"What do you want?" demanded the stranger as he took a few steps closer still pointing his weapon.
"I was just passing through." Cody simply stated.
"Well this property is off limits mister." he said trying to sound authoritative.
"Taylor?!" cried Victoria stepping out of Cody's protective shadow.
"Ms. Sutton! I-I didn't know it was you." he stammered.
"Yeah, I can see that." retorted Cody lowering his hands as he turned to look at the boy.
"Will you put that thing away! What are you going to do, shoot us?"
"Why no ma'am, if I would've known it was y'all I would've let it be." he responded putting the menacing weapon in its holster. "Chet says to keep anyone off our...well you know, this property. He don't want anybody setting foot here...and-and Ms. Sutton, you oughta know it ain't safe for you out here with my brothers and all."
"I appreciate your concern Taylor but this is a free country and I will choose to go wherever I please."
"Still you best be careful, you don't know Chet and Kyle, they've been known to get pretty nasty."
"Well why do you think I have Mr. Cody with me?"
"If you ask me, you need to do a better job protectin' Ms. Sutton here Mr. Cody."
"Well who's asking?" he replied annoyed at the accusatory comment.
"Anyway, why aren't you in school?" she asked.
"Don't go to school." he informed.
"And why not?"
"Chet says I don't need to waste time readin' books and countin' apples. He needs me here."
"Doing what? Shooting at targets?! I tell you that brother of yours makes me so angry."
"It's okay, I don't mind."
"Your mind is what you need to use Taylor. Don't you want to be somebody?"
"I am somebody!" he cried. "I'm an Adams."
"That sure won't get you very far." noted Cody sarcastically.
"Cody." reprimanded Victoria mildly.
Cody was vastly annoyed at Taylor's interruptance and unwanted presence. Just when he was about to spill his heart to Victoria, the little peep-squeak shows up.
"Can you read or write?" she asked.
"I get by. Chet says I ain't got no use for readin' and writin'. They's just a waste of time. Besides what good's that gonna do me here? This place's the only thing I known. I ain't never gettin' out, never goin' nowhere." he stated, throwing some pebbles in the creek out of frustration.
"With that attitude you sure aren't. The world isn't going to come to you Taylor. You have to take a hold of it yourself. Explore it, see what's out there. The world's a much bigger place than just Rock Creek. Don't you want to know all that's out there? Seeing yourself traveling to another place, experiencing different things?"
"Sure. I thought about gettin' outta here but there ain't no place for me. Who's gonna want to be around a poor boy like me? I ain't got nothing to offer. Things are different for you Ms. Sutton; you got money. You can go anywhere you want, buy anything you see. People look up to ya. Money, that's what makes the difference."
"That is not true. I've known people with money that feel just as trapped as you do. It's what we choose to do with our lives that makes the difference Taylor, no matter if you're rich or poor."
"Okay hold it! Since when did the two of you become such good friends?!" asked Cody excitedly. Victoria turned to him, a finger pressed against her lips, silencing him. She turned her attention back to Taylor.
"What I'm trying to say is that you're still young. You have so much to live for."
"I reckon fifteen years ain't much living." he admitted.
"Don't sell yourself short no matter what Chet says." she added softly.
"Well I-I wouldn't know where to start."
"That's easy...learn how to really read and write and you'll be surprised how the world will look so different in your eyes." she continued with her impassioned plea.
"How do you reckon I do that? If I try school Chet'll surely tan my hide."
She thought briefly. "Then I guess I'll have to teach you won't I?"
"I can't let you do that; puttin' yourself at odds with my brother like that, he don't like you as it is." he protested.
"Like I told you before, Chet doesn't need to know anything." she refuted.
"Alright!" cried Cody. "What's going on here? You talk to him before?"
"As a matter of fact, we did have a little chat the other day didn't we?" she said winking at the slim lad.
"I leave you alone for one minute and..." Cody was abruptly cut off.
"You have to excuse Mr. Cody," she said taking Taylor's arm and walking away. She glanced back at Cody's perplexed expression and whispered, "he's rather protective of me."
"I think he's taken a fancy to you if you ask me."
"Really?" she said placing her hands on her hips. "Yup." he answered.
She smiled. "You leave Mr. Cody for me to worry about." she said tossing his auburn hair. "I will see you tomorrow afternoon around 3 o'clock, deal?"
"Ms. Sutton you sure ain't like any other lady I ever met." he said with a shy smile admiring her daring and courageous spirit. Taylor well knew his brothers weren't the sort of men anyone would like to tangle with but, if she would put herself in such a postion for him, he was determined to repay her kindness. After promising not to forget their deal he waved goodbye to them both and scurried off.
"What in the world exactly do you think you're doing?" asked Cody as Victoria made her way back to him.
"It's not a big deal Cody."
"Not a big deal?!" he cried with a laugh. "For crying out loud Victoria, if you don't remember it wasn't that long ago they were threatening your life and if you have forgotten they may still be after you."
"Cody, remember it was you who told me I would be all right as long as they didn't know the truth and they don't. Besides, Taylor-he's not like them."
"C'mon." he retorted not believing what he was hearing. "They're peas from the same pod. They're all the same." he stated directly.
"I refuse to believe that. I mean people in this town aren't giving him a chance to live. It's bad enough he's got the family he does and being poor at that, he doesn't see anything better for himself."
"I'm just telling you the way it is."
"Cody..." she started in a sympathetic tone. "Put yourself in his place. How would you feel if you had the deck stacked against you like that? Wouldn't you want someone to reach out to you? Wouldn't it make a difference to have someone care?"
"I suppose." he admitted. "But I still don't like the idea; you putting yourself in this kind of danger. What'll Teaspoon say?"
"Nothing! because you're not going to tell him."
"I can't do that." he disagreed shaking his head.
"Come on please...he won't let me. I know it."
"Exactly; and if anything were to happen to you with me knowing about this, he's gonna shoot me!"
"Please do this...for me." she pleaded looking at him with her warm brown eyes. "You could even come with me to make sure I'm all right."
He thought about it then said, "I'm gonna hate myself for this in the morning."
"Thank you." she responded joyfully with a kiss to his cheek.
In an instant, Cody's thoughts returned to the main purpose he'd been there for; to tell her he loved her. He sensed though the opportunity had passed him by, now that Victoria's attention had been diverted in a totally different direction. To talk of his feelings for her now would be bad timing he felt and, seeing she hadn't made an effort to resume their earlier conversation, left it alone for yet another time.
***************
On the way back home Victoria inquired about Taylor's family. Cody related what he'd heard from the various townspeople. "The Adams family was one of the first to settle in Rock Creek and made a good living as farmers. Taylor's father grew up on that land above what's now called Murphy's Canyon, named after Taylor's grandfather. Hunter Adams carried on the family business, got married and had 3 sons: Chet, Kyle and Taylor. Their mother passed on a few months after Taylor was born. His father had a hard time accepting her death. He took to the bottle and pretty soon had lost everything they had. He was shot at a card table which left the three boys as orphans.
Chet, being the oldest took to caring for his two younger brothers, but soon got involved with some real bad company. Folks here said he's done everything from bank robbery to stagecoach heists but no one's ever seen him do it or would come forward if they had. That being the case, they haven't been able to pin nothing on him. Of course he's taught Kyle everything he knows, including cheating at poker...yeap, peas of the same pod. Taylor's not that far behind you know."
"Let's just hope you're wrong about that one Cody."
***************
Jimmy sat by the warm fire of the campsite he'd set up for the night. The spot was a favorite of the riders as they would often stop there on their way back home. On this night he would rendez-vous with Kid as planned, who had been on a brief run. They would ride into Blue Creek together, their last stop on their way home.
As he poked the burning embers with a stick, he thought about how to handle the situation with Victoria once he got back. He had had time during this run to try and clear his thoughts; at least that's what he desperately attempted to do, but constantly found pleasure in thinking of himself with her. The days couldn't pass by fast enough for him. He longed to see her face, her beautiful smile, hear her soothing voice. He couldn't deny it anymore; he was in love with her. Making the feelings of his soul known-that was a different story. Jimmy felt he was being torn in two, slowly but surely. His loyalty to his friend was being tested yet he yearned for the love of a woman he knew he had no rights to. He was sorely confused; much more now than he'd been before he left.
The sound of a horse drew his attention from the fire-light as he drew his gun.
"Hey Jimmy." greeted Kid pulling Katy by her reins as he approached.
"I keep telling you Kid, you keep sneaking up on me that way I'm gonna shoot you one of these days." he said annoyed.
"What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing." Jimmy sternly responded.
"If you say so." said his friend as he secured Katy to the tree. "Heard some news on the way through Cottonwood."
"What about?"
"The name Jonas McBride ring a bell to ya?"
"That's that cattle rustler Teaspoon was telling us about."
"Seems he's been spotted around these parts. Almost got caught there a few days ago. The townspeople say he shot a deputy in cold blood, took his mount and got away from a possee. Rewards up to $600 dollars now."
"Heck that's a lot of money Kid. Almost makes me want to go on the chase."
"Yeah? Well don't get any crazy ideas. Going after a man with a price that high on his head is like standing in front of a herd of stampeding buffalo; you may just get killed in the process."
"I guess that may be true Kid, but I ain't stupid enough to get myself killed. I tell you though, if he comes my way, I won't hesitate collecting that reward."
"You're not a killer Jimmy."
"I ain't talking about killing anybody Kid, but you can't turn your back on men like McBride. Their kind don't think of nobody but themselves and they won't hesitate to put a bullet in you first."
Kid nodded in agreement. Unfortunetaly for him, he knew the truthfulness of Jimmy's words having experienced such a situation when he first joined the Express.
"Kid, I need to talk to you about something."
"Shoot." he said taking a seat by the fire.
"This is the thing Kid," he started, letting go a hard swift breath. "I find myself in
this...uhmm, situation and the decision I have to make ain't easy."
Kid's facial expression showed utter worry. "You're not leaving us are you?"
"Nah, it ain't nothing like that."
"Good, 'cause I need all the help I can get keepin' Cody in line." he said jokingly.
Jimmy responded with a faint smile. "What would you do..." he paused feeling the words sticking in his throat.
Kid leaned in attentively with a curious but more concerned look. "If I what?" he asked.
"This is harder for me to say than I thought."
"Take your time." encouraged Kid.
"Okay, here it is." Jimmy knew there was no turning back once he'd spilled his guts to his best friend, but needed someone to talk to before his love-sick heart got the better of him. "What would you do if you met someone that deep down inside you knew was right for you but there was this thing keeping you from letting her know how you feel? There I said it."
Kid smiled. "I see Kate finally got to you huh?"
"She wishes. Seriously Kid, what would you do?"
"You're asking me for advice about women? I'm the one that's always coming to you.
I thought you knew everything there was to know about women." he teased.
"Yeah right, and I know you all look up to my great wisdom too." he added sarcastically.
"It's serious Kid. I never felt this way about anybody before."
"So just let her know, what's the problem? I never seen you hesitate to tell a lady how you feel. I mean what could possibly be stopping you?"
"A friend." he simply stated, throwing his stick into the fire.
"A friend?" Kid repeated quizzically, then all of a sudden the light went on.
"Oh no." he said passing a hand over his face. "Don't tell me."
Jimmy nodded. "Yeah Kid."
"No it can't be." he said, a look of uncertainty crossing his face.
"It's true."
"You too?" he asked in disbelief about who he thought Jimmy referred to.
"Yeah me too." he answered sheepishly.
"Victoria?!" cried Kid. Jimmy nodded once again.
"Aw Jimmy! How could you let that happen?!" he cried.
"Well it ain't like I planned it; sort of just happened." he said with a shrug.
"This is not good." Kid continued, with a shake of his head.
"Tell me about it."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Didn't I start this conversation asking you that?"
"Right, but I didn't know it was going to be this complicated."
"Help me out here Kid." he said, a serious look in his eyes.
Kid took a few minutes to think before speaking. He finally broke his silence and had Jimmy's total attention. "First of all, we know for a fact that Cody has taken a true liking to Victoria. Two, we know they've been spending lots of time together, alone."
"So what?" asked Jimmy at the irrelevance of Kid's analogies.
"I'm getting there. Three, right now as we speak, he is there making his move on her and you're here, gone almost what, a week?"
"What's your point?" Jimmy was getting frustrated.
"You don't have a chance." joked Kid.
"Thanks a lot Kid." he said with a frown. "Don't ever go into the advice giving business, you stink." he finished, rising from his seat.
"I'll ignore that. Seriously though, let's look at the brighter side."
"This better be good Kid or I swear I'll gag your mouth closed for the rest of this trip."
"Sit down." he ordered and Jimmy obliged reluctantly. "So you haven't told her how you feel-smart move. The last thing we need is to have you and Cody at each other's throats and the rest of us stuck in the middle of it. Now the question is, where does she stand?"
"I don't know. I mean she did tell me that they were just good friends."
"When was this?" Kid asked curiously.
"The night before I left."
"I don't remember seeing you two talking to each other much."
"Does it really matter?!" he said with a raised tone. Jimmy witheld going into further details not divulging the events of his meeting that night with Victoria .
Kid sensed Jimmy's irritation and decided to speed it up. "So here's the bright side of this...we don't know exactly how she feels about Cody. If what you say is true, then maybe you got a shot." after a brief pause he continued. "We're going to need help you know that."
"Help?! NO. Nobody knows about this Kid and I'd like to keep it that way."
"Suit yourself, but Lou may be able to offer some insight on the situation. Think about it, her and Victoria have become good friends. I'm sure they talk about things."
Jimmy hated the fact of not being able to deal with this himself.
Kid continued. "You could go ahead and handle it on your own but you may step on some toes on the way. Here's the bottom line. I'd leave it alone if I was you until I knew for sure where all the chips fell, then I'd make my move."
Even though Kid's advice was not exactly what Jimmy wanted to hear, he knew his friend was right. He was an impatient man. He'd have to learn patience this time around. There was too much at stake.
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