Guns on the Prairie by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-08-03T04:00:00+00:00

17

THE PRESENT

Alonzo Pratt was unhappy. Several times during the long, hot afternoon he’d tried to get Jenna Grissom to open up to him, and she refused. When he asked what her life was like growing up with an outlaw for a father, she glared and snapped and said it was none of his affair. When he inquired as to why she was riding with a pack of notorious two-legged wolves, she growled that she was tired of his questions. He tried a couple of more times but she clammed up.

Now the sun was dipping toward the horizon and had set the western sky ablaze with bright splashes of red and orange. Birds were winging to their roost. It wouldn’t be long before the deer came out to graze and the meat-eaters that fed on them would be on the prowl.

Alonzo was on the lookout for a place to camp. He preferred a place well hidden from unfriendly eyes, whether man or otherwise. Every few minutes he’d rise in the stirrups and scan the prairie. The sight of a string of hills to the southwest was promising. “We’ll make for there,” he announced, and pointed.

Jenna didn’t respond.

Alonzo twisted in the saddle to look at Jacob Stone. The old man hadn’t roused or let out a peep since they’d started out. Alonzo was growing concerned the lawman would die on him. Not that he should care. It wasn’t as if they were friends or anything. A fluke of circumstance had thrown them together. That was all.

“You’re worried about him, aren’t you.” Jenna broke her silence. It was a statement, not a question.

Oddly pleased at the throaty sound of her voice, Alonzo replied, “He’s a good man, deep down. There aren’t a lot like him around these days.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Jenna said. “But I’m surprised you’d say a thing like that.”

To keep her talking, Alonzo asked, “Why?”

“Because you’re a lawman, too. And I thought all lawmen have to be pretty decent at heart since they devote themselves to upholding the law.”

“That they do,” Alonzo said, feeling a flush of guilt at how he was deceiving her.

“I admire you for that.”

His guilt deepening, Alonzo said, “I’m nothin’ special.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Jenna said, gazing off across the plain. “I’ve seen how the other side lives. The lawless side. Those who don’t care who they hurt. Who take what they want, and the rest of the world can go to Hades. And I have to tell you, I’m so sick of it, I could scream.”

Alonzo was about to inquire as to why she rode with her father if that was how she felt, but he bit it off so as not to anger her by prying.

“When you’ve seen the dark side of human nature, you appreciate the good in us that much more,” Jenna continued.

“That’s awful . . .” Alonzo struggled for the right thing to say, “deep for someone so young.”

“Posh and poppycock,” Jenna said. “It’s not how old we are. It’s the things we’ve done.

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