The Wyoming Debt

by April Hill

  Will walked in and glanced around the smoke-filled room.

  She wasn’t hard to find, of course, since there were only two women in the room, and she was the only one of the two outfitted like a giant, bright green, virtually naked parrot. She was contemplating a swift dash into the back room when Jasper made a last, bold effort to thrust his hairy finger deep inside her drawers. As the calloused appendage made its way past the final green satin barrier and penetrated its intended target, Cathy screamed and leapt from her chair, sending their watered beverages skidding across the table and onto the filthy floor.

  Will turned and saw her–and smiled.

  When he strode over to the table and took Cathy’s elbow, Jasper staggered to his feet in her defense. “That’s my woman you’re messin’ with, there, mister,” he bellowed, waving a clenched fist in Will’s face. “She’s just cost me six drinks, and I mean to git what I paid for!”

  Will shook his head, a bit sadly. “Sorry, fella, but the lady’s my wife, and she’s already cost me one hundred and eighteen dollars and eighty-four cents. If you’ve got that much on you, she’s yours. Otherwise, she’ll be leaving with me.”

  Jasper didn’t have a hundred and eighteen dollars, and when Cathy tried to explain that she would have the hundred and eighteen dollars in just under a week, Will shook his head. “You have the cash on you, now?”

  “Of course not,” she cried. “I just told you that I …”

  “Then, shut up,” he ordered, “and get your tail outside. Where the hell are your clothes?”

  “These are my clothes,” she said smugly. “My working clothes. I am employed here, for your information.”

  “Wrong. You work for me, for around two more months, if my arithmetic’s right. Now, get your butt outside, and make it quick. We need to get back to the cabin. It looks like we may be expecting visitors at home.”

  Cathy’s face went pale. “What do you mean?”

  “You know damned well what I mean, and I swear to God, if you lie to me once more, I’m going to rip open the tail of that stupid bird suit you’re wearing and blister your ass, right here ‘til it’s goddamned raw! Now, move!”

  At that point, George wandered over. “You’re the husband?” he asked pleasantly.

  Will nodded, reaching out to grab Cathy around the waist as she tried to take advantage of the delay to make good her escape.

  “Well, it’s no matter to me if you take the woman or not,” George explained. “Oh, she’s a looker, for sure, but what I really need is another whore, for upstairs. That’s what the boys really want, you know. Problem is, she hasn’t paid for that costume, yet.”

  Will grimaced. “How much?”

  “Four bucks should cover it.”

  “Four dollars!” Cathy shrieked. “For that mangy piece of shit? You’re out of you mind!”

  Will dug in his pocket, pulled out the worn five-dollar bill Hannah had given him, and tossed it on the table. “Keep the change.”

  Cathy had begun to struggle harder, and to swear and kick, as well. “I’m not going back, and you can’t make me,” she shouted. “This is still a free country, and–”

  Will picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and gave Cathy’s mostly naked rear end a resounding smack. A few seconds later, they were in the alley behind the building, where Will’s horse was waiting patiently.

  “You don’t understand,” Cathy wailed. “If I go back to the ranch with you, something terrible is going to happen! Please, listen to me, Will. I need to explain a few–”

  “What you need to do is shut up,” he said, landing another painful swat to her backside. “I know all about your damned husband, and what he’s got on his mind. We’ll deal with all that when we get back to the ranch.” He pulled her from over his shoulder, dumped her across his saddle on her stomach, and swung up behind her. “Right now, we’re going home.”

  “Buts it’s not my home,” Cathy gasped. “Don’t you see that? We’re not legally married. We never were!”

  “We’ll deal with that, later, too.”

  But there was one thing that Will Cameron wasn’t going to deal with when they got home. He had just decided to deal with it right here, and right now.

  While Cathy kicked and squirmed as vigorously as she could in a green feathered costume at least two sizes too small, Will held her firmly in place, calmly undid the laces at the back of the tightly fitted corset, and pushed it deftly aside. Cathy swore and kicked harder as she felt his strong fingers at her waist, pulling the gaudy green drawers over the soft swell of her buttocks, and down to her trembling knees.

  What happened next probably wouldn’t have been possible on the back of a less amiable animal. But Ben, Will’s good-natured bay gelding, stood quietly through everything that followed. Through Cathy’s frantic struggles to wriggle out of Will’s iron grip, and through Will’s occasional rearranging of his wife’s fire-red backside when she did manage to squirm slightly out of position. Ben shifted his weight just once, from one rear foot to the other, snorting softly, and apparently oblivious to the long, hard, and well-deserved bare-handed spanking that Will Cameron was administering to his runaway wife’s equally bare backside.

  Cathy muffled her shrieks partly against Will’s thigh, and partly against Ben’s warm, sleek shoulder. If there was one thing she didn’t need to add to her humiliation, it was the audience of drunken cowboys just yards away in The Bird’s Nest.

  When he had finished, Will simply draped his coat over Cathy’s scalded behind, nudged Ben gently in the sides, and rode out of Gopher Hole. Cathy was still draped uncomfortably over his saddle, shedding a trail of green feathers and sniffling loudly. Her hair was hopelessly tangled, and her buttocks seemed to be on fire. As she watched, upside down, the dingy streets of Gopher Hole turned into open prairie. Silently, Cathy added Gopher Hole to the very long list of places she’d been compiling for most of her life–the list of hellish places she hoped never to see again. And after just one night in Gopher Hole, Big Dooley Creek was beginning to look like San Francisco.

  Chapter Ten

  Once they were well out of town, Will reined Ben in, and pushed Cathy down from the saddle. “Go ahead and change out of that garb you’ve got on,” he ordered, tossing her a bundle of clothing. “And make it fast. I’d like to get back to the cabin before mid-morning.”

  Cathy crouched behind a bush and began removing what was left of the disheveled green costume, including the now sadly bent bright green ostrich feather that had once graced her elaborate hairdo. “I just want you to know something, you miserable bastard,” she called back to him. “I’ve never been so humiliated in my life as I was back there!”

  “Yeah, well, then, it seems to me we’re getting close to even,” Will said grimly. “It also seems you and I have a couple of things to talk about.” When she stepped out from the bushes a few moments later, still glaring at him, he handed her the small, crumpled poster.

  Cathy glanced at the paper. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” she groaned. “He’s dangerous, Will. You don’t understand how vicious Jack can be.”

  “I know that, and I can deal with it. Meanwhile, you’ve made me a goddamned bigamist,” he grumbled.

  “Don’t be an ass,” she said sullenly. “You’ve got it exactly backward. I’m the bigamist, not you, and I’m an adulteress, as well. All you are is–”

  “Is what?” he demanded. “And I’d advise you to watch your mouth. My hand’s sore as hell after what I did back there, but I’m willing to overlook that, and start all over, if you keep going.”

  Cathy sighed. “What I was going to say is that you’re a good man–who got all mixed up with the wrong woman. The wrong kind of woman, anyway.”

  “That’s kind of my decision to make, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “I think it’s already been made,” she observed wearily. “And not by either of us. Ask your daughter what kind of woman she believes I am.”

  “You keep forge
tting who the grown ups are, here,” he growled, “and who’s not. Now, shut up and get up in back of me. I’d take my belt to you, right where we stand, but it’s a long ride back to the cabin, and I don’t feel like listening to you whining for the next twelve or fifteen miles. If this husband of yours is still in Denver, I figure it’ll take him a couple of days to make it here–if he’s coming, at all. Just so you’ll know, though, when all of this is over, you’re in for a blistering you’ll never forget.” He reached down to help her up in back of him. “Just a little something else to think about on the long ride home, Mrs. Cameron.”

  As they made their way across the dark prairie, Cathy finally began to talk. She told him about Jack, and about Denver, and about what she’d been and done. About what Jack had done to her, and how he had changed over the years from man to monster.

  “You’re not frightened?” she asked softly, slipping her arms around his waist. “After what I’ve just told you–about Jack?”

  “I’ve known a lot of pretty bad men, Cathy,” he said. “And most of them have had one thing in common, besides being hard and mean. They’re arrogant, and arrogance can make a man stupid and careless. From what you’ve told me, Thornton is like that–maybe a little harder and meaner than some, but he’s still arrogant and stupid, and that’s going to make him careless.

  “There are two kinds of bad men, basically. One kind hurts people just because they enjoy doing it, and the other kind is looking to get something from the people they hurt. With the first kind, the hurting itself is usually enough to make them happy. The second kind is looking for a payoff, as well for something of value. I’m betting it’s more than just plain meanness with your husband. He wants something from you–something you’ve got, or something you took from him.”

  “But I told you what I stole, and I found out that none of it was worth anything. I sold my wedding and engagement rings back in Gopher Hole, and got ten dollars for both.”

  “Maybe it’s something he just thinks you took away from him.’

  “You mean like his pride, or …?”

  “No. He’s already too sure of himself for that. I hate to tell you this, but when a lady decides to bow out on a rat like Jack Thornton, he usually has the next willing lady lined up, ready to tell him how he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her since whalebone corset stays. I could be dead wrong, of course, but I’m betting that whatever Jack is coming for, it’s not just to hurt you. It’s for something he can spend.”

  They rode the rest of the way in silence. Ben plodded along slowly, stepping around prairie dog holes in the dark as if he could sense them. Cathy kept her arms tightly around Will’s waist, and when she dozed off without realizing it, she awoke to find that he had been holding both of her hands in his one free one, so that she could sleep without slipping from Ben’s moving back.

  By the time the sun came up, Cathy was certain that she was in love with Will Cameron.

  * * * *

  When they crossed the river that crossed Cameron property a few hundred yards short of the house, Cathy felt the muscles in Wills back tense up, and she knew that he was as nervous as she was to get their first clear view of the cabin. She had already noticed, back in Gopher Hole, that he was armed. A blue Colt pistol was strapped to his right leg, and a rifle lay sheathed, just behind the horn of Ben’s saddle. The rifle wasn’t unusual, but she knew that the Colt was.

  As they came over the rise, Ben broke into a canter, eager to get home. Will gave him his head, and released Cathy’s hands at the same time. When she glanced down, she saw that his right hand was resting on his thigh, now, inches from the Colt’s cross-hatched walnut grip. Cathy held on tighter, closed her eyes, and prayed.

  A moment later, they got their first clear glimpse of the cabin and the yard. The gate was open, and a horse she didn’t recognize was standing in the middle of the yard, its reins on the ground. There was no rider in sight. Will dug his heels into Ben’s sides, and Ben burst into a full gallop.

  * * * *

  They rode through the gate and into the yard at the same breakneck speed, and in a cloud of dust. Ben skidded to a stop by the water trough a split second after Will jerked the reins, but Will was already on the ground, running toward the porch with the Colt in his hand. “Get down!” he shouted back to Cathy. “And stay down!”

  Cathy scrambled in back of the big cement cistern, trying to keep her head down. Within seconds, though, fear and worry overcame her judgment, and she slipped from behind the water trough and dashed headlong for the long porch, just as Will leapt over the front steps and kicked open the front door. Reaching the cover of the old tree stump, Cathy dropped to her knees and peeked cautiously over the top, at the open doorway. When she heard no sounds coming from inside the house, she stuck her fist in her mouth, and tried not to scream.

  Suddenly, Caleb stepped through the door, laughing cheerfully as he tossed a small bag of marbles from one hand to the other. A moment later, Will appeared in the doorway and walked down the front steps into the yard–calling for her. Cathy’s legs were too unsteady, and her voice too weak to do anything but hold her breath and watch his approach. When he saw her crouched behind the battered stump, Will shook his head, and chuckled.

  “I seem to remember telling you to stay where you were put,” he said.

  “Is everyone all right?” Cathy croaked hoarsely.

  “They’re fine,” he replied.

  Cathy sank to the ground, sighed with relief and threw up.

  * * * *

  The horse belonged to Daniel, who had arrived back at the ranch shortly after Will started for Gopher Hole.

  “I made it almost to Big Dooley before I got worried enough to start back,” Daniel explained. “I figured if Jack Thornton was coming your way, it might be a good idea to have an extra hand around the place. Still, there was Lula waiting for me in Kansas City, and Lula has a good deal to recommend her, as Will probably remembers. Anyway, I was still thinking it over when a funny thing happened.”

  “Funny?” Cathy repeated irritably. “You’ll have to pardon me if I’m finding it hard to see anything funny in what’s happening, here, Mr. Parsons.”

  “I’m sorry, I misspoke, again. What happened wasn’t as funny as it was … ironic. I dropped by the Wells Fargo office, to wire dear Lula that I might be late in arriving, and what should I discover lying on the counter, but …”

  At this point, Will interrupted. “For God’s sake, Daniel,” he said irritably. “Just tell her, or I will. The woman’s a nervous wreck waiting for you to get to the damned point.”

  Daniel sighed. “Forgive me, Cathy. I’m an idiot. What I found was a Denver newspaper from around a month back.” He paused, and took a deep breath. “Jack Thornton died three months ago in Denver. His obituary says he died in exactly the manner you’d expect–while pulling a pair of aces out of his ruffled sleeve.”

  Cathy said nothing for a long moment, then began to laugh, slightly hysterically. “You mean that all this time, I’ve been …”

  Daniel nodded. “He spent God only knows how much money having those damned posters tacked up from here to Kingdom Come, then missed the payoff by trying to cheat the wrong man.”

  “There’s something else,” Will said quietly. He turned and motioned to Hannah, who had been sitting silently by the fireplace. “Hannah?”

  Hannah stepped forward, her young face red and swollen from weeping. “If your husband hadn’t been killed, he would have come here, and tried to hurt all of us. Not just you, but Pa, and Caleb and me.”

  Cathy touched the girl’s hand. “Maybe not, Hannah. We’re a long way from Denver, you know, and someone would have had to see one of those terrible posters before.”

  “I told,” Hannah said. “I told where you were, and the man I told could have gone and told your husband. I’m sorry, and I know I was wrong to do what I did. I thought you wanted to take Ma’s place, and that hurt so bad, I didn’t think I could stand it. That’s why
I’ve been so mean to you. I’m sorry, Cathy. Honest I am. Maybe you can forgive me someday.”

  Cathy sighed. “It’s over, Hannah. All of it. And we’re all safe. And you don’t need me to forgive you. You were right all along. I wasn’t who I said I was, and you knew that all along. I’m the one who needs to apologize, not just for lying, but for putting all of you in danger. I didn’t mean to do what I did, either, you see. What I did started out as a little lie. A little lie that I truly believed I needed to tell, but then, the lie got out of hand. And when your father tried to help me, he got all tangled up in my lie. I only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, for the lie, and all the trouble it caused.” She looked up at Will. “I don’t know whether your father can ever forgive me, as well. I hope so, but I’ll understand if he can’t.”

  Cathy pushed back her chair, and stood up. “I’m really tired. I think I’d like to go to bed, now, if it’s all right with everyone. Maybe, in the morning, we can talk about all of this, again.” When she glanced over at Will, he nodded.

  “Go on to bed, Cathy. We’ll talk again, in the morning.”

  Hannah reached for her hand, and Cathy took it. “Good night, Cathy,” she murmured, and then, as if on impulse, she squeezed Cathy’s hand tightly. “I’m real glad you came back, and besides, there’s a big old heap of stuff we still need to get done, before winter.”

  Cathy smiled, then leaned forward quickly, and kissed the girl on the cheek very lightly. “Thank you, Hannah. Good night, now. You try to get some sleep, too.”

  Suddenly, Caleb came barreling across the room and flung his small arms around Cathy’s waist.

  He grabbed her hand and impulsively kissed it. “Daniel says ladies like stuff like this, so good night,” he mumbled, in a rush of words.

  Cathy laughed. “Good night to you, too, Caleb. And yes, ladies do like stuff like that.”

  * * * *

  When Cathy woke the next morning, she spent close to an hour going through everything she had brought with her from Denver, and another half hour reading through several documents she had never paid much attention to. When she had finished, she went out to look for Will, and found him in the barn, pitching alfalfa to the family’s milk cows. She took a seat on a bale of hay, and Will put the pitchfork down, and smiled at her.