During the ride to Dewton, Ben had little to do besides reflect on times gone by. He hadn't set out immediately, first he'd gone back to the ranch and made arrangements for his absence. Roy had objected to Ben's going alone, but there wasn't really a way around it. It was Christmastime, and people were consequently busy. Aside from which, Ben didn't believe himself to be in any danger just now. Hurting or killing him wouldn't get the hostage takers their money, and they probably knew it. They had all the leverage they needed, if indeed they had Hoss and Joe.
So Ben loaded up his saddlebags, tied them onto his horse and set out alone.
At first, he tried to imagine what had happened to his boys, and who might have them. But it was fruitless to theorize, and eventually he fell into reflection as a means of passing the time.
While Buck followed the road truly, Ben remembered the first time his boys had gone on a long cattle drive without him. He hadn't wanted to let them go, but Adam had reasoned him into it, pointing out that they were all grown, and asking him what trouble they could get into that all three of them couldn't handle together. Adding weight to Adam's argument had been a recent incident involving a horse that had resulted in Ben's being injured. Though he was recovering at the time, the fact was that he would either have to delay the drive to go along, or he would wind up slowing it down.
Finally, Ben had caved and given the responsibility for the drive over to his oldest. The boys set out in a great state of excitement over their independence, and Ben found himself wondering if he'd made the right decision. In later years, he kept at least one of his younger boys home instead of letting all three go together. One reason was that it kept his worrying to a manageable level. The formally acknowledged reason was that both his brothers together were too much for Adam to handle.
Joe was a schemer and always looking for trouble. He was hot tempered and reckless, and could get hung up on anything in a skirt. But Hoss provided support for Joe's plans, and at times he was the one who found the trouble just because he was so trusting and easily taken in by conmen. Adam couldn't ride herd on a bunch of cattle and drovers and also make sure both his brothers stayed out of trouble in towns along the way. The only reason it worked with the four of them together was Ben's unquestioned authority, and the fact that he could send Adam to wrangle one of them while he kept an eye on the other. But with Joe and Hoss, without his pa along, Adam was hopelessly outnumbered, and his brothers often began to buck his authority. After all, he was only their big brother. Joe especially chafed under his brother's firm hand. Joe hated to be controlled, and the surest way to make him do something was to tell him that he couldn't, especially if you happened to be one of his overprotective brothers.
Ben never did get the full story of that cattle drive, but he knew the cattle were delivered late, and that the boys got lost on the way back somehow. Joe managed to get himself hurt, forcing them to stop in a town and wait for him to recover. Adam had never said as much, and Joe would not admit it, but Ben suspected that Joe had gotten into some kind of a fight and wound up with more than he could handle. Some of the drovers had refused to ever go on a drive involving Joe again, which led to years of complications in planning such drives. Some of them were more reasonable, they said they'd go if Ben was there to keep his youngest in check. None of them ever said what their problem was.
Adam had been wise enough to send a message after Joe was hurt, letting Ben know they would be late getting home. Ben had wanted to go right out and see how badly Joe was hurt, suspecting that Adam would downplay anything that had gone wrong. If Adam was sending a telegram, things must have gone disastrously wrong. But Ben had managed to talk himself out of going. Adam had sent him that message precisely so he wouldn't worry. If the boys needed help, they could ask for it. He daily reminded himself that there was nothing the three of them couldn't handle together.
While Joe had been recovering, Hoss had fallen head over heels for a beautiful girl, and had wanted to stay even after Joe and Adam were ready to move on. It had taken time to get him pried loose.
On the way back, they had somehow become entangled in the affairs of a small town when one of them was mistaken for a bank robber and arrested, then subsequently released and they had spent about a week as deputies. After that, there had been a widow woman with a little girl, and they'd stopped to get her farm equipment back in working order and helped her find someone to work for her so she could manage the place. After that, they'd met up with a shady type on the trail who'd told some outlandish stories that Hoss believed, gaining the most trusting and gentle brother's confidence and then he'd tried to steal the money they'd gotten from the drive in the middle of the night and make off with it, but Joe's suspicious nature had stood him in good stead and the man was caught and turned over to the next sheriff the boys could find.
In all, it had been almost Christmas before the three eventually came traipsing back home. Joe and Hoss had been in good spirits, elated by their adventure and not really realizing how much trouble they'd caused along the way or how much worry their father had suffered. Adam had handed Ben the saddlebag with the money and stumbled upstairs to his bed, which he refused to leave for the next week unless he was promised nothing more troublesome than eating breakfast at the table.
It took a lot of coaxing, but he was convinced to get dressed and come down for the Christmas Eve party. Adam had played the polite host, and danced with pretty girls and might even have accidentally started enjoying himself. Even so, he retired early. He later swore that he would never ask his pa to let him and his brothers go on a cattle drive alone again. It was even some time before he could be convinced to go on a drive even with only one of his brothers at a time, or to stay home with one while Ben himself went on the drive with the other. His brothers had really worn him out.
That had been a good Christmas, Ben reflected.
Even though it was a few years later and the boys had become wiser and more mature in the intervening time, Ben had still been terrified the first time he sent Hoss and Joe out without him or Adam along. He'd been quite sure it was a disaster in the making, but they'd managed just fine. They'd run into a little bit of trouble through no fault of their own, but had resolved it and made it back in one piece. Ben and Adam had both been surprised, though neither of them would admit it aloud.
Unfortunately, that memory led him back to the present, and he found himself again wondering how much trouble the boys were in. He wished he could tell if the twisting in his gut was a real warning or just fear. When it came to his boys, he'd never been able to separate legitimate concerns from being an overbearing worrywart. Obviously the boys were in trouble, but some hostage takers were cruel, others almost kind. He couldn't tell from the note just how dangerous this person (or people) really were. It didn't do any good to guess because he was doing so without any real information.
Steve had a headache, his vision was a bit blurry, and his balance was off. The sunlight reflecting off the snow was too damn bright, his horse bounced too much when as he trotted along, and there were fresh wolf tracks in the snow that had him a little concerned. For all that, he was happy enough. He'd won the drinking contest with Jake last night, or at least he thought he had, which meant Jake had to do his chores next week, leaving Steve free to goof off. That is, if this deputy gig didn't last too long.
One could never be sure when Hank roped them into deputy work whether it would be for a few hours or a few days or a month. This wasn't the first time Hank had woken the Williams brothers up with a cold bucket of water and a cup of incredibly strong black coffee and set them to doing tasks without really filling them all the way in because there wasn't time. Steve didn't expect to have the full story until after he got back from Kailen-Tanner place.
Like as not, Hank had some notion cooking in his head. If this Canaday fella was on the level, Hank would be rounding up deputies from all around town and heading up what amounted to a posse going out to Elodie. One thing Hank couldn't abide were crooked lawmen, and he'd seen his share over the years, despite the fact that he would act baffled and even offended by such notions whenever anyone brought it up. Hank believed firmly that people should be able to trust their lawmen, and his way of making sure they could was a combination of being ferocious in taking down the crooked ones and equally stolid in telling people that lawmen were meant to follow the law, not break it. He was a funny kid, but smart and tough, and Steve respected him.
The ride out to the Kailen-Tanner ranch wasn't too terribly long in good weather, but it took longer when snow became involved. The trail there was pretty well broken up, a lot of people had been riding it since the snow fell, but Steve was disinclined to push his horse for a couple of reasons.
One, he had to ride the horse back and he didn't want the animal overworked or to sweat and then get cold. Two, his head was spinning far too quickly for him to manage more than a trot on the way out. For a somewhat weak-reasoned third, Hank hadn't asked Steve for speed, which probably meant there wasn't any reason to rush. And Steve never rushed if he didn't have to when he had a hangover.
When he finally did reach the ranch, Steve thought for a moment that there really was trouble out at the Kailen-Tanner place what with the way Clint Tanner came running out yelling. It startled both Steve and his horse, and it was a few seconds before he could determine what the excited man was saying.
"She said yes! Stevie, she said yes!" Clint was shouting as he grabbed onto the reins of Steve's horse.
Steve was slow on the uptake, "Yes to what?"
"ME!" Clint, normally a fairly sedate and calm gentleman, seemed to have gone completely off his head, "Miss Laura said YES to ME!"
Slow comprehension dawned as Steve realized what question Clint must've asked that Laura could have said yes to. It was well known to everyone except for Laura and her late husband that Clint had been pining for her since before she was ever married. Not that Clint had ever said anything, but he was easy enough to read and unless you were blind and deaf, you couldn't mention the pure adoration in his eyes and voice whenever he mentioned Laura by name.
Even though it had been a respectable time since the death of Jeff Kailen, nobody had placed any bets on Clint ever managing to ask Laura to marry him, and everyone knew she was too much of a lady -a proud, stubborn and mischievous one at that- to ever ask him.
"That's fine, Clint," Steve said, managing not to wince as Clint's loud exclamations of joy battered against his hungover senses, "I guess that means everything's alright up here."
"Of course it is!" Clint exclaimed, completely oblivious to Steve's discomfort, "Why shouldn't it be?"
"You ain't missin' any horses, are ya?" Steve inquired.
"Don't think so," Clint said, "They were all there this morning, except the red dun mare, of course."
"And where's the Jeff Kailen Mare?" Steve asked, even though he knew precisely where the mare was.
Hank had taught him and Jake to ask questions that didn't let on how much they knew, and didn't lead potential witnesses into testifying falsely, either by accident or to protect somebody.
"I let a cowboy borrow her," Clint replied distractedly, clearly uninterested in the mare, "I directed him to Dewton. He had a message to send to somebody," suddenly his eyes narrowed and he looked directly at Steve for the first time, "Why? Something go wrong? Is the mare hurt?"
"Nah, she ain't hurt," Steve said, "Leastways, not that Sheriff Walker said. But that is what I rode up here to talk to you about. See, your cowboy made it to Dewton. Did you know he's wanted by the law in Elodie?"
"No," Clint said, but averted his eyes suddenly, "I didn't know."
"Really?" Steve replied coolly, "Then who was it that broke up the trail leading up here? Surely one man on a horse couldn't churn that much snow in one trip."
"Oh, a couple of deputies were up here, lookin' for somebody," Clint said, still avoiding looking Steve in the eye, "But that cowboy was alright, he just needed a fresh horse to get him to Dewton. He was in a powerful hurry to get a message off, said he was sendin' it to the father of two boys that were in trouble."
"Uh-huh," Steve nodded sagely, "An' you didn't think maybe this stranger could be the one the deputies was after? C'mon, Clint, you're smarter'n that."
"Maybe he was," Clint admitted, "But Miss Laura said he wasn't any criminal. She sorta talked me into letting him go, and letting him borrow the mare."
"That woman could convince flowers to bloom in the winter," Steve said, "Anyhow, thanks for the information. I'd best be gettin' back; Sheriff Walker's stirred up 'bout all this somethin' awful. You know how he gets at the very suggestion of crooked lawmen."
"Sure do," Clint said, "Look, I'd volunteer to help out if you need extra deputies, but... well, Miss Laura is near her time, and I wouldn't feel right leaving her here."
"Of course not," Steve said, "You want I should send the doc out your way when I get back? I hear he's out to help some other lady with the same condition, but he could head out your way once that's done. He could probably even bring the Jeff Kailen Mare back with him when he comes."
"I'd appreciate that, Steve," Clint told him, "Just don't ever let on to Miss Laura that I said so."
"Sure thing, Clint," Steve said, and reined his horse around, turning back the way he'd come, "See ya around. Oh, and congratulations!"
"Merry Christmas!" Clint shouted at the receding backside of Steve's horse.
Steve returned the sentiment, but didn't know if he'd been heard.
Now he'd gotten the information he'd come for, Steve felt like he ought to be getting back to town. Besides, he hadn't had breakfast before he rode out, and he was getting hungry. Besides which, the hangover was beginning to wear off. His horse wasn't keen on the idea of hurrying though, and the ride back turned out to be just as time consuming as the ride out had been as a result.