All Roads Lead Home

Abigail Davis gazed thoughtfully at the dark haired young man seated across from her at the dining table. Throughout the meal, he had made polite conversation when spoken to and had eaten with reasonably good appetite but he seemed somehow distant and distracted. Not at all the fast talking extrovert her stepson had so vividly described.

 

Determined to draw him out, she leaned forward and said, “Jess, you mentioned that you lived in Wyoming now. Tell us about your home there – what you’ve been up to.”

 

Jess brightened up almost at once. He’d just been thinking about Slim and Andy and Jonesy and wondering what they were doing. They felt so far away.

 

“Well I work on a ranch just outside of Laramie. It’s nothing as grand as this but it’s nice – real nice. It’s owned by a fella by the name of Slim Sherman and his little brother, Andy. Andy’s about fourteen now – great kid. Loves animals and can do just about anything with ‘em. Now Slim, he’s about my age and just the best. Sometimes he gets real serious about stuff but there’s no one more fun than he can be when he gets a mind to. An’ then there’s Jonesy – he’s an old friend of Slim’s pa – Slim’s folks are dead now – and he kinda keeps us all in line. There’s nothin’ those folks wouldn’t do for me and nothin’ I wouldn’t do for them.”

 

“Then I guess they’ll be needin’ you back soon,” Dick mentioned hopefully. “I mean, now that you’ve found out what you came here to find out. I guess as soon as those ribs of yours are healed enough so you can ride, you’ll probably want to be on your way.”

 

Abigail and Joshua gave Dick a hard look but Jess didn’t seem to notice.

 

“Yeah, Dick. I’m goin’ to have to be headin’ back before long – I’ve sure appreciated the hospitality, though,” he said smiling at Abigail. “Just have a little unfinished business to take care of in town first.”

 

Abigail placed a worried hand on his arm. “Let it go, Jess,” she pleaded. “You were nearly killed and besides, this is a situation that you don’t need to be getting in the middle of.”

 

“You can’t just cover your eyes and hope it goes away,” Jess replied in a low voice.

 

“I’ve seen their kind before. They don’t give up. They’re like rats with a piece of cheese – they’ll just keep nibbling until they get the whole thing. You’ve got way too much here to risk losin’.”

 

“Jess is right about that,” Dick said grudgingly. “If Dreb can’t get to you directly, he may try to get to you through the children. My men and I can’t be everywhere every moment of the day. Besides, you’ve got cattle to get to market – supplies to lay in. Every time someone goes off the place you ‘re that much less protected”

 

“You’ve done a great job so far,” Abigail replied. Then, placing her napkin on the table in front of her, she stood and said, “Let’s take our coffee in the other room.” Slipping her arm through Jess’ she gave a little laugh and said, “Have you wondered just how we knew right away it was you when we found you?”

 

“Well, I sort of figured you got that from the letter I had in my pocket.”

 

“That did sort of explain it but then anyone could have been carrying it. We’re not in the habit of bringing every hurt stranger we find right into our house. No, there was something else – something quite special.”

 

She let go of his arm long enough to open the large double doors leading to the parlor and ushered him in with Dick lagging somewhat sullenly behind and Joshua trying hard to hide a smile.

 

Jess’ breath caught in his throat. Typical of the rest of the house, the room was spacious and handsome. But all other similarity ended there. Over the large fireplace and adorning the walls were paintings. Some small, most medium-sized and the one over the fireplace quite large. As he walked around the room examining each one, he was awestruck, not just by the beauty of the colors and the workmanship but also by the absolute perfection with which the artist had captured not just the likeness of his subjects but of the inner glow of their very lives. There were Indians chasing buffalo on horseback, a handsome older man he assumed was Buck, with his arm around a smiling Abigail and most poignantly of all, the back end of a covered wagon disappearing into a morning mist. Up until this point, his primary exposure to art had been pictures of scantily clad women hanging over bars and occasional pencil sketches – both as often as not done by Thad as a way of paying off a bar tab. But this was different. He couldn’t think of the right words to describe it.

 

Sensing this, Abigail came quietly up beside him and drew him to a medium sized painting hanging over a small table. “Look at that, Jess,” she said. “Even battered as you were, I’d know those blue eyes anywhere.”

 

“I’ll be dad gummed,” he whispered. What he was looking at was himself looking right back at him – a happy grin on his face and a familiar looking bay horse standing next to him. It was himself, not the way he saw himself but the way he’d always wanted to be seen. This must have been the way Thad saw him. He was powerfully moved and just stood quietly looking at the painting and remembering his friend.

 

Shortly, his thoughts were interrupted when Joshua, flanked by the two dogs, re-entered the room carrying a large tray with the coffee things on it and placed it on a long low table in front of the fire.

 

“Coffee is served!” Joshua announced in an exaggerated drawl.

 

“Oh, just sit down and pour,” Abigail ordered laughing.

 

When they were all comfortably seated around the fireplace, coffee cups in hand, Abigail regarded the men with a warm smile and raised her cup as though in a toast. “Jess, welcome to our home. I can’t begin to tell you how pleased we all are that you’re here at last,” with that she gave Dick another sharp look. “I truly hope we can prevail upon you to stay just as long as you possibly can.”

 

“Amen to that,” Joshua said. “Amen to that.”

 

The next few hours or so passed pleasantly with the four of them discussing their pasts and the events that had conspired to bring them all together. Jess found himself telling all about his adventures with Thad and later with Slim. Abigail told of the dreams she and Buck had had for the ranch. Dick, it turned out had been raised in Medicine Bow, not far from Laramie and knew many of the same people Jess did. But it was Joshua who perhaps had the most interesting tale of all. He had been born a slave on the Virginia plantation of Thad’s mother’s family. When Thad’s mother had married Buck, her father having little faith in the young man’s ability to so much as even find his way west much less set up a home, had given Joshua his freedom in exchange for his promise to stay with the young couple and keep an eye on things until they were settled – a promise Joshua had faithfully kept for nearly thirty years despite Buck’s frequent and earnest assurance that it wasn’t necessary and that he was free to go anytime he wished. Thad’s mother had died when Thad was only two and Joshua had assumed the often-daunting task of keeping the youngster in line and when Buck married Abigail, he’d welcomed her and later the children with only slightly veiled enthusiasm.

 

The conversation was interrupted with Lucy’s now familiar tap on the side of the door. “Lucy!” Abigail exclaimed. “What’s wrong?”

 

Clad in her nightclothes, the little girl still carried herself with serious dignity. “Ben’s having a bad dream,” she announced.

 

Both Abigail and Joshua were on their feet in an instant. Abigail quickly placed a hand on Joshua’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of this. I was about to head upstairs anyway. Joshua, you know where the good brandy and cigars are.” Then, with her arm around Lucy, she bid the men goodnight and left.

 

Joshua got up and returned shortly with decanter, glasses and box of cigars. “Mistress’s orders,” he pronounced.

 

When the three men had resettled themselves, Dick turned to Jess and said, “Look – I’m sorry if I didn’t sound exactly welcomin’ earlier. Fact is, I – actually all of us, I suppose – are pretty attached to Abigail. Last thing anyone of us wants is some slick saddle tramp breezin’ in here and breakin’ her heart.”

 

Joshua chuckled to himself. Jess rubbed his hand over his swollen face. “I don’t reckon anyone’s about to be mistakin’ me for a slick anything.”

 

Dick cocked his head toward the painting over the table. “You start lookin’ like that picture over there and we could have a problem.”

 

The three men had a good laugh, the brandy and warm fire beginning its mellowing effect.

 

Turning serious, Jess remarked, “Abigail don’t strike me as a woman who’d hide from a fight. Specially one that involved her family.”

 

“She isn’t,” Joshua replied. “And she isn’t hidin’. More like she’s just bidin’ her time.”

 

“Time for what?”

 

“For the time to be right, I reckon. For the odds to get even. For it to be a fight she can win.”

 

“But didn’t she jus say she didn’t want me getting involved?”

 

“Yup, an’ she meant it. This isn’t your fight Jess and you don’t owe us or Thad anything. But,” he paused and looked at Jess meaningfully. “Since you’re here and obviously spoilin’ for a good fight. This one’s probably good as any.”

 

Jess glanced towards the ceiling, imagining Abigail upstairs and wondering if this conversation he was having wasn’t just what she’d planned. The little voice in his head was getting considerably louder. He sighed, firmly ignoring all the instinctive warnings, looked at the other two men and said, “Ok fellas, deal me in.”

 

Joshua smiled broadly and Dick poured them all another round of brandy.

 

When he had finished pouring, Dick sat back and drew deeply on his cigar and watched as the smoke curled lazily upwards. Then, he turned to Jess and said, “Ain’t no gold, you know. Leastwise, not much.”

 

“What?”

 

“Jus’ what I said. The real gold around here’s got four legs an’ a brand on its ass. This here’s cow country and no one’s gonna make a penny on minin’ in this neck of the woods.”

 

“Then what in tarnation’s got folks so riled up about that they’re buyin’ up mining rights and spendin’ a fortune on ‘em from what I could see when I was in town?”

 

“Well, my suspicion – an’ I’ve got some pretty good proof – is that Dreb’s been saltin’. Ever since they found gold over Virginia City way, folks have been about crazy for it. Funny thing is folks around here will find a nugget or two, pay for a claim and never find another a damn thing. When Dreb started buying out the local ranchers and sellin’ minin’ rights, Buck and I got a bad smell about it if you know what I mean. Buck even hired a geologist feller from Colorado to come up. He looked at the gold that had been found and said it wasn’t even from around here.”

 

“So Dreb sells the minin’ rights – the poor slob who buys ‘em goes broke an’ moves on an’ Dreb just goes an’ sells ‘em again?”

 

“That’s about it.”

 

“How’d he get the ranchers to sell? Seems to me, if they thought they had gold on their land, they might just want to hang on to it.”

 

“You’d think so but you’ve had a little taste of how he works. How’d you feel about your womenfolk an’ kids fallin’ into Poke’s hands?”

 

Jess considered that a moment. “So what’s he got over Abigail? I’d think a place as big and protected as this wouldn’t be worth his while.”

 

“Well, that’s the really interestin’ part. Seems the gold strike down river from Paddy Flanagan’s just mighta been the real thing. Not a big strike; least by Virginia City standards but real enough just the same. Only us, Paddy an’ Dreb knew that, though. Buck had talked to Paddy about it but Paddy said he didn’t have time enough to tend his cattle and do minin’ and, if he sold his land then what the heck was he gonna graze his cattle on? Paddy was a real practical kind of guy. Buck and Thad both agreed with him and set out to make sure Dreb didn’t bully him or anything. That’s when all hell broke loose. I don’t think Buck or Thad realized what Dreb was capable of until it got too late. Abigail does though, and that’s what’s kept her hunkered down here.”

 

“So what’s yer plan?”

 

“Joshua and I figger if we just get rid of Dreb, that’s probably not enough. If he goes, some other snake just comes in and takes his place. What we’ve gotta do and do soon is convince folks that these claims are worthless – that Dreb’s jus’ been leadin’ them on. Then just kinda let nature take its course.”

 

“Yer logic’s about right,” Jess replied. “Changin’ folk’s minds – especially folks who’re about crazy with the gold fever – now that’s another critter altogether.”

 

“You got any bright ideas?”

 

Jess yawned. “Gimme me a little time to think on it.”

 

The two men looked at him and nodded knowingly.

 

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Chapter Ten