Jodi Thomas - The Lone Texan

"I'll tell her that if I see her” Teagen answered. "But my sister is a woman with her own mind. She doesn't take much to being told”

Drum almost swore in agreement.

As they turned to head back to the horses, gunfire rang out from the direction of the bridge.

Drum was in the saddle and riding full out before Teagen could calm his horse enough to mount. They both reached the bridge with their guns out and ready.

Shelley Lander had climbed out of the second coach and was waving his arms wildly. "Hold on, Roak," he shouted. "Hold on the men are just letting off a little steam. Don't start firing at them. We've come a long way to get the boys, and now they feel like they've been tricked.”

Drum disliked Shelley and wouldn't have minded killing the man, even if he was the brother to Sage's first husband. He held his gun level and glared at the gambler.

If the man named Charlie, whom Sage had described as the outlaw who'd been so cruel to her, stepped from the carriage, Drum wasn't sure he could stop his gun from accidentally going off three or four times. But if anyone else rode with Shelley, he didn't show himself.

Teagen and the judge caught up. Both demanded to know what was going on, but the riders were already turning about, heading toward town.

Shelley yelled for the judge and Smith boys' relative to get in the carriage. If Sage wasn't at the ranch, she was bound to be in town. "Hurry," Shelley shouted. "We're close. I can feel it. When we catch up to her. I'll convince her to come along for the safety of the boys, and we can all be on our way."

"I doubt it," Drum whispered and didn't lower his weapon until they were almost out of sight.

Teagen drew his attention. "Where's the Ranger?"

Drum twisted in the saddle. Daniel Torry was nowhere in sight. The judge had left Daniel's horse standing a few feet behind them.

Gunfire sounded from the direction the men had gone as if they were firing off rounds to celebrate.

Both Teagen and Drum slid from their horses and looked around.

"He couldn't have walked back to the house so fast," Teagen commented.

"He sure as hell didn't go with that gang of worthless flesh." Drum didn't like the only other possibility. "Either he climbed into one of the coaches, or…"

Drum didn't finish. He saw the answer floating near the riverbank: Daniel's body, facedown.

Both men dropped their weapons and dove in from the bridge. They hit the water swimming. Both moved to the rocky side and began tugging his body out. As soon as they were at the bank, Teagen drew the lifeless Ranger over his knee and pounded hard on his back.

Drum stood, helpless. Daniel thought he was so tough. He would have fought the entire gang of men if they'd tried to cross the bridge. But Daniel couldn't swim. They must have tossed him over, then fired their guns to cover up his shouts for help. They'd claim he drowned if questioned, and Drum couldn't prove different.

Teagen kept pounding. Daniel's body bowed with each blow, and his arms and legs flapped.

Drummond hadn't protected his one friend, and Daniel didn't get to die a hero.

"Breathe!" Teagen ordered. "Breathe or I'll break your back."

Drum raised his hand to stop the next blow just as water poured from Daniel's mouth and he began spitting and cussing.

Teagen held Daniel's head down until it seemed he'd spat up half the river. When he let him up, the Ranger was as gray as a tombstone.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he sputtered. He gave Teagen a look that said he'd take a swing at the man if he had the energy.

Drum grabbed Daniel and pulled him up by his shirt. "Damn it, you scared a year off my life.”

Daniel made no attempt to fight. "Well, pardon me. I was busy dying. I had two choices, stay underwater or be hit by the bullets slicing through the river just above my head”

All three men laughed. For men who didn't laugh easily, they roared. Daniel sat down and put his head on his knees. Drummond dropped by his side and fell backward. They were all three wet and cold and very much alive.

Teagen stood and helped both young Rangers to their feet. They rode back to the house and drank, while Martha put Thanksgiving dinner on the table.

"First warm day," Drum promised, "I'm going to teach you to swim. I don't know if my heart could take dragging my only friend out of the river again”

Daniel shook his head. "When I was a kid traveling around with my pa, he'd stop now and then and go back to his preaching ways. I was washed in the water every time we'd draw a crowd. Left me with a real fear of water over my head."

Daniel raised his glass. "I'm in both your debt”

Teagen drank then said, "That you are. As soon as you have a good meal, I want you and Drum riding toward town. Daniel, you stay close to the clinic to make sure everything is all right there. Drum, you know where Sage is headed. With luck, you'll catch up to her before nightfall. You stay with her until we come for you."

"Agreed," Drum answered.

"But if we go toward town, we'll be headed right into that gang again. I'm not looking forward to having to die again to keep from drowning."

"Take him through the pass” Teagen ordered.

Drum raised an eyebrow.

"Blindfolded," Teagen added.

Drum nodded. "Only one change in the plan. We leave now."

Daniel Tony stood. "I was afraid you were going to say that. Hanging around you is going to make a skeleton of me. I swear I'm going to find me a fat wife who loves to cook and quit this life before I'm nothing more than bone”

By the time the men had changed into dry clothes, Martha had packed them both food. Daniel was so grateful, he kissed her.

Drum hardly noticed the food. His mind was on reaching Sage before anyone else did.

BONNIE WATCHED SAGE AND THE BOYS RIDE BACK toward the hills, turning northwest as they entered the tree line.

She hugged Bradford's side. "I've never had anyone to take care of me”

He pulled away. "You should have told me you were pregnant last night." His voice was rough with worry.

She smiled, remembering the sweet hours they'd spent together last night. "Why? Would you not have made love to me?"

He stared at her a minute then answered, "I might have only done it once”

"But I was the one who wanted it the second time."

He laughed as he kissed the top of her head. "You're going to be a hard woman to say no to”

She tugged him to the corner of the porch, and they talked for a while. Bradford would never be a man of many words. She guessed that they'd eat most of their meals together in silence, but she didn't mind. He was a hard man, worn by life, she imagined, but he had a kindness in his eyes when he looked at her, and that somehow was enough.

"Will you stay around to see this child into the world?" she asked, needing to know how long they had.

"If it's a girl, I'll be around for her wedding and more” he answered. "If you've no objection?"

She laid her hand over his in answer.

"I sold my land to the rancher next to my place a few days after I took you back to Galveston. I'd planned to go have a talk with you, but worries over my brother kept me out longer than I'd planned. When I reached town, no one knew or wanted to tell me where you were”

"How'd you find out?"

"I didn't. I just knew you were with the little doctor, and I'd seen her with the gunfighter, Drummond Roak. When I started asking where he was, the Rangers didn't mind telling me. I guess they figured I wasn't any kind of trouble Roak couldn't handle."

“But what will you do? You sold your home”

“It was just land. I can buy more. One thing this state's got plenty of is cheap land. If you're settling here, I could look for a place nearby.” He studied her as if trying to find words she'd understand. "You could move in with me, if you'd be willing."

“That would not be proper."

He touched her belly. "We're a little late for proper. I'd marry you today, but I'd bet there's not a preacher within a hundred miles."

Bonnie looked up and noticed Daniel Torry riding toward her. She smiled. "I wouldn't be too sure."

She waited until Daniel reached the house and listened while he explained that Drum saw Sage and the boys riding off, so he joined them.

When the Ranger climbed down from his horse, she introduced him to Bradford.

As the men shook hands, Bonnie said, "Get your Bible, Preacher Daniel, I've work for you to do” Marching into the house, she added, "I'll be ready in ten minutes.”

Daniel shoved his hat back. "Who died?"

Bradford grinned. "I did." He laughed. "If I don't marry that pretty lady, she'll probably kill me. Either way, you'll make your dollar for the ceremony."

DRUM CAUGHT UP TO SAGE AS SHE BEGAN TO CLIMB the first hill. She didn't seem surprised to see him. He knew the boys had slowed her down coming through the secret passage.

He pulled his mount close to hers without a word. He could protect her and the boys now. He could breathe.

"How are things at the ranch?" she asked as if trying to make her words as casual as possible. "Is the company gone?"

"Yes," Drum answered, wishing she'd look at him. "As I was leaving, I saw the ranch hands riding in from the far pasture. The bridge will be well-guarded from now on, and I doubt one of the men we saw could swim the river"

Sage smiled. "I've only known one man who could do that besides my brothers."

He was glad she said man and not boy. "Teagen told me to make sure you and the boys stay with your grandfather until Travis can check into these 'legal rights' the stranger with the judge claims to have over the boys.”

"You don't think he really could be related to them?"

Drum shook his head. "Even if I hadn't had the dream, I still wouldn't believe it possible. If he were the real thing, why would he bring what looks like every gunslinger from the gutters of Galveston to ride guard?"

They rode in silence for a while, then he finally said what had been bothering him for hours. "You know back there what you said about loving me?"

"I know," she answered without looking at him, but he didn't miss the blush on her cheek.

"Well." He had to speak his mind. "I don't want to hear you talking like that again”

"What?" Sage fired like he knew she would.

He was trying to have a conversation about something she said, and she looked like he'd slapped her. How could he explain how much he hated the word love? He could never admit to her how many times he'd heard his mother tell a man she loved him when half the time she didn't even know his name. And the drunks would always answer something back like. "You bet you will" or "For three dollars, you'd better.” What they'd done was in no way loving.

He wouldn't explain it to her. It was a world she'd never seen and probably couldn't understand. He grew up in places where love was a commodity to be bought and sold but never given.

So he did the only thing he could think of, he fired back. "Are you getting hard of hearing in your old age? I said I don't want to hear you say those words to me. It seems a simple enough request.”

She kicked her horse, pulling away from him. "Older, you mean, and I don't take orders. But don't worry, you'll never hear them again. I must have gone mad for a moment to even have thought of saying them in the first place”

"Fine” he yelled back, letting her ride ahead.

He glanced back to see if the boys had heard anything he and Sage had talked about, but both Will and Andy looked like they were half asleep in their saddles.

When he turned to watch Sage, he heard Will whisper, "He was probably kicked in the head by a milk cow when he was a kid”

Andy answered, "That would explain it”

Drum rubbed his forehead. They were right. He'd handled Sage all wrong. Why couldn't she just be his woman and for get about foolish things like love? From what he'd seen outside the outlaw camps, love was no more than a cheap trick men and women used to manipulate one another.

He spent the rest of the afternoon looking at her back, and when they reached the camp, she seemed to get even less friendly. Once she walked by him and stomped on his foot. While he fought down a few swear words, he heard Grandfather laugh.

The boys saw the camp as a grand adventure after they got over their fears. Within an hour, they were running with boys their own age, learning the language one word at a time, and examining everything they came across.