by Rita Hestand
He understood that. Unfortunately, after what he’d done, she’d never be his again.
He’d tried to put her from his mind, tried to justify what he’d done to her, but ache left a silent void in his heart. He’d lost the only woman he’d ever loved, and he’d done it to himself. He should take a wife. Even if he didn’t love her it would
be companionship, but somehow he knew it wouldn’t work. He loved Maggie, and he’d ruined relationships for himself, for no one else would ever take her place.
His brother had fallen at Shiloh, leaving him no family to come home to. His folks had died before the war and became one of the main reasons he’d joined the Confederates. He hadn’t thought twice about which side, as a southerner it seemed wrong to fight for the North, even if they might be right about a lot of things.
As he looked upon the place though, he suddenly realized that smoke drifted upward from the chimney. He’d been gone a long time, long enough for someone to move into his place and claim it. A squatter, no doubt. He’d send them packing fast. He had a legal deed to the property, and no one would take his place from him. His father had brought him up to believe that land was worth fighting for.
He’d hoped his homecoming would be peaceful, but life didn’t work that way all the time. His feelings on the war weren’t like most of the rebels coming home.
He held no grudge against the North. They had been proven right, and he honored Abe Lincoln’s words. “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.” But Jesse smiled sadly, also remembering Abe Lincolns’ immortal speech at Gettysburg.
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Jesse sighed heavily. “Dang right, all men and women are created equally.”
That had been a hard lesson learned but one knowing Maggie had taught him.
A familiar sound he hadn’t wanted to hear again assailed him when he heard the bark of gunshots. He rode closer. “What the hell….” He galloped into the yard at full speed. Dismounting, he grabbed his rifle. He kicked open the door to the cabin. His horse backed away from the gunfire.
In one brief moment he spotted her. She had a gun in her hand and a baby on her hip.
He couldn’t believe his Maggie was there, but the bullets flying captured his immediate attention. He glanced outside as he opened the shutters on one side of the window. “Maggie, what’s going on here?”
It sounded as natural as talking to his kinfolks.
Maggie reloaded her gun and held on to the baby. “It seems I picked up a few enemies at the rebel camps. Some of them decided to follow me. It took ‘em long enough to find me.”
“You out there, what do you want?” Jesse hollered.
“Send out the Black Widow, and we’ll be on our way,” someone chimed back.
“The war’s over,” Jesse yelled. “Go home.”
“This one ain’t, not till we get our hands on her, it ain’t,” the man called. “And if you hide her out, you’ll die alongside her.”
Jesse looked at her quickly. She stuck her gun through a hole and peeked out into the yard for her chance, but her shot went too low.
Jesse shook his head. “Looks like I better teach you to shoot.”
For a split second her lips twitched into a smile, but it soon faded.
“Good to see ya, Maggie.” His eyes drifted from her head to her toes. The pants she had on outlined her figure and his loins tightened instinctively. Her shirt looked much too thin and barely hid her from him. At least this time she had boots, he noted. Then realized she was wearing his old ones. He wondered how she kept them on. They were obviously too big for her.
“Is it?” After taking another shot at the gathering crowd, she spared him a glance.
He didn’t miss her quick appraisal, either. “I’ve missed ya.” This time he downed one of the men outside. It seemed to scare the others back a little. Even so, they hadn’t left yet. Jesse watched through another window as one went along the side to the back door. He nodded at Maggie and went to the door in the kitchen. It slowly opened and a man entered with a gun pointed straight at her.
“Drop it or you are dead where you stand,” Jesse whispered.
The man acted as though he were lowering his weapon then spun. Jesse
grabbed him and wrestled him down, shaking the gun nearly at his nose. He saw Maggie out of the corner of his eye as he and the stranger fought. She aimed her gun, but did not have a clean shot. At least she didn’t want to kill him.
Finally, Jesse hit his attacker with a right hook and the man fell over, grabbing his jaw.
Another man came around the backside of the house, got a good aim at Jesse, and nicked his arm. Jesse whirled around and fired, uncaring if he killed the scum willing to fire a gun at a woman and child. The man slumped to the ground.
“Who the hell are ya, and what do ya want?” Jesse asked, not giving the one he’d punched time to move but jerking him up on his feet and staring into his face.
“Ask her. She knows me. I guarded her jail cell for months till they found out she was with child. Then that stupid captain put her to work in the laundry. Like she was some privileged lady. I told her we’d find her. I meant every word, too.
Still do.” He grabbed his jaw and tried to get loose.
Jesse held his gun on him. “The war’s over. She was arrested. She apparently did her time.”
“Do you know who she is?” the man began, his eyes wild with hate.
“I know. I’m the one that brought her in.”
The man stared at him, his expression changing. “Captain Coleman?” The man frowned.
“That’s right, and you are on my property. Uninvited.”
“Then what’s she doin’ here?” the man demanded. “You got her under some kind of arrest or something? I don’t see you aimin’ no gun at her.”
Jesse took one hard look at the man. “Actually, I invited her, but I didn’t invite you. I want you to go outside and round up your men and get off my land. Next time I see you, I’ll kill ya.”
The man frowned at the both of them. “They made you a hero for bringin’ her in, so now you’re protectin’ her? That don’t make no sense.”
“That’s right. I told you the war is over. Best to let it lie,” Jesse repeated, meeting the man eye to eye.
“But you’re a reb like the rest of us. Why would you protect her?” the man asked, putting his hat back on and dusting his pants off. “You realize how many of our men she is responsible for killin’?”
“I realize that’s what they say, but I have no proof of it.”
“Then why the hell you care what we do?” the man asked grabbing his bruised jaw when he opened his mouth too wide.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I never liked killin’ a woman, especially one with a baby. If you’ll notice, you could have easily killed that sweet little one with a wayward shot. Let’s just say I don’t believe in killin’ women and children.”
Jesse’s voice was cold and calculating. “No matter what they done. Besides, there were spies on both sides of the war, and this one paid the price.”
“You better not let her stay long, ‘cause if you do, your life ain’t gonna be worth much either,” the cowboy said. “Every reb within five hundred miles of here wants their hands on her neck. The war might be over, but we ain’t forgettin’. All those men dyin’ at Pea Ridge, Chalk Hill, all because of her. It weren’t no small amount of men dyin’ there. I know, I was on burial detail.”
“Pea Ridge, huh? Well, I was there. Were you? I know exactly what happened.
Do you?”
“Nah, I wasn’t there, but my brother was kilt there.”
“Then maybe I should tell you about Pea Ridge. That’s mighty interesting. Yes, it is. You see, I should tell you how it really was. We had enough men on our sid
e.
We could have licked ‘em if the general hadn’t split the men up and tried to circle around. It was a common mistake. Had nothing to do with spies. Even if she informed them, do you think there weren’t others doing the same thing? Of course there were. And since I was there, I probably knew your kin. However, I can tell you that was one battle that was nothing more than a command mistake.
That’s a fact. Maybe before you go tryin’ to kill women, you ought to get your facts straight. Now, get out of here before I change my mind and take you into town for attempted murder.” Jesse gritted his teeth. “Spies are one thing, command mistakes are another. She had nothing to do with that. It cost the lives of a lot of our men, I agree, just not as to who was at fault.”
The man stared at them both, then walked out and held up his hands to his men. The men talked, then he hollered back, “I never cottoned to no spy, and that’s why we’re here, but if it’s as you say, then I could be all wrong. We’ll consider this, Captain, but I got to tell you, there are a lot of others with the same idea as us about killin’ the Black Widow. Pea Ridge was just one battle.”
“You’re right about that, but I’ll handle whatever comes.” He watched them gather in the yard, mount their horses, and ride off. Jesse didn’t recognize any of
them as they sped away on horseback. The dust flew for several minutes before the yard cleared of everyone but the body out back.
He finally lowered his gun and turned to look at Maggie and the little girl who held on to her pant leg as she came outside and looked at the dead man in the dirt.
“Maggie?” he called lowering the gun and going toward her.
She looked alluring in britches and whatever they called that shirt. He started to take her in his arms, but she raised a gun to him and smiled. “Hello, Jesse.
Was that true what you told him?”
“Every word, but not everyone will believe it. Pea Ridge was a big mistake, cost a lot of lives, I’ll admit, but it wasn’t due to your spying. Not altogether at least.
Besides, you weren’t the only spy in the army. There were spies on both sides.
Generally, the commanders knew what to expect. That may not excuse you, but it don’t make you the target either. People believe what they want to believe, Maggie, no matter what you say. At least I gave him something to think about.
The miscalculation of a war puts a lot of people in trouble. Had they cared to check, they would have known we were beaten before we started. Our men barely had shoes to wear. It was a bad winter, Maggie, and we like to have froze to death.
Marched in solid ice and the blood from our feet could have given us away as easy as you could. We were tired, hungry, and beat before we started. Even though we had some brilliant leaders we also had some very big blunders that cost a lot of lives. Both sides knew the obstacles. That’s what war is, fighting even though you know you might not win. For a cause or a country, or just because you think you’re right. Battles are a part of war. They’ll be fought no matter. Putting the blame on one person is senseless. Especially a woman.”
“What do you mean, especially a woman?” She put her hand on her hip and stared at him, but the pistol didn’t waver.
He eyed her with new interest. She’d matured some, filled out more, and looked better than ever. “This probably won’t set right with you, but women had no business in the war, in any war. War is man’s duty, not woman’s. Women bear our children, take care of us, but we fight the wars. Because we are the ones that usually make the war. And that’s as it should be. You were doing nothing more
than trying to keep yourself going. You can’t be blamed. You were deliberately put into a compromising position by the Federals.”
He backed up a bit and stared into her lovely eyes. “What’s the gun for?”
“I think we better talk and get a few things straight first.” She lowered the gun slowly.
He nodded, his frown smoothing. “Okay. We’ll talk. But first you’re gonna tell me who was doing the shooting. And where that beautiful baby came from.”
“Later.”
The man lay dead at their feet. He still wore a rebel uniform and Jesse didn’t recognize him. “Know him?”
She nodded. “It’s one of them. One of the prison guards.”
He motioned toward the house, anxious to get her away from the body. “Go on in. I got to bury him. You know his name?” he called after her.
“Roberts, that’s all I know.”
“Good enough.”
It took Jesse a while. He wondered why Maggie had shown up with a gun. But mostly why were these ex-soldiers after her? He buried the man, put his shovel up, and went inside. Questions were on the tip of his tongue. Lots of them.
He glanced over her shoulder and saw a pot on the stove. “Can I have a cup?”
He quickly realized it was real coffee from the aroma. “That smells almost too good to drink. Haven’t had any since before the war. Where’d you get it?”
“An old Indian man came into the yard and traded me some jerky for it. Said he’d be back.”
He nodded. “Lame Runner. I know him. He’s a good trader. Wonder where he got the coffee?”
Maggie’s head reared and her eyes got big. “I don’t know. I never asked.”
“Probably best you didn’t. So, did they treat you right at the fort?”
“It don’t matter how they treated me. It’s over.” She cut him a frown, and then noticed the blood on the arm of his shirt. “We better bandage that up.”
Jesse eyed her silently. “As I remember, you’re good nurse.”
“Things have changed, Jesse. Lots of things.”
“I saw that.” Was she ever going to tell him whose baby that was?
She got some bandages she’d stuffed in her saddlebags and tied his arm up. It was only a flesh wound.
“Want to talk about those changes, Maggie?”
“The captain and his wife did treat me right after a while. I mean, at first it was bad. They sent me to Richmond to start, lots of confusion there. Then I went to another fort, which was full and they turned women away after a while. So I went to another one, even worse, but I wasn't there long, and that was a good thing.
Finally, they brought me to a fort here in Texas, and put me in one of those back rooms that had no windows, and was more like an outhouse than a room. After a short trial, I was fed twice a day and sentenced to hang. Everyone knew me. It was like I had my name plastered on my back or something. The guards at the prison were very ugly to me. It wasn’t till I started showing I was with child that the captain and his lovely wife, Louisa, decided to question me and put me to work in the laundry. He figured it would be less trouble all the way around. His wife wouldn’t stand for me being in a cell and with child.”
Jesse’s expression tightened. Misery and concern mingled. Who was the baby’s father? Perhaps that was why she no longer had any interest in him. That would explain it. Perhaps the man who fathered her child died and she had no one to count on. Could be she had been raped in the cell, too. That bothered him. He needed to know.
Jealousy speared his heart at the thought that Maggie could love another so soon after they had made love. If she’d been raped, he’d hunt the dog down and kill him. Perhaps it had merely been lust on her part, he thought as he looked at her. But it certainly hadn’t been on his. Still, how could Maggie know that?
“I’ll get us a cup.” She moved to the kitchen. “Let me put her to bed first.” She took the baby girl into the bedroom and closed the door. The baby was as beautiful as her mother was. Petite and lovely skin and hair. He’d give anything for a child like that. Especially Maggie’s babies.
Jesse smiled and topped off his own cup. Not long ago he’d thought the place looked lonely. Maggie filled it with life. The house had a clean smell to it, and it had to be her effort, not his own.
Jesse sipped his coffee, savoring the flavor of the dark liquid and tried not to think about Maggie loving another man.
It wounded him, yet he deserved it, too.
How could he overlook the fact that he turned her in? He’d put her through misery. Why should she care about him? And yet, she had come to his home.
Maggie came back and poured him another cup of coffee. They sat at the table staring across at each other. Lots of things needed saying, but there was a firm pout to Maggie’s luscious lips.
“It’s good to see you.” He reached for her hand, which she jerked away quickly.
“You’re still as beautiful as ever, maybe even more so.”
Jesse wasn’t sure what had happened to Maggie. He wished she were still as open and honest as she used to be. That quality had endeared her to him.
“You may not think so after I say what I gotta say,” she began, her voice sounding unforgiving.
“Sure, honey, what?” He stared into her perplexing face.
“First of all, I got a few rules for you to live by. And the first rule: You will not touch me,” she demanded, her eyes going over him thoroughly.
He studied her for a long moment. “You sure you want to make that rule?”
She sipped her coffee then looked at him. “I’m sure. Secondly, I came here for protection. That’s the only reason I came. You owe me.”
His gaze steadied, a calm overcoming him. “All right. That’s understandable.