The Handsomest Man in the Country (9 page)

I untied Comfort and waited for him to untie his horse and packhorse. There was something I needed to ask. "Will he kill him, too?"

"Not Trey. At least not if the man surrenders. He can turn him over to the marshal at Omaha. Or if he doesn't want to wait for the length of time for a trial, he'll just thrash him soundly and leave him be."

"Is he much of a fighter, Gage? I know so little about him."

"He was born fighting, Mally, as was all us mountain boys. We'd rather fight than work."

"That's for sure."

"He was a major in the war. Doesn't act like it now. They wanted him to take command of either Fort Bent or Fort Laramie, but he wouldn't re-enlist. Wanted to be free. And now he's married." He chuckled to himself. "How did you manage? He was always tongue-tied around the ladies and so bashful he looked awkward." He glanced ahead, where we were going. "Where's your wagon?"

It was gone! The mules, the wagon...I looked about quickly to see if I was mistaken, but no, this was where I'd left them. There was another wagon not twenty feet from where mine had stood, with a young boy standing beside it, filling the water barrels.

"It's been took, Gage."

Quickly he called over to the youth. "Hi there, boy. Did you see a wagon leave here?"

"Sure. A couple of men hitched up and took off that-a-way about twenty minutes ago. Why?"

"Wagon wasn't theirs. It belongs to this lady here." Already he was preparing to mount. I tightened the cinch on Comfort and climbed aboard. "Mally?"

"That was my rig they took, Gage. I'm going with you."

He shrugged. "Trahern said you'd tackle anything. I'm only glad I'm here to help. Let's go then."

We stopped by the Platte to fill our canteens, then made a large circle to see where they'd gone. They had continued up the trail. I could see the tracks of my mules, freshly made, and pointed them out to Gage so as he'd know them.

The action felt good to me. Too long I had sat at that fort waiting for Trahern to come back. I never did like waiting around. I didn't mind jobs other folks thought of as tedious, it gave me lots of thinking time. But to just wait and not do anything made me restless.

The thieves were only twenty minutes ahead; by traveling swiftly we should come upon them before nightfall. Yet as in the case of things, somewhere they had turned off the trail and we had to ride back to find it. That meant time gained for them. We could not hope to catch up today.

There were Sioux about and I checked my pistol to make certain it was loaded. Gage caught the movement and nodded. "Best be ready. Don't know what we'll come across."

The wagon tracks were easy to follow once they'd left the trail and we moved out after checking the mule tracks. Who could have taken my things? They must have realized I'd come after them. Yet if Gage hadn't been there, what would I have done?

Of course they would think I'd have no help. Everyone around the fort knew that Trahern had gone and I was alone. And being a woman, they might figure I wouldn't follow. But why risk so much? My outfit couldn't be worth dying for.

Or...if Calvert Smith was in on this, maybe he figured I'd follow. Maybe that's what he wanted; to get me away from the fort. The idea made my flesh crawl.

I pulled the rifle out and checked its load, then eased it back in its scabbard.

Up ahead a herd of antelope suddenly bounced away and Gage pulled up, then swung his horse down towards a depression in the ground. I followed, asking no questions.

We sat there, waiting, Gage watching the land beyond. Seven Indians rode along where the antelope had been. They stopped, looking at the ground excitedly, then turned and rode away from us.

"They've spotted the trail. We'll have to follow slowly, so they don't see us." We dismounted, resting our horses, giving ourselves and them a little water from our canteens.

I took off my scarf and readjusted it to better cover my hair. I didn't want those Indians to see it and decide to take a souvenir home. We waited for a spell to put some distance between us and them, then mounted up and rode after.

We rode late, stopping when we could no longer see, and made a dry camp, with no fire. It was warm enough out to just lay down on the ground and sleep. Next morning we were up and saddled as soon as it was light enough to see the tracks.

We heard the shots as we drew close; the Indians must have hit them at daybreak. The sounds of firing continued for about ten minutes as we ran our hoses to get there before it was all over and the wagon looted and burned. We didn't quite make it; the Indians had scalped the men and started to toss things out of the wagon. They saw us and disappeared, but not before Gage and I both shot killing one and wounding one.

There were only four Indians when we got there and the two left unhurt slipped away in the grass. Gage stood guard while I cut loose a mule too injured to save and hitched Comfort in its place. Then we turned around and skedaddled back toward the trail, taking the Indian horses along with us. The two Indians left would probably kill the mule and eat it, since they prized mule above all other meats.

Calvert hadn't been there. The thieves were men whom I'd seen hanging around the fort for the last week. They must've thought me an easy mark, and if it hadn't have been for Gage, I would've been.

At the noon rest, Gage gave me the money Trahern had sent, a small bag of gold coins, but more'n I'd ever seen all at once. I tucked it away down in one corner of the wagon under some supplies. In looking for a place to hide it, I found a small bag of coins Uncle Dem had stashed. Suddenly my worth doubled.

As we came to the trail, Gage asked about his mother. He had told his younger brothers to stay behind and of course they hadn't. He had had no idea she was all alone and when I told him how hard it was on her—the war and all, I was glad to see him squirm uncomfortable-like. I bawled him out proper and got him to promise he would get back there soon, for as I warned him, she might not last.

I liked Gage, he was an easy man to talk to and right handsome and it would've been nice if he was the one I was hitched to, for then I wouldn't have felt so awkward, going into marriage. As it was, Trahern and I had had no chance to get to know one another before our marriage. There had been none of the usual courtship time when a couple could talk about things. I didn't even know if he had family, and when I asked Gage if he knew, he looked at me funny-like.

"Why sure he does, he's got kin running all over these parts, same as I do. Didn't you know?"

"I don't know anything about him," I replied and explained the circumstance of our marriage.

"Not to worry," Gage assured me. "He's a stayer. Trahern will have an outfit, kids and grandkids while I'm still drifting around." "But you said...he wanted to be free."

"Free of the army; free of the burden of command. But his kind always end up in command, that's the price of being a leader of men. He just don't know it yet."

The fort was ahead, we were getting back just before sundown. I pulled my weary team to a stop and set the brake. Gage helped me unhitch them and lead them to water, then he went to see if there was any word from Trahern while I started supper. There wasn't, so we ate and I turned in for the night while Gage slept underneath.

I lay there awake for awhile, remembering our last conversation. Gage had wondered if he should settle down and build a place for his mother, then go back and bring her out west. I told him she needed him now, not in a year or two when he finally got a place set up. Actually, I figured he never would settle unless he had someone he had to care for; he was as restless as her husband had been.

Maybe it was a good thing I'd married Trahern and not set my hopes on Gage.

Later on towards morning, I felt someone lift the covers. With Gage underneath the wagon, I hadn't slept with my hand on my pistol, but my knife was there, and I was already sliding it silently out of its sheath. "Trey?"

"Yes." He spoke in a whisper. "I tried not to wake you."

"You okay?" I replaced the knife.

He pulled off his boots and slid under the blanket. "Yes'am. You?"

"Fine."

"Gage get here?"

"Yesterday," I said, hearing his breathing deepen as he fell asleep immediately. He must have ridden all night, for it was already growing light out and soon I could see his face, covered with a week's growth of beard.

I let him sleep, fixing breakfast while Gage watered the stock. We had just commenced eating when Trahern joined us, refreshed from his few hours of sleep. The hot coffee seemed to wake everyone and the flapjacks went down fast. The two men talked for awhile while I sat and listened. Gage mentioned recovering the wagon, and both Trey and I thanked him for his help. He figured on leaving today and riding back to check on his mother, although he didn't know what to do with her while he was getting himself set up on a place.

"Why don't you bring her out to where Trey and I are. I'd love to have her." I didn't really think first, or I might not have spoken, yet the more I thought about it the better the idea seemed. Abigail Courtney had always been dear to me, like a second mother, and it had bothered me, leaving her behind.

"Better'n that," Trahern said with a glance at me, "bring her out and join us permanently. I'll locate a place where we can both settle and have room. We can help each other getting started and the two women will be company for each other."

You could see Gage liking the idea. It gave him a goal if nothing else, something to aim for whereas before he'd been drifting.

Trahern had brought back a packhorse plus his riding horse, so we hitched the gray packhorse to the wagon. We started out up the trail, joining a train that had arrived the day before, and Gage rode with us, planning to build next to us, then bring out his mother.

Trahern was completely healed of his wounds by now, even with the long ride to catch the thieves. There had always been a positiveness in his decisions, now it was accompanied by physical strength as well.

His body was filling out, the sunken, hollow places becoming more rounded. He no longer looked like a walking scarecrow. His size and strength were imposing.

He was a man who got things done, a builder. Looking around I realized that he was the type of man desperately needed in this new land.

And what of myself? We had until the end of the trail to make a decision on our marriage. It is always easiest to stay in whatever condition one finds themselves. Did I want this marriage to continue? What would I do if I left him? Or if Trahern decided against our staying together?

I didn't have any answer ready.

You never really know a person until you get past the social niceties of manners that society had decreed to follow to keep one person from trompin’ on the feelings of another. When we were first married, Trahern had spent most of his time getting well. Then he'd had to chase those thieves, killing two and seeing the third jailed before he'd returned.

I still didn't know him, nor he, me. With neither of us being great talkers, even our shared time on the wagon seat didn't profit much.

But little things combine to point up the makings of a man, and so little things came to me as we traveled along.

He always saw to the animals before himself, being firm yet kind to them. He checked them for lice and sores and fly-bites, making sure the harnesses fit properly and their shoes snug. And he talked to them, inconsequential, steadying words that comforted an animal and let it know that everything was all right. As a result they would pull that wagon through a prairie fire if he asked them to.

Trey was always polite to me and it dawned on me one day that it was bred into him to treat women with respect. I had a hard time to just get him to call me Mally instead of Ma’am.

We crossed the Rockies, comfortable working together. Gage was a huge help, gettin’ those wagons lowered down some of the cliff-like road. Then one day we left the train and angled north to a sweet little bit of ground that Web had told Trey about, in the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla. They were gentle mountains, unlike the treacherous Rockies, and they were reminding me of the home I’d left. I knew I’d be happy there. The town was small, but growing, and Trey homesteaded 10,000 acres of prime farmland, paying for it with the money he had saved from the cattle drive. We used some of Uncle Dem’s gold to buy supplies and still had some left.

We were almost into autumn, and as soon as we arrived, Trey threw up a corral and started building a house to get us through the winter. It was a small log shanty and he pointed out the spot where he would build our real house next summer, turning this one into a storage shed.

There was plenty of timber for building and game for eating. He figured to leave in the spring, buy a bull and a few cows and bring them back, then start building our home.

I considered all his plans. He was settling down for life. If I didn’t stay with him, I wasn’t doing him any favors. If he wanted to raise a family, he either needed to get shut of me or else we needed to make this marriage real.

Here was Gage, the man I’d dreamed of marrying, working alongside my husband—and I wouldn’t take him over Trey for anything.

Gage was handsome, but that was all. He was a drifter and you could see the restlessness in him. Trey kept him busy or he would have been left us like a bear with its tail on fire, headed for the nearest water. As soon as the shanty was finished, I could see him start to look down the road.

That evening I spoke up. “Let him go, Trey. He’s like a cat. He’ll come back now and then, maybe even bring Abigail out. But he’s not a stayer and I don’t want to have to feed him this winter.”

Trey looked thoughtful. “I thought maybe you were sweet on him.”

“When I was sixteen and didn’t know any better.”

He nodded. “Then he’s gone.” In the morning he was.

Somehow, love had slipped up on me, and I was hopin’ it had been the same with him. I kept trying to figure out what to say to let Trey know. I trusted this man with my life.