The Gambler’s Family, Part
2
part of The
Gambler’s Heart series
by Setcheti
Please see disclaimer and acknowledgements on The Gambler’s Heart Series Index Page
People had seen Maude get off
the stage, and some had even noticed that she’d had a companion with her. No one had recognized the escaped Baxter
sister at that point, most of the residents of the town never having actually
laid eyes on her, but the flurry of telegrams between Four Corners and
Luckily, no one was willing to
hurt one of the town’s other lawmen to do it. But Chris Larabee knew that all it would take was one opening, just a
few unguarded minutes, for the matter to be out of their hands…and
swinging. And by the end of the
week, he was just about ready to provide that opening himself.
After a few more attempts to
get some kind of story straight and make someone believe it, Maude had gone
quiet and stayed that way. Part of
her silence was doubtless due to the realization that the entire town wanted her
dead, of course, but some may have been from shock due to the behavior of her
cellmate; being injured and helpless had ripped away whatever thin veneer of
civilized behavior Catie Baxter had gained under the
conwoman’s tutelage, and she was, as had been said of
her so many times before, completely rabid. If the girl had cried or been in any way
pitiable she might have found some sympathy - enough to stop the lynching
attempts, anyway. But she didn’t
cry. Instead she cursed and yelled
and screamed out threats until Josiah and Nathan gagged her, and then she just
lay there and glared at anyone who happened to stray into her field of vision,
black eyes as cold and glittering as any snake’s.
Josiah’s professional opinion,
both as lawman and as preacher, was that she was just plain evil. He was willing to offer no opinion about
Maude, save that he thought sitting there under the black weight of her former
protégé’s insane gaze might have just brought home to her how big this last
mistake of her career had been. She
had, they’d discovered, spent most of the winter in
Chris had a professional
opinion of his own after finding that out; he said that the two of them deserved
each other and that a double hanging was most likely the best thing for
them. He didn’t let it happen,
though, in spite of the fact that he wanted to – a fact which he shared with the
two government agents who finally arrived to take custody of Maude and Catie. The
agents, for their part, didn’t seem concerned about it; their prisoners were
still alive, that was all that mattered to them. They interviewed each of the Seven and
several of the townspeople as well regarding what had gone on, sent word back to
Six of the peacekeepers
arranged themselves in front of the jail for the departure, as much to ensure
that any spontaneous six-gun justice was held at bay as to reassure themselves
that the two women were actually gone.
Ezra, however, did not stand with them. The gambler leaned on the rail in front
of the saloon, his face expressionless, and watched the stage until it was out
of sight …and then he turned and went back inside, alone.
Once the two women were gone,
things went back to normal for almost everyone. Almost. A week went by, then several more, and it was nearly a month after that when
Vin decided he was tired of the situation and volunteered himself to go out on a
long patrol with Ezra. Chris hadn’t
wanted to let Ezra go on the patrol at all, had in fact been ready to refuse to
let the gambler take any more patrols
at all, but Vin was insistent and the gunslinger had learned to trust his
friend’s judgment – especially where Ezra was concerned.
They rode out early the next
morning, and Vin kept himself to a bare minimum of
necessary conversation for the first half of their ride. He knew Ezra, and he knew his silence
would eventually force the man to ask him to talk. All he had to do was wait for Ezra’s curiosity to boil over.
He didn’t have to wait
long. Just about an hour past noon
the pregnant silence gave birth to a question. “Mr. Tanner? What was it you wanted to speak with me
about?”
The tracker hid his smile. “What happened to ‘Vin’? ‘Friends use first names’, ya know.”
Ezra blinked at him for a
minute and then smiled himself.
“Sorry, Vin, my mind was elsewhere.
But I can tell you have somethin’ you want to
say, and I have the feelin’ you deliberately chose to
ride patrol with me today on purpose to say it.”
“Yep.” Vin pulled
Peso’s head around so they were facing the gambler. “Didn’t want no audience for this,
didn’t think you’d appreciate it much—ain’t sure
you’re gonna appreciate it too much
anyways.”
“That sounds intriguing.” Ezra raised an eyebrow. “Pray continue.”
“Got a question for ya,” Vin said seriously. “What I want ta know is, when are you gonna
stop punishin’ Miz Julie for
your mother bein’ a snake?”
Ezra jerked like he’d been
shot, and from the expression on his face he might as
well have been. “What on earth are
you talking about? Ah haven’t
been…”
“Oh yes you have,” Vin interrupted relentlessly. “You don’t go home much nights anymore, and ya
volunteer for anything that’ll take you out of town—and when you are with her,
you’re just…goin’ through the motions.” He walked his mount up closer to Ezra’s
and looked the shocked man in the eye.
“You know, JD asked her one day when he was over there helpin’ with the chickens if everything was okay, and she
said it had been such a horrible experience that it was just gonna take time for things to get back to normal. It’s been a damn near a month now, Ez; just how long is it gonna
take?”
The other man’s mouth had
fallen open, but there was a touch of anger gleaming in his eyes. “Why did Mistah Dunne feel the need to ask mah wife such a question?”
“’Cause he’s your friend and he
was worried about her—she’s gettin’ skinny again,
Ez, an’ she’s too quiet.” Vin spat in the
dust off the left side of his horse.
“Here’s the way it looks to me:
your ma were right unhappy ‘bout you gettin’
married again. Them Baxter girls
knew all about us, stands to reason they knew all about your ma, too—hell, that
Catie told Miz Julie as much
when they took her last summer, seemed to think ol’
Maude was somethin’ purty
special from the sound of it. So
Catie gets away from us an’ hooks up with your ma,
knowin’ that once she tells Maude all about everything
the woman won’t rest until she’s made your life a livin’ hell over it.”
Taking a chance, he reached out and grasped Ezra’s arm – the one his
mother had put a bullet in – giving him a little shake. “Dammit, Ez, you’re lettin’ them two
bitches win! They’d be laughin’ fit to bust if they could see how you’re lettin’ ‘em mess up your
life!”
Reality came crashing in on the
gambler, breaking through the walls he’d built over the past month to keep the
pain of his mother’s final betrayal at bay. He caught at the sleeve of Vin’s coat, his expression stricken. “Oh my lord, what have ah done?” he
whispered. “Ah didn’t mean
to…”
“I know you didn’t,” Vin reassured him calmly. “And Miz Julie
knows it too, that’s one understandin’ little
woman.”
“Too understandin’,” Ezra groaned. “Ah don’t believe ah didn’t catch on
when it started happenin’…” He answered the question before the
tracker had to ask it. “The
nightmares, Vin, she was havin’ nightmares; ah wasn’t the only one fightin’ mah demons after that
horrid incident. Ah kept wakin’ up alone, and the next mornin’ there’d be all kinds of bakin’ and cleanin’ done…but she
nevah said a word about it, not one
word.”
“Probably didn’t want to worry
you, thought you had enough on your mind.”
“Ah should have seen it,” Ezra
said, shaking his head in self-disgust.
“Ah should have asked. She’s
been there for me this whole time, ah should have been there for her as
well.”
“You’re gonna be there now,” Vin told him
firmly, shaking him again. “Like I
said, she’s a real understandin’ little woman, it
ain’t too late to go home and grovel a little—hell,
she might even enjoy it!”
Ezra laughed in spite of
himself. “No, mah friend, ah believe you’re confusin’ mah marriage with the
relationship Mrs. Travis has with Chris—or the one Buck has with Miss Meg. Juliet would most likely burst into
tears and beg my forgiveness if ah
tried such a tactic with her.”
That made Vin laugh too.
He released his grip and slapped his friend’s shoulder. “Yep, I could see that happenin’…but of course that would make ya grovel even more, right?” Suddenly he stiffened, looking back down
the road over Ezra’s shoulder.
“Rider comin’.”
Ezra wheeled Orpheus around so
the chestnut stood shoulder to shoulder with Peso. “Ridin’ in hard, too.”
“Yep.” Both men had drawn their guns, not sure
what to expect. Then Vin squinted.
“Hey, that’s JD!” In a
heartbeat both guns were holstered again and both horses were galloping to meet
the young sheriff. “JD!” Vin called as soon as they
were in range. “Did somethin’ happen in town?”
JD reigned to a halt right in
front of them, patting
All the color drained out of
the gambler’s face; Vin caught his arm again to make
sure he stayed on his horse. “Easy, pard. What happened,
JD?”
“Josiah found her in the church
garden, they think she must’ve got too much sun. He took her home and Miz Travis went to help him.” JD took a deep breath. “He said to come find you right away…and
to make sure you came back with me.”
Ezra flinched. “You all thought ah’d…”
“No, nobody’d ‘ve thought that of you, Ez.” Vin used his hold on the other man to shake him. “Josiah was just scared and shootin’ off at the mouth, he’d never for a minute think
you’d not come home for Miz Julie and you know it.” Even though he knew he was most likely
right about that, though, he tracker made a note to himself that he’d just stay
close to Josiah for a while, just to make sure that the big preacher’s tendency
to shoot off his mouth didn’t happen in front of Ezra. They’d just about gotten the last rift
within the Seven closed, this wasn’t the time to let
another one crack open. He gave his
friend one last shake and then let go of him. “Come on, let’s get back an’ find out
what’s goin’ on.”
The gambler nodded jerkily, and
then kicked his horse into motion and shot off down the road. JD turned worried brown eyes to Vin. “Nathan’s
still up at the village, Vin.”
“I know.” The influenza outbreak of the month
before had been a mild one in
He kicked his horse into a
gallop, followed by JD, hoping that what they found in town would be nothing
more than a case of an over-industrious little wife spending too much time out
under the hot desert sun.
Ezra was vaguely aware that
Vin and JD were riding somewhere behind him, but he
wasn’t paying much attention to them; his attention was focused inward and sharp
with self-recrimination. A month. He’d
been neglecting his wife for a month, and now before he could make
amends…
No, it just couldn’t be so much
too late as that.
Ezra startled more than one
person – and more than one hand reached for the nearest gun – when he and
Orpheus came thundering into town.
Neither of them noticed; in fact, had anyone been in the street Ezra
would most likely have ridden them down and never looked back. As it was he didn’t even look back at
Orpheus once he had vaulted from the horse’s back and dashed up the front steps
of the neat little house.
But at the front door, his hand
on the knob, Ezra hesitated. The
last time he’d used this door had been a month ago, when he’d staggered
backwards out of it and fallen off the whitewashed porch with one of his
mother’s bullets burning in his arm…and with the sure, sickening knowledge that
her next one, if fired, would be targeted someplace more vital if he could not
get himself in view of witnesses.
Ezra had never in his life been so glad to see anyone as he had been to
see Buck that day…unless it was to see his frightened but otherwise unscathed
wife in Nathan’s clinic immediately afterwards.
It was the thought of his wife
that turned the knob. Ezra entered
the house silently, and the house was silent in answer save for the ticking of
the pendulum clock Juliet’s brother Jesse had given to them as a wedding present
the year before. No voices sounded
from the kitchen or the parlor, where they would have been if his wife were all
right, and with mounting trepidation he began to ascend the stairs. He did not call out to see if anyone was
upstairs, unwilling to startle his wife if she by chance was resting…and
unwilling to risk finding that his presence was unwelcome if she wasn’t
alone. Halfway up the stairs he
heard the murmur of a woman’s voice which quickly resolved itself into the
scolding tones of Mary Travis.
“…scared everyone half to death and you’re not going to do it again. You lay right back
down.”
“Mary, this is ridiculous! I just overheated, you’re all making a big fuss over nothing! I have things I need to
do…”
Ezra sagged against the
banister, relief at hearing his wife’s voice vying with a renewed surge of
worry. Good Lord, she sounds so
weak…
“From the looks of it you’ve
been doing entirely too much!”
Mary’s voice was quiet but still reproving. “And you did not ‘just overheat’, and
you know it. You are staying in
that bed, Juliet, and that’s final.”
“Ah can’t stay in bed for two
weeks!” He could hear the
frustration in her voice. “Ezra
will be back this evenin’, ah have to be fine by
then…” There was a sudden
uncomfortable silence, then a small gasp.
“Oh no, you didn’t…”
Ezra stepped into the room
before Mary could respond. His wife
was lying propped up by multiple pillows in the middle of their big feather bed,
her delicate face almost as white as the lace-trimmed nightgown she was
wearing. He was at her side in two
quick steps, his hand shaking as he reached out to gently caress her pale cheek,
not missing the high, bright blush of fever on it. “Juliet darlin’, what happened?”
“Nothing!”
Frustration was quickly edging toward tears. “Ah’ll be
fine, Ezra, just fine. They
shouldn’t have worried you.”
He smiled gently down into her
eyes, his own vision blurring slightly.
“Ah wouldn’t have forgiven them if they hadn’t,
” he said huskily, sitting down beside her on the bed. “Now tell me why ‘nothin’ has them wantin’ you to
rest for two weeks.”
“Because she’s worn herself
out,” Mary answered, frowning.
“Trying to do too much in this heat without taking into consideration her
already delicate condition—which is no doubt the reason she hasn’t been
eating.” She shook an admonishing
finger at the younger woman. “You
should have said something much sooner.”
Juliet sniffed. “I just…didn’t think it was a good idea
to tell everyone, especially since I wasn’t sure anyway, Mary,” she said
sincerely if not contritely. “I
really did wonder if the way I was feelin’ might just
be the heat, or a touch of that flu Mr. Larabee had
last month.”
“And it might be either of
those, but you had to have known that couldn’t be all there was to it.” To Ezra’s surprise the newspaperwoman
smiled sympathetically and patted his wife’s hand. “I know why you didn’t want to tell everyone, honey, but you should have
talked to Gloria or I at least; we would have helped you, and then you might not
have scared all of us half to death.”
Her cornflower-blue eyes were kind, but determined. “Now are you going to tell him or should
I?”
Slender fingers trailed
nervously over his brocade vest; Ezra caught the wandering hand, kissed it, and
pressed it against his chest, over his heart. “Juliet?”
She sighed, looking
worried. “I didn’t want to say
anything, I didn’t think it was the right time to tell you, but now…Ezra, I am
almost certain that you are goin’ to be a
papa.”
Ezra’s mouth fell open. “We’re goin’
to have…” Both women nodded. “When?”
“Sometime after Christmas, I
think,” Juliet told him.
“After Christmas,” he repeated
softly. “We’re havin’ a baby.”
He started to grin. “We’re
havin’ a baby!”
Juliet visibly relaxed, sinking
deeper into her pillows. “You
should tell Josiah first,” she said with a tired smile. “I wish I could see the look on his
face.”
“Your wish is my command,” he
replied. “Mrs. Travis, would you
mind fetchin’ Mr. Sanchez for
me?”
Mary smiled. “Not at all, Mr. Standish,” she said,
standing up and shaking the wrinkles out of her skirt. “I’ll go find him
now.”
Once she was gone, Ezra leaned
over and gave his wife a gentle kiss.
“And I thought I couldn’t be any happier,” he said, stroking a curl of
ebony hair away from her face. His
expression suddenly became grave again, and not just because of the heat he
could feel rising from her pale skin.
“Juliet, ah’m so
sorry; this wouldn’t have happened if I’d been…”
“Shh.” She
pressed a slender finger against his lips and shook her head. “Ezra, you had every reason to be upset
after what happened. You didn’t do
anything wrong!”
“Ah didn’t notice mah wife pushin’ herself into a
state of collapse,” he replied bitterly.
“Ah didn’t notice you hadn’t been eatin’.”
Her hand moved up to cup the
side of his face; he leaned into her touch with a groan. “Ah didn’t let you. Ah didn’t want you to
worry.”
“Ah want to worry,” he told her
seriously, turning his head to kiss her palm, his green eyes intense. “Ah even enjoy
it.”
“Oh, Ezra…” He pulled her into his arms, feeling
warm tears against his neck. “Ah’m sorry, Ezra.”
“If ah can’t be, neither can
you,” he whispered. “We’re both too
stubborn for our own good, you know.”
He felt more than heard her next words, and he smiled and tightened his
embrace. “Ah love you, too,
Juliet. Everything will be just
fine now, ah’m certain of it.”
Vin and JD had ridden into town
only half a horse-length behind Ezra , and they’d been
close enough to see him hesitate before entering the house. In fact Vin had
winced to see it, even though he’d halfway expected it. “He was runnin’ from Miz Maude the last
time he used that door,” the tracker reminded JD when the younger man expressed
his puzzlement. “She was gonna kill him and he knew it; I think he might have fallen
off the porch half on purpose, to throw off her aim. I bet he ain’t
been in the front part of the house again this whole
time.”
“Damn, I hadn’t thought of
that. And I had wondered why he
hadn’t been sittin’ on the porch lately.” JD whistled softly, shaking his
head. “I’m gonna put Orpheus in his stable, Vin. You goin’ in after Ez?”
“No – and don’t you go in
either,” Vin warned. “Give them a little
time.”
JD nodded, understanding that,
and dismounted so he could take care of Ezra’s horse. Vin rode back
to the livery and dropped off his own horse for the stablehands to take care of, then strode across the dusty
street to the church. Inside the
old adobe it was cool and dim and peaceful, but Vin
could feel the unrest all but radiating off the older man sanding down a pew
near the pulpit. “You tryin’ to smooth it down or whittle it into a chair?” he
asked.
Josiah started to glare at him,
then grimaced instead and gave the pew one final scrape before standing up. “You’re back.”
“You knew we would be.” Vin wasn’t
glaring either, but his jaw was set and his voice held a cutting edge. “You knew he would be, the minute he
knew somethin’ was wrong, Preacher, so there was no
call for what you told JD about makin’ sure he came
back. Ez damn near fell off his horse when
he heard that.” He took a
step closer. “I’d just been talkin’ to him, got him to see how he’d been actin’ lately and he was all tore up over it. He said neither one of them had been
sleepin’ good, Miz Julie’d been havin’ nightmares too – but she wasn’t talkin’ to him about it any more than he’d been talkin’ to her.”
“He should have asked.” There was a distinct edge to the big
preacher’s tone, but Vin could see now that the anger
wasn’t directed at Ezra. Josiah
made a face, obviously seeing it himself.
“I should have asked.
Both of them.”
“Maybe they neither one would
have talked to you either,” Vin told him. “JD asked Miz
Julie, you know. All she’d tell him
was that it had been horrible and she thought it would take a while for everyone
to get over it. And Ez got over it in a hurry once I talked to him, let me tell
you. You can’t tell me he didn’t
after seein’ the way he half-killed his horse gettin’ back to town.”
He gave the older man a meaningful look. “I’ve seen him ride that way once
before, tryin’ to get to Miz
Julie.”
Josiah winced. He remembered that horrible ride from
the previous summer, hot on the trail of the Baxter sisters and their gang of
outlaws, and what was left of his anger drained away to leave only the sick,
churning dregs of his fear over the day’s earlier incident behind. He gave a half-hearted scrape to the
pew. “That was the last time I had
to carry her too, you know.”
“Yeah.” Vin didn’t
think any of them were ever going to forget what had happened that hot June day,
but he really didn’t want to chew it over right now. Right now they needed to be talking
about how to help Ezra, and the tracker had a few ideas about how that should
go. “I told JD to stay out of the
house for right now, give the two of them a little time,” he said. “But I’m thinkin’ that after a while…well,
Ez might be needin’ you,
Preacher. I’m pretty sure he’s
ready to talk about it now, if you’re able to listen.”
“Sounds like you already got
that one started for me,” was Josiah’s answer. He put down his scraper and stood up,
brushing dust and shavings off his pants.
Pale blue eyes squinted at the younger man thoughtfully, and the big
preacher smiled. “Thank you,
Brother Vin. Are you goin’ back over to the house?”
Vin shook
his head. “Not a
good idea to have too many of us crowdin’ around over
there. I’m gonna go tell Chris what’s goin’
on, I’ll be at the saloon if you need me.”
Josiah accepted that with a nod
and the younger man left, sliding out of the dim church into the bright sunlight
as silently as any Indian.
“Sometimes, brother,” he said to the door that had closed behind the
tracker, “I think you’re better at my job than I am.”
Ezra sat with his wife until
she fell asleep, and then he continued to sit there in a fog of shock. He was going to be a father,
again.
And his wife, the mother-to-be,
was sick. Again.
He was still there, crying
silently into one of the piled pillows, when Mary Travis came back with
Josiah. The big preacher felt his
heart sink as he looked at the pitiful sight, and his own eyes were suspiciously
bright when the two of them made their way back downstairs so as not to disturb
either Ezra or Juliet. “You’re
sure?” he asked the newspaperwoman.
“You’re sure it’s
influenza?”
“It can’t be anything
else.” Mary twisted her hands
together helplessly. “She most
likely wouldn’t have gotten quite so sick if she hadn’t been pregnant
too.”
“Not to mention the heat, and what happened last month on top of all of it – Ezra
told Vin that Miz Julie hadn’t been sleeping.” Josiah sighed. “And with Nathan up at the
village…”
“Still no word?” When Josiah shook his head, Mary
grimaced. The influenza outbreak
had been ravaging the entire area, and when word came that it had hit the
Seminole village Nathan had gone to offer what help he could. Unfortunately the healer wouldn’t dare
come back to town until the outbreak had passed, and no one in town could risk
going out to the village for fear of bringing the sickness back with them. “What are we going to do,
then?”
Josiah shook his head
again. “I don’t know, Sister. I just don’t
know.”
“J-Josiah?” Ezra was
standing on the stairs, looking lost.
“You don’t know…what, exactly?”
“We’re tryin’ to figure out what to do next, son,” Josiah told
him. “This influenza is tricky
business, and you know we can’t send for Nathan.”
Ezra came the rest of the way down the stairs. “Then what can we do? We have to…we have to do somethin’, we can’t just…” He swallowed, looking sick himself, then
staggered over to the nearest chair and dropped into it, burying his face in his
hands. “We can’t just let mah Juliet die.”
Mary started to say something,
but Josiah silenced her with a shake of his head. He moved to the gambler’s side, resting
a large hand cautiously on the man’s trembling shoulder. “She won’t die,
son.”
The shoulder under his hand
trembled even more as the gambler shook his head. “Christina almost did with P-patrick. And
that was just…was just a summer cold!”
Ezra’s head came up, reddened green eyes desolate and brimming with
guilt. “Ah can’t remember what
The preacher’s eyes widened; he
dropped to one knee beside Ezra and shook him. “Son, that’s it!
“She would?” Hope dawned in the bleak green
eyes. “She would! Josiah, we need
to…”
“Send a wire to
Ezra shrugged out from under
the restraining hand and stood, looking up into Josiah’s face. He looked so lost, so frightened…without
hesitation the preacher pulled him into his arms and held on tight, one callused
hand stroking the back of the brown head soothingly; he smiled as he felt the
younger man’s arms wrap around him and hang on with a desperate, trembling
grip. “Son, it’s going to be all
right,” he murmured. “Everything’s
going to be all right.”
Josiah ended up staying at the
house, unwilling to leave Ezra alone.
It was Mary who sent the message and brought back the reply, and Gloria
Potter was right behind her carrying a basket. “You were right, Rosa May knew exactly
what to do,” Mary told the worried men, handing over the telegram. “Gloria brought everything we’ll
need.”
“Much obliged, Mrs. Potter,”
Ezra said distractedly, poring over the telegraph. “Ah see she also said to keep Nathan and
his concoctions as far from mah wife as possible, and
she’ll be sendin’ more instructions shortly.” He put a hand up to his forehead,
closing his eyes briefly in relief.
“Thank the Lord for
Gloria looked pointedly at Mary
and Josiah, who both nodded their understanding. Josiah gently pushed Ezra back down into
his chair, still clutching the yellow telegram, and Mary hurried to put on water
for tea while the storekeeper began preparing what she’d need to follow Rosa
May’s instructions. Gloria would
never say it out loud, but she was secretly relieved that Nathan Jackson was out
of town and couldn’t be sent for; the healer would doubtless have insisted on
forcing Juliet to drink one of the herbal ‘concoctions’ he’d been using to
combat the influenza outbreak—which, if she’d understood Rosa May’s reasoning
correctly, would have had disastrous results. And one more disaster was the last thing
anyone in the Standish family needed.
Ezra and Juliet had had more than their share
already.