A Town Afraid by Jack Ballas

Author:Jack Ballas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Even though Tenery had been gone for less than an hour, Penny pulled the kitchen curtain aside and stared up the trail leading to town.

During the next three days she repeated the action often enough to cause Rufus to comment, “Dammit, girl, you gonna wear that there curtain out pullin’ on it that way. Why, hell, I betcha you done pulled it aside every danged hour since that boy left here for Elkhorn.”

Penny shot him a hard look. “Gonna tell you somethin’, Rufus Bent: he’s my man, I’ve laid claim to ’im an’ he ain’t fought the bit even once.” She nodded. “Yeah, I mighta been lookin’ too often durin’ those first two days, but this is the third day—he said he’d be back in three days. I’m gonna keep lookin’ for ’im.”

Rufe looked at the woman he’d helped raise from a little filly. He’d been standing inside the door, preparing to go back to the bunkhouse; instead, he crossed the kitchen, put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to his rugged old chest. “Honey, it’s still mornin’. He wouldn’t have left the hotel ’til only a couple hours ago. It’ll take ’im most o’ the day to ride back out here.” He chuckled. “Give ’im ’til late afternoon, then start lookin’ for ’im again—I’ll stand right there with you and help pull the curtain aside.” He shook his head. “Truth be known, I been lookin’ down the trail for ’im too.”

She twisted her head to look up at him. “Rufe, how’d this happen so quick? I’ve knowed a whole bunch o’ strangers to ride in here, met some in town at the dances an’ never met even one o’ them I’d give a second look ’til Bill Tenery rode in here. Don’t reckon I done much more than look at ’im an’ he took my heart.” She shook her head. “Never figured it’d happen like that. Reckon I always thought my man would court me for a considerable time: he’d tell me how he felt; I’d study on it for some time an’ tell ’im I felt ’bout the same way, an’ then we’d decide we’d see a preacher man.”

Rufus held her slight form close to him. “Almost daughter o’ mine, sometimes I reckon the man upstairs looks down on a young’un an’ a mighty pretty little filly an’ says to himself, ‘Better make them two know reeeal quick what they got right before their eyes, make ’em reach out an’ take what I know is theirs.’ ”

Instead of going back to the bunkhouse, he steered her to a chair and pushed her into it, and poured them each a cup of coffee. “You want me to stay up here with you ’til we see that young’un ridin’ in?”

She looked up at him. “Would ya, Rufe? Know you ain’t sent the boys out to do any chores in this weather. Just keep me company.”

He stared into his coffee cup a moment, then pinned her with a look that said he was going to tell her something she had to accept.

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