One Bright Morning

by Duncan, Alice

  “So do I, Mr. Ferrett. So do I.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The wagon full of Jubal’s gifts for Maggie, as well as a note from him telling his ranch friends about their marriage, arrived at the ranch the day before Maggie and Jubal did. When they got home, Maggie was nearly overwhelmed with the greeting they received.

  Beula and Cod Fish Todd stood at the ranch gate, with little Connie and Henry, Jr., flanking them. Beula held Annie in her arms. Even the children were spanking clean. Beula had scrubbed their freckled faces until they gleamed in the afternoon sunlight.

  Dan Blue Gully and Four Toes Smith were dressed in identical blue suits with identical black string ties. Julio Mendez, the wrangler, wore clean denim trousers over his lean, bowed legs, and even old Jesus Chavez had dressed for the occasion, in loose-fitting, all-white cotton trousers and shirt with a colorful serape thrown over his shoulders.

  Sammy Napolitano looked elegant in his black suit and hat. His security forces, those who weren’t out on the range guarding the ranch, were lined up in a double row beside him. They stood at attention with their rifles held at their sides and looked very well-organized and official.

  Garza’s mercantile wagon sat like a load of treasure beside the gate, awaiting the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Jubal Green.

  When Jubal’s own wagon pulled into view, the cheering started, and it didn’t stop until Jubal had reined the mules to a stop in front of the hollering throng. He looked frightfully abashed. Maggie was blushing. Her new eyeglasses twinkled in the sunlight and seemed to fascinate Annie when Beula handed her up to her mother.

  “All right, what’s going on? Who’s doing the work if you all are standing around out here?” Jubal tried to sound grumpy, but he didn’t quite succeed.

  Dan, Four Toes, and Beula only laughed.

  “I swear, I didn’t think that man would ever fall, but now it looks as though he’s taken about the biggest tumble I’ve ever seen,” said Dan with a huge grin to the company in general. He walked up to the wagon and all but pulled Jubal out of it, shook his hand so hard that Jubal flinched, and then he hugged him.

  “Take it easy, Danny. I’m a wounded man.”

  “Like hell.” Dan turned from his friend to help Maggie out of the wagon.

  “Congratulations, Mrs. Green,” he said with a big smile.

  “Thank you, Mr. Blue Gully.” Maggie was very happy when Dan lifted her to stand beside her new husband. She didn’t even mind when Annie’s busy little fingers smeared her new spectacles.

  “What did I tell you?” Beula nearly smothered Annie when she hugged Maggie to her billowing bosom.

  Jubal shook hands with everybody and thanked them. He was not used to thanking people any more than he was used to apologizing, but he did it with grace and goodwill.

  “We’re going to have a party as soon as my wife fixes up the place,” he told them all.

  “Looks like you got the goods to do it,” said Dan wryly as he nodded toward the wagon.

  Jubal shuffled. He was a little embarrassed now. “That’s Maggie’s wedding present,” he mumbled.

  “What?” Maggie hadn’t even noticed the mercantile wagon loaded to the top slats with goods. She stared at it now with amazement.

  She was embarrassed to death. She was also so pleased that she could hardly speak. Her hands flew to her flaming cheeks when she realized what her husband had done.

  “My Lord in heaven, Jubal Green, what on earth did you do all that for?”

  In spite of a flash of embarrassment, Jubal was pleased as punch. “I just wanted to surprise you, Maggie.”

  “Well, you did that, all right,” she laughed.

  Her view was marred by two little fingers, as Annie again poked at her glasses.

  “Stop that, Annie.”

  Annie’s little mouth puckered up, and Maggie was ashamed of herself. Here she had gone away and left her little baby all by herself with a bunch of strangers and then she’d come back married, and now she was getting mad at Annie for wondering about the two shiny pieces of glass sitting atop her mama’s nose.

  “I’m sorry, baby. These are Mama’s new spectacles. You mustn’t touch them, because they help Mama see,” she explained to her little girl.

  “Speckles,” said Annie. She removed fingers from the lenses and merely pointed at them.

  Jubal laughed. “That’s right, little parsnip. Those are your mama’s spectacles.”

  Annie had apparently forgot all about Jubal. But when he talked to her and called her his little parsnip, she seemed to decide she needed him to hold her. She held out her chubby little arms to him and said, “Juba hold Annie.”

  “Yeah, Jubal will hold Annie.” His voice sounded a little choked.

  “Jubal’s your pa now, Annie,” announced little Connie Todd decisively. Connie had her mother’s definite way about her, and her voice was firm.

  “Pa?” Annie eyed Jubal speculatively. “Dat Juba,” she corrected Connie with a frown.

  Jubal hugged her. “I don’t care what you call me, parsnip,” he said. “Just as long as you and your mama are happy.”

  Maggie hugged him hard. “We’re happy,” she said.

  “Happy,” agreed Annie.

  # # #

  “They might be happy, but Jubal’s gonna to have to build another house to put all this stuff in,” grunted Four Toes as he and Dan unloaded Garza’s wagon a few minutes later.

  “I swear. Men,” was all Beula Todd said as she watched them. But she said it with a big smile on her face.

  The wagon was stuffed to the brim with china, chairs, tables, mirrors, silver boxes, handkerchiefs, garters, parasols, atomizers, window shades, hats (trimmed and untrimmed), hair pins, fabrics, shawls, children’s shoes and stockings, bonnets, andirons, candle sticks, and even a brass dog-food dish that Maggie had indicated she thought would be sweet for Rover.

  It was like Christmas and all the birthdays in the world rolled together into this one glorious wagon. Maggie had never seen the like. She and Beula Todd spent a wonderful afternoon poring over everything. Their children got mighty fed up with being called into the house every few minutes to try on new bonnets and shoes and jackets.

  While the women enjoyed themselves and tormented the children, Jubal, Dan, and Four Toes went into a huddle as soon as the wagon was unloaded.

  “Mulrooney will be in El Paso any day now,” Jubal told his foster brothers.

  “Hell. Who knows what he’ll do now,” grumbled Dan.

  “All I know for sure is that he’s sneaky and smart and he wants my hide and everything I own.” He pulled the boasting telegram Mulrooney had sent him out of his breast pocket. “He burned down Maggie’s farm.”

  “Aw, no.” Four Toes’ voice was bleak.

  Jubal nodded grimly. “To the ground. Burned it to cinders. Bragged about it.” He waved the telegram in front of his friends. “He hurt Maggie bad.”

  “Bastard,” growled Dan.

  “Whatever he does, and whatever happens, I want Maggie to be safe,” Jubal announced. “We’re married now, and I visited the lawyer to change my will. If Mulrooney does kill me, at least she’ll be taken care of.” His voice was grim with satisfaction.

  “I don’t like to hear you talk like that, Jubal.” Four Toes’ expression was troubled. “I never heard you talk about dyin’ before.”

  Jubal sighed. “I never talked about love before, either, or taking a wife.” He grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “But there you go. Life plays tricks.”

  “Well, just don’t let any of them tricks get you off guard again, is all,” recommended Dan dryly.

  “Right. That’s what I want to talk to you two about. I want to get Mulrooney before he has a chance to settle into El Paso. Hank’s agreed to send me word as soon as his train is spotted. You know Mulrooney. He doesn’t travel light. We’ll know before he hits town.”

  “You,” he pointed at Four Toes. “I want you to guard Maggie and Annie. Don’t let them out of your s
ight. Dan and I will get Sammy to organize the guards so that there will be no way for Mulrooney’s men to sneak past them.”

  “Right,” agreed Four Toes.

  “Then what?” Dan looked vaguely disgruntled, as though he’d been hoping for a more aggressive plan.

  “Then you and me are going to ride to El Paso and I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.” He eyed his brothers hard. “I just don’t want the filthy snake to slither in through the cracks before I can do it.”

  Dan smiled grimly. “Good.”

  # # #

  Prometheus Mulrooney found ironic satisfaction in the knowledge that he was staying in the same hotel that Jubal Green had vacated just the day before.

  “If I’d only known, I could have had a surprise waiting for him,” he chortled. Then he shot a glare at Ferrett and Pelch, who stood before him with their heads bowed.

  “But I’ll get him anyway,” he told his two subordinates. “He can’t escape me. Especially not now. How deliciously pleasant to discover that even Jubal Green’s hirelings can be bought. He’s a man who inspires disgusting loyalty in his men as a rule.” Mulrooney was obviously disgruntled over that last fact.

  “Well, sir, you have to admit that it wasn’t actually his people who were disloyal”

  The words tumbled out of Ferrett’s mouth before he could stop them, and they drew an astonished gasp from Pelch. Ferrett himself visibly blanched as he realized he had actually dared to call his employer’s words into question.

  Mulrooney’s piggy eyes squinched up ominously. His bulbous nose turned purple and his jowls quivered. He leaned into Ferrett as though a hurricane were blowing at his back. Ferrett tilted away from him until he had to take a step to keep himself from falling over backwards.

  “What did you say?” Mulrooney’s voice was very soft and slow, a circumstance that made both Ferrett and Pelch swallow convulsively.

  Ferrett’s teeth chattered when he answered. “Well, sir, I, well, sir, I was, well, just, well, venturing to point out to you, sir, that Mr. Green’s man Mr. Napolitano didn’t know that the men he hired were your people. Sir.” The man’s eyes squeezed shut and he waited for his fate, which he was sure would be painful. He hoped it would be quick.

  When nothing happened to him, Ferrett began to tremble. Since his eyes were still shut, he couldn’t see the expression of infuriated loathing that passed over Mulrooney’s face, leaving in its wake an evil smirk, as Mulrooney realized how frightened Ferrett was.

  Mulrooney glanced at Pelch and discovered that his assistant’s eyes were darting from him to Ferrett and back again as though he were watching a furiously paced tennis match. Mulrooney shook his head and his jowls wobbled like the wattles on a turkey cock.

  “Imbeciles,” he spat.

  Then he reached out a blubbery hand and poked Ferrett with the sharp stub of his finger. Ferrett stumbled backwards and was only saved from falling over by the wall he bumped against.

  “If you ever question my words again, you miserable wart, it will be your last act on earth. Of course, you already know that.” Mulrooney sounded positively jolly.

  “Y-yes, sir,” whispered Ferrett. His face was as white as the wall he trembled against.

  “Now get out of her, both of you!”

  Mulrooney’s roar frightened a tiny scream out of Ferrett. Pelch’s knees gave way as he ran toward the door, and he embarrassed himself by falling down and crawling the last few feet.

  Without pausing to consult, the two men ran down the elaborate, crimson-carpeted, spiral stairway into the hotel lobby, dashed out the door, and made a mad bee-line to the train station. They hurtled onto Mulrooney’s private carriage and out to the observation platform.

  Until very late into the star-speckled night, furious sparks could be seen as the two men sawed frantically at the wrought iron railing of Mulrooney’s deck. They broke four more saw blades that night alone.

  Ferrett couldn’t hide the tears in his eyes when they finally trudged wearily back to the hotel, where they shared the least luxurious room the El Paso could provide.

  “It’s no use, Mr. Pelch.” His voice broke on a sob. “Nothing is going to get those bars to break.”

  “Don’t despair, Mr. Ferrett,” advised Pelch passionately, “Or all will be lost.”

  “I’m afraid all is already lost, Mr. Pelch,” his friend answered sadly.

  “Don’t say so, Mr. Ferrett. Please don’t say so. After all, if we don’t have hope, we don’t have anything.”

  Ferrett looked at Pelch, and his face spoke the words he didn’t have the heart to utter aloud.

  # # #

  Maggie had never had such a streak of uninterrupted luck before in her life. Not good luck, anyway. It was true that her farm had been burned to the ground, and she knew that she had to go back there again one day. But that one unhappy circumstance was very nearly overwhelmed in her heart by the good that now surrounded her.

  She moved her things into Jubal’s big bedroom and then set about to pretty the masculine room up with frilly curtains that she made out of one of the bolts of chintz Jubal had bought at Garza’s. Then she fixed up the room that she and Annie had shared for Annie’s use. She made Annie and Connie Todd both a dress out of the green calico, and had enough left over for a bonnet apiece.

  “I swear, Maggie, I don’t know how you can find time to sew for my little girl with everything else you’re doing around here,” Beula told her.

  Although Beula sounded gruff, she had tears in her eyes when Maggie showed her the pretty green gown and bonnet. Maggie had trimmed the bonnet with some white cotton lace, and there was enough lace left over to trim the sash to the dress as well. Connie’s freckled cheeks glowed when she tried on her new finery.

  Maggie only laughed at Beula’s voiced concern. “I’m having such a wonderful time, Beula. It’s no bother at all. I’ve never had—” Maggie struggled for words momentarily. “I’ve never had so much. I’ve just never had so much.” She shook her head with the newness of it all, and her spectacles sparkled on her nose. “I’ve never been so happy,” she admitted shyly and with a slightly guilty twinge in her heart. Beula smiled.

  The fact that Maggie could see her surroundings clearly made her new life all the more exciting. It took her a long time before she stopped wanting to minutely inspect every little thing in her world.

  “I’ve never seen it before, Jubal,” she told her husband in a hurt voice when he laughed at her for going into raptures over the cottonwood they sat beneath one evening. “I can see every little, tiny leaf,” she added with awe as she stared up into the branches above her head.

  Jubal couldn’t help it. He laughed again. Then he hugged her hard and hauled her up to sit on his lap.

  “My little blind wife,” he nuzzled into her honey-colored hair.

  “Not anymore,” she said firmly.

  “No. Not anymore.”

  Maggie loved Jubal to death. It nearly broke her heart when he rode away every morning, and she wanted to cry with relief when he came back to her, safe, every evening. She did try very hard not to cry, even though it was her natural reaction to almost anything. She knew how much Jubal hated to see her in tears.

  She wrote to Sadie Phillips, giving her the happy news of her marriage, and Sadie wrote back a letter so full of surprise and exclamation points that Maggie giggled for an entire evening. She longed to visit Sadie and see what was left of her former life, to tell Kenny that she and Annie would be all right now, but she didn’t want to hurt Jubal’s feelings.

  Some day, she promised herself.

  And not only did she have a wonderful husband and a beautiful home, enough money to see to her baby’s future, and friends, but she also could look forward to her bodily functions without dread.

  She’d had one monthly since she and Jubal had begun sleeping together, somewhat to her initial dismay, but the fact that she needed no longer to fear a brain-shattering headache cheered her up considerably. Never again would she be
forced to endure a week of having to function through a thick, gummy fog of pain, of trying to take care of her baby properly while she had to blink back double images, of having to cook when the very smell of food made her sick. Maggie couldn’t even begin to explain to anyone how blessed she felt for the gift of Dan Blue Gully’s aunt’s headache bark.

  Still, she harbored a secret terror, tucked away in a hidden corner of her heart, that Prometheus Mulrooney would somehow snatch all of this happiness away from her. Maggie wasn’t used to good things sticking around for very long.

  Four Toes Smith was seldom far from her side. He guarded her closely. Since they were working in the patio together for many hours every day, Maggie didn’t realize that he had been set to watch out for her. She only figured him for a dear friend, just as he was a wonderful friend to all the children on the ranch.

  Four Toes gave Annie unlimited horsy rides. He told Henry, Jr., that he was too big for horsy rides, but he carried the little boy around on his shoulders everywhere they went. He also helped Connie plant the garden, and he finished repairing the fountain.

  Maggie, Beula, Connie, Henry, Jr., and little Annie all shrieked with glee when Four Toes opened the lines and water began to splash into the renovated pool at the fountain’s base. Water splattered up like diamonds in the sunshine and, if she looked at it from just the right angle, Maggie could even see a rainbow. She made the whole household eat supper outside in the patio that evening.

  “I didn’t know the place could look like this,” Jubal admitted as he peered around the beautiful, candlelit patio.

  He wondered why his mother hadn’t done this. Instead of worrying and fretting and making everybody’s life a living hell, she could have been using her energy to make it nicer. His heart ached with love as he watched his pretty little wife putter about her renovated kingdom.

  Maggie was really excited when little green shoots began to appear where she and Connie had planted dahlia seeds.

  “Oh, my land, look at that! We’re going to have flowers, Connie!”

  Four Toes smiled at the two of them. “You should have a whole garden full of them come summer. That’s when you ought to hold your wedding party.” He was looking at them as though he wanted to keep this memory like a photograph in his heart.