[Texas Rangers 04] - Ranger's Trail (10 page)

Rusty sat on the front-porch bench with Josie and watched as twilight darkened the fields stretching beyond the barn. She laid her head against his shoulder, her fingers firmly clasping his arm. She said, “I’ve been thinkin’ a lot about that farm of yours.”

“
Ours,” he said.

“
I remember how it looked when Mama and us stayed there durin’ the war.”

“
It’s nicer now. We’ve fixed it up a right smart, me and Andy and Len Tanner, when Len would stand hitched long enough to help. You’ll like it. I’m anxious to take you down there.”

“
Maybe it won’t be as long as we thought. Mama perked up a lot when you brought Alice home. She’s got a stronger look in her eyes, and I do believe her talkin’ has improved.”

“
But you don’t want to leave her just yet?”

“
Not ’til she’s on her feet. Preacher Webb is hopeful this will all pass and by summer she’ll be back to the way she was.”

“
Summer seems like a long time off. Me and Andy will have to go back home and get the plantin’ done before that.”

“
But you’re not in a hurry, are you?” Her tone was hopeful. “You
are
goin’ to stay with us a while longer?”

“
I’m waitin’ to see what Corey Bascom does. James and Evan and Preacher Webb will need all the help they can get if he and his brothers come for Alice.”

“
You’ve already done a lot. We’re all grateful.” She kissed him on the cheek. “How many times have I asked you to marry me?”

He smiled. “Lately, or altogether?”

“
I guess it’s been shameless of me, but you know I wanted you. I’ve wanted you ever since I was a girl.”

“
That was when you first asked me.”

“
I just didn’t want to let you get away. I knew I had to speak up because I could see you and Geneva had eyes for one another.”

“
That was a long time ago. Things change.”

“
Not my feelin’s about you. I love you.”

Rusty tried to say what she had said, but the words would not come as he wanted them to. He said, “I … I’ve got the same feelin’s.”

Geneva came out of her house across the yard, her small daughter at her side. Josie’s gaze followed her sister as she seated herself in a rocker on the porch. The girl climbed up into her lap.

Josie said, “Geneva’s still a pretty woman.”

“
Yes, she is.” Rusty felt uneasy, talking about her.

“
I remember when everybody figured you-all would get married after the war was over.”

“
That was before Evan came along.”

“
Some feelin’s never die. I can’t help but wonder sometimes if you just think you love me because I remind you of her.”

Rusty thought hard about his reply, for he did not want to say anything that would reinforce her doubts. Only to himself would he admit that the same question haunted him from time to time. The answer seemed clear as he sat here beside Josie, feeling the pleasant warmth of her cheek, the arousing pressure of her body leaning against him. But away from her, he might wonder again.

He said, “Geneva’s got her own family, and she’s happy. Whatever was between us once is long gone.”

She pulled away far enough to stare into his eyes. “I wouldn’t want to find out someday that I’m a substitute for somebody else. Not even my own sister.”

“
I can’t deny that Geneva was the first woman I ever loved. But you’ll be the last.”

“
Show me,” she said, and kissed him again. He felt as if the sun was bearing down upon him with all its noonday heat.

She said, “Hold me, Rusty. Hold me like you’ll never let me go.”

Evan Gifford had been keeping watch and sounded the alarm. “They’re comin’,” he said, running up from the corrals. “Looks like a bunch of them.”

Rusty had seen them from the porch. He squinted. “I count five. You sure it’s the Bascoms?”

“
That’s Corey in the lead. I never saw the rest of his family.”

The only rider Rusty could recognize was Bessie Bascom, sitting straight as a fence post on a sidesaddle. She had a determined posture that reminded him of old Captain August Burmeister of the prewar rangers. Rusty was surprised to see her on a mission like this, but after reflection he decided he could have expected it. He had quickly gained the impression that she was mother, father, and supreme commander of her troop.

James and Preacher Webb and Andy came out of the house. James gave the situation a quick study. “I’ll stand here and wait for them. I wish the rest of you would scatter the way we talked about.” He glanced back at Webb. “Preacher, it might be better if you stayed in yonder with Mama and the girls.”

Webb demurred. “Maybe I can talk common sense to them.”

“
I doubt as they’d pay attention to it. If you’re goin’ to stay out here with me you’d best fetch a gun. That way maybe they’ll be more willin’ to listen to the gospel.”

Evan trotted to his own house. Geneva came out onto the porch. He waved her back inside and took a position at the corner. Andy moved out to stand beside the woodpile. Checking the load in his rifle, Rusty walked to the corner of the barn and stepped back out of sight. If the Bascoms rode all the way up to the main house they would be covered from all sides.

From his vantage point Rusty studied the faces. He already knew Bessie Bascom’s. Her square jaw was firmly set, her eyes fierce like a hawk’s. In comparison, her sons looked almost benign. Rusty decided the one riding closest to Bessie must be Corey, for he appeared a little the oldest and had the most serious expression. The others, Rusty guessed, had probably come along mostly because Bessie had ordered it. He doubted the strength of their resolve. Alice was not
their
wife.

One of the Bascoms had an ironic smile as if he found the situation amusing in some off-center way. Instinct told Rusty that this one might bear special watching.

James stepped to the edge of the porch, a rifle across his folded arms. “That’s about close enough, Corey.”

Rusty had been correct in assuming which was Alice’s husband. Corey stopped and leaned on his saddlehorn. He said, “You know what we’ve come for.”

“
You can’t have her.”

“
She’s mine. We had the knot tied by a sure-enough preacher.” He nodded at Preacher Webb, standing beside James, rifle in his hand. “Wasn’t no jackleg, neither. Army chaplain, he was. Had the papers and everything.”

James argued, “Bein’ married don’t make her your property, to be branded and treated like a mare. She’s still a freeborn American, with the rights God gave us all.”

“
Her place is with me. How I treat her is between me and her. She ain’t your business anymore.”

“
She’s my sister, so she’ll always be my business.
Our
business, this family’s.”

“
She belongs to my family now. And I brought them along to see that she goes back where she’s supposed to be. There ain’t enough of you Monahans to stop us.”

James frowned. “Maybe you ain’t seen everybody yet. You’re just countin’ me and Preacher Webb. You’re probably thinkin’ a preacher ain’t any hand with a gun. You’d be wrong. He can knock a coyote’s eye out at a hundred yards. And you know my brother-in-law Evan. That’s him over on the porch of his house, carryin’ that shiny new shotgun.”

All the Bascoms turned to look as Evan stepped away from the corner of his house, bringing the shotgun up into both hands.

James went on, “Now, if you’ll look out yonder by the woodpile you’ll see Andy Pickard. Raised by the Comanches to be mean as hell. Crack shot with pistol or rifle. If he runs out of shells, he can get you with a bow and arrow.

“
And finally, I want you to make the acquaintance of Rusty Shannon. That’s him beside the barn yonder, with the rifle. A ranger for years. Brought many a bad man and several Indians to heel in his prime, and he still ain’t got enough gray hair that you’d notice it much.” He shifted his attention back to Corey. “You still got a notion you want to tackle this family?”

Corey sat rigid in the saddle, his face reddening. He said nothing.

Bessie watched him, looked at James a moment, then turned back to her son. “Is that the best you can do, Corey Bascom, sit there and let them run a bluff on us?”

Corey did not look at her. Grittily he said, “You better count the guns, Ma.”

She turned in fury toward her other sons. “You-all just goin’ to let this stand? They’ve got a woman in yonder that rightfully belongs to your brother. Carryin’ his seed now, more than likely. Ain’t there any shame in the lot of you?”

Nobody moved. They could count, even if the old woman couldn’t.

She shrilled, “I’m glad your pa ain’t here to see his family tuck their tails between their legs like egg-suckin’ hounds.” She pushed her horse forward. “If you-all won’t do anything, I will.”

Rusty saw hesitancy in the faces of James and Webb. If one of the Bascom brothers had made this move they would have stopped him. But though they raised their rifles, he knew they would not shoot a woman.

The front door opened, and Alice stepped out holding a pistol in both hands. She aimed it at Bessie and shouted, “They won’t shoot you, but I will. I got cause enough.”

Rusty’s lungs burned. He had been holding his breath. The air was cool, but he sweated as if he were digging post-holes.

Corey said, “Better stop, Ma. She means it.” He rode forward far enough to grab her bridle reins. “This ain’t worth gettin’ killed over.”

Bessie’s face was flushed with fury. “It ain’t her. You can buy better than her in any dancehall from here to Arkansas. But the shame she’s brought on this family, that is worth killin’ for, or even gettin’ killed.”

“
Nothin’ is worth gettin’ killed for, not money, not pride, not even a woman. Come on, Ma. We’re startin’ home.” He had to pull on the reins and forcibly turn her horse around.

She cursed her son as she had cursed Rusty the day he had taken Alice away.

Not until they were a hundred yards out did Rusty pause to wipe sweat from his hands onto his trousers, then rub a sleeve across his face. Andy came to meet him halfway to the house. He whistled in relief. “The Fort Griffin bartender was right. That old woman is the devil’s stepmother.”

Rusty nodded. “You’re a good judge of character.”

The Bascoms stopped a half mile from the Monahan place, all but Corey. He kept riding.

Bessie shouted, “Where you goin’?”

“
I’m goin’ home, and I’m goin’ by myself. You’d bitch at me the whole way, and I don’t want to listen to it.”

“
You come back here. We got talkin’ to do.”

Corey kept riding. Bessie hollered at him again, more of a screech than a shout. “Damn you, come back here!”

Corey gave no sign that he heard. Bessie turned to her other sons, her mouth puckered with fury, her eyes cutting like a knife. “To hell with him then. It’s up to us to do what has to be done.”

Lacey was the next oldest to Corey. He said, “We could slip back in there and pick off them Monahans one at a time ’til Alice gives up and comes with us.”

“
One or two of us might get picked off, too. No, there’s just one thing to do. That girl knows a way too much about this family and our business. If she was to testify in a court, ain’t no tellin’ what the law might do. So if we can’t take her home, we have to see that she don’t talk to anybody ever again.”

Lacey almost grinned. “You mean kill her?” He had had no use for Alice since she had blackened his eye one day when he tried to drag her into the barn.

Bessie said, “This won’t set well with Corey. She turned his head real good. But he’ll get over it. So we’ll find us a place to rest a while. Come full dark, Lacey, me and you will go back and do what Corey didn’t have the stomach for.”

Little Anse, the youngest, asked, “You ain’t takin’ me and Newley, Ma?”

“
Two’s enough. More than that might attract attention.”

Newley Bascom had had a crush on Alice ever since Corey had brought her home, but he had had the good judgment not to let Corey see it. He said, “Seems a waste, killin’ her. She was a lot of help to you doin’ chores around the place. Couldn’t we just grab her and drag her away before they can stop us?”

“
I know what you want her for, and it ain’t the chores. She ain’t worth the risk. Come on, boys. Let’s find us a good place to wait for dark.”

Rusty sat on the porch bench, staring off into the darkness, wondering if the Bascoms were really gone. He was aware that Evan sat on his own porch, doing the same.

Josie came out and seated herself beside him. He asked, “How’s Clemmie?”

“
A little worried the Bascoms might come back. But I guess everybody’s worried some or you wouldn’t be sittin’ out here watchin’.”

“
It doesn’t seem likely they’d try, but with people like them you never know. Main thing is to keep Alice indoors so they can’t grab her and run before we can stop them.”

“
You figure they really want her that bad?”

“
Maybe Corey does, that’s hard to say. I feel like the old woman is mostly afraid of what Alice knows and what she might tell the law.”

“
I don’t understand people like that. They could probably make a good livin’ for themselves if they’d buckle down to honest work, probably better than they’re doin’ now with the risks they’re takin’ and the trouble they cause to others. Maybe it’s the times.”

“
You can’t just blame it on the times. We’ve always had people like them, good times and bad. By what Alice has said, Bessie and her husband brought the boys up to see the rest of the world as their enemy. They always hated the law. Didn’t make any difference if it was Union or Confederate. Most people raise their younguns to be whatever
they
were. The Bascoms always had a wide streak of outlaw in their blood. The old man and the old woman taught the boys to make the most of it. Used the whip on them if they showed weakness.”