A Lone Star Christmas Read online

  “That don’t matter. We ain’t goin’ to rassle him,” Emerson said. “We’re just goin’ to have him tell us where at his gold mine is.”

  “And you’re sure he has a gold mine?”

  “That’s what ever’ one says. It ain’t supposed to be a very big one, but it’s big enough that he’s built himself one of the best ranches in Wyoming,” Emerson said.

  “I hope your plan works,” Jenks said.

  “Don’t worry, it will work,” Emerson said resolutely. “Come on, let’s go see the lady.”

  Meghan Parker wasn’t all that surprised whenever a man would happen to come into her dress shop. That was because from time to time someone would want to buy a dress for his wife, and he would want it to be a surprise, so he would have Meghan help him. But this time it was three men who came in, and that was unusual. Also, there was something about the three that made her feel a bit uneasy.

  Her fear was justified when all three of them pulled guns and pointed them at her.

  “Is it true what they say about you?”

  “I’m not sure. What do they say about me?”

  “They say that you are Duff MacCallister’s woman.” The man doing the talking had the ugliest teeth Meghan had ever seen; a few were broken so that they were jagged-looking. All of them varied in color from yellow to black.

  “Mr. MacCallister is a friend of mine, yes,” Meghan said.

  “Uh, huh. Well answer me this, Missy. Is he friend enough that more’n likely he wouldn’t want to see something happen to you?”

  “Mr. MacCallister wouldn’t want to see something happen to any innocent person.”

  “That’s good enough for me. Pigg, go on down there to the saloon and tell MacCallister he’d best come out into the street.”

  “What is all this about?” Meghan asked.

  “Gold, Missy. This is about gold,” the one with the bad teeth said. “Now, you come with us.”

  “I can’t leave my store,” Meghan said.

  “Ha! You don’t be worryin’ none about your store.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Not far. Just out into the street. Pigg, you go get MacCallister like I told you. Jenks, when we get out there, you run ever’one off the street so there ain’t no one out there but us.”

  Biff Johnson had just said something funny and Duff was laughing when Pigg went back into the saloon, this time holding a pistol in his hand.

  “MacCallister!” he called. “We’ve got your woman out in the middle of the street. If you don’t want to see her kilt, best you get on out there.”

  It was very shortly after Pigg summoned Duff that Duff’s cousin, Falcon MacCallister, rode into Chugwater in answer to Duff’s call for help. Falcon realized at once that something unusual was happening because it was mid-morning, and First Street, a street that should have been busy with commerce, was nearly deserted. He did see people, but they were standing behind the corners of buildings, or looking cautiously through doors and windows at the few people who were on the street. One, he noticed, was Duff. Duff was standing alone, facing three men who were fanned out across the street in front of him. The man in the middle had a beautiful young woman in front of him, and he was holding a gun to her head.

  Falcon didn’t know any of the three men, but he did recognize the young woman. It was Meghan Parker, the young woman who owned a dress shop and was a one-quarter partner in Duff’s ranch. Whether that partnership would ever become anything more, Falcon didn’t know, but he was pretty sure it would. That is, he was sure it would, if this situation could be resolved successfully.

  Falcon dismounted, then walked on up the street, staying on the boardwalk very close to the building fronts. Because of his caution, no one noticed him until he had drawn even with Duff. Not until then did he walk out into the street to stand alongside his cousin.

  “Hello, Duff,” Falcon said. “How soon do you want to get started?”

  “Good day to you, Falcon. I thought we might get underway on Saturday. That would put us in Cheyenne by Monday the tenth.”

  “Good idea.”

  Duff called out to Meghan. “Meghan, you remember Falcon, don’t you? He is going to help me take our cows to Texas.”

  “You take good care of those cows, Falcon,” Meghan said. “One quarter of them are mine.” Unlike most people who would be in her situation right now, amazingly, Meghan’s voice showed no fear.

  “I’ll take good care of them,” Falcon promised.

  “What the hell are you people gabbing about?” the man behind Meghan shouted. “Don’t you understand what’s going on here?”

  “Do you mind?” Falcon said. “We’ll get to you later. Right now, I’m talking to my friends here.”

  “Yeah, well I was here first,” the man behind Meghan said. “And I’m telling you to just back off and let us finish our business.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll just stay here.”

  “All right, but when the shootin’ starts, we ain’t goin’ to be worryin’ none about whether or not you are in the way.”

  “Oh, that’s all right, I quite understand,” Falcon said.

  “Now, seein’ as this feller sort of interrupted us, I’ll say it again, real plain, so that you understand. I’m told you have a gold mine, so here is what we are goin’ to do. You are goin’ to show me an’ my friends where that gold mine is. ‘Cause if you don’t, I’m goin’ to shoot this here woman. Do you understand that?”

  “Oh, I know what you said,” Duff replied. “But I don’t think you have thought this through.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Well think about it, Mr. Emerson. That is your name, isn’t it? I think I heard one of your friends call you that. If you shoot Miss Parker, you will nae longer have a bargaining position,” Duff said.

  “Miss Parker?” Meghan said. “Duff MacCallister, you mean as close as we are, that you can’t call me by my first name?”

  “Aye lass, and it is for sure that I can,” Duff said. “I just dinnae want to be intimate in front of these men.”

  “Oh,” Meghan said, smiling. “That’s real sweet of you.”

  “What in the hell is wrong with you people?” Emerson asked, the exasperation in his voice increasing. “Are you crazy?”

  “Not at all,” Duff said. “I’m just pointing out to you the conundrum you have gotten yourself in. It’s rather like a dog that sticks its head through a hole in a fence, then can’t pull it back out. You see, Miss Parker is valuable to you only as long as she is alive. If you kill her, she is of no value to you whatever.”

  “Mister, I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Now I’m goin’ to ask you again. Are you goin’ to lead us to the mine or what?”

  “Nae, I don’t think that I will,” Duff said.

  “Duff, it’s looks to me like you’re dealing with someone who is too ignorant to understand,” Falcon said. “It looks to me like the only solution now is for us to just kill all three of them.”

  “I think you are right,” Duff said. “And while I am an accomplished marksman, I am not fast.” As Duff was speaking, he was drawing his pistol, very slowly and deliberately. “So if you would be so kind as to help me out with the other two, I’ll be for putting a bullet through the eye of that unpleasant gentlemen with the bad teeth.”

  “I’ll be glad to help out,” Falcon said.

  Duff raised his pistol and aimed.

  Despite the peril she was in at the moment, Meghan almost smiled. She recalled the shooting exhibition back in July when Duff had shot the miniature apple off her head. And she knew, now, that Duff had the situation well under control.

  “What do you think you are going to do with that gun?” the man behind Meghan asked. “Don’t you see that I ...”

  That was as far as he got because Duff pulled the trigger. The man behind Meghan fell to the ground with blood squirting from the eye that the bullet had penetrated. The other two men
had been nearly mesmerized by the improbable event they were witnessing. They reacted at the sound of the gunshot, but it was too late. In a lightning draw, Falcon pulled his pistol and firing two shots so quickly that they sounded as one, he killed the other two.

  Meghan stood her ground in the middle of the street, looking now at the bodies of the three men who had accosted her.

  “Meghan, be ye harmed, lass?” Duff called to her. Even as he called out to her the citizens of the town who had been driven off the street by the unexpected showdown came running out.

  “I’m all right,” Meghan said.

  Duff hurried to her, and they embraced.

  After the embrace, Meghan looked down at the body of the man who had been holding his pistol to her head. There was a black, bloody, and seeping hole where his left eye was. His right eye was still open, still registering the shock of what had happened to him.

  “That was a perfectly horrid experience,” she said.

  “You are sure you are all right?” Duff asked again.

  “I’m a lot better now than I was a few minutes ago,” Meghan said. She shuddered. “You have no idea how bad his breath was.”

  Duff looked surprised for a moment, then he started laughing and soon the whole town was laughing with him.

  Biff Johnson came out into the street then, even as the rest of the town was gathering in morbid curiosity around the bodies of the three men Duff had shot.

  “Hello, Falcon,” Biff said. “It’s good to see you again.”

  “Hello, Sergeant,” Falcon replied. The two men had met first when Falcon had joined Custer’s last campaign as a civilian scout. Biff had been a sergeant in D Troop under Benteen. They had gotten reacquainted when Falcon helped Duff locate the land that would become Sky Meadow Ranch.

  “Come on over to Fiddler’s Green, I’ll buy,” Biff offered.

  “Thanks, but I have to get back to my shop,” Meghan said. “Who knows? Something like this might be good for business.”

  Live Oaks Ranch, November 6

  Even though Maria had been pregnant for several months now, no one but her husband and her parents knew about it. Her pregnancy wasn’t obvious because of the bulky dresses she wore.

  All through supper Clay had been looking at her, and now as they sat in their small sitting room, even though she was knitting, Maria was well aware that she was the subject of his continued scrutiny. Finally she put the knitting down and looked at him.

  “Clay, have I suddenly turned green?”

  “What?” Clay replied, confused by the strange question.

  “Through supper and now, you have been staring at me. I thought perhaps I had turned green.”

  Clay chuckled. “Can’t I stare at my beautiful wife if I want to?”

  “Yes, but I think it is not because you think me beautiful,” Maria said. Though her English was flawless, there was still a slight, lilting accent to her words, an accent that Clay had always found appealing.

  Clay sighed. “You are right,” he said. “I have been staring. I have to tell you something, and I have been trying to think of a way to tell you.”

  “You wish to tell me that you will be going to Dodge City to drive the cattle down here that Senor Big Ben has bought. Yes?”

  “Yes,” Clay replied, his face registering his surprise at her answer. “How did you know?”

  “Clay, this is a big ranch with many tongues that are willing to speak,” she said. “I have known for many days that you would be going to Dodge City.”

  “And you are all right with that?” Clay asked. “I mean, I know that you’re pregnant, and I hate to leave you, but I think it will be less than two months.”

  “I am all right with it, because I am going with you,” Maria told him.

  “What? Oh, no, I don’t know, Maria, I don’t think that would be such a good idea,” Clay said.

  “Please, Clay,” Maria said. “I do not want to be here for so long during my time of pregnancy without you. You will need a cook, and you will need someone to drive the chuck wagon. I can drive the chuck wagon, and I can cook your meals. I have done this before.”

  “Yes, but you weren’t pregnant then. Now, you are pregnant.”

  “Other women have made difficult journeys while pregnant. Think of the women who gave birth on the wagon trains. Think of the women who have given birth on board ship. Think of the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord. Did she not make a long and difficult journey while she was with child? Besides, the baby will not come until after we have returned home. And, wouldn’t you rather sleep in the wagon with me, than on the ground with the cowboys?”

  Clay laughed. “Somehow, you have managed to make sense of that,” he said. “All right, I’ll clear it with Big Ben, and if he says he has no problem with it, I’ll take you with me.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Maria said, laughing happily. She threw her arms around his neck then squeezed herself so close to him that he could easily feel the baby she was carrying.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Live Oaks Ranch, November 8

  “I received a wire today telling me that the cattle would be in Dodge City on the eighteenth of November,” Big Ben said. “How long will it take you to get there to meet them?”

  “About eight days, I would think,” Clay replied.

  “Who will you be taking with you?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it from the time you told me. I believe I’m going to take Tom Whitman, Dusty McNally, and Mo Coffey.”

  “Yes, they are all good men. Who are you going to have for your Segundo? Dusty?”

  “No, it’ll be Tom.”

  “Are you sure about that? He’s been here for less than a year. I would think you would want someone like Dusty, or even Mo.”

  “Dusty and Mo are both good men, that is true. But I want someone who can think on his feet, and Tom is good at that. In fact, he’s about the smartest man I’ve ever met. No, let’s make that he is the smartest man I have ever met.”

  “Yes, well, that’s what bothers me about him. Why would someone that smart be content to be a cowboy for the rest of his life unless he either has no ambition, or is lazy, or he is hiding something?”

  “He isn’t lazy, Mr. Conyers, I can attest to that,” Clay said. “Why, he works harder than any man on this ranch.”

  “And it doesn’t bother you that a man like that chooses to be a cowboy?”

  “I have chosen to be a cowboy, Mr. Conyers,” Clay said pointedly.

  “Oh, yes, well, I didn’t mean it like that,” Big Ben said trying to recover. “Who are you taking as your cook? Coleman? It’s up to you of course, and I won’t interfere. But I think you should know that if you take Coleman, the boys back here won’t be all that pleased.”

  “I’m taking Maria. She’ll drive the chuck wagon.”

  Big Ben looked surprised. “You are taking Maria?”

  “Yes. She is a very good cook, as you know. And this won’t be the first trail drive she’s made. She went with us last year.”

  “Yes, but that was in the spring,” Big Ben said. “In the spring the weather gets better as you go. But this time I’m asking you to drive twenty-five hundred head of cattle through the dead of winter. And these aren’t Longhorns, either. They are Black Angus, and Lord only knows how they will take to the trail.”

  “She wants to go, Mr. Conyers, and I want to take her with me, if you don’t mind.”

  “No, I don’t mind. I mean, she is your wife and you will be right there with her. You are also the trail boss, so if you are all right with that, I suppose I can be too. I do have a favor to ask of you though.”

  “Sure, what would that be?”

  “I want you to take Dalton with you.”

  Clay didn’t say anything, but he did suck air in through clenched teeth.

  “He’s not that bad, is he?”

  “He’s, uh, a little young for a trip like this, don’t you think?”

  “Nonsense,” Big Ben said. “I’ve seen m
any a sixteen-, fifteen-, even fourteen-year-old cowboy on the trail. Hell, you have too.”

  “Yes, but,” Clay started, then he bit off the sentence.

  “Look, Clay, I know Dalton can be troublesome,” Big Ben said, his words soothing, cajoling. “Lord knows, this business with Ebersole cost me four hundred dollars. It made me want to just take Dalton back into town, throw him into jail and let him live with the consequences of his own actions. But I can’t do that. He is, as the Bible says, my only begotten son.”

  “I understand,” Clay said.

  “Clay, Dalton needs this. I think a drive like this—a wintertime drive that is going to be two, maybe three times harder than normal, would be just the thing to give the boy some seasoning. And how about this as an inducement? For every cow you get back here, I will give you twenty-five cents a head; half for you, and the other half to be divided out among the other hands.”

  “Mr. Conyers, are you sure you want to do that? It’s going to cost you enough to get that herd down here as it is. You don’t need to be spending even more money.”

  Big Ben put his hand on Clay’s shoulder. “I don’t need to do it, Clay. I want to do it,” he said.

  “I appreciate that. But you don’t have to pay me extra to take the boy. I will take him just because you ask me to take him.”

  “This isn’t just for taking the boy,” Big Ben said. “This is because I want the best personal care given for these cows. They are a very special breed. And once I get the herd established, it will be well worth whatever it cost me to get them here.”

  “If we are going to get there in time to get back here for Christmas, we need to leave by the day after tomorrow. Right now, I’m going to go gather up Tom, Dusty and Mo. You might ask Dalton to come on over to my place in about half an hour so we can talk about it.”

  “I will, Clay. And thank you,” Big Ben said. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”