Nazareth

by Tony Masero

  Before long they were ripping at each other’s clothes, tugging and unbuttoning with feverish speed. Their kisses came hot and eager and Minnie moved confidently into a place where words were unnecessary, a silent place where she could communicate in ways other than verbal.

  They touched and explored, mapping out the new territory of each other’s bodies. Their breath coming faster as they melded, and with a sigh Minnie opened her taut body into a releasing zone of forgetfulness that relaxed into the pleasure of the moment.

  Naked, Minnie lay beneath him on their strewn clothes, her eyes fixed over his shoulder on the big inverted bowl of blue sky above where two eagles circled high up, their keening cry a distant echoing sound that seemed to run right through her in an electric thread. She heard the breeze coming up from below and brushing through the trees beside them and she felt its coolness against her skin where Jethro did not cover her with his warmth. It was a pleasant lovemaking, easy and relaxed and Minnie dived into the mellow feeling of contentment that alleviated the torn edges of her mind and did something to heal the loneliness that had hounded her ever since Nazareth.

  ‘Goddamn!’ Jethro husked when they were done. ‘That was fine, it truly was.’

  She curled in against him, her fingers resting lightly on his chest and she felt his grateful kiss on her brow.

  Chapter Nine

  They found they had an unexpected visitor when they got back.

  It was gloomy inside the cabin as night was approaching and the grouped figures where no more than dark shapes in the shadowy room.

  ‘Ain’t none of you stupid’s got off your ass’s and lit a fire yet?’ Jethro asked them cheerfully.

  He was met by a solemn silence and Jethro and Minnie felt the imposition of a mood that contrasted sharply with their own sense of well-being and post-coital contentment.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ asked Jethro.

  ‘Look who come see us,’ said Les, moving at last.

  Jethro squinted at the figure in the shadows as Les stepped aside, ‘Kid, is that you? Ted Early, The Timely Kid! Well, I’ll be damned, what’re you doing here?’

  ‘I come with some bad news I’m afraid.’

  ‘That so?’ said Jethro, a suspicious frown crossing his brow. ‘How’s my brother?’ he asked quickly.

  ‘That’s it,’ said the Kid. ‘Sorry to tell you Jethro but Dale’s dead. He was shot down when we took on a mule train.’

  ‘Oh, God!’ breathed Jethro and Minnie instinctively laid a reassuring hand on his arm but Jethro shook it off. ‘What happened?’

  ‘We hoped to knock them over for their animals, they had a parcel of them and it looked like good money,’ explained the Kid. ‘But they had this one danged guy who was hell on wheels. He laid out the Mex with a rifle butt, broke his sorry neck and then put a rifle bullet in Dale and killed him right off. Shot my horse from under me and tied me off to a wagon wheel. Luckily, my two partners snuck back that night and got me out of there. It was a damned poor show all round and I’m real sorry to be the bearer of such sad tidings.’

  Jethro slumped silently and the others fidgeted nervously, unsure of what to say or do.

  Les broke the silence, ‘Freddie, go get us some firewood, let’s have some light in here.’

  ‘Hell, I been wounded,’ grizzled Freddie. ‘I thought them two was out getting the wood.’

  ‘Just do it,’ rumbled Barnaby in a warning tone.

  Reluctantly, Freddie limped out through the door, stopping only to stand a moment before Jethro and mutter his condolences.

  When he had gone Jethro asked in a voice laced with bitterness, ‘Who was this guy?’

  ‘A fellow named Billy Lee LaBone. I overheard it all when they had me tied off, seems he’s a gun hand from somewhere up north along the coast, had a run-in with a hard man up there and lit out.’

  Billy Lee LaBone!

  Minnie backed away in sudden shock at sound of the name, she hit the wall behind her with a clatter and the others looked around but could see nothing in the darkness.

  ‘Go easy there, girl,’ said Les. ‘We’ll get some light in here soon.’

  Minnie placed two hands over her mouth. She could make no sound but a fearful surge rose in her throat. Billy Lee was alive!

  ‘Who is this LaBone, anybody know him?’ asked Jethro, his voice a low and rasping sound in the dark room.

  Heads were shaken negatively. Then, the memory clicked in Jethro’s mind and he spun around.

  ‘Minnie?’ he whispered at the shape huddled in the corner. ‘Your name is LaBone, ain’t it?’

  Minnie was breathing heavily through her nose; it was all a bit too much to take in. Billy Lee was still alive and he had shot down and killed the brother of the man she had just spent an afternoon making love with. What were the chances of that happening? And now she had condemned herself by taking on Billy Lee’s name in defense of her secrecy – could it get any worse?

  She shook her hands in front of herself plaintively in a show of negating the accusation.

  ‘You know this man, Minnie?’ Jethro pushed forward, gripping her by the arms.

  Slowly, Minnie nodded her head in affirmation.

  ‘Who is he? How do you know him?’ Jethro ranted pulling her close.

  ‘You saying she claims her name is Minnie LaBone?’ asked the Kid suspiciously.

  Minnie’s heart sunk as she realized it was about to get worse.

  ‘Wouldn’t rightly be Minnie Burk of Nazareth in Maine, would it?’ asked the Kid, beginning to put things together.

  Minnie dropped her head and Jethro stared at her his eyes shining wildly in the gloom.

  ‘Tell me,’ he growled.

  ‘There’s a reward out for her,’ the Kid went on. ‘It seems she was married to this guy Burk and played fast and loose with the LaBone fellow and then she killed a man and now there’s paper out on her. Five thousand dollar reward so I heard tell.’

  There was collective sharp intake of breath.

  ‘Five thousand dollars!’ exclaimed Barnaby.

  Jethro released Minnie’s arms but she reached forward to grab his shirtfront, desperation in her eyes as her inability to speak out her innocence frustrated her.

  ‘Goddamn you!’ snarled Jethro. ‘Take me for a fool would you?’ He snapped out a hand and slapped Minnie sharply across the face. ‘You take the name of the man that killed my brother and let me spend myself on you. Hellfire, woman! I gave you a break; I took you in with us. What kind of loose creature are you?’

  Tears streamed down Minnie’s face as she tried again to reach out to Jethro.

  ‘Don’t come near me,’ he spat. ‘He your special man, is he? This LaBone fellow, that why you took on his name? Guess you make a habit of leading men down the primrose path, screwed over your rightful husband and now you want to do the same with me. Well, damn you lady, damn you to hell.’

  ‘Go easy,’ warned the Kid in a soft calculating voice. ‘That’s five thousand dollars on the hoof we’re looking at here.’

  Freddie stomped in, his arms full of firewood, ‘Hey! What’s going on? I miss anything good?’

  Stony silence met his query and Freddie shrugged and limped over to the central fireplace and dropped the heap of wood. ‘There, I brung it,’ he said. ‘But I ain’t danged well lighting it, one of you others can do that.’

  Without a word, Les knelt down and stacked the timber, setting a match to some kindling underneath and the room was suddenly lit by a yellowish glow as the flames caught and licked up, casting mobile shadows around the room.

  ‘What do you want to do, Jethro?’ asked Barnaby.

  ‘I want to kill me that sonofabitch,’ Jethro said with hoarse determination.

  Minnie struggled to talk, to demonstrate what she felt but all that would come out of her mouth were pitiful mewing noises.

  Jethro looked at her in disgust, ‘One more sound, Minnie. One more and I swear to God I will nail you permanent. Now go, get somewhere away
from my sight whilst I figure this out.’

  Minnie backed away, her mind full of confusing thoughts as she slid down and sat hunched over in a dusty corner of the room.

  Jethro turned to the Kid, ‘We know where this mule train was headed?’

  The Kid shrugged, ‘Pennsylvania somewhere.’

  ‘It’ll take them a while, we have time.’

  ‘Time for what?’ asked Freddie.

  ‘To go get the sonofabitch that killed my brother,’ Jethro snarled in gloomy response. ‘Now, listen up. We need supplies, we can’t go on grubbing about here in the backwoods or get ourselves to Pennsylvania by eating grass. We have to hit that stage in the morning and we have to get it right this time. Freddie, you can’t ride so you stay here and watch that woman.’

  Heads turned and they all looked at Minnie who stared back with hurt eyes.

  ‘Hand over the money,’ Jethro said, his eyes boring into Minnie.

  Tentatively, she raised her shirt and handed over the rolled bandana.

  ‘She had money?’ asked the Kid in surprise.

  ‘It ain’t enough to get us all where we’re going,’ Jethro answered, stuffing the cash in his pocket.

  ‘How’d you manage to let that go?’ asked the Kid in bemusement.

  ‘Kid?’ asked Jethro, ignoring his question. ‘Are you in on this with us?’

  ‘Ain’t got nothing else to do.’

  ‘What about those pards of yours? They still around?’

  The Kid shook his head, ‘Nope, they reckoned on heading down south to Texas. Thought the pickings were better that way, I came on here to find you boys and let you know the sad news.’

  ‘Okay, so it’s the four of us. This devious lady here gave a good setup for taking out the stage so we’ll stick with that. There’s a gully we can hide out in until the stage passes, it’s a sharp bend in the road so it’ll have to slow down there.’

  ‘Can you trust her?’ asked the Kid suspiciously.

  ‘The plan was good even if she ain’t,’ said Jethro.

  Minnie noted how his whole attitude had changed now, he was more abrasive and decisive and she guessed it was the fact that with the loss of his brother he now had a mission in mind and it gave him a sharpened sense of purpose. It was just unfortunate that the resolution he had in mind was a killing confrontation with Billy Lee LaBone.

  She wondered how she could convince him that she had held no intention of deceiving him and that the things he had been told about her were not true, it was as if some evil fate had decided that by twisting events this disaster should come between the two men who had come to matter most to her.

  ‘Get some shuteye,’ ordered Jethro gruffly. ‘I want y’all fresh come morning.’

  As Minnie watched them all obediently settle down, shuffling for a place on the floor amongst the shadows and as near to the fire as they could get, she looked over at Jethro sitting across from her on the other side of the room. He slouched against the wall, his shoulders hunched and hat brim low on his forehead, yet she knew he watched her. She could feel his eyes on her, the firelight occasionally glittering on the whites in the darkness under his hat.

  Now he hated her. The same man who had touched her body so tenderly that day, who had been full of good cheer and companionship until so recently. It hurt to think he could feel that bad and lay it all at her door. Could it turn that quickly in a man’s mind, she wondered, affection to detestation? Her heart hardened at the thought - alright then, if you will turn your back on me without opportunity for explanation then I will do the same to you. She had come too far and suffered too much to fall apart at such a fickle consideration.

  Goddamn men! And goddamn you worst of all, Jethro Bayliss!

  They all felt gritty the next day.

  The fire had gone out during the night and it was chill, breath forming in vapor on the air. Irritable and silent in the aftermath of the change of atmosphere the men went about their tasks. There was no joshing or horseplay and Minnie could see the entire dynamic of the group had altered, a strain of bitterness ran through them and a cold harshness that Minnie hated to see. Death was on the wing and The Timeless Kid had brought the bad news, spreading the seed for vengeance and enmity.

  Few words were spoken and after they had eaten a meager and cold breakfast Jethro set them up to go. He stood checking the action on his Winchester, whilst the others rotated pistol cylinders and made sure they were all loaded and live.

  ‘Freddie,’ said Jethro, his face expressionless and voice low. ‘Make sure you keep a close eye on her, you understand?’

  ‘I’ve got it,’ answered Freddie, his tone subdued.

  ‘Don’t mess up, you hear me?’ warned Jethro. ‘I want this one here when I get back.’

  ‘I will,’ reaffirmed Freddie, casting nervous eyes in Jethro’s direction.

  His lips tightened and hard pinpoints of light shone in his eyes, ‘And you,’ he said to Minnie. ‘You and I got more to talk of, I ain’t done with you yet.’

  Minnie met his gaze defiantly and did not look away.

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Jethro, turning abruptly and heading for the door.

  As the sound of their hoof beats faded away, Freddie began piling the few sticks of firewood they had left and started to light them up.

  ‘You sure upset him,’ he said, his head bent and intent on the makings. ‘What you do to Jethro? I never seen him like that before. I mean, I know he lost his brother and all, and you’d expect a body to be upset after that but just ‘cos you took on the same name as the man who killed him, I don’t see the need to be so darned irascible.’

  Minnie made no move but kept her eyes on Freddie as he fumbled with the firewood.

  ‘Mean to say,’ Freddie went on. ‘I figured he was sweet on you, now he’s like to beat your ass or something. I think maybe he’s in a killing mood, I surely do. I’m kinda glad I’m not riding with them today, it don’t feel right. Don’t feel the same, if you know what I mean?’

  He looked at her then and Minnie could see the lack of understanding evident in his troubled face.

  She raised her eyebrows and moved her shoulders in a dumb show of unknowing.

  ‘You don’t get it either, huh?’ said Freddie, turning back to the fire with a long sigh. ‘Pity you can’t speak, lady. I could sure do with some companionable conversation right now.’

  Feeble flames took hold and Freddie reached out his hands to the warmth.

  ‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘How about you get us some coffee going?’

  Minnie got to her feet and collected the heavy-bottomed enameled iron coffee pot, and as her hand closed on the handle and she felt the weight she remembered the time she had hit Freddie around the head with a skillet. The thought came to her at that moment that she did not want to sit here any longer suffering Jethro’s wrath and a sudden determination came over her. It was as clear as crystal in her mind, there was only one thing she had to do now.

  She must warn Billy Lee.

  Chapter Ten

  They came down through forested hillsides into the valley that housed Titusville. Everybody in the mule train was tired, dirty and ready for rest and all of them were glad to make the end of their journey.

  The first sight of Titusville did little to encourage Billy Lee with any sympathy for the place. It was a town built on the oil boom and pyramids of wooden oilrigs populated the skyline amongst the housing. Circular storage tanks lay under the rigs in round lakes of the black liquid and scattered between the low roofed shacks were multitudes of large wooden barrels, hundreds of them laying on the muddy ground. The creek below the town that fed into the Allegheny River was covered with a skein of dark rainbows from spilled oil and the grim nature of the place contrasted sharply with the green forestation on the hills around.

  The Philadelphia & Erie railroad ran its track into a busy depot and a smoking cowcatcher added its share of noise, smoke and steam billowing as it hooted its way into the terminal where tall factory
chimney’s poured black smoke into the air. It was an atmosphere tainted with the tarry stench of oil and tanneries, of wood fires, mixed with the rank odor of animal and human waste and hot metal being worked over charcoal, the exhausted filth ran like a rain onto the muddy ground below.

  This was a town born of expediency where a great deal of money was to be made as the nation turned to oil products for lighting and away from the whale oil of old. Crude oil was king and the petroleum stink of the place was matched by the tempting ethereal scent of greenbacks that could fill men’s pockets and make instant millionaires of them.

  Rough looking men, automatons in untrimmed beards and filthy work clothes filed gloomily to their labor and gave hardly a glance in the direction of the arriving mule train. Like any of the boomtowns in the country they were drawn by regular wages and the possibility of opportunity but many mostly threw away their pay on liquor to ease the pain of a grinding servile existence and in the misguided hope of success they only found despair.

  It was not an inspiring sight.

  ‘Hold up here,’ called Frisco, as they approached the soiled creek. ‘I’ll go ahead and report to the agent, find out where we bring these wagons to rest.’

  ‘Say, Frisco!’ called Billy Lee. ‘We ought to find a regular hospital for Joe Fish. Doctor Jack says he’s done all he can and the foot ain’t looking any better.’

  ‘Okay,’ replied Frisco. ‘You and the Indian go help him to a doctor, then get on back here.’

  Billy Lee and Doctor Jack helped the limping caporal down from the back of the Ambulance wagon and with him balanced between each man’s shoulder they made their hopping way onto the ferry and then across the creek and into the town.