Shadow of Legends (4 page)

Todd brushed some of the dirt off his slightly ripped coat. “It would have been nice to know what was goin' on.”

“Didn't have time,” Brazos reported. “He had his gun drawn and was pointin' it at the back of your head.”

“I don't know where he came from. I never saw him slip out of the boulders.”

“Sage ain't all that good a cover.”

“Well, it stopped two of them from retreating, and kept you from riding into a trap.”

“That it did,” Quiet Jim nodded. “And we're mighty grateful for that. How did you flank us?”

“I came straight over that mountain.”

“Plumb over the top? On a horse?”

“Yes.”

“What made you think to do that?” Quiet Jim pressed.

“A twelve-year-old girl.”

Brazos threw his arm around Todd's shoulder. “You're a dirty mess, Boy.”

“I didn't plan on diving down that bluff until you pointed that Sharp's at me.”

“Rebekah will pitch a fit to see you that dirty and that new suit she bought you all tattered.”

“I reckon she will.”

“Who's watchin' the store?”

“What?” Todd said.

“Well, if you and me are gallivantin' around the countryside, who's takin' inventory on that bull-whacker's freight?”

“I figured it would wait. This was more important.”

“This band of geezers could've taken care of this. You didn't need to come out here and get yourself tore up,” Brazos insisted.

Todd grabbed up Dacee June's revolver.
No word of thanks. No congratulations. No acknowledgment. Just worried that I'm letting down on the job.

“Well, I'm one dumb old geezer that's mighty glad you showed up,” Quiet Jim added.

“This one up here is as dead as a buffalo chip in Kansas,” Yapper Jim hollered.

“Let's load 'em up and get back to town, Boys,” Sheriff Bullock called out. “I aim to finish that hand of whist.”

“There ain't no way you are ever goin' to beat three Texans,” Yapper Jim chided.

“It's sad to see how quickly old men lose their memory, ain't it?” the sheriff winked at Todd.

The laughter and upbraiding continued as Todd hiked back up the bluff to his waiting horse. Loose dirt trickled down between his skin and his long underwear as he pulled himself up into the saddle.

Brazos Fortune, did you ever think what could have happened if your oldest boy hadn't plunged off this bluff? The possibility never crossed your mind, did it?

Todd rode his horse slowly down to the road where the Jims tied the dead man to his horse.

He studied the posse.

You old men are a different breed. I can't even think the way you think. You smell danger five minutes before it happens. You make a lifetime of decisions in a split second of terror that would freeze most men. Then you put it all behind you with a joke. You go on back to living as if you haven't just teetered on the brink of eternity.

It takes me six months to think something through. You four never thought about anything for six months. Maybe Daddy's right. Maybe I should have stayed at the store. Maybe Rebekah's right. Maybe I am a hay camp banker.

I don't know what troubles me more . . . goin' to run a bank and finding out that I hate it . . . or going to run a bank and finding out that I don't.

That woman's right.

We do live in the shadows.

Not just the shadow of a shady gulch.

The shadow of Deadwood legends.

CHAPTER TWO

“You don't have that morning sickness, do you?” Dacee June blurted out as she strolled back into the parlor. She left the front door wide open.

Rebekah sat up, then slumped against the back of the sofa. She unfastened the top button of her Pride Muslin, double-ruffle, hidden-embroidery collar. “Heavens no. Why do you say that?”

“You seem to have an awfully weak stomach. Jamie Sue maintained that during the first few months that she carried little Frank, she got sick to her stomach a lot.” Dacee June chewed on her fingernails as she talked. “And everyone knows how sick Columbia's been.”

With thoughts of stagecoaches and strewn bodies still in her mind, Rebekah could feel her neck as well as her forehead perspire. “I'm not pregnant, if that's what you're asking.”

Dacee June's sweeping, thick brown eyebrows sagged. “I guess I was, sort of.”

“That's quite alright. We are sisters-in-law.” Rebekah pulled a linen handkerchief from the sleeve of her blouse and dabbed her forehead.

Dacee June's voice was soft, almost sad. “I'm sorry I solicit such personal things. I suppose it's the kind of question I know I should ask my mother. Even though it's been eight years since she died, I still pine for her.”

Rebekah stood and walked to the open door. Even though the drift was warm, it felt cooler than the stale air of the parlor. “I know what you mean. I miss my mother dearly as well. I regret I never met your mother. Todd speaks of her often.”

Dacee June strolled up beside her. “You know what's scary? Some days I forget what she looked like. Does that ever happen to you?”

“Well, no, not really. I was much older than you when my mother died. So I have years and years of memories. Of course, she never gets older in my mind. At this rate, I'll be older than her in another dozen years.”

“I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost this little locket. I don't want to ever forget her.” Dacee June opened the small silver locket that hung around her neck on a thin silver chain, took a quick glance, then snapped it shut. “You would have liked her, Rebekah. Daddy says she was a lot like you.”

Although ten years younger, Dacee June was several inches taller. Rebekah slipped her arm into her sister-in-law's. “Oh, how's that?”

“Daddy says you're both very beautiful and very stubborn.” Rebekah flinched at the description. “He meant that in a good way. He says that's the only kind that Fortune men marry.”

Rebekah relaxed and gave Dacee June's arm a squeeze. “If Daddy Brazos compares me to his Sarah Ruth, I am honored. I've never known a widower who still loved his wife as much as your father.”

Dacee June rocked back on the heels of her tall riding boots. “Yeah, Daddy says love is something you choose, and he gets up every day still choosing to love her.”

Rebekah gazed over the top of Deadwood at the pines on the far side of the gulch. “I suppose that's one way to put it.”

“Did you ever choose to love someone before you met Todd?”

The cheesy grin of Adolphus Conners came to Rebekah's mind. “Don't you think that's a personal question? How about you, Dacee June? Did you ever choose to love someone?”

The sixteen-year-old dropped her arm and looked up with wide blue eyes. “Yes, but I broke myself of the habit.”

“Oh? It wouldn't happen to be Mr. Carty Toluca, would it?”

Dacee June paced the covered front porch of the stylish house. “Heavens no! I choose to hate him every day. This was years ago. I was just a kid. Did I ever tell you about the time I rode the steamer up to Fort Pierre by myself in '75? Well, I really wasn't completely by myself at that time. The March sisters joined up with me in Kansas City. Anyway, I perched on a coil of big thick rope at the front of the boat with no one else around, and it was so cold my face was turning red. But I didn't want to go inside the cabin because I was afraid I'd miss Daddy standing along by the shore of the Missouri River. Well, this boy who worked on the boat came up and put his heavy wool coat around me and sort of hugged my shoulder. His arms were really, really strong. He looked in my eyes, and he had the softest blue eyes that made my heart start beating faster and faster and faster. I was really glad my face was already red.”

Dacee June sucked in a deep gulp of air and rolled her eyes. “He said I could keep the coat until we got to Fort Pierre. He said I reminded him of a girlfriend he used to have. His voice was smooth as the river, and I got this tingly feeling way down deep at the bottom of my stomach. I thought for sure he was going to kiss me.”

“Good heavens, what happened next?” Rebekah asked.

“The whistle blew,” Dacee June shrugged.

“The what?”

“The steam whistle on the stern-wheeler blasted a signal and he said he had to go. And I knew at that very minute if he had kissed me and asked me to marry him, I would have said yes.”

“Just how old were you?”

“Twelve,” Dacee June said.

“And how old was he?”

“He said he was twenty, but I think he was about eighteen.”

“Well, I'm glad you could control yourself.”

“Control myself? I still wonder what would have happened if that ol' whistle didn't blow. I cried and cried that night and thought about him for at least a year after that. Every day I'd get up and say to myself, ‘I am in love with Garreth.'”

“His name was Garreth?”

“I don't have any idea. But I just couldn't pine so over a boy with no name. I named him my dear, precious Garreth.”

“Did you see him again?” Rebekah asked. “You know, to give him back his coat?”

“No, Mrs. Edwards . . . well, she was Mrs. Driver then . . . she insisted that his coat be returned immediately when I showed it to them. Mrs. Speaker took it back and said she had spoken to the captain and the young man would not pester me again.”

“My goodness, I've never heard that story before,” Rebekah chuckled.

“That's because I never, ever told it to anyone.”

“Not even your father?”

“Especially not my father! I made the March sisters promise under penalty of death never to mention it. My father would have chased the boy down and shot him dead. He still thinks I'm a little girl. Look at this outfit he bought me. What other sixteen-year-old would wear a leather-fringed blouse, leather riding skirt, boots, and bandanna?”

“I thought it was your favorite outfit?”

“Some days it is. Some days I hate it.”

“How about today?”

“Both. I loved the feel of it this morning when I put it on, but when I stand next to you, I hate it.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you are so beautiful. And I'm so plain. When I'm around you or Jamie Sue, I just want to go hide.”

“Dacee June, what are you talking about? You are a very handsome young lady. And you're the most well-known girl in all the Black Hills.”

“They don't really know me,” Dacee June insisted. “Nobody knows what's inside of me. They think they know me because of my father. ‘Oh, aren't you Daddy Brazos's little girl?' I hear that every day of my life.”

“That will change soon enough.” Rebekah stepped over to the edge of the porch next to the railing. Both women gazed down the Wall Street opening to Main Street. “I bet there will be plenty of young men asking you to the balls, come winter.”

Dacee June shoved her hand into the pocket of her leather skirt. “How much you want to bet?”

“That was a figure of speech,” Rebekah said.

Dacee June glanced at Rebekah, then stood up straight and threw her shoulders back. “I bet Carty Toluca two bits that four freight teams would roll up Main Street before noon today.”

“You shouldn't wager away your money.”

“Yeah, but I won. And then that crummy Carty Toluca wouldn't pay off. If he asks me to one of the winter balls, I think I'll ask him for that quarter. Or maybe I'll punch him in the nose.” Dacee June's voice softened and deepened. “Do you know why I really dress so outlandish sometimes?”

“Why is that?”

Dacee June's voice was barely audible. “To get people to turn their heads and notice me.”

“It's that important?”

Dacee June's shoulders slumped, and she stared down at the porch railing. “I see the way people stare at you and Jamie Sue when you walk into a room.”

“You're exaggerating.”

“No, I'm not. The men stare at you like you were a gold bar in the bank window . . . and the women . . . they hold onto their men like they were about to drop over a cliff.”

“That's ridiculous. Very few people even know that I'm in town,” Rebekah insisted.

“That's because you hide up here at the house too much. You're the mystery woman on the Forest Hill porch.”

Rebekah felt her shoulders stiffen. “I am not a recluse. Why, I was just downtown this morning.”

“Are you going to the Raspberry Festival at the church on Friday night?”

“Of course I am.”

“Oh, good. Todd said he didn't think you were going.”

“I changed my mind,” Rebekah said.
Just this minute.

Dacee June slipped her arm into Rebekah's. “Forgive me for saying those things. I really do think I have the most wonderful and beautiful sisters-in-law in the world.”

Rebekah hugged her. “Don't grow up too fast, Young Lady. You are a joy and a delight to have around.”

“Are you feeling better, now?” Dacee June asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Maybe I should go down to the store and tell them to wait to unload those freight wagons until after Todd and Daddy get back. Besides, I have more work to do. Todd's letting me assemble the new bolt bins.”

“I'm sure Mr. Montgomery and the clerks would appreciate having one Fortune there.”

“I know one clerk that won't appreciate it.” Dacee June pointed at the house next door. “I think I'll go home and change my blouse. This one is too childish. You know what I mean?”

“I suppose it's warm also.”

“Do you know what I'm going to do at 4:00 P.M.?”

Rebekah tried to suppress a grin.
This is one girl who enjoys life to the fullest!
“No, I can't imagine.”

“Don't tell Daddy, but me and Irene Seltzmann are going down to China Town,” Dacee June whispered.

“Good heavens, what for?”

“To take Mr. Gee his new washboards.”

“You make deliveries to China Town?”

“I heard Mr. Gee say that he needed them quickly because Lola Paul and Franette brought a dozen of their dresses for him to clean. We thought if we happen to bring the washboards, he would let us see the dresses. They work at the Gem Theater, you know.”

“So I've heard.” Rebekah glanced across the flat roof of the Gem Theater before them. It was laid out like a barren cube.

“They aren't the main actresses, but they are almost the main actresses. I once saw one of Lola Paul's dresses. It had cattle brands and little roses embroidered all over it. It was red and had a full skirt and little basque, short sleeves, and everything! It was the most marvelous dress I ever saw in my life.”

“It sounds quite unique.”

Dacee June stepped closer and lowered her voice. “Do you want to come with us?”

“Eh, no . . . I think I'll rest here at home.”

“You won't tell Daddy that I went to see the dresses, will you?”

“No, I won't tell him.”

Dacee June strolled toward the top of the steps. “Rebekah, don't be mad at me, but I pray every night that you and Todd won't move away.”

“You do?”

“With you here, it's like I have an older sister. It allows me to be just a kid. If you weren't here, I'd be the only Fortune woman, and I'd have to be grown up and respectable all the time, and wear boring clothes and funny hats. I'm glad I don't have to do that. Did you enjoy being sixteen?”

“I hated it.”

“Did you have trouble with a boy?”

“Sort of,” Rebekah admitted.

“Well, I like being sixteen.”

“Good.”

“Should I come back and check on you later?”

“Dacee June, you can check on me any time you want.”

“Except when the shade to your bedroom is drawn.”

“What?”

“Daddy says I can never come over and visit you and Todd when you have the shade drawn in your bedroom. And I won't, either. I'm not completely dumb, you know. Are you sure you don't want to go see the Gem girls' dresses?”

“I'm sure.”

Rebekah watched Dacee June scurry across Williams Street and down all the Wall Street stairs.

She stared across to the far side of the gulch at Mount Moriah and the White Rocks on top. Scattered summer clouds blocked the sunlight and darkened Deadwood.
This is no place to raise children. It's like a human zoo. We're all caged in by these dreary hills. And every type of specimen is wandering up and down the street.