Do Not Forsake Me(108)

“Being a blood father doesn’t always mean being the right father, Ben. You see this young man standing near us?”

Ben looked up at Jeff. “Yeah.”

“And that young man over there?” He nodded toward Lloyd.

“Yeah.”

“None of us is your pa, but all three of us already love you. And nobody will ever lay a hand on you again. Do you believe that?”

“You don’t even…know me.”

Jeff watched in complete wonder and surprise as Jake leaned closer and kissed Ben’s forehead. “I know you all too well, Ben. I know every single thing you’re feeling. Every single thing.”

Lloyd walked up to Jeff, still seething. “Do you have a regular-size pad of paper with you?”

“Sure I do.”

“You get it out and you write something up for that man over there to sign—something we can all witness so he can’t come back later and try to take his kid.”

“Sure. I can do that.” Jeff hurried away to search through his supplies, his mind racing with yet another chapter for his book. Lloyd Harkner is way closer to his dad’s temperament than he thinks.

Lloyd knelt down beside Jake. “We have to take care of that cut on your face, Pa.”

Jake shivered, sitting back down and closing his eyes while clinging to Ben’s hand. “Jesus, Lloyd, I feel like…I don’t know…like I have finally rid myself of that bastard father of mine. I was using that belt on him, not that man over there. But I’m damn sorry about hitting you.”

“You don’t need to be.” He sighed. “Stay there and I’ll clean up that cut. God knows you lost enough blood back in Guthrie. You don’t need to be losing more.” He reached for the whiskey he’d brought over earlier.

“Lloyd, do you think the Donavans might take Ben?” Jake asked him.

Lloyd finally smiled. “Are you kidding? Clara Donavan will gush all over that kid when she finds out why we brought him back with us.”

Jake nodded. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Lloyd doused a rag with whiskey and pressed it to the cut on his father’s face. Jake winced and jerked away.

“This is one ugly cut, Pa. Mom is going to have a fit when she sees this. She’ll probably be mad as hell that somebody dared to mess up her handsome husband’s face.”

Jake smiled sadly. “Yeah, but I get a lot more attention when I come back wounded.”

Both men grinned, trying to ignore the seriousness of the situation. Through the whole thing, Jake kept hold of Ben’s hand. “Give this kid one sip of laudanum,” he told Lloyd. “There isn’t a whole lot you can do for this cut. And give me a swallow of that whiskey. Right now it will do me a lot more good inside than outside.”

Lloyd gave him a warning look. “One swallow.”

Jake jerked the bottle from his hand. “Don’t worry.” He glanced over at Ben’s father as he took a swallow. The man was still having trouble getting to his feet. “I’d rather pick up that belt and beat him unconscious,” he told Lloyd.

“I know. You just remember you’re trying to get your sentence reduced. You’d have been in trouble if you’d killed that man. We have to turn in some kind of report on this. That’s why I had Jeff write something up.” He uncorked the laudanum. “Hey, Ben, this stuff tastes something awful, but it will help your pain. You’re just a kid, so you take just a little swallow, okay?”

Still sniffling, Ben took the laudanum and swallowed some, his whole face wrinkling up over the bad taste. Lloyd grinned and took the bottle from him.

“Tell you what, Ben. I’ll put one of Jeff’s shirts on you,” Lloyd told him. “We’ll have to roll up the sleeves, but otherwise it will hang nice and big on you and hardly touch those welts. We have to keep the sun off them. That okay with you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you have extra clothes in the wagon?”

Ben nodded. “In a crate behind the seat.”

Lloyd glanced at Jake. “I’ll get his clothes.” He called over to Jeff, who was still writing. “Bring one of your extra shirts over for Ben,” he told him. “He needs something that hangs loose, because of these welts.”

Jeff nodded and kept writing. Lloyd walked to the wagon and climbed inside, finding Ben’s clothes. There weren’t many. He gathered them out of the crate and carried them over to an empty gunnysack on the packhorse, stuffing them inside. Jeff handed him a write-up verifying that Ben’s father agreed to give up his son to them. “I left a blank spot for his name,” he told Lloyd. “We don’t even know what it is.”