Do Not Forsake Me(12)
“Aye, it’s a hard and dangerous job.”
Lloyd sobered. “It was Pa who killed Jack. He has a son who lives in town named Brad. He’s a no-good himself, and he’ll be really angry when he sees my pa bring his own father in draped over a horse. I’m a little worried about him making trouble.”
“Well, I expect it’s not something your pa can’t handle.”
Lloyd swallowed a bite of pie. “I know that. It’s just that he’s my father, and I owe him. He’s taught me so much, Pat, and I can’t help worrying about him.”
“Aye, it’s because you love him, boy. It’s only natural.”
Lloyd finished his pie. “Well, things are fine for now. After a few days’ rest, Pa and I will go talk to what’s left of the Bryant family.”
“Sure ’n’ you should stay together. Neither one of you should be goin’ over to visit that bunch alone. There’s too many, and I don’t doubt some of them have no problem shootin’ a man in the back.”
“Now, now, let’s not speak of such things at the table,” Clara scolded. “Lloyd, I hope you don’t mind sleepin’ in the barn. We’ll make sure you have nice clean hay and a blanket to put on top of it.”
“I’ve slept under far worse conditions,” Lloyd answered. “For the last three weeks, I’ve been sleeping on the ground most of the time.”
“And always havin’ to look out for dangerous men and wild Indians to boot,” Pat added. “We worry about you and Jake both, Lloyd. My Katie there, she worries too.”
“Father!” Katie scolded, looking embarrassed. She turned to set a kettle on the cookstove. “It’s just because Mama and Lloyd’s mother have become good friends that I worry,” she added. She cast her father a chiding look, though she was obviously blushing again—something a woman of her complexion could not hide.
Pat grinned. “Finish that coffee, son,” he told Lloyd. “I’ve got a couple of horses I’d like to show you. Maybe the government would buy them for you and Jake. Nice big geldings, they are. Men your size need good, sturdy horses, that’s sure.”
“I’d be glad to take a look at them.” Lloyd finished his coffee. “Great pie,” he told Clara. He glanced at Katie. “I, uh, I’d like to talk to you alone after I look at those horses, Katie, if you don’t mind.”
Katie’s cheeks flushed again, and Lloyd wondered if she blushed like that when a man was making love to her…a not unpleasant thought at all.
“Of course,” she answered. “I have to wash up and change, so take your time with the horses.”
Lloyd nodded, then put on his hat and turned to go out. Pat and Tommy followed, and Katie watched the screen door close.
“He’s a lonely young man, that one,” Clara told her daughter. “I am thinking it’s a good sign that he wants to talk to you alone, darlin’.”
“Oh, Mother, I don’t think he’s ready to change his situation just yet. And I wish you and Father wouldn’t keep pushing the issue. It’s embarrassing.”
Clara shrugged. “Some men need a little push. And that one…well, girl, could you ask for a more handsome and able man?”
Katie sighed. “I can’t argue with that.”
“Yeah, well, his father is awful handsome too. Lloyd is a fine mixture of Jake and that lovely Miranda, but mostly his pa, with that tall, strong build of his and those dark eyes.”
Katie looked at her mother. “And he leads a very dangerous life. I’ve already lost one husband, Mother. I’m not sure I want to end up with a man who could be shot in the back the day after he marries me.”
“He’s an able man, Katie, and isn’t sharing a man’s bed again, even if it’s for just a little while, better than never sharin’ that bed at all?”
“Mother, sometimes I can’t believe the way you talk!”
“Just don’t be forgettin’ there isn’t one thing about that young man that wouldn’t make a good husband. Sure ’n’ I wish he would cut that hair, though.”
Katie watched Lloyd head for the barn with her father and Tommy. “I like it long,” she said softly.
Four
Jeff Trubridge waited just outside the jail door while Dr. Brian Stewart tended to the prisoners’ wounds. Jeff heard one of them yell that he didn’t want to be touched by “that sonofabitch lawman’s son-in-law.”
“Suit yourself,” Stewart answered. “I guess that means you don’t even want anything for the pain?”