Chapter 10

Frank had finally answered all their questions, and told them everything he knew of what had happened to his mother, sister and Bobby.

Brad thought for a few minutes. He called to Beth, who had grown bored with hearing how brave her brother was. She came to the wagon.

“I want you to go back to the house,” he said.

She started to protest. Brad ignored her and turned to Frank.

“And you need to go to town and let the Sheriff know about Buford and Chaps ... that Chaps is dead ... and where he’s buried. I should do it myself, but I can’t leave the flock. Somebody needs to get after Buford before he leaves these parts forever. I know he went up to the high meadows, because I could tell he’d been in the shack. But I didn’t find any evidence that he was still there. There’s another trail that leads down the south face of the mountain. We don’t use it for trailing sheep, but a man on a horse could ride it. I think he went that way.”

“I need to get home,” said Frank weakly.

“Your pa is probably back there by now,” said Brad. “Just tell the Sheriff to meet Beth at the house and she’ll bring him up to the camp.

She can show him where Chaps is buried, and then he can come on up and follow Buford’s trail from there.”

“Yes sir,” said Frank. “I’ll do that.”

“And I’d appreciate it if you’d see my daughter safe back to the house on the way,” said Brad. “Try not to fall in love with her too,” he added, half smiling. He was impressed with the boy, all things considered. He had a lot of grit to take out after his mother alone, like he had. Maybe his interest in Enid wasn’t so bad after all.

Beth screeched at her father’s last comment. “You don’t need to even think on that pappa,” she said angrily. “And I can see my own way home.”

“And what if Buford cut back to get something from the ranch and is there when you get there? Do you want to face him alone, now that you know what he’s likely to do? You’ll let Frank take you there to make sure it’s safe, and you’ll wait there until the Sheriff comes,” said Brad steadily. “Now, git!”

He watched the two young people ride off, and turned to Amanda.

“What do you think?” he asked.

Amanda was thoughtful. “He seems to have a good head. Enid! I never thought Enid would be spoken for before Beth.”

She looked up again at the two teens, now far away.

“It’s a good thing it was Frank and not his brother who showed up. The way they were making moon eyes at each other I don’t think I’d want to send her off with him alone.” She was thoughtful and quiet for a moment. “You know Frank was up there with Enid alone. And he’s awfully insistent about seeing her again. I wonder what happened up there?”

Brad wasn’t comfortable thinking about what might have happened up in the high meadows. “What are we gonna do if both of those boys want to spark both of our girls?” asked Brad.

“The question is, what is Jonas Collins going to do?” replied his wife.

Molly rode to the North, which was the last place she knew the men to be working. She found the herd scattered, as she had thought, and it became clear the men were nowhere around here. She had settled down on the ride, but was still filled with nervous energy.

She set about grouping cows and starting them to the East and South, where she knew the pasturage was that Jonas wanted to use next. She thought about the dogs Bobby had described to her, and how they helped with the sheep. She wished she had a good cow dog now.

Bobby was gone ... had been gone for over an hour, and Sarah was dressed, this time in a real dress, when she heard hoof beats. She picked up a shotgun, checking the loads automatically, and stepped out on the porch. When she saw it was her father and brother ... and Buckshot, of course, she stood waiting for them, and leaned the shotgun against the wall.

Jonas, in an unexpected and rare display of affection, ran his horse all the way to the house when he saw Sarah standing there and vaulted to the ground running. That carried him up onto the porch and he scooped up his only daughter and swung her in a circle, almost crying.

Sarah giggled and hugged her father back until he set her down.

“Where’s your mamma?” he asked anxiously.

“She’s fine Pappa,” said Sarah, beaming. “We got saved by Bobby Rocklin ... well I did anyway. She’s out looking for you up North. She’s mighty upset that somebody else got me back instead of you, I think.”

“Out looking for me?” asked her father, incredulously. “That’s the kind of thing that got her in trouble in the first place! I swear that woman has no brain! Which way did she go?” he asked.

Sarah pointed to the North. Her father turned and was obviously going to go find his wife when Sarah stopped him.

“Pappa, I’m going to marry Bobby Rocklin,” she announced.

There was pure, dead silence for what seemed like forever. Buckshot broke the silence by softly saying “Oh Lordy.”

Jonas didn’t go to his horse. His face got darker and darker until it looked almost purple.

“You’ll do no such damned thing!” he finally shouted.

In the past Sarah would have reacted completely differently. She would have ducked her head and submissively said, “Yes Pappa.”

But this was a completely different Sarah, and her reaction was to raise her head proudly and say, “I most certainly am!” When no one said anything she went on. “I was captured by Indians, and Bobby fought to get me free. I’d still be there, husband to some Indian if he hadn’t come to get me. I love him and I’ll have him for my husband if it’s the last thing I ever do!” she said forcefully.

Jonas took a step toward his daughter, his face thunderous.

“Now Jonas, hang on a minute,” said Buckshot, holding his hand out and letting Jonas walk into it. “Think about things before you do something rash.”

“I don’t have to think about things,” said Jonas angrily. “My daughter is not going to go off and marry some damned sheep farmer!” He turned to the girl in question. “You don’t know diddly about being in love! I met those Indians. We’d have got there and took you back ourselves if that boy hadn’t meddled in our business. And he took your own mother into danger doing it! We were told that some of those Indian men wanted to take her away from him too!”

Sarah didn’t flinch. “By the time you got there, I’d have had an Indian baby in my belly,” she said harshly. “The Indian brave who captured me planned to make me his wife that very night, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it! And you’d have killed people, and gotten yourself killed too! Bobby managed to get me back safe and sound without killing anybody. He fought for me bare handed. He has great honor with the tribe now!”

She almost blurted out that they had stayed the night and been served by an old Indian woman, but bit her lip. That could stray into areas neither she nor her mother wanted discussed.

“I forbid it!” shouted Jonas, things final in his mind. He turned to Buckshot. “I’m going to go find Molly and bring her back here. Don’t let this ... this ... this sheep lover out of your sight, do you hear me Buckshot?” He turned to Peter. “And you get your butt into town and find the Sheriff and tell him I want that damned sheep farmer arrested for kidnapping my wife!“

“Jonas...” Buckshot started to plead.

“I’ll not hear another damned word!” Jonas thundered. “I run this cursed spread, and you’ll all do as I damned say! Is that clear?“ he screamed. Without waiting for an answer he climbed up on his horse and kicked it viciously, jerking the reins just as viciously and galloping off to the North.

Buckshot sighed. “Well, that didn’t go all that well,” he said.

Sarah stuck her chin out. “I’m gonna marry him Buckshot. I love him.”

She was obviously talking about Bobby. “I don’t care what he says,” switching to talking about her father. Her stubborn streak, identical to Jonas’, shone from her face.

“Not today, little missy,” said Buckshot. “You leave here today and I’ll be out of a job. And I like my job.” He frowned. “Well I did until lately.”

Peter, knowing that he too had to do what his father had ordered, got back on his own horse.

“Be back in the morning,” he said.

“Be careful,” said Buckshot. “The last thing this family needs is another missing member.” He grinned and turned to Sarah. “And you, little missy, go inside.”

“Don’t call me that!” said Sarah, her voice surly. “That’s what that awful Buford called me when he tried to rape me.”

Buckshot’s eyebrows rose into his hat. “Now that is a story I have to hear. Let’s go inside, Sarah, and you can tell me what happened.”

Sarah deflated. She loved Buckshot. He was like an uncle to her and she couldn’t be mad at him for doing what her father ordered.

“All right, since you asked me nicely,” she said. “But I’m going to marry Bobby. I just want you to understand that.”

“Yes ma’am, I certainly do understand that,” said Buckshot grinning.

“You may have to wait until your Pa dies and goes to Heaven, but I believe you’ll marry the boy.”

After what he had done with her sister, Frank felt distinctly uncomfortable being with Beth. At first she was angry and sullenly quiet, but, as happens with girls sometimes, she forgot all about her anger and plied him with questions. She didn’t want to know about what had happened to his mother and sister. She was interested in how he and Enid got so close that he thought he loved her. She asked very pointed questions too, that made Frank pointedly nervous.

It didn’t take her long to figure out there was something that had gone on that he didn’t want to talk about. And it didn’t take long for her mind to stray towards things most people did only when they were married. But she couldn’t believe that Enid would have done any of those things with this boy ... with any boy, for that matter!. She rode silently for a while, thinking about Peter, and the feelings he caused in her, both mentally and physically. She had stared at his lips at the supper table, and wondered what they might feel like against her own.

“You kissed her, didn’t you?” she probed.

“I love her,” he said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“How do you know you love her if you didn’t kiss her?” asked Beth triumphantly.

“So what if I did kiss her?” asked Frank.

“What was it like?” Beth asked immediately.

“Surely you’ve kissed a boy before,” said Frank dubiously.

“I most certainly have not!” she replied heatedly. “I don’t even know any boys I might want to kiss,” she said. “Except maybe your brother, Peter.”

Now Frank was astonished. “How do you know Peter?” he asked.

“They came to our house and had supper with us when they were looking for your mother,” said Beth.

“Oh, yeah ... I knew that,” said Frank. “But that was the only time you ever saw him wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” she said, “But his eyes are so beautiful, and his lips look so soft...”

Frank looked over at her. She had on a shirt and pants, like a man. The wind blew the shirt against her breasts. They didn’t look as big as Enid’s, but there were two very sharp points poking through the fabric.

Beth saw him looking and looked down. Her hands came up to cover the bumps.

“You’re a horrible boy!” she accused. “Looking at me like that!” He looked back forward and she took her hands away. “If you did that to Enid she’d hit you with something.”

Frank was tired of her arguing. “No she wouldn’t,” he lashed out. “She liked it when I looked!” He clapped his mouth closed and stared stonily ahead.

“And what else did you do?” asked Beth. She’d heard something in his voice that made the hair on the back of her neck tingle. “You may as well tell me. She tells me everything, you know. She can’t keep a single secret from me.”

Frank looked over. “She won’t tell you everything about us,” he said firmly.

Beth thought about that for a minute. Her suspicions grew. “So you love her.”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to marry her?”

“Yes.”

Just like that ... he’d said “Yes.” Beth was stunned. Her little sister?

Beth instinctively went for the throat. “I bet you have to marry her, don’t you?” He looked straight ahead and didn’t say anything.

“That’s it!“ she squealed.

“You have to marry Enid because you...”

Frank looked at her as the words died on her lips. “I love her. I want to marry her. I don’t have to do anything. But I want to marry her.”

“But did you... ?” Beth just couldn’t see Enid in her mind, doing things with this boy that it sounded like they might have done.

“If Enid tells you what we did then fine,” he said evenly. “But I’m not going to say another word.” Despite his pronouncement he went on.

“I’m going to marry her, and I don’t care if we farm sheep, or cattle, or go off and do something else.”

Beth knew now that something crazy had happened up in the high meadows. No cow man would agree to raise sheep. It was unheard of.

“I can’t believe little Enid got do to that before me,” she said, mostly to herself. Her voice carried though and his head jerked.

“You’d do that?” he asked incredulously.

“With the right boy,” she said, her nose high. “If I loved him, and he was going to marry me.”

“Women aren’t at all the way I thought they’d be,” said Frank, staring at her.

“So you did that?” she asked excitedly. “Really?!”

“I told you I’m not saying,” he growled.

“What was it like?” she gasped. “Did she cry?”

“Of course she didn’t cry,” he said, defending himself. “She laughed and she yelled, but she sure didn’t cry.” He thought he’d said too much, and couldn’t believe he’d said it at all.