Joelle's Secret (24 page)

“It’s wrong to live in a man’s house when you’re not married to him.”

Chad said, “Owen, you’re being a fool. You’ve been a fool before but not like this.”

“You keep out of this, Chad, and I’ve told you before. Get out of here. I need to talk to Joelle.”

“I’ll leave when Joelle asks me to.” Chad’s temper was somewhat short at times. He hated being told what to do, and it irritated him that Majors would impugn Joelle. “You’re loco, Owen. Joelle’s straight as a string. I mean her no harm.”

“What do you think the town will say?”

“The town will say whatever it wants to say. It’s none of their business.”

“I’ve told you twice to leave, and now I’m telling you one more time.”

Chad’s lips drew tight. “You can go to grass, Owen! It’s not your house. Not mine either. I’ll leave when Joelle tells me to.”

Anger flared in Owen, and he suddenly stepped forward and shoved Chad toward the door. Taken off-guard, Chad staggered backward, and then his face flushed, and his eyes seemed to glitter. “Don’t put your hands on me, Owen. We’re friends, but—”

“Get out of here! I’ve got to talk to Joelle.” Owen seemed past reasoning and gave another shove, but Chad Hardin was not a man to take shoving. He suddenly swung, and his fist caught Owen right in the chest and drove him backward.

“I told you not to put your hands on me!”

Owen’s temper was short, and he threw himself at Chad with the intent of wrestling him out the door. The two men were evenly matched, both tall and strong, and they wrestled around the kitchen. They ran into a table and knocked it over, breaking the legs off. Then Chad threw a punch that caught Owen right in the mouth.

Chad yelled, “You’re crazy, man!!”

The two got to their feet and began slugging at each other. Joelle tried to break them up, but she was thrown to one side by the violence of their quarrel. The two men were deadly serious now, all thought of friendship gone. Blows were given and taken, and both of them were marked. Finally Chad ran at Owen and wrestled him to the floor, but Owen rolled him over and hit him square in the mouth.

Joelle watched the two and stopped pleading. She saw a bucket of dirty water she used to mop the floor. The two men were struggling on the floor. Joelle poured the water over the back of Chad’s head, but most of it went into Owen’s face. Chad leaped to his feet.

“What’d you do that for?”

Owen was wiping his eyes. He started to speak, but Joelle was furious. “Get out of here! You’re not going to fight over me like two dogs over a bone! I don’t want to ever see either one of you again!”

She hit Owen with a broom, and he threw up his hands in defense. “Wait a minute, Joelle—”

“I don’t want to hear you, Owen Majors! Get out of my house! And you, too, Chad! Both of you get out!”

The two men saw that the young woman was furious. Chad said, “I think we’d better go, Owen. I think we made a mistake.” He turned and walked out the door, and Owen opened his mouth, but she hit at him with the broom.

“Get out, Owen!” she shouted. He followed Chad.

The two men stood on the porch for a moment, then Chad said, “Well, you sure made a mess out of that.”

“What do you mean? It wasn’t my fault.”

“You’re the one who started the fight. You ought to know better. What’s the matter with you? You know that girl is true as steel. She’d never do a bad thing.”

“I know she wouldn’t, but—”

“Well, that’s not what she thought, and that’s not what you said. You as much as accused her and me of living in sin. That was the furthest thing from my mind, and she sure wouldn’t put up with it even if I was trying to do a low-down thing like that. You’ve loosened one of my teeth, Owen. I don’t want to talk to you for a while.”

Owen watched Chad walk away and felt like a complete fool. He hesitated and wiped the water from his face and put his hat on his head. He wanted to go back inside, but he knew that now was not the time. Instead, he walked to his horse, mounted, and for a moment looked at the house, and then he shook his head. “Owen Majors, you are the biggest fool God ever made. What is wrong with you?” He jerked the horse’s head around, dug his spurs in, and shot off down the street at a dead run.

* * *

OWEN DIDN’T SEE JOELLE for two days. He did see Chad, who managed to laugh at the whole thing. “Well, you and me just bound to be foolish at times.”

“I was dead wrong, Chad.”

“You sure were. Not the first time neither. Joelle speaking to you yet?”

“No, I haven’t seen her. Have you?”

“Oh, I went by yesterday and told her how sorry I was about the way I acted. Couldn’t apologize for you though.”

“Did she say anything about me?”

“Not a word. She’s looking for work. She’s probably going to be a cook at that restaurant on Front Street.”

“That’s a rough place for her.”

“She’s tough enough. She’ll take it.” He studied Owen thoughtfully and said, “Look, I figured all this out. The reason you came roaring in like you did, making all those vile charges against Joelle and me, is because you care for her. Now, ain’t that so, Owen?”

Owen stood for a minute, and finally he said, “I guess you’re right, Chad, but she’ll never have anything to do with me now.”

“Don’t be a fool. She was mad, and she should have been. We deserve worse than we got, but when I talk to her about you, I see a soft light in her eyes.” Chad placed his hand on Owen’s shoulder. “Go talk to her. It’ll be all right. You’re right about me. I’ve been thinking about heading down the coast. I’d like to see San Francisco. They say that’s a wide-open place. I guess I’m just not ready to settle down, but I think you are.”

“I couldn’t face her, Chad.”

“My stars, Owen! You’ve faced wild Comanche. She’s just a little woman. She’s not going to shoot you or anything— although she was mad enough to when we tore her house up. Go offer to help her fix it up. She’s lonesome. Besides, you two formed a pretty good bond coming all the way across. She told me about how she took care of you when you were hurt, how you have been taking care of her even when you thought she was a man. Don’t see how you could have thought that unless you’re half-blind. Anyway, go see her.”

“Thanks for the advice, Chad. You won’t be leaving right away, will you?”

“No, no. I’m going to try dabbling around, prospecting a little bit. You want to go with me?”

“No, I’ve got another idea I’m working on, but I’ll see you later.”

Chad walked away, and Owen moved down the street. By the saloon he heard a voice call. Cherry Valance stepped outside. “Where you going, Owen? You might come in and have a drink.”

“No, I’ve got some business, Cherry.” He looked at the saloon and said, “Ash buy this place?”

“Yep.”

“Seems like a nice enough place.”

“It’s a saloon.”

Owen looked down at the woman. Her face had lines that hadn’t been there when he first knew her, and it saddened him for he had once fancied himself in love with her. He still felt a fondness for her. “You ought to get out of this life, Cherry.”

“And do what?”

“Marry a good man?”

“And wash dishes and change diapers? No thanks.”

Owen tried to find a response, a way to persuade her. He saw that her lips were tight, and she suddenly laughed. “Don’t try to convert me. Harry Jump tried it, and he couldn’t make it.”

“There’s worse things than being converted. I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately.”

“Oh, you’re going to hit the glory trail, and you’re going to marry that little girl that you couldn’t even tell was a girl. You’re not hard to figure out, Owen.”

“I doubt if she would have me.”

“She’d have you all right. She watched you all the time. Nobody could miss it—except somebody as dumb as you are.”

“Well, I wish you the best, Cherry.”

“Are you staying here?”

“I think so.”

“Well, we probably won’t be meeting much, but I’ll always be glad to see you, Owen. I’ll always have a good memory of our time together.”

Owen watched her as she turned and walked back into the saloon. He felt a sense of a loss, not because he wanted her. But he hated to see her throwing her life away.

* * *

FOUR DAYS HAD PASSED since Joelle had driven Chad and Owen from her house. Chad had come back the next day and
sheepishly confessed his wrongdoing. She had forgiven him at once. When he started to talk about going to San Francisco, she knew Owen had been right about him.

She had grown more miserable each day. On a Friday night she fixed a meal for herself and found she wasn’t hungry. She sat at the table, drinking coffee, and tried to think about where she was going and what she would do.
I’ll have to take that job
cooking. I can do it.

She walked around the room, pleased enough with the house, but it was only a house. She was unhappy and felt isolated and alone in a strange land.
I was this miserable back
home with a stepfather trying to get at me. Now I’m two thousand
miles away and still unhappy.
The friends she had made on the wagon train were separating, and she herself had nowhere to go and no plan. The thought of cooking for a bunch of men didn’t thrill her, but she was strong enough to do it.

Finally she washed her face, brushed her hair, put on her nightgown, and went to bed. She had not been there thirty minutes and was almost asleep when she heard a sound. Somebody’s on the front porch.

She picked up the .38 she kept beside her bed, and carrying a lamp, she moved into the large front room. She put the lamp down. At the door she listened. A faint knock startled her. “Go away,” she said. “I have a gun.”

“It’s me, Joelle—Owen.”

“Owen?”

“Can I come in? I need to see you.”

“I’m not dressed. Wait a minute.” She went back to the bedroom, put the gun down, and threw on the robe she had
bought. She returned and slid the door open. “What are you doing here this time of the night, Owen? Something wrong?” She saw that his face was tense with emotion. “What is it?”

“I came to tell you something. Two things really.”

“Why didn’t you come earlier? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I felt like a fool. That’s one thing,” Owen said. “I was wrong to make all those crazy accusations about you and Chad. I think I lost my mind. You should have shot me.”

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes, it was. You could never do anything wrong, Joelle.”

The words pleased her, and she smiled slightly. “You’ll find out that’s not true if we stay friends.”

“Well, that’s the other thing I’ve come about, but first, I’ve got to tell you I got a job here. Remember that deputy sheriff we met, the one named Columbus?”

“Yes. What about him?”

“I’ve got his job as deputy sheriff. The sheriff is an old man. Good fellow, but he’s seen his best days. If I do a good job, I’ll be sheriff of the county.”

“Is that what you want, Owen?”

“I’ve done it before. I kind of like it.”

“Then I’m glad, but it’ll be dangerous. I don’t like that.”

“I’ll be all right.”

Joelle saw that he was nervously turning his hat around and said, “Give me your hat. You’re going to tear the brim off of it.” She took the hat away from him and turned to face him. “Now, you could have told me about the job tomorrow.”

“Well, I’ve been four days working up nerve enough to apologize, but now I want to tell you something else. You know why I acted like a fool, don’t you?”

“Because you are a fool?”

“Probably, but I was jealous. Joelle, I just couldn’t stand the thought of you being with another man, not even Chad. He’s the best friend I ever had, but I was blind jealous.”

Suddenly Joelle felt a happy warmth. “Were you, Owen?”

“Yes. A woman misused me once, and I let it make me bitter. But since I’ve known you, that’s all ancient history. You could never deceive anyone.”

“I deceived you pretending to be a boy.”

“Oh, that was something you had to do.”

Owen stopped and put his arms around her. “I guess there’s nothing to do but tell you that I love you, and I want you to marry me, and I want us to be together always.”

At that instant Joelle Mitchell knew she had found her life. Owen was anxious, but his anxiety pleased her for it meant he was afraid he might lose her. She reached up, put her arms around him, and pulled his head down. And when he kissed her, she sensed the hunger in both of them. She knew she had a power over him, to offer him the feelings they could share. His arms tightened around her, and then when he lowered his lips to hers, she said, “I thought I had lost you, Owen.”

“No, you’re never going to lose me. Even when I act like a foolish fellow, I’ll always be there. I feel like I got the whole world in my arms, Joelle. You’re all that a man could want.”

She walked to the stove and began to build the fire, and Owen watched her. When the fire was going, he said, “When can we get married?”

Joelle’s eyes danced as she smiled. “I can’t marry you before tomorrow, Owen.”

He laughed and went to her. “That’s about right, I think.” He kissed her and said, “Now, I know it’s late, but fix supper, woman. I’m starving to death!”