Town Social

by Simmons, Trana Mae

  She shook Pete's shoulder, and his eyes popped open. "Oh, sorry, Miss," Pete said. "I was just...uh...checkin' my eyelids for leaks. Yeah, that's what I was doing."

  She could smell the whiskey on his breath, recognizing it as similar to the odor in Ginny's bottle, although somewhat harsher. "That's all right, Pete," she said. "I know it's late, and you probably weren't expecting anyone to come by. But you see, my Aunt Cassie is at Charlie Duckworth's, and something has come up that I really need to talk to her about. I need to rent a buggy, so I can go out there."

  Pete stumbled to his feet. "Sure, Miss Fannin. I'll hitch you up a buggy right away."

  Sunny waited, covering up her impatience and glancing down the street into town now and then. Whatever had been the cause of the gunshots must have been settled, because no one was on the streets. She gave a sigh of relief when Pete led a horse with a buggy rolling along behind it toward her.

  "Guess you know how to drive one of these, or you wouldn't have asked to rent one," he said. "But I hitched up one of the gentler mares, just in case."

  "I'm very capable with a buggy, Pete," she said. She handed him a coin she'd carried with her from the house, and he helped her into the buggy. As soon as she settled on the seat, she said, "I've been out to Mary Lassiter's place, but I believe Mr. Duckworth lives a little closer in. Is that right?"

  "Yeah, it'll be the first wide road you come to off the main road. On your left."

  She forced a laugh. "I suppose if I miss it and miss Mary's, too, I'll end up in Dallas."

  "Nah," Pete said with a chortle. "You'd hit Fort Worth first. Like you came through on the stage out here. But you'll know you're lost long time before that, when the sun comes up and you see the last stage stop a'tween here and there."

  "Guess I wasn't paying much attention when I came through Fort Worth. I do remember there was an overnight stage stop on my trip out here, and the accommodations weren't nearly what I was used to. Well, I'll make sure I watch closely for the road to Mr. Duckworth's. Good evening."

  She clucked to the horse, and it ambled out into the street. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Pete back in his chair, his hat brim pulled down to his nose. She guided the horse down the intersecting street beside Cassie's house and into the back yard. Climbing from the buggy, she tied the horse securely to a porch post before quietly making her way into the house.

  She loaded the carpetbags into the buggy first, then checked to make sure Ginny still slept. After she turned off the wall sconces, she hurried into Teddy's room and gathered the little girl up, blanket and all. Teddy mumbled once but slept through the transfer to a bed on the buggy seat. When Sunny went back to close the kitchen door, Rowdy tried to squeeze through it, and she firmly pushed him back inside.

  "No, Rowdy, I can't take you with me right now. You might get antsy in the buggy and wake Teddy up."

  She closed the door, then stood for a long, silent moment on the porch. She had to get to St. Louis, where she had influential friends and her mother's attorney to help her fight for custody of Teddy. For an instant she allowed herself to think of the home she was leaving behind — the man she loved.

  But she had no choice. Jake was bound by his oath to let Teddy's mother claim the child she had deserted. She would ruin him if she agreed to his offer to take her and Teddy away.

  She had wanted just one time in his arms — one time as a complete woman with him — and been willing to chance that she would still have time to leave after he made love to her. Even his response had confirmed how she would destroy the man Jake was if she asked him to leave with her. She'd lost him the moment he heard the gunshots in town and known he was duty bound to go investigate.

  She whispered her goodbyes once again and headed for the buggy.

  "Don't! Don't want none." Ginny brushed at the wetness on her face, then flopped over, throwing an arm across her head to protect herself. Vaguely she realized her head was pounding, and she burrowed deeper into her nest, welcoming the darkness and diminished pain. Something pulled on her dress skirt, and she heard it rip.

  "Quit!" She flapped a hand behind her, shoving at whatever was disturbing her and then snuggling down once more. Just as she drifted off again, something landed on her back, whooshing the breath out of her and sending her head pounding again. Twisting, she flung the weight off her back, then stared around the dark room, trying to figure our where she was. She wasn't in her own bedroom. The cushioning under her wasn't her own soft mattress.

  Sunny's. She'd been at Sunny's, trying to offer her support and comfort. Something grabbed her arm, pulling, and a low growl met her ears. Jerking her arm free, she sat up, cupping her pounding head in her hands and moaning.

  The growl turned into sharp barks, and she focused on the dog at her feet in displeasure. "Shut up, Rowdy! Darn it, go sleep with Teddy!"

  Rowdy grabbed her skirt again, pulling backwards until she rose to keep her skirt from tearing and reached to free his mouth. He jumped away, ran to the parlor doorway and barked again. It finally dawned on Ginny the dog was trying to communicate with her. Good lord, maybe the house was on fire! She'd heard of animals warning of things like that.

  Swiftly she left the room, her nose sniffing the air. But she couldn't smell any smoke. Still, she better wake Teddy and Sunny.

  A few moments later she ran from the house. Halfway to her saloon, she skidded to a stop. Did she even have any right to tell Jake that Sunny had taken Teddy and left? She gnawed on her lip. But it could be dangerous out there in the dark for a woman and child alone. Shouldn't she send Jake after them?

  Rowdy raced by her. Darn, she must have left the door on the house open. Still debating what to do, she followed the dog.

  ***

  Chapter 21

  The rear wheel encountered a hole in the road, and the buggy shook and rattled. Sunny pulled the reins, slowing the horse to a walk. With a nearly full moon to light up the landscape, she had thought the road would be easy to navigate. Instead, it was darker than anticipated and difficult to see. But she couldn't stop. Up ahead she noticed a break in the brush beside the road on the left, which was probably the road to Charlie Duckworth's ranch. Hopefully he wouldn't be on his way to bring Cassie home. She passed the road a few seconds later, breathing a sigh of relief.

  Another rattle shook the buggy, and she glanced down to make sure Teddy was still secure on the seat. Teddy shifted, then pushed the blanket aside and sat up.

  "Where's we at, Sunny?" she asked rubbing at her eyes. "It's dark."

  "Teddy, lay down and go back to sleep. Everything's fine."

  Instead of obeying, Teddy stared around her and scooted closer to Sunny. "What's we doing going visitin' this late at night, Sunny? And where's we going?"

  "Teddy." Sunny sought to make her voice reassuring. "Everything is fine. Just lay back down and I'll wake you up again when we get where we're going."

  "I can't, Sunny. I gots to go. I always gots to go when I wake up of a night."

  "Can you wait a little while?" Sunny pleaded. "We don't have a chamberpot in the buggy, Teddy."

  "Huh uh. I really gots to go bad."

  Glancing behind her, Sunny saw they were still within sight of the road to the Duckworth ranch. Ahead was a bend in the road. "Um...just wait one more minute," she told Teddy. "Until we get around that bend up there."

  "Why? It's dark here just like there. I can just go 'long side the road."

  Sunny clenched her teeth and flipped the reins on the horse's back. It moved into a canter, and she said, "I'll stop around the bend, Teddy. Hang in there one more minute."

  Teddy wiggled on the seat the entire distance, and Sunny released a sigh when she finally pulled the horse to a halt. Leaping from the buggy before Sunny could stop her, Teddy squatted beside the road. "Don't you go any further," Sunny ordered unnecessarily. She scooted across the seat and handed Teddy her hanky when she saw the child was finished.

  A moment later Teddy scrambled back into the buggy and tosse
d the hanky on the floorboard. As Sunny set the horse in motion, Teddy looked up at her. "Why's you got bags with us, Sunny? I seen them in the back."

  "I'll explain everything to you in the morning, Teddy. Go back to sleep now."

  "You mean we's gonna be in the buggy all night?"

  Shaking her head in frustration, Sunny said, "We're just going to the next stagecoach stop, then we'll catch the stage when it comes through for Dallas. We're...going on a trip. I thought you might like to see where I grew up in St. Louis."

  Teddy dropped her head and remained silent for a length of time, long enough for Sunny to hope she would finally curl up on the seat again. That hope faded when Teddy scooted over to lean against the side of the buggy, lifting her legs and curling her arms around them as she stared at Sunny.

  "What's we runnin' away from, Sunny?" she asked. "Me and Pa used to leave town after dark, but that was 'cause he didn't have no money to pay folks what he owed them. I gots the money Miz Ruth paid me for workin' in the store in my piggy bank. You can have it. And if it's costin' you too much to take care of me and Rowdy...."

  "It's not money, Teddy." Eyes misted with tears, Sunny said, "Teddy, please. Just trust me. We have to leave. You do know I love you with all my heart, don't you? I would die before I'd let anything bad happen to you."

  Teddy frowned. "You mean you's leaving in the dark 'cause something bad might happen to me if we stay in Liberty Flats? What, Sunny? Tell me what might happen."

  "Nothing's going to happen to you," Sunny replied firmly. "Everything's going to be just fine."

  The moon haloing the back of her head, Teddy stuck out her bottom lip in a mutinous pout. "If it's got somethin' to do with me, Sunny, you ought's to tell me about it. 'Specially if it means you gots to leave and not marry Ranger Jake. I's gonna feel real, real bad about it bein' my fault you and him can't get married. Me and Miss Cassie decided you was smart enough to listen if we both told you that you was makin' a mistake, even with you bein' grown up and all. But you would never even give us a chance to talk to you."

  Defeated, Sunny pulled to a halt again and gazed over the horse's back. The landscape stretched endlessly, a stark blanket of black coated with silvery moonlight. Only the jangling harness when the horse tossed its head broke the stillness. The road extended onward — the road to freedom. Or would it be freedom? Teddy was right — they were running away. What sort of example was she setting for Teddy? But what sort of life would Teddy have if her mother took her away? How soon would the woman get tired of the child again and abandon her?

  But didn't Teddy have a right to have some input into a decision that would effect her life? She could almost feel Teddy's eyes on her while the little girl waited for her to speak. Looping the reins around the brake handle, she turned on the seat to face Teddy.

  "Teddy, Ranger Jake got a telegram this afternoon. Your mother's alive, and she's arriving in Liberty Flats on the afternoon stage tomorrow. I was afraid she'd take you away from me, and I wanted us to go to St. Louis. I'll hire a lawyer there and ask the courts to let you live with me."

  Teddy's eyes widened and her mouth rounded. "You loves me that much, Sunny?" she asked. "So much you'd leave Ranger Jake, when you love him, too?"

  Sunny blotted the backs of her hands against her cheeks, smearing the tears slipping down her face while she tried to think of a way to explain things more clearly to Teddy. The child's words had taken her by surprise. Teddy was unselfishly concerned about her feelings instead of the fact Teddy's own life was on the verge of disruption once more. Precious Teddy. She could learn a lot from the child.

  Teddy slid across the seat and wrapped an arm around Sunny's neck. "I don't knows how I feel 'bout seein' my ma after all these years," she said. "But if she wants to see me, I reckon I ought to at least let her do that. That don't mean I'd have to go with her, does it?"

  "Yes, Teddy," Sunny admitted. "If she wants you to go with her, she has that right according to law." She pulled Teddy into her lap, clasping her tightly. "But if you don't want to stay with her, I promise you I'll do everything I can to get you back with me. Everything!"

  "That would be the best way to do it then," Teddy said with a nod. "All legal like and everythin'. I didn't like it none when me and Pa was always runnin' away. And we weren't even leavin' a real nice place and people I like who'd been good to me."

  After a lengthy silence, Sunny agreed in a choked voice, "All right, Teddy. We'll go back. We'll go back to Liberty Flats."

  Teddy climbed from her lap and settled on the seat, pulling the blanket around her. "And you'll be going back to Ranger Jake, too," she said.

  "Teddy." Sunny unwrapped the reins and turned the horse around. When the buggy was headed back the way they'd come, she said, "Teddy, just because I'm taking you back doesn't mean I'm going back to Jake. I haven't told Jake I'd marry him."

  "Yeah," Teddy said around a yawn. "You's makin' one of them mistakes even bein' grown up don't make you smart enough not to make. You needs a good talkin' to, like Miss Cassie says. You're a...a cuttin' off your nose to spite your face, that's what you're doin'."

  "Teddy!" Sunny said with a gasp. "You're being impertinent!"

  "Don't know what that means, but if it means I'm tellin' the truth, then that's what I'm bein'. Miss Cassie says cuttin' off your nose to spite your face means hurtin' your ownself worse than you hurt someone else."

  "I'm not trying to hurt Jake," Sunny insisted.

  "Well, you's sure doin' a good job of it," Teddy replied saucily. "Ranger Jake, he went out and looked over that land Mr. Duckie told him about 'cause he wanted to buy it and build a house for you and him to live in. Ranger Jake, he's not the kind of man who gives up his freedom easy, Miss Cassie says. And a woman who a man like Ranger Jake falls in love with is derned stupid to throw that kind of love away."

  "Did Aunt Cassie say that, too?" Sunny asked with a half-hearted chuckle.

  "Nope, that was Mr. Duckie."

  "I see everyone has been discussing my love life."

  "'Cept the two people who oughta be discussin' it," Teddy said in a sly voice. "You and Ranger Jake. Miss Cassie, she said that part."

  After a second, Teddy continued, "We weren't talkin' 'bout you and Ranger Jake mean like, Sunny. We was talkin' 'cause we loves you and wants you to be happy, like Miss Cassie and Mr. Duckie are finally gonna be. And some day, when I grow up, I want to find a man as good as Ranger Jake to marry. It might take me a while to show him bein' married to me is what he's s'posed to do in his life, but if I know it's right, I won't give up tryin'."

  Sunny wrapped an arm around Teddy and hugged her close. Even the rough life Teddy had been through hadn't embittered her. Quite the contrary, Teddy was mature far beyond her years. The sweetness and goodness of the child sent a stab of guilt through Sunny. She'd been very selfish, she realized. She'd been thoroughly immersed in her own emotions — wallowing in self pity.

  Well, the pity party was over with. If Teddy had the courage to go back and face her mother, she herself could do no less than confront her illegitimacy and the damage she had done to the feelings of those around her, who only wanted her happiness.

  She would apologize to Ginny for getting her friend drunk so she could leave — run away — when Ginny had only come to support her as she learned the news about the imminent arrival of Teddy's mother. She'd tell Cassie how sorry she was that she had indeed judged her rather than forgiven her.

  And Jake. Jake. What she said to him would come straight from her heart, not her mind. What she didn't know was whether she had killed his love for her by her infantile actions. He needed a strong woman by his side, a match for his own strength and goodness. She didn't feel very strong right now. Instead, she felt small and ashamed.

  As soon as she heard the thunder of hooves coming toward their buggy, Sunny once again pulled the horse to a halt. She knew exactly who it would be. Jake.

  He pulled his dun up beside the buggy. With his hat brim shadowing his face, sh
e couldn't make out his expression. Teddy, though, had no doubt of her acceptance by him.

  "Hi, Ranger Jake," she said brightly. "We was on our way back."

  "I can see that, Teddy," he replied. "And it looks to me like Charlie and Cassie are coming down the road behind you there. Would you want to ride on back to town with them?"

  Teddy answered by scrambling past Sunny's legs and holding her arms out to Jake. He swept her onto his horse, then said to Sunny, "I'll be right back."

  "I'll wait," Sunny agreed.

  He rode on down the road, and Sunny could hear murmurs of conversation as he transferred Teddy into Cassie's care. A moment later he returned to the buggy, halting behind it and dismounting to tie his dun to the back. Charlie's buggy passed them, with Cassie calling that she would see them back at the house. Jake approached the side of the buggy, jamming his hands in his back pockets and standing there, gazing at her.

  She cleared her throat. "Teddy told you the truth. We were on our way back."

  "Back to what?" he asked.

  "What...what do you mean?" She tried once again to see his expression but he dropped his head, staring at his boots and not expanding on his question. "Jake," she said. "It wasn't a what I was coming back to. It was a who. Or at least I was hoping it was a who, if that who could forgive me for being...."

  His head snapped up. "If you're gonna bring up the fact that your mother was never married to your father, you can cut that crap right now! I never want to hear another word about it! You're the same person you were the day before yesterday, before you knew about that."

  "I'm also the same person who loves you with all my heart, Jake Cameron. What I was going to say was that I hoped you could forgive me for being so steeped in self pity that I told you 'no' when you asked me to marry you. I hoped you would give me another chance, so I could answer with what was really in my heart."