Sophie's Daughters Trilogy

by Mary Connealy

  Mark wheeled around and smiled a greeting.

  “What are they doing here?” Tom asked Logan that question, but it was clear with one glance at Logan’s expression that the man had no idea who these newcomers even were.

  And as the Hardens dismounted and Mark rushed to her side and slipped his arm around Emma, one more crowd rode in. Red Dawson with his wife and three young’uns, along with Silas Harden.

  From yet another direction, Tom saw his sister coming in with Wade. And they’d brought their two children with them.

  “I sent a rider out to tell them we were going to build a house,” Tom told Mandy. “Abby wants to help. She thinks white people build unwisely at times.”

  “Unwisely?” Abby had ridden close enough to overhear the remark. “I think my exact words were that white people are fools who would try to close the whole world inside.” She swung off her bareback horse in a fluid leap that always drew Tom’s admiration.

  “White people?” With one brow arched, Sally looked from Tom to his blond sister.

  “I’ll explain later,” Mandy whispered.

  Mark and Emma were talking fast, and a grin spread so wide on Mark’s face, Tom thought the boy’s head would split in half.

  Then Mark gave a yell that’d make a wild Indian back down. He lifted Emma in his arms and whirled her around. “We’re getting married,” Mark announced at the top of his lungs.

  Belle must have given her the go-ahead and sent Silas for the preacher.

  “Well, we were going to build them a house,” Belle muttered, glaring at Mark. “Emma decided she wanted to get married and live in it.”

  They all gathered in a circle to discuss the details. The loud click of a gun being cocked whirled them around to face two dozen heavily armed men.

  Most of them bearing white streaks in their hair.

  Tom had his gun drawn, but he froze at the sight of all that firepower, aimed right at them. His first thought was that his children were in the middle of this. Red Dawson’s children, Abby’s children. And too many women. The Cooters didn’t open fire. But it was clear from the fanatic hate gleaming in Cord Cooter’s eyes they’d come to finish their feud.

  Today they weren’t back-shooters. Today they planned to face this feud as men. Men who’d put children and women under their guns.

  Tom’s opinion of the family didn’t improve. “Let the woman and children step away from us,” Tom ordered. As if these coyotes obeyed any civilized law.

  “All but Lady Gray.” Cord’s eyes went straight to Mandy. “She’s part of this, and she’s not going anywhere.”

  Sickened, Tom looked at Mandy, knowing she’d never back down anyway. She had her rifle in her hands. With one look, Tom could see the cold in Mandy. She was detached, ready to fight and keep fighting. Fire that Winchester until she won or died.

  He hated that for her. He knew how that scared her, that part of herself. He’d hoped to give her a safe enough life that she never had to let that cold flow in her veins again.

  It’s a wonder she hadn’t just started mowing down Cooters the second she saw that white streak. Only about half of them had it, Tom noticed. Maybe, if they could breed that streak out of a man, they could breed the evil out of him, too.

  “Let ’em go, Cord.” There was grumbling from behind Cord. “I’m not shooting women and children.”

  Cord nodded.

  “The little ones and all the women but Lady Gray can go,” Cord agreed quickly.

  Tom realized that even a snake like Cord Cooter didn’t have a belly for shooting children.

  “I’m not going.” Belle Harden had her six-gun drawn.

  In the distance, a sharp, high whistle blew. The train, which came through once a week on a good week, would be in town in a matter of minutes.

  “I’m staying.” Sally had her own rifle. She’d pulled it from a sling around her back just like Mandy had.

  “Cass honey, you take the little ones.”

  “No, Red.” Taking his eyes off the Cooters for only a second, Tom saw the tension on Cassie Dawson’s face. She wanted to stay just like the other women, but her eyes went to the children, and Tom knew she’d do as she was told to save them.

  “Please, Cass honey, take ’em and go. Get ’em out of here.”

  “This is madness.” Tears brimmed in Cassie’s eyes, and Tom knew she had the right of it.

  “I know, Cass. Please. Stay in the church until this is over and get down. Flying bullets don’t respect even a house of God.”

  “Yes, Red.” Reluctantly, Cassie started shooing children. Cassie Dawson was inclined toward obedience.

  “Go with her, Emma.” Mark Reeves sounded real bossy for a man who didn’t have a prayer of getting his way.

  “I’m staying.” Emma wasn’t so much inclined.

  Tom knew better than to even waste his breath ordering any of the rest of these women around. Mark’d learn that soon enough. But a wild country wasn’t settled by weaklings. It figured a lot of Western women would buy into a fight someone brought to their doors. Not that Cassie was a weakling. She was just a sweetheart, and she couldn’t seem to stop herself from minding her husband. And someone had to get these children out of here.

  Tom felt a moment of pure envy before he stepped closer to his wife. Then he focused on those drawn Cooter guns and felt sick. They needed to stop this or a lot of people were going to die. When had the Cooters stopped being dry-gulchers? Why’d they pick today of all days to grow backbones?

  “I’m a man of God.” Red Dawson stepped forward as Cassie herded the children out of harm’s way. “I’m telling all of you men to stand down. There’s no reason for this. What is your purpose for coming at us with guns drawn? What is calling you to such a terrible sin as shooting at honest folks, including women?”

  The train steamed closer. Tom saw a blast of black smoke belch out of its chimney and heard the first squeal of the brakes.

  “It’s a feud, Preacher-man. It was started by Lady Gray.” Cord gestured at Mandy with his pistol. “Today it’ll be finished by Cooters. The minute she shot one of our family, she drew this onto herself. Cooters stick together, and that’s why we’re here. When we’re done, no one in the West will dare to pick a fight with one of us. We’ll have a name to be proud of. A name to fear.”

  “There’s no pride in this.” Red’s voice was kind. Tom didn’t know how he managed it when talking to scum like this. “And now with the train here there are witnesses.”

  “We want witnesses,” Cord sneered. “We want everyone to know, and be afraid.”

  “It’s murder. A waste of lives. And the folks on that train will know, and those of you who live through this will be brought to justice.”

  “Those of us who live will remember every one of you who stood by Lady Gray. Our feud will be against all of you, and all your kin.”

  There was a shifty look in the eyes of several of the two dozen men who faced them. Tom suspected that given half a chance they’d back down.

  Tom stepped up beside Red. “We’re wasting time. These men don’t know a thing about right and wrong. They only know revenge and hate.”

  Tom saw Cassie get the last of the children inside the church. She gave one last long look back. Even from here, Tom could see tears in her eyes.

  “I reckon you’re right, Tom. But I had to try.”

  “You step out, too, Red. It’s not fitting that a parson be involved in this.”

  The train pulled up, and the engine passed them, slowing, the brakes squealing.

  “I’ll stay. I won’t let it be said I backed down and let the evil happen without fighting back.”

  “Enough of this.” Cord raised his gun. “We end this today.”

  Feeling sick, Tom exchanged a long look with Mandy. She was standing in the front, far too many of those guns aimed right at her. She wasn’t going to live through this no matter how fast she was. Tom braced himself to jump in front of her.

  An elderly man jumped of
f the still-moving train with surprising agility and strode straight for the standoff. “Hold your fire!” He was an elderly man with a wide white streak in his hair.

  “Grandpappy?” Cord lowered his gun.

  Mandy looked past the old man and saw her pa getting off the train. Even better, her ma. Mandy had to fight every reflex in her body to keep her rifle aimed and not run to throw herself in her mother’s arms.

  Pa was walking just a pace behind the old man. Grandpappy Cooter, who’d laid down the rule that Cooters stick together. If there’d been a chance the Cooters would back down, that was over. The man behind all their feuding was here to lend them his backbone.

  The train bumped to a haut, and a crew of men jumped off the train, ignoring the goings-on in town, striding down to what looked like a cattle car that was dead even with the Cooter clan.

  Grandpappy walked smack into the middle of space that would be filled with flying lead in just a few seconds and stalked right up to Cord.

  As if time suddenly slowed to a crawl, Mandy braced herself.

  “Protect me, Lord. Protect all of us.” Mandy didn’t see how even God could protect them all.

  “God, have mercy.” Mandy heard her little sister behind her, praying, maybe dying today because of Mandy.

  “Lord, help me.” That was Ma, striding right into the middle of this madness.

  Her throat swelled when she saw Beth step off the train. Beth took in the nightmare in a single glance, walked straight toward the worst of the trouble praying, “Give me strength.”

  Sally stepped up beside Mandy on the left, Beth on the right. The gentle-voiced doctor in petticoats, who’d been back East to medical school and dedicated her life to healing, had her rifle leveled. Ma was there, ready to fight for her daughters, as she always had been.

  Belle Harden shoved between Sophie and Tom. Tom’s eyes were narrowed and ready.

  If her blood hadn’t been so cold, Mandy would have wept to think she was bringing death to the people she loved so well. But the tears were frozen solid behind her eyes.

  Silas was between Belle and Tom, back a step just because Belle wouldn’t have it otherwise, but he was ready.

  Pa was there, too. Farthest away, with Luther and Buff at her side, Wise Sister stood with her bow drawn. Abby had a knife in her hands that gleamed in the sunlight. Red Dawson, a man of God who didn’t want this but wouldn’t stand by while evil men killed the innocent. Mark Reeves with Emma at his side. There were cowhands from Tom’s ranch, too.

  But even with all of these, there were more Cooters. They were outgunned, but they’d make a fight of it.

  Mandy’s cold blood chilled to frigid, solid ice as she waited for the old man who had started all this with his rules and twisted sense of pride to turn and fire.

  He reached up a gnarled hand and … “What are you buncha no-accounts doing?”

  He knocked Cord’s gun hand aside.

  “Uh, that woman over there shot a Cooter.” Cord suddenly looked about ten years old as he fumbled with an explanation.

  “Why?”

  Two men started opening the wide side doors of the baggage car. The scrape of those doors was the only sound in the whole town.

  Mandy, with her sleeted nerves, seeing everything, hearing everything, noticed other people getting off the train, a man carrying two little children.

  “Why what?”

  Mandy wondered, too. Why had they waited so long to kill someone who’d harmed a Cooter?

  “Well, ‘cuz her husband’s guards shot Amos and a bunch of others.”

  “And what was Amos doing when they shot him?”

  Cord got a mutinous look on his face. “It don’t matter what he was doing. You’re the one who said Cooters stick together, Grandpappy.”

  “Yep, I said that all right. They stick together to uphold the family honor. There’s no honor in this.”

  Pa reached Mandy’s side. “Lower your gun so I can give you a proper hug.”

  “Not now, Pa. Not until this is over.” The ice in her veins began to thaw when Pa touched her arm, but she was still cold, unnaturally calm, and ruthless and ready. Maybe that old man could stop this, but she wasn’t trusting him. Not yet.

  “I rode on the train with that man. He’s the head of the Cooter family. He said the law came to him back East and asked about this feud. As soon as he found what his kinfolk were up to, he set out. We’ve been riding the train together since Denver. He’s going to put a stop to this right now.”

  Mandy heard that wavering, elderly voice ranting and raving at the Cooters. She started to believe it might really end without gunfire. But she remembered the hate in Cord Cooter’s eyes and kept her rifle leveled.

  More passengers got off the train. Mandy saw Sheriff Dean ride into town from the north. The baggage handlers shouted as they rigged a ramp from the side of the train and, using wooden poles, carefully controlled a huge wooden keg rolling out of the car’s belly.

  Cord had a burn of red on his cheeks. His head was bowed like a chastised child. Grandpappy was yelling. All of the Cooter guns were lowered.

  The keg reached the ground and was pushed to the side to unload a second one. Mandy saw the word MOLASSES stamped on the side of the keg. Supplies for the general store.

  “I’m ashamed of all of you, do you hear?” Grandpappy waved his arms wildly.

  Cord’s eyes rose. Mandy didn’t like what she saw. Cord wasn’t a boy any longer, and being scolded clearly didn’t sit well.

  “All my life I’ve fought hard to make the Cooter name stand for something, and now you run around like a pack of yellow dogs chasing one woman. She’s made you look like fools. She’s shamed you, and you’ve shamed the Cooter name.”

  Suddenly, at the word “shame,” Cord snapped. Mandy saw the second it happened. The sleet in her veins lanced through every part of her as Cord raised his gun, his eyes straight on hers.

  “Look out!”

  A shout from the train didn’t pull Mandy’s eyes away from Cord and his gun. She was busy raising and aiming her rifle.

  Then just as Cord’s eyes told Mandy he’d fire in the next instant, the runaway keg slammed into the whole crowd of Cooters. They began to tumble like tenpins, knocking one into the other until they went down in a heap, Cord at the bottom of the pile. The stack of Cooters groaned and shouted and shoved.

  Grandpappy Cooter missed being bowled down by inches. The keg split open, and molasses poured out over all of them.

  The sheriff jumped off his horse and waded into the mess, plucking guns out of molasses-coated hands. The men were too busy howling in disgust to resist.

  Grandpappy helped disarm them.

  Wondering what molasses did to a fire iron, Mandy’s gun lowered. She clearly saw that the danger was past, but she was still as cold as death inside.

  Until Tom had his say. “I guess what Cord said is right.”

  She turned to him. Just seeing him brought her back from that arctic place. As their eyes met, the heat in his look made her feel alive and warm and hopeful. “Cord was right about what?”

  “Those Cooters really do stick together.”

  Twenty – five

  Just because Mandy no longer wanted to hide didn’t mean Mark and Emma didn’t need a house.

  Mandy introduced her family to Tom while the sheriff locked up so many Cooters it was likely the whole western half of the nation had been stripped clean of them.

  Grandpappy told names and, angry at this blight on the family name, pointed out any he specifically knew were wanted men. “There are lots of honest men who bear the name of Cooter. I’ll not have the family shamed by defending vermin just because they’ve got streaks of white in their hair and share my name.”

  The sheriff groused about the molasses ruining his jail cell, but in the end, all the right folks were on the business side of a door with iron bars.

  “So, Tom”—Pa had that old look in his eye, the one that had run off so many men over the years—�
��you got the means to take good care of my girl?”

  Tom smiled. He winked at Mandy then said, “Come and look at my stallion.”

  Jerking his thumb at the black thoroughbred, Pa’s interrogation was diverted, and he went with Tom to study the horse more closely.

  “And I’m running a herd of Angus beeves.”

  “Black cattle?” Pa ran his hands along the stallion’s front shoulder, clearly admiring all that muscle. “Not longhorns? How do they handle the cold weather?”

  Mandy would have stayed in her ma’s arms all day except she had to keep taking turns hugging her sisters. And there was Alex to meet and all the children to fuss over.

  Ma shocked all her girls by crying over Mandy’s three little ones. Mandy, Beth, and Sally created a little circle around Ma as she crouched to hold Angela in her arms, hoping to block the sight of tears from Pa.

  Alex and Logan did their best to act interested when Tom and Pa talked ranching. Mandy knew neither of them had much to do with it. But they must have figured out something to talk about….

  Maybe McClellen women in general, because they seemed to be having a good time.

  The talking went on for a solid hour until Belle Harden snapped, “Red, you gonna perform this wedding ceremony any time soon?” Belle Harden couldn’t exactly sound excited about the wedding, but she sounded impatient with life in general, so scolding Red seemed to suit her.

  “We get on with this, or I’m taking Emma back home.” She’d seemed okay talking to Abby and Cassie, but apparently she’d been faking her agreeableness.

  Mark flinched. Silas broke off talking with Red and Wade. Emma grinned and went to stand by Mark.

  They had the wedding in the little Divide church then headed out for a house raising.

  With all these knowing hands, Mark and Emma had a nice roof within a few days.

  Better’n he deserved, Mandy thought, though she was having trouble hating the kid like she’d once done. And she’d fallen in love with Emma … the poor thing.