A Season in Hell

by Easy Jackson

  To Tennie’s surprise, the boys didn’t raise a howl. They scurried to the kitchen for hot water and a bucket.

  Wash shot a look at Gid. “Much obliged to you.”

  Although his tone was noncommittal, Tennie nevertheless knew he wasn’t enthralled with Gid. Neither was Gid enchanted with him. He removed his hat, nodded, gave them a short good-bye, and left.

  Smiling and happy inside, she stared at her weather-beaten, scarred-up Texas Ranger sometimes lawyer and thought Jesus Christ couldn’t have looked any better.

  CHAPTER 5

  Although Tennie believed Ring Bit would be better off with a tougher town marshal, she did feel guilty for chucking the job away at a day’s notice. However, Lafayette assured her he would handle everything.

  The stage line that ran from Ring Bit to Cat Ridge was part of a main artery running across the nation. The stagecoaches on the line were top notch, the latest in style and comfort. When they left Ring Bit, Tennie sat on one side with Wash and Badger, while Rusty and Lucas sat across from them with Lafayette, the stagecoach rocking back and forth as the wheels turned in the direction of Cat Ridge.

  Both Lafayette and Wash had warned her that the various stagecoaches they would have to catch on their way to the capital would not be as comfortable. But she was so happy, she wouldn’t have cared if she had to ride in the back of an oxcart to Austin. Lafayette was full of plans for the wedding.

  “I don’t have a proper dress, though,” Tennie said. There hadn’t been much available in Ring Bit.

  “Don’t worry,” Lafayette assured her. “The governor’s wife has her dressmaker on standby.”

  As he went on about candlelight and champagne, Tennie let herself be drawn into his design, fantasizing about the beautiful wedding she would have, so happy she was leaving Ring Bit behind and all the worry and slights she’d suffered along with it.

  Wash let Lafayette ramble, squeezing Tennie’s hand occasionally under the folds of her skirt. When Lafayette paused, Wash asked him about Gid. Lafayette repeated the story about Gid robbing a train and writing him before being released from prison.

  “He said he didn’t rob the train; he just blew up the tracks,” Tennie said.

  Lafayette looked amused. “Is that what he told you?”

  Tennie nodded. “Yes.”

  “No, my dear,” Lafayette said. “Gid was right in the middle of it with his brothers. He told you that fib because he worries so much about your opinion of him.”

  “Oh, for goodness sakes,” Tennie said. “How did he get released from prison before his brothers did then?”

  “I think the judge liked him and realized he had been lured into something he never would have done on his own,” Lafayette explained.

  The boys were looking at Tennie with anxious eyes. They didn’t want her to think badly of Gid.

  She smiled. “I reckon he’s learned his lesson. I hope.”

  Wash shook his head in mild disgust but said nothing. Tennie didn’t worry about it—they may never see Gid again. Wash hadn’t made up his mind if he wanted to go back to a practice in San Antonio, or open one in Ring Bit, or stay with the rangers for a while longer.

  Tennie wondered what the boys had brought along in their burlap tote sacks. Badger was still mad that Shorty had insisted he leave Rascal behind for the time being, saying he was too young for such a trip. She hoped Badger hadn’t tried to sneak the puppy into one of the bags.

  Lafayette asked her what she would prefer for her wedding supper, pheasant or roast beef, and she forgot all about the secret treasures her stepsons were hoarding.

  She knew only two people in Cat Ridge, the sheriff and the attorney who had handled Ashton Granger’s affairs for her. She liked the attorney and wouldn’t mind seeing him, but she decidedly did not want to see the sheriff again. Ever. It was so late, however, when they arrived in Cat Ridge, there was only time to clean up before supper. Wash had gotten her an upstairs room with an adjoining one for the boys. He would stay in a separate room with Lafayette.

  “Freshen up and rest for a little while,” Wash said. “I’ll either come back here to fetch you, or you can come to our room. It’s the last door at the end of the hall on the left.”

  She nodded. He kissed her before smiling playfully, turning her around and telling her to skedaddle.

  The boys wanted to go outside and look at the horses, but Tennie told them to hold off until after supper. “Get cleaned up first. And we probably should rest.”

  She knew they were too wound up to rest. She tried stretching out on the bed but jumped up after five minutes. She knocked on the adjoining door to their room.

  Before she could turn the handle, Lucas called out, “Just a minute!” and she waited until he opened the door. He smiled at her. “This station is something else, isn’t it? You won’t have to cook supper or wash the dishes.”

  She knew she should be suspicious about what they were up to, but she was too happy to look for trouble and wanted to be with Wash. “Let’s go see if Mr. Wash and Mr. Lafayette are ready for supper.”

  They followed her down the hall, poking one another and giggling. Tennie gave them a look but didn’t question them. The door to Wash’s room was open, and they could hear the two men in an intense discussion.

  Tennie paused, unsure of what to do. The boys stood silent behind her as Wash’s strong voice carried out the bedroom door and into the hall where they stood.

  “You’re serious? You have another group of whores coming in next month?”

  “Yes, little brother,” came Lafayette’s weary reply.

  “Fay, you know I’m not a prude,” Wash said, “but how in the hell can you stand living like that? Didn’t you learn your lesson with that last crazy whore you had living with you?”

  “I have to,” Lafayette replied. “The men need it.”

  “Then do like Winn Payton did and go back East and bring them some brides.”

  Tennie didn’t know what she should do. She didn’t want to eavesdrop, but she didn’t know if she should walk in or go back to her room.

  “Look, Wash,” Lafayette was saying. “I’m not like you. I don’t want to go traipsing after criminals, and I couldn’t stand working in a courtroom. The only thing I’m any good at is playing cards. And I either have to roam all over the countryside, or I can have my own establishment and give men like Gid Coltrane jobs to keep them out of prison. And that means providing entertainment.”

  “It’s your life, Lafayette,” Wash said. “You do want what you want.”

  Tennie turned and looked at the boys, shooing them back to their rooms.

  Wash came and got them a little later, but Tennie said nothing to him about what she heard. The boys did not mention it either. At one point, Badger looked like he might say something, but Rusty hushed him with a poke and a hard glance.

  It was wonderful to sit down at a table and be waited on by someone else, but Tennie found herself exhausted and troubled. It wasn’t very long after they had finished eating that she requested they excuse her.

  “Please do, Miss Tennie,” Lafayette said with a smile. “You were about to nod off into the soup earlier.”

  Wash walked with her upstairs, saying he would bring the boys later.

  At her door, Tennie turned to him. “Wash, let’s get married now. I don’t want to go through with all this fuss.”

  He stared down at her, taking her by the hands.

  She squeezed his hands in return. “I know this sounds silly, but at the dining table, I was overcome with the feeling that this trip isn’t going to turn out well.”

  “Tennie, sweetheart,” Wash said, choosing his words carefully. “I don’t want all the fuss either. But you know we are doing this first and foremost for Lafayette’s sake, don’t you?”

  “If you say so,” she nodded.

  “I do. He killed our older brother because of a woman. And he thinks that by stepping aside and not trying to court you himself, and by giving us the most magni
ficent wedding he can come up with, he can somehow atone for his past sins.”

  “That’s foolish,” Tennie cried. “You’ve forgiven him; God has forgiven him.”

  “I know,” Wash said. “But I can’t take this away from him.”

  Tennie gave in, placing her forehead on Wash’s chest. “I know. I understand.”

  Wash lifted her chin and kissed her. “It won’t be long, and it will be all over. And then our life together can begin.”

  * * *

  The next morning, they boarded a smaller and less comfortable stagecoach as they began their journey south. The dusty dirt was unpleasant, but Tennie had experienced that on the wagon train out West and was prepared for it. When Lafayette began talking about the wedding again, she found she had no enthusiasm for it, but she tried not to let it show. When Badger remarked they hadn’t seen Hawkshaw in Cat Ridge, Tennie was grateful for the diversion.

  Wash gave him a sharp glance and turned to Tennie. “Hawkshaw?”

  “He was some shootist who was in Ring Bit for a while,” Tennie said. “But he left before you got back.”

  “Was he a tall man, dark hair, dark mustache, dressed well but looked a little rough?” Wash asked.

  “That’s him to a tee,” Tennie said.

  “What was he doing in Ring Bit?”

  “Spying on people,” Lucas said. “Miss Tennie had to get on him about it.”

  Tennie blushed. She had eavesdropped on Wash and Lafayette just the evening before. Before anything else could be said, something outside the window caught Wash’s attention.

  “There’s a rider coming up fast,” he said.

  Tennie joined him at the window.

  Gid, riding a swift horse better than Tennie could have imagined him capable of, caught up with the stage and stopped it. “They’s a fire at the Silver Moon, Colonel,” he said, breathing heavily and sweating as much as the horse. “Men are trying to put it out, but it sure don’t look good.”

  Lafayette’s face blanched. “Drive on to the next stop and hurry,” he called out the window to the driver. “We’ll get fresh horses at the next stop,” he told Gid. He pulled back in, looking at Wash. “You and Tennie go on ahead. Once I find out what the damage is and take care of it, I’ll get a fast horse and catch up with you as soon as I can.”

  Wash nodded as the stage lurched forward, the driver cracking his long whip and hollering, “Giddy-up now!” to his horses.

  They weren’t far from the next swing station, and the stagecoach had barely stopped when Lafayette leapt out the door and hurried to rent a horse to take him back to Ring Bit.

  They all got off the stagecoach at the station that was little more than a log cabin with a corral. The boys hung on to their tote sacks, but excitedly explored the corrals and looked the horses over. As soon as a fresh team of horses had been hitched, they were called to hop aboard the stage again.

  As excited as the boys were to be going on a journey, the rocking motion of the stagecoach soon had their heads nodding.

  Tennie, feeling sleepy herself, smiled at them. She turned to Wash and smiled at him also. “Thank you for taking them on, too.”

  He nodded, taking her hands in his and looking at them before speaking. He rubbed her knuckles lightly with his thumb. “I think it will be for the best, Tennie. Truth is, I’d like to continue being a ranger for a year or two more, and I couldn’t bear to leave you all alone for weeks at a time. But with the boys there with you when I have to be gone . . .”

  She sat up and stared at him. “I thought you had other aspirations.”

  “I do. It’s just that I want to do what I’ve been doing a little while longer. I don’t want you back in Ring Bit. I have a little house on the outskirts of San Antonio. It’s a nice place. It’s built sturdy, made of rock. There won’t be any Indian problems that far south. You and the boys will be safe there. I have good ranch hands; I have good neighbors.

  “You don’t mind, do you, Tennie?” he asked. “I’m just not ready to retire into the courtroom entirely.”

  Tennie shook her head. “No, I don’t mind. Not if that’s what you want.”

  He turned her hands over and kissed her palms.

  “Wash,” she asked, feeling a little embarrassed. “Does this have anything to do with Lafayette? We overheard in the hall what he plans on doing.”

  Wash leaned back in the seat, looking upward and taking a deep breath. He turned his head and spoke to Tennie in lower tones to keep the boys from awakening. “Yes, maybe. Tennie, those kinds of women are all over the West in every town. Sometimes it’s a poor soul who has been abandoned by some man and has nowhere else to turn. But out here, things are different.” He looked down at his hands as if trying to decide how to continue.

  “Mr. Payton told me the fallen women who land in Ring Bit are the hardened ones who don’t want to live any other way,” Tennie said. “He said Lafayette would use them until they got diseased or old, and then he would put them on a stagecoach to somewhere else. Is that what you are trying to tell me?”

  “Yes,” Wash said, nodding. “To be frank, it hurts me to see Lafayette turning himself into some kind of a pimp. And it will not end well for him.”

  Tennie wasn’t sure what pimp meant, but she had an idea. “He’s right about one thing, though. The money he has made has helped a lot of people, including me.”

  “I know. But promise me one thing, Tennie. Promise me that if something happens to me, you will not under any circumstances let yourself be drawn into the life Lafayette is living. He would never hurt you intentionally, but sooner or later, you would find yourself burned.”

  “I promise.” Tennie looked across at the boys and saw a flicker of Rusty’s eyelids, and she thought one of Lucas’s, also. She would be glad, though, if they had overheard. It was best for them to face the truth, too.

  * * *

  The station they spent the night in wasn’t as grand as the one in Cat Ridge, but it had a roof and four walls, so Tennie didn’t complain. The boys groused a little about the food when the stationmaster was out of hearing, but Wash laughed and told them they were spoilt by Tennie’s good vittles. Everyone, including the old stationmaster and his wife, slept on cots in one big room.

  The novelty of riding a stagecoach wore off the next day, and the boys began to squabble. Badger cried, saying he was tired of always sitting in the middle. Tennie moved closer to Wash and set Badger by the window next to her. He leaned his head out so far, Tennie had to grab the back of his overalls to pull him back in. It was nice, however, to have an excuse to sit closer to Wash and enjoy being near him.

  Wash began telling stories about outlaws and Indian skirmishes, quieting the boys. Tennie talked about the orphanage a little. She described being loaned out to work during parties in mansions as an assistant to the cook, of peeking through doors and watching lovely ladies and gentlemen as they dined at sparkling tables. When she realized she was describing the life Wash lived as a boy, she stumbled over her words and fell silent.

  “Tennie,” Wash said. “That life was built on the backs of slaves, and I’m not sorry to be shut of it.”

  She was embarrassed. Embarrassed he had seen the envy she had for those fine homes and elaborate parties, and ashamed of herself for coveting something that wasn’t worth it. At first, she was at a loss of what to say.

  “I’m glad you feel that way,” she said finally, and changed the subject to the wagon train with Winn Payton and the other women who’d become ranch brides to men at Ring Bit. Wash wanted to know more about the Indian attack, and the boys, who had already heard most of it, begged her to repeat it.

  When they tired of telling stories, they began to sing. Wash, used to the desolation of the prairies and cross timbers, had memorized many songs. Badger, who sometimes had the attention span of a gnat, began hanging his head out the window again. Tennie, tired of pulling on him when he leaned too far, was about to ask Wash if he had a rope she could tie to the back of Badger’s overal
ls when the boy suddenly gave a cry.

  “It’s more riders coming up behind us!”

  Wash looked out his window, while Rusty and Lucas stuck their heads out of theirs. Tennie tried to see past Badger, but before she could, Lucas cried, “It’s Mr. Poco and Mr. Ben!”

  Tennie felt something as heavy as a Clydesdale’s horseshoe sink to the bottom of her stomach. Wash called out to the driver to stop the coach.

  “What could they want?” she asked, fearful of the answer.

  “I don’t know; we’ll find out,” Wash said.

  As the stagecoach came to a halt, and before Wash could exit, the two rangers were at the window.

  “We need you, Wash,” Ben said. “Senator Wetzel’s daughter has been kidnapped. We’ve got a horse for you. Come on!”

  Before Tennie could take in what was happening, Wash was pulling a wad of folded bills out of his vest pocket and placing it in her hands. “We’re not that far from Waco. You and the boys wait for Lafayette there. I’ll try to get word to him as soon as I can.”

  “Wash—” Tennie began.

  He gave her a swift, firm kiss on the lips. “I have to go. I’ll see you as soon as I can. Wait for me or Lafayette in Waco.”

  She nodded, but he didn’t see it. He was already climbing out the door. She heard him speak to the driver and the helper who rode shotgun but couldn’t understand what he said except to hear the word Waco again.

  Tennie scooted over to the window and looked out in time to see him jump on a horse and ride away in another direction with his two men. The stagecoach driver did not tarry but cracked his whip and hollered at the horses to giddy-up, calling them by name and urging them to get going.

  The stagecoach gave a lurch, and Tennie fell backward in the seat. She stared at the boys, tears coming into her eyes.

  Lafayette was always going to be chasing after money, and Wash was always going to be chasing after lawbreakers, and she was always going to be left behind to hold down the fort.

  “Don’t cry, Miss Tennie,” Lucas said.

  “He’ll be back,” Rusty assured her.

  She tried to stop her tears. “We must pray for their safety and the safety of the little girl,” Tennie said, sniffing. Another sob escaped her throat.