“It would have become a court matter. The court would have declared you dead, and then put the land up for sale. I would have tried to buy it, but the question then would have been, what would Doe do with the land after her mother and I die?”
Dan looked back at Doe. Her soft blue eyes searched his, her yellow hair reflected the lamplight, and her lips formed an O. She was delightfully enticing.
Doe got up, took Dan’s hand and said to her father, “This is up to me now. Dan and I are going for a walk. You and mother shouldn’t wait up.”
Lorene took Alan’s hand and said, “Come with me, Alan. Doe said we shouldn’t wait up, so let’s go to bed. Doe is a woman now, and we women know what needs to be done.”
* * *
Doe led Dan to a pile of straw in the barn that was covered with a blanket. “You’ve worked hard today, and you must be tired. Rest here while you tell me what’s been on your mind all day.”
“Why tell you when I can show you?” Dan replied as he drew Doe to him.
The night was half-gone when Dan kissed Doe goodnight at her door.
“That was just a preview,” Doreen whispered.
“If that was just a preview, I sure don’t want to miss the main event,” Dan whispered back, and then mounted his horse and rode into the night. Doe watched until the shadows engulfed him and then walked to her bed.
* * *
The circuit judge came to town, and the trial was held to clear Dan’s name. The whole town turned out to witness the trial. The outcome was a foregone conclusion. The bank paid Dan for its indiscretions. Attorney Eaton added to his wealth, and Dan’s promise to his parents was kept.
With his restitution, Dan put men to work rebuilding his home, and Doe was his constant companion. Rhoda nodded and smiled at her.
Rhoda returned to Fort Sill to join her husband, and Bradford Eaton caught a train for his home in Tulsa.
* * *
Days became weeks, and Dan’s home progressed. Doreen supervised the building of the kitchen and the master bedroom while she waited for Dan to ask her to be his wife.
Doreen was everything a man could want. She was delicately beautiful, smart when smart was required, and passionately in love with Dan. Dan had fallen in love with Doreen, but he had to know what had happened to Edie. Wondering about Edie would linger in his mind, and he had to know that he had completed the job of saving her ranch, and he had promised Vinnie that he would be back.
Doe suggested that he get on with his life in Videll and leave the past in the past, but Dan knew he had to see Edie again before he could put the past to rest.
Chapter 13
The meadowlarks were singing and the prairie flowers were blooming as Dan rode across the windswept grass. He saw a few Indians wearing white-men’s clothes, but the buffalo were gone. He heard the wail of a train, where before he heard the voices of animals. It was still beautiful, but the wild loneliness was gone. The prairie had gained people, but it had lost some of its grandeur.
Danny camped on the prairie because he wanted to remember how it was. He practiced with his revolver and was pleased to note that he had not lost his touch. Only by remembering how it was, could he fully understand how it is.
He went into the town where he had worked as a bouncer and remembered the gunfight that had saved the lives of two cavalry officers, and started him on the trail to recovery.
Winnie Mae had married a rancher and lived somewhere west of here; Cloe married a wandering cowboy, and they run a ranch west of Hill View, the bartender told Dan, but Dan didn’t tell the bartender that he was the man who gave Cloe and her husband the job. It had been less than a year, but it seemed longer.
It was early afternoon when Dan rode into Hill View and rented a room at the same hotel where he had slept in the room adjoining Edie’s. If he hadn’t been so tired, he might have made love to her that night. Dan asked the bell captain if he knew the owner of the bank.
“The bank is owned by Mrs. Edith Calem,” the bell captain replied. “She has a home here in town, but she spends most of her time on her ranch about four hours ride west of here.”
“Then take my name off the register,” Dan said. “I’ll ride on.”
The road was more traveled, but it was still just two wagon tracks in the sage. The sun was slowly sliding down an umber sky when Dan rode into the yard by the barn. People were talking in the cottage behind the barn, and a lamp was burning in the ranch house.
Dan unsaddled his horse and gave him hay; the water trough was handy so he washed the dust off his face, used his hat to beat the dirt off his boots, and then walked to the house and knocked on the door.
Edie came to the door, but she didn’t say a word. She just stared. When Dan reached out to shake her hand, she pushed it aside, and melted into his arms. She kissed him with a passion he wouldn’t have believed, and then invited him in to have dinner. Dan helped her cook a little more than she already had. After dinner they sat in the swing; the clouds still glowed red, and the swing still squeaked.
“I’ve been expecting you. I just didn’t know when you would arrive,” Edie said softly. “I won’t say no tonight. Let me love you, Dan. I’ve wondered what you would be like, ever since the last time we sat in this swing. Take me to bed. I’ve been waiting a long time for you to make love to me. You saved my life, and you saved my ranch, and all you got for your trouble was a horse. You deserve more, and this is the night that I will reward you properly, but things have changed, and after you make love to me, I’ll tell you all about it.”
Edie raise her face to Dan to be kissed. They made their way to the bed and were soon engulfed in an embrace.
Dan remember the night Edie had pulled away, and how he walked away to spend a lonely night alone in the barn. He knew he had done the right thing then because Edie’s heart still belonged to another man. So he asked her, “Why are you doing this? We both know that I wanted to make love to you, but I didn’t expect anything from you; I had my own reasons for helping you.”
“I knew you helped me for unselfish reasons, and I was sorry about that night in this swing, but I couldn’t get past feeling guilty. With your help, the court punished the men who killed Ed, and somehow that released me to love again. You were angry when you left, and I didn’t know if you would be coming back.”
Edie cupped Dan’s face with her hands and kissed him again. “After the trial vindicated Ed, Lieutenant Jim Brien talked me into going on a picnic. I had been released from feeling guilty, and I was ready, but you had already come back to the ranch house, and Jim was there. He wanted me with a passion that overwhelmed me, and he made me remember how wonderful love can be. We were making love on the blanket beside the pond when Cloe and Sam Pickinpa rode up in their wagon. Cloe recognized Lieutenant Brien, but she had been a saloon girl and knew enough to pretend not to. Cloe didn’t tell me about knowing Jim until after I had agreed to marry him. At first I was disappointed that he had paid a whore for sex, but it wasn’t as though I was a virgin. I was a widowed woman with a child. So when Jim kept insisting, I agreed to marry him. He will be in Hill View tomorrow, and I will be there to greet him.”
“Captain Brien is a fine officer, and some day he will be a colonel. He was young when I first met him, and he was doing what young men do. He will be a good husband. You said you had been expecting me, but you didn’t know when I would arrive. What did you mean by that?”
“You came on horseback, but the mail comes by train, and a letter from Rhoda beat you here by a week. Rhoda’s letter said you were coming, and she told me about Doreen Wampler. She also told me that if I still wanted you I had better latch onto you quick because Doreen had a hook in you, and she was reeling you in. What’s more, Rhoda said Doreen is very beautiful, and she knows how to get a man, which means, she is offering what I withheld. I knew that you would be on the trail for a week, and I know how lonely a man can get in a week. When I saw you at the door, I hesitated because I had to decide if I were going to
bed with you right away, or if we should sit in the swing for a while. That swing is where I lost you, and maybe that swing is where I could find you again. But you were still a gentleman as I knew you would be. I’m just sorry it took me so long to reward you in the way I should have.”
“Thank you for being honest. I’ve made a long ride, and I’ve been rewarded by a night to remember. You are the only person in these parts to whom I have spoken who knows me. I’ll be on the trail before Sam and Cloe get up, and I want to avoid meeting people, so only you and I will ever know that I’ve been here. When the time is right, remember me to Vinnie. I can ride away knowing that you are safe, and your life is secure. I wish you much happiness, Edie.”
“I think I will be happy with Jim Brien, but now I feel guilty about you,” Edie confided, with a smile.
* * *
Dan watched the sun come up while seated in his saddle. He was riding east, and he had but one purpose and that was to get back to Doe. This ride home was the culmination of a journey he had to make, and he was pleased with how it had turned out. His life was back on track, and now he could get on with it.
Traveling into Indian Territory, a roll of dark clouds was building in the west. Ominous rumblings of thunder followed by flashes of lightning were coming from a towering cumulus cloud with a dark bottom, a twisting funnel shape extended down from a green middle, and the cloud had an anvil-shaped top. Danny had seen clouds like that before and knew that a twister was coming.
He had to get across the Washita River and out of its low-lying bottom land before the storm hit or he would be trapped by floodwater. The Washita was a dangerous river even in normal times, but in bad weather it was downright deadly. Dan’s palomino stallion was getting skittish. Horses have a sense for storms, and the stallion knew enough to seek shelter. At a full run, they crossed the treacherous muddy river and then stopped under a large tree.
Dan knew they couldn’t hide under a tree, because trees attract lightning, and a whirling tornado would rip trees to shreds. His best bet was to take shelter in the narrow canyon with steep sides leading into the river. With his urging, the stallion lay down in the bottom of the canyon. Dan covered their heads with his jacket. Like a vengeful god, the storm hit with a roar. It shredded the trees by the river and then ripped past the rim of the canyon.
Debris almost covered Dan and his stallion. Hail the size of silver dollars pounded them until Dan wasn’t sure they could take anymore. The wind howled, lightning flashed, and thunder clapped like cannons. A broken tree embedded itself in the side of the canyon inches from Dan’s head, and then the rain came in a violent downpour. Dan knew he had to leave the canyon before the small stream became a death-dealing torrential flood.
The roar of the twister had passed but another roar was coming. The steep walls of the canyon had saved them from the wind-driven debris, but now the sides were wet and slippery, forming a barrier to safety from the flood that was coming fast.
Jumping on the stallion, Dan patted his neck and said, “Let’s go, palomino; we’ve got to outrun that flood until we find a side canyon that will allow us to escape.”
The stallion understood the problem and needed no urging. He ripped down the canyon as though he was trying to catch the tornado. A wall of water ten feet high carrying huge logs tumbling and twisting was right on their heels. When all seemed lost, Dan spied an old buffalo trail, and to be heard over the roar of water, yelled, “Palomino, follow the buffalo!” A branch of a log brushed Dan’s back as the palomino cleared the rim of the canyon.
The storm soon passed and the prairie was littered by the wrath of the storm. Stillness settled over the land. It was as though the whole earth heaved a sigh of relief. To the west, beams of sunlight poured through breaks in the clouds, and the sky was clearing.
Dan gave his horse a few pats and said, “Thanks, pal, we did it!”
Chapter 14
Five years prior, when fear of undeserved retaliation forced him to escape into the prairie, Dan had sat on a stone listening to the voices of animals wondering what the future would bring. He found himself again sitting on a stone as he had long ago, only this time the storm had left the prairie silent.
While pondering the happenings of the last five years, Dan realized that the storm mirrored his life. The storm came unexpectedly and devastated the prairie. His problems had come unexpectedly, devastating his life, and he had to run. The Comanche, Arapaho, and the prairie provided protection, but he had to follow a canyon of despair. Edie Calem showed him a clear sky and gave him hope.
The quiet that followed the storm gave him peace, and after a while, he got up from the stone and continued his journey. He found a prairie pond where grass had filtered the water, and he took the time to wash the mud from his body, his horse, and his clothes. Everything was still too wet to burn, so he tethered the palomino where he could graze, and then made a meal from the bounty of the prairie. Tomorrow, he would be home.
* * *
The day had ended, and it was getting dark when he rode into Videll. Lingering sunlight cast a golden glow, and lamps lighted Myrtle’s restaurant. She and Doe were cleaning the tables. A bell on the front door tinkled as Dan walked in; the aroma of food made his mouth water and his stomach growl.
Doe saw him first and screeched a gleeful welcome. Both women hugged him and in unison asked, “Are you hungry?”
He hadn’t had warm food for two days or talked to a human for five, so he was hungry for both food and companionship, and Doe felt wonderful.
“The beef stew is still hot and the biscuits are warm,” Myrtle said. “Sit right here, and we’ll serve it while you tell us of your journey.”
“It was long, and I weathered a storm, but the journey put my mind and my heart at ease, so it was successful in every way.”
“Milroy, the deputy who mysteriously disappeared after someone tried to kill you, reappeared yesterday,” Doe remarked. “Someone asked Sheriff Scully why he didn’t arrest him, and the sheriff said he had no evidence of his committing a crime.”
“Mervin Milroy is the last man alive who was involved in burning my parents, and he knows that I know that, and I’m surprised that he would come back alone. Has anyone seen Hap Bodden, Sheriff Bodden’s brother?”
“No one has seen Hap, but Mervin told a friend that he had been to Spanish Fork, and wanted to know if you had gotten back yet,” Myrtle commented. “That indicates to me that he is either afraid of you, or he is planning to do something to you.”
“Have the workers completed the rebuilding of my house?” Danny asked.
“It’s all done, and it is beautiful,” Doe smiled. “No one will ever burn that house. The walls are made of chiseled granite, and the roof is slate. It’s a fortress. I can’t wait to show it to you. I took the liberty of furnishing the master bedroom. You could sleep there tonight if you want to.”
Danny took Doe in his arms and said, “I think I had better sleep at the hotel tonight. I rode hard and fast getting back to see you, but I didn’t get a chance to put my horse away, and I need a hot bath. Will you show me the master bedroom tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow will be just fine. Mom and Dad have been asking about you, and I’ll tell them you’re home.”
* * *
The hotel manager, John Cato, was on duty. John was an elderly Choctaw Indian, and he had known Danny’s parents even before Danny was born, and since they were killed, Cato felt protective toward Danny.
“I saw you ride in,” John said, “and I’ve been expecting you. Mervin Milroy is back, and he’s been asking about you. He’s up to something, so I’ve saved a room for you. The room has no outside windows. No one can get to the room without coming through the lobby, and I’ll be sitting in the lobby, so I’ll see anyone who tries to get to you. A hot bath is ready, so sleep well tonight. Tomorrow, you have work to do.”
“Thank you, John. Mervin Milroy is one of the men who was involved in the burning of my parents, and he represents a promise u
nfilled. I’m pleased he’s in town because it saves me the trouble of looking for him.”
“Will you be eating breakfast here, or will you eat at Myrtle’s?”
“I know that your hotel has an excellent dining room, but I’ll have breakfast at Myrtle’s. You can compete with her cooking, but you can’t compete with her wait help.”
“Doe is mighty pretty, all right,” John smiled. “When are you going to marry that girl? A lot of guys have been asking her, but she’s waiting for you.”
“I’ve been a little busy of late,” Dan answered, “but as soon as I put this current business to rest, I’ll be doing some asking myself. Good night, John.”
* * *
The next morning when Dan went to the stable, the palomino nickered a greeting. The hay smelled freshly cut when Danny forked it into his trough. Danny patted the palomino on the shoulder and saddled him while he ate.
“We have people hunting us,” Dan told the palomino, “and I need your help to see them before they see us.” The palomino raised and lowered his head as if to indicate that he understood. Danny hoped he understood, because a sniper’s bullet is difficult to dodge, and he needed either Milroy or Hap Bodden to shoot at him before he could finish what he had to do. If he shot first, everyone in town would accuse him of starting the fight even though they knew his cause was just.
Dan asked the stable keeper which horse Mervin Milroy was riding. The keeper nodded in the direction of a coal-black gelding, about fifteen hands high. The gelding was a fine horse, but his sides showed signs of being raked by sharp spurs. The gelding was skittish, so Dan knew he had been abused. Dan looked at the hoof prints of the gelding, and sure enough this was the horse that had left the tracks under his hotel window the night someone tried to kill him.
Danny Page 11