A Gideon Johann Boxed Set Book 1 - 4 (A Gideon Johann Western 0)

by Duane Boehm

  Abby interjected, “I agree with that. Men are good for one thing and then half of what that produces ends up being just like them and starts the whole thing all over again. Speaking of men, how is that boy doing that got shot helping you?”

  “Doc thinks he will be fine with a few days of rest and I sure hope so. He is a fine young man except that he called me sir all the time. I’m not that old,” Gideon said.

  “It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. Now it’s time to eat,” Abby said with a wink at Gideon as she shepherded everyone to the kitchen.

  At the dinner table, everybody began to get more comfortable in each other’s presence. Joann and Abby started telling stories about their childhoods. Abby told of her refusal to gather eggs after she had learned that that was where chicks came from, crying to her mother that she was killing the babies.

  When the laughter stopped, Gideon said, “Abby certainly was a head–strong young lady. One time when we were in out teens, she thought that I had eyes for another girl. I tried my best to tell her otherwise, but she would have none of it and I finally picked her up and threw her in the stream. She came out of there as mad as a wet hen and I’m pretty sure that I would not be sitting at this table tonight if she could have got her hands on a gun.”

  Everybody but Winnie broke out into laughter, but the girl looked curiously at Gideon and her mother. “You mean that you were my momma’s boyfriend when you were young?” she asked Gideon.

  Gideon and Abby exchanged glances before Abby spoke. “Honey, yes, Gideon was my boyfriend before I married your father. He went off to fight in the war and never came back until Benjamin found him this spring after he had been shot,” she said.

  “Oh,” Winnie said before looking towards Gideon. “You saved Benjamin didn’t you?”

  “Benjamin saved me when he found me. I was going to die. Your father, Ethan, and I rescued him,” Gideon said.

  “But you’re the one that went in the cave and shot the bad guys, right?” Winnie said.

  “Yes,” Gideon replied.

  “Okay everybody, Joann made us an apple pie. Let’s have dessert,” Abby said in hopes of changing the subject.

  After the pie and coffee, Abby said to Joann, “Why don’t you and Gideon go for a walk. It will give you two a chance to get to know each other.”

  Gideon observed Joann’s face, concluding that she and Abby must have had it planned and that it was said more on Winnie’s behalf since Joann did not seem surprised by it. She grabbed a shawl from the coatrack. “I would like that,” she said.

  Abby watched Gideon and Joann walk out the door, the moment not lost on her. She had fantasized about this evening for most of her adult life. From the moment that she realized that marrying Marcus was a mistake and even after Winnie was born, she had subconsciously clung to the dream that someday she would be reunited with Gideon and that they and her two girls would all be together. She put her hand to her mouth and turned her head to prevent Winnie from seeing her get emotional. Gideon had come so far both physically and emotionally since the first time that she had seen him recovering at Ethan’s cabin. Their reunion had gone so badly that she had left with actual thoughts of murder on her mind. All the changes were overwhelming as she busied herself with clearing the table.

  After Joann and Gideon had stepped out into the yard, he paused for a moment. “I guess we have a lot to talk about,” he said.

  “Can I hug you? I’ve heard about you since I was ten years old and I need to touch you to make it seem real,” Joann said.

  “Sure, I suppose so,” Gideon said and opened his arms out to her.

  Joann wrapped her arms around him, embracing him tighter than he was expecting. He awkwardly put his arms around her and returned the hug. When he did, he was overcome with emotion again and hugged her tighter, amazed that in his arms he was actually holding his own flesh and blood. He could feel another wall that the old Gideon had built up over the years go sliding away. She let go of Gideon and he quickly turned his head, wiping the glistening from his eyes.

  “Do you think that man will come back and look for me?” Joann asked as they walked down the road.

  “I think he might come back for his brother, but he won’t be able to walk around town looking for you. You don’t have anything to worry about,” Gideon told her.

  “I can’t stop thinking about him telling me that we would meet again. He scared me to death,” she said.

  “As hard as it may be, you need to try to move on and let go of what happened. You have a lot of living left to do and you don’t want to be carrying it around for the rest of your life,” Gideon said.

  “Sounds like you know what you are talking about,” Joann said.

  Gideon made a little snorting sound. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. What do you want to know about me?” he said.

  “Everything, I guess,” she said.

  “Don’t you know most of it already?” Gideon asked.

  “Probably, I guess, but I want to hear it from you,” Joann said.

  “I’ve known Abby since before she started school and of course we became sweethearts when we got older. I guess I was a bit of a free spirit and I got this notion that I wanted to go fight in the war. We had lost my mother by then and Pa decided he would enlist with me. I thought we would go fight for a year and it would be over with and I would come back and marry Abby. Of course, it never turned out that way. I guess – no, I know that I got her pregnant on the night before I left because that is the only time – oh never mind. I lost my pa in the war and then I killed that poor little boy running through the brush. I was so ashamed and tortured that I had been running from it ever since until I ended up back here near dead. Coming back to Last Stand, seeing Abby again, and rescuing Benjamin healed me, I hope. That’s about the long and short of it,” Gideon said.

  “So you loved Abs all that time?” Joann asked.

  Gideon took off his hat, running his hand through his long unruly hair before rubbing the scar on his face. “I didn’t think that I was even capable of love anymore, but when I heard her voice the first time – I didn’t even recognize her, yes, I knew then that I still loved her,” he said.

  “I’ve wondered about you forever it seems,” she said.

  “Well, how does the reality stack up against the wondering?” Gideon asked.

  “About the same, I think,” Joann answered.

  Gideon turned to face her. “Listen, I know that none of it can be changed now and maybe it all worked out the way it was supposed to, but if I had known that I had a child I would have never abandoned you. Never. I’m truly sorry for that,” he said.

  “It’s okay. I have great parents and I got to have Abs be part of my life and now I had the opportunity to meet you. I think you were the only one that had it bad,” she said.

  “Can’t change any of it now anyway,” Gideon repeated.

  “I want to be honest with you about something. I am glad that I finally have met you and all, but I never planned on Abs leaving Marcus in the bargain. Marcus has been very good to me and I care about him deeply. I don’t like her leaving him for you. You still might up and take off again one of these days and she will be left with nobody,” Joann said.

  Gideon could not help but smile at her. “You are Abby’s daughter for sure,” he said. “Just so you know, Abby decided to leave Marcus before I even knew myself if I was going to stay here. Her leaving was over her unhappiness and not me. I might have made her realize that she was unhappy, but if her marriage was good, none of this would have ever happened.”

  “Do you know for sure that you are staying?” she asked.

  They had made a circle back to the house just as it was getting dark. Before they went inside, Gideon said, “No, I don’t know for sure. I’m at peace with myself for the first time since the war, but I suppose I could go to bed one night and it would all come back and send me running. Time will tell.”

  They went inside where Gideon thanked them for the
evening and excused himself to leave. Abby took the shawl from Joann and walked outside with him. “How did it go?” she asked.

  “Good, I think. I like her a lot and we talked a lot,” Gideon said.

  “How did it feel to finally meet your own flesh and blood daughter?” Abby asked him.

  “You know that it’s kind of hard to wrap my head around the idea that a few months ago I thought I was incapable of love and that I would always be all alone in this world and now I have you and got to meet her. She gave me a hug and it kind of got me,” Gideon said.

  “You just found the old you. She’s a fine young lady, isn’t she?” Abby said.

  “Yes, she is. I hope we grow close,” he said and then took Abby in his arms, kissing her hard on the mouth.

  “You men are all alike,” Abby said when the kiss ended.

  I didn’t see you fighting it. I think the lady doth protest too much,” Gideon said with a smirk.

  “I’ll Shakespeare you,” Abby said as she snuggled in his arms. “I don’t know when we will get to be alone together again.”

  “We will make time,” Gideon said before leaving.

  As Gideon rode through town, things sounded lively at the Last Stand Last Chance Saloon. As fall rolled around each year, the cattle drives would head back to their homes in Texas and New Mexico and they frequently stopped in Last Stand on their journey. Even when he had been a cowboy at his lowest and meanest, Gideon had never understood the desire to tear up a town, but he had already broken up several fights since taking office. Two men came flying out of the saloon, one landing on the other and pummeling him unmercifully right in front of Gideon’s horse.

  Gideon slid down from Buck, leisurely drew his revolver, and cracked the cowboy on top over the noggin, dropping him in a heap onto the other man. He dragged the unconscious man off the second cowboy and stuck the barrel of his gun against his nose.

  “We are all done fighting here, understand?” Gideon said.

  The waylaid cowboy was bleeding from his nose and mouth and seemed to have the fight all out of him anyway. “Yes, sir,” he said before turning his head and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  “Are you two from different cattle drives?” Gideon asked.

  “Yes, sir, I’m from the Harper Cattle Company and he’s from the Double L,” the man said.

  “I was afraid of that,” Gideon said.

  It sounded like all hell was breaking loose in the Last Chance also. Gideon walked in to see at least six men in fisticuffs. The nearest man had his back to Gideon and the lawman cracked him across the head, dropping him in his tracks. The cowboy he was fighting reached for his gun, but Gideon cocked his Colt Frontier and had it pointed at the man’s chest before the drunken man could get a grip on his pistol.

  “Don’t do it unless you want to be blown to hell for a bar fight,” Gideon said.

  The fighting had stopped and all eyes were on the two men now. The cowboy looked unsure as he tried to decide what to do and how to save face. Gideon really didn’t want to kill him over a silly bar fight. Most of these cowboys were decent enough men when they were sober. Gideon took a quick step and crashed his Colt upside the man’s head before the cowboy had a chance to make a fatal mistake. He collapsed beside his fellow combatant.

  Pointing his gun around the room, Gideon said, “Okay gentlemen, here is the way it is going to be. I want you to drag these two over beside the door and then go get the two out in the street. Then we are all going to sit here and drink our refreshments like fine civil folk. Do I make myself clear?”

  A couple of the cowboys nodded their heads and scurried to move their unconscious comrades. Gideon sat down at a corner table with his back to the wall and his gun setting out. Mr. Vander, the establishment’s proprietor, came marching towards him with a beer in his hand.

  “This one is on the house, Mr. Johann,” the owner said in his heavy German accent.

  “Thank you, Mr. Vander. I appreciate it. I can’t let them ruin my favorite place for beverages, now can I? It might make me surly,” Gideon said.

  “I don’t think these cowboys want to see you be more surly,” Mr. Vander said.

  The two men laughed before Mr. Vander returned to bartending. Mary, one of the two saloon girls, came and sat down with him. She had not come around him since the rescue of Benjamin. Mary had been the one that had found out where the boy was hidden by manipulating one of the kidnappers with sex. Gideon had been one of her customers, coming to care deeply for her, and she had fallen madly in love with him, but that had all ended when Abby and he became involved.

  “So the legend of Gideon Johann grows,” Mary said with a laugh, using the line that she always said to him after one of his exploits. She had begun saying it when he first resurfaced in Last Stand and the whole town was abuzz with the news.

  “Well, I couldn’t let them tear the place apart and put you out of business, now could I?” Gideon said.

  “Yeah, I appreciate you keeping me in the whoring trade,” Mary said with sarcasm.

  “How have you been? We haven’t talked in a long time,” he said.

  “I’m good. Nothing has changed much except I don’t have to put up with Hank Sligo anymore,” she said referring to one of the kidnappers that Gideon had killed.

  “Glad to hear it,” Gideon said.

  “How about yourself?” she asked.

  “I’m trying to get used to being in one place all the time and being sheriff,” Gideon said.

  “You don’t have that troubled look anymore. I could always read you like a book and it’s gone,” Mary said.

  Since the first time that he met her, Mary had had the irritating ability to know more about him than he wanted anyone to know. “Yes, you could and I’m glad I read better these days,” Gideon said.

  Mary touched his arm. “I’m happy for you,” she said.

  “Are we going to be okay?” he asked.

  Mary got up from the table and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, leaving a lipstick mark. “Yes, we are. I expect we will still be friends when we are old and gray,” she said before walking away.

  Gideon finished his beer, convinced that the rowdiness was over with for the night. He walked his horse back to the jail and went to sleep on the cot.

  Chapter 5

  Sarah Oakes was sitting at the kitchen table peeling apples. She had decided to make a pie, her first attempt at baking since the ordeal of her son Benjamin’s kidnapping and return. During his abduction, she had thought that she had lost her mind and probably would have if not for his safe return, but like the miscarriages before Benjamin’s birth, she had bounced back. The first couple of weeks after Benjamin was back at home, she had suffocated the poor child with affection and had been so overly protective that he could barely walk out into the yard without her constantly monitoring him. There were days where she would still panic as he headed out to school, but they were getting fewer all the time. As she was banishing thoughts of that time from her mind, her eight–year–old son walked into the cabin looking as solemn as a fire and brimstone preacher. She noticed it as soon as he came through the door.

  “What’s the matter with you? You look like you’ve lost your best friend,” Sarah said.

  “Doesn’t Mr. Gideon care about us anymore? He never comes to see me,” Benjamin said.

  Benjamin had come through the kidnapping unscathed. Knowing that all those involved with the kidnapping were either dead or in jail was all that it had taken to put the event behind him. Gideon moving out of their home after he had recovered from his injuries had been much more troubling to the boy. The two had bonded during Gideon’s convalesces and Benjamin missed him terribly.

  “Honey, why would you even think that? Gideon is the sheriff now and he is very busy with his new job. It’s not like when he was resting here recovering from his wounds and he had nothing else to do,” Sarah said.

  “I miss him,” Benjamin said.

  “I know you do. I’m sure things
will slow down and he will come around more. Gideon is a good man and he will always be there for you if you need him. You saved his life and he will never forget that. He rode all the way back from Silverton to help find you and he would do it all over again if need be,” Sarah said.

  “I know,” Benjamin said.

  “I tell you what – how about we invite Gideon, Abby, Joann, and Winnie over for Sunday dinner? Would you like that?” Sarah asked.

  “Sure. That would be good. Winnie’s mommy doesn’t live with her daddy anymore, does she?” Benjamin said.

  “Come here and sit beside me,” Sarah said, motioning him over by patting the chair beside her at the table. “Sometimes people get married and they find out that it was a mistake or that they stop loving each other. They decide to move on with their lives and not be together anymore. I think that is what happened to Abby and Marcus,” Sarah said.

  “Could that ever happen to you and Pa?” Benjamin asked.

  Sarah let out a small guffaw. “No, that will never happen to us. Your pa and I were meant to be together forever. Don’t tell him I said so, but he still makes my heart go pitter–patter. And besides, who would take care of that hardheaded man if I threw him out? Nobody else could stand him,” Sarah said and gave Benjamin a tickle.

  Ethan came in from outside just as Benjamin was giggling. “What’s all the fun I’m missing out on?” he said.

  “Oh we were just talking,” Sarah said.

  “Benjamin, you better go do your chores. I need to talk to your momma anyway,” Ethan said.

  “What’s going on?” Sarah asked after Benjamin had gone.

  “Well, you know that I just got back from seeing Mr. Druthers at the bank and I wanted to talk about it. He was completely different today than he was when we wanted to buy the Holden place – none of his snide belittling attitude. He basically told me that he would loan us whatever we needed for as much land as we wanted. I can’t imagine what has brought on the change in manner. The auction is coming up and we need to decide something,” Ethan said.