Honorable Intentions

CHAPTER 2

We were about half way to Laramie when we met an Overland stage heading towards us. I eased the wagon to the side of the road to make room for it to pass, but old Mose, always ready for a chinwag, pulled to a stop and gave me a wave.

I wasn't exactly in the mood for swappin' gossip with Mose. Seemed to me that buckboard hit every pot hole and rut in the road since we left the house and every one of 'em sent a teeth rattling jolt of pain from my hand all the way up to my shoulder.

"Howdy, Jess. Where're you off to?"

"Sheriff. Got a delivery for him." I nodded towards our bloody cargo in the back.

"Talk in town's the Morgan boys were gunnin' for ya. That them?" Mose pushed his hat back, staring down from the box and takin' a good look at the bodies.

"Yeah. That's them." I said, wiping my left arm across my forehead, trying to slow the stream of sweat pouring down my face. I looked in the back of the wagon and saw the blanket had moved some, showing two pairs of boots sticking out and Mac Morgan's bloody rib cage.

Mose nodded. "Anything you need me to tell Slim?"

"Thanks, Mose. Tell him I should be back for supper," I said.

Keeping my bum hand close to my chest, I eased myself down from the wagon and walked to the side to fix the cover.

"He'll sure be glad to see you. Don't think he's doin' too well bein' laid up. Miss Daisy's sure got her hands full tryin' to keep him down."

I forced a grin, "yeah, I reckon so," I said, picturin' Slim puttin' up a fight with Daisy and refusin' to take it easy. It don't sit well with him when he ain't the boss.

"Well, see ya then, Jess. Ma'am." Mose tipped his hat to Gladys Moore then smacked the reins and the team lurched forward.

I gave him a wave and watched as he disappeared in a cloud of dust, then I let out a long puff of air, and leaned heavily against the side of the wagon, needin' a second to clear my head. With Mose out of earshot, and that solid pounding ache pulsing through my fingers and wrist, it was all I could do to bite back a groan. When Gladys Moore turned sharply towards me, her eyes squinting against the morning glare and her lips pursed tight, I figured I hadn't been too successful at holding it in.

Moving slowly, I climbed back into the seat next to Miss Moore and reached for the reins. Only they weren't there.

"I'm driving." She was lookin' at me with her chin thrust stubbornly forward and a challenging glint in her eye. Couldn't decide if I was relieved or annoyed to see she got some of that fightin' spirit back. While the thought of sittin' and lettin' her steer the buckboard into Laramie was mighty temptin', it just didn't sit right to let a woman do the work when a man was around.

"Ma'am…"

"I ain't arguin' with you, Mr. Harper. Now you sit and mind that hand of yours." She slapped the leather and we got on our way, her starin' straight out in front and me leaning' back, cradlin' my right arm close to my body with my left.

"Jess." I said after a few minutes of us both staring straight ahead.

"Excuse me?" She asked, givin' me a puzzled look.

"Jess. You call me Jess. When a lady saves a man's life, I reckon there ain't no need for the Mister."

She kept that puzzled look on her face, then she smiled and huffed a quiet snort.

"What?" I asked, wonderin' what she suddenly found so amusing. Only it weren't a real smile, just a curl of her lip with a dull look in her eyes.

"Lady. " she said, grippin' them reins tighter and slappin' hard against the old bay's flank like she were tryin' to shake somethin' loose that was troublin' her . "That's a laugh." Then kinda quiet, she added, "Don't hear that word used around me all that much."

You didn't have to be no genius to hear that bitter edge to her voice. And it wasn't hard to figure the way she walked around with that big ol' chip sitting heavy on her shoulder, that maybe folks were thinkin' she wasn't worth the time of day.

"Maybe you just ain't give yourself a chance," I said. "Maybe you need to stop behavin' like it's all right for folks to be lookin' down at ya. How long you been livin' out at your place? Last I heard it belonged to old widow Walker." Didn't rightly remember seeing Miss Moore in town all that much. Reckon maybe I was as guilty as them other folks, not payin' her any attention.

"'Been there 'bout four months. Me and Joe…" Then she stopped. And there she was, gone all sad and small again.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I know this ain't been easy for you." Thinkin' back to the way she was actin' up yesterday, I was startin' to come to an understandin' why she was all so fired ready to hit out at someone. Guess to me Joe Morgan weren't nothin' but a thief and murderer. To the gal sittin' next to me, he was a chance for a new beginnin'…

"Don't matter now. I been a fool, thinkin' someone like me could change the way things are. When Joe came along… fillin' my head with fancy dreams, talkin' of a future…"She trailed off and bit down on her lip, then set a hard line to her jaw. Turning suddenly to look at me, she said in a rush, "He promised me he was going straight. Guess I had no reason not to believe. Guess I was willin' to believe anything when he talked the way he did."

I thought about what it would be like for a woman on her own. Tryin' to find a place for herself. Not just a home, but somewhere to belong. I thought about what Slim had give me. And I knew what I had to do. But 'fore I could tell her, she was talkin' again.

"Don't expect respectable folks like you to understand…"

It was my turn to snort and there weren't nothin' quiet about the way I let it out. "You ain't real familiar with my reputation, are you ma'am?"

"I know what you been. Folks ain't that quick to forget and it don't take much to get 'em talkin'. But I also heard 'em speak of you like you were one of them. Someone they liked." She made a clickin' sound with her tongue, seemed to be thinkin' on something. "Kinda surprised me to see that look in their eyes yesterday. It didn't take much for some of them to be thinkin' the worst. I reckon I wasn't the only one believin' you back shot Joe."

I flinched like she'd just reached out and slapped me. Listenin' to Deevy mouthin' off the way he was, I hadn't been takin' too much notice of them other faces in the crowd. Can't rightly remember anyone comin' forward and denyin' what Deevy was sayin'. Not one of them folks that knows me said a single word in my defense. Maybe what she was sayin' was the truth, maybe they did believe I'd gone and shot Joe Morgan in the back.

Then she was talkin' again, "I know I was wrong 'bout you. The way I was so set on accusin'. Can't hardly be pointin' a finger at you, not after what I done this mornin'."

I thought about Al Morgan lying in the back of the wagon with her bullet in his back. Couldn't argue with her there. But right now her and me were the only ones who knew how that bullet got there. And if I had my way, that wasn't gonna change when we got to the sheriff's.

I said to her, "Maybe you can't, but puttin' that bullet in Al Morgan's back probably saved my life. And that's why we ain't gonna be tellin' how it got there."

"But… "

"Look, you want a chance to start over, don't ya? And we tell Mort Cory how you shot Al Morgan, it's just gonna complicate matters. The way it is now, no one's likely to question what happened, and if they do… like you said, seems the folks in Laramie are already willin' to believe I'm capable of back shootin'. So let's just keep it that way."

"Why are you doin' this?" She asked. Her eyes narrowed with a look like she didn't quite trust my motives.

"Someone offered me a hand up a few years ago. Give me a chance to turn things around. I reckon I'd like to do the same for you."

"But you don't know me."

"Maybe not. But the man who gave me a start didn't know me, neither. Maybe he saw somethin'… somethin' inside me I didn't know was there. Reckon I see somethin' in you too… "

She stared straight ahead, sayin'nothin, worryin' her bottom lip with her teeth again and concentrating on the old Bay's hindquarters. Then she turned to me with a ghost of a smile and this time I saw it in her eyes too. She gave a quick, sharp nod. And I knew then I'd got through to her.

"And it's Gladys." She said. "I reckon you can call me Gladys."

Continued in chapter 3