Pony Dreams (16 page)

My brothers scowled at me as I scuffed a boot
back and forth.

“I didn't mean to do it,” I said.

They turned their backs.

“Please don't tell Ma. Anything but that,” I
begged. “He was hurting a horse. You know I can't stand that.”

Mrs. Carson bustled over to us with a bulging
saddlebag.

“I slid leftover sausages between the
biscuits. They'll taste good later.” She passed the package to
Charles. “Return it when you come back.”

“Daylight's wastin'.” Mark gathered our
horses. “Been good staying with you, Mrs. Carson.”

She scurried away when someone shouted,
“Rider in!”

“Darn it, Abby,” he said after we rode away
from the station. “You want everyone to talk about you for the rest
of your life?”

I ignored his anger, Adam's stiff back, and
Charles' snickers, focusing on the west and the image of an ocean.
What was it like there? I'd never seen a large body of water.

Our well would never go dry. I bet it rains
so much the vegetables are never runty. Living near an ocean sounds
like paradise!

“Stay safe, Pony Bob,” I whispered.

“Ah, look at our baby sister,” Mark teased.
“She fell for a rider.” His smile vanished.

“Forget about Pony Bob. He's more than twice
your age, and we don't know much about him.”

“Abby, that was the most foolish thing you
could have done,” Adam scolded. “I don't know what Ma and Pa will
say.”

Panic settled into my bones. I had broken my
promise to keep my mouth shut and obey my brothers.

“Ah, lay off,” Charles commented. “Mrs.
Carson won't let any of those men pester her when we come back.” He
grinned. “Hey, Adam, you've always wanted to talk to Pony Bob, but
he never had the time. Maybe if Abby speaks to him nicely, you and
he can make arrangements for you to join The Pony.”

Shock turned into hurt. I knew Adam dreamed
of leaving the ranch and seeing some of the world, even get on The
Pony. Tears pricked at my eyes.

“I gave up that dream when Pa got sick.” He
glanced at me. “Hey, short stuff, I never really meant it. Ma and
Pa need me around the ranch too much. Don't do that.”

I rubbed the tears away and stared off to the
side, away from my brothers. He couldn't leave the ranch. He just
couldn't. When would we ever get to see him?

Pony riders worked seven days a week in all
kinds of weather and dangerous conditions. Adam might never come
home again if he joined The Pony. I snuffled and swiped a sleeve
under my nose as I thought about him living such a life.

By the time we stopped for the night, I
wanted nothing more than my nice, safe home, one of Ma's suppers,
the rest of my family around, and my soft, warm bed. Since I had
another day before that happened, I kicked away all the rocks and
curled up in my blankets, staring at the stars in the sky while my
brothers sat around the fire.

“We should have taken the time to find the
sheriff or gone to the Army garrison before we left,” Charles
said.

He peered at me. I pretended I had already
fallen asleep.

“Won't do any good,” Adam said. “No one will
admit seeing what Mr. Johnson put in Pa's coffee, and the monsters
won't fess up as to what Daniel gave them. They called it
candy.”

“It sure seems strange that all three took
sick right after the Johnsons met up with them,” Mark said.

My eyes slid closed against my will. Dreams
claimed me.

The next morning, I took off the kerchief and
let my braids hang down. Adam kept sending me irritated looks, but
I ignored him while I handed out the last of the sausage biscuits.
After washing them down with water, we rode toward our ranch, but
no one said much. Near noon, I scanned the horizon for any sign of
the building. A finger of smoke rose into the sky.

I lifted myself in the stirrups. Paiute never
lit a fire in the open.

“That's our place,” Adam gasped.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Whipping the horse
with my hat, I lay flat across its neck as the animal streaked for
the barn. A hot wind blasted my face, and I stared intently as I
rode toward home. Was that the kitchen stovepipe rising over the
roof? Had Peter just scampered from the garden with vegetables in
his hands?

“Abby, wait for us!” Adam shouted.

Hooves pounded behind me, but I never slowed
my pace.

“Darn it, Abby,” Mark hollered. “Slow down
before you get tossed.”

No horse would throw me, unless someone made
them do it.

“Abby!” Charles bellowed.

Their futile yelling faded away as we rode
pell-mell into the yard. Charred beams pointed at the sky, those
not smoldering on the ground. Uncle Andy stood in front of what
used to be the wash shack, cradling one arm with a hand. Smoke
floated around Paul as I skidded my horse to a halt and threw
myself off.

“Where are they?” I screamed as I scanned the
area.

Paul pointed at the house. There was no sign
of Ma, Pa, Bart, or Peter anywhere in the ruins.

“What do you mean in there?” Adam demanded.
“What happened?”

“It was ... it was.” Tears dripped through
the soot on Paul's face.

“Michael took sick again. Louisa was tending
him,” Uncle Andy said. “She kept Peter at the house to help. Bart,
Paul, and I were in the corral.” He sounded strange, like he had
shut off his feelings. “The Johnsons rolled up tumbleweeds and set
them on fire. The whole house went up in seconds. We tried. Lord
knows, we tried. It was too hot to get close.”

“Where are they?” I yelled.

Ma and Pa couldn't be gone.

They're in the barn. That's it.

I took off at a run, determined to prove my
parents and brothers had escaped.

“Abby, they're gone.” Uncle Andy grabbed my
arm when I darted past him. “Honey, they couldn't get out of the
house.”

“No!” I squalled. “Tell me it's not
true!”

As Adam, Charles, Mark, and Paul dropped to
the ground while tears streamed down their faces, I realized the
truth. Ma, Pa, and Peter were gone. But what about Bart? Where was
he?

I have to find Bart. The others are still
alive if I do!

After yanking free of Uncle Andy, I dashed
past the chicken coop and darted through the doors. Cats hissed and
whizzed into the corners when I startled them. Their tails fluffed
into huge brushes, and they snarled at me from behind hay
bales.

“Where are you, Bart?” I cried.

Cows mooed, the pig grunted, and horses
nickered while I searched every inch of the massive building,
except the loft. A promise to Ma, and the thought she might find
out, kept me off the ladder. Hay drifted in the air when I burst
outside. Maybe Bart was in the chicken coop. It would be just like
him to scare me.

“Ma's gonna burn your britches for scaring
me. Holy heck, this isn't right. Don't tease me, Bart.”

Squawking loudly, chickens scattered in all
directions. After another desperate but thorough search, I failed
to find him.

“Abby, get over here!”

The harshness of Adam's voice made me stare
at where the house had been. Mark took off his shirt and wrapped it
around Uncle Andy's arm. Charles knelt beside Paul and hugged him.
Adam hitched our horses to the corral fence.

“Where's Bart?” I screamed.

My voice came out scratchy, and my throat
hurt. When no one answered, I scampered back to the barn and
searched the loft.

That'll bring Ma back! Sure as shootin', it
will. If I have to endure her hand against my backside, so be
it!

I found nothing and went back outside.

“We have to deliver the next group of
horses,” Adam said.

His insensitive comment drove through me like
a knife. No one seemed to care we were orphans. A hiccup tore
through me as I tried to hold in the pain ripping me apart.

“Don't go running off, Abby,” Uncle Andy
called. “We don't know for sure if the Johnsons are gone.”

So what?

My errant thought drove me forward, until
Mark spoke.

“Where is Bart?”

“Gone for the sheriff,” Paul said. “We can't
let them get away with this. It's murder.”

A low snigger came from behind the barn. I
grabbed a couple of rocks. A girl I might be, but I could throw as
well as any of my brothers, maybe better.

“Show your ugly face,” I whispered. “I'll
teach you a thing or two.”

Gabriel strolled out from behind the
barn.

“Take that!” I pelted a rock at him, hitting
his nose.

He yelped and ran. Adam and Mark tackled
Gabriel.

“Are you hassling my sister again?” Mark
demanded as they hauled him to his feet.

“She threw a rock at me,” Gabriel wailed.

“Hit you, too,” Adam commented. “And improved
your looks. Did you do this?”

He pointed at the remains of our house.

“Looks like you can't finish your contract.
Russell, Waddel, & Majors will have to deal with my family
now.”

Gabriel's assessment brought out the anger I
had squashed. I ran toward him, picking up a stick on my way.

He'll learn. No one, but no one messes with
a Weston!

“Drop that right now, or I'll tan your
hide!”

Bart's shout brought me up short. I spun
around as he and a stranger wearing a tin badge on his shirt
trotted into the corral.

“You aren't hurt, Bart,” I cried. “They
didn't lie!”

He dismounted and put his horse into the
corral. After latching the gate, he glanced at the rest of us.

“Sheriff Cove wants to know what you
saw.”

The lawman pointed at the stick in my
hand.

“Son, you weren't going to dispense justice,
were you?” He walked over to me. “Did you see what happened?”

“That's my baby sister,” Bart said. “She
wasn't here when it happened. Adam, Charles, Mark, and Abby took a
herd to the Pony Express station.”

“Miss Weston, will you please drop your
weapon?” Sheriff Cove asked. “It'll make me feel much better.”

The stick fell from my nerveless fingers.

“He didn't say he did it, but the Johnsons,
especially Gabriel, have given us problems for a long time. Can you
make them pay for what they did?” I asked.

He knelt in front of me. “Did he admit to
starting the fire?”

“He said we couldn't make our contract
anymore, but we can! You tell the stationmaster Bart will bring the
rest, just like we promised. Won't you?”

“Oh, Abby,” Uncle Andy said. “Things will
work out. We won't break your pa's word.”

“But what about ... about...”

Suddenly, it was all too real. I hiccupped as
my heart tore in half.

“Come back, Ma,” I whispered. “I didn't mean
to talk to Pony Bob, but he punched Blaze. Please, Ma, don't leave
me.”

When I wailed, Charles grabbed me into a
hug.

“We aren't mad at you,” he said. “Don't cry,
honey. We'll make it right.”

None of my brothers could ever understand.
Only one person could help me feel better, only one person had the
power to prove I wasn't living through the nightmare of losing part
of my family a second time.

“You can't!” I howled. “Only Ma knows how to
do that. Where is she? I need her!”

Chapter
Twenty-Three

I threw my arms
around Bart's neck and hung on tight. My big brother was with me,
and I wouldn't let him out of my sight. That meant only one thing.
Everyone had just been teasing me. Ma, Pa, and Peter were hiding
nearby. The other, awful thing just couldn't have
happened.

“Tell me they'll come back. Ma, Pa, and Peter
went with you to find the sheriff, right?”

Bart lowered me to the ground and stroked
hair off my forehead.

“Oh, Abby, I can't lie no matter how much I
want to make you feel better. I'm sorry, baby, they didn't make it
out of the house,” he said.

The hole in my heart chasmed into a monstrous
gorge and all my feelings fell into it. Numbness started at my toes
and spread through every inch of my body. Live without Ma, Pa, and
Peter? That was unthinkable.

“You made good time,” Paul said. “I thought
it would take almost a week to return with the sheriff.”

Sheriff Cove finished tying up Gabriel and
walked over to us. The sheriff swatted his hat against his leg.

“I was headed out here. There were rumors up
in Carson City about Horace pouring something into Michael's
coffee,” he said. “I wanted to speak to your pa about it. Did he
take sick after he came back?”

“Yes, sir,” Adam said. “Peter and Paul, too.
That's why Abby joined us on the last delivery.”

I gulped when they stared at me, trying to
hold back my grief but shivers hit me hard, and I started crying
again.
It isn't true. It just can't be.

“It was my fault. If I hadn't talked to Pony
Bob and disobeyed Ma, this wouldn't have happened.” A single tear
landed on my lip. I swiped at it. “Adam, you can find Ma and Pa,
can't you? I'm awful lonely without them.”

“Oh, short stuff,” Adam said. “I wish I
could, but they won't come back.”

Gabriel struggled to a standing position. At
least, he tried to, but the sheriff had tied him to one of the
fence posts, and he only managed a squat.

“You got that straight.” He glared at me.
“That contract will be ours now. Your pa signed it, and you cain't
stop us from takin' it now that he's dead.”

Adam restrained Mark and Paul while the
sheriff held onto Bart and Charles. All of my brothers glared at
Gabriel, but he just kept hollering.

“Not a one of ya can prove nuthin'. We
weren't nowhere near this place when the house burned.” He
snickered. “I'll call ya liars if you say we done it. Didn't nobody
see us.”

“You rolled tumbleweeds up to the back of the
house.” Uncle Andy's voice rang out clear in the silence.