Sarah Todd

by Chloe Garner

  “You were Bart?” she asked.

  “Jeen,” he said.

  “Jeen,” she said. “You have a problem with Rut?”

  He shrugged.

  “He was a jerk, like Patty said.”

  “And you were here with the rest of the guys, trying to keep warm, because it gets so cold at night,” Sarah said.

  He shrugged again. “Like you say.”

  “He take anything from you?” she asked.

  “Dunno,” he said. “Stuff goes missing all the time.”

  “You aren’t sorry he’s dead.”

  He looked around.

  “You see anyone who is?”

  She pursed her lips.

  “Most of your friends at least had a cold chill at the thought.”

  He shrugged.

  “He was here. He isn’t any more. Don’t know why I’m supposed to care.”

  She looked at Patty.

  “This is who you share a fire with at night?”

  “He isn’t that bad,” Patty said. “He wouldn’t ever hurt anyone. Not like you’re thinking. Would you Jeen?”

  “If I had to,” Jeen said.

  “Are you saying you killed him?” Sarah asked.

  “What would you do if I did?” he asked.

  She hadn’t realized things were that dark, here. She frowned.

  “I want you gone on the next train,” she said. “I’ll pay your fare to get you as far as Preston and after that, you’re on your own.”

  He shrugged.

  “Whatever.”

  She stood a bit straighter, looking around the crowd of men.

  “This ain’t a free ride. I got too much goin’ on right now and it’s a tough job to find who done killed a man, but this town don’t take murder lightly, and they got no problem with me hangin’ a man what done one. I’m smarter than you are, and if this turns into a problem, I will start hangin’ people. I know y’all got it bad, now, but you gotta make it through best you can. Stealin’s gonna be a problem, in the future, and I ain’t gonna stand for it, but for now y’all are a lot outside of the law. Make it work.”

  She looked at Jeen.

  “You’re comin’ with me.”

  He shrugged again, following her out of the camp.

  “I ain’t got a jail to put you in, and I ain’t takin’ you home with me. What I do have is an armed guard watchin’ over the buildin’ going on outside of town. They’ll feed you and they’ll keep you from freezin’ to death, but you try to run and they’ll shoot you like it weren’t nothin’. You got it?”

  “Fine,” he said.

  She mounted up and let the black horse pick a pace back to the build site where she found Wade.

  “Need you to keep him under a thumb,” she said. “I’m shippin’ him out on the next train.”

  “I’m not babysitting for you,” Wade said. “I’ve already got my orders from Jimmy.”

  “I ain’t askin’,” Sarah said. “You want me to go get Jimmy to tell you to do it, fine, or you can save us both the trouble. We both know this is what the Lawsons are really for.”

  Wade looked Jeen up and down.

  “What’d he do?”

  “I think he killed someone,” Sarah said.

  “You whipped Peter on the main road for that,” Wade said.

  “Justice looks how I say,” Sarah said. “You got a problem with it, take it up with someone else.”

  Wade sneered at her, but didn’t offer any more arguments. She gave him a nod and moved on, looking for Clarence.

  “You have what you need?” she asked, finding him in front of the first house.

  “The roof is about to inflate,” he said. “We only have about ten minutes before it’s going to start to set. It should be exciting.”

  She wondered if his definition of exciting looked anything like hers, then let it be, standing next to him as a pump somewhere turned on.

  “Who here do you trust?” she asked.

  “Pardon?” he asked.

  “Of the men who have been working for you, who do you trust?” she asked.

  “The lead on the building group has been reliable,” he said, motioning. She nodded.

  “I have a job for him for tonight.”

  Clarence frowned.

  “Oh.”

  “When you’re done with him, send him by my house. All right?”

  “Okay,” Clarence said vaguely, his attention stolen back by the peak of a bit of purple building material emerging from the house. Sarah stood next to him, watching the roof slowly rise up out of the house, unfolding as it went. If she wasn’t mistaken, Clarence was bouncing on his toes ever so slightly.

  “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” he muttered. At the last second, the shape of the roof popped into place, settling down on top of the building as if it had been there all along, and Sarah shrugged.

  “Just a whole bunch more to go,” she said. “You seen the plumber and the electrician yet?”

  “They got here an hour ago,” Clarence said. “We waited to do the roof until after the plumbing went in. The electrician wanted to work with the roof on, so he’ll be up next, once the roof sets.”

  “They doin’ good work?” Sarah asked.

  “I’m no expert, but it looks like it to me,” Clarence said. She nodded again.

  “More expert than me,” she said.

  He glanced at her.

  “Sometimes I wonder.”

  “How long is he going to be?” she asked, indicating the builder again.

  “Maybe a couple of hours before we lose the light and should quit. I don’t want the roofs to set slow. We’ll get them finished in the morning and then start with the buildings in town.”

  “Train gets here day after tomorrow,” she said. “We gonna be ready?”

  He looked at a hand-written list on a piece of paper.

  “I think so,” he said. “This is very exciting, you know. To have all the resources and all the labor I need, and just fit together everything to make it work in as little time as possible. It’s very exciting.”

  “I’m glad,” Sarah said. “You’ll get the houses that are done painted tonight?”

  “Of course,” he said. “And might have some of the furniture and fixtures done by morning. I think we might have four houses completely done by dawn.”

  “Good man,” she said. “Keep it up.”

  He smiled at her, then went running over to the next house, yelling something. She shook her head, turning to go find the black horse. Thomas intercepted her.

  “Do they need you here?” he asked.

  “When did you get home?” she asked.

  “This morning. We finished clearing out the mine last night. Rich and Peter are still up with the workers, but I thought I’d come down to see if there was anything I could help with down here. Do they need you here?”

  “Why?” she answered.

  “Because if they don’t need you here right this minute, I’m here to take you home with me.”

  “I don’t take propositions from Lawsons,” she said, “or haven’t you heard?”

  “He propositioned you?” Thomas asked, genuinely shocked. “Wait, who? Which one?”

  “Shut up,” she said. “You aren’t funny.”

  “Seriously,” he said. “I didn’t know. You mean Jimmy? When?”

  “Not having this conversation,” she said. “And I’m not goin’ home with you.”

  “You are,” he said. “If you don’t have to be here, you’re coming to have dinner with us.”

  “I done that. It was charmin’ and I got my fill of Lawson hospitality to last the next eight years.”

  “Not a request,” Thomas said. “Jimmy sent me and said not to take no for an answer.”

  She stopped walking.

  “And what did he think you were gonna do about it, when I did say no?”

  “He said you wouldn’t.”

  She looked at him a long time, considering her possible responses, then sighed.r />
  “I ain’t in the mood to have a war with him through you. You ain’t the one who deserves it.”

  Thomas sucked on his lips with an apologetic nod.

  “I think that’s why he sent me.”

  She shook her head.

  “One of these days, I’m gonna bash his skull in and mean it.”

  “You won’t,” Thomas said. “You’ll follow behind?”

  “I don’t ever ride behind,” Sarah said. “I’ll see you there.”

  He grinned impishly and went back to the cart he’d driven into town, helping someone unload several boxes out of it into Wade’s buckboard while Sarah got the black horse arranged and started toward the Lawson house.

  She had things to do tonight, like she did most nights. Where in hell did Jimmy Lawson get off sending her a summons?

  Through Thomas, no less?

  She stewed on it all the way to the house and was so ready for a fight that she was almost surprised that Lise was not the one to answer the door.

  A quiet maid took her to the sitting room and asked if she would like a cup of her gremlin tea.

  “Please,” Sarah said, taking her hat off and hanging it on her knee. Jimmy appeared with Rhoda a few minutes later.

  “Once again,” he said. “Sarah, this is Rhoda, and Rhoda, this is Sarah Todd.”

  “Hello,” Sarah said. “You settlin’ in okay?”

  “It isn’t what I expected, I’ll admit that,” Rhoda said. “How has your week gone?”

  “Can’t complain, all things considered,” Sarah said. Rhoda gave her a warm, if tight, smile.

  “I was hoping we’d get a chance to talk before dinner, just the two of us.”

  “Don’t know what you rightly think we got to talk about, but I’m afraid I’ve got someone s’posed to be at my house in an hour.”

  “I’ll send someone,” Jimmy said. “We can bring him here.”

  “Is it a foregone conclusion it’s a man?” Rhoda asked. “She could have a woman friend coming.”

  Sarah pressed her lips in an approximation of friendliness.

  “I see the rumors of Thomas telling you ever’thin’ about me are exaggerations,” she said. Rhoda frowned, then frowned deeper when she saw the amusement on Jimmy’s face. Sarah was impressed that the woman recognized it for what it was.

  “What?” she asked.

  “There aren’t many women in Lawrence, and if there were, Sarah wouldn’t be friends with them,” Jimmy said.

  “Nothin’ wrong with Nina,” Sarah said. “I got better things to do than have friends.”

  “Then that will be the first thing I’ll fix here,” Rhoda said. Sarah let her head fall a fraction to the side and she looked at Jimmy.

  “I’d hoped for somewhat better than Lise out of you,” she said.

  “She means well,” Jimmy said. “You can’t say that about Lise.”

  “I’m not out of him,” Rhoda said. “I am who I am, and he hasn’t got anything to do with that.”

  Once again, Sarah was impressed, though she didn’t let it show.

  “He picked you, didn’t he?” she asked. “I’ll say I’m pleased that you aren’t servile.”

  Rhoda looked at Jimmy again, then shook her head.

  “I should have expected we would get off on the wrong foot. Your antagonism is well-honed, though. I don’t think I could have possibly been prepared for it.”

  “Most folk aren’t,” Sarah said. “Not till I take the whip to ‘em the first time.”

  “She’s serious,” Rhoda said to Jimmy. He held his hands out, fingers spread.

  “I’m not getting in the middle of this any more than I already am,” he said. “Actually, I’m going to go arrange for someone to spend the next hour on Sarah’s porch, because it means I get to not be here.”

  He gave the two of them a quick little smile and then bowed his way out. Sarah watched his feet. He had clever feet that knew exactly what they were about. She’d always liked that.

  She turned back to look at Rhoda expectantly.

  Rhoda drew a breath, as if bracing herself, then held out an arm.

  “Shall we take a walk?”

  “I heard that’s what you liked to do,” Sarah said. “It’s an odd habit, in Lawrence. Mostly we’re lookin’ to get out of the sun and do less work.”

  “The sun is almost down,” Rhoda said. “How bad could it be?”

  Sarah shrugged, following Rhoda out the front door and down the stairs.

  “You always let your horse roam loose?” Rhoda asked, noting the black horse down by the road.

  It sounded like it was supposed to be a gotcha question, like Sarah was supposed to run chasing after the animal and go tie him back up again.

  “Yup,” Sarah said. “I figure if he’s dumb enough to wander off, I’m dumb to keep feeding him.”

  “Oh,” Rhoda said. “I thought that they were valuable, out here.”

  “Good ones are,” Sarah said. “Good horse, good dog, good rifle, good man. Put the rifle first, and you got ‘em in the right order.”

  “Ah,” Rhoda said. “I understand that you were Jimmy’s sweetheart, before they left Lawrence.”

  Direct. Sarah appreciated that, but the term ‘sweetheart’ made her snort.

  “Darlin’, ain’t no one Jimmy’s sweetheart, nor mine. I knew Thomas was a romantic, but if he’s been fillin’ your head with stories like that, you got a lot of pickin’ up to do. You’re a long way behind.”

  “No, I think it’s the right word,” Rhoda said. “Neither of you are very good at the idea of it, but it doesn’t change that that’s what you were.”

  Sarah gave a little shrug with her mouth.

  “If that’s how you like it,” she said.

  “He asked me to come with him, when they decided to come back. I didn’t think I’d make it in a town like Lawrence, and I told him we were done. Wasn’t the first time we broke up. We were always a bit... tumultuous, if you will.”

  “Jimmy ain’t nothing’ but tumultuous,” Sarah said. “Gotta take him as he is, or not take him at all.”

  “I’m here,” Rhoda said. “And I’m committed. And it isn’t the things about Lawrence that you’d expect that kept me from coming.”

  “Don’t much matter to me what you like or don’t like about Lawrence,” Sarah said.

  “I think it does,” Rhoda said. “Because you stayed. You care about this place.”

  “I stayed because my pa was dyin’,” Sarah said. “Didn’t suit me to just up and leave him ‘cause Jimmy said so.”

  “And after that?” Rhoda asked. Sarah out-waited her, and finally Rhoda went on. “You could have come to find them after he died. It wasn’t very long, was it?”

  “You looked around?” Sarah asked. “Ain’t much for trackin’ people down from Lawrence. Gotta know where they went if you intend to find ‘em.”

  “You didn’t try,” Rhoda said. “Anyway, I believe that you care about this town. And I want you to know that I’m not biased against mining towns. I actually grew up in one north of here. I don’t mind the lack of technology, even the lack of power. It’s books. I went to school two towns uprail, and I fell in love with books. Libraries and libraries of books that lived in the electronics and in paper and that you could read or listen to whenever you wanted to. I still don’t know what I’ll do without it.”

  Sarah glanced at her. It wasn’t uncommon for well-to-do homesteading families to send their daughters to cities uprail, as she’d called it, for better education and better opportunity. The sons, they needed, but the daughters were destined for lives of housewifery and grief if they stayed, so they often didn’t.

  They often never came back, which was by design.

  Sarah could see why Rhoda would be reluctant to consign herself to the fate her family had sacrificed to prevent, and she even understood the fear of being cut off from information, out here. She’d felt that, herself, when she’d come back from Oxala. What she couldn’t figure was why
Rhoda cared what she thought about it.

  “Don’t make no difference to me,” Sarah said. “Jimmy’s the one gotta live with it if you bail.”

  “Aren’t you curious at all about me?” Rhoda asked. “How we met, when he contacted me, anything?”

  Sarah shrugged.

  “Not particularly. Jimmy wants a woman in his life. He picked you. I hope you can live up to that. That’s about all.”

  “Thomas thought that you two were rekindling things for a while.”

  Sarah glanced at Rhoda.

  “That what this is about? You think I’m after him?”

  “Are you?” Rhoda asked.

  “I ain’t,” Sarah said. “But he’d best not think I’m gonna keep from you that there are other women.”

  “Who?” Rhoda asked.

  “Best ask him that,” Sarah said. “Ain’t my place to tell you, but if you’ve got your heart set on a man who’s gonna be faithful to you and you alone, you’d best talk it out with him and make sure he’s on the same page.”

  “He cheat on you Sarah?”

  “Not as such,” Sarah said.

  “I’d like to be friends,” Rhoda said. “I really would.”

  Sarah shrugged, looking up at the house in the gathering darkness. Electric lights were coming on both inside and outside of the house. Such an odd sight for Lawrence.

  “We’d best get back for dinner,” Sarah said.

  “They’ll wait for me,” Rhoda said.

  “Is that a fact?” Sarah asked wryly. Rhoda smiled without looking at her, bright red lips glistening against fair olive skin.

  “There are perks to being Jimmy’s girl,” she said. “Ones you don’t really think about.”

  “Enjoy that,” Sarah said. “There are more drawbacks.”

  “I can’t believe you don’t want to know anything about me at all,” Rhoda said. “I’m more like you than you think.”

  Sarah looked Rhoda up and down, seeing the slim, well-lined dress in deep purple, the hair styled and curled to bunch at the nape of her neck, the pretty lips, the refined muscles in her neck that formed the top of a star pattern with her outstanding collarbones, and she shook her head.

  “I ain’t never looked like you, I ain’t never thought like you, and you ain’t never thought or looked like me,” Sarah said. “Place of birth doesn’t make us alike, even if they were.”