Chapter 10

He let them chew on their anger while he went to find Bella. She hadn't gone that far and he found her sitting on a log. She wasn't crying any longer, but her eyes were red.

"Did you tell them?" she asked.

"Yes."

More tears leaked from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

"You were right," he said. "It's in the past now. They'll realize that, sooner or later."

She sniffed and wiped her cheeks. "Their life has been so hard. I had hoped that at least that part could be kept from them. And it was me who let it slip!"

"Yes," said AJ. "But it wasn't you that accepted that bet."

They were walking back to the campsite when they saw Becky striding toward them.

"I'd like to talk to my mother," she said. "Alone," she added.

AJ shrugged and walked on. He'd gone maybe ten or fifteen feet before he heard crying and turned to see them hugging each other tightly. Both appeared to be bawling.

When he got to the fire pit Frank Jr. was still sitting there, looking angry. He looked up at AJ.

"I want you to teach me to shoot," he said.

"That's not needed," said AJ.

"Yes it is," said Frank hotly. "Are you going to stay with us from now on? If you don't, who's going to protect my sister?"

"Nobody's going to hurt your sister," said AJ.

"My pappa used to beat us both," said the boy. "He beat my mamma too, and made her scream awful in the bedroom. He even broke her arm one time. Sometimes me and Becky just hugged and cried when that was happening, because there wasn't nothing I could do about it. I don't ever want to feel like there's nothing I can do about it again."

"I'm on the run because of gunplay," said AJ. "Men may be chasing me right now, bent on hanging me from one of these trees. I'll not put you in the same situation."

"You saved my sister from rape," snarled Frank. "If men come for you I'll take up a rifle. I do know how to shoot a rifle!"

"If men come for me you'll do nothing," snapped AJ. "What I did was something I chose to do. There's been enough killing already. You're the man of the family now. Whenever we get to where we're going they're going to depend on you, and you won't help them at all if you get shot trying to protect me."

"I still want you to teach me to shoot," insisted the boy.

"Well you can want until the cows come home, but I'm not going to do it. All this pistol has brought me is trouble."

"Well," said Frank, suddenly calm. "That trouble saved my sister from being raped. I know my pappa wouldn't have saved her. I'm going to learn how to shoot a pistol. I don't know when, or where, but I'm going to. If you won't teach me, I'll find somebody else who will!"

They were interrupted by the women coming back. Frank Jr. stayed in his funk, while AJ ignored him. Becky was staring at him with an odd look on her face. Bella seemed to be thinking about something, most likely whatever they had talked about. He wasn't going to pry.

Instead he announced that he was going to scout out the land ahead, and would be back for supper. He resaddled his horse, mounted up, and trotted off.

He only had a few hours left before the sun would set, but to be honest he was just riding to be riding, so it didn't matter. He did look over the land. They had strayed off the Chisholm Trail as they got out of the buffalo tracks, so the earth was again primarily growing prairie grass. There seemed to be more water in this part of the land, because he saw several fairly large groups of trees. He didn't explore them, because they were much too close to be potential camping sites.

He saw one steer and decided to take it back to add to the 'herd, ' as Frank Jr. called it. He smiled. The boy had spunk. There was no doubt about that. He probably would try to find a pistol and learn how to shoot. AJ hoped he didn't fall in with the wrong kind of man when that happened. AJ was amazed to find himself thinking that the boy would be better off as a farmer. That caused him to reflect on the changes in his own life. He was a cowboy. Cows were what he knew. And yet, he felt the tug for a less wandering life himself. It bothered him. He couldn't see himself in a town somewhere, holding down a steady job. And he didn't want to see himself as a farmer either.

Not yet, anyway.

When he got back, supper was ready. He stripped his gear off the horse and let it loose. As he approached the fire there seemed to be an air of anticipation about the three already seated there. Nothing was said until the meal had been eaten. Becky and Frank Jr. yawned and stretched together. To AJ's eyes it seemed to be an act of some sort.

"Guess it's time for bed," said Becky. "Don't you agree, Mamma?"

AJ looked at Bella, who was looking down. When she looked up, her face was flaming red. Her eyes sparkled, as if she was about to cry, but she had a timid smile around her lips.

"The arrangements are different tonight," said Becky, standing up. "We decided that Frank and I will sleep under the wagon from now on."

AJ's eyebrows rose almost to the mop of hair on his head. Bella looked back down at her hands, which were on her lap. Frank Jr. stood, and he and Becky walked toward the wagon.

"We decided?" AJ said softly.

"They decided," she whispered. "Because of what you did."

"What did I do?" he asked.

"Two things, actually," she sighed. "You made me happy, for one thing. I explained that to Becky the other day, and she's been thinking about it." She looked up then, and met his eyes. "But mostly because you kept Becky from being raped."

Bella was moaning in frustration by the time AJ finally mounted her. He'd taken her to the creek, where they bathed each other, before walking, naked, to the wagon. The fire had died down, but the moon was almost full. They paid no attention to the lumps that lay together under the wagon.

Their bath had involved a lot of foreplay, and she was ready as soon as they settled onto the bed. But AJ wasn't finished stoking her fires, so to speak. He started again on her breasts, sucking at nipples still stiff from his earlier attention. He did that for a while and then stopped, putting his lips right by her ear.

"We'd better stop, huh," he whispered.

"What?! Why?" she moaned.

"You get loud," he said, grinning. "They'll hear you."

"I don't care!" she moaned. "They said I could do this!"

He alternated between long, sucking kisses and nursing at her nipples while he stroked her all over with his hands. She arched her hips when he slid a finger into her, massaging her pussy until she was writhing. Then he licked at the skin between her breasts, and down, over her heaving stomach, reaching with his hands to spread her legs.

"What are you..." Her question was never finished as a gasp cut off her capacity to speak when his lips slid onto her pussy lips and he sucked them into his mouth, as a saloon girl had taught him to do. Bella did manage a whine, and then a series of gasping grunts as he found her clit and sucked that too. Her fingers found his hair and she pulled hard, welding his mouth to her sex as she found yet another new thing she'd never thought of before. She knew about the other thing, where the woman put her mouth on the man. Frank had beaten her into doing that, but it had never occurred to her that the man could do it to the woman too.

As she had an orgasm, stuffing part of her dress into her mouth to muffle her groans, she thought that if it felt anywhere near this good for the man, she now understood why Frank had wanted her to do it.

Finally, when she thought she might lose her mind if he didn't hurry up, he crawled up, kissing his way back to her breasts. She reached for him avidly, this time, thrilled when she captured his hard prick, and pulled him almost painfully to her opening.

She marveled that, while he entered her quickly, this time, with force enough to make her grunt, it still wasn't anything like when Frank had done the same kind of thing.

Then she stopped thinking about Frank altogether as her lover began to make her squeal.

Both of them were making enough noise to mask the soft gasps that came from the back of the wagon, where two curious teenagers had crept to satisfy their curiosity about this mysterious ritual that adults engaged in.

The two voyeurs watched everything, their eyes glued to the couple that, in the light of only the full moon, could be viewed as strangers ... almost. The soft feminine cries that were clearly a product of joy came in the voice of their mother, though, and the equally soft grunts AJ made as he stiffened and fertilized their mother, were clearly the voice of the man they knew only as AJ.

Watching once was enough. The other three times those whines and grunts woke them during the night, the two teens, sleeping in each other arms, only wiggled closer together, before falling asleep again.

In the morning as they got ready to roll, Frank Jr. approached AJ.

"If you won't teach me to shoot, can I at least keep trying to find more cows?" he asked.

AJ looked at him. He was trying to become a man, and AJ could respect that. He decided the ride he'd gotten the day before would hold him for a while, so he handed the reins to the boy, and adjusted the stirrups. Frank grinned and climbed into the saddle. The horse jinked, but he'd ridden him enough by then that he compensated fairly well, holding onto the saddle horn with only one hand. When the horse settled, he turned it, tapped the ribs with the heels of his boots, and off they went.

Bella just lifted her eyebrows when he appeared, beside the wagon seat. She was ready to drive. Becky had asked to ride in the back of the wagon.

"He's playing cowboy again today," said AJ.

Bella patted the seat beside her, but he shook his head.

"If I'm up there I won't pay any attention to where we're going," he said, grinning. "And neither will you."

She didn't blush, but she smiled. Then she flicked the reins, and they started off.

It was very routine for an hour. They'd chosen the steer that had followed Frank Jr. to the wagon as the lead steer, and tied it to the back of the wagon. It was the biggest of them all, a truly fierce looking longhorn, though it was actually quite docile, once he had a rope on it. Thankfully, the others decided to follow it.

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The Bad Bet

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