A Million Tears (43 page)

‘Put the gun down, marshal, nice and easy like. That’s it. Now please just drop it to the ground. Dad, I don’t know what’s going on but are you aiming to kill him or just frighten him out of his wits? If it’s the latter I think he’s frightened already and if it’s the other you haven’t got far to go.’

‘Please, Evan,’ Meg begged, ‘put him down.’ She stood by Evan. ‘Who is he? The detective?’

‘Yes. He identified himself and then demanded to see Uncle James’ body.’ The man was stirring, beginning to groan. Evan let him go and the detective collapsed onto the earth.

‘Pick him up and get him off my property, marshal. If I ever see him again I’ll kill him. And that’s a promise.’

‘So will I, marshal,’ added Sion. ‘You can tell him if he’s still here tomorrow I’ll be coming looking for him.’

‘Sion, don’t be so stupid,’ Meg said, half in anger and half in fear. ‘This man is a gunslinger. What would you do to him?’ She had never seen her son like this before. In the mood he was in he was capable of anything.’

‘I’m not talking stupidly, Mam. This man killed Uncle James and when the men at the warehouse know about it I reckon we’ll have a little hanging.’

‘Rubbish, boy,’ exploded the marshal, angry because he had been made to drop his gun and look foolish. ‘There’ll be no necktie party in my town. All this man was doing was his job. Nothing more, nothing less.’

‘Shit, marshal and you know it. He was paid by some rich swine to find and hound an old man to death, which he did. To death,’ said Sion bitterly.

The object of their discussion groaned, moved and then sat up, groggy and holding his throat. He tried to talk but could not manage more than a painful croak. Sion pushed the man hard in his back and he sprawled on the ground again.

‘All right, son,’ said Evan softly. ‘Marshal, it won’t be my son and my men coming for him, but me. I just changed my mind about what’ll happen if I see him. I’ll come into town looking for him. There are at least three trains before noon. He’d better be on one. Now take him out of here.’ With that Evan spun on his heel put his arm around Meg and beckoning to Sion, led them indoors.

‘Thanks, son. It was a bit melodramatic I suppose but you were right. He caused Uncle James’ death and as far as I’m concerned he ought to pay for it.’

‘Listen to you two,’ said Meg bitterly. ‘Are you both out of your minds? It’s almost nineteen hundred and you talk like it was thirty years ago. I’ve never heard such nonsense. Do you think I want my husband and son killed, or arrested because of your blasted male stupidity? Evan, you should act your age. You know as well as I do that if it hadn’t been him it would have been somebody else. The marshal was right. He was just doing his job. Nothing you two do will bring Uncle James back. Instead it might take you from me as well. And where’s the sense in that? Men. You’re so busy being masculine you can’t see the more important things around you. Tell me, what will I do if either of you are killed? Eh? Tell me.’

‘We’re not going to get killed, Mam,’ said Sion.

‘Oh, you’re not, you say?’ Meg turned her scorn on her son. ‘Have you got a special contract with God to look after you? Do you think that because you believe you’re right you’ll live? I thought you had more intelligence than that, Sion. Damn you both. I’m going to get a drink.’ She stalked back to the study and, more than a little shamefaced Evan and Sion followed.

They sat talking in a desultory fashion for a while but there was nothing really to say, each aware of the others’ heartache. Sion soon sensed his parents wanted to be alone and excused himself.

He lay on his bed for hours, unable to sleep, thinking, remembering. A noise from downstairs brought him out of his reverie. Carefully he opened his door and listened. The scuffling footsteps were peculiar somehow and he wished he had his gun. He opened the door further and looked over the banister.

Evan was trying to climb the stairs with Meg over his shoulder. Sion hurried down to meet him. Evan was half way up when he teetered.

Sion steadied his father and asked in alarm, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nut . . . nothing,’ said Evan, the words slurred. ‘Just me and your Mam going to bed. Sh . . . she tried to drink . . . drink me one for one in whish . . . ky, but . . . but didn’t. Now I gottergetertobed,’ he said in one concentrated rush.

Sion didn’t know whether to laugh with relief or feel disgusted with his mother for getting into such a state. In the end he felt only pity and helped his father get her upstairs.

‘Thanksh shon,’ Evan said and fell backwards across Meg’s thighs. Sion pulled him around until he was laying straight and went back to his own bed.

Meg suffered in silence the next day very ashamed of herself, while Evan suffered loudly. The marshal returned with a doctor from the Coroner’s Office and issued Evan with a death certificate. The marshal also informed them that the detective had left first thing that morning.

Evan made the funeral arrangements, Sion sent a telegram to David and John Buchanan and in accordance with Uncle James’ wishes, Meg arranged a wake.

Uncle James was buried in the local cemetery, and over three hundred people turned up to pay their last respects. John Buchanan had cancelled a trip to Europe to be there, because like he said, Europe could wait. There were the German farmers for whom Uncle James had run the fund Evan had set up, businessmen he had known over the years and the Griffiths’ political friends from all walks of life.

The wake later that afternoon was a huge success. Evan and Meg intended it to be an occasion to remember, just as Uncle James would have wanted. A steer, two sheep and a pig were spit roasted. The whisky and beer never ran out and an enormous barrel of punch had been prepared for the ladies and children. Uncle James was toasted so often that it caused one of the farmers to remark, ‘His spirit must be drunk by now.’

By nine o’clock Sion was quite merry, sitting beside David on the grass. ‘How are you big brother?’ he asked affectionately.

‘Not bad, not bad at all. Christ, I don’t know why I’m smiling. Too much drink, I suppose. I’m going to miss having Uncle James around.’

‘Me too,’ said Sion, his voice barely more than a whisper. ‘I’m going to miss him something terrible. You know, he’d become so much a part of the family it was as though he’d be around forever and now he’s gone.’

David signed. ‘Aye, that’s so. But life must go on. Or it will go on I should say. There’s no must about it. Cigarette?’

‘No thanks. I might drink a bit now and then but I don’t smoke. I’m surprised you do.’

‘Everybody smokes at the University. I just followed the rest so as not to be the odd one out. You’ll see what I mean when you go next month. It’s a pity I won’t be there. I’d have liked to have shown you the ropes for the first year. You know, helped you get settled in, like. Oh well, it can’t be helped I suppose. Pity you lost a year after you got shot.’

‘Are you pleased about Harvard?’

‘I am and I’m not really. I’d have liked a longer break. I’ve been studying since I can remember and I get a bit fed up sometimes. Still, two more years isn’t so much, I suppose.’ David stared moodily into his beer.

‘I know what you mean. I feel like that now. If it wasn’t for Mam and Dad I don’t think I’d go. I’d just push off for a bit, see some of the country, maybe the world.’

‘You know what they’ll say if you suggest something like that. There’s plenty of time when you’ve finished your education.’ David tried to copy Evan’s voice and nearly succeeded. ‘And I guess they’re right. I’ll be twenty one with a qualification that’ll allow me to practise law. A year or two in practice and then I’ll come and sort out Dad’s business for him. Or at least I’ll turn us from being a well off family into a rich one.’ He smiled at his brother. ‘What do you plan to do?’

Sion laughed. ‘Not that, that’s for sure. I was reading about this bloke S P Langley and his flying machine. It rather interests me and I thought I’d look a bit further into it. With the new type of gasoline engine I think there might be something in it.’

‘Hmmm, I dunno. There could be, I suppose, but it’s pretty farfetched. I mean, getting something heavier than air to fly.’

‘But Langley did it,’ Sion protested.

‘So it said in the newspapers but I don’t think you can believe all that’s written in them. Mind you, the rate they’re inventing new things nowadays I suppose anything’s possible. Oh well, we’ll see what we shall see.’ He paused to drink some beer. ‘What’re the girls like around town? Anything good?’

‘Not really. You know Peggy-Sue McAlister? She’s being used by just about everybody in the class. Man, I’m not kidding but if you’re feeling horny about lunchtime she’ll go with you down to the bottom of the field and, well, you know.’

‘You’re kidding? You mean that pretty blonde girl with the big boobs?’

‘That’s the one. I guess there’s something wrong with her or something because she just can’t get enough. She’s always wanting to feel it, you know. There’s one or two others who, if you go out for a couple of walks with them and be nice, they’ll let you touch them up but they won’t do much for you. At least, I haven’t found one yet that will. But I keep looking,’ Sion said with a grin. ‘What about you?’

‘Oh, we don’t do so badly. Of course, being an all male college, there ain’t much to spare around the town but . . . I’m not complaining about my time there,’ David said with a smirk.

‘Trust you. Who is she?’

‘Oh, nobody who matters. Just a local girl. Good for a relaxing evening. Not too bright and likes quiet moonlight walks, if you see what I mean.’

‘I see all right. What’s her name and how do I contact her when I get there?’

‘Cathy. But her folks took her out West with them a week ago and they’re not coming back.’

‘That’s a shame. There’s Gunhild over there,’ Sion nodded towards the blonde figure near the food table but watched for David’s reaction. Sion was not disappointed. David reacted like an electric wire had touched him. He jerked around, saw her and got to his feet.

‘I’m going to talk to her. Has she got a boyfriend, do you know?’

‘Oh, she’s had plenty on a string but at the moment I think she’s between men.’

‘Thanks. See you later,’ David wandered nonchalantly away. It was not obvious to look at him but his heart was pounding and his ears buzzing.

Sion sighed and drained his glass. I think he’s in love with her he thought. He got up and went to refill his glass of beer. He drank half of it and topped it up again. There was still the best part of three hundred guests scattered around the lawns and throughout the house. Tables groaned beneath the weight of food and drink. The men and women were in groups, some large and some small, milling, talking, laughing and toasting Uncle James.

‘Are we wrong, Uncle James?’ asked Sion, in a soft whisper. ‘Is this what you really wanted? I guess, knowing you, it is. Wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying it as well. Is Sian with you? Have you told her how I’m always thinking of her? It was always different for me, us being twins and all. I was closer to her than the others can imagine. Oh well, Uncle James, here’s to you.’ He raised his glass in silent tribute and drank a little.

He wandered about for ten minutes and finally stopped next to a group of farmers.

‘Hullo, Mr Reisenbach,’ he greeted the man. ‘How are you?’

‘Sad at the departure of my dear friend James,’ Hans replied. ‘But apart from that all is vell. And you Sion? Are you not off to the university soon?’

‘In a few weeks time. I’m looking forward to it.’

‘Ach, I am sure you are. You are lucky boys to have such a fine education. I sometimes vish my Gunhild had done the same. Of course the boys vant to stay vith the farm as it should be and anyway they vere never so bright at school.’

‘Gunhild’ll meet the right man, settle down and give you grandchildren. That’s what you really want, isn’t it Mr Reisenbach?’ Sion teased.

‘It could be so, young man. And who do you have in mind, eh? Your brother?’ he chuckled. ‘Mind you I vould like that very much, yes. But I vant for more than that. I vant my Gunhild to be happy. If she picked David as vell then I vould be twice as happy. Oh vell, ve must see vot happens, eh?’

Sion nodded. ‘Yep, we must see what happens. How’s the farm now?’

‘Good. Very good now that prices are vot they should be. You know, Sion if it had not been for your father I and a lot of others vould have lost our farms. Ve vould have lost everything ve’d vorked for all our lives. I tell him – Evan, you should stand for Congress and ve vould vote for you. But he says no. I have heard him make some very good speeches and vot he says makes a lot of sense. Perhaps one day he vill do it, eh?’

Sion grinned. ‘Mam reckons he will, and in the not too distant future. He’s just itching to get some things done. You know he’s always on about the labour laws and the agricultural laws and stuff like that. Who knows? We’ll see what happens, eh?’

The farmer laughed. ‘You are right. Tell me Sion I read that letter from James but I cannot believe it somehow. He was such a peace loving man.’

‘Oh, it’s true all right. I remember when it happened. I wish Uncle James had told us about the detective though. We could have done something, I’m sure.’

‘Ja, I’m sure, too. Vell it’s been nice talking to you Sion, but if you’ll excuse me I must go and talk to your father.’ Reisenbach walked away.

31

Sion wandered back to the party and helped himself to another beer. He had a raging thirst. Some of the guests began to leave and he went around saying polite goodbyes, swapping small talk, his mind on Uncle James. He met up with David.

‘What are you looking so happy about?’ Sion asked. ‘Oh, nothing much,’ David assumed a nonchalance he did not feel. ‘I’m meeting Gunhild tomorrow for a drive in the country.’ His grin widened if that was possible.