Dance With A Gunfighter (34 page)

"That sounds delicious," Susan said. They
started along the path to the house. Chad gripped the wheels on his chair and
rolled them forward. His hands were large and strong, his shoulder muscles
bunched with each roll forward, then relaxed as he moved his hands back on the
wheels. They bunched again with the next forward roll. "Would it be all
right with you if I helped?" Susan asked.

His eyes widened in surprise and a hint of something
else--embarrassment or anger--showed in them. But as he regarded her, his
features eased and he nodded. "Good," she said, and took hold of the
handles of the chair. He helped with the wheels whenever a rock or incline was
reached.

"I half expected to find Mr. McLowry here with
you," Susan said to Gabe, "not a brother. This is so wonderful."

"Jess is here, too. He’s out with the cattle today.
We’re going to get married."

"You are? Congratulations! When will the wedding
be?"

"I haven’t set a date yet. I’ve got so much to do to
prepare."

Susan gave her a quizzical look, but by then they had
reached the house and the topic was dropped.

Gabe made them all some lunch. As they ate, Susan filled
Gabe in on what had happened over the past months since they’d last met. Her
mother had met a man she planned to marry. Susan couldn’t help but resent him,
and both the man and her mother knew it. He owned a copper mine near Globe, and
he’d come to Dry Springs to check out the silver mine there. That was when he
met the Widow Flint. He planned to take the family away from Dry Springs to his
home up north, but Susan, they’d decided, should go back east to school. She
was being sent to Boston, where the mother of her soon-to-be stepfather lived.
The woman was arranging for Susan to enter a boarding school there.

Suddenly, the girl broke into tears. "What am I going
to do, Gabe? I don’t want to leave Arizona. This is my home! What do I care
about some fancy Eastern school! Nothing! How can I leave my brother and
sister?"

Gabe glanced at Chad. She saw that he was taking in every
one of Susan’s words, and that, although he seemed moved by her tears, the
conversation wasn’t as disturbing to him as Gabe feared it might be.

"How long will you have to be in Boston?" Gabe
asked, handing Susan a handkerchief.

"I’ll finish school in two years." She wiped her
eyes. "I won’t come home until I’m eighteen! And then, it won’t be home. I
don’t know anything about Globe, or copper, or any of that!"

Gabe grabbed her wrist. "My advice to you, Susan, is
to go back East and get that education. It’s a wonderful thing that they’re
giving you."

Susan stared at her in surprise.

"Once you have it, you can do anything you want. You
can teach school, or work in a bank, or even for a newspaper--the world will be
open to you. You wouldn’t have to go to Globe or any such place if you didn’t
want to, because you would be able to support yourself."

Susan contemplated Gabe’s words.

"Don’t just think of the two years you’ll be
away," Gabe urged. "Think of the independence you will achieve."

"Do you really think so?" Susan asked.

"You’re strong, Susan." Gabe proclaimed.
"You can be whatever you want."

Susan’s gaze went from Gabe to Chad then back again.
"Two years is a long time."

"Not when your whole life is ahead of you. When you
come back, if you would like, you can come here to the ranch, and we’ll talk
about what the next thing for you to do should be."

"Promise, Gabe?"

"Absolutely." Gabe smiled. "Now, Chad
probably wants to go back to the stables. Maybe he’ll take you to visit Maggie?
I’m sure she would like to say hello!"

Chad gaped at his sister, a scared, stricken look on his
face. Undeterred, Gabe added, "And he can show you his horse, Thunder, as
well."

"I would like that," Susan said.

Gabe pulled open the door for Chad to leave with Susan
walking behind, pushing his wheel chair. He flashed her a look that said she
was in big trouble for this--a look she’d seen many times as they were growing
up. She didn’t cringe, though. Instead, she smiled. He hadn’t glared at her
that way since coming come. In any event, she figured anyone who talked to
horses could surely find a way to talk to a beautiful young girl.

The sun was starting to set before McLowry returned to the
house. "Four dinner plates, Gabe?" he said as he walked in and took
her in his arms.

"That’s right." She kissed him, then pulled
back, a big grin on her face.

He touched her chin. "I like seeing you smile. What’s
going on?"

"Come see."

She grabbed his hand and hurried him away from the house,
toward the arroyo, then stopped. In the distance, Susan Flint sat on the
ground, and in his chair, beside her, was Chad.

And the two were talking.

o0o

Gabe, Jess, Susan and Chad went into Jackson City for
supplies the next day, and to send a telegram to Susan’s mother saying Susan
was fine and she would return to Dry Springs in two weeks. A stagecoach would
be passing through Jackson City headed toward Dry Springs at that time.

Susan got to see a little of what the town was all about,
and meet some of Gabe and Chad’s friends. Chad even said hello, fine, thanks
and good-bye to people, much to their amazement. It was surprising how many of
them smiled as they looked from him to the girl, Susan, who never left his
side.

A week later, after supper, McLowry was with Chad when
Susan found Gabe alone in the kitchen. "Can I talk to you?" she
asked.

"Of course." She put down her sewing, and pulled
up a chair for Susan.

"Tell me about love, Gabe," Susan said.
"I’m sixteen. People will say that’s too young to fall in love. Do you
think so?"

"I was sixteen when I met Jess. I spent a little over
an hour with him at a town dance, right there in Jackson City. But from that
day on, I never forgot him. Not for one day. I thought I was in love with him.
Only later, much later, I found out that what I had most folks would call puppy
love, because I didn’t really know him.

"Those feelings I had for him, though, they grew into
love. And now, I can’t imagine life without him. I feel like I just go through
the motions when he’s not with me, and only come alive when he’s there."

"That’s how I feel with--" She snapped her mouth
shut, staring at Gabe.

"With Chad?" Gabe asked.

Susan nodded, her cheeks red.

"I think it’s true that you have to know a person
well before you can really love him. But the foundation for that love, well,
it’s got to start somewhere. Sounds like you’ve got a good start."

"Yes, that might be," Susan said thoughtfully.
"Do you think...do you think he’ll wait for me? Wait until I come home
from school--wait until I’m old enough to tell him how I feel? He’s so
handsome, and I saw the girls in Jackson coming around, smiling at him."

"Wait for you? Susan--" Gabe shook her head,
momentarily at a loss for words. "Chad is my brother, and I love him
dearly, but he’s in a wheel chair and he won’t be getting out of it. You say
he’s handsome--but his legs, Susan, they’re horribly scarred and twisted from
the accident. If you want him, you would have to deal with that, with all of
it, and not turn away from him in disgust, not ever."

"I wouldn’t. I live in a mining town, remember? Men
got hurt in those mines, horribly crushed and maimed. Sometimes... sometimes
even children." She shut her eyes, remembering some unnamed horror.

"Life with him would be very hard," Gabe
continued relentlessly. "For both of you. I don’t know that you want to
ask such of thing of him, or of yourself."

Susan lifted eyes to Gabe that were mature beyond her
years. "Yes, Gabe, I do. You once said I’m not like most other girls, that
I’m stronger. Chad will need someone strong. He’ll need me, and maybe, someday,
he’ll come to love me. I’ll go to that school in Boston, and when I come home,
I’ll find him. I only pray that he’ll wait."

Gabe regarded the girl a long moment. She knew the two had
been practically inseparable these few days. Whenever her eyes caught Chad’s
shiny black hair in the distance, close by would be Susan’s blond strands. She
nodded, and her words were quiet and from the heart. "I think, if he knows
what’s good for him, he’ll wait."

One week later, Gabe found that Susan must have convinced
her brother of her feelings for him. When it was time for Susan to ride into
town to catch the stage home, Gabe saw her stop to look at Chad with tears in
her eyes, and he looked as if he could scarcely hold back his own.

She put her arms around his shoulders. He sat, gripping
the arms of his chair tight, and then gave up, and wrapped his arms around her.
She sat on his lap, holding him tight and crying, while he stroked her hair and
looked as if his own heart would break. Finally, she regained her composure,
and stood, wiping away her tears. He gripped her arms, drew her close and
placed an innocent, tender kiss on her lips. Then he nodded.

She hurried to her horse and mounted. Sitting straight,
she looked as if she were burning into her mind and soul the image of him
sitting in his chair, the small white house behind him, the lonely desert
stretched out all around. Finally, she turned and nodded to Gabe and the two
rode toward town.

Chapter 26

The ride back to the ranch from Jackson City went by in a
blur for Gabe. So did preparing dinner and cleaning up afterward.

Earlier, as she and Susan had waited for the stagecoach’s
departure time, they’d overheard the driver telling one of the passengers that
Will Tanner and Luke Murdock were in Tombstone.

Susan and Gabe’s eyes had met.

"You can’t," Susan said. "You’re going to
marry Jess."

Gabe was numb. "I think this is why I’ve never set a
date. I knew this time would come."

"Don’t." Susan placed her hand on Gabe’s arm.
"Chad needs you."

Gabe squeezed her eyes shut. "He’s a reason I’ve got
to go. Look at him--look at what those scum did to him. Everyday I look at him
and remember how he used to be."

Tears fell from Susan’s eyes. "I’ll go, too,
then."

It was on the tip of Gabe’s tongue to tell Susan she was
too young or just a "girl" or to say to her one of the trite things
people had said to her when she announced her decision to go after Tanner’s
gang. "You aren’t a good enough shot," Gabe said bluntly and
truthfully. "I don’t intend to get very close, so I’ll have to be sure to
be accurate."

"I could practice."

"Not in Boston--and that’s where you need to
be!" Gabe hugged the girl as the stagecoach driver called out that it was
time to board.

"Are you going to be all right?" Susan asked, a
worried frown marring her face.

"I’ll be fine."

"Forget about Tanner," Susan said again.
"If something happened to you..."

"You’re saying we should let him go? After what he
did?"

Susan nodded, her tears falling harder. "You’re
right. But be careful!"

"I will. You, too."

Gabe watched until the stage disappeared in the horizon.
She felt as if she’d been walking through molasses ever since.

Jess sat in the kitchen after dinner as she cleaned up the
dishes. Chad had already gone to his room to write a letter to Susan.

"Is anything wrong?" he asked. "You’ve been
very quiet tonight."

"I guess I’m sad that Susan left." She dried the
pan she had cooked the home fries in and put it away.

"You and Chad both," Jess added.

"Yes." She wiped down the sink and spread out
the washrag on the drain board.

"Having her here must have stirred up a lot of old
memories."

She faced him. "They were never far away."

"Susan’s moving on with her life," Jess said,
his voice firm. "So is her mother. It’s time for you to do the same."

They weren’t there.
She wanted to shout the words
to him.
They didn’t stand by and watch as Tanner killed their family.
Her breath started coming faster and faster.

"Forget about Tanner, Gabe. Live your life."

"I can’t!" She hit the table then sat across
from him. "Why this constant harping for me to forget Tanner? Why does any
talk, any mention of him, make you so jumpy?"

He leaned back in the chair, his face pale.

"What happened between you two, Jess? You said you’d
encountered him in the past."

"It’s nothing to do with you, Gabe."

"Don’t shut me out! Tell me. Did you find out that
he’s faster than you are, is that it? Maybe you’re the one who’s afraid of
him?"

"Damn it, woman! When will you get it through your
head. This isn’t about me. It’s about you. You’re no match for him."

"You hung up your guns, Jess, before we met in
Bisbee. You were a big, scary gunfighter, then you stopped. You never told me
why. It had something to do with Tanner, didn’t it?"

"No! Not at all."

"Oh? What was it, then? Did you lose your
nerve?"

He stood so fast the chair toppled over. "Watch out,
Gabe. You’re getting into territory you know nothing about."

"I don’t know because you won’t tell me!"

"I’ve told you enough."

"You told me nothing. It’s got to be Tanner. That’s
why whenever you hear his name you get spooked. You’re afraid of him."

He looked angrier with her than she’d ever seen him.
Somehow, he held his fury in check and righted his chair. He sat down, facing
her. "It’s not Tanner. I wish it was. That would be easier--" He
stopped, his eyes haunted.

"Tell me."

He tightened his jaw. "It was about a child. A little
boy in Mesa Verde. A child who died because of me."

She stared at him, scarcely able to believe his words.

"It’s all of a piece, Gabe. The killing. The waste.
It’s all--" He drew in his breath. "About three years ago I was given
a job to do. To protect a cattle rancher. He claimed there were four rustlers
after his herd, and that when he tried to stop them, he ended up killing one of
them. The other three vowed revenge against him. I was to be his protection.