Winter' Refuge
Chapter Sixty-Eight
HEYES
It's beautiful here but I can't relax. There's so much I'm missing outside of Soteria that I feel isolated here. Funny, I used to want to isolate myself. Lock out the world and all of the people. Even did that lately by coming here in mind and watching the water. I've thought about it. Escaping to my mind, isolating myself from everything, was the only way I could have survived prison. I still wake up several times each night afraid, thinking I'm back there. At home, I sleep with two lamps on so it's always bright when I wake up.
Here it is different. Our shelter is big enough now that it holds Chrissy and Auntie as well as the twins. Me and Lyons sleep nearby in our bedrolls. It's cold but not unbearable. I prefer to sleep outside. The moon was near to full when we arrived, so it still gives some light. It's not fully dark when I wake up. I haven't had the urge to go into myself all day. I don't want to be isolated from the world anymore. I want to be part of it.
And I want to be part of this family more than anything else. At first, I thought the Kid brought me to his ranch out of loyalty, or worse pity. But I think all the things he said to me were true, and we're better together.
JED 'KID' CURRY
It's over. Marshal Karl Josephs told me his brother, Ken, is awake and askin' for me. Karl settled things with the sheriff here in Windswept. Reed will travel with me and Karl to Cheyenne. The marshals want to see if Ken can identify him as one of the men who beat him up.
Karl told me what happened on the ride.
When John Fisher was captured outside of Canningville, it was because he was set up by Henry Reed. Reed overheard Karl Josephs askin' the bartender in the White Dog Saloon for them by name. Scared but cautious, he knew that someone had figured out who was chasin' Curry. Calling the bartender over, he pointed to his partner.
"Heard that man there in the dirty red vest say his name was John Fisher when he sat down to play poker. Is there some kind of a reward?"
"Don't know. Thanks, I'll pass it on and ask."
"Just going to use the outhouse. Be right back," Reed had said as he slipped out the back door and rode off towards Windswept…alone.
Karl shook his head. "We didn't give him a thought until we arrested John Fisher. He started screaming about how his partner had betrayed him. Canningville sheriff was nowhere to be found. His office and the jail were locked. Turned out he quit two months ago. So, the marshal I was riding with started to Cheyenne with Fisher.
"Then I started looking for Reed. I knew he was heading for Windswept. That was our plan. Also knew that I needed to get there before him, or you would be unprotected."
Reed laughed from his horse. His hands were cuffed behind his back and Karl was leadin' the horse. "Got you good, Marshal; slowed you down. Knew you'd stop and help if I shot someone, especially a kid walking alone on the road."
I saw the look of disgust on Karl's face. "That kid will never use his right arm again," he growled.
"So, he lived." Reed laughed harder. "Well, Marshal, looks like you saved a life there."
Karl stopped and pulled Reed's face around to look him right in the face. I could hear the restrained anger in his voice. "And I still got to Windswept in time to arrest you. Now shut up. If I hear another word, you'll ride to Cheyenne with a gag in your mouth."
Me and Karl didn't talk much on the way to Cheyenne. When we stopped to water the horses, Karl roughly pulled Reed from his horse. "One thing that might help you in your trial is to identify your contact in Cheyenne. Who were you getting your telegrams from?"
Reed smiled smugly. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Karl grabbed his bandana and gagged him tightly with it. I usually have some compassion for prisoners of the law, especially gang members, but I have no compassion for this man.
HEYES
Chrissy seems very calm but the rest of us are anxious for the Kid to come back. Lyons keeps making the shelter larger when he's not on guard. I can tell he's not used to kids; doubt he's ever been around them. They make him nervous, and all their questions annoy him. There are things we have to do to survive. I make sure we have food to eat. Auntie stands guard and cooks our meals. Lyons also takes a turn at standing guard, usually a longer one and works on our shelter. I helped him drag some larger logs to lay across the top. The blankets covering the top are placed over the logs and tied down on the ends. It is much more secure. The earlier way we had it the blankets blew down often.
Today I taught the kids to climb trees. Well, I didn't start out to do that. They were with me by the lake, but not too close to the water. In some ways they are very serious children. Maybe being isolated with two overprotective ladies for most of their lives has made them cautious. I don't know if they've ever played with other children. One good thing about that is they took what I said about not going near the water very literally. When I was fishing, they were playing with a ball Chrissy made from a piece of cloth stuffed with the finer dirt near the lake. Then, I realized it was quiet. They are always chattering to each other, so I panicked. Almost dropped my fishing pole into the lake. I couldn't see them anywhere and I could see Chrissy and Auntie. I was just about to call for them when I heard, "Help, Uncle Heyes!"
I looked up to where the voice came from and there was Martha sitting high in a tree clinging tight.
"Climb down the way you climbed up," I called up to her.
She just hugged the limb near her tighter. "I can't. I'm scared to move." I could hear her tears.
"I told her she was going too high." Michael, standing on the ground beneath the tree, was crying, too.
"Stay here!" I ordered him.
It was an old, strong tree. I walked around and started to climb up the other side of it. I tired after pulling myself up a couple of times. I don't get as much exercise as I used to. When I was a limb higher than Martha, I reached out.
"Reach up, baby, and take my hand." She had watched me climb in silence and now her eyes found mine, her very trusting eyes as green as her ma's. "Just let go with one hand until you have mine."
Slowly her fingers untwined from the limb, then grabbed it again. "I'm scared." Her voice was shaky, just above a whisper.
I didn't panic. I stayed calm, something I wouldn't have been able to do a week ago. "I'm right here and I will not let anything happen to you."
She loosened her grip, then reached out her hand to me. I grabbed it firmly. "Let go with the other hand, now."
I held her tiny wrist tight and balanced my legs around my limb so I could free my other hand. As soon as she let go, I lifted her into my arms. She buried her face in my shoulder.
"You're safe. I need you to hold onto my neck tight, hold very, very tight to my neck. Can you do that?"
"Yes, Uncle."
I could feel her heart beat wildly against me. I took a deep breath to calm mine. With one arm, I slowly worked my way back down the tree. "Don't look down," I cautioned her.
She clung tightly to my neck, and I held her close in one arm. When I got near the ground, I heard Auntie's voice, "You're almost down. There's a strong fork in the branches about a foot to your left and down eight inches."
I was glad for the help. Two more steps down and I sat on a long branch at a right angle to the ground. I handed Martha down into Auntie's waiting arms.
I just sat there for a moment, proud of myself. I didn't panic. I quickly figured out a plan and Martha is safe. Michael hugged his sister.
Chrissy was walking as fast as she could toward her daughter, wagging her finger at her. "What you think you are doing?"
Intercepting her, Auntie said in a soothing tone, "Now Christina, she's fine and it scared her enough that she won't do it again soon."
Christina stopped and for a moment I recognized the look on her face when she freezes. She stared at me sitting in the tree for a long moment and no one moved.
And then Chrissy was back with us. "Good. Martha you no do that again!" she said, hugging her daughter to her leg. Then she looked at me. "Uncle Heyes, come down. Teach babies to climb up tree… and down."
So, I did. It was harder with Michael and his cast. I found a smaller stout tree and taught them the basics just as I had taught their pa many years ago.
Without saying a word that afternoon, Lyons built a small platform about four feet off the ground. He notched the limbs and the boards securely and fixed a rope railing around it. He positioned it so that they could easily climb into it using the lower branches. They loved it and spent hours sitting up there playing a card game they made up and only they understood. Maybe it's not that he doesn't like kids, maybe it's that he's never been around them.
JED 'KID' CURRY
At our next rest stop near a small stream, Karl removed the gag and tried again to get the name of the Cheyenne contact. But John Reed was stubborn and silent. Whisperin', Karl had told me to take off my shirt when I went to the stream. I wasn't sure why, but I did as he asked.
"You see Curry's back, Reed? That's what happens in prison. And some have worse," Karl warned.
Bendin' over the water, I thought about it. Ken must have told his brother about my back. He had seen glimpses of it once or twice when I helped at the ranch. If I think I'm alone, I take my shirt off in the heat. Ken never gave on that he had seen it. I appreciate that. Takin' my time, I splashed water on my face and filled up my canteen. When I stood, I stretched my back.
"If I snitch, what do I get?" Reed was still lookin' at me when I turned around. I purposefully pushed my hair back off my temple so my scar was visible.
Karl was quiet. "Can only promise to tell the judge you cooperated. Might shorten your sentence."
"Gotta get goin'," I told them as I walked back to them.
"His name is Glen, and he works as the warden's clerk. Got a relative that butlers for the governor, too," Reed said quickly, almost pleadin'.
I still didn't feel sympathy for this man who was goin' to hurt my family.
Karl continued to question him. "Glen have a way to be in touch with prisoners like Phillip Carlson?"
"The judge? Yeah, he interacts with them; he gives out work assignments sometimes. Don't know what else."
"Why?" Karl leaned closer into Reed's face.
I was surprised at the question, but Reed didn't hesitate. Now that he was talkin', he was speakin' freely. "The judge pays well, real well. Don't matter he's in prison. And he owns all the Hidden Rocks Gang…or he did. He voided all of our wanted posters and rewards. If we came to trial, he dismissed our cases. We owed him. But he don't have that power now that he's dead. We don't owe him nothing no more."
"Your gang do his dirty work?"
"Yeah." He looked over at me. "That's why we were sent to kill Curry's family when you testified after being warned twice. But they were gone."
A shiver ran down my back and I had to control the urge to strangle the man speakin'.
Karl put his palm out to me, and I took some deep breaths. "Judge ever do his own dirty work?"
"Heard tell he murdered another judge and his daughter. He's not afraid of getting his hands dirty. The Carlsons are just about the richest family in Iowa, nothing would have happened to him there."
Karl nodded to me, and I went and collected the horses. When he gagged Reed again, he got a hurt look. "Never said I wouldn't gag you again; just said I'd say that you cooperated.
Reed's shoulders sagged and I could see the resignation fall over his body. He was cooperative the rest of the way into Cheyenne.
We entered a road, nothin' more than a dirt trail, that led to the back of the US Marshall's office near the outskirts of the city. Karl had me knock three times on the unmarked door. The stone-faced man that opened the door looked past me to Karl.
"Marshal Josephs, good to see you." He turned to me. "You Jed Curry?"
Noddin', I answered, "I am."
"After we're finished here, I'm supposed to escort you to the governor's mansion."
ASJ*****ASJ
The marshals were efficient. Reed was locked up in their jail which looked stronger than any sheriff's jail I remembered. Then Karl and I were separated, and each gave a statement of what Reed had told us. I also told them that he wasn't threatened, just given a promise that Karl would tell the judge he was cooperative.
When I finished and came back into the main office, I heard Karl givin' orders to two marshals to ride to the prison and find this "Glen" and to search his desk.
"Curry, you be careful at the governor's. We don't know which relative of Glen works there, may even be a woman," Karl warned me.
I really didn't want to see the governor. I wanted to go get my family and go home. Before I left, I listened when Karl asked, "How's my brother?"
"The same. Been visiting him. He has good days and bad days. Be happy to see you, I'm sure."
I felt that we were bein' followed as we headed to the mansion. I turned quickly and drew my Colt.
"Easy, Curry. He's with us. Here to watch our back," my escort, Lou O'Rourke, said.
A young butler I hadn't seen before opened the door. How many servants does the governor have, I wondered?
"You're Kid Curry?" he asked, ignorin' the marshal.
But O'Rourket answered, "Mr. Curry is here at the governor's request." I heard his stress on my name.
"Of course," the butler answered politely. "This way. I'll bring you some water."
He escorted us to a sittin' room that was very familiar. I had spent hours in here just a day ago. How could it have been only a day, but I had been here the night before I testified. Now I was waitin', again. I am findin' it harder to just wait. In prison we stood for hours in the sun as discipline, often for nothin' but the guards showin' their power over us. I'd learned to let my mind wander while I kept my body still. But now my mind wanders to my family and their welfare. And that's something I can't control right now.
After half an hour, I found myself pacin' in circles around the room. "What do you think is keepin' the governor?" I asked. I know my tone was impatient but didn't want to take the energy to hide it.
"He's probably getting a briefing on what Marshal Josephs and you reported."
"I could have told him that," I almost growled but controlled myself. I just wanted to get out of there and to my family. But havin' this time to think, I understood that I couldn't do that unless these last two people, Glen and his relative, were caught. Even with Judge Carlson dead, their loyalty to him might threaten my safety and the safety of my family.
And I wanted to talk to the governor…I had the buddin' of a plan to get into Devil's Hole far different than any plan me and Heyes had been considerin'.
Unlike the last time I was here, this time we seem to have been forgotten. The butler never even came back with water. Finally, the double doors opened and the governor came into the room, followed by his butler with water and glasses. He set the tray on the table and closed the double doors.
"Jed, sorry to make you wait so long." The governor smiled and shook my hand. "Marshal, thank you for escorting Mr. Curry here."
O'Rourke looked slightly surprised at the warm greeting I'd received but hid it quickly. "You're welcome. Now if I may go, I have some work to do."
"Yes, go, go." The governor waved toward the side door and the marshal left.
"Well, Jed, you've had a lot of excitement since we were last in this room."
"Yes, sir…er, Charles." I corrected myself to use his name when I saw him react to my sir.
"It's almost done now. You know we have marshals riding to the prison. We believe this Glen may be one of Warden Mays' clerks."
I nodded but something odd caught my eye, but I couldn't decide if what my gut was tellin' me was wrong. Maybe it was just too many years of livin' suspicious of who might have recognized us and want the bounty on us. But no, I saw it again, the butler had dropped something in each glass of water just before he added the lemon slice. !
He handed one glass to the governor then one to me. And then it hit me, Glen's relative was this butler.
"Charles, don't drink that!" I ordered. Standin', I walked toward the butler.
"Jed?" the governor asked.
I handed my glass to the man, and I could see fear in his eyes. "Here, drink this," I told him.
Lettin' the glass fall to the floor between us, he turned away and pulled a gun from under his jacket. He faced me again as he started to point it at me. But I was faster. My Colt jumped into my hand. He was scared, tremblin'. Seein' him up close, he was very young, late teens maybe. I didn't know if he would fire the gun or not.
"Give me the gun!" I demanded.
"No, the judge wants you dead. Dead for your testimony." His hand wavered and I saw in his eyes what he was goin' to do. I jumped close enough that I hit his arm upward and grabbed the gun just as he pulled the trigger, aimin' at the governor. The bullet ruined the moldin' of the ornate ceilin'.
I threw his gun to the governor and holstered mine. Gettin' a hold of his wrist, I twisted his arm behind his back just as Marshal O'Rourke ran into the room from the side door and the governor's bodyguard did the same through the double doors.
ASJ*****ASJ
"Oh, Mr. Curry," the governor's wife gushed. "We owe you more than a simple thank you for saving my Charles' life!"
We had moved to a larger sittin' room that was in the governor's private quarters. The young butler was new. An underbutler fillin' in on the regular night butler's one day off. He'd been workin' there for three months doin' various jobs and, when he thought about it, Charles remembered him standin', hands folded, in confidential meetin's, always there ready to fill a water glass or a coffee cup. But he'd been listenin' and passin' the information to Judge Carlson through his Uncle Glen, who was indeed a clerk for the warden.
"Thank goodness he wasn't here when we were hatching the plan to catch the men trying to kill you," Charles commented. "You never had a chance to tell me how everything happened from your perspective, Jed.'
"Well, if you two are talking men talk, I'm going to excuse myself and retire for the evening," Miss Tina said.
Me and Charles stood when she left and then we were alone in the room. "Start telling me. I have sent for Colin Apperson to join us, but he'll just have to listen from the middle." Charles leaned back in his chair and took a sip of whiskey he'd poured for us both from a bottle whose seal he had broken.
When Colin entered a few minutes later, he motioned him to be quiet. Colin poured himself a drink and sat in a chair between us.
Charles finished my story by tellin' Colin what had just happened, again thankin' me for savin' his life. "I'd always wondered just how fast you were, Jed. But you outdrew John Reed, who I know is one of the fastest gunfighters around. Some even gave him your title of Fastest Gun in the West. Guess that title's yours, again. And I saw you draw here when the man already had his gun almost pointed at you. You're the fastest I've ever seen."
"Always someone faster," I answered.
"Jed, is there something I can do for you? Your testifying with the threats hanging over you and your family was heroic, deserving of my appreciation. And then tonight you saved my life. How can I thank you?"
A million things went through my mind. I could ask for money, but there were other things more important right now. "Well Charles…Governor, there are two things I'm thinkin' about, but not sure you can do them."
"Jed, what are they? Certainly, you know by now that this office does come with some power. Money? Land grant?"
"No, sir. Well, ahh, well, Chrissy, my wife, would like to visit her brother Matt before she goes into confinement next month and he's not allowed visitors for two months. And, of course, after the baby arrives, she won't be able to travel."
Charles looked earnest and Colin looked concerned. Maybe I was oversteppin' my friendship here, but I did just save the man's life.
"And the second thing?' Colin asked before the governor could.
"Move Heyes' last parole hearin' up and give him his amnesty so he can go to Devil's Hole with me."
Leanin' forward in his chair, Charles took a long sip of his whiskey. "Colin, you're my witness. Jed, go get your family, but don't take them home. Bring them here. And I mean here to the mansion. My wife will adore having them as our guests. And I will make both of those things happen. How soon can you be back here?"