Cowboy Caveat (14 page)

Pulling his wife in close to his side, Ed
smiled as Lucy burrowed into him. Her eyes were closed and he could
see blue shadows beneath them. He frowned at the sight; she looked
so very tired. He was going to spoil her while in Dallas and lay a
new foundation down for their marriage to grow on...after he had
sorted out this current mess his dear sister Amy had landed them
in. Once again, he was glad to know that his sister would be
Ethan’s problem from now on... that is if after all of this trouble
he still wanted her. Dear God, what a terrible thought -- to be
stuck with Amy!

* * * * *

Rick Cook was a pretty good judge of
character and he decided, after talking at length with Mr. and Mrs.
Ethan Walker, that he could trust them.....well him leastways. It
was pretty obvious the man had done the right thing when he had
caught up with his wife, judging from the way she avoided sitting
down and rubbed her backside at every opportunity – that is when
she thought no one else was looking. She was subdued and respectful
towards her husband, too. Yup; he reckoned Ethan Walker was
alright!

“
No, no, we cannot stay
here, Mr. Cook. I’m sorry but that is out of the question!” Amy
insisted.

Rick glared at Amy’s outburst and pointed
his finger, jabbing it at her as he made his point, “You, ma’am,
are a fugitive and I am a Texas Ranger. You will do as I tell you
or I will tie you behind my horse and make you walk all the way to
Dallas, whereupon you will be flung in jail to await trial! Do you
understand me?”

“
Yes,
but......”

“
NO. NO. NO BUTS! Mr.
Walker, it seems that whatever punishment you meted out to your
wife yesterday has worn off. I suggest you remove her to the barn
and repeat it right now, an’ that, sir, is an order!”

Amy went beet red and spluttered with
indignation, but before she could speak Ethan had swatted her
bottom and grabbed her arm, swinging her away from the table where
Rick Cook sat. Ethan marched Amy outside just as Cook had suggested
he should but he had no intention of punishing his indignant wife.
He felt exactly the same way about being left behind at the staging
post with the children as she did. They needed to get to Dallas to
sort out this mess and sitting in the middle of nowhere was going
to get them...well, nowhere!

To stop any misunderstanding between them,
he folded Amy into a bear hug, restraining her until he felt her
relax into his hold. He spoke softly into her ear, “I’m with you on
this one hon but we gotta bide our time. No good’ll come of riling
up a Ranger, Amy, so jus’ leave it to me.....promise me,
darlin’?”

“
Hmm.”

“
Little girl, your bottom
is mighty sore right now...so don’t tempt me. Alright,
Amelia?”

“
Yes, alright.”

“
Pardon?”

A very heavy sigh escaped
from Mrs. Amelia Walker as she said, “Yes,
sir
.”

Ethan nodded, pleased that she’d remembered.
They had spent a difficult hour explaining everything to Mr. Cook
the day before and then he, in turn, had questioned Amy at some
length. Ethan had instigated some behavioral rules for Amy,
including one rule that she should always call him ‘sir’ whenever
he called her by her full name Amelia.

Although Amy was still extremely contrite
about shooting an unarmed man, she was getting tired of Ethan’s
high-handedness. After all, she had been punished for that and now
it was time to move forward and plan.

“
Perhaps we should wait
until everyone is asleep tonight and just slip away,” she
suggested.

Ethan groaned. Why was she
not listening to him? “What part of
leave
it to me
don’t you understand, hmm?” Amy
flounced and Ethan did a double-take. Amy
flouncing
? He couldn’t help it; he
laughed. Amy stamped her foot and glared at him but when she saw
his dancing eyes and heard his infectious chuckle, she grinned. My!
He was a handsome man, this husband of hers. Ethan pulled her back
towards him and planted a smacking kiss on her lips. “Don’t you
worry, little gal, I got this one covered!” Amy relaxed. It was
quite a nice feeling being looked after, and perhaps she could get
used to this whole marriage lark after all.

* * * * *

Hilda Campbell was quite taken aback when
her housekeeper showed her eldest grandson and his wife into her
parlor. She was delighted to see them, of course, but being an
astute woman she knew there must be something very wrong for them
to be there, especially minus their children.

“
Rose please go fetch us a
pot of chocolate and some muffins and then you may prepare the
yellow guest room for my grandson and his wife, thank
you.”

“
Yes’m,” the woman said
and bobbed a curtsy.

“
Oh, and Rose, cut some
yellow roses from the back for the dressing table in the bedroom. I
am sure that Lucy will enjoy them. Thank you, Rose.” Rose bobbed
again and left the room.

“
So Grandma, are Amy,
Ethan and the children all out?” Ed asked as he made himself
comfortable in one of the overstuffed chairs.

Hilda looked at him, her eyes widening in
surprise. “Despite sending Amy and Millie a train ticket each, I
have heard nothing from them. Why? Did you expect to find them
here? Oh my dears...should they have been?”

Lucy leaned forward in her chair, looking
anxious, “You haven’t seen them...what....not at all? They left
days ago to come and visit you…Something has gone very wrong!”

“
Calm down, Lucy. We don’t
know that yet.”

“
But, Ed, they should be
here by now, you know they should!” Lucy pressed her hand to her
mouth and twisted around to face her husband.

“
Will one of you please
explain to me what has happened?” Hilda commanded.

Ed proceeded to fill his grandmother in on
the events that had led to their arrival that day. After he had
finished, Hilda sat back in her seat, silently digesting what she
had just heard. Rose appeared with the tray of hot chocolate and
muffins, and there was a moment or two of organization with tables
and cups being handed around. “Thank you Rose, now would you be so
kind as to send the boy to Judge Richardson’s establishment asking
him to please join us for dinner this evening if he is able.”

Rose bobbed again and after murmuring
another “Yes’m,” she left the room to find her son.

Hilda turned to Ed and Lucy. “The judge is a
very dear friend of mine and is still very active in the justice
system. I am certain that he will know how best to help Amy. She
has been an extremely stupid girl Edward and I hope that you have
put aside your usual distaste for punishment and dealt with her,
pointing out the seriousness of the situation to her?”

Ed looked uncomfortable and coughed.
“We-ell, not quite, Grandma, because she and Millie used the
tickets that you sent to them for a visit, to catch the train
without my knowledge, so in fact I haven’t seen or spoken to Amy
since she shot Henderson.”

Hilda frowned. “But did you not say that
Lucy was with Amy when this shooting occurred Edward?”

Lucy shuffled in her chair and, feeling
embarrassed as she remembered the outcome of that day, she spoke
up, avoiding her husband’s eye. “I was with Amy, yes, you are
correct, and I take full responsibility for what I did in putting
the girls on the train to send them to you m’am, though in
hindsight I wish that I had just taken them home and allowed Ed to
deal with the problem.”

Hilda fixed Lucy with a gimlet eye. “And why
is that my dear, your idea seems to have been an eminently sensible
one to me!”

Ed cleared his throat and said,
“Grandmother, may we go up to our room now? It has been a long day,
and I think that Lucy should lie down before dinner. She is
exhausted.”

“
Of course you may go up
and rest. Do not worry over much, my dears, I am sure Ethan will
take good care of the girls. Lucy, your brother seems to me to be a
very capable and resourceful young man, and I am sure that all will
be well. Dinner is at seven o’clock sharp. The judge will hopefully
join us, he is a wise man and will be able to advise us I am sure.
Now, go and get some rest and I shall see you both
later.”

For some reason that she couldn’t fathom,
Lucy felt rather resentful towards Ed. She tried to reason this out
and came to the conclusion that it was to do with leaving their
boys and Tyler behind at the ranch. She worried that Aunt Peggy was
too old to keep track of her mischievous sons and Jayne would be
too busy chasing after Max to keep an eye on her charges. Lucy
fretted and worried so much so that every time Ed spoke to her, she
snapped his head off.

When they were settled into their pretty
bedroom with all their clothes packed away, there was a tap at
their bedroom door. Ed opened it, and Rose stood there clutching a
glass vase filled with a bunch of yellow Texas roses. “Why thank
you, Rose, how kind!” he exclaimed, taking the flowers from her. He
swung back into the room, closing the door behind him with his
foot.

“
Hey darlin’, smell these
real Texas roses from Grandma’s garden!” He went to his wife as she
was putting her underclothes into the bottom drawer of the chest,
and thrust them under her nose.

“
Ed, for goodness sake!”
Lucy shoved his hand clutching the vase away from her face. The
vase and its contents flew out of Ed’s grip and fell to the floor.
The glass cracked and water soaked into the blue and yellow floral
carpet. Lucy straightened up and glared at her husband, shouting,
“Now look what you’ve done!”

Ed was incredulous. “Me?”

“
Yes, you...thrusting them
into my face like that. What did you expect would happen?” Lucy
raised her voice in temper.

Ed looked thoughtfully at his wife,
wondering what was going on in her pretty head. This behavior was
just not like her. He left the flowers and broken glass for a
moment and took his wife’s hand in his, pulling her gently so that
she stood in front of him. Lucy stared crossly at the buttons on
Ed’s waistcoat and would not meet his eyes.

“
What’s the matter, Luce?
This isn’t like you,” he said gently.

“
Nothing’s the matter,”
she replied untruthfully.

Ed put his hand under her chin and lifted
her face so he could look her in the eye. “I want you to look at
me, Lucy.” Lucy avoided Ed’s gaze and shuffled her feet.

“
Come on, darlin’, this
really ain’t like you at all. Please tell me what ails you?” he
coaxed. Lucy huffed and tried to twist her face out of Ed’s
hand.

Ed was beginning to lose patience with his
little wife. He wasn’t sure what to do, but he could almost hear
Ethan inciting him in his head to spank Lucy for her behavior. He
really didn’t want to do that, not here and not now.

He tried again, saying, “Listen, darling, I
can’t help you if I don’t know what is wrong.”

Two bright pink spots appeared in Lucy’s
cheeks and she stamped her foot, “Why does anything have to be
wrong! You were just clumsy and stupid so I got cross, that’s all!
If you want to help, then just leave me be, Ed!” She jerked
backward and spun away from him.

Ed stared at his wife and sighed. Perhaps
she just needed some rest and time alone; it had been a very trying
few days. “Alright, darling, I’ll go for a walk and you can have a
nice rest. I think you are just exhausted, that’s all. I’m just
going to clear this mess up and then I’ll leave you in peace.”

Lucy relaxed and nodded. She could rest
properly with Ed out of the room for a while.

Ed picked up all the glass and, placing it
into his handkerchief, he left the room. Lucy let the breath she
was holding go and flopped onto the bed. She lay there for a few
blessed moments and then decided she was so hot she would remove
her dress and petticoats before sleeping. She had just laid back
down with a grateful sigh when the door opened and Ed walked back
in with a new vase and the rearranged yellow roses.

“
Here we are, then, all as
good as new. Where do you want them?”

Lucy ground her teeth in irritation but told
him to leave them on the dressing table. Ed did so and hovered
hesitantly over his wife.

“
I thought you were going
for a walk?” she asked him shortly.

“
You look so delicious and
rumpled, I thought you might like me to join you for a little
siesta, hmm?” Ed waggled his eyebrows playfully.

Lucy was horrified and said, “No thank you.
I want to sleep, Ed.” Ed looked crestfallen but nodded and bade her
‘good afternoon’ before slipping out and softly closing the
door.

Lucy sighed with relief and snuggled down to
sleep. She had just nodded off when the door opened again and Ed
came in asking, “Are you asleep yet, Luce?”

Lucy ignored him and he bent down and began
to clean the carpet up with a cloth. He backed into a small bedroom
chair and it fell over with a crash.

“
Enough is enough!”
screeched Lucy, jumping up and off the bed. She stormed over to
where Ed was down on his knees cleaning. He looked up at his wife,
somewhat startled by her sudden action. Lucy, unthinkingly and in a
foul temper, pulled back her hand and slapped her husband’s face
hard. As soon as she had done it, her hands flew to her mouth in
horror and she backed away from her husband’s furious face, which
now sported a very large red handprint.

“
I agree
enough is enough
!” said
Ed, standing up. “I don’t know what has got into you, Mrs.
Campbell, but I intend to spank it right out of you!”