The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw (3 page)

The door they stopped in front of, he was sure went directly to the kitchen. He followed her to the ground and watched her heft one of the fifty pound sacks of flour up the porch stairs and through the door. Ed picked up another one and trailed her into the house.

Once in the house he followed her to the pantry where she emptied the flour into a large bin. It looked like it would hold his too, but he waited for her to tell him.

“Go ahead and dump it in the bin.” She shook the last bit of flour from the bag and then walked out of the pantry.

When Ed was done, he went back through the kitchen. She’d put her flour sack on the counter and he placed his on top of hers before returning to the wagon for more supplies.

After they’d unloaded all the food stuffs, they climbed back in the wagon and drove to the barn where they started unloading the five hundred pounds of grain into one of the stalls.

Ed pointed at the ten sacks of oats in the wagon. “How long will that grain last you? It seems like a lot.”

“About three weeks. We have twenty-five horses and they each get a bucket of about a pound a day. I don’t usually get this much at once but I haven’t been able to get to town for the last few weeks due to branding season.”

He hefted another sack of grain. “You normally go about once a week?”

She nodded. “Yeah, Saturdays are town days. Saturday night the men go to let off steam and during the day I drive in to get supplies.”

Lizzie lifted bag after bag like they were filled with feathers. She was used to the work.

Ed hoped he got used to it soon. He was out of breath trying to keep up with her. And she wasn’t even winded!

She stopped and sat on a hay bale. “I’m glad you’re asking questions. The fact you do makes me believe you might really be willing to give ranching a try.” She waved her arm, taking in the entire operation.

He sat beside her and tried not to seem so out of breath.

She suddenly chuckled.

“What’s funny?”

“You are. I know you’re out of breath.” she placed a hand on her chest. “I was for the first month I started doing this kind of work.”

He laughed. “Here I was trying to be manly and keep up with you.”

“You’ll be able to soon enough. Let’s go get you settled, so you can change clothes. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be more comfortable in your work clothes.”

It was the first time he’d gotten a really good look at her. She was magnificent. Her hair was dark brown with highlights from being in the sun. Eyes the color of warm brandy looked at him from her beautiful face with its high cheekbones and tan skin. Whether her skin was colored from her heritage or the sun, the shade was beautiful.

“Mal?” She snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Mal. Pay attention here.”

Ed shook his head to clear it and paid her the attention she wanted. “I’m sorry. Your beauty took me by surprise.” He decided. in this instance, truth was the right thing to say.

She blushed. “You shouldn’t say those things.”

“Of course, I should. You’re my fiancée. I should always compliment you, when it’s true.”

Maybe she’d been thought of as a half-breed for so long, she didn’t see herself as a beautiful woman. If Ed had his way, that would change. He’d make sure she knew.

Ed stood, too. He liked the fact she was so tall. He’d never had a tall woman, one he’d barely have to lower his head to kiss. He was used to women at least a head shorter than him.

They walked back to the bunkhouse, which stood between the main house and the barn. All the cowboys were out working, so the place was empty. Every bed had something on it, and not a single one was made.

“Well, hell.” She put her hands on her hips and looked around the room. “There’s no room here. Guess you’ll have to take the guest room in the house. Might as well go and meet Mama anyway. Her name is Atina or Mrs. Cobb. She will decide what you are to call her.”

Lizzie headed to the rear of the house, where a woman hanging laundry on a clothes line.

As they approached, Ed noticed the woman was not very big, nearly a foot shorter than Lizzie.

“Mama. I have someone for you to meet.”

The woman dropped the shirt she was holding into the basket at her feet and turned toward them.

“Well,” she said, hands on her hips. “I see we have a man. City man, by the looks of him.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “This is Malcolm Brandon. Mal, my mother, Atina.”

“Mrs. Cobb.” Ed held out his hand. “I’m happy to meet you. Lizzie has talked a lot about you in her letters.”

“I thought you weren’t marrying him.” Atina did not take his hand and talked to Lizzie as though Ed wasn’t there.

“I wasn’t, but he showed up in town and wants to continue our courtship here. I wouldn’t have to give up the ranch. He wants to learn and he mentioned buying one of our own. You know the Abernathy spread next to us? If he wants us to have our own ranch, I’m having him buy that place. It’s a thousand acres and already got a house, a barn and, most importantly, a good well.”

Atina nodded. She looked Ed up and down, and then took his still-outstretched hand. “Malcolm Brandon. Do you have the money to buy the ranch for my daughter?”

“Yes, ma’am. I sold the dry goods store and am more than willing to put that money into a ranch for Lizzie and me.”

“Are you sure?” She frowned, her dark brows wrinkled. “The ranch price is eight thousand dollars. That is a lot of money.”

Ed smiled. “Yes, ma’am, I’m sure.”

“He’s staying in the guest room. All the beds in the bunkhouse are full, and after all, he
is
my fiancé, so he
should
be in the house.” Lizzie grinned at her mother. “We can’t have a better chaperone than you.”

Atina nodded and narrowed her eyes. “This is true because if Mr. Malcolm Brandon dares to touch my daughter, I will kill him.” She turned to Lizzie. “Take him upstairs to the guest room. Then come back downstairs and wash up for dinner.”

Ed looked at the small woman. She had long black hair peppered with gray and her eyes were so dark a brown as to almost seem black. There was also a look in those eyes, one that told him she was definitely capable of killing a man. Forcing a wide smile, he held up his hands in surrender. “I promise to be on my best behavior.”

“You’d better.” She turned her back and picked up the shirt she’d been about to hang on the line. “I don’t make idle threats.”

“Yes, ma’am. I understand.” Ed talked to her back as she’d already dismissed them.

“Let’s go. You still have to meet Jamie.”

They went back inside the house. At the bottom of the stairs she stopped. “Jamie. Jamie come here.”

She turned to Ed. “It’s time for his lessons. He’s doing his homework from yesterday.”

A small, dark-haired boy with the same tan skin as Lizzie appeared at the top of the stairs.

“What you want?”

“Come down here to meet someone and mind your manners.”

He lumbered down the stairs, clearly not happy about being disturbed.

“I was reading my new science book,” he grumbled.

Lizzie turned toward Ed. “Jamie loves science. It’s his favorite subject. I’m already buying him books for college students, but he reads and understands them even at age ten.”

“Who’re you?” He looked Ed up and down. “Why you dressed so funny?”

Ed chuckled. “I’m Malcolm Brandon. Mal to my friends.”

“You mind yourself, young man,” admonished Lizzie, pressing a hand to his shoulder. “Mal is my fiancé. He’s here to learn about ranching before we decide to tie the knot.”

“You can learn all you want,” said Jamie with disdain. “Lizzie’s the best one to teach you.”

“What about you? You sound like you don’t like ranching?” Ed saw himself in the boy. Being forced into something you don’t want to do, just to keep someone else happy.

“I don’t.” Jamie scuffed his shoe along the floor. “I want to be a scientist. Lizzie is the one who loves the ranch. She says she’s keeping it running for me, but I don’t want it. I want to study science back east.”

Ed nodded. “I see.” He saw a young boy who hated his life and dreamed of something more. Ed knew that feeling. He wondered what Lizzie would say if he offered to send Jamie to college. It was too soon, but definitely something to consider.

“Mal is it? Where are you from?”

“I’m from San Francisco. I came here to marry your sister.”

Jamie frowned. “Why would you do that? I’d give anything to go to San Francisco or…or New York. Both have great universities I could attend.” He looked down and pretended to kick a rock. “But I have to stay here and take care of my inheritance.”

“What if you could go to school without selling the ranch?”

The boy perked up, then cocked his head. “How could I do that? The only way to get the money for school is to sell the ranch and I couldn’t do that to Mama and Lizzie.”

Ed admired the youngster’s attitude, the responsibility he was already showing. “There might be a way, but I have to talk to your sister first. As soon as we’ve talked we’ll come see you. Deal?”

A grin spread across the boy’s face. “Deal.”

Lizzie patted Jamie on the shoulder and jutted her chin toward the ceiling. “Go on back upstairs and read, Jamie. I want to talk to Mal in private.”

“Yes’um.” He turned and raced up the stairs, his boots pounding on the bare wood.

Lizzie rounded on Ed, her voice getting louder with every word. “How could you get up his hopes like that?”

Seeing her tight jaw, Ed backed up a bit. “I want to send him to school, Lizzie. He hates ranching and he shouldn’t be forced to do it when other options are available.”

She was silent for a moment.

All Ed could hear was their breathing.

Then she said. “If you would really do that, I’d be much obliged. I don’t want to force him into ranching if he hates it. I don’t want to kill his dreams.”

“I have the money. You know I can easily afford it and it’s something I’d like to do. I know what being forced into something you don’t want is like. Perhaps he’d consider selling us this ranch in exchange. Then the property would always be in the family.”

“What do you mean about being forced into something? You never mentioned that in your letters.”

“Well, there was nothing I could do about it, why mention it. But I had dreams too that didn’t include owning a dry goods store. That was why it was so easy to sell it and come out here to you.”

She blushed. “Well, before you start making promises to a ten-year-old kid, you should check—”

“I fully intended to check with you and your mother first.”

“But you didn’t.” She pressed a finger to his chest and pushed, clearly upset. “Now he’s already thinking about school and not ranching.”

Ed was surprised by her outburst. “Don’t you want him to go to school?”

“I…of course, I do.” She let out a deep breath and then sighed. “I want him to be happy.”

Ed put his hands up in front of him. “Then what is the problem?”

“What if you and I don’t get married? What then? Not going to college will break his heart.”

“I promise that whatever happens, I’ll make sure Jamie gets the money for school.”

Her features softened. “You’d do that?”

“Yes, I will. It’s that important to me, to us. I saw a couple of banks in town. I want to go to one on Monday and deposit this cash. I wasn’t sure there even was a bank or what the name was, so I got the money from the sale of the store in cash. It’s made me nervous since I left San Francisco.”

She snorted. “I can imagine. I’ll take you back to town on Monday, to the Bank of Tombstone. It’s where we do business. If Mama has her way, she’ll spend the weekend in the kitchen, and I’ll need more baking supplies by then anyway.

CHAPTER 3

He’d been gone a week. Either the law had got him or Ed had deserted Harvey. His own flesh and blood. Gone. Gone like the chicken he was. Harvey should just forget him, but, nobody got away with leaving Harvey, unless he was dead. If Ed wasn’t dead, he’d wish he was when Harvey got done beating the living daylights out of him. Pa’s whelp. He’d learn.

Harvey planned the next robbery. A train carrying the payrolls from several of the mines in Tombstone. The train would arrive in Benson, twenty-five miles north of Tombstone where a stage with ten armed guards would be waiting for it. He needed to take it before it reached Benson.

If Ed had been there they could have planned it out. Ed was better at planning than Harvey was.
Never mind, he told himself. I can do this without Ed. I’ll show him, show everybody, I’m as good as Pa was at running the gang. No. I’m better. Pa never wanted to take a train, said it was too dangerous.

Harvey knew they’d have to disable the train so he and his men would take up a rail. They just had to move one. Or better yet, they’d fell a tree across the tracks. That was easier, unless they blew up the tracks, that would be the easiest yet and he knew just where to get the dynamite to do it.

When he saw Ed again, he’d kill him.