The Chisholm Trail Bride, page 3
He swiped at his forehead with the back of his hand and let out a long breath. There was no doubt that he was no better than his pa.
Benjy sprang up, fists flying. Wyatt easily avoided his attempts to fight back. Finally, he snatched one arm and threw him backward. “Stop. I don’t want to fight you anymore.”
“Coward,” Benjy spat at him. “You’re a coward just like your pa. My pa told me how he ran off from his boys in the last gunfight.”
Wyatt’s jaw clenched. “You take that back.”
His opponent stood a little taller. “I won’t because you know it’s true. You’re a coward now, and you’ll be a drunk later. Did you know he’s with us on this ride because the other Rangers don’t trust him anymore?”
“That’s not true.”
“It is. My pa and Mr. Gentry were talking about it. He ain’t getting drummed out of the Rangers because they don’t do that to one of their own, but he ain’t trusted and he ain’t going to ride with them much longer.”
He reached out to snatch Benjy up by the throat. “You’re a liar. A braggart and a liar.”
“Let him go,” a familiar voice said. “He’s right.”
Wyatt’s blood ran cold. “Pa?”
His father swayed into the clearing. “Be glad it was me and not an outlaw bent on stealing cattle.” He waved his pistol. “If I was, you two idiots would be dead. Good thing I’m not the excitable sort.”
Wyatt released Benjy, who dropped to his knees. For a second Wyatt thought he might be begging for mercy. Then he came up with Wyatt’s rifle and aimed it at Pa.
“Get on out of here, you old drunk,” Benjy said. “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn in your condition.”
Pa’s smile chilled Wyatt to the bone. He’d seen it too many times just before a thrashing or, worse, before Pa took up his gun and started shooting. He never knew whether he was still alive because the Lord had more for him to do or because Pa was a lousy shot when he was drinking.
Pa stood silhouetted in the moonlight, his right hand at his side and his left clutching his pistol. He hadn’t raised his weapon to aim, but he could at any minute.
“I could, and I will,” his father said, his voice low and even. “Want me to show you?”
“Is that a threat?” Benjy demanded, matching Pa’s tone.
“It’s a promise. Just ask Wyatt. That’s how he got that scar across his neck. If I’d been aiming to kill him, I would’ve, but I was just looking to get his attention. Ask him.”
Ben looked over at him.
Silence. Then his father laughed.
A moment later, a shot rang out. Benjy stumbled backward. Pa crumpled. A wisp of smoke rose up in front of him.
Wyatt ran toward his father. Benjy was shouting, but the words refused to register. Pa looked up at him, eyes cloudy and barely blinking.
“Don’t die,” Wyatt said on the cusp of a sob.
Pa responded with a cough and a shudder. “I ain’t in charge of deciding that,” he said on a ragged breath. “Just remember you ain’t me but you could be, so watch yourself.”
Wyatt sat back on his heels and looked up at the sky. Overhead a star fell. At his feet, blood fell. Behind him, he could hear Benjy’s ragged sobs.
He looked back down at his father, the man he’d loved and hated all at the same time, and something inside his heart twisted. All the times he’d wished this man dead, had prayed that God would take him, and now…
No. The old man was too tough. Too mean.
Pa lifted his bloodstained hand to press it against Wyatt’s chest. “Your mama’s heart is in there, not mine.”
Then he was gone.
Eliza sat bolt upright. Wyatt.
He was on duty tonight. She knew because Zeke had told her when he stumbled into the wagon after his watch ended and Wyatt’s began. It had to be him who’d fired the shot.
Or Benjy, though it was well known on the ride that Mr. Barnhart had left instructions that his son not be granted the use of a firearm unless it was an emergency. No one needed to ask why. Benjy was Judge Barnhart’s only heir and his successor not only in the cattle business but also in his law practice.
She’d been on enough trail rides to know that the sound of gunfire meant trouble. Never had she been so thankful that on the trail a person slept in the clothes worn the day before. There were no ribbons to fumble with so as to exchange a nightgown for a dress, and she didn’t bother to do anything about the braid that had likely come undone during the few hours of sleep she’d managed tonight.
It took her seconds to leave the wagon and her slowly awakening brothers and less than a minute to find Wyatt leaning over a man on the ground and Benjy standing a short distance away looking like a scared rabbit about to bolt and run.
“What happened?” she asked as she stumbled to a stop.
Neither answered, so she moved two steps closer. Wyatt’s back was to her. She looked down at the man on the ground and could only see the bottom half of his face because his hat had been placed over it.
“Who is that?”
“It’s his pa,” Benjy said, his voice low and shaky.
Eliza moved to kneel next to Wyatt. If he noticed, he showed no sign of it. His head was bowed and his eyes closed as if he was praying.
Gently she leaned over to move the hat away from Mr. Creed’s face. She had seen one dead person, her little cousin who had died of the consumption just before her seventh birthday. Abigail had looked like she’d fallen into a peaceful sleep. W. C. Creed looked like his face was frozen in anger.
His eyes were open and staring straight up at her. Eliza quickly returned the hat to its former position and sat back on her heels.
“How did this happen?” When Wyatt remained unmoved and silent, she nudged him. “Quick, tell me, Wyatt. The men will be here in a minute, but I want to know.”
Her friend’s eyes opened. After a moment, he turned his face toward her and swiped at his cheeks with the backs of his hands, leaving dark smudges of blood behind.
Wyatt’s mouth moved, but he seemed to have trouble finding the words. “It happened so fast,” he finally managed. “Before he died, he warned me not to be like him. Told me I had…”
His words trailed off as he shook his head.
Eliza leaned close, aware that the answer to her question might be something she did not want to hear. She looked down at the bloodstains on his shirt and up at his face again.
“Did you do this, Wyatt?” she said quietly enough that he alone could hear.
Wyatt stared at her as if he didn’t know who she was. She looked at those sage-green eyes and wondered if it was true that a man’s guilt could be seen there.
She saw nothing that would tell her the answer. Then he opened his mouth to speak.
Before he could answer, one of the cowboys jerked Wyatt backward. Another hauled him to his feet.
Red parted the crowd with Pa following a step behind. “What happened here?” Then he caught sight of Eliza. “And what, pray tell, are you doing here, young lady?”
“I heard the shot,” she said as she stood and faced her father. “Just like the rest of you. I just got here.”
Benjy looked over at Wyatt and then back at her father. “I saw it all, sir. Wyatt there killed his pa in cold blood. He busted my nose when I tried to stop him. That’s what happened.”
“He’s lying,” Wyatt managed, panic rising on his face. “Pa was drunk and mouthing off, and Benjy took exception to what he said and shot him.”
“Don’t believe him,” Benjy shouted. “He’s been sore at his pa ever since the old man punched him. You all see his black eye. He didn’t get that tending the remuda.”
Eliza gasped. How had she not realized?
“You did it,” Wyatt shouted, his voice ragged. “It was you, not me. I never wanted him dead. He was all I had.”
“He was a drunk, and that makes you the son of a drunk.” Benjy puffed up his chest. “My pa is a judge.”
“That’s enough,” Pa told him. “There’s no cause for that kind of talk. We’re all judged on who we are, not whose blood flows in our veins, and none of us is better than the other.”
“What reason would I have for killing a man I hardly know?” Benjy demanded. “I don’t even have a gun!”
“You took my gun and shot him because he insulted you,” Wyatt said. “Everyone knows how much you care about being important. That’s why your pa made you ride the trail with us. He hoped you’d get knocked down a peg.”
“All right,” Pa said. “That’s enough from the both of you.” He looked around. “Did anyone witness the shooting?”
All around him, men shook their heads. “I heard it,” one of the cowboys called. “I was over there seeing to the remuda, what with Wyatt on watch. There was a fuss of some kind. I heard WC but couldn’t tell who he was arguing with. Everything got quiet. Then I heard a shot.”
“A shot from Wyatt’s gun,” Benjy added.
“Wyatt?” the boss said. “How did Benjy come to have your gun?”
“Benjy took it off the ground where it was lying between us.”
Pa studied him for a minute, then turned to Red. “Send a few of your men off to find shovels. These two will dig the grave, and there will be a burial at sunrise.”
“But what about the killer?” Benjy said. “What are you going to do with him?”
The boss stared at Benjy for just a moment, then looked over at Wyatt. Her friend stood with his back straight and his shoulders squared. He waited for Papa’s pronouncement of his future in silence.
For the first time in a long time, she didn’t think of Wyatt as annoying or irritating. She didn’t hold it against him that he got her in trouble regularly. Rather, she wondered how she would ever manage without him.
The boss on any trail drive was the law when there was no other law around. The man with the Ranger badge was dead, which meant that Wyatt was staring at the person who held his fate. His knees shook, but he stilled them through sheer determination not to show weakness in front of Mr. Gentry.
Or, more importantly, Eliza.
“Red,” Mr. Gentry finally said, “after we offer up a proper burial to WC and eat our breakfast, I want you to take these two back to Waco. Let the Rangers sort out who killed one of their own. In the meantime, I want them together all the time and supervised.”
Red’s expression soured. “My men are busy, sir, and they’ll be busier now that Wyatt’s not taking care of the remuda.” The ranch foreman caught Wyatt’s attention and held it. Was that admiration he saw in the older man’s eyes? “You did a fine job, son.”
“Thank you, sir,” Wyatt told him.
“We’ll already be shorthanded by two, boss,” Red continued. “Who do you want to watch them?”
“I’m turning them over to Cookie until after breakfast. He can keep them busy, and he still shoots straight enough to discourage either of them from running off.”
“Sir,” Red said. “Miss Eliza works with Cookie. Are you sure you want her around them?”
Mr. Gentry’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll find something else for her to do.” He turned to Wyatt and then looked over at Benjy. “I don’t know what went on, and I don’t need to know because the Lord saw it all, and He will repay for that life that was taken by one of you.”
Wyatt slid a glance at Benjy. He was acting awfully unbothered for a man who had just heard that God would smite him for what he’d done.
Mr. Gentry cleared his throat. “What I do know is that neither of you will have anything to do with my daughter. Ever. I’ll have your agreement or you’ll both be shot as murderers. You have my word on that.”
He could easily make good on that promise, and not even Judge Barnhart could raise a complaint about it. Justice was swift on the trail, especially when it concerned murder.
Punishment for the murder of a Texas Ranger was swifter still.
“Papa, no,” Eliza exclaimed, though her father’s stare presumably kept her from saying anything else. Her brothers made their way through the crowd to stand on either side of her. Trey looked away when their eyes met.
“You know the terms. Do I have your word on it?” Mr. Gentry looked first at Benjy, who quickly nodded.
“I understand, and you have my word,” Benjy told him.
Wyatt turned his attention away from the boss to watch Eliza. She swiped at a tear, and his heart broke. That girl was the only friend he had left in the world.
“Wyatt?” the boss said. “What will it be?”
“I’d rather die than agree to that, sir.”
The boss’s expression gave away nothing of what he was thinking. However, he turned to face his men.
“Red, clear this area. See that every cowboy is back in his bedroll and my children remain in the wagon. Pick a man to supervise Barnhart while he digs a grave. Make it big enough for two.”
“Papa, no!” Eliza broke free of her brothers to rush past the boss and fall into Wyatt’s arms. “He is my friend. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Wyatt carefully extracted Eliza from his embrace to hold her at arm’s length. It was the most difficult thing he’d ever done outside of saying goodbye to his mama at her grave site.
“Listen to your pa,” he told her.
“Wyatt, no,” came out on a ragged breath.
“Look here,” he said. “You’re just jealous because I’m about to go where all the stars are and you’re stuck down here where you just see some of them. That means I win the count and you don’t.” He leaned down to press his forehead to hers. “Don’t be a sore loser, Liza Jane. And don’t forget me, okay? I’ll be riding the tail of every star you see.”
He took a step back and put his arms down at his sides. Eliza crumpled onto the ground in a puddle of blue calico and began to wail.
“Red,” Eliza’s pa said. “You know what to do.”
“Yessir,” Red said, his eyes on Wyatt. “You sure you don’t need me here with you?”
“I can handle this,” Mr. Gentry said as he removed his revolver from his holster. “You’ll watch the remuda tonight. Zeke, take your brother and sister back to the wagon.”
The eldest Gentry child stepped forward. Avoiding Wyatt’s gaze, he scooped Eliza into his arms and carried her off into the night, her cries trailing in their wake.
Trey moved toward him, seeming unsure what to do. Wyatt stuck his hand out to shake, but Trey wrapped him in a bear hug, then walked away without saying a word.
“You heard the boss,” Red shouted to his men. “Off with you.”
They did as he asked, leaving only the three of them standing there. Eliza’s cries could still be heard over the lowing of the cattle off in the distance.
The boss squared his stance. “Wyatt Creed, I believe you’re a man of your word, and I am a man of mine.”
“Yessir,” Wyatt managed. He wouldn’t cry. Not here. Not in front of these men he respected. “I try to be.”
The boss leaned over and said something to Red. The foreman nodded, then walked over to shake Wyatt’s hand.
He pulled out his bandanna and swiped at Wyatt’s cheeks. Smears of dried blood dirtied the bandanna when the foreman stuffed it back into his pocket.
“You’re more of a man than your pa ever hoped to be,” Red told him. “We all know it. I hope you do too.”
He looked up into the older man’s kind eyes. “Thank you, sir.”
A moment later, Red was gone. Mr. Gentry now held his firearm at his side.
“It’s just you and me here, Wyatt. Tell me one more time what happened, and this time I want details.”
“It don’t matter,” Wyatt said. “I’m ready to go. I don’t have anyone else but Eliza. When a man loses his family and his only friend, there’s not much reason to stay if he’s offered the chance to go.” He shrugged. “Plus a man’s word is his word, and I’m standing by mine.”
“So you don’t want to offer detailed testimony against Benjy?”
“He done it. My pa was full of rotgut and spoiling for a fight. I suspect he came looking for me, thinking to use his fists on me again. Instead, he found the both of us, and Benjy did the work for me.”
Mr. Gentry’s expression softened. “You mean to tell me you intended to shoot your father?”
“I didn’t plan it, sir, but after the thrashing he gave me the other night, I swore I’d shoot him before I let him do that again. I said it out loud too, although there weren’t anyone around to hear me except the horses, and they didn’t seem to take any interest in it.”
He was rambling, and a man never rambled. The less he said, the more a man knew. That was his father’s philosophy.
There were few things Pa was right about, but that was one of them. So Wyatt clamped his mouth shut and waited to be shot for the crime he wished in his heart that he had committed.
“You got any last words, son?”
Wyatt stifled a sob. He would not cry. He just would not.
“Tell Eliza she was a friend to the end and that didn’t go unnoticed. And tell her to keep up her studies and learning about the stars. Oh, and to stay away from Benjy Barnhart because he’s got designs on her, and I don’t trust him.”
“Nor do I,” the boss said. “I’ll be sure Eliza knows.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ve tried to watch out for her, but I guess that responsibility will go to someone else now.”
“I’m not sure I would call the saddle incident watching out for her,” he said with the slightest hint of a smile. “Although my daughter is able to find trouble on her own without anyone’s help, so I cannot fully blame you.” He paused. “My wife, however, holds a different opinion.”
“Then maybe I ought to amend my last words to offer my apology to Mrs. Gentry for the concern I have caused.” He nodded. “Yessir, that would be what I’d like. It wouldn’t do to leave that sort of thing unsaid.”
Wyatt shut his mouth. He was rambling again.
“Consider it said then. Anything else?”
He swallowed hard. In all the adventures on the trail that he’d considered, dying there had not been one of them. “No, sir,” he said as his throat tightened.
