Jesse couldn’t put his finger on it but the big blacksmith seemed a bit out of sorts, then there was that rifle he was carrying. Zeke noticed Jesse eyeing his Winchester and explained, “Just in case.”
“I hope you’re careful with that.”
“Don’t you worry,” the blacksmith said with a smile.
Mose didn’t know how he “knew” things sometimes. Usually it was when someone would need his healing skill in some way or another, but today he’d awakened earlier that and “knew” there was danger for the baby he had so recently helped bring into the world. He hadn’t used any trails, saving time by going cross country. Now he was looking at the surprised face of Caroline and Charleys friend Belle Parker. He didn’t know the woman holding the child, but although outwardly she was presentable, Mose could see ugliness inside. He was going to have to be careful.
At that moment the baby began crying louder than ever. It was totaally bewildered. What had happened to it’s new world? Where was the food, the warmth? It was cold! Belle turned back, trying to make as much noise as she could in doing so. to cover whatever Mose might do.
“Are you done yet?” Lucy asked sarcastically “Just remeber, the longer we are out here the colder and hungrier *he * gets! And you’re going to get pretty blue really fast, without the coat.”
“Lucy please, since we are going this way, at least let’s go on to the Anderson house! The child will be better off there. If he dies nothing on this earth will save you from Charley, his father. I promise not to try anything, I just want the baby to be alright!” Belle spoke a little louder than ordinary, so Mose could hear, She still hoped for more help than one man, but she was going to take any chance she could get.
Lucy was beginning to get cold and irritated herself. Damn Fred and his schemes, she should have stayed in Rock Creek where the pickings had been easier.
“Okay” she gruffed “Fred told me about the layout out here, just get on to the house. It may be all over by the time we get there anyway, and this kid will still be my safe ticket out of here.” She looked down in annoyance at the now screaming child, and missed seeing a dark figure cross the road ahead of them.
Belle drove on, grateful that there now seemed to be a chance out of this mess.
By now, Hank had dressed Sam Anderson’s shoulder wound while Sheriff Wilson kept Paul under guard. Bill Tidd had shown up at the entrance, having been drawn by the sound of gunfire. Noticing the unconcious Jim Connell and his bleeding scalp, the lawyer declared, “Serves you right!”
Sheriff, having picked up the pistol that Sam dropped, handed it to the lawyer. “Mind keeping an eye on Mr. Anderson here?”, indicating Paul.
“Not one bit. I was his brother’s attorney, after all.”
Sheriff nodded in agreement, then addressed Sam. “I know your kind. We need to see if you’re really unarmed. No funny business now.”
“Right,” said Hank. “I just patched a small hole in you, I’d rather not have to put in a big one.”
Sheriff found a Derringer up Sam’s sleeve and a stilletto in his boot. “Now, Paul, help Mr. Tidd with that thar varmint,” indicating Connell. Everyone started moving toward the main road with Hank in the rear, his Remington still trained on Sam. They met up with Will and Martha in the Anderson’s wagon, who took them back to the AAA to sort everything out.
Belle pulled the wagon in front of the Anderson ranch, her fingers numb from cold. The baby was still screaming, but he seemed to be getting worn out from the crying.
“Get out,” Lucy said, holding the knife at the baby’s throat. “Hurry up!”
“I’m trying,” Belle said, suddenly feeling very sleepy. “I’m so tired…but funny, I’m not cold anymore.” Surprisingly, she gave a little giggle.
“You go up and knock on the door,” Lucy said, jiggling the baby, who had just wet himself.
Belle yawned hugely. “Okay,” she said, wondering why she wasn’t shivering anymore. She stumbled up the walk, when she heard hollering behind her. She turned, and saw Mose tackle Lucy and neatly grab the baby from her. He kicked Lucy hard in the stomach, and she fell to the ground, shrieking.
“Oh, hi, Mose,” Belle said, waving languidly. “Thanks.”
“Miss Belle? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Belle said, suddenly sitting on the cold ground. “I’m just going to take a little nap.” Then she curled up, caught in the throes of hypothermia.
“Shut your mouth,” Mose said to the yelling Lucy, who began sobbing.
“Fred is going to kill me,” she moaned.
“Not if I get there first,” a hard voice said. “My son all right?”
Mose nodded. “He’s fine, Charley. Just wet and hungry.” Charley pulled out his scalping knife and approached Lucy.
“NO!” Sheriff yelled, running up with the others. “Charley, don’t do anything stupid!”
“Stupid?” yelled Charley “she threatened my boy! She’s mine!” Something primitive lurked in his eyes as he tried to get around Sheriff Wilson, to get at the sobbing Lucy.
Hank Poole came running to help restrain his friend. “Charley, listen to me! The law will have her, she’s not goin’ anywhere! Don’t mess up now, you hear me?” Charley stopped, took a couple of deep breaths, and replied “I hear you Hank.” He continued in a venomous tone, looking at Lucy again “But if you put so much as a toe out of line, before they get you locked up in the jail, well, hell, just don’t do it, hear?”
The relieved father turned and looked around. “Where’s Mose? He was here just a second ago.”
Tidd spoke up “I saw him go into the house” and someone else “He said he had to help the housekeeper with Miz Parker, the cold got to her bad after that one took her coat for the kid.”
Inside Mose had done a quick once over of the baby, and told Martha to just clean him up and try and get some warmed milk into him. Martha didn’t have a baby bottle but she improvised with a small glass and one of her good kid gloves with a hole poked in it. They’d get him back to his mother as soon as he was thoroughly rewarmed and fed.
But Belle was another matter. Mose had to call for help to warm water on the stove. With no time for modesty he had to remove her outer clothing and get her wrapped up. He thought she would be okay, but the healer in him took a look in her eyes, and remembered her nausea, and was more afraid for someone else.
Mose exclaimed in Oglala Sioux, “God Almighty!”
Hearing his grandparents’ tongue really drew Charlie’s attention and he took off for the house, much to the surprise of everyone. “What? Something wrong with the baby?” he asked as he burst through the door.
“A baby. The one in her!” Mose said, indicating Belle.
“God Almighty,” repeated Charlie.
“Sheriff, sheriff!” a voice screamed. Wilson turned and saw another wagon pull up, this one with Jesse, Zeke, the new schoolmaster, and little Sally.
“Someone stole our new baby!” she screamed, jumping out of the wagon before the wagon stopped. She ran to him and clutched at his arm.
“Please, she took Miss Belle and the baby! We have to find them!”
“Calm down, honey,” Hank said. “Miss Belle and the baby are inside.” Sally sagged in relief, then glared as she saw the huddled Lucy. Hank grabbed her before she could start clawing at her.
“Go inside and help tend to your brother. Jesse, best you get inside too,” Sheriff said. “Belle got a bit too cold for her health.” Jesse hurried inside with Sally, as Sheriff looked around at the others.
“I suggest we all get inside and sort this out. Zeke, you keep an eye on Sam and Paul,” Sheriff looked at Jim, lolling unconscious in the wagon. “Bill, if you can help me drag Jim inside so he doesn’t freeze, then you,” he said, pointing at Hank. “Can tell me just what the hell is going on.” Sheriff hauled up the sobbing Lucy and led the group into the house.
Dammit. I knew I forgot someone.
Jake Anderson was also in the wagon, but in all the confusion, Sheriff didn’t notice him, especially since his attention was focused on Sally.
Carry on, then.
Jesse’s face blanched as he saw his wife shivering, cocooned in a blanket. “What happened to her? Did she take a fever?.” he asked of Mose. He was afraid of what the answer would be.
“From what I heard she gave up her coat to wrap up the Charging Bear baby. She got cold all the way through. I’ve seen it before, men that get caught out in storms usually. Most of 'em pulled through, blankets, dry clothes, hot drinks and the like are what folks need. But they didn’t have her concerns.”
Jesse gave Mose a blank look. “What concerns are you talking about?”
“Oh mercy. You didn’t know? You’re going to be a father.”
Another blank look from Jesse, then he began to sway on his feet. “Here now!” said Mose, “sit down on that chair there. Put your head down if you have to.”
“What do we do?” The startled Jesse was almost whispering.
Mose didn’t try to sugarcoat the situation. "We have to get her warm so she stops shaking. Too much thrashing around and she might shake that new life right out of her. Don’t know how you feel about folks like me, but I have something I want to try.
“After I saw what you did for Caroline, you can try anything you want.”
Everyone bustled around the study, while Martha got ropes from the barn to tie up Jim Connell, Lucy Johnson, and Sam Anderson. Paul was told to sit on the leather sofa and not move. Martha served everyone coffee and cookies, and finally, after an anxious glance at Belle, wrapped up tightly in blankets in the other room, Sheriff cleared his throat.
“Hank, start talking.”
“If I may, Sheriff,” Bill spoke up. “I represent the estate of Gus Anderson, and I would like to file a complaint against Jim Connor for assault.”
“That’s all well and good, sir, but I can take care of that after Hank sorts things out.”
“Oh, but Sheriff, Hank can’t sort it out. Only I can,” Bill said. “Hank, may I have that envelope you pulled from the mine?”
Hank handed over the rather crumpled package. Bill checked the seal, nodding in satisfaction. “Good. It hasn’t been tampered with.”
“What is it?” Sheriff asked.
“It’s the final, true, and only legitimate will and testament of Gus Anderson.”
“That’s a lie!” Jim cried out. “You had the will in your pocket!”
Bill smiled. “I had a will. You stole the wrong one, you oaf. Sheriff, do you know who this is?”
“Should I?”
“That’s Jim Connell, also known as Boss Sutton Connell’s little brother.”
“So that’s why…,” started Paul.
Will asked, “Why what, brother?”
Bill spoke again, “I’d say your brother took it upon himself to take a peek in the other envelopes.”
“But why all the secrecy?” asked Jake while Will sat glaring at their brother.
“Gus was afraid the rest of you Andersons would alter his will so as to give his grandson the shaft.”
A cacophony of voices went throught the room. Words to the effect of, “Gus had a grandson?! I didn’t know he even had any children!” Bill quieted everyone down again. “Gus himself didn’t know he was a father at first. It happened after you all had headed west; a girl he’d been seeing in Philadelphia…”
“Mary,” interjected Jake. “I remember her! Pretty girl.”
“…had moved in with her parents in Hartford. She gave birth to a daughter there. Some 20 years later, the daughter came looking for Gus.”
“Yes, of course!” exclaimed the Sheriff. He looked around the room. “Don’t you see? That girl who worked in the Tumbleweed for a few years and whose son kept getting under foot. What was her name…Gail…Clayton?”
Everyone turned toward Zeke, who had been sitting quitely in a corner chair. “She was my mother and I was that boy.”
“What happened to her?”
“Died in childbirth,” said Doc McCaulley, who had came to see where half the town had gone off to. “The baby didn’t make it either.”
“What about your father?”
Zeke sighed. “Never saw him much, I think he died in Andersonville. Kinda funny, that.”
Mose turned to Sally, who was sitting holding her brother in the same room. “Miss, could you please go into the kitchen with your brother? It’s plenty warm enough in there too.”
“Oh, but I want to help you with Belle! My brother’s okay now, he’ll stay asleep!”
“Sally, if you really want her to get better, do as I ask!I need to speak to Jesse here in private.”
Sally was curious as all get out, but she did as Mose wanted. Mose turned to Jesse and said “Close the door there, will you?” The worried husband complied with the request.
Mose, with a peculiar look on his face, said to Jesse “When I said there was something I wanted to try, I really meant you. You aren’t put off by speaking of “husbands and wives” are you?”
“Not if it means helping my Belle!” asserted the younger man.
"Well, like I said, she got cold all the way through. Now she needs to get warmed back up. Warm drinks are good, but she needs to stop shaking, and the blankets aren’t enough for warmth, or to calm Her heart could give out. You understand me? "
“I think so” said Jesse slowly, “just warmth?”
“Right. I’m going to leave for a little bit. You need me, just poke your head out and ask. I’ll take care of any questions the folks out there have.” And with that Mose turned, walked to the door, and left the room. Jesse bent over quickly to take off his boots.
Mose, attracted by a familiar voice, returned to the study. “Zeke!” he exclaimed.
“Mose? Mose!” Zeke and Mose gave each other a warm greeting.
"“You two know each other?” asked a surprised Charlie.
Zeke explained, “Mose saved my life. Losing my family like that left me scared and angry, so I ran. He found me one night, half frozen. Took me in and taught me.”
“But he was still angry,” added Mose, “so I suggested he go apprentice at our blacksmith shop. He put his anger into the steel.”
Zeke finished the story. “Turned out I had a talent for that. When I turned 18, Mose said it was time for me to conquer the rest of my demons.”
“That’s a nice story,” said Will. “But how do we know it’s true?”
“Can you prove it?” asked the Sheriff.
“I believe I can,” said Doc.
“I’m not sure what you have in mind, Doc,” said Bill, “but I don’t think it will be necessary. All the proof we need is in Gus’s office. I’m sure Martha knows where I mean.”
“How’s Miss Belle?” Mr. Santini asked, quite intrigued in this mystery.
“She’s sleeping quiet now,” Mose replied. “I don’t want her disturbed. Jesse’s keeping an eye on her.” He shoved the seething Paul over on the couch and sat back. “What did I miss?”
“We’re about to settle the Gus Anderson estate once and for all,” Bill Tidd said. “Sheriff, if you and Zeke would mind accompanying me to Gus’s office?”
Belle’s mind was still a little foggy, but she gradually felt herself coming to awareness again. The last thing she had remembered was feeling tired and terribly cold, but now she felt warm, and, well, safe, sort of.
She opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, to clear them. A look around told her she didn’t know where she was, the room was unfamiliar. But things must be alright, after all, there was Jesse sitting on the edge of the bed. What was he doing, buttoning his shirt collar? And he was in his socks, too.
“Hey there” she croaked out, and he turned to look at her with a smile that made her fall in love all over again. "Where are we? What’s been going on? Where’s the…Oh my God, what happened to the baby?"
“Shush, love, that baby’s alright. You save him by keeping him warm with your own coat” replied Jesse, soothing her greatest fear.
“But what happened to Lucy? I remember seeing that man Mose, from when Caroline had her baby.” Here she frowned. “There was a fight, was there? I’m not sure.”
“I’ll tell you all about what’s happening” said Jesse, “but right now you need to rest. You got way too cold, and we’ve been taking care of you.”
“How?” Here her busband gave a lazy grin and began to explain. When he was done she felt even warmer, and Jesse went to the door, looked out, and signaled to Mose and Doctor McCaulley, who left off talking and came back to see how Belle was now.
Almost a simulpost ivylass! I’m glad the two of them fit!
Bill sat in Gus’s chair and asked Martha, “How do I work this?”
“Just kick that leg away from you,” she replied, indicating the far right corner. Bill kicked but nothing happened. “Try again, it might be stuck.” Bill kicked again and frowned. After a third kick, a panel opened in the desk and a Colt Peacemaker fell into Bill’s lap. Peering into the compartment, the lawyer spied a package.
Sheriff asked, “Why didn’t Gus just put his will in there?”
“With the revolver and everything, there doesn’t seem to be any more room.” Bill opened the package to reveal…
While the adults were talking about legal matters Sally was still caring for her brother. She could tell he was fine, having come to no harm at the hands of that awful Lucy Johnson. The family could relax again…suddenly she gave a little gasp. Sidling over to Charley, who was fidgeting some, she blurted out “Pa! We haven’t told Ma about anything yet! I’ll bet she’s worried sick by now.”
Glad to have an excuse to get away from a scene which didn’t need him just now, Charley made their goodbyes. He and Sally bundled the child up really good this time, and borrowed a wagon to go back to their own place.
Sally hadn’t been too far off about Caroline’s mood. Left alone, even if it had been by choice, she was a fretful bundle of nerves, not at all like her usual self. As father and daughter, with son in tow, pulled up to the house they saw her face appear at the window almost immediately. Caroline was teary-eyed at their approach, then saw their smiles and nearly fainted in relief when she also saw the bundle Sally had hold of.
Charley wrapped her in a hug as soon as he came through the door. “Everything’s fine now Caroline, see, our son is safe.”
“Oh, Charley, what’s been going on? I’ve been nearly out of my mind, with no word.” She noted that his face was clean now. “Did you kill that Lucy?”
“No, nobody’s dead, yet that is. But everybody and their brother is over to the AAA. There’s going to be a big ruckus over Gus Anderson’s estate. I don’t know wall of it yet, but I imagine we’ll here about it.” Charley went on to fill in his wife about what had happened to whom, and about the baby’s rescue. Caroline was grateful to those who had done so much for their child, that by now Sally had handed over to her mother, and who was sleeping peacefully in her lap.
She looked up at Charley. “Honey, are you dead set on naming the baby after you?” she said softly.
Such a thought had been chasing around in Charley’s mind, but hearing the odd tone in Caroline’s voice he responded gallantly “Not really. Were you thinking of something else, like your family?”
“No. But after all the things that have been happening with us and the boy, I did have a couple of names in mind.”
Charley was intrigued. “Such as?”
“Well, since he’s a boy we can’t name him after Belle, but there’s her own father’s name we could use. And I have a couple of other names that would fit. Might have to have two middle names.”
Charley winced at the idea of naming his boy after Belle’s father, but he would do almost anything to make her happy, after the hard time she’d had birthing him. “Two middle names?” he ventured “Isn’t that kind of high falutin’?” He almost bit his tongue as he remembered something about Caroline.
Caroline Hilda Pauline Sternberg Charging Bear had just a slightly cooler tone as she replied “Not really” Then, in a softer voice again she said “I think you’ll like this name.”