Mail Order Marshal

by George H. McVey

  Betsy looked up at him to see a look of finality on his face. “You still wish you’d never married me, don’t you? A month of laying by my side, kissing me, getting to know me, and you still love him and not me.”

  “I told you I’d always love him. I told you that before you ever got here.”

  “You also promised to love me, you promised to give us a chance, but you haven’t have you? Not once have you even tried to open your heart to me. I don’t need another month. Judge Dredd is supposed to be here next week. I’ll see him and get the annulment. I’ll have your things moved back to your Papa's place. You’ll never have to see me again after that. I’ll let the Mayor know to find a new Town Marshal and I’ll leave. I’ll even go up As a bounty hunter and haul Charles Little to the next town and have them hold him for the Sheriff, before I head to the mountains. I’ll leave you alone with your precious Ike now. I hope you are happy, living with the memory of your dead love. Goodbye, Betsy Pike. Don’t worry about writing Elizabeth. I’ll let her know we were her first failure.”

  With that, Alexzander turned and started to walk away. Then he stopped. “Just so you know. I’ve never been upstairs at the Lucky Lady. And that lumberjack? He was one of the men involved in the fight I was called there to break up. That beer you thought I was drinking was a sarsaparilla. I was trying to get the man calmed so I didn’t have to haul him to jail. Not that you care. As for Little being in town? The three of us law men can’t be everywhere at once. If someone had come and told me he was in town, I’d have gone and arrested him. If you had come straight and told me, I’d have ridden out and tried to catch him before he got back to the timberline. But instead, you had to hurl more insults and accusations at me. But it’s all right I understand. I’m not Ike and I’ll never be good enough.”

  He turned and walked away his head and body hanging low in defeat. Betsy watched him walk away and wondered why she felt like her heart was being torn in two. Watching Alexzander walk out of her life hurt worse than hearing Ike was dead. That made no sense she loved Ike and she never even cared for Alexzander.

  Twelve

  Betsy walked into her papa’s house to see Mayor Rhyan, Miss Flora from the Lucky Lady, her best friends Maude and Tonya, as well as Reverend Bates and her father all sitting in the parlor. “Papa, what’s this? Are you having a party?”

  Zeke stood and blocked the way upstairs. “No, these people are all here to speak with you, Betsy.”

  She sighed. “Not tonight, Papa I’ve had an exhausting day and I just want to climb into my bed and get some sleep.”

  She tried to move past him and he took her arm in his hand. “Then go home to your husband where you belong daughter.”

  Betsy’s eyes sparked anger. “Alexzander sent me here Papa. He told me he’d send my things.”

  “Come into the parlor. If you wish to stay here, then you need to hear what these people have to tell you. Otherwise, you can stay at the hotel or go home to your husband and beg him to let you in. But unless you come hear these people out you will not sleep under my roof.”

  Betsy saw the look of determination in Zeke’s eyes and with a sigh and heavy tread, she turned and moved into the parlor and took the seat in front of the fireplace facing all the other occupants.

  Zeke cleared his throat. “So, your husband came to see me an hour ago and told me what had transpired between you too, and where he found you. I’ve been very lax in my dealing with you and the Ike situation. I should have said something before you were engaged. But you wanted him, and I allowed you to have what you wanted. But the truth is Betsy you didn’t know the real Ike Hardin and you haven’t allowed yourself to get to know the real Alexzander Sewell because of your childish refusal to let go of the dead man who you didn’t marry. I’ve asked each of these people here to tell you what they know about Ike and about Alexzander. Miss Flora needs to get back to the Lady so let’s let her start.”

  Betsy sighed and glared at her father. “I know what I saw at the saloon father and I know that Ike would never have done what Alexzander was doing.”

  Flora spoke up. “You’re right Betsy Ike Harding would have never done what Marshal Sewell was doing. I don’t know what you think you saw, but let me tell you what did happen. That lumberjack your husband was talking to and a miner got into a fight over who was going to take Diamond upstairs for some private time. They were trying to carve each other up with knives when I sent Lacy Lou to get Marshal Sewell. He came in and pulled his tomahawk and Arkansas toothpick and then shouted that he’d wade in and cut 'em both up. They'd end up spending the night with Miss Hattie and a jail cell, instead of with one of my girls. The miner stepped back but the lumberjack turned and came after your husband. He caught the man’s knife on the tomahawk and somehow disarmed the guy, then offered to buy him a drink and tell him how he did it. He bought the guy a whiskey and himself a Sarsaparilla. He orders one every time he comes to my bar.

  "Most nights I send for him, he doesn’t have to arrest anyone, and he always talks to everyone making sure they’re having a good time but also realize he’ll haul 'em in if they make trouble. He has talked to me and all the girls, letting them know he’ll arrest any man who tries to force them to do anything they don’t want to do. He won’t stand a man hurting any woman he told me.

  "Now if Ike had been marshal tonight, he’d have shot both those men and if they’d lived, he’d have hauled them to jail. Then he would have come back and dragged Diamond upstairs and hurt her himself.”

  “That’s not true. My Ike would never use one of your soiled doves!”

  "Oh, honey, I don’t know who you think Ike Hardin was, but every Saturday night after you sent him home, he’d come to the Lady and pick a girl. When he left her later, I’d have to send for Miss Hattie to patch her up. Not only did he use my girls, he hurt them every time, and told them that when you were his wife, he’d teach you to be better at pleasing him than they were.” The saloon keeper looked over at the reverend, “Excuse my plain talk, preacher.”

  The Reverend blushed and cleared his throat. “It’s fine Miss Flora, sometimes plain talk is needed.”

  Betsy shook her head “Ike would never talk about me like that.”

  That’s when Tonya spoke up. “Honey, Ike talked about you like that all the time when you weren’t around. Not only that, but he made comments to all of us too. He used to tell me what he’d do if he was my beau and I know he talked to Hattie about how she should just act like the savage she was and welcome him into her teepee. It was only around you and your father that he acted decently.”

  The mayor cleared his throat. “Now I’m going to tell you something else. I’ve heard you tell Marshal Sewell several times that Ike would have brought Charles Little to justice, but that just isn’t true, young lady. The truth is, Charles killed your Ike because he caught him cheating him at cards. We all knew Ike cheated, we just couldn’t catch him. But Mr. Little was a professional gambler. He knew all the tricks and caught Ike dealing off the bottom of the deck. When he called him on it Ike threatened to arrest him.

  "It was his normal way of getting out of trouble. Threatening to arrest the person accusing him. But Little pulled that derringer and shot him right then, before Ike could move. Your fiancé that you are so quick to defend, was a gambler, a cheat and a womanizer who planned to turn you into his play thing. That’s the truth everyone kept from you because your father said it was what you wanted.

  "Now, I’m going to tell you about the man you married. He goes out of his way to obey the law. I was with him the day he chased Charles Little into the Timber. He tracked him to his camp and could have broken the law and brought him in. But he knew it was against the law. He’s been watching them every day he isn’t on day watch over the town and he’s sent daily updates to the county sheriff which is all he can legally do. He talks to every store keeper and hasn’t once asked for anything free. Ike didn’t even ask, he just took what he wanted.

  "The husband you so quickly
accused of being a bad law man is the best lawman I’ve ever seen. Not only is he honest and fair, he tries to settle any dispute without bloodshed or even an arrest if he can. He treats everyone with respect and when he talks about you Betsy, it’s as if you were the most precious woman in the world. I’ve been in the saloon when those doves have all but thrown themselves at him. Yet he always tells them that he won’t dishonor you or his marriage vows. He is a man who loves and honors you just as he promised to.”

  Reverend Bates clears his throat. “That brings us to me. I’m here to tell you flat out you haven’t been honoring the vows you made before me and God in our house of worship. You vowed to love, honor and obey Marshal Sewell, to forsake all others, and yet you haven’t, have you? You haven’t forsaken a man who died without even being your husband.

  "A man who had no desire to be a husband who honored his vows to you. You have broken your vows before God already but if you don’t even try to reconcile with your husband then I will tell you plainly. I will not allow you to ever marry in the church again. I won’t hear the vows of an oath breaker.”

  The reverend stood and shook the mayor’s hand and Zeke’s hand and left the house. Miss Flora left next, leaving Tonya and Maude in the room with Zeke. Her papa stood and knelt in front of her. “Betsy, Ike was not a good man he didn’t love you and Alexzander he came here to bring your things and he was broken and less than the man we meet a month ago. All because you wouldn’t even try to allow yourself to love him. Instead, you tore him apart every chance you got. You spent hours of every day making love to a tombstone of a man who didn’t deserve your loyalty while the man who did, suffers for it. I’m you father and I have no choice but to let you stay here since he has sent you home, but I’m ashamed of you. I raised you better than this. You never intended to honor your vows and that is shameful because not only did you lie in the house of God, but you destroyed a good man in the process.”

  He turned and walked away leaving Betsy to sit with her two best friends who didn’t say a word as tears of shame rolled down her cheeks. “What am I going to do?”

  Tonya and Maude came and pulled her into a hug. Maude said, “Well, tonight you should just go to bed. Think about what you’ve heard here and pray and see what God tells you to do.”

  Tonya shook her head. “You better figure out a way to get that man to let you back in his life because I tell you now, if word gets out that he and you ain’t married, your reputation will be in shreds, and every single woman in town will be taking pies and cakes to the jail trying to land him as their husband.”

  A spark of jealously roared through Betsy at Tonya’s words and then it was followed by shame. It would serve her right if Alexzander did get an annulment and court one of the other women in town. She had the man they all wanted, and she threw him away on a man who was dead. Even if he had deserved her loyalty, it appears now she was destined to be a lonely spinster the rest of her life.

  She hugged her friends and saw them out, then went up to her room and laid down on her bed. She prayed for sleep to take her away from her life, but she couldn’t sleep because her husband wasn’t there to kiss her goodnight or hold her close, keeping her safe. She lay staring at the ceiling for hours wishing for Alexzander’s warmth and strong arms to hold her tight. She wept at the thought that she’d never feel them again.

  Thirteen

  The next day Betsy awoke with a headache from lack of rest. The sound of pouring rain almost lulled her back to sleep, but she needed to go see Alexzander. She needed to beg him for another chance. She needed to kiss him and tell him she wanted to love him, realizing sometime in the middle of the night that she doesn’t want to be apart from him. She missed his body beside her. His strong arms holding her. She missed their conversation before the sweet kisses that he always gave her before sleep came.

  Now, she missed the "Good morning, Sweet Betsy," he always said to her when she waked, right before he kissed her again. She missed the smell of him in her nose.. She missed him, not Ike, and she needed to tell him that and then beg him to take her back and to kiss her and to truly make her his wife.

  She needed to convince him she will let him into her heart because he’s already there.

  Betsy threw on her clothes and took the time to make sure her hair was perfectly done. She raced down the stairs and went straight to the kitchen asking the cook to pack up a breakfast for her and Alexzander. She’d take him breakfast and tell him all that was in her heart and mind. She would apologize for her actions and beg him to give her another chance if she had too. But she was determined to win her husband’s affections if it was the last thing she ever did. Once the basket was packed she gathered it up and picked up an umbrella to keep the rain off her and the food. She headed down Adams Street to the jail where she knew Alexzander would be this morning.

  She strolled up the street in a quick hurry and when she got the jail she opened the door and stepped in leaving her umbrella out on the stoop. “Good morning, Alexzander, I brought breakfast!”

  Her husband sat behind the desk a frown on his face. “What are you doing here, Betsy? Go home to your father.”

  She felt her stomach clench in fear and hurt at his tone and manner. She’d really hurt him with her words and actions. “I told you. I brought you breakfast. I knew you wouldn’t eat this morning and I thought I needed to come and feed my husband.”

  She sat the basket on his desk. Alexzander’s eyes wandered down to the basket then back up to her face. “What are you playing at? I’m not in the mood for games, Betsy Pike.”

  She looked him in the eye and smiled. “My name is Betsy Sewell, not Pike. I’m your wife and it’s my duty to make sure you are fed. That’s what I’m doing.”

  He shook his head. “I absolved you of your duty yesterday.”

  She could see this wasn’t going the way she needed it to go he was still too hurt from yesterday. She knew of only one course of action that might break through his stubborn mountain ways. She walked around the desk to where his chair was, plopped down on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him with everything she’d realized in her heart.

  When his arms came up to pull her closer, she knew that he would now at least listen to her, but she didn’t want to pull away from his kiss. She couldn’t help the moan that rose in her throat as he demanded more from the kiss. She gave him more, allowing him to tease and taste her mouth and lips until he finally gentled the kiss pulling back to breathe. She put her hand on his face and stroked his day-old growth.

  “Good morning, my Husband.”

  “Sweet Betsy…” He started to talk, and she put a finger to his lips

  “Just listen for a bit Alexzander, my love.”

  His eyes got big at her words. “Yes, my love. I realized last night that you were wrong and so was I. I don’t need to open my heart to you because you are already in it. I felt so empty without your kisses, without your presence beside me without your arms holding me as we slept. I missed your goodnight and then this morning your kiss and good morning. I realized I was holding on to something that wasn’t real and letting the love that was right there waiting for me to acknowledge it get away. I don’t want to stay at Papa’s house I want to come home to our house and I want to be your wife in every way. If you will forgive me and give me that chance.”

  He opened his mouth to answer when suddenly the world around them began to shake and Betsy was tossed right off of Alexzander's lap. The basket fell to the floor and they could hear people all over town screaming as the world continued to toss and turn. “Earthquake,” Betsy screamed, and Alexzander grabbed her and shoved her under the desk, crawled in behind her and wrapped his arms around her as the world continued to shake.

  When the shaking stopped, Alexzander waited a few moments to be sure that the jail was going to stay standing. When he was sure it was safe, he climbed out from under the desk and helped Betsy out too. The could still hear people yelling and crying as Alexzander looked
at his bride. “We’ll have to continue our conversation later, Sweet Betsy. I think I need to get out there and help our town.”

  She nodded. “I’m coming too.”

  They walked outside and what they saw stopped them in their tracks. There were building setting askew and others that were completely collapsed. People walked in the street, some looking dazed and shaken, others bleeding from wounds they sustained in the earthquake. “Betsy, go get Miss Hattie and have her come to the Lucky Lady. It seems to still be standing we’ll need to turn it into a hospital of sorts.”

  Betsy nodded and started to walk toward the apothecary when the air was rent by the long shrill sound of a steam whistle. Betsy looked back at Alexzander. “That’s the shift whistle at the mine. That’s the emergency signal!” She took off at a run with Alexzander on her heels. The closer they got to the Silverpines' mine the more people they saw hurrying that way.

  One of them was Hattie Richards, who was carrying her medical bag with her. “I know I need to set up a triage for whatever is happening at the mine, as well as townsfolk, but the mine has more men, so I thought best to start here.”

  Alexzander nodded. “Once I see what’s going on here, I’ll go back and take stock of the town and send any injured this way.”

  They all race to the mine and see several people already working to dig out the collapsed entrance. “Oh No! How many men are in the shaft?”