Winter's Torment (5 page)

Sarah had spent a good part of the night with Winter, bundling her in blankets as close to the fireplace as she dared until finally Winter had declared that she was completely thawed out. The warm tea, the food, and the company had done wonders for her spirits. She felt an immediately affinity with Sarah, who came from the same region of Maine where she had grown up.

Sarah told Winter that Henry and William had been friends for years, since the year Henry had come west as a matter of fact. Winter knew that William and Sarah were kind people, and as far as she was concerned, any friend of Henry’s was a friend of hers. She had thanked him more than once for risking danger and frostbite to come look for her, and each of them pooh-poohed her comments with a wave of their hand.

“That’s the way we do it out here, Winter,” Sarah had said with a smile.

The following morning Winter and Sarah stepped from the front door of the Mercantile together, watching as William and Henry finished saddling Henry’s horses. One of the saddles was borrowed from the livery, which Henry would return in the next couple of days. This morning they would be riding together back to the ranch.

Winter hadn’t believed it when she’d woken this morning to bright sunshine and clear skies. The snow glistened in the bright sunshine, almost so bright that it hurt to look at it. She shook her head in amazement and laughed. Henry had smiled at her, the sound warming his heart. It warmed hers as well.

They had just climbed into the saddles when a stagecoach pulled into town. The horses looked exhausted, the driver half-frozen. William quickly rushed up to the stage. Murmuring an apology to Winter, Henry had done the same. Sarah had quickly followed suit, knowing that any passengers who had been stuck in the wagon overnight were likely to be frozen and looking forward to nothing more than a hot stove, a cup of hot coffee or tea, and food to warm their bellies.

While Henry began to un-harness the horses, with the help of several other townspeople, William helped the half-frozen stagecoach driver down. Sarah moved to the stagecoach door, but backed up suddenly when it was thrown open. A man stepped out and nearly fell to the ground. Sarah reached out to help him, but he turned on her with an angry glare.

“Get away from me, woman!” he growled.

Winter’s heart turned cold when she recognized the voice. Her pulse accelerated, her stomach did a somersault, and she felt a cold sensation that wasn’t caused by the weather rush through her. If she hadn’t been sitting atop her horse, she was sure her knees would’ve given out beneath her.

Winter was close enough to watch and hear everything that was happening. The angry sound of the man’s voice— she would never forget it as long as she lived. At that moment, her eyes locked on that of the male passenger and she stared.

It couldn’t be.

“Winter!” The man exclaimed, his voice not pleased. “You come over here
right now
!”

Winter remained frozen on the back of a horse, terror leaving her unable to do anything but stare. Sarah looked between the two of them, and then stepped protectively in Winter’s direction. William and Henry followed suit.

Watching the actions of the other three, Winter knew it was time for her to develop a backbone and stand up for herself. She stiffened her spine and lifted her chin.

“She’s no longer any concern of yours,” Henry said softly, although the steel in his voice matched his emotions.

“Winter!” Gunter demanded. “You’re coming back with me right now.”

Winter watched as her new husband confronted her old husband. Henry’s hands were balled into fists, and her former husband’s face flushed red and angry.

She swallowed, grasped the reins tightly in her hands, and forced her voice to sound loud, competent, and strong.

“I no longer belong to you, Gunter,” she called back. “I refuse to go
anywhere
with you. I’ve started a new life here and I want you to go away.”

“How dare you speak to me like that woman!?”

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Gunter,” she said. “And any man speaking to a woman like that should have his mouth washed out with soap!”

She saw the grin and wink that Henry sent her way. Her former husband saw it too.

“Who are you?” Gunter demanded, turning toward Henry. “I’ve managed to track her here all the way from Maine! She’s
mine
!”

Henry glanced between the bedraggled looking man and Winter. If the expression on her face betrayed any of her emotions, Henry would immediately realize that this angry, probably drunk man, was her former husband.

“Not anymore she’s not,” Henry declared. “You divorced her, remember?”

Gunter pointed to Winter. “I’m her husband!”

Henry shook his head. “No, you’re not. You divorced her. You
abandoned
her. She’s no longer your concern.”

Gunter took a threatening step toward Henry, but changed his mind when he realized that Henry was much taller, broader, and stronger than he was.

“And who do you think you are talking to me like that?”

Henry stepped closer to her angry ex-husband, glowering down at him. “The name’s Henry Olson. And Winter is
my
wife now.”

Gunter stared wide-eyed between Henry and Winter, then back again. He opened his mouth, a sneering expression on his face as he began to berate Winter, calling her all sorts of names. She thought she heard the word ‘trollop’ before Henry put a stop to it with a well-placed fist.

Gunter toppled backwards, landing on his rear end in the snow. Blustering with outrage, shouting all sorts of obscenities and shaking his fist at Henry, Gunter managed to catch the attention of the town sheriff, Bat Masterson. After a moment of quiet conversation between the sheriff and William, the sheriff turned to Gunter and lifted him from the ground, and not very gently at that.

“As soon as the stage leaves town, Mister, you’re going to be on it, and you’re going to be headed back east where you came from.”

“And how are you going to make—”

Before he got the rest of the words out, Masterson had slapped a pair of handcuffs on his irate prisoner. “You can wait in the jailhouse until it’s ready,” he muttered. He glanced at Winter and winked, then turned back to her former husband. “If I
ever
see your face around here again, you’re not going to like the consequences.”

Sarah quickly walked to Winter’s horse and placed a comforting hand on her leg. “Would you like to go inside?” she asked.

Winter shook her head, gazing down at her former husband from the back of the horse. She had allowed him to bully her long enough. It was over. She had found new beginnings out here, a new life with Henry, and she had made several friends to boot. To her surprise, she found that she no longer felt threatened, intimidated, or afraid of Gunter.

She looked at Henry, who stared back at her as if trying to determine how she felt. She gave Henry a smile, and then nodded. She bade a gentle goodbye to Sarah, and then nudged her horse forward, stopping the mare behind her new husband while she stared hard at Gunter, now in handcuffs, looking back up at her.

“You left me to fend for myself. You divorced me, threw me out like I was garbage.” She paused, gathering her courage. “I started over, and I suggest
you
do the same.”

With that, the sheriff quickly pulled her former husband along toward the jailhouse while Henry looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. Then, he smiled.

At that moment, Winter knew that everything was going to be all right. The sight of her former husband had scared her for several moments, but then, seeing the way that her new husband had stood up to him made her realize that she needed to do the same. She had found her strength again. Her faith in herself and in life had been renewed. Together, she and Henry would make it. Her faith, her affection, and her belief that she would be all right would carry her through.

Two cold winters had come and gone since Winter arrived in Dodge City. While the town gradually grew and changed, so did Henry and Winter. The incident with Gunter having followed her and arriving so unexpectedly into town had become a turning point for her.

For some odd reason, she was glad that her former husband had shown up like that. It made her realize that she needed to make a choice between her past and her future. She had to make a choice and learn to love, to trust, and believe again.

Every Sunday at church, Winter said a silent prayer for her lost son. Gradually, Henry’s love, patience, and humor began to fill the gaping hole that had been left in her heart with his passing. Over the past year and a half they had learned a lot about each other; their secrets, their hopes, their dreams, and even their griefs. Winter had never been so content, nor as happy as she was with Henry.

He worked long and hard hours, and often spent much of his spare time with the cattle, but when he was with her, he was all hers. He was a doting, considerate, and easy going husband, one who bent over backward to make sure that her life was as comfortable as possible. After that first vicious winter, he had added on two small rooms to the house, and William and Sarah had also pitched in to help. After all, they would soon need the extra space.

By the end of her first summer in a Dodge City, Winter shyly told Henry that he was going to be a father. When she first realized she was with child, Winter had been afraid. She knew what it was like to lose a child. She knew that Henry was aware of her fear, and he did what he could to make sure that she understood that everything happened for a reason. Sometimes they didn’t know what those reasons were, at least, not right away.

On the sixth anniversary of her arrival in Dodge City, Winter stood at the cast-iron stove in her kitchen, smiling at the sound of laughter, giggling, and squeals of delight that filled the room. She turned from the stove with a skillet of scrambled eggs and passed her gaze over her husband and her four children. Two girls, two boys. The girls had her hair coloring, with light skin and blue eyes, while the boys took after their father with dark, unruly hair, strong jaws, and what she could only describe as adventurous spirits.

At the moment, their father was showing the boys a piece of paper on which he was drawing the idea for a new forging tool to use in his blacksmith shop. Winter knew by now that if it wasn’t already designed, Henry could make it. As the boys pointed and began arguing over the benefits of the design, the girls began to giggle and turned to their mother, pointing to her bulging stomach.

“We hope you have a girl baby, Mama,” Mary, her older daughter said with a smile. “Then it will be three against one!”

Winter laughed. “Well, I don’t know about that, Mary,” she said. “This one’s busy kicking like Matthew used to do.”

Matthew looked up from the paper he was studying, a somber expression on his face. “I kicked you, Mama? I certainly didn’t mean to!”

Again Winter laughed. It seemed that she laughed a lot now, more than she ever had in her life. She had told her children about their other brother Andrew, the one that had been tragically killed so long ago. When they said their table prayers and before-bedtime prayers, they always remembered to add Andrew’s name to those they blessed.

Winter was truly blessed. She believed that from the bottom of her heart.

Katie Wyatt is a number one best-selling author on Amazon and was born, raised and still lives in Arizona. She is 25% American Sioux Indian. She has traveled and camped extensively through California, Arizona, Nevada, Mexico, and New Mexico. Looking at the incredible night sky and the giant Saguaro cactus she has dreamt of what it would be like to have lived in the early pioneer times.