The Outlaw Takes a Bride

by Susan Page Davis

  “Yeah,” Johnny said, thinking rapidly.

  “I figured you’d already been paid.”

  “Well, I…I wasn’t sure when I’d get it.”

  “So we’re not—” She glanced around, her cheeks pinker than before. “I guess that’s something to talk about on the way home.”

  He nodded. “But get whatever you like for cooking, and for clothes. If you need anything—”

  “Thank you.” She pressed his hand and looked up into his eyes so intensely that Johnny’s stomach flipped.

  “I’ll just… I’ll be over looking at the hardware,” he said. “Cam said to get hinges and a latch for the new door.”

  “All right.”

  He walked over to where the tools hung on a wall over bins of nails and other small hardware. From reading her letters, he knew Sally had been pinching pennies for years. He was glad he could relieve her of that anxiety. But would she go overboard now? Maybe he shouldn’t have given her such broad permission.

  When she approached him shyly twenty minutes later, she held a few notions in her hand.

  “I’ve got thread and elastic and some buttons here. If you’re sure, I’ll get two yards of calico for the curtain, and another six for a dress. And I wondered, do we have linens that will fit the new…” She looked down, flushing again.

  “That’s a good thought. Maybe get something for that?”

  “Muslin,” she said. “Unless…well, linen’s nicer. But it costs more.”

  He walked over to the yard-goods display with her. When he saw the prices, he almost laughed. She was talking about a few cents per yard difference.

  He reached out with his good hand and felt the different materials. “Get the linen,” he said.

  “All right.”

  Shopping with Sally for the next half hour was pleasant. Johnny wondered why men complained about taking their wives to the store. He had laid out the hardware he wanted and added the metal parts he would need to make a windlass over the well. Sally asked the storekeeper to cut the lengths of cloth for her. Together, they listed off the soap and a few grocery items they’d thought of.

  “Anything else?” Johnny asked. “More dishes, maybe?”

  “We can get by with what you have, at least for a while.”

  He nodded. “All right, but you be thinking about it. Sometime I want to get you a nice set of dishes.”

  She smiled. “Christmas, maybe?”

  “Or sooner.” He didn’t know her birthday. He’d have to coax that out of her sometime.

  “Oh, maybe a clothesline?” Sally said.

  “Sure.” The few things Johnny and Cam had laundered since they’d been at the ranch, they had flung over the corral fence to dry, but that wouldn’t do for a lady. “I should have had one a long time ago.”

  By the time they’d finished, they had two crates of stuff, and they were both laughing over something the storekeeper had said.

  “Oh, and I’d like to bring my bill up to date.” Johnny reached into his pocket for the money he’d gotten at the bank. He glanced apologetically at Sally. “Sorry, but putting it in my wallet was too hard with one hand. Would you mind helping me?”

  Her eyes were wide as she took the bills from him.

  “Well, let’s see now.” The storekeeper turned a few pages in a ledger on the counter. “You owed twenty-seven dollars and ten cents, and with all this stuff… Looks like thirty-nine fifty total.”

  Johnny let out the breath he’d been holding. That could have been a lot worse. He handed over forty dollars. Mr. Minnick gave him back fifty cents.

  “Let me help you load those boxes.” He came from behind the counter.

  “I can get this one.” Sally picked up the crate that held the cloth and soap and a few other items.

  “You shouldn’t do that,” Johnny said.

  She smiled. “Hush. I’m not a weakling, and you have a broken arm.”

  Sheepishly, Johnny trailed them outside and across to the wagon, where Reckless waited patiently. After Mr. Minnick had gone back to the store, he told Sally, “I’d like to go by the feed store and pay on my bill there, too. They were kind enough to give me credit.”

  “Certainly.”

  He drove down the street and went into the feed store by himself. The owner hailed him at once and came over with a grin.

  “Hey, I heard you got married, Paynter!”

  “Uh, that’s right.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. I wondered how much my bill is. Thought I’d pay you some today.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  Johnny followed him to the tiny room he used as his office. The bill stood at twenty-one dollars. Johnny gave him the ten remaining in his pocket and promised to pay the rest soon.

  “No hurry,” the owner said.

  Sally was looking at some papers when he got back to the wagon.

  “What’s that?” he asked, picking up the reins.

  “The pattern for my new dress.” She turned her head so he could see her face beneath the brim of her bonnet. She looked prettier than ever, because she looked ultimately happy.

  “I’m glad you found one you like.” He headed Reckless toward home. “Cam will be glad to know I got that money for the cattle.”

  “Cam?” Sally frowned. “Why would Cam care? Have you been discussing your finances with him?”

  Johnny eyed her uncertainly. Had he done something wrong? “I sort of told him things had been a little tight lately.”

  Sally said nothing.

  Johnny thought quickly. “I wasn’t sure I could pay him at the end of the month. You don’t think I should talk to him about stuff like that?”

  “It just seemed odd to me that you would tell a hired hand about your finances.”

  “Well, he is an old friend.”

  Sally folded up the flimsy sheets of paper on which the pattern was printed and tucked them into an envelope. “I’m sorry.” She looked over at him earnestly. “I know everyone’s different, and I shouldn’t have questioned you on that. My parents were always short of money, but they would never discuss it with anyone outside the family. I guess their attitude rubbed off on me.”

  “It’s probably a good one,” Johnny said. “I just didn’t think about it with Cam. I mean, it’s been him and me for the last…well, for a while now.”

  “You were close friends before he came here?” Sally asked.

  “Close enough. We worked together. Got along all right. Didn’t always agree on everything, but he’s a stout fellow. If you get in a fight, you want him on your side.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Johnny laughed. “The boys used to say, if you get in a brawl in town, make sure Cam’s with you.”

  “Oh, did you get in a lot of those?” Sally’s face was sober, but her eyes twinkled just a bit, and Johnny had the feeling she was teasing him.

  “No, not many. I usually kept clear of saloon fights. But you’re right. I need to get used to…us. We’re a family now.”

  Sally looked down at her hands in her lap. “Well, the start of one, anyway.”

  Johnny felt his own face heat. “Right. And I suppose there’s things married folks hadn’t ought to air with anyone else. Is that how you see it?”

  She nodded and gazed up at him. “It is, Mark. Thank you for understanding. And I’ll try to understand better about you and your friend.”

  They rode on in silence for a while. Finally Johnny decided to ask her flat out about some things.

  “Sally, I was wondering, is there anything else you’d like to do, or anything I should know about?”

  Her gentle smile warmed him. She tucked her hand through the crook of his arm.

  “I did wonder if we’d be able to go to church.”

  “Well, sure.” Johnny tried to think what day it was. Sally had come on a Tuesday.… “Is tomorrow Sunday?”

  “Yes.”

  “It kind of snuck up on me.”

 
; “That’s all right. If you don’t want to go this week…”

  “No, I’ll go. Just remind me in the morning, so I can be ready in time.”

  “Have you and Cam been going?”

  “Uh…not the last few weeks. In fact, not since Cam got here. We’ve been real busy.”

  “I understand,” she said, “but you did tell me in your letters that you went nearly every Sunday.”

  “I try,” Johnny said weakly. Would anyone at the church realize he wasn’t Mark? “I don’t know if Cam will go, though. We can ask him.”

  “It would do him good,” Sally said with a wry face.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Oh, Cam’s a charming fellow when he wants to be, and I guess he’s a steady worker, but I’ve heard him comment a couple of times about stopping in at the saloon, and I did smell beer on him when he came home from town yesterday.”

  Johnny didn’t know what to say. He did recall a few times back in Colorado when Cam came back from his night off staggering and belligerent. He didn’t think Cam had ever joined the few that went to church during his time at the Lone Pine Ranch. But maybe it was better not to volunteer that information.

  “Well, we can ask him.”

  “We certainly can.” They rode along in silence. A few clouds studded the sky, keeping the sun’s heat from being unbearable. The wagon raised a dust, but Reckless behaved as though he’d been a driving horse for years, and the journey was peaceful. Sally didn’t take her hand away from his elbow, and Johnny liked the feel of it. He wished his other arm wasn’t in the sling. He might be able to hold her hand.

  “Mark?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I know you’re a godly man,” she began.

  Johnny gritted his teeth. He did believe in the Almighty, and in His Son, Jesus, but he wouldn’t have pegged himself as godly. Especially not now. Godly men didn’t lie to their wives, or to preachers or lawmen. He started to protest, but Sally went on.

  “I wondered if you’d like to read the scriptures together in the evening. I’d…I’d like to have a Christian home.”

  “We can do that.” Johnny remembered when Ma used to read from the Bible to him and Mark.

  “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “And if there’s anything else you want, you tell me.”

  Sally squeezed his arm a little. When they came in sight of the ranch, though, she took her hand away. Hammer blows resounded from the far end of the house.

  “Sounds like Cam’s at it,” Johnny said. He got down and helped Sally to earth. She paused for a moment, looking up at him. He couldn’t help thinking how perfect she was for Mark. Could he make his brother’s ideal match happy?

  “Thank you for this time with you,” she said, not quite meeting his gaze.

  Johnny dared to touch her sleeve. “I enjoyed it.”

  Her smile held him for a moment, until Cam’s boisterous voice called, “Thought I heard the wagon. How’d it go?”

  Sally turned toward him. “Just fine, Cam. We have some supplies to carry in.”

  He walked over and peered into the wagon bed then whistled. “That’s a lot of stuff, Boss.”

  “It’s all right,” Johnny said. “Help me with those crates, will you?”

  Sally was already halfway to the house. He wished they could have talked longer.

  Cam smiled impishly at him. “Looks like you and the missus are getting along pretty good.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Great. Because I got the windows all squared away. If you want to get the hay for the mattress this afternoon, and if Mrs. Paynter has a mind to stitch, you can occupy your new abode tonight.”

  Johnny swallowed hard. “That’d be good.” But inwardly he wondered. Sally liked him. She wanted them to be a family. He liked her. His arm wasn’t hurting so badly now. Should he continue to make excuses?

  “I got the door ready to hang, too. You can help me after we put this stuff away and take care of the horse.”

  “Sure.” Johnny walked to Reckless’s head and began to remove his bridle. “Sally and I are going to church in the morning. And in case you’re wondering, that’s my normal habit. I just haven’t gone the last few weeks, since you came here, because we had so much work to do.”

  Cam paused with the first crate on the edge of the wagon bed. “That right?”

  Johnny nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell her any different, and at least be polite if she invites you to go along.”

  Cam swung the crate out and turned toward the cabin. “That’s fine, as long as I can say no.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Cam set the crate of cloth on the table and rummaged under the calico and linen. “I’ve got the hinges and the latch set. Anything else I should take out of here?”

  “I think that’s it,” Sally said. She took off her bonnet and turned to hang it up and stopped to stare at the new doorway in the wall. “Oh.”

  Cam grinned. “As you can see, I was pretty busy while you two were gone. I got the doorway cut and the windows trimmed, but I still need to put the bedstead together and build the door.”

  “I got some extra calico for a curtain. You don’t have to finish the door today.”

  He shrugged. “We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure you and Mark would like to get settled as soon as possible.”

  She wasn’t sure what he meant by that and decided not to ask. Sometimes Cam said things that hinted at the unseemly. She hung up her bonnet and took her apron from its hook.

  “Mark said he could stuff the mattress as soon as you’re done stitching it up.”

  “I’ll settle that with Mark,” she said brusquely and opened the cupboard to get some cornmeal. It was nearly noon, and she didn’t have dinner ready.

  She hoped Cam would go out and leave her alone in her kitchen, but he hovered, removing items from the crates. He carried the laundry soap to one of the shelves and stowed it then went back to the table and took out a sack of rice.

  “I’ll take care of those things,” Sally said.

  “No trouble.”

  She forced a smile. “A woman likes to arrange her kitchen to her own liking.”

  He eyed her uncertainly for a moment and then let the sack fall gently back into the crate. “All right, then.”

  The door opened, and Mark came in. Sally turned back to her task, relieved.

  “There’s some pretty fresh hay in the loft,” Mark said. “We can cut new if you’d rather, but it would take two or three days to dry out.”

  “What’s in the barn will be fine, so long as it smells fresh,” she said.

  Mark nodded. “Then I reckon I can throw some down for you, and then Cam and I will work on the door until dinnertime.”

  Sally refused to let Cam steal the joy she took in preparing dinner for her own husband. She wasn’t even sure what it was about Cam that bothered her, short of his very presence. A newlywed couple ought to be alone. She was sure Mark would open up more if it was just the two of them.

  She put together a hasty noontime meal, made easier by some of the canned goods they had purchased. Once the men had gone back to work, she laid out the mattress ticking and pinned the edges for the seams. This would be a long, boring task, but she didn’t mind. It was for her own home, her own husband. She hummed as she worked, against a counterpoint of hammering and sawing from the barn.

  She was halfway around the edge, making small, tight stitches, when Mark came to the front door.

  “Cam and I are ready to bring the door in. I forked down plenty of hay for you.”

  “Thanks.” She smiled at him, and Mark smiled back.

  A few seconds later, he and Cam walked through, balancing the new door between them. They tipped it to get it through the front doorway then watched the edges, trying not to bump anything. Mark was walking backward, and Cam kept calling directions to him.

  “A little to your left. No, your right. Sorry. Look out for the—”

  Thud.

>   Mark looked sheepishly down at the pan that had fallen from her worktable.

  “No harm,” Sally said. “I meant to put that away earlier.”

  The door was soon hung, and the men spent the next half hour fussing over the latch. Cam crossed the room with a hammer in one hand and a can of small hardware in the other.

  “May I see the finished room?” Sally asked.

  “Oh, well, Mark and me are going to do some finish work in there. Whyn’t you wait a bit?”

  “All right.” Sally kept stitching. Mark and Cam went out and in, and she feigned disinterest, but she noticed that on several trips, they carried boards and other pieces of wood from outside into the new room. At last they seemed to have everything they wanted. More pounding ensued and clattering and muffled exclamations.

  “It doesn’t fit right,” Mark said once, to which Cam replied, “Yes, it does. I tested it in the barn.”

  More pounding followed. As Sally placed the last few stitches, she distinctly heard Cam swear and decided it was time for her to go out and stuff the mattress. She smoothed out the ticking, turned it, and folded it. With the unwieldy bundle in her arms, she went out into the harsh sun.

  In the barn, she found a pile of sweet-smelling hay, as Mark had promised. She set to work filling the tick and prodding the hay into the proper shape and firmness. Perspiration dripped from her brow and trickled down her cheeks and her back. She took one break and went to the well for a drink of water. Even the well water wasn’t very cold, but it was far cooler than the air. She made a trip to the outhouse. When she came out, she could still hear the men hammering away, so she went back to her task.

  After what seemed an eternity, she had all the hay she could fit in the tick, and she went back to the house for her sewing basket. Her arms ached, and her bodice was saturated with perspiration. She was sure dust had caked on her face, but she didn’t mind. She was nearly done, and it felt good.

  She stitched closed the opening through which she had stuffed the mattress and put her needle away. She couldn’t resist stretching out full length on the ticking. She didn’t feel any bad lumps, and she let out a big sigh. She hadn’t felt so comfortable in days.

  “All done,” Cam said at last.