Lovell's Prize Read online

  "You did right not to try to go on. That wheel would have come completely apart after a few miles. The way it is now, it can be fixed. Do you have any tools at all?"

  "No."

  Lovell rose and started for his horse. He smiled at Melinda as he accepted the reins and mounted.

  "Where are you going?" the woman asked nervously.

  "Hunting. I'll be back shortly. I'm going to need some rawhide to patch those spokes. Unless we use your horse or mine, that's going to be hard to find."

  "Can you find a deer that easily?"

  "Probably not, but I'm going to have to try. You and your girls stay put. You keep that rifle handy. I'll be back as soon as possible."

  "I am sorry to put you to so much trouble."

  He looked down at her and smiled. "I don't have much choice. We'll work something out. You just stay put."

  He hunted the creek bottom for a couple of hours before he was able to shoot a young doe. He cut off a hip joint and a large section of hide. He was back at the camp an hour before sunset. He gave her the meat to fix over the fire and began cutting and scraping the hide. He removed the wheel and wrapped the wet hide over each broken spoke. He then rolled the wheel to the fire to help the rawhide dry.

  "If we can get this rawhide to dry properly it will draw up and make those spokes as strong as ever," he said as he came to the fire. "We'll know more by morning. If it doesn't work then one of the girls can ride with me, and you and the other can ride your buggy horse. Either way, I'm taking you back to Arkansas."

  She cut a large helping of the venison, put it on a plate with some beans, and handed the plate to him. "Is that my only option?"

  "Yes, it is. I will not leave you alone out here and I will not allow you to travel through the Indian Territory alone."

  She nodded but said nothing.

  "If you are in some kind of trouble, I'm more than willing to help you. Whatever is back there is not as bad as what's in front."

  She smiled. "I wonder."

  "You having trouble with your man?"

  She looked up surprised that he was so perceptive. "I've left him. I am going to take the girls home to my parents. I will not live another day under his roof."

  He nodded and cut his meat. "Well, it's none of my business. I can't leave you out here though. You'll have to go back with me. What you do then is up to you."

  "I was lucky you came along. Why couldn't I go on if the wheel's fixed."

  "The wheel will last for a while but not indefinitely. Those spokes are going to have to be replaced and a wheelwright is the only person who can do a proper job. There ain't no wheelwrights between here and the Kansas line. You are going to have to go back. I'd prefer it if you were under my protection."

  "I hate to put you out."

  "It's maybe a day out of my way. I'd feel a lot better if I knew you and these girls were safe."

  "I've really made a mess of things."

  "I don't think so. Your buggy is too light for these back trails and you've got a pretty heavy load for one horse. If you take the military road north, you would be a lot safer and it's a heck of a lot better road."

  "But he could find me easier."

  "Who's he?"

  "My husband, John."

  "Is he abusive?"

  "It depends upon what you mean by abusive. He doesn't beat me, if that's what you mean."

  Lovell was curious. "What does he do?" After his experience with Leah Walsh and how Rance Banford treated her he wanted to know why this woman would find a man so objectionable if he didn't beat her.

  "John is a rich man. He built a new house in Fort Smith. He's twenty-five years older than I am. He's jealous of everything I do and everyone I speak to. He treats me like property. I live like a prisoner in that house."

  Lovell nodded. "John Black. I know this man. He does deed work and owns a dry goods store on Main Street. He is a wealthy man." He also wondered why he had never seen this woman before on the streets of Fort Smith. "I don't know that he's ever had any trouble with the law."

  "One of Fort Smith's most prominent citizens," Bonny said wryly. "According to everyone in town I'm a lucky woman to have him for a husband. He took me in when the girls' father took off and went to the gold fields in Colorado. We never heard from him again. John protected me and the girls but it was at a price."

  Lovell held out his cup for her to pour him some coffee. "There's a price with most relationships, ain't there?"

  She poured. Her voice reflected her bitterness. "Not like this one. He's possessive and selfish. I had to get out. There wasn't any breathing room left. He was closing in all around the girls and me. Every day he'd browbeat and degrade us. Finally, I got a chance to get away without him knowing it for a while, so I did. I figured he'd never look for me in the Indian Territory, so here I am."

  Lovell thought of his second wife, Betsy, as she talked. Betsy was tall, almost as pretty as this woman and fiercely independent. He had taken her in when she was down and out, just as John Black had taken in this woman. He had given ten years of his life for her and her children—put up with her bad temper, constant criticism and indiscretions—and had done everything he could to make her and her children happy. In the end she ran off with a teamster after having poked damn near every man she came in contact with while he was on the trail. He knew it wasn't fair to make the comparison but he made it just the same. He wondered if this Bonny Black wasn't exactly the same. It didn't matter how good a man was to her, she would always be one of those good-looking women searching for something better and never happy with what a man did for her. And with her looks she could have any man she wanted. John Black had it all…money, community standing, a solid reputation. What else could she want? He became angry and decided to take her down a peg.

  "You need to think twice about what you just did," he said. "This country is filled with every sort of vermin walking on two legs. You were lucky I came along and not some scurvy piece of trash who would have taken you all and done God knows what. You're lucky, lady. You don't know how much."

  She nodded. "I know. But I was desperate."

  He stood with the pretext of checking his horse. Actually he just wanted to get away for a moment. "I'll get you back to Fort Smith. But you need to think about things. You could be dead or worse just now. I wonder how desperate you would have felt then."

  "What would you have done in my shoes?" she asked bitterly.

  "I don't know. I just don't know." He checked his horse's hobbles as he spoke.

  "You have plenty of criticisms but when it comes to answers you just don't know," she said sarcastically.

  He nodded. "I guess not."

  "It's so easy for a man. Well, maybe I'm not as helpless as you think."

  "I wouldn't know. Maybe I am wrong. I don't really know how capable you are of taking care of yourself out here. It took guts to come out here alone. Where were your guts when you had to face down your husband?"

  "It isn't the same."

  "Isn't it? I wouldn't know."

  They stared at each other, each trying to control the anger. He didn't want to say any more. He was going to have her bawling or worse. He'd let himself go too far. Now he wanted out with no further confrontation. He hated arguing with women. They were so damned emotional and unreasonable when they were angry. He waited for her to react.

  She stiffened with anger then hesitated, gathering her thoughts. "I guess you wouldn't. I need to get some sleep." She turned and walked to her bedroll.

  He watched her back down, thankful that she hadn't elevated the disagreement to the next level. "Yeah, you get some sleep, lady," he thought to himself. He was impressed that she hadn't fallen apart. She was tough. At least she wasn't some crybaby and had the class to back off without going into hysterics. And damn, she was a good-looking woman. Why would John Black treat her like property and browbeat her? From what he could see she had a lot of good qualities. She was gutsy and combative…and she had the sense to back off
when she needed to. Good-looking, gutsy, good sense for a woman and reasonable. He liked her. He just had to be careful not to show it too much. A woman like that could get him in real trouble.

  Chapter 7

  He checked the wheel the following morning and decided they should try to make it work. He didn't have much time and needed to be in Black Fork before Nodine made a move. A night of cooling off left them both in better spirits and each tried to be more civil. Bonny cooked a good breakfast and he enjoyed being with her and her daughters. She had a good sense of humor and the girls were fun-loving. By the time they had loaded the buggy and hitched the mare they had forged the beginnings of a solid friendship.

  By midday they had forded the creek and were making slow progress back to Fort Smith. He rode beside the buggy so they could visit. As time passed and they talked of parents, common interests and shared opinions, he felt that he had misjudged her. She was a much more solid woman than he had expected.

  Bonny was thirty-five years old. She had been raised on a small farm in western Missouri. Her father, an abolitionist, moved west into Kansas to try to get away from the border ruffians before the Civil War. She had married Ben Runyon when she was nineteen but he abandoned her when the girls were infants. Although Stacy had some memories of her father, Melinda had none. Bonny did whatever she could to make ends meet after Ben left. She waited tables, took in laundry, worked in a dry goods store and even worked in a dance hall when conditions were especially rough. It was tough going and there were times that she just didn't know if she could make it. Eventually she ended up in Fort Smith and found a clerking job with John Black. Although Black was much older than she was, he was handsome and witty, showed her kindness and quickly proposed marriage. She was concerned about the age difference but was alone and frightened, and she enjoyed the sense of security John represented. She was twenty-five and he was fifty when they married.

  In the beginning she was very happy but after a few years of marriage he began to change. She didn't know if it was their age difference or the fact that John couldn't control his jealousy but he began tightening his control of her. His jealous rages began to dominate their lives. He criticized her female friends and drove them off. He became much more critical of the girls as they matured and eventually made them go to their rooms when he was home. If she even spoke to a man or woman on the street he would question her motives, and gradually he isolated her in the house. The ever-tightening control that he held over her was subtle and she was drawn more deeply into his manipulation in an effort to keep him happy. For the last couple of years she felt like a caged bird—something beautiful for him to look at but that was allowed no freedom for fear that she would escape. She even contemplated suicide in her loneliness. If it hadn't been for the girls, she would have taken her life but she could not abandon them. Finally, he was called away on a business trip to Little Rock and she saw her chance to get away. On the day he climbed aboard the train, she waved goodbye, immediately went home, packed a few belongings and made for her parent's farm in Winfield, Kansas. She set out across the Nations because she knew John would send detectives after her and search the military road to Fort Scott. She hated what she had done but she could see no alternative. John had become a cold, calculating master and she was not going to live her life as his slave.

  As they talked Lovell's opinion softened. He had always felt he was a good judge of character, although Betsy had badly shaken his confidence. He recognized the fact that he was a fixer, especially where women were concerned and his judicious reasoning was softer toward women. But as he listened he determined that this woman didn't need fixing. It appeared to him that she was taking a logical step to gain herself some freedom, although the community would heavily criticize her for her actions. What she was doing was healthy. Staying with him would be the sickness.

  That night they talked until late. She was refreshing and clever. Once they were through talking about John, they moved on to talk of their past lives and hopes for the future. He told her of his marriages. He blamed himself for the first. He had taken a spoiled lawyer's daughter into the frontier and left her alone most of the time while he built the ranch. She was never able to adjust and he failed to recognize her unhappiness until it was too late. When she left with the boys he lost all interest in the ranch and became a marshal. The boys were grown but he had little contact with them.

  He said that he married his second wife out of a sense of guilt over his first marriage and a desire to help her. She was alone and struggling, and could barely support her two children. He felt that he did the best that he could to do better than his first marriage, but she was never satisfied. There had been indiscretions with other men and he had always forgiven her, believing that if only he were a better husband, she would find happiness. In the end nothing he did mattered and she ran off with a teamster. He had heard it didn't last long and she had run through a string of men before finally becoming a prostitute. After that he didn't want to know anymore. When she asked him about the children, he only shook his head and stared into the campfire.

  She watched his reaction and smiled. "Strange."

  "How's that?"

  "Here you are, a big tough man…a U.S. marshal…and yet you're not that much different than I am."

  "What do you mean?" he asked, thinking that he knew what she would say.

  "You have given everything you had to give and it wasn't enough. No matter how hard you tried, she never would have been happy. There's hidden vulnerability in you. You're tough on the outside but soft in the center. You blame yourself for her failure. It is probably true of your first marriage as well. How is that any different than my relationship with John?"

  He smiled wryly. "I don't know that it is any different."

  "And you're through with marriage, I suppose?" she asked.

  "You bet ya. I'm done with it. I had my chances and I muffed them both. I don't blame myself for what happened with Betsy but I do blame myself for not having better judgment in the first place. I saw warning signs in her before we married but I chose to ignore them." He smiled. "Thought I could fix her. I thought that if I was good enough to her that she would mellow, but there ain't no fixing people. The only person you can fix is yourself and you are a fool for trying anything else. Besides, being a marshal is no life for a husband. My pay is uncertain and I'm gone most of the time. A woman would never know whether I'd come back or not. Of the ten original deputy marshals that Judge William Story brought on, there are only two of us left. The rest have died or quit. It's a tough life, with very little future."

  "Then why do you do it?"

  He stared into her eyes with a look of determination. "Because I'm good at it. I believe in the law and identify with its simplicity. There is no gray…there's only black and white. I like the world that way. I serve the warrant and take the man in. There is no wondering if I made the right decision. As long as I follow the book, I'm alright. The only times I've ever gotten myself in trouble is when I've trusted in my feelings and depended on other people."

  "You mean women, don't you?" she asked with a canny smile.

  He hesitated. "Yes, I guess that's true. I've never felt the need to depend upon a man for anything."

  "I think you would probably make a good husband for the right woman," she said.

  He smiled. "Well, from what I can see you'd probably make a good wife for the right man. The problem is, there are very few good men left."

  "Maybe not," she said as she rose to her feet. "Good night, Marshal Lovell. I hope you find what you're looking for."

  "Who says I'm looking for anything?"

  "You are. You just don't know it."

  "Well, that must be some prize. Do you think I'll recognize it when I see it?"

  She shook her head and went to her blankets. "Probably not," she said to herself. "Even when it's right in front of you."

  * * * *

  They were fifteen miles from the Fort Smith ferry when they met the riders
. John Black and two men held up their horses and waited for the buggy. Black looked worried as they neared. He went to Lovell first. The men held back on his orders.

  "Where did you find them?" he asked.

  "They were broke down near the Neosho River. I patched up the wheel and brought them in."

  "Appreciate it," Black said in a quiet tone. "I need to talk to her."

  "It's really none of my business but you need to go easy. If you want her back you're going to have to give her time and some space."

  Black nodded without looking at him. He looked beat. His sixty years were showing. He stepped down from his horse and paused at the buggy wheel in front of her. They talked in quiet, serious tones.

  Lovell waited without dismounting. He watched them talk and recognized the tears forming in her eyes. She looked up at him while Black was talking then turned her eyes to the buggy floor. He could tell that she was embarrassed and uncomfortable.

  After a while Black motioned Lovell to the buggy. "She's going to go back with me. You can go on. There won't be any trouble."

  Lovell looked at her. She nodded.

  "I need to be riding on. I have business to attend to," Lovell said.

  "I know," she said quietly. "Thank you for everything."

  "I'm glad I could help. I hope things work out for you." Lovell turned his gelding toward the trail leading south.

  Black remounted and led the buggy toward Fort Smith. Lovell shook his head and went on. As he rode he thought of the two days he had spent with her. He liked her and thought she was a good woman. She deserved a good life. He hoped she could work something out with Black. Black was a solid citizen and prosperous. Her life would be easier if she could make the marriage work. Otherwise, she would be back to struggling just to make ends meet. Reconciliation would be better for the girls as well. If she went back to the hardships of the past it was likely that she would get tied up with another man who might be worse than what she had. He knew that a large house and good income weren't everything but it was more than Lovell or most any other man could give her. If she'd just settle down and accept Black's faults, she could enjoy a prosperous, if not an ideal, life. It was more than most had. He wondered what Leah Walsh would do if she had a man like Black. If a man provided for his woman and didn't beat her, that was something. Certainly it was several rungs above someone like Rance Banford.