“I used to walk part of the way home with Lucy sometimes,” Ruth said. “It’s funny that I ended up being so much closer to Caroline. I guess the few years difference in our age didn’t matter so much once we were both out of school. And Lucy wasn’t—” Ruth stopped herself from telling Sam that after Caroline got married, Lucy was not allowed to have friends for fear she might have the same notion. No sense spoiling the nice talk with unpleasant thoughts.
Sam didn’t comment on the sentence she didn’t finish. He said that he remembered her and Lucy being friends and then he asked about the teacher they’d had when he left, how long had she stayed and had the next teacher been an improvement.
They moved easily through a few more topics so that Ruth was startled by how fast the journey passed when they arrived in the next town. She also couldn’t believe how long Caroline had been napping. Her friend sat up and stretched shortly before the driver pulled them to a stop.
When they exited the coach, Sam walked immediately to the train station for tickets while the women exercised their legs on the boardwalk.
“This is as wonderful as I imagined,” Caroline remarked.
“The town?” Ruth looked around at what was arguably a fine town. She was simply surprised that Caroline had spent any time imagining what was only a temporary stop on their trip.
Caroline smiled broadly as she shook her head. “No. I meant you and Sam are such a good match.”
Ruth felt some heat creeping into her cheeks yet again. It was true at least as far as she was concerned. She was completely smitten with him. But that was not what they had agreed on. “He’s only trying to be dutiful.”
Caroline kept on smiling. “You two have been getting on awfully well for a duty.”
“But you—”
Ruth was going to point out that Caroline couldn’t know what had happened while she was asleep but Caroline stopped her with a wink. “I didn’t want to interrupt,” she said.
There should have been some indignation at having been deceived or perhaps for the apparent eavesdropping. But Ruth found herself stifling a chuckle instead. She was grateful to Caroline for not interrupting.
~~ ~~
Sam bought the train tickets while the ladies walked ahead without him. They’d have to spend much of the night in the station and leave early the next morning, which meant they probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep. That might be all right for Caroline, who had napped nearly three hours. But Ruth would be exhausted when they arrived. Sam felt a smile tugging on his lips at the thought that she might close her eyes against his arm again.
It wasn’t going to be a very romantic wedding night for her though. The words wedding night had a strange effect on Sam. They created a picture in his head that was at first exciting, then mixed with an image from his childhood to suddenly turn him cold. He pushed the thoughts aside as he pushed open the door.
Sam intended to hurry to catch up to Caroline and Ruth. He slowed his pace when he was only a few steps away and watched from behind. Their heads were bent in conversation and he didn’t want to interrupt. Caroline was nearly a head shorter with her thick blond hair filling her bonnet. Ruth’s golden brown bun was poking out the back of hers. Even with a view of their backs, Sam knew he was a lucky man. Two of the finest women on the street were coming home with him to cook and take care of his household.
He noticed, however, that he was not the only one watching Caroline and Ruth. An older man on the other side of the street had stopped and was staring at them with a look that no matter how old he was, his mama would surely have smacked right off his face if she saw it. Sam gently pushed his way in between his women and glared at the man until he began walking again.
“Can I see the tickets?” Caroline asked, apparently oblivious to her brother’s distraction.
He pulled the tickets from his vest pocket and held them up.
Caroline beamed. “My first train ride. Isn’t this exciting?” She leaned across him to address her question to Ruth, who nodded while keeping her head firmly facing forward.
Sam got the impression he had done something to make her uncomfortable. He didn’t have time to ponder what it might have been with Caroline tugging on his other arm almost like a child.
“What time do we leave?” she asked. “Do you think it will be crowded? How many cars will it pull? Is the engine really twice as tall as a grown man?” She suddenly gasped and without waiting for answers to any of her other questions she added, “Do you think there might be bandits?”
“I doubt you’ll have to worry about that,” Sam said, even though his sister did not look worried. She looked positively delighted at the thought of the train being robbed.
“There could be…” Caroline’s voice was slightly breathless and she got that dreamy expression she had when they were kids and she was about to tell some wild story. He had enjoyed her imagination until about a year before he left, when all her stories began to center on two people falling madly in love. A story about bandits he could stomach though.
She pulled away from him and pressed her back to the nearest building so she could face Sam and Ruth and have her hands free to animate her tale. Ruth’s hand quietly slipped off his other arm at the same time.
“It’ll be a whole gang of outlaws,” Caroline began. “Four… no five of them. They’ll get the train to stop only a little from our destination so that when it begins to slow, we’ll falsely believe we’ve made it safely. One of the men will hold a gun to the engineer to keep the train stopped while the other four enter our car. Their faces will be covered with bandanas and their hats drawn low. Only four pairs of sinister eyes will show. It’ll be clear right away who the leader is, the tallest one who will fire a shot into the air to show he means business before he commands the others to hunt down and bag up valuables. The passengers will cooperate and it will seem like no one will be hurt but here’s what we won’t know.” Caroline became more serious and paused with her hands out to build some drama. “The outlaw leader will have taken a shine to Ruth.”
“Oh, dear.” Ruth sounded mildly amused and not entirely surprised by this turn of events.
“Oh, yes,” Caroline said with a nod.
“Wait. Why me?”
Caroline smiled. “You’re bound to be the best-looking woman on the train. Right, Sam?”
He lifted his chin to nod because he agreed that was a distinct possibility but he checked himself as he realized agreement could be a slight to his sister. He simply looked at her expectantly, hoping she would continue the story before either woman noticed his lack of answer.
There was laughter in Caroline’s eyes that seemed to say she had read his mind and was entertained by the dilemma. She let him off the hook with a swift return to the fantasy. “Using signals the men know from earlier schemes, one of them knocks Sam unconscious with the handle of his pistol just before another one grabs Ruth and binds her arms behind her back. This is when I realize their plan is to kidnap my dearest friend. I plead with the men to take me instead but they don’t want me. They…” A flicker of uncertainty crossed her face but it lasted only a moment. “They could tell what a prize Ruth is. One of the men scoops her into his arms while the others fight off a few passengers who try to help.
“The bandits get on their waiting horses – one of them still toting Ruth and one waving his gun to make sure no one follows – and they begin to ride away. But that’s when Sam comes to. He sees that his new wife has been kidnapped and he charges off the train in pursuit. No heed of course for his own safety.
“Luckily, there’s a friendly man who has seen what happened. He’s ridden from town to see what’s keeping the train and gives Sam his horse to aid him in the chase. It’s a fast horse and Sam begins to gain on the bandits. One of them fires at Sam. He misses but shoots again. The second bullet pierces Sam’s shoulder. He slumps on the horse momentarily because of the pain and then bravely blocks it out to focus. And to form a plan.”
Caroline paus
ed for air and then plunged back into her story, her words picking up the pace with each sentence. “Sam slows his horse to make the outlaws believe he’s more badly hurt than he is. He sees that they are about to round a thicket of trees. Sam pretends to fall from his horse. But as soon as the last outlaw is out of sight he jumps back on the horse and spurs it to action. They run right through the trees – where Sam is able to grab a thick branch without hardly slowing the pace – and they race out of the trees to head off the bandits. Sam swings his branch again and again and knocks three bandits clean off their horses before they realize what has happened.
“Ruth takes the opportunity to jump clear of her startled captor and he and the last bandit raise their arms in surrender. Sam pulls Ruth onto his horse and unties her bound hands. After a quick embrace, you both begin to ride to safety.”
Caroline’s body sagged with relief. Sam was trying to figure out if he could point out the improbability of taking out five gun-toting men with a single tree branch without emasculating himself when her head snapped up to continue. “But,” she said, “Ruth notices what Sam has not. His shirt is completely soaked in his own blood!”
A gasp escaped from Ruth’s mouth and Sam was surprised to see that she appeared genuinely concerned. Was she that caught up in the story? Then Caroline signaled her with a small shake of her head. It occurred to Sam that Ruth must have heard similar stories in the past and that her worry was over what Caroline might say next. And that she was worried in a way that made her blush and cast furtive glances in his direction. Sam became extremely curious as to what he was missing. He tried to concentrate on what Caroline actually said.
“Ruth knows that she needs to get Sam to a doctor,” Caroline said to carry on with her story. One of her hands was pressed to her own shoulder as though slowing a flow of blood. “She takes charge of steering the horse as Sam weakens. Then he passes out completely. Ruth manages to pull his good arm over her shoulder to balance him against her back and keep him on the horse. She rides into town and begins to call for a doctor. Some kind men come out to help her get him inside, where a doctor treats the wound and bandages him up. Ruth, of course, nurses him back to health over the next few days and that is how you will have saved each other’s lives.”
It appeared that Caroline had finally finished her tale. Sam looked at Ruth and saw that she seemed more charmed by Caroline’s recitation than the story itself so he decided to risk having a little fun with it. “Why do I have to get shot?” he asked Caroline.
“What?” she said.
“One of the ranch hands was shot accidentally last year. He was in a world of hurt and it took more than a week before he could go back to work. I reckon it’d be just as dramatic if I managed to dodge the bullets.”
Caroline folded her arms. “It’s more romantic this way.”
“Why?”
“Because then she has to help you, too. The bond goes both ways.”
“A man doesn’t dream of being rescued though,” Sam said. “He’s happy to do the rescuing.”
“What do you dream of then?” Caroline’s eyes darted to Ruth, to indicate that she should know the answer to that question as well.
But Sam wasn’t ready to admit that she might be the answer to the question. “Me?” he said. “I dream of a bacon sandwich… with cheese… on cornbread.”
Ruth smiled at him. “In that case, I promise to make you a bacon sandwich if you ever have to rescue me from bandits… whether or not you are wounded for your trouble.”
All three of them laughed. “In that case,” Sam said, “I’ll plan on not getting shot.”
Caroline laughed loudest as they restarted their walk, as though she thought bacon was more ridiculous than anything she had come up with. She regaled them with a few other versions of how things might go down with the bandits while they sat in the train station that evening. Sam took a bullet in each story and found it bothered him less each time – it being an imaginary wound and all – though he was sure there must be less painful ways to be romantic.
~~ ~~
The train ride was interesting enough for being a novelty that bandits were not required to liven it up. That was fortunate because the train was not forced to make any unscheduled stops. Ruth turned to Sam as they pulled into the station. He’d made her laugh so hard acting out Caroline’s fantasies – particularly his disbelieving reaction to having a fourth bullet removed from his arm – that she hoped he hadn’t gotten tired of the joke. “I guess you won’t have to rescue me after all,” she said.
He rubbed his shoulder. “I can’t say I’m completely disappointed.”
Ruth smiled at him. She didn’t share Caroline’s romantic view of injuries, even if she did enjoy hearing about them, and she was perfectly happy to have Sam escort her from the train with no added drama. The tiny fluttering in her stomach when she took his offered arm was enough. She was glad it was less than earlier, when he’d pushed his way between her and Caroline and plopped her hand on his arm as though it was perfectly natural. How did he seem so relaxed about being a newlywed when she found it in turns thrilling and alarming and they hadn’t even been fully alone yet?
Ruth cast her eyes around the station as they disembarked, wondering which of the people might be there to meet them. Sam had said he wired ahead so that someone would be waiting to give them a ride to the ranch. A lanky and slightly bow-legged man in a black cowboy hat approached them.
“Welcome home,” he said as he extended a hand and a friendly smile to Sam.
Sam gripped the outstretched hand. “Jack,” he said, “I thought you’d send Red or Little John out to get us.”
“You know Little John doesn’t have the patience to drive a wagon and Red… well, anyway… I have some news. Beth Ann didn’t wait for you.”
“When did she leave?” There was no surprise in Sam’s voice.
Ruth prepared herself for panic at the news but it didn’t come. She had planned to learn from Beth Ann before she left but with her out of the way, Ruth and Caroline could simply decide on their own how to run the house. Sam was so easy-going she couldn’t imagine him being tyrannical about having things a certain way.
“She went on about not having us pay her longer than necessary,” Jack said, “though I suspect it had more to do with her wanting to get there before the next grandchild arrives.”
“Speaking of arrivals,” Sam said with a nod to the woman on his left, “let me introduce my sister Caroline.”
Jack tipped his hat to her. “Miss Caroline. We’re pleased you’ve come.”
“And this is…” Sam turned to his right and paused barely a moment before he said, “my wife Ruth.”
Jack’s hand froze in midair before be touched his hat again. He might have been giving Sam a chance to correct his word choice. When he didn’t, Jack smiled and said, “Pleased to meet you as well, Mrs. Haid.”
It was the first time anyone had addressed Ruth as Mrs. and she liked the sound of it. She returned the smile easily. There was a bit of shifting as Sam picked up his bag and Jack grabbed both Caroline’s and Ruth’s. Then he positioned himself on the other side of Caroline as he indicated the direction in which he’d parked the wagon.
“When did Beth Ann leave?” Sam asked.
“Near a week now. She left you a note.”
“I suppose you’ve been eating in the bunkhouse?”
Jack let out a rather ragged sigh. “Red’s on an experimentin’ kick again. Last night he put cayenne pepper in the biscuits and none in the chili. Two days ago I don’t even know what he put in the eggs because I was too distracted by the coffee that was extra strong and stone cold. Zachariah’s been ornery ever since.”
“I can believe that.” Sam tilted his head towards Ruth. “The man is always finding an excuse to be ornery.”
“Jesse cut himself pretty bad mending a fence,” Jack said. “Doc says there’s no sign of infection though so he’ll heal all right.”
Sam asked which fence
had needed repair and Jack continued to fill him in on things he’d missed while he was away. Though he was speaking to Sam, Ruth noticed that Jack’s eyes continually fell short and landed on Caroline between them. Perhaps the man was not as confirmed in his bachelorhood as Sam believed. Or maybe he only wondered if she would make proper coffee.
Sam rode in the back of the wagon with the baggage so both women could sit up front with Jack. The drive was fairly quiet, with conversation that consisted of small talk about the journey and a little of what they passed. Caroline sat in the middle and Ruth felt as though the seat got smaller and smaller as she was pressed towards the edge. The space between Jack and Caroline grew at the same time.
The house was larger than Ruth expected. A porch wrapped all the way around the front and both sides. There were several wooden chairs scattered about it.
Jack pulled the horses to a stop and turned in the seat to talk to Sam. Caroline nearly shoved Ruth right off the wagon at his movement. “I’ll take the bags up and see to the horses while you show the women around. Then we’ll ride out?”
Sam nodded to acknowledge the plan. He had talked on the train about how eager he was to have eyes on his land again. He jumped over the side to give Ruth and then Caroline a hand down.
The first thing Caroline wanted to see was the garden at the side of the house.
“I warned you it wouldn’t be as nice as yours,” Sam said apologetically. “Beth Ann doesn’t have as much talent for gardening. But you can coax it along and start fresh in the spring.”
“This’ll do.” Caroline had crouched to examine some plants.
“You sure?” It was clear how badly Sam wanted his sister to approve of the place. Ruth was touched by it.
Caroline must have sensed it as well because she summoned more visible enthusiasm as she said, “Let’s see inside now.”
A Quiet Life Page 15