One Bright Morning (47 page)

“
Thank you, Mr. Blue Gully.”
Maggie was very happy when Dan lifted her to stand beside her new
husband. She didn’t even mind when Annie’s busy little fingers
smeared her new spectacles.

“
What did I tell you?” Beula
nearly smothered Annie when she hugged Maggie to her billowing
bosom.

Jubal shook hands with everybody and thanked
them. He was not used to thanking people any more than he was used
to apologizing, but he did it with grace and goodwill.

“
We’re going to have a party
as soon as my wife fixes up the place,” he told them
all.

“
Looks like you got the
goods to do it,” said Dan wryly as he nodded toward the
wagon.

Jubal shuffled. He was a little embarrassed
now. “That’s Maggie’s wedding present,” he mumbled.

“
What?” Maggie hadn’t even
noticed the mercantile wagon loaded to the top slats with goods.
She stared at it now with amazement.

She was embarrassed to death. She was also
so pleased that she could hardly speak. Her hands flew to her
flaming cheeks when she realized what her husband had done.

“
My Lord in heaven, Jubal
Green, what on earth did you do all that for?”

In spite of a flash of embarrassment, Jubal
was pleased as punch. “I just wanted to surprise you, Maggie.”

“
Well, you did that, all
right,” she laughed.

Her view was marred by two little fingers,
as Annie again poked at her glasses.

“
Stop that,
Annie.”

Annie’s little mouth puckered up, and Maggie
was ashamed of herself. Here she had gone away and left her little
baby all by herself with a bunch of strangers and then she’d come
back married, and now she was getting mad at Annie for wondering
about the two shiny pieces of glass sitting atop her mama’s
nose.

“
I’m sorry, baby. These are
Mama’s new spectacles. You mustn’t touch them, because they help
Mama see,” she explained to her little girl.

“
Speckles,” said Annie. She
removed fingers from the lenses and merely pointed at
them.

Jubal laughed. “That’s right, little
parsnip. Those are your mama’s spectacles.”

Annie had apparently forgot all about Jubal.
But when he talked to her and called her his little parsnip, she
seemed to decide she needed him to hold her. She held out her
chubby little arms to him and said, “Juba hold Annie.”

“
Yeah, Jubal will hold
Annie.” His voice sounded a little choked.

“
Jubal’s your pa now,
Annie,” announced little Connie Todd decisively. Connie had her
mother’s definite way about her, and her voice was firm.

“
Pa?” Annie eyed Jubal
speculatively. “Dat Juba,” she corrected Connie with a
frown.

Jubal hugged her. “I don’t care what you
call me, parsnip,” he said. “Just as long as you and your mama are
happy.”

Maggie hugged him hard. “We’re happy,” she
said.

“
Happy,” agreed
Annie.

# # #

“
They might be happy, but
Jubal’s gonna to have to build another house to put all this stuff
in,” grunted Four Toes as he and Dan unloaded Garza’s wagon a few
minutes later.

“
I swear. Men,” was all
Beula Todd said as she watched them. But she said it with a big
smile on her face.

The wagon was stuffed to the brim with
china, chairs, tables, mirrors, silver boxes, handkerchiefs,
garters, parasols, atomizers, window shades, hats (trimmed and
untrimmed), hair pins, fabrics, shawls, children’s shoes and
stockings, bonnets, andirons, candle sticks, and even a brass
dog-food dish that Maggie had indicated she thought would be sweet
for Rover.

It was like Christmas and all the birthdays
in the world rolled together into this one glorious wagon. Maggie
had never seen the like. She and Beula Todd spent a wonderful
afternoon poring over everything. Their children got mighty fed up
with being called into the house every few minutes to try on new
bonnets and shoes and jackets.

While the women enjoyed themselves and
tormented the children, Jubal, Dan, and Four Toes went into a
huddle as soon as the wagon was unloaded.

“
Mulrooney will be in El
Paso any day now,” Jubal told his foster brothers.

“
Hell. Who knows what he’ll
do now,” grumbled Dan.

“
All I know for sure is that
he’s sneaky and smart and he wants my hide and everything I own.”
He pulled the boasting telegram Mulrooney had sent him out of his
breast pocket. “He burned down Maggie’s farm.”

“
Aw, no.” Four Toes’ voice
was bleak.

Jubal nodded grimly. “To the ground. Burned
it to cinders. Bragged about it.” He waved the telegram in front of
his friends. “He hurt Maggie bad.”

“
Bastard,” growled
Dan.

“
Whatever he does, and
whatever happens, I want Maggie to be safe,” Jubal announced.
“We’re married now, and I visited the lawyer to change my will. If
Mulrooney does kill me, at least she’ll be taken care of.” His
voice was grim with satisfaction.

“
I don’t like to hear you
talk like that, Jubal.” Four Toes’ expression was troubled. “I
never heard you talk about dyin’ before.”

Jubal sighed. “I never talked about love
before, either, or taking a wife.” He grinned sheepishly and
shrugged. “But there you go. Life plays tricks.”

“
Well, just don’t let any of
them tricks get you off guard again, is all,” recommended Dan
dryly.

“
Right. That’s what I want
to talk to you two about. I want to get Mulrooney before he has a
chance to settle into El Paso. Hank’s agreed to send me word as
soon as his train is spotted. You know Mulrooney. He doesn’t travel
light. We’ll know before he hits town.”

“
You,” he pointed at Four
Toes. “I want you to guard Maggie and Annie. Don’t let them out of
your sight. Dan and I will get Sammy to organize the guards so that
there will be no way for Mulrooney’s men to sneak past
them.”

“
Right,” agreed Four
Toes.

“
Then what?” Dan looked
vaguely disgruntled, as though he’d been hoping for a more
aggressive plan.

“
Then you and me are going
to ride to El Paso and I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.” He
eyed his brothers hard. “I just don’t want the filthy snake to
slither in through the cracks before I can do it.”

Dan smiled grimly. “Good.”

# # #

Prometheus Mulrooney found ironic
satisfaction in the knowledge that he was staying in the same hotel
that Jubal Green had vacated just the day before.

“
If I’d only known, I could
have had a surprise waiting for him,” he chortled. Then he shot a
glare at Ferrett and Pelch, who stood before him with their heads
bowed.

“
But I’ll get him anyway,”
he told his two subordinates. “He can’t escape me. Especially not
now. How deliciously pleasant to discover that even Jubal Green’s
hirelings can be bought. He’s a man who inspires disgusting loyalty
in his men as a rule.” Mulrooney was obviously disgruntled over
that last fact.

“
Well, sir, you have to
admit that it wasn’t actually his people who were
disloyal”

The words tumbled out of Ferrett’s mouth
before he could stop them, and they drew an astonished gasp from
Pelch. Ferrett himself visibly blanched as he realized he had
actually dared to call his employer’s words into question.

Mulrooney’s piggy eyes squinched up
ominously. His bulbous nose turned purple and his jowls quivered.
He leaned into Ferrett as though a hurricane were blowing at his
back. Ferrett tilted away from him until he had to take a step to
keep himself from falling over backwards.

“
What did you say?”
Mulrooney’s voice was very soft and slow, a circumstance that made
both Ferrett and Pelch swallow convulsively.

Ferrett’s teeth chattered when he answered.
“Well, sir, I, well, sir, I was, well, just, well, venturing to
point out to you, sir, that Mr. Green’s man Mr. Napolitano didn’t
know that the men he hired were your people. Sir.” The man’s eyes
squeezed shut and he waited for his fate, which he was sure would
be painful. He hoped it would be quick.

When nothing happened to him, Ferrett began
to tremble. Since his eyes were still shut, he couldn’t see the
expression of infuriated loathing that passed over Mulrooney’s
face, leaving in its wake an evil smirk, as Mulrooney realized how
frightened Ferrett was.

Mulrooney glanced at Pelch and discovered
that his assistant’s eyes were darting from him to Ferrett and back
again as though he were watching a furiously paced tennis match.
Mulrooney shook his head and his jowls wobbled like the wattles on
a turkey cock.

“
Imbeciles,” he
spat.

Then he reached out a blubbery hand and
poked Ferrett with the sharp stub of his finger. Ferrett stumbled
backwards and was only saved from falling over by the wall he
bumped against.

“
If you ever question my
words again, you miserable wart, it will be your last act on earth.
Of course, you already know that.” Mulrooney sounded positively
jolly.

“
Y-yes, sir,” whispered
Ferrett. His face was as white as the wall he trembled
against.

“
Now get out of her, both of
you!”

Mulrooney’s roar frightened a tiny scream
out of Ferrett. Pelch’s knees gave way as he ran toward the door,
and he embarrassed himself by falling down and crawling the last
few feet.

Without pausing to consult, the two men ran
down the elaborate, crimson-carpeted, spiral stairway into the
hotel lobby, dashed out the door, and made a mad bee-line to the
train station. They hurtled onto Mulrooney’s private carriage and
out to the observation platform.

Until very late into the star-speckled
night, furious sparks could be seen as the two men sawed
frantically at the wrought iron railing of Mulrooney’s deck. They
broke four more saw blades that night alone.

Ferrett couldn’t hide the tears in his eyes
when they finally trudged wearily back to the hotel, where they
shared the least luxurious room the El Paso could provide.

“
It’s no use, Mr. Pelch.”
His voice broke on a sob. “Nothing is going to get those bars to
break.”

“
Don’t despair, Mr.
Ferrett,” advised Pelch passionately, “Or all will be
lost.”

“
I’m afraid all is already
lost, Mr. Pelch,” his friend answered sadly.

“
Don’t say so, Mr. Ferrett.
Please don’t say so. After all, if we don’t have hope, we don’t
have anything.”

Ferrett looked at Pelch, and his face spoke
the words he didn’t have the heart to utter aloud.

# # #

Maggie had never had such a streak of
uninterrupted luck before in her life. Not good luck, anyway. It
was true that her farm had been burned to the ground, and she knew
that she had to go back there again one day. But that one unhappy
circumstance was very nearly overwhelmed in her heart by the good
that now surrounded her.

She moved her things into Jubal’s big
bedroom and then set about to pretty the masculine room up with
frilly curtains that she made out of one of the bolts of chintz
Jubal had bought at Garza’s. Then she fixed up the room that she
and Annie had shared for Annie’s use. She made Annie and Connie
Todd both a dress out of the green calico, and had enough left over
for a bonnet apiece.

“
I swear, Maggie, I don’t
know how you can find time to sew for my little girl with
everything else you’re doing around here,” Beula told
her.

Although Beula sounded gruff, she had tears
in her eyes when Maggie showed her the pretty green gown and
bonnet. Maggie had trimmed the bonnet with some white cotton lace,
and there was enough lace left over to trim the sash to the dress
as well. Connie’s freckled cheeks glowed when she tried on her new
finery.

Maggie only laughed at Beula’s voiced
concern. “I’m having such a wonderful time, Beula. It’s no bother
at all. I’ve never had—” Maggie struggled for words momentarily.
“I’ve never had so much. I’ve just never had so much.” She shook
her head with the newness of it all, and her spectacles sparkled on
her nose. “I’ve never been so happy,” she admitted shyly and with a
slightly guilty twinge in her heart. Beula smiled.

The fact that Maggie could see her
surroundings clearly made her new life all the more exciting. It
took her a long time before she stopped wanting to minutely inspect
every little thing in her world.

“
I’ve never seen it before,
Jubal,” she told her husband in a hurt voice when he laughed at her
for going into raptures over the cottonwood they sat beneath one
evening. “I can see every little, tiny leaf,” she added with awe as
she stared up into the branches above her head.

Jubal couldn’t help it. He laughed again.
Then he hugged her hard and hauled her up to sit on his lap.

“
My little blind wife,” he
nuzzled into her honey-colored hair.

“
Not anymore,” she said
firmly.

“
No. Not
anymore.”

Maggie loved Jubal to death. It nearly broke
her heart when he rode away every morning, and she wanted to cry
with relief when he came back to her, safe, every evening. She did
try very hard not to cry, even though it was her natural reaction
to almost anything. She knew how much Jubal hated to see her in
tears.

She wrote to Sadie Phillips, giving her the
happy news of her marriage, and Sadie wrote back a letter so full
of surprise and exclamation points that Maggie giggled for an
entire evening. She longed to visit Sadie and see what was left of
her former life, to tell Kenny that she and Annie would be all
right now, but she didn’t want to hurt Jubal’s feelings.