by Zina Abbott
“I aim to follow you in there. I’ll close it.”
Roslyn felt the weight of the rope lessen as Elam picked up the other end. She glanced around to see him at least ten feet behind her, the rope wrapped around his hand. She led both the mule and Elam into the corral, and Elam closed the gate.
Once inside, Roslyn slowly walked Beelzebub in circles for several minutes.
Without warning, the mule broke into a trot away from her and in the direction of the small water trough at the far end of the corral.
Instinctively, Roslyn pulled back. Her brain registered she was no match for the powerful mule, so she released the rope. Behind her, she heard a thud and then a grunt.
Roslyn ran back to Elam who had been pulled off his feet by Beelzebub’s sudden move. “Are you all right?”
Elam rolled to a sitting position and studied the robe burn on his palm. “Done took too long getting the rope untwisted from my hand. Scraped the hide right off me.”
Roslyn grabbed Elam’s bare hand with both of her gloved hands. She glanced back to be sure Beelzebub had lost interest in them, and then she turned her gaze to Elam’s. “I’m sorry, Elam. I know it must sting. I think Caroline has some liniment that would help.”
“Ain’t your doing. The doctoring will keep until you’re done with the mule.” Elam slid the rifle off his shoulder and jammed the butt into the ground on his left side. He bent his right knee and braced the sole of his boot against the ground. Grabbing the rifle barrel above the wooden stock, he leaned forward and began to push himself to his feet.
Realizing his intention, Roslyn stepped behind him. She spread her feet, she slid her forearms beneath his armpits, bent her knees, and straightened her back. She pushed up with her legs to help Elam leverage himself to his feet. Couldn’t have done this in a skirt without us both getting twisted up in petticoats. As he pulled his prosthetic leg in place to hold his weight, Roslyn pulled the arm holding his rifle over her shoulders and held him steady. She turned to face him, only to realize her lips were mere inches from his jawline.
Roslyn froze in place. A sane part of her screamed that she was behaving far too familiarly with Elam. Penelope would throw a fit if she saw this. She could not bring herself to care. It felt so comforting—so natural—for her to stand next to Elam with her shoulder tucked under his armpit and his arm wrapped across her back.
Elam turned slightly until his gaze met hers briefly before he faced forward and swallowed.
In the short time that Elam turned toward her, his lips were close enough to hers, she felt his breath as he exhaled. Instinctively, she had leaned forward, but at the last second, pulled back. I almost kissed him. I thought after everything that happened to me, I would never wish to kiss a man, but I want to kiss Elam.
In an effort to find her voice, she swallowed down the emotion boiling up inside her. “Are you steady on your feet now, Elam?”
“Reckon I’m steady.” Still staring forward, a slight flush colored Elam’s face. He slowly shook his head. “Figure it’s a sorry day when a man needs a woman to help him stand on his feet.”
In addition to his declaration he had regained his balance and could stay upright, Roslyn, sensing his feelings of embarrassment, stayed quiet. She also noticed that Elam did not step away from her. His arm still held her next to his side. “Elam, don’t feel that way. You have helped me so many times. Why do you feel uncomfortable that this one time I was able to help you?”
He shook his head. “Not how it’s supposed to be. I know, losing this leg and all, things done changed for me. I ain’t going to have the life a whole man can expect.”
“You are a whole man, Elam. You lost your leg in the war, but you’re still alive. Yes, getting around is more difficult for you now, but everything that makes you a whole person is still there.”
Elam shook his head. “Someone like me’s not going to marry no one like you. Wouldn’t be right.”
Roslyn turned her face away. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Elam. I know, because I’ve never been married, but I have a baby, there are a lot of men not willing to marry a woman like me.”
Roslyn felt Elam shift to face her, His fingers—the one on the rope-burned hand—pull her face around until their gazes met. “That ain’t what I’m saying. A man would be plumb crazy not to want you. But, ain’t no woman in her right mind willing to take on no man who hobbles around on a wooden leg and can’t do all a man with two good legs can.”
Are you saying I’m not in my right mind? Roslyn studied Elam’s face. He still has not dropped his arm or stepped away from me. She stretched until her lips hovered next to his ear. “You don’t understand women as well as you think you do, Elam Stewart. You don’t know what is important to women when it comes to choosing a man. If you did, you’d know that, to most women, the loss of your leg isn’t what matters.” She eased her head away from his, aware from the expression that covered his usually stoic face that he did not believe her.
“My, my. You two do appear to be rather cozy.”
Realizing there were still men in the yard hitching the new team to the stagecoach, Roslyn flushed red beneath her sunburn as she jerked her head toward the sound of Eustace’s voice.
Wearing a smirk on his face, Eustace leaned his forearms on the top of the sod corral wall. “For a woman who let it be known she’s off-limits to the men in this station, it looks to me like you’ve made an exception. You making yourself available for the rest of us, too?”
Roslyn slid her shoulder from beneath Elam’s arm and stepped forward. “Stop being rude, Eustace. Once we got Beelzebub in the corral, he took off at a run toward the water. It caused Mr. Stewart to lose his balance. I helped him stand upright again, is all.”
Eustace grunted his disbelief. “You’ve been tucked up against him helping him stand for quite some time now. If you can break away from him for a few minutes, Mrs. Welsh, Mrs. Peterson just stepped outside long enough to tell her husband good-bye. She also mentioned that baby of yours is looking for you.”
Roslyn looked past Eustace. Like he said, Isaac sat in the driver’s box and now turned the team around so the stagecoach could leave the station. “I’m coming now, but I’ll return shortly to take the rope off the mule and finish taking care of him.” After waving farewell to Isaac, she started toward the corral gate.
Elam’s voice sounded behind her. “Reckon I can toss some hay and feed over the wall for the mule.”
Roslyn turned back with a smile. “Thank you. Then we better get inside to eat so Caroline and I can clean up her kitchen.”
As Roslyn emerged from Caroline’s room after feeding Emmy, she listened to Fergus while she found her plate of food and brought it to the table.
“That mule not only fights anyone who goes near him, he don’t even get along with the other mules. Any time I have to drive with him, I’m always after him to leave the mule he’s paired up with alone.”
Roslyn took a bite of food and chewed as she considered what the driver said. She turned to Fergus. “I wonder if Bubby would be happier next to a mare.”
“Bubby?”
Roslyn grinned and nodded. “Beelzebub. I call him Bubby when he’s being good for me. Pa used to say a lot of mules like mares because they remind them of their ma.”
Fergus snorted and leaned back. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Elam, the only stock tender besides Roslyn still at the table, looked over at her and shrugged. “Could be. What mare you reckon on putting by him? Hear-tell they mostly got mules west of here, seeing as how Butterfield though mules are more fitting. Figured that’s why Isaac sends the horse teams east.”
Fergus huffed. “Maybe to save the stock. The Cheyenne prize horses more than mules, though they don’t get picky when it comes to stealing livestock from a stage company.”
“I know, but I’ve seen a few horses come from the west. There has to be one mare strong enough to match up with Bubby to make a good wheeler pair.” Rosl
yn chewed and swallowed as she considered. “I think for now I’m going to bring Josie over and put by Bubby. I want to see if they get along, and if being close to a mare calms Bubby down.”
Elam said nothing for a few seconds. “The men ain’t bound to favor Josie leaving the station, not going west.”
“Probably not. We may decide on a different mare to pair with him. If not, and we send Josie, the men can use Starlight for hauling water. She’s a good mare to work with.”
“Starlight? You talking about that light dun with the star?”
“Yes. I know they think I’m silly for naming the livestock. I believe, as hard as these animals work for us, they deserve names.”
Fergus slapped his palm on the table and rose to his feet. “All I know is, I don’t want that cussed mule to go on the return trip with me tomorrow. You keep him here a few days and send him west with Charlie.” He shook his head. “Army escort or no, I’ve enough to worry about wondering what the Cheyenne are up to without fighting Beelzebub.”
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Chapter 14
~o0o~
Ellsworth Station, Kansas
June 17, 1866
A fter the day Beelzebub arrived at the station, Roslyn gave up any pretext of wearing her gown in the morning and changing into her outdoor work clothes after dinner only to tend the stock. She preferred to be prepared in case the stagecoach showed up with Beelzebub or another team that required the help of everyone, including her. With the weather growing warmer, she discovered it was more relaxing to wash up after working outdoors and then change into the cooler calico gown for the evening.
With breakfast ready to be set on the table that Sunday, Roslyn stepped outside and sucked in a giant breath of cool morning air. She walked over to Isaac, who stood talking to Eustace. “Isaac, please tell the others that food’s ready when you are.” After he smiled and nodded in acknowledgement, she started back toward the building.
Roslyn halted and spun in the direction of the fort from which the popping sounds she heard came. Confused regarding their source, she wrinkled her forehead as she turned back to the men.
Eustace ran toward her. “Rifle fire! I’d recognize that sound anywhere. Get inside, Mrs. Welsh. Breakfast will have to wait until we figure out what’s going on.”
Roslyn rushed inside, followed by Isaac.
Isaac ran toward Caroline. “Something’s going on at the fort, and it doesn’t sound like a friendly Sunday morning rifle competition. Eustace thinks we might have unwanted visitors.”
Caroline left the stove to join him. “The hostiles? Do you think they’ll come here?”
Isaac shook his head. “Don’t know, but we plan to give them a warm reception if they do. The men went to collect their weapons and wake up Elam. You ladies need to be prepared to barricade yourselves in that storeroom.”
Her hands beginning to tremble, Roslyn’s eyes scanned the room. She swallowed down her rising panic. Emmy. I can’t let anything happen to Emmy.
Caroline raised her voice of reason. “Except for Elam who, at the crack of dawn, found those biscuit and ham sandwiches I left him for breakfast, no one has eaten. Roslyn and I will prepare, but we’ll to get everyone fed.”
Isaac ran over and kissed his wife on the cheek. “That would be wonderful, especially since I don’t know how long it will be until we can sit down to a meal again. Make it as quick and easy as possible.”
Roslyn grabbed the knife and a loaf of bread. “Caroline, I used to put hard-cooked or scrambled eggs and fried meat between bread to send with Pa and Ross when they were late getting to the livery.”
“Good idea. I’ll finish cooking these biscuits and slice cold ham to stick in them. They’re easily portable. We better get some more coffee going, too. Don’t let me forget to fill up our water bucket to make sure we have plenty inside.”
A rifle in his hand and a pistol tucked inside his belt, Isaac emerged from the bedroom. “I’ve closed the shutter over the opening in there. I’ll leave this one and the glass window uncovered so you have some light. If we do get attacked, I want all the shutters on these windows closed and barred unless a man with a weapon standing at one.”
Caroline reached out to her husband. “Isaac? Do you think the fort will send over some men?”
Isaac huffed out a breath. “We can only hope. Since they got hit first, they might be kept busy. They also have the town of Ellsworth to worry about. I’m not expecting them here until I see them.” He stretched his neck and face toward the slices of bread on which Roslyn layered pieces of ham. “One of those ready? If so, I’ll take it.”
Roslyn slapped some bread on top and handed it to him. “I’ll bring food out to the others as soon as possible. How’s Elam doing? He didn’t get much sleep.”
“Eustace woke him. He’s getting dressed. Since he fought in the war so many years, I imagined he’s been pulled from his bed by an enemy attack more than once.”
Caroline brought over the pan of scrambled eggs and began placing scoops on top of the ham. “We’ll bring cups of coffee and the food out so the men can keep a lookout.” She blinked and sighed. “I sure wish we had a telegraph so we could find out what’s happening and ask for help.”
His hand on the latch to the door leading outside, Isaac swallowed a bite of sandwich before he responded. “Supposed to have one come through with the railroad, but that’s a few years off.” He rushed out the door.
With two plates stacked with the makeshift breakfast for the men, Roslyn followed behind. She returned with the empty dishes and a bucket of water. She walked over to Caroline, who now stirred a batch of biscuit dough. “If you recall, Beelzebub came in with the last stagecoach from the west. I need to check on him while Emmy’s still asleep.”
“Don’t worry about Emmy. I’ll listen for her.”
Once outside, Roslyn’s steps slowed as she approached the corral wall. She watched the stock as the animals milled around. Beelzebub, particularly, behaved in an aggressive and unapproachable manner, like he did around the men the first day she saw him. He nipped at several mares to encourage them to stay in the section of the corral by the far water trough, but away from the outside wall. They’re agitated about something. Is it because we’re preparing for a possible attack, and they sense it?
She heard Elam approach before he reached her side. She turned to him. Her gaze roamed over his uncombed hair and the bristles on his unshaven face. Lines around his eyes revealed his lack of sleep. “The stock is on edge. I’m not sure Bubby would welcome even me coming in to take care of him. Do you think it’s because they sense something from us?”
Elam squinted as he studied the animals, and then he turned his gaze past the outside wall. “Something out there. Best you get inside, Roslyn.” He reached for his waistband. “Here. You take this. Got me another one.”
Roslyn stared at the pistol he offered her and then up at his face. “I didn’t know you had more than one pistol.”
“Used to have three. Sold one back a spell during tough times. Take it. Reckon it’s them Cheyenne Dog Soldiers out there. They’re on the warpath and won’t take no prisoners. What they do to them they catch ain’t a pretty death.”
Roslyn grimaced as she stepped back. She shook her head. “You may need it more than I do. Caroline and I have the coach gun.”
Elam pushed it toward her. “I’ll protect you best I can, but they get past me and take out the rest of us, that coach gun ain’t stopping them all. That happens, you turn that pistol on Mrs. Peterson, then on you. Don’t let them get that baby, neither. Best you press her face to your shoulder and love her to death.”
Roslyn felt the blood drain from her face. “I—I can’t do that to Emmy.”
Elam reached up and grabbed Roslyn’s upper arm. “Don’t let them get neither her or you alive.”
Unable to break her gaze from Elam, she ignored the offered pistol as she continued to stare at this man and me
morize his face. I just found you. And we could all be gone before the day is out?
At the sound of a bugle blaring not that far from the station, Roslyn jerked her gaze toward that direction.
Danny, his short-barrel, coach shotgun in hand, rushed to open the gate.
Three mounted soldiers, followed by four riding in an Army supply wagon, rumbled inside the station. Their leader, wearing two yellow chevrons on his sleeve, shouted orders as the men in blue tumbled out of the wagons and claimed positions around the outside station wall.
Roslyn looked down as she felt something placed into her hand.
With one palm supporting the back of her hand, Elam pressed his other against the pistol he had placed there. “You recollect what I done told you, Roslyn. You pray you don’t need this, but if you do, use it. Best you get inside, now, until this is all over.”
Roslyn’s eyes closed as she exhaled. She opened them once more and turned her gaze to Elam. “I need to help, Elam. What can I do other than kill those I love?” She opened her eyes and memorized his face while she waited.
Elam stared at her for several seconds. “Figure you could bring me one of them benches from inside? Ain’t no good at hopping fences or climbing walls no more. Need to get up where I can see what’s coming.”
“Oh, Elam, if you climb on that wall, you’ll be an easy target. I hate seeing you in danger like this.” She shook her head as she grumbled under her breath. “I thought, from what Isaac told me back in Junction City, it would be safe and civilized out here.”
Elam narrowed his eyes as he looked off to the side and back. “Heard enough to know he was hoping too much on the bright side. Ever since them generals had no more war back east to fight, they done started looking at clearing the way for folks figuring to move west. Problem is, them tribes losing their buffalo hunting grounds been fighting back. Can’t say I blame them, seeing as how they was here first.” He returned his gaze to Roslyn’s face. “That don’t mean, though, I’m willing to allow nothing bad to happen to you.”