“Howdy, Lexi, nice to see you.” Wade tipped his hat and got off his horse to greet her. Warion did the same. Wolfe just jumped off his horse without acknowledging her, and tied his steed to the hitching post in front of the house. He hurried over to the pump and washed his hands and face and then headed inside. She ran after him, and entered the house right behind him.
“Ginny, you’re really here,” she heard Wolfe say, sounding surprised.
“Of course,” said his sister in her ever so proper way. She ran a brush through her long, blond hair as she looked into a mirror in the hallway. “You sent me the telegram saying to be here. So what is so important? You said it had something to do with the ranch?”
“Wolfe, you’ve come back.” Anna Mae rushed out of the kitchen, and looked like she wanted to hug him. Wolfe hurriedly pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Mommy, who is that?” asked Emma, running over and throwing her arms around Lexi’s waist.
“That’s Billy de Wolfe. He used to live here,” said Lexi, finally gaining his attention.
“Lexi?” He looked directly at her now.
She didn’t miss the sweep of his eyes down her body. It wasn’t the same way he’d looked at her while growing up when they all went down to the creek to hunt for frogs. No, this was more like a man looking with interest at the body of a woman he desired. She liked that.
“Billy – this is my daughter, Emma.”
She watched his tongue wet his lips, and he nodded slightly. Then he took off his hat and laid it on the table, running a hand through his long, blond, windblown hair.
“I didn’t know you were even married, Lexi.” He played with the hat, keeping his eyes from meeting hers again.
“I’m . . . not. Not anymore. My husband died fighting in the war.”
“Oh?” His eyes shot upward and he just nodded slightly. Then he glanced over to his brothers as they entered the room arguing about something to do with the horses.
“Wade, Warion!” Anna Mae ran over and actually hugged the twins, but they just stood there like dolts with their hands at there sides and didn’t return the hug at all. Lexi wondered if there was something severely wrong with this family. Not a one of them seemed to have any warm emotions for each other – except for their stepmother who was only a de Wolfe by marriage.
Wade and Warion pulled out chairs and straddled them backwards.
“Let’s eat,” said Warion, rolling up his sleeves.
“Yeah, what’s for dinner?” Wade plopped his dusty hat down on the table. “I hope it’s something hearty. I’m tired of the hard tack and salted pork we ate on the battlefield.”
“Well, if you don’t like the food, you should come out east,” interrupted their sister, Ginny, who had arrived there just yesterday. “We have lots of fresh fish, as well as fresh air. Things aren’t nearly so dusty. It took me nearly two weeks to get here on the stage, and those dusters they provide for the passengers to wear didn’t even cover half my gown.” She brushed off her bright blue silk taffeta gown. It was held out by the crinoline underneath and layered with bows and ribbons. She even had a ribbon in her hair and a fan tied to her waist. Lexi had seen her when she arrived yesterday with her white gloves on as well.
Lexi’s garments were those worn by a woman on the plains. She didn’t have all the fancy baubles and neither did she need them. She wore a simple riding skirt with the collar of her bodice buttoned up to her neck – not a low-cut, off-the-shoulder bodice showing a lot of cleavage like Ginny.
“Wolfe, are you going to tell us why we’re all here?” Ginny snapped open her fan and fluttered it in front of her face.
“I sent the telegrams,” said Anna Mae. “Wolfe, I didn’t know where to find you, or I’d have sent one to you, too.”
“Mine was signed - Billy,” said Wade, his eyes darting around the room.
“So was mine,” said Warion.
“As well as mine,” added Ginny.
“None of that matters,” said Wolfe, not seeming at all confused about the telegrams. “We’re here now, so tell us what this is all about, Anna Mae.”
“I sent for you all because I’m about to lose the ranch.” Anna Mae wrung her hands together and looked to the ground. “I thought perhaps . . . you would all help to save it.” She looked from one to the other as she spoke now. “I know none of you were close to your father, and that’s probably why he left the ranch to me, but I’d be willing to give it up to each and every one of you if you’d just . . . stay.”
The room became as quiet as a tomb, and Lexi saw each of the siblings looking in opposite directions. No one answered. Anna Mae looked so saddened by this, and Lexi was about to intervene when Wolfe suddenly cleared his throat and spoke up.
“Boys, since when do we sit down at the table to eat before washing up?”
Wolfe looked at the dirt on his brothers’ hands, stalling for time, trying to think up an answer for Anna Mae. While being owners of a ranch was a dream of many, Wolfe and his siblings hadn’t been able to wait to get away from home. They all had the wanderlust in them, plus at the time they’d been trying to get away from their father. Neil de Wolfe hadn’t been a pleasant man when he’d been drinking – which was every day since they’d lost their mother to illness when Wolfe was only twelve years old.
His father had raised them by himself from that day on, and it hadn’t been easy for any of them. He often belittled Ginny, and treated her more like a slave than a daughter. Ginny worked very hard those earlier years of her life, trying to fill in for their deceased mother. But she had only been a child, and no one should expect a child to do all the chores he’d made her do.
His father had also beat Warion and Wade for no reason at all. He seemed to like to take his anger out on other people. Wolfe had often taken the beatings for his brothers, but they’d never even thanked him or done anything for him in return. Instead, it seemed they’d started to hate Wolfe just as much as they hated their father.
Wade and Warion grumbled, but got up quickly, and headed out to the wash pump just the same.
“Well then, enough with the talk,” said his stepmother putting on her happy face like she’d done for Wolfe’s father for the ten years she’d been married to him. “Why don’t we eat before the food gets cold?” She reached over and smoothed down the hair of the little girl standing next to her.
“Emma and I will help you bring the food from the kitchen,” Lexi offered. She left the room, and when she walked by - Wolfe’s eyes followed her.
He watched her walk, swinging her hips slightly, and wondered when she’d turned into a woman. She had a few more curves than he’d remembered, and she conducted herself like an adult instead of the adolescent child he’d thought her to be.
It also surprised him that she had a daughter who looked to be about four. His baby would have been about this age as well right now. For some reason, seeing Emma’s sweet face sent a wave of sadness through him. What was the matter with him? He normally didn’t feel emotion at all. He wondered if the old man with the eyepatch was starting to get into his head with all this ill-conceived talk of the importance of families.
“All right, let’s eat!” Wade was back already, and grabbed a dish of mashed potatoes from Anna Mae and sat back down in his chair. Wolfe was going to take the platter of chicken from Lexi, but some guy came in from outside and took it from her before he had the chance.
“Why thank you, Chase,” said Lexi. Wolfe didn’t miss the way her face blushed when she said it.
“Who are you?” growled Wolfe.
“I’m guessing he’s the ranch hand.” Warion took a platter of biscuits from Emma, picking one up and biting into it before it even hit the plate.
“Hey, save some for the rest of us.” Wade reached over and grabbed the platter but Warion wouldn’t let go. His brothers were so immature at times. Wolfe could see that another fight was about to break out over food of all things. These two could find anything to fight about, and it was start
ing to irritate him.
“Give me that.” He grabbed the platter and held it out to Lexi as she sat down in the empty chair between him and the ranch hand. “Ladies first,” he said, and this time she smiled at him and not the other man.
“I’m Chase Masters,” the man told them, settling himself on the chair. “I’ve been helping Anna Mae run the ranch on and off.” Chase picked up a bowl of green beans and put some on Lexi’s plate. Wolfe didn’t like that.
“On and off? What does that mean?” Wade shoved a whole biscuit into his mouth at once. The twins always did have huge appetites.
“He’s a drifter,” said Anna Mae, scooping cooked carrots and peas onto the little girl’s plate with a serving spoon that was much too small for its purpose.
“I don’t like peas.” Emma crinkled her nose.
“Don’t give her peas,” said Wolfe. “They’re only for the boys. She’ll get too strong if she eats them and we can’t have that now, can we?”
Emma looked over with wide blue eyes, and then a big grin broke out over her face. “Give me more!” This made Wolfe smile.
“Thank you,” whispered Lexi, her green eyes filled with gratitude. Wolfe was drawn to this, as well as her long mahogany hair that was tied back with a drab brown ribbon. She dressed in casual, functional clothing that was suited for a woman living on the plains. She wasn’t dolled-up like his sister, Ginny. But Ginny was full of pretense while Lexi was real. He respected this about her, and it only made her look more attractive in his eyes.
Wolfe felt a lump in his throat and he didn’t know how to respond. “So why are you and your daughter here?” He pulled his eyes away from her, and stabbed his fork into a chicken leg on the platter, and dropped it onto her plate. He looked over to Chase and just smiled at the man.
“We live here.” Lexi spread her cloth napkin on her lap and took a nibble of a green bean.
“Live here?” His gaze shot over to his stepmother who was settling herself in her chair now that all the food was on the table.
“Lexi moved here when her husband as well as you boys and your father left for the war. She had just discovered she was pregnant, and it’s not safe for a woman to be on her own. That’s why we decided to live here together.
“Of course, that makes sense,” Wolfe agreed, wondering now why he hadn’t come back to Diamondback long before now.
“You all would know this if you’d come home once in awhile.” Anna Mae looked down her nose, over the top of her wire rimmed spectacles as she spoke. Her hair was pulled up tightly into a neat bun atop her head.
“Even I knew about all this,” said Ginny, finally managing to sit. Her gown was voluptuous and it wasn’t an easy feat. She pushed her food around her plate with her fork, and Wolfe wondered if she ever really ate anything, since her waist was so tiny.
“You only knew because you got here before us, or you wouldn’t know either,” said Warion.
“That’s not true. And what’s the matter with you two that you’re not married by now?”
“Married?” Wade’s hand froze in midair as he balanced a big hunk of chicken on his fork. “You’re not one to talk, Ginny.”
“That’s right,” said Warion. “I heard you drove that rich old husband of yours into the arms of another woman.”
“He wasn’t that rich.” Ginny threw down her fork and got to her feet, placing her hands on her hips. Wolfe noticed how she hadn’t defended the fact that her husband had been old. Wolfe knew her temper. If she started complaining, she’d never stop.
“Sit down,” he told her, but she just scowled at him. “Sit down, I say, before I come over there and push you into your chair myself.”
“Who do you think you are to be talking to me that way?” sniffed Ginny.
Wolfe’s fork stopped on the way to his mouth as he looked over his brothers’ heads and spied William standing in the shadows in the corner of the room. He watched Wolfe intently with his one good eye, and then just nodded his head slightly as if encouraging him to do and say the right thing.
“I’m the eldest of the family now, and what I say goes. So sit down and shut up and eat, everyone, because I don’t feel like getting out my gun to prove my point.” Wolfe’s words only started up massive commotion and arguing from his siblings, as they didn’t want to be told what to do by their older brother. Even Anna Mae put in her opinion, and the drifter tried to settle them down, but when he intervened they started shouting at him as well. Then Emma started whining about her peas being too mushy and Lexi scolded her over the table for talking with her mouth full.
Wolfe put his head down and continued to eat, thinking nothing of the whole situation. That is, not until he dared to look up once more and saw William just shaking his head as he slowly faded away.
Chapter 3
“So you’re trying to make us believe a ghost of one of our ancestors signed your name to the telegrams? Hah!” Wade pushed back from the table and laid his hands on his belly, looking very satisfied by Anna Mae’s cooking. He was slightly shorter than his twin, Warion, but they both had chiseled features and dark hair that contrasted to Wolfe’s blond hair, and that of their sister, Ginny.
“You’re playing your silly games again, Wolfe,” complained Ginny. “Just like when you hid in the hayloft and jumped down onto the buckboard, knocking me off my horse and breaking my arm in the process.” Ginny pushed her plate away, doing nothing to help clean up the table. Wolfe wondered if they were really descended from knights and royalty. If so, maybe that’s where his sister got her new attitude of being better than everyone else.
“Ginny, stop it,” said Wolfe. “That’s when we were nothing more than children. I’m talking about a man named William de Wolfe. He was a medieval knight, and said he is our ancestor.”
“You’ve been sipping at the tarantula juice a little too much,” said Warion with a shake of his head. “There is no ghost. You’re starting to sound like our crazy pa.”
“It’s true, I tell you.” Wolfe pounded his hand on the table. “He’s an old man with an eyepatch and said he’s here to bring our family back together. He wants me to do it.”
That got his brothers and sister laughing.
“You’re the one who taught us how to fight and hate, or have you forgotten, brother?” Warion stood up and walked away from the table.
“This ghost can do things that normal people can’t,” Wolfe told them.
“Like change telegrams?” asked Wade with a smirk.
“When I sent those telegrams, I had them sign my name to them,” said Anna Mae, getting up and wiping her hands in her apron. “This whole story does sound a bit odd.”
Ginny pushed her nose up in the air. “You have lost your mind, brother, from living out on the plains hunting down men for the last five years.”
“Hey, how about I play a song on my guitar for you all?” asked the drifter, obviously trying to change the subject.
“I want you to play that Old Susanna song,” shouted Emma, jumping up from the table, spilling her milk. Lexi shot out of her chair to clean it up.
“It’s called Oh Susanna, not old,” said Chase with a chuckle, walking over to pick up his guitar from the other room. Wade and Warion followed him over and started talking to the drifter, ignoring Wolfe altogether.
Angry that no one believed him, and upset that he’d done nothing to bring his family back together at all, Wolfe pushed away from the table in a huff. His chair knocked over in the process. He grabbed his hat from the hook on the wall, and headed outside to be alone and think.
Lexi wiped up the spilt milk, looking over her shoulder at Wolfe as he stormed from the house.
“I wonder what’s got him so upset?” asked Anna Mae.
“I think it’s because no one believes him about this so-called ghost, and they all think he’s played a cruel joke on them,” answered Lexi.
“Ah, yes, the ghost,” said Anna Mae, picking up the dirty dishes.
“Do you really believe he
saw a ghost?” Lexi watched as Emma ran over to hear Chase pluck a tune on his guitar. The little girl like him a lot, and Lexi knew she needed to find a father figure for her soon. Emma had never even known her own father, and the girl was vying for attention.
“Oh, I don’t know,” laughed Anna Mae, stacking the plates. “Their father used to talk about a ghost with an eyepatch named William too.”
“He did?” Lexi stood up straight, as this got her attention. “So . . . he’s real then?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Anna Mae took a dirty plate from Lexi. “After all, every time he saw this ghost he was three sheets to the wind. Not that he was ever really sober. So maybe Wolfe just inherited that same vivid imagination from his father.”
“Anna Mae, would you mind if I helped with the dishes in a little while? I’d like to go talk to Wolfe alone while Emma is distracted.”
“Go on,” she told her with a wave of her hand. “I’ll get Ginny to help.”
That made both of them laugh, because they knew it was never going to happen. Ginny never wanted to lift a finger to help out with anything, ever since she’d married a rich old cattle baron out east. Of course, it could have had something to do with the fact she was rebelling from having had to work so hard as a child.
“I’ll be back to help,” Lexi assured her, and headed out the door after Wolfe.
She found him leaning on the fencepost, staring out into the vast open sky. He didn’t even acknowledge her when she walked up, though she knew he’d seen her. He was a bounty hunter, so he didn’t miss the fact that someone was walking up behind him.
“So why aren’t you back there fawning over that drifter the way everyone else is?” His eyes remained forward, and she first noticed he had a quirley in his hand. He brought the hand-rolled cigarette to his mouth and took a deep drag, squinting his eyes as he inhaled.
“Oh, I’ve heard his songs before.” She walked up next to him, feeling chilled from the night air. She wished now she would have remembered her shawl. “I wanted to come talk to you.”
Wolfe of the West Page 3