I looked in. He's been coherent during wakings, so hopefully the concussion is not too severe." Ezra noticed how Chris immediately shifted the concern away from himself.
"I'm thinkin' maybe you and I should sit down and have a conversation with Maude," Chris said after a long pause.
"I was thinking the same thing, Mr. Larabee," Ezra sighed. He walked down the hall to check on Vin one more time then met up with Chris and Maude in the parlor.
She started to get up and leave, and Chris said, "Is there a place we could talk….privately?"
"Why, I can shut the parlor doors, if you wish," Maude answered, somewhat taken aback by the question.
"That would probably be fine," Ezra chimed in, "We are looking for a place to converse where the help cannot over-hear."
"Maybe Alan's study would be better," Maude volunteered. "It is on the end of the house and is a large room with a solid door."
"Lead the way then, Mother, if you please," the younger Standish said.
Once in the room, Chris cleared his throat and began, "Vin and I were carrying suitcases containing valuable items today. We believe we were attacked because of that. It is possible that someone in the house may have overheard our plans last night and planned to steal the cases. We were wonderin' if you might have any idea who it could be? Who was upstairs last night? Has anybody been in trouble before?"
"Why, no, I trust everyone on the staff," Maude answered then paused for a moment, "what kind of valuable items?"
"Stuff from the train robbery," Chris was trying to be as vague as possible but still give Maude enough information to be helpful. "How many men do you have working inside the house?"
"As in males, Mr. Larabee?" Maude clarified.
"Correct," Chris replied. He realized that a woman could have shared the information as well, but his gut told him that wasn't likely. Maybe he had simply been around Buck for too long.
"Well, most of our in-house help are females. We do have a butler, Tom, and my husband has a personal assistant, who helps out from time to time."
Chris and Ezra had met Tom. He was a tall, skinny, old man – very friendly but not likely to wander up the stairs unless he absolutely had to. Even in the few minutes they talked to him, he discussed how bad his rheumatism was. "What's the personal assistant's name?" Chris inquired.
"Carl Winners," Maude answered. "He is a kind gentleman; has worked for Alan for over 20 years. Helps out with bank payrolls and accounting as well."
"Have you seen him today?" Ezra jumped in to the questioning.
"No, on weekdays he generally spends most of the day at the bank. He's picking Alan up at the train station tomorrow morning, so he will be here then," Maude knew Alan would not be happy about these sort of allegations against his good friend.
"Alright, thanks. I'm gonna go check on Vin," Chris gingerly pushed himself up and left the room.
"We'll figure this out, Mother," Ezra put his hand on Maude's and reassured her. She seemed different this trip….more human, even a bit motherly. It reminded him of better days, when the two of them did not see each other as competition.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
Chris found Vin sitting up on his bed when he entered.
"How're you feelin'?" Chris asked when Vin looked up at the open door.
"Better," Vin answered.
"Still sick to your stomach?"
"Not bad, just a bit of a headache."
Vin's blue eyes still had a glassy, sunken look to them, so when Tanner started to stand, Chris moved to his side. The long-haired man was able to support himself after a minute and started walking towards the door.
Ezra appeared in the doorway, "feeling well enough to make a break for it?"
"Somethin' like that," Vin smiled. "Thanks for lookin' out for me, fellers."
"Anytime, Mr. Tanner," Ezra returned the grin. He knew his friends had suffered on this journey, and he felt some responsibility for that.
"My face look as bad as Chris'?" Vin looked at Larabee and grinned.
"It does not," Ezra said. "Mr. Larabee clearly fought a valiant battle with those miscreants while you were unconscious."
Ezra walked over and pulled up Larabee's shirt tail to reveal the patchwork of blues, black, and purple across Chris' back and ribs.
"Ah shit, Chris," Vin took a closer look at Larabee's back. "I had no idea." Vin could clearly see that the two large men had beat the hell out of Chris.
Chris jerked his shirt back down. "Vin, you did damn good gettin' yourself back here with that head injury; didn't need to be worryin' on me."
"Nathan's gonna throttle ya if you went and broke more ribs 'fore the last ones got fully healed."
Chris swung his patented glare from Tanner to Standish as he said, "I didn't break nothin', and what Nathan don't know won't hurt him."
Ezra cleared his throat, "Yes, well, are you gentlemen getting hungry?"
"You bet yer ass," Vin pushed past Standish out into the hallway.
"Charming as always, Mr. Tanner," Ezra ushered the two men downstairs and to the dining room.
M7M7M7M7M7M7M7
The following day, Maude and the three regulators were sitting on the front porch when a carriage pulled up. Two men dismounted, and the driver followed carrying luggage. Chris, Ezra, and Vin stood. The first man to approach was tall and well-dressed. No one could have guessed that he just spent the last 4 days on a train. Cummings stuck out his hand towards the most well-dressed of the three strangers on his porch and said, "you must be Ezra. It is very nice to finally meet you, Mr. Standish."
"The pleasure is all mine," Ezra courteously responded, "Mr. Cummings I presume. Mother has told me nothing but wonderful things about you. These are my two friends, Mr. Chris Larabee and Mr. Vin Tanner." Chris and Vin exchanged pleasantries and shook the man's hand.
Alan Cummings then said, "this is my friend and associate, Mr. Carl Winners."
The three men shook his hand as well, but Winners made Chris' hair stand on end. He had never met the man before, but something seemed very familiar about him.
"Maude wired that you boys had run into some trouble on the way here," Cummings motioned for everyone to have a seat. "I didn't realize exactly how much trouble," he finished as he took in the three battered men before him.
Ezra, Maude, and Alan Cummings carried the conversation over the next hour. Chris was preoccupied by Mr. Winners. He seemed friendly enough, and Larabee didn't see a bruise or scratch on him….so he certainly wasn't one of the attackers. Carl had a very similar build to the larger man who knocked out Vin and fought with Chris in the end, but the most uncanny thing was the eyes. The larger attacker had unusual, light-brown, almost-yellow eyes. This man's were exactly the same. "His brother?" Chris wondered. Larabee didn't know how much, if anything, Vin remembered about their attackers, but he sure wished he could get him off by himself to ask.
"Maude, why don't you see to having a nice lunch prepared, and the gentlemen and I will have a few drinks in my study?" Alan asked, as he rose to go into the house.
Chris gave Vin a look that said, "keep on your toes." Once in the study, Mr. Cummings poured drinks for everyone and offered them a cigar. He spoke of how he had made his fortunes with no help from anyone. He bragged about growing up dirt poor and making himself into one of the wealthiest men in San Francisco. As Chris finished his glass of wine, he started to feel flushed. "Wow, strong stuff," Larabee blinked hard and thought to himself. Ezra had only drank about half of his glass, but he was thinking the exact same thing.
Vin had politely refused the wine, and he was thankful when he saw the glassy look in his friends' eyes. The Texan was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this. He looked around the room and noticed that Mr. Winners was now standing between himself and the door. Ezra had just passed out in his chair, and he could see Chris fighting not to fall asleep. His friends had been drugged!