Unforgettable

by Rosanne Bittner

  Within an hour he and most of the others reached what was once just a little watering hole called Guthrie. Tents were already springing up in every direction. People had charged in a mad dash for prime lots. The train had arrived, and arguments were already underway. He could see a fistfight to his left, and he rode his horse between the two men involved, forcing them apart and knocking one of them to the ground.

  “If you have a dispute, go see the land agent or you’ll both get kicked out!” he ordered.

  The fallen man got up and dusted himself off. He clenched his hands into fists, but decided not to challenge the big Indian.

  “I was here first!” the other man shouted.

  “Says who?”

  “Says me!” A third man joined the argument, and the first man waved them both off and stalked away. Ethan wondered if they realized how childish they looked. He heard a scream, then turned to see a woman crying and holding her injured baby, who had been thrown from the family’s wagon when a wheel came off at the last moment.

  The air was filled with the sound of sledgehammers pounding stakes into the ground as even more thousands of tents were erected. More arguments could be heard, and far off in the distance he heard a gunshot. Nearby a man stood pointing a rifle at another man and his wife and children. Ethan rode closer, pulling his own six-gun and aiming it at the man with the rifle. “Put it away, mister. You aiming to shoot a man down in front of his wife and kids over a piece of land?”

  “If I have to.”

  “You try it, and you’re a dead man.”

  The man pouted, looking up at Ethan. He lowered his rifle when he realized the wild-looking Indian probably would not hesitate to shoot him. “Who the hell are you?”

  “You saw me back at base camp. I’m an army scout, and I’m here to keep people from doing anything stupid, like commit murder over a piece of ground.”

  “Only reason these people beat me here was because my wagon broke down. They probably loosened a wheel bolt on purpose while I slept last night!”

  “Sir, we are a Christian family!” the woman retorted. “We would never resort to such underhanded measures!”

  “First come, first serve, mister,” Ethan put in. “That’s the way it is, no matter what your excuse for not getting here.”

  “I claimed these lots yesterday,” the man answered.

  “You didn’t claim anything yesterday,” Ethan reminded him. “Nobody could. You just saw the lots you wanted, but you got here too late. Now get going!”

  The man’s face was red with rage, but he finally left. Ethan thought he was prepared for this, but the behavior of these supposed adults still surprised him. Didn’t they understand a man couldn’t really own land? It was put here by a Higher Being to be used and shared by all. The Indians knew that, but the whites were bent on cutting out a little piece of it and saying it “belonged” to them. It was sights like this that made his Cheyenne relatives sick to see, whites swarming in like bees, tearing up the land, putting up their fences, declaring that they owned this piece or that. His Indian side felt guilty for being a part of the whole mess.

  He rode on ahead, shocked at how fast a new town was being born before his very eyes. He broke up two more fights, all the while trying to ignore what might be going on near the railroad tracks several hundred yards to his right. It was another gunshot that finally drew his attention in that direction. A woman screamed so loudly that it was easy to hear what she was saying. “Toby! Toby!”

  Ethan’s heart tightened with dread. He turned Blackfoot and headed toward the tracks at a dead run. He quickly reached the lots Ally and Toby had claimed, his horse shuddering and prancing sideways as he dismounted before the animal even came to a full halt. Ethan’s blood ran cold at the sight of Allyson sitting on the ground, holding her brother’s limp body on her lap. Blood covered the front of the young man’s shirt and was beginning to stain Allyson’s clothes. The heavy-set man Ethan had seen eyeing the railroad property the day before was standing nearby with two other men. One of them still held a smoking gun.

  “What the hell happened here?” Ethan demanded, walking toward the fat man.

  “Who are you?” the man asked haughtily.

  In one swift movement, Ethan’s pistol was drawn and laid against the well-suited man’s blubbery neck. “Right now I’m about all there is in the way of law around here, mister. You tell your two hired guns here to lay their weapons on the ground until we’ve had a little discussion!”

  It was difficult to concentrate, with the sound of Allyson wailing Toby’s name in the background. “He’s dead! He’s dead! Oh, my God, he’s dead!” she sobbed.

  “Go ahead and put your guns down, boys,” the fat man ordered. “We’ve done what we needed to do.” He held Ethan’s eyes. “What’s your name, Indian?”

  “Ethan Temple. I’m an army scout, one of the men sent here to keep things in order; and until Guthrie gets organized and elects their own law, I’m it! Now, you talk fast, mister, or my Indian blood just might take over and I’ll kill me a fat white man!” He jammed the gun a little harder, making the man wince. “That kid lying dead over there is just that—a kid!”

  The man sniffed. “He was man enough to point a gun at us.”

  “That doesn’t mean he was going to use it!”

  “How did we know that?” one of the gunmen asked. “Our job was to come here with Mr. Ives and make sure some moonshiner didn’t jump the land he had picked out for himself. Somebody sneaks through illegally, he’d better be ready to face the consequences.”

  Ethan backed away a couple of feet, still holding his pistol on all of them. “Ives, is it?”

  “Nolan Ives, from Chicago. I’m a lawyer, so don’t go preaching to me about what’s legal and what isn’t,” the fat man answered, grasping the lapels of his suit with a look of authority. He struggled to pretend he was unruffled by having the barrel of Ethan’s gun buried in the folds of his double chin, but he could not keep the sweat from breaking out on his face. Damn, stinking Indian, he thought. How dare he go ordering around a man like me!

  “Mister, out here we don’t live by the same rules as back in Chicago. We make the rules as we go,” Ethan answered. “I know these two kids, and they came here with the rest of the land-grabbers this afternoon, legally!” he lied.

  Allyson looked up at Ethan in surprise. He was covering for her! If only this had not happened to Toby, everything would be wonderful. Now her dream had turned into a nightmare. If Ethan had not come along, she wondered, would Nolan Ives’s gunmen have shot her, too?

  “You know damn well those two snuck through last night!” Ives fumed.

  Ethan stepped forward again, holding his .44 Colt Peacemaker against the man’s chest. “I say they got here legally. For the next few days it’s the army who decides these things, mister, and I don’t care if you’re the richest man in Chicago! This is Oklahoma! Indian Territory, and the army is the law, which makes me part of that law!”

  “You got trouble, Ethan?”

  Ethan recognized the voice of Lieutenant Michael Sand. He kept his eyes on Nolan Ives. “I’ve got a man here willing to kill to try to steal a claim.”

  “I wasn’t stealing anything!” Ives growled, his fat eyelids leaving only slits for his eyes, eyes that glowed now with anger and insult.

  “Mister, my advice to you is to go find yourself a different piece of land,” the lieutenant advised Ives.

  Ives straightened, keeping his eyes on Ethan. “You know that by now there’s nothing choice left!” He looked over at a still-sobbing Allyson. “That little bitch over there is the thief!” He moved his eyes back to Ethan. “You know damn well I’m right!”

  “All I know is you’d better get off these lots and be on your way before I decide to have you arrested.”

  “It was self-defense!” the shootist spoke up.

  Ethan kept a close eye on all three men, he and the lieutenant both holding guns on them. A small crowd had gathered, and a woman wa
s bent over Allyson, trying to soothe her. “Get moving,” Ethan ordered.

  “Better do what the man says,” the lieutenant told Ives and his men. “Ethan here has a little trouble with his temper at times.”

  Ives looked over at Allyson. “You tell that bitch that she hasn’t heard the last of this! Let her claim the lots! The land between here and the railroad tracks belongs to the railroad, and I own a great deal of stock in the Santa Fe! I’ll just make a deal with the railroad to let me buy that land. I’ll choke her right out, buy the lots from everybody around her, build my warehouses and hotels right up to her back door so she can’t even see out a window! I’ve got the money to buy out half the people here, and one day I’ll buy her out, too! By then we’ll have our own law here in Guthrie, and I’ll have this town in my pocket!”

  Ethan rammed his gun into its holster and walked up to grab hold of the front of Ives’s fancy vest. “You make more trouble for that girl, and you’ll answer to me!” He gave the man a shove so that he stumbled backward. When he fell, he was so fat that he actually rolled over twice before landing on his back. Panting and puffing, his face beet red, Nolan Ives managed to get to his feet only with the help of his two gunmen. “You mark my words!” he shouted. “This isn’t over!” His gunmen picked up their weapons warily, Ethan watching them like a hawk. They turned and left with their boss, who was still panting as he stumbled away and climbed onto the steps of his private train car, cursing vehemently.

  Ethan turned to look at Allyson, who sat rocking with Toby’s head in her lap, stroking his hair gently.

  “What’s the truth, Ethan?” the lieutenant asked. “Those two moonshiners?”

  Ethan rubbed his tired eyes. “No.”

  The lieutenant backed his horse. “If you say so.” He knew damn well Ethan was lying, also remembered that Ethan had helped this young couple for several days before they got here. Was the Indian sweet on that woman? He could make more trouble for all of them, but he liked Ethan Temple. How could he not like him? Ethan had saved his neck once when some young, drunk Cheyenne men cornered him after he’d got himself lost along Deep Creek. The mood those angry young men were in that day, he couldn’t help wondering if he’d even still be alive if Ethan Temple hadn’t come along when he did and calmed the situation. “You need me to do anything?”

  Ethan watched Allyson sadly. “Yeah. Go find a land agent and get him over here. I want these lots recorded right away, in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Toby Mills.” He thought of using the fake names Toby and Allyson had used up to now, but Allyson had said Toby’s name so many times over by now that it wouldn’t do any good to go calling him Robert. A lot of the people around them had come in from the other borders and were not familiar with the young couple, so they would never know the difference. At the moment, he didn’t recognize anyone familiar.

  The lieutenant rode off, and Ethan walked Blackfoot over to a hitching post near the watering station several yards away. He noticed Toby and Allyson’s two horses, as well as the two he had bought them, were tied there. Brother and sister had already started pitching a tent on their lots, and Ethan figured Ives must have come along before they were through. One side still sagged, waiting to be staked. He walked back toward Allyson, his heart heavy for her. Life had been hard for this young woman, making her stubborn and determined. He supposed she had managed to get through it all because she at least had her brother at her side. Toby was all she had, and he could understand how his death would devastate her.

  He had meant to forget about this red-headed spitfire, but how could he turn his back on her now? What the hell was she going to do, only sixteen, trying to do something she had never done before, and now no brother to help and protect her? He came closer, knelt down beside her. The woman who had been consoling her was called away by her husband. “Everybody takes their own chances, Rita,” the man yelled, obviously feeling no concern for Allyson. “Get back over here with the kids and help me set up this sign!”

  The woman frowned, looking at Ethan. “Do you know this poor girl?”

  Ethan sighed. “I know her. Go on with your husband. I’ll look after her. I’m an army scout. It’s my job.”

  “I saw how you handled those terrible men. I’m glad you got rid of them.”

  “Rita! Come on!”

  The woman rose. “I’m sorry. My husband is anxious to get his carpenter business set up. Heaven knows he’ll be plenty busy for the next few weeks.” She patted Allyson’s shoulder and left.

  Ethan leaned over Allyson’s shoulder and checked Toby’s neck for a pulse.

  “He’s dead,” Allyson sobbed. “What am I going to do? It’s always been me and Toby.”

  Ethan put a hand on her arm. “We’ve got to get him buried, Ally. I’ve sent for a land agent to come over here—said you and Toby were husband and wife. Is that the way you want it? You can just give this whole thing up right now and I’ll see you get settled somewhere safe.”

  Her body jerked in a sob, and Ethan ached to hold her. She leaned down and kissed Toby’s cheek, stroked his hair. “He died for this. It’s partly my fault. After all this, I’ll be damned if I’ll give it up! I’m staying right here, for Toby!”

  Ethan rubbed at his eyes again. “Ally, this is really no place for a sixteen-year-old girl. All the single men around here are going to look at you now as a lonely widow.”

  “I’ll manage. If I could survive in the alleys of New York and hold my own against Henry Bartel, I can make it here.” She wiped at her eyes and nose with the sleeve of her dress. “Thank you for standing up for me against that Mr. Ives.”

  “He’s another reason you should consider giving this up. He’s not through trying to get this property. You can bet on it.”

  “He can’t do a thing, once it’s recorded in mine and Toby’s names. And he wouldn’t dare try to hurt me to get it. There are too many people who witnessed what happened today.” Her voice choked, and she took a couple of deep breaths, wiping at her eyes again. “If anything happens to me, they’ll know who to blame. Once the property is mine, Nolan Ives will never get it, because I’ll never sell it!”

  Ethan studied her sky-blue eyes, red and swollen now, so full of stubborn determination. What did it take to get this excuse of a woman to give up? “Ally, you could have a lot easier life—”

  “I’m doing this for Toby, and there’s no arguing it!” she answered, wondering if Ethan could read the fear in her eyes. She had never been afraid before, not like this. Now she was truly alone. Even when she and Toby were separated at the orphanage, she at least knew he was nearby. She had always been the strong one, the one to make the plans and give the orders. It surprised her to realize how much she had needed her brother after all, just to know someone was there who loved her. “Will you help me bury him? Help me find a cookstove and a supply of food? That’s all I need from you.”

  You need much more than that, Allyson Mills, Ethan thought. Some day you’ll understand that. “You know I’ll help you. I told you I’ve already sent for a land agent. I was just hoping you’d do the smart thing—change your mind and let Nolan Ives have these lots—let me take you back to Fort Supply with me. You could decide what you want to do after you’ve had time to get over losing Toby.”

  Allyson scooted out from under her brother’s body, studying the blood on her own dress. “I already know what I’m going to do. I’m on my own now, and that’s that.” The pain in her stomach cut at her like a knife. She shivered and got to her feet, looking up at Ethan. “Toby has always been there to defend me, the only one to care about me. Even you tried to threaten me last night.”

  “Ally, I was just trying to get the truth out of you.”

  “It doesn’t matter! What matters is nobody is going to stop me! You want me to give up, but I’m not going to! I appreciate your help, but once I get settled here, I don’t need you either. I don’t need anybody but myself!”

  Ethan felt like dragging her off and tying her up until she realized th
e foolishness of what she was saying. Never had he felt so trapped in his own emotions. He wanted to stay here and take care of her, but that would mean falling even deeper into these feelings he had no right experiencing, and right now she was in no mood to accept his help. He had thought for a brief moment…last night…maybe there could be more to this than just a casual friendship between a settler and a scout; but it was obvious she had forgotten that kiss. More than that, she had had some bad experiences with men that left her feeling she didn’t even want one in her life. Her brother was the only male she loved and accepted, but now he was dead, by another man’s cruelty. He looked past her to see the lieutenant returning. “The land agent is coming,” he said.

  Allyson looked down at her dead brother, finding it difficult to comprehend what had just taken place. Toby was dead! Suddenly there were so many decisions to make.

  “Let me do the talking,” Ethan told her, leaning close so he could keep his voice down. “You’re in too much of a state to think straight. You’ve got to be eighteen to hold title to these lots, and you’re probably right about letting them think Toby was your husband. It will get you more sympathy. Just remember you’re eighteen, not sixteen. Toby was twenty. You’re claiming the land in your husband’s name. He took hold of these lots before he died, so they were his, fair and square.”

  Allyson hardly heard him. Her brother’s death hit her all over again, and she collapsed in tears, crumbling beside him again. She was vaguely aware of Ethan talking to the land agent. “Lots A-6 and A-7,” someone was saying. “Mr. Tobias Mills and his wife, Allyson. Where from?”

  “New York City,” Ethan answered. “Mrs. Mills is eighteen. Her husband was twenty.”

  “They got birth certificates?”