Dorothy Garlock - [Colorado Wind 03] Page 11

  Henry had wandered to the back of the store but soon was back tugging on Kain’s sleeve. Kain followed him to a shelf that held several spools of ribbon and a stack of dusty straw hats trimmed with flowers and bits of lace.

  “I got a dollar, Kain. Do you reckon I could buy something for Mary Ben? She doesn’t have any ribbons or things like Ma and Vanessa.” He fingered a length of pink satin ribbon and watched Kain’s face anxiously.

  “It would be right nice to give Mary Ben a present. What do you have in mind?”

  “I could get her a hat, or some ribbon.”

  Kain looked at the dusty hats. He suspected that most of them had been brought in by travelers and traded for goods when they ran out of cash.

  “Women kind of like to pick out their own hats, Henry. I think she’d like the ribbon.”

  “She could tie it in her hair. She’s got awful pretty hair.”

  “Maybe you should get some for your mother and Vanessa, too.”

  “I’m going to get this for Mary Ben.” Henry took the spool of pink ribbon from the shelf. “Why don’t you get the blue for Van, Kain? She likes blue.”

  “All right. Now pick out one for your mother.” Kain was suddenly pleased with the suggestion and the fact that Henry had coupled him with Vanessa in somewhat the same way he had matched himself with Mary Ben. It had been obvious to him for some time that Henry had strong feelings for the young girl.

  “Mama likes pink,” Henry said with a puzzled frown. “But I wanted to give Mary Ben the pink.”

  “Then get something else for your mother. Ladies like things that smell good.”

  “Yeah!” Henry said buoyantly. He selected a bar of scented soap, then carefully scrutinized the bottles of toilet water and chose one painted with small pink flowers. “Do I have enough money for all this, Kain?”

  “I’m sure you do, but if you don’t, I’ll lend you some and you can pay me later.”

  Kain took the bolt of blue ribbon with him when he returned to the counter and requested the clerk to cut off a couple of yards.

  Henry had more than enough money to pay for his presents. The clerk grunted and handed them to Henry after Kain asked him to wrap them separate from the other purchases.

  They were almost ready to leave when the door swung open and four men came in. Kain glanced at them briefly and saw trouble. Two were young rowdies, loudmouthed and swaggering. One looked as if he might have been run over by a freight wagon. His nose wasn’t exactly centered in his face, he had bruised and cut cheeks and a dark circle around his eye. It was the kid Vanessa had worked over, first with the shovel, and then the butt of her shotgun. The other two men were older. One was a Mexican.

  “Hey,” the kid yelled. “Jist looky what’s here! If’n it ain’t the dummy what likes to bash heads ’n the dude who thinks his shit don’t stink.” The kid came toward the counter and elbowed Henry out of the way. “Get outta my way, dummy. Gimme some shells,” he demanded of the storekeeper.

  Anger rose up in Kain. Was it anger because Henry let this cocky, little bastard push him out of the way or because this tough kid was going to live when Kain knew he was going to die? He decided the reason he was going to hit him wasn’t important—he just knew he was going to.

  “The clerk’s waiting on us you little shithead,” Kain said roughly. “Take your turn.”

  The kid turned like a spitting cat. “Who do ya think yo’re callin’—”

  He never completed the sentence. Kain’s fist lashed out and struck viciously. The punch caught the rowdy flush on his chin. He hit the floor as if struck down by a mallet.

  Kain looked across the fallen man to the three who were with him. “There’s more if you’re dealing yourselves in.”

  The young drover looked down at his fallen companion with something like disgust on his face. “You are a stupid shithead!” he said to his friend. “You ain’t got no more sense ’n a pissant.”

  “Ya hit hard,” one of the older men said from just inside the door. “How are ya with a gun?”

  Kain didn’t answer immediately. He looked the man up and down, his amber eyes fierce and probing. “You’re wearing one. If you want to know, you’ll have to pay to find out.” He spoke with deceptive mildness.

  “Jist askin’.” The careful way the man used his voice revealed his awareness of the ticklish situation in which he found himself.

  There had been no move from the kid on the floor. “Is he dead?” The younger man prodded him with the toe of his boot.

  “I doubt it,” Kain said dryly.

  “Get ’em outta here,” the man behind the counter said in a loud and commanding voice, his words followed by the unmistakable sound of the shotgun behind cocked.

  The Mexican walked over, lifted the boy’s head and let it fall back to the floor with a thump. The boy blinked, rolled his head and groaned.

  “Ya’d better take his gun,” the clerk said. “Son of a bitchin’ kids ain’t got no sense a’tall. Think they be all balls ’n rawhide.”

  “Let him keep it,” Kain said. “If he pulls it on me I’ll do what I have to do.”

  The Mexican pulled the boy to his feet. He blinked, put his hand to his jaw, then stared around him, suddenly remembering. He stood swaying uncertainly.

  “If you’ve got it in mind to use that gun,” Kain said coldly, “get at it or get the hell out of here.”

  He looked at Kain for a moment, trying to focus his blurry eyes, then turned and stumbled toward the door. Kain followed and watched until the four rode away. He went back to the counter.

  “Ya don’t take much proddin’, do ya?” The clerk put the shotgun back on the shelf.

  “Not from a mouthy asshole like that. That’s the third time I’ve had a run-in with the little bastard. The next time I’ll break his damn neck.” He glanced over his shoulder. Henry was still watching out the door. “You got any laudanum?” Kain’s eyes met the clerk’s squarely.

  “Only fer sick folks.” He fixed his gaze on Kain’s face.

  “I’m not an addict, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s for a man with a cancer.”

  He looked at Kain for a long moment, then nodded. “It’s reason enough.” He went to the end of the counter and opened a padlock with a key he took from his pocket. He returned with a small bottle wrapped in paper and handed it to Kain. “Five dollars.”

  Kain put the bottle in his pocket, dropped a gold piece on the counter and picked up the supplies. The buzz of voices on the porch stopped when he and Henry walked through the door. Kain’s sharp eyes scanned the dusty street. The four riders were nowhere in sight. The only movement was a dust devil dancing in the distance and tumbleweeds rolling aimlessly toward the open prairie.

  “I just didn’t know what to do, Kain. I just didn’t know what to do,” Henry said with a worried frown when they had left the town and were walking the loaded horses toward camp.

  “As it turned out you didn’t have to do anything. But if the chips were down, I was counting on you to take care of the other kid while I got the two at the door.”

  “You mean you’d shoot them?”

  “That would depend on whether or not they were going to shoot me.”

  “But, Kain, I don’t know if I could have helped any. That other fellow had a gun, too.”

  “If you had spun around real fast and swung your foot, you could have kicked him in the balls with the toe of your boot. He’d have doubled up and forgotten all about the gun, and you could have knocked him out with a blow on the back of his head. Remember? I showed you how to do that. Always do what they least expect you to do and you’ll have the advantage.”

  “That would’ve hurt him something awful.”

  “He’d have done the same to you, Henry.”

  “I know. I’ve never had a friend like you, Kain. I’m glad we left that old farm. I’ve got you for a friend and I’ve got Mary Ben. Kain?” His voice dropped as if he feared someone would hear him. “Can I ask you something?”r />
  “Sure, Henry.”

  “Sometimes when I’m with Mary Ben,” he looked Kain full in the face without a trace of embarrassment, “I want to kiss her awful bad, and I get all hard and have a terrible ache . . . you know where. I just have to go off by myself until it quits. Ma told me a long time ago when I was little that I mustn’t touch it when it gets big like that. She said it made people go crazy. I’ve been worrying about it, cause I did it . . . once.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Henry. I’ve heard it said that people go insane if they—ah, touch their privates, but if it were true there would be an awful lot of crazy people in the world.”

  “Do you ever wake up at night like that?”

  “A time or two.”

  “What do you do?”

  The question jolted Kain, and he thought over several answers before he selected one.

  “I usually turn over on it and try to go back to sleep.”

  “Do you ever get that way when you’re with Van? You like her, don’t you? I’ve seen you looking at her a lot.”

  “Yes, I like her. She’s a beautiful woman and sometimes I ache to mate with her. It’s natural for a man to feel like that when he’s around a pretty girl that he likes.”

  “What do you think Mary Ben would do if I kissed her?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask her.”

  “She’s nice. I’m glad they’re going to Junction City with us. Mary Ben said she’d help Ma and Van with the bakery if they wanted her to.”

  They rode silently for awhile. In one way Kain was glad Henry’s questions had stopped, in another way he was glad that their relationship was so open Henry felt free to ask him things he felt he couldn’t discuss with his mother or Vanessa. As long as they were on the subject of sex, Kain thought, it was a good opportunity to bring up a subject he’d never talked about before, but something he thought should be impressed on this simple, naive boy in a man’s body. Knowing he had to put what he wanted to say to Henry in the simplest terms, he thought out carefully what he wanted to say.

  “Henry, you say you want to kiss Mary Ben?”

  “Yes, I do. I put my arm around her once, but she pulled away like she was scared.”

  “She might have been mistreated by a man at some time. Women aren’t as strong as we are and must be treated gently. Go easy with her at first. Hold her hand and ask her if you can kiss her. Never force yourself on a woman, Henry. If she says no you back off. Understand?”

  “I think so.”

  “Men have strong urges that are hard to control sometimes. God made us like that so that there would always be people on the earth. That doesn’t mean that we force a woman if she isn’t willing,” he added hastily. “If you do it’s called rape, and a man can be hung for doing it.”

  “I’d never do that to Mary Ben.”

  “I didn’t think you would. But it’s something we men must keep in mind when we’re with a woman.”

  “Does it hurt, Kain? I mean, does it hurt when you do it to a woman so she’ll get a baby? I’ve heard mares squeal something awful when a stallion rams it in her.”

  Henry’s watchful eyes prevented even the slightest smile to spread Kain’s lips. This was by far the strangest conversation he’d ever had. He wondered vaguely if these were the things a father told his son. No adult had ever discussed sex with him. He had learned first from his classmates, and later from courtesans.

  “It may hurt the woman the first time, but after that she can receive you without pain. It isn’t at all like putting a stallion to a mare. The man must kiss the woman, pet her and make her want him to . . . complete the act.”

  “Does it hurt the man, too?”

  “No. In fact, it’s very pleasant. If a man and a woman love each other, it’s something that they both want to do. It’s one of God’s greatest gifts.”

  “I’m glad you told me. I wonder if Mary Ben knows about it. Do you think I should tell her? I want to do it with her someday.”

  “I don’t think you should talk to Mary Ben about it just yet, Henry. John looks after her as if he were her pa. Let’s wait and see if it would set easy with him if you courted her.”

  “Why would he care?”

  “Well . . . she’s awfully young.”

  “I’m going to ask Mary Ben if I can court her,” Henry said determinedly. “If she says I can, I’ll ask John. I’ll give her the ribbon and the toilet water, and I’ll ask her. Van doesn’t have a beau, Kain. You should ask Van if you can be her beau.”

  “That’s a good idea, Henry. I might do that.”

  If it were only that simple, Kain thought as he prodded Big Red into a lope. Since the encounter in the store he’d felt an increasing uneasiness in his stomach. The last thing he wanted to do was to be sick in camp. He wanted to hurry and get there so he could drop off the supplies and go downriver with the excuse of taking a bath.

  * * *

  Vanessa finished spreading the wash on the bushes to dry and watched Kain take his pack from the back of John’s wagon, remove clean clothes and ride off back down the trail. She shifted her body to free the sticky shirt from her back. The day was unnaturally warm for this time of year and Vanessa longed to go to the river and bathe. She went to the wagon where Ellie was putting away the supplies.

  “Let’s go take a bath, Aunt Ellie. When the sun gets low it cools off too fast.”

  “You go ahead, dear. I’ll come down later. Take Mary Ben with you.”

  “Mary Ben won’t come with me. I’ve asked her before. I think it’s because she doesn’t have underclothes, Aunt Ellie. Or if she does, she doesn’t want me to see them.”

  “Oh, dear. I hadn’t thought of that. Poor shy little thing.” Ellie clucked her tongue sorrowfully.

  “She isn’t as shy as she was a first, but she still won’t say over a few words to me. She’s more at ease with Henry, and they spend a lot of time together.”

  “I’ve noticed,” Ellie said with a worried frown. “Henry seems to be taking hold of things more, though. I don’t have to prod him so much. I think he’s trying to impress Mary Ben. He likes her a lot, Vanessa. Maybe too much, and I don’t know what to do about it. It’s something I hadn’t counted on.”

  “They’re like two little kids, playing and laughing and whispering secrets to each other,” Vanessa said wistfully. “I don’t think Mary Ben’s had much to laugh about.”

  “What should we do, Vanessa? Henry wouldn’t understand if I told him not to spend so much time with her.”

  “No, he wouldn’t understand. He would think he’d done something wrong and was being punished. Mary Ben is the first girl who has been friendly with him. The girls back home were meaner than dirt to Henry,” Vanessa said, her remarkable eyes flashing with indignation.

  “But what if . . . He might—”

  “What if he wants to . . . make love to her? It would be up to Mary Ben to put a stop to it. Henry wouldn’t force her. It isn’t in him to hurt anyone or anything.”

  “But what if she wants him to? Mary Ben might not realize the consequence.”

  “Mary Ben hasn’t been sheltered like the girls back home, Aunt Ellie. I’d bet there isn’t much about men she doesn’t know—bad ones, that is.”

  “Do you suppose Kain would talk to Henry?”

  “I’m not going to ask him to!”

  “I will. I like that man. He’s quality. I was hoping that you and he—”

  “No chance of that. He’s not the settling kind.” Vanessa snatched up a towel and a bar of soap and started toward the river. After a few steps she turned, walked back and picked up a bucket. “The river is icy cold. If there are still coals where we had the wash pot I’ll heat some water.”

  Sunlight filtered through the branches and made speckled patterns on the ground. Vanessa watched them idly as she walked toward the river. As always when she was alone, her thoughts went to Kain. Was it her imagination or had he been avoiding her of late? They hadn’t been alone for several
days. Each time she made an attempt to ride beside him he seemed to have a reason for dropping back to talk with John. Several times she had caught him watching her, but he no longer teased her like he had when they first met.

  Ellie, with her gentle questions, had started him talking one evening. He had been all over the world, even to places she hadn’t heard about. She had sat back in the shadows, listening and watching the firelight flicker on his dark face. Each time he had looked at her with those honey colored eyes, she sensed a certain tenseness in him. For the dozenth time she recalled the touch of his hand on her cheek and the way his fingers had stroked her hair the night he was so angry because she hadn’t stayed in the wagon. His touch had sent the most extraordinary sensation through her body. He’d made no attempt to touch her since. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head?

  Vanessa reached the riverbank, filled the bucket and carried it to the red coals in the circle of stones. She dropped a few handsful of grass on the coals, and when it blazed she fed small sticks to the hungry flames. Her mind kept straying back to Kain. Why had he ridden away without a word? He acted as if he were a man with a lot on his mind.

  When the water in the bucket was warm she lifted it from the fire and removed her shirt. She ran the warm, soapy cloth over her neck and shoulders and down her arms, and thought, longingly, of a big tub of warm water. A full bath was the thing she had missed the most during this trip. After she washed and dried her upper body she slipped the shirt back on, wishing she had brought a clean one with her. She removed the pins from her braid and put them in the pocket of her shirt before she unbraided the long rope of fiery hair. When it was spread over her shoulders, she massaged her scalp and raked her fingers through the curly mass, glorying in the sense of freedom the gesture gave her.

  The man concealed in the thick willows that grew along the river bank watched in fascination. He had caught glimpses of her several times during the past week, but he had not seen her this close. She was paler and thinner than he remembered, but a thousand times more enticing. The closer the bone the sweeter the meat, he thought as his black eyes raked her slender figure. Her waist and hips were so lithe and slender that in contrast her breasts were startlingly soft and emphatic. Primer Tass stood as still as a stone, but blood raced to the seat of his lust and his fevered flesh leaped upward. That fiery hair! He had never seen anything like it. His brain stopped; his heart was not beating; he was there, alone with her.