“I’ve got him out in my bunk house, but it ain’t good news and I don’t think Hailee should be seeing him this way…I want you to come on out if you can, but don't let anyone see you,” he whispered even lower. “Don’t want to tip Duffy off that I got back. Not yet. You and me, we got us a whole lot to talk about tonight.”
“You go on ahead, I’ll be along. It’s easier for one to creep along in the shadows than it is for two. I’ve got some talking to get done myself.”
As he peered out into the darkness to make sure nobody saw him, Tobias slid along the edge of the Johnson home, careful not to step on a twig or anything else that might give away his presence; there wasn’t much he could at that point but to make a mad dash for his bunk house and hope for the best.
He'd stayed in the shadows until he spied the glowing of Duffy’s oil lantern die out in the window and then waited a good spell after that before he made his way to the main house, but he still took precautions not to stir the man.
Once back inside the safety of his own domain, Tobias kicked his boots off and sat them in a neat side-by-side manner next to the door on a small rug and waited for Richard. It didn’t take very long before his palm pressed the door open and he helped himself inside.
“Like I told ya,” Tobias repeated, “We gotta talk.” He stepped aside so the cook could get in a good eyeful of the Boss laying there in his bunk house, still all stretched out on the makeshift cot.
Richard and Tobias agreed that in all the years they’d known Bruce, not once had they ever seen him in that condition.
“‘Bruised and scratched beyond belief,” Richard frowned. He shut his eyes in order to prevent himself from shedding tears as Tobias pulled one of Bruce’s arms back up and rested it on his chest before reaching down to the end of the cot and pulling the blanket upward in a gentle tug before giving a respectful nod of his head at the boss.
“Have a seat there and let me get you caught up,” Tobias started.
P
Richard looked out the window and noticed the early sunrise beginning to cast shadows here and there. He knew it wouldn’t be long before Duffy and all the others – including Hailee – would be piling into his kitchen for grub; a ball of nervousness began to build a nest in the pit of his belly, so he absent-mindedly popped a chunk of sour dough bread into his mouth to keep from feeling sick.
The man hadn’t slept at all; he hadn’t even changed out of his clothes from the day before. He and Tobias, each looking at a whole heap of problems to work out, weren’t looking forward the upheaval Hailee would have to endure.
The tapping at his shoulder caused him to turn his head.
“Do you want me to turn those for you?”
Richard cocked his head to the side when his nose finally understood her question.
“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” the cook moaned, realizing the morning’s flapjacks were burning.
Hailee stood back and rested her eyes on the older man.
“No offense intended, but you look just terrible this morning. Are you okay?”
Flapjacks discarded and the next round bubbling in the cast iron skillet, Richard tried to reply, to say something happy and positive, something that didn’t involve tears or that feeling he had in his own belly, but what came out instead was the blunt statement, “Tobias came in early this morning.”
Her eyes grew large with excitement, but when she noticed the concern in his face, Hailee appeared reluctant to ask any questions. She had known Richard her entire life and knew when to let him take the lead.
“We’re gonna have to sit down, Hailee. We got us one big mess to deal with, and I need you to promise me that you’ll give me the most careful listen you’ve ever given in your life.”
Richard turned the flapjacks, gave the batter a couple of nervous stirs.
“You know I’ll listen, Richard,” she assured her friend with a gentle smile. “When will the others be bringing Daddy back home? He’ll be tickled to get out in the barn and see that cat pelt, don’t you think? Too bad they couldn’t have saved the pelting until he got back,” she chuckled out loud. “I bet he woulda liked being in on that.”
“Hailee, I know you won’t soak this in until later, but there are a few things I learned early this morning. Things you need to know.”
He finished pouring the last of the flapjack batter and then poured a couple mugs of fresh coffee for them while the unsuspecting girl looked around for the sugar bowl and a spoon.
Taking a quick peek out the kitchen window, Richard asked, “Are you ready to hear me out while I can still do this?”
With a puzzled look of concern spreading across her lips, Hailee nodded and turned to take a seat at the table in the dining room.
He took his own seat on the other side of the table and opened his mouth. Nothing toppled out yet, so he stood up again and wiped his hands, attempting to hide how nervous he was. It wasn’t working even a little bit.
Hailee began tapping her foot on the chair leg.
Richard sat down again.
“Tobias came back home this morning, Hailee.” He squinted his eyes, leaned just a tad closer to her. “Just Tobias. Do you understand me?”
She heard his words just fine, but their meaning refused to sink into her brain, refusing to absorb the real jest of what he was trying not to say out loud. Instead, Hailee just yanked at a strand of her curls and began the familiar twisting. When he caught her mouth beginning to curl up at the edges, Richard felt her pain as she fought the tears that were certain to show themselves at any moment.
“Sure, I understand,” she affirmed with a crack in her voice. “Everyone else already came back, and Daddy’s in town being taken care of by the doctor. Daddy’s in town. Right?”
Searching Richard’s face for the world’s worst punch line to the world’s worst joke, her blonde hair shook in uncomfortable thoughts as the shock set in.
The back door of the kitchen shut all too quiet-like and instinct told her right off it was Tobias.
She stood in a fluid motion and ran to the man she knew would have the answers.
When their eyes met, tear for tear, every bit of physical strength drained from her mind and body as she slumped to the wooden-planked floor in a soft heap. Tobias wasted no time in hitting his knees to sit down on the floor next to her, making himself available for comfort as one hand raked through her long hair.
For what seemed like half an hour, the trio sat in the silent kitchen, making no movements except for the occasional sniffle and runny nose she wiped away.
“Where is he now?”
It was the first question Tobias knew she would want answered.
“No, Hailee, you can’t see him. He’s not here,” Tobias lied.
She shook her head as if she hadn’t heard him right.
“Excuse me?”
Richard stooped down to make eye contact with Hailee; the anticipation of this very moment was what kept the old man awake all night and as much as he’d practiced it, this was not the way it went in his head.
“I’ve been up with Tobias all night. Doc Amerley don’t want you to see your pa this way. Says you can’t handle…it. He was there, Hailee. And the sheriff, he agrees with the doc. This is one you’re going to have to trust me on.”
With the corner of her petticoat, Hailee wiped at her nose before nodding at Richard.
“So, then, Daddy is in town, right? He’s at Doc’s place. Well, we can all go in soon as we’ve eaten our breakfast – that should give Daddy plenty of time to get ready for visitors, shouldn’t it,” she stated more than asked.
When neither of the men offered any response, the runny-nosed young woman refused to accept anything other than the fact that she was going into town to see her father. Her eyes searched their faces but found no signs of them offering to take her into town.
“Tobias! Where’s Daddy?”
His head barely shaking, the man’s brown eyes fell to a section of floor a few inches in front of her
blue gingham dress. He tried to focus on the lacy edging on the bottom of her petticoat, but his eyes refused to cooperate.
“Richard, I’m trusting you to tell me the truth!”
“Let’s go back into the dining room, Hailee; we all need to talk and you need some coffee, it’s bound to be a long day.”
Nodding her compliance, she held her hands out for assistance in regaining her standing position just as Duffy came strolling into the kitchen for his breakfast. His eyes locked with Tobias’ and the men froze mid-glare, causing the air to became thicker than someone telling a fib on Sunday.
Richard finally broke the silence by handing Duffy a plate stacked with four buttermilk flapjacks and pointed to the table.
“Eat, we got business to tend to in here,” Richard told grunted. The old man had begun to grow weary of pretending that Duffy was still the same man he’d met many years ago.
“Well, why don’t Bruce help you tend to your business, as you call it? When did you get in, Tobias?” he inquired with fast words.
He bit his lip. “Earlier, that’s when.”
Duffy poked a forkful of flapjacks into his mouth and a couple of drops of syrup dripped off his bottom lip. His eyes never even blinked as a sick grin half-way emerged; Tobias thought of a pig at a trough as the syrup finally splattered onto the plate.
Richard stared him in the eye.
“Bruce can’t help us this morning; he isn’t here, Duffy. Fact is, the sheriff and Doc Amerley don’t want Hailee seeing him after his accident.”
“Pretty banged up, huh?”
Tobias’ mouth cringed at the man’s lack of compassion; both of his eyebrows sloped downward as his head moved in a slow motion from left to right.
By the looks on both Richard’s and Tobias’ faces, Duffy could tell that Hailee hadn’t been told much – if anything – about the accident. He wasn’t sure how far to press the subject, choosing instead to stuff another bite into his mouth.
“Got any bacon this morning?”
If Hailee hadn’t been in the room, Richard was certain Tobias would have beaten Duffy on the head with a cast iron skillet, judging from the look of disgust on his face.
Chapter 22
Tobias stood a protective ground over Hailee Johnson as he continued his glared focus on Howard J. Duffman’s face from across the room.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush here, Duffy. There’s business and personal matters that need to be worked out this morning, and I’d appreciate it if you’d make not only your own self scarce for a few hours, but make sure that the word gets around to everyone else.”
Duffy knew full well Tobias was not making a request, and that once he’d taken his leave after breakfast, he wouldn’t be a welcomed face until dinner, at the earliest. And that didn’t sit very well with the man, but he just shrugged and continued to eat what was before him. Slowly.
“I wish someone would tell me what’s happening here,” the girl's voice almost yelled out. “I’ve got you two staring each other down,” she accused, “and nobody’s telling me where my own father is or what happened out there on that hunt! Would someone around here just be straight with me?”
Duffy snorted a few words under his breath that sounded something similar to a derogatory comment toward Tobias, but seeing as how it wasn’t said very loudly and nobody cared to really pay the man any mind anyhow, his words wound up disappearing into the air.
Tobias turned his back on the man at the table and turned his head; he wanted out of the man’s view before mouthing to Hailee that they should take their conversation into the formal dining room.
She nodded, clueless as to why Tobias had treated Duffy so rudely.
Richard moved the heavy tapestry curtain serving as a decorative divider between the kitchen and dining room, holding it back in one hand for the other two to pass through while at the same time, keeping his ground with one eye on the kitchen table. And Duffy.
When she’d gotten far enough into the dining room, she turned around and asked in a hushed tone “Tobias, what’s gotten into you? You and I both know he’d been a little bit out of the ordinary before you left…but what was that all about?”
The tall man just shook his head and looked down as he grabbed a chair and sat down next to Hailee; Richard still posted himself at the curtain, to make sure their voices didn’t trail out of the room.
“Having this discussion with you is the last thing I could have ever imagined. Yet here we are,” he shook his head.
She was thankful she was having it with the two men she loved and trusted most, next to her own father.
“Hailee,” he began, “I don’t know where to start here. Where do you want me to start from?” A hand raked through his hair in an anxious attempt to get a grip on these new emotions he was so unsure of, aware of the fact that this conversation couldn't be danced around for very much longer.
Hailee leaned closer to Tobias and waved her hand at Richard, inviting him to take a couple steps close into their circle.
“I want to be told what’s happened to Daddy, but I can see that’s going to take the majority of my attention, and I want to be calm when I hear, so what’s going on with you and Duffy, first of all?”
“Soon as we left, he started showing a…darker side of himself. A couple of days into the hunt, the man was making every minute miserable for everyone including himself. Hailee, he’s up to no good, and I mean it. You stay away from him.”
She saw the serious look in his eyes, gulped the knot forming in the top of her throat and only nodded-not from an understanding, but out of willing compliance.
“If you can help it, you stay out of the kitchen during hours he might be in there, you keep clear of talking to him even in passing, and Hailee,” he reached over to hold her hands in his, “you have to stay out of the barns for a while, too.”
“What? Epoenah –“
Tobias shook his head. “Will be fine. Don’t you trust me with her? C’mon, Hailee. It’s not going to be for very long. Just until we can get this whole mess figured out.”
The girl shook her blonde curls out of confusion, a thick mass of questions stirring in her brain.
“Mess? I want every detail about Daddy, Tobias, and I mean right now! I need to know.”
He looked at Richard, who nodded his agreement to her request; with words carefully chosen, Tobias began to unravel events from the past few days, not only including how Bruce toppled over the edge of Puma Canyon, but also attitudes he had seen coming out of Duffy.
Hailee remained calm as he relayed the entire morning of the accident, noticing how his neck tensed and his eyes became tighter as his mind remembered every detail, apparently, reliving each second.
As he related the morning when Duffy woke up unwilling to help find a few pieces of firewood for their campfire, Hailee’s jaw gaped open and her curls swayed back and forth in disbelief.
“Tobias, are you sure you weren’t just reading him wrong? Maybe you misunderstood him.”
“No, Hailee. Every man in camp heard and understood him; fact is, your father had to take the man aside and set him straight. You can ask any of the others. He made the next few hours tense. You ask me, he’s been up to something for a while now; you and I caught some it firsthand before I even left. In case you forgot the day in the barn when he saw us together, it was rather evident to both of us that he’d been watching us, and now that Bruce is –“ he stopped short of finishing that thought out loud.
Bottom lip quivering, Hailee pressed her thumbs into her eye sockets and rubbed them; she had to know what happened out there, but the last hour had been so overwhelming, she felt sick to her stomach and couldn’t bear to hear the words she felt were inevitable somewhere in the back of her mind.
The dining room fell silent.
Richard cleared his throat, tapped on the table, and motioned toward the kitchen.
“I think I’ll head back on in there, make sure ears aren’t picking anything up from in
here. Gonna make some noise and get some grub on. You come get me if need be.”
One of his old hands patted Hailee’s shoulder on the way out.
“You know I’m gonna take care of you, right? Ain’t nothin’ gonna hurt you ever again. Not as long as I’m here. I love you, Hailee. It’s gonna be okay, you’ll see one day.”
“One day I’m a happy young girl with everything to look forward to, next day my entire world caves in around me. This can’t be real, Tobias. Daddy’s okay and I’m going to wake up from this nightmare in the morning and it will all be behind me. That’s what this is–a horrible nightmare. I’ll wake up,” she trailed off in a near-whisper. “Daddy’s heart broke when Mamma died. And she died because I was born. All of this is my fault,” she sobbed. “I don’t even deserve to live on this ranch anymore, Tobias.”
He brought both eyebrows into a slant and shook his head at her. “Don’t you ever say that again! Your Daddy built this up for you,” he told her with a wave around the room to indicate that everything surrounding her came from love. “Don’t you ever let go of this,” he told her with a firm look in his eye.
Hailee focused on the wallpaper; her eyes fixed themselves on the tiny blue fans in between thin white lines, half hoping she would glance up to find Bruce standing there.
“I'll see Daddy before the funeral, though, right?”
Tobias looked up at the ceiling, blowing out a heavy breath of air that gave Hailee the answer she wasn’t hoping to receive. He hated this happening to her, hated that he couldn’t find the words to ease her pain, and he hated the fact that deep in his heart, he knew all of it was Howard J. Duffman’s fault somehow. He made a silent vow to make that man pay for every tear his beloved Hailee shed over this situation.
A finger wiped at a stray tear before she mustered up the courage to ask, “You didn’t just leave Daddy, did you?”
With a snapping of his head, Tobias reached out and placed one hand on each side of her face. He passed a finger over another tear, smearing it across her cheek.
Rebellion in the Valley Page 14