A Sidekick's Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley

Author:Elisabeth Grace Foley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: comedy, humor, historical, westerns, family feud, screwball, western humor, western comedy, family comedy, western parody
Publisher: Elisabeth Grace Foley

Chapter 10: We Give a Surprise, and Get One

To understand what happened next you’ve got to take into account just how long we’d been away from home. It should have taken us less time getting back than it did coming out, but it didn’t work that way. Just after we left Aunt Bertha’s headquarters the area was hit by some pretty hard rains, and we had to go around the long way to avoid some flooded roads and valleys, not to mention stopping over a few times when the weather was really bad. And then just when we were getting back on track, Chance’s horse threw a shoe out in the middle of nowhere, and we had to waste some more time finding a blacksmith and getting it put to rights. Altogether, with one thing and another, it was going on three months from the time we’d left the ranch when we came in sight of the familiar piece of road leading up the valley into Culver’s Corners.

“You know, Chance,” I said as we jogged our horses towards town, “there’s one thing you haven’t been figuring on.”

“What’s that?”

“Something I can claim being an expert on, taking into account some history you know of. The natural reaction of a female at being parted from a piece of jewelry.”

“Who? Meredith?” said Chance. “Oh, shucks, I’m not worrying about that. Merry’s a good sport. She’ll understand perfectly.” He pushed back his hat, the new one he’d bought on our way back to replace the one which the boys had shot up.

“Well, I don’t know,” I said. “Before we left home, she looked to me to have gotten awful fond of the thing for its own sake, aside from the sentimental value.”

“Sentimental—what are you talking about?” said Chance, looking perfectly bewildered.

Really, he was embarrassingly thick-headed in some respects.

I pulled a long face and reached over and put my hand on his shoulder. “Sonny boy, women tend to be sentimental over anything connected with matrimony, not the least of which is wedding-rings. Savvy?”

“Oh, I wish you’d quit over this marriage business,” said Chance, sounding annoyed. “How many times have I got to tell you that it wasn’t real? And anyway, Meredith wanted you to keep the ring in the first place, remember? Heck, we only used the darn thing because the Judge said we had to have one. How’s a body going to be sentimental over a thing like that?”

“That wedding was as real as a rigged election,” I told him, “and one of these days you’re going to find that out for yourself. And I can’t promise you I won’t say ‘I told you so’.”

“You just don’t know Meredith like I do,” said Chance. “I still say she’ll be all right. She’ll probably think the whole thing is a good joke.”

I had to be content with “humph”-ing in answer to that, for there really wasn’t any other answer I could make. It’s always embarrassing to have a pretty girl think your relatives are a good joke, even when you think so yourself.

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