Chapter Three
"Rory, I made some chicken soup with the vegetables Silas brought over. Said they were going to waste on the vine."
He sat down at the table and dished up some soup, "Looks good Eugenie. How's the baby?"
"Making me fat. Will you still love me i'ffn I weigh a ton?"
"Eugenie, you are carrying our baby, you gotta gain weight to feed the child. Doc Merar told you to eat more."
She pouted and fixed herself a smaller portion; she sat down at the table and the chair slat fell out."
"This place is a dump. The Barkleys gave us a dump. If Doolin had given me the money, we could have a nice place in town."
He frowned, "Honey, we are lucky to have a roof over our heads; I have to live on the ranch to work. I am making a good wage and you got savings if you need it. We bought ya a new dress."
"Rory, I just don't think any of this is fair."
He sat up straighter and spoke firmly to her, "Eugenie, I was raised in an orphanage. Folks died coming west. Got too big for my britches and started causing trouble. Nick Barkley saved me. Taught me himself, side-by-side, to ride, to rope, to brand. He didn't have to—-McColl taught me to clean and cook and set tack. I wanna be a foreman one day. This is a good place to live and bring up our baby."
"Hmpf—-afta I have this baby next month, things are gonna change. We get a goat. I am not feeding the child."
His eyes grew wide, "He or she will need milk. It's not natural not to know its mother."
"I saw what it did to my mother. Long sagging mess of udders pretty much left her with. Like a dairy cow. Six of us. I have no idea where they are all now since Mama died. Remember I went to my cousin's in Modesto. Put me to work at ten years old. Started with Barkley's over there, brought me back here."
"And I for one am glad they did." He hugged her around her stomach. The baby kicked him.
"See Eugenie, knows her Pa."
She leaned back into his arms for comfort, "Thank you for staying with me. Never knew my Pa. He took off as all the others did that my Mother knew. None of the six of us knew fathers. I know you will stay, right?"
He swung her around, "You are my wife and this is my child. I ain't leaving you. I know how the world is out there. Don't need to wallow in the mud."
He kissed her soundly and she rested her head on his chest. The baby kicked them soundly again.
"Let's finish up this good soup you made."
She sighed, "You will be eating it all week."
"And I am fine with that."
—-&—-
Rory was snoring loudly when the baby woke Eugenie. She got up and used the outhouse,
"I miss the indoor facilities at the big house," she complained.
"I am wide awake now," she went into her closet and got her fine traveling desk and matching valise Tessa Barkley had bought her on her birthday.
She cried looking at the almost sudden swelling this week of her fingers and feet, "Looks like sausages."
"I look like a cow." Looking at her swollen face in the mirror.
She opened the satin fabric of the lining and pulled out her money. She counted it again.
"At least, I have plenty if he does leave—-for a while."
She opened the compartment of the desk and the false bottom she hollowed out.
There lay the leather wallet of Peter Doolin.
"There is five hundred dollars in here. Folks will say I stole. I say I earned it."
—-&—
"Welcome home, lover," Zella greeted Jack with a big kiss.
"I am glad to be home. The poker pot in Roseville was worth it. I needed to let some steam off and a week playing cards was worth it. Not away from you and Chip. But being Mayor is pretty stuffy. Being plain ole Gentleman Jack again was worth it. "
"Not too much steam if you know what I mean?" Zella cut her eyes at him.
"Zella, you are my steam engine. I am a man of my word and my family. I take care of both."
She kissed him passionately and sat down on his lap. Their fierce fondling was interrupted by a little voice, "Pap?" toddling up from his nap.
Chip had picked up the word, Pappy from JT and shortened it to Pap. Pop became Pap quickly for Jack.
"My boy! Pap missed you and your beautiful momma."
"Pap!" as he nuzzled into his shoulder.
"How'd you get out of your crib?"
"Learned to climb out while you were gone. Woke me up twice in the middle of the night and now he is up from his nap. Agile little fellow and real sneaky like."
"Wonder where he got that from?" Jack laughed holding his son and his wife.
"Do you hear Peter Doolin was murdered a few days ago?"
"I did. Made all the news and saloon talk."
"I say good riddance. He was the devil himself."
"Amen, Zella. How about some grub? Missed lunch on the train."
Zella fixed them a snack and headed back to the restaurant with Chip for a serving girl to watch as she went over the supper menus one more time.
Jack took off his clothes and waited for the bath to fill. He took $5000 in winnings out of his pocket and placed it in their bedroom safe. He put his soiled clothes from the valise into the laundry bin.
"Hmmm, better take these pants myself to the Chinese laundry. Bloodstain and I don't want to explain to Zella. Oh, and I am slipping—Here is the night train punched ticket to Stockton from Roseville."
He tore the ticket up into small, tiny pieces and placed it in his ashtray. He watched it burn.
His head turned to the group family portrait on the wall taken at Jarrod and Tessa's wedding. He straightened the frame. He looked over at a miniature of JT and Chip, virtual twins.
"I would do anything for you all."
—-&—-
Two federal marshals came into town at the end of the day. They met with the Council and Lieutenant Colonel from the Army at the Cattleman's.
"Have you read the mortician's report?"
"Yes, chilling."
"Bear, infected small animals bites, arsenic, finger bruises on his neck—- blow to the back of the head, gunshot— rigor mortis set in—this man was hated. Rattlesnakes in his desk drawer."
"No wallet, no horse, no buggy, no watch fob."
"And dragged for a considerable distance by horse or buggy and sat up—-meat tied to leg?"
"At the place where the Knights of the Golden Circle likely hid the gold."
"Where do we start?"
"I have no idea."