Sarah Todd

by Chloe Garner

  “I don’t want to talk in front of that one,” one of the men said, pointing at Thomas.

  “Fair enough,” Sarah said. “Anyone got somethin’ to say they feel they can’t say in front of Thomas can come back later, but know that I’m like to have made my decision by then.”

  There was a stir as men held brief consultations with each other over whether staying was worthwhile.

  “Now,” Sarah said, “since I’m sure all y’all got your stories straight, already, who wants to talk for the group?”

  Prave stepped forward.

  “That okay with everyone?” Sarah asked. There were mutters and she nodded to the man.

  “I trust you, Prave. We fought side by side ‘gainst bandits trying to burn down your folks’ farm and steal your livestock. You know me and I know you, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “And Thomas here is a good guy, I say so. He’s got brothers with tempers like lightnin’, but he ain’t gonna tell ‘em anything you say, and he ain’t gonna tell ‘em you said it, got it?”

  She looked at Thomas, who gave her a ‘sure, why not’ shrug, then back at Prave.

  “I ain’t afraid of ‘em,” Prave said. “They don’t shoot a guy for nothin’.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “I tend to agree with you. So what happened?”

  Prave looked over his shoulder at the men, then back at Sarah.

  “We was all drinkin’. Lots of new guys around, lots of money around, lots of people don’t know what’s gonna happen next, so we drink, right?”

  “I seen that,” Sarah said. “Go on.”

  “Winnie was shootin’ off his mouth ‘bout how the Lawsons cut and run last time, when Lawrence needed ‘em, and we shouldn’t let ‘em back in now that we got absenta again.”

  “I’m of mixed feelin’s about that, but go on,” Sarah said. Prave nodded.

  “Peter Lawson stands up and says ‘I’m a Lawson, go ahead and say that to my face,’ so Winnie stands up on a table and says it louder and spittin’ and stuff.”

  Sarah shook her head. This was why she hated that tavern.

  “So now Peter’s on a table and Winnie’s on a table and they’re shoutin’ at each other, Winnie ‘bout how the Lawsons are cowards and good for nothin’ on account of them leavin’ and only comin’ back when we don’t need them no more, and Peter’s yellin’ ‘bout how the Lawsons made Lawrence and he don’t have to stand for no peasant talkin’ uppity to him.” Prave paused. “He actually said that. Peasant. We ain’t peasants, Sarah, I don’t care what no one says.”

  “No, you ain’t, no more’n I am or anyone else,” Sarah said. There were mutters around the room that indicated that this had struck a chord with a number of the men.

  “Anyway, that’s when Willie and Paulie throws everyone out. Dunno how many people got to stay, but it weren’t many. And we’re all outside.”

  There were more nods. It was likely this was the first a lot of the men had known what was going on. Shouting in the tavern was pretty common, and most men just ignored it.

  “Winnie and Peter, they’s still jawin’ at each other, and Winnie’s buddy James is tryin’ to get him to go home to his girl, and Peter, well, he’s throwin’ guys off him, too, though I don’t know who laid hands on him to do it.”

  Sarah shrugged.

  “Fights is fights,” she said. “You break ‘em up best you can, no matter who’s on the two sides.”

  The tension in the room might have dropped slightly at this. She had no intention of holding anyone accountable for manhandling a drunk, outraged Peter, even if things came to blows. That was tavern business, in the street or otherwise.

  “Then, I don’t know,” Prave said. “I lost track of what happened for a minute, and then there was a gunshot and everyone’s yellin’ and carryin’ on. Some guys run in, some guys run out, but Peter’s standin’ there with his gun out, and Winnie’s on the ground.”

  She’d seen the chaos around these moments before and knew that Prave was doing his best to be evenhanded about it. No one was completely certain what happened in the seconds before or after a gun went off resulting in a kill like that.

  “And James...” Prave paused. Looked around the room.

  “There’s contention here?” Sarah asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Prave said. Sarah nodded.

  “You tell your story, I’ll hear the others.”

  Prave swallowed.

  “I think James charged him, Sarah. Came up off the ground like a bull, at Peter. Peter shot him dead.”

  There were raised voices at this, as men shouted at each other, shouted at Sarah, some even shouted at Thomas. Sarah held up a hand and the room went quiet again.

  “Agree that James was on the ground with Winnie and he stood up. Maybe it was to back away, maybe it was to give Peter Lawson a piece of his mind, maybe it was to come at him, but he stood up?”

  There were murmurs, and then what seemed to amount to general agreement that quickly disintegrated back into yelling.

  “That’s enough,” Sarah said. “Y’all go wander the shop. Buy things that your missus or your ma is gonna be needin’ this week. I’m gonna be over in Granger’s office, and if you got somethin’ needs addin’ to Prave’s story, you come tell me what that is. Thomas’ll stay out here with the rest of you.”

  She glanced at Thomas, who shrugged again. Sarah walked past Granger on the way to the office. He was cleaning his spectacles, but didn’t seem more concerned than normal.

  “Won’t be long,” she said. He shrugged, putting his spectacles back on and tucking his cloth into his waist apron.

  “Just doin’ what you do,” he answered.

  “Keep an eye on Thomas out there. He’s outnumbered,” she said as she sat down at his desk to wait.

  One by one, the men trickled in. Most of them wanted to be sure that she was unbiased, that Thomas wasn’t there to change the outcome of her decision, that Prave was safe from the Lawsons, that someone was still in charge.

  She asked each of them questions.

  Was Winnie carrying a gun? Was James? Which hand had he used to drink? Had James spoken with Peter at all that night? Where was James staying? What happened after Peter shot James? Had they thought the Lawsons had done a good job running Lawrence, before they left? Did they intend to go up mining to try to find absenta, now that it was apparent it wasn’t all gone? What did they think of all of the immigrants?

  The answers were all over the map. Some of the men swore Winnie had been unarmed, others that James had taken his gun after he’d fallen and turned at Peter with it. Sarah didn’t know Winnie that well, and James at all, but she would be shocked to see a man at Paulie and Willie’s tavern without a gun, so she wrote off those who insisted that Winnie had been without one as liars out to get the Lawsons. Some of the men made up answers they couldn’t possibly have known, also liars. Some of them weren’t out to get the Lawsons - they wanted to be a part of the action. She saw it often enough to be unsurprised by it.

  Prave came in near the end.

  “I know you’re in a bad spot,” he said. “‘Tween the town and the Lawsons like this.”

  “I been in worse,” Sarah said. “I been in worse with you on my side. Ain’t nothin’ new to me.”

  He settled into his chair a bit further.

  “They say Jimmy fronted Granger a bunch of cash to buy up supplies before all this happened?”

  “Which this, Prave?” she asked. He made a vague motion with his hand.

  “All these new men,” he said. “You know there are men we’ve hunted before, pretending to just be new to town, hoping we don’t notice.”

  “I got no problem with that,” Sarah said. Prave tilted his head and she shrugged.

  “If they ain’t against us, I ain’t gotta fight ‘em no more,” she said. “They’ll go back, sure enough, when the absenta runs out, but ‘till then, I’ll take the peace.”

  He nodded.

 
“I can see the wisdom in that,” he said. “What are you going to do about Peter?”

  “Same I’d do about any other young man in town done something dumb,” she said. “I’m gonna make him regret it plenty, and I’m going to show folk that I’m watchin’ out for Lawrence.”

  “Jimmy’s a good man,” Prave said. “He don’t deserve brothers like he got.”

  “He’d resent to hear you say that,” Sarah said. “You got somethin’ to say to me Prave, or you just sittin’ here jawin’ cause your boots are sore?”

  He chuckled.

  “Bad stuff always goin’ on ‘round Lawrence, ain’t it?” he asked. She shrugged. “They really found absenta up there?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I seen it with my own eyes.”

  He nodded with a low whistle.

  “Everything’s gonna change, ain’t it?”

  “With us or without us,” Sarah said.

  “There ain’t no good way for this to go,” Prave said.

  “No.”

  “Winnie got what he had comin’ to him,” Prave finally said. “Dunno ‘bout James, but Winnie was a hard, mean bastard, and if Peter hadn’t’a done it, someone was bound to.”

  “Why do you hang out in that tavern, Prave?” Sarah asked. He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets with some effort.

  “Ain’t got nothin’ better to do, I guess.”

  “Dumber than throwin’ sand,” Sarah said. “You know better. Lotta those guys are gonna eat a bullet cause they’re too dumb to see it comin’, but you know better.”

  “You think we’ll have women come?” Prave asked after a minute, staring at Granger’s wall.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Sarah asked. “The girls at the tavern ain’t good enough for you?”

  He winced an eye at her.

  “Women, Sarah,” he said. “Don’t know last you looked around, but ain’t a lot of ‘em around.”

  Ah. That would be the one thing that would keep a man like Prave too busy to make it to the tavern at night.

  “Dunno,” she said. “Don’t know what to tell you, there.”

  He shrugged.

  “Would be good,” he said, standing. “I think you got as good a picture as you’re gonna get. Glad it’s you dealin’ with Peter Lawson and not me.”

  “Give your regards to Thomas on the way out,” Sarah said. “He’s the good man among the Lawsons.”

  Prave gave her an odd look, but touched his hat and left. Granger came in behind him.

  “Ain’t nobody left out there, Sarah,” he said. She stood.

  “I guess I’ll go tell ‘em all what I decided, then.”

  “We need ‘em, Sarah,” Granger said, pulling the cloth out and wiping his hands with it. “We all know it, just ain’t no one ready to say it out loud.”

  “I know it,” Sarah said.

  “I ain’t sayin’ we don’t need you, too,” Granger said quickly and she gave him a dismissive look. She didn’t need that kind of platitude from him. He threw the cloth onto his desk. “I been through this, forwards and reverse. We need men like the Lawsons, all of ‘em, if we’re gonna make it through.”

  “I don’t know what’s on the other side,” Sarah said. Granger shook his head.

  “None of us do, and any that says they do are lying.”

  She nodded.

  “This will probably be my last trial.”

  “I figure,” Granger said. “Jimmy’ll get his grip on everything by next one.”

  She nodded.

  “It’s a big thing, putting all your faith into a man like Jimmy Lawson.”

  “You pick the best you got and you go with it,” Granger said. The man looked like he regretted it as he said it, and it didn’t take much for her to figure out why. He was as much as saying that they’d used Sarah as a placeholder until Jimmy got back.

  “I know my place, Granger,” she said. “I ain’t a lapdog, but I ain’t a Lawson either. I’m Sarah Todd, nothing more and nothing less.”

  “I see a lot more than less, most days,” Granger said. “Don’t lose your place, just ‘cause things get moving.”

  “They’re gonna have to do a lot more than just move in to be rid of me,” Sarah said. “You need anything, Granger?”

  “Nope,” he said. “I got everything I need. Got a shipment coming in from Jeremiah that should help keep those poor men from dying in the street of cold. You gotta get money in their pockets, though, else I can’t help ‘em.”

  “I know it,” Sarah said. “We’re workin’ on it.”

  “I know you are,” he said. She touched her hat and left, finding Thomas browsing aisles.

  “It’s like we never left,” he said. “He didn’t even reorganize anything.”

  “That’s Granger,” she said. “You content that I been fair?”

  “I knew you would be,” he said. “Well, that you’d be prudent, if fair wasn’t an option.”

  “I think Little Peter is a prize idiot, one who deserves someone’s fist upside his mouth now and again, but I don’t think he’s a murderer, even drunk.”

  Thomas nodded.

  “I don’t know what we’ll do about him, long term,” he said. “He gets in trouble.”

  “Jimmy’s good at managing trouble,” Sarah said. Thomas followed her out to the street again, where the crowd was less agitated, having heard from the men in the store what had happened. It was more of a resignation, now, and off to one side Winnie’s widow was weeping.

  “I ain’t gonna let Peter Lawson get away without punishment for what he done,” Sarah said, her voice loud enough to carry. “But I ain’t gonna let anyone here say that he’s murdered two men, either. He ain’t done that, best I can see. He got in a fight and he saw it through to the end. He didn’t pick it, and he didn’t shoot a man walking away from it. Tomorrow morning, here in front of the store, y’all can come back for his whippin’.”

  She waited just long enough for them to know she was done talking, but not any longer, as she had no interest in taking questions or comments from the crowd. She went back to her horse and mounted up.

  “You know where Jimmy’s expectin’ me?” she asked Thomas.

  “I think he’ll probably wait for you at your house,” he said. “Lise is going to be making his life miserable at ours.”

  “He stands for that?” Sarah asked, chirruping to the black horse and taking the road out of town.

  The shantytown was growing, if anything. There was more noise, now, than there had been earlier this morning, as the men woke and went through whatever morning rituals they’d been able to establish with nothing but the shirts on their backs and whatever stray bits of wood they’d been able to steal. They drifted in and out of the road, passively avoiding the riders, but without any real energy. It gave Sarah a mind to run her big black horse though at speed, just to force them to scatter, but she contained herself, if perhaps only for Thomas’ benefit.

  They got back to the house to find the buckboard there and Jimmy on the porch.

  “I swear, if I let you, you’d just sleep here,” Sarah said as they got to the yard. “Spend more time here than at your own house.”

  “I’m going to go,” Thomas said.

  “Good luck avoiding Lise,” Jimmy said, standing. “How did it go?”

  “Went fine,” Thomas said. “Like you said.”

  Jimmy nodded, walking down the stairs to stand next to Sarah.

  “You mind riding with me?”

  “I’m fine up here,” she said, raising her eyebrows. She didn’t have any inclination to ride the buckboard. It wasn’t her style to be escorted around town, with or without a Lawson at the reins.

  “I can’t ride today,” he said. “I thought I could, but I can’t.”

  She snickered and relented, dropping the black horse’s tack on the front porch and letting him wander. Jimmy waited for her in the cart.

  “I put out word that we’d be doing some hiring for laborers at the
station,” he said. “It seemed like the easiest way to sort out the men looking for a job from the ones who want to talk about Petey.”

  “Fine with me,” Sarah said. “You been in to town to Granger’s to get the stuff you’ll need for them, up there?”

  “Not yet,” he said. “Need to see how many of them we’re hiring, first.”

  “Wrong way round,” she said. “Need to know your plan for the mine ‘fore you can staff it.”

  “I expect it will be something in the middle,” he said, flicking the reins across the little mare’s back to get her started. “So what did you think of how it went this morning?”

  “You got a problem with Little Peter,” Sarah said, “but it ain’t today.”

  He nodded.

  “That’s kind of how his entire life has been.”

  “Runnin’ from crisis to crisis,” Sarah said. “I can see that.”

  He shook his head.

  “There’s actually so much you don’t know, even from before we left.”

  “He worth it?” Sarah asked.

  “He’s my brother,” Jimmy said. She glowered at the road in general. That didn’t mean much, in her book, but her book wasn’t the one that counted.

  They got close to the train station and found themselves in a sea of men.

  “Well, I guess we’ve got our pick,” Jimmy said. “How do you want to do this?”

  “You take their names, talk to ‘em and make sure they got sense, but not too much clever, and you make a list,” Sarah said. “Put up the list in town where’s they can find it, find a way to get ‘em up to the site tomorrow.”

  “So they should be able to ride,” Jimmy said.

  “Like they’d tell you that,” Sarah said.

  “You can tell, looking at them,” Jimmy said. “Well, enough of them.”

  She couldn’t argue with that.

  They sat in the train office and interviewed for the rest of the afternoon. Jimmy did most of the talking and Sarah just watched, marking down the men she would have chosen to hire.

  They weren’t all bad men. Most of them were young and foolish, but when those two things went together, you could hardly hold it against a man. Foolish without young, though, that one Sarah wouldn’t forgive.