Sweetwater Series III

Chapter 1

Near Cheyenne
June 1876

The camp was just starting to stir when Charlie Utter was woken from his sleep by the sound of a horse being saddled. He peered through the wispy smoke of the campfire to see what was happening.

"Bill?" He ground his palm into each eye. "Are we movin' already?"

"No, still early," James 'Wild Bill' Hickok replied stiffly, pulling firmly on his gelding's girth strap.

Charlie pulled himself into a sitting position against a fallen log where he and Hickok had made camp for the night. They kept apart from the rest of the wagon train, his friend keen to avoid the stares and incessant talk of their fellow travelers. It wasn't every day they got to meet a man of Wild Bill Hickok's reputation, but Bill had no appetite for celebrity of late.

"You really gonna do this?" Charlie asked, hoping a night's sleep had changed Bill's mind.

"Yep."

"In case you ain't noticed, Bill, Sweetwater ain't exactly on the way to Deadwood," stated Charlie with ill-disguised exasperation.

"Don't come then," his friend replied, not pausing in his preparations. "I don't need no keeper."

It was barely dawn, the temperature was already rising and the day was promising to be clear. Perfect traveling weather. The wagon train had left Cheyenne at the beginning of the week and was heading for Fort Laramie before their ultimate destination of Deadwood, the new gold mining town where fortunes were being made. But instead of continuing their journey north, Charlie was faced with the news that his friend and business partner was already altering their plans to head to the Black Hills.

Hickok was headstrong, he knew, but this irrational announcement the previous evening still surprised Charlie. He had put it down to one too many pulls on the whiskey jug, and decided Bill's fanciful talk of going to Sweetwater where he once lived was just that – talk.

"I thought you wanted to go make a grubstake," grumbled Charlie, sore over the sudden change.

"I do. And I will."

"But you got to go pay a visit to some old friends first?"

"That's right," said Hickok. "I ain't seen 'em in over five years."

It wasn't often he spoke of his days in the Pony Express, but Charlie knew him well enough to know he had friends from back then who were like kin.

Well, kin he never wrote or visited.

"So why now? Why not go after we're finished in Deadwood?" Charlie argued.

"I'm goin' now. You go on to Fort Laramie if you want to, I ain't stoppin' you."

Charlie pushed himself up from the ground with a grunt. He hoped his words might have more effect if he faced his friend. "But the wagon train's all set, Bill… We've barely been travelin' for two days and now you want to head west?"

Hickok ignored him as he fixed his saddle bags in place. Without further discussion he pulled himself into the saddle.

"Dern it, Bill, don't you even want some breakfast first?"

"I'll be along in a few weeks," he said, before kicking his horse.

"Dern it, Bill," muttered Charlie again as he watched him ride away. He hadn't given him time to pack even if he had wanted to go with him.

Charlie kicked at the log in irritation.

* * *

Jimmy felt he could breathe again when he was clear of the camp. The two days on the trail felt like two weeks, and his headaches did not leave him from sunup to sundown. Whiskey offered some reprieve, but he knew it was the constant attention and the stench of misguided optimism among the travelers that made it unbearable. He wanted to be free of them.

Jimmy didn't know why he felt the need to go to Sweetwater. It would make more sense to head straight to Deadwood as he and Charlie had planned. Certainly, he'd avoided the town ever since his last visit. But he often thought of his friends, his family, and wondered how they were fairing. He half-expected to receive a letter from Lou telling him all their news, but no letter came. He rarely stayed long enough in any one place to receive it, if it was ever written. Jimmy guessed it hadn't been, not after how he'd left things last time.

He tried to avoid thinking of Melanie Brooks. He told himself he'd done the right thing by leaving her behind. She'd had a notion that they could make a life together, though she was married to the town banker. He sometimes imagined what it would have been like if he'd kept his word and taken her with him. She would be his companion, maybe even his wife. But as the years wore on and he found himself moving from town to town and job to job (when he bothered finding real work), he knew he'd done what was best. For her, as well as for himself.

His only hesitation in visiting Sweetwater was the thought of seeing her again. Maybe she had moved on. Maybe their brief time together meant little to her and she would barely remember him. Maybe she would be as beautiful as she was seven years ago and he would feel that pain all over again.

Whatever the outcome, Jimmy resigned himself to finding out. He was starting a new chapter of his life, but first it was time to revisit the past.

* * *

Chapter 2

Lou was changing her youngest son on the top floor of the house when she heard the heavy footsteps of the other children downstairs, home from school. There was a booming greeting from Teaspoon, then the house was quiet once more and she guessed they had found the freshly baked cookies she'd left out for them. She smiled at the baby, who had just woken from a nap.

"Come on, Jake, let's say hello to the troops."

Lou emerged from the house to find Jamie and Adam talking with Melanie on the porch. Adam was absently helping his two-year-old brother, Ethan, build a tower with his wooden blocks while Jamie lounged on the porch railing and stuffed cookies in his mouth. Adam was mid-sentence when he stopped at the appearance of his mother.

"What's goin' on?" Lou asked, when she found all eyes on her.

"Charlie's been in trouble at school," Melanie explained, when Adam looked away guiltily for telling on his sister.

Lou's face fell. "What happened this time?"

"There was a scrap at lunchtime," Jamie said, his mouth still half full. "She's been sulkin' all afternoon and Teacher made her sit in the corner until her behavior improved."

"Why?" Lou sat beside Melanie, who happily took Jake from her.

Jamie finished gulping down a full glass of milk. "'Cause Billy Branson called her a name and wouldn't let her play their seed spittin' game with them. She pitched a right fit and was liable to pound him too, but Adam stopped her."

"It wasn't that bad," Adam lied, still feeling the bruises on his legs where his sister had kicked him as she struggled to find her target.

"What name did he call her?" Lou demanded.

"He called her a girl," Adam admitted solemnly.

Melanie smothered a smile. They knew Charlie, a tomboy through and through, would have taken this as the ultimate insult.

"And where were you when all this was goin' on?" Lou asked Jamie tetchily. It wasn't the first time Charlie had been in trouble with the teacher and she was growing weary of it.

"Me?" Jamie asked innocently.

"That's right, she's your little sister. You're s'posed to look out for her."

Jamie shrugged, a faint redness appearing on his cheeks. "I was preoccupied elsewhere."

"With what?"

"With who, you mean," Adam said as he stood up, then darted inside the house when Jamie made a threatening lunge towards him.

Lou sighed. "Where is she now?"

"She run off right after school let out and wouldn't even walk home with us," Jamie said. "She's probably just playin' by herself down at the creek."

"All right. Go on and get changed then, if you're gonna see to the horses," Lou said dismissively.

Jamie took the opportunity that was offered to him and disappeared inside before his mother grew more annoyed.

"But if she's not home soon you'll have to go fetch her," Lou called after him.

Melanie was bouncing Jake on her lap, still amused.

"It isn't funny," said Lou.

"Billy Branson is a bully and deserves whatever he gets," Melanie replied. "I hope she got in at least one good kick."

"If I know Charlie it was more than one."

The two friends shared a smile, but it soon faded from Lou's lips. Charlie was only ten but she had been in more trouble at school than her older brothers combined. Jamie, now fourteen and no scholar, had at least settled down enough to stop misbehaving, and Adam was Miss Grayson's prize pupil. Charlie, always happy on the ranch playing with her brothers, had never taken to school where she felt like an outsider.

"What am I gonna do with that girl?" Lou asked.

"She'll be fine, Louise. She'll come into her own soon enough," Melanie reasoned.

"I hope you're right." Lou picked up some blocks for Ethan who was delighting in scattering them across the porch.

"See, here she is now."

Jamie emerged from the house tucking in his work shirt when he too saw Charlie arrive home, scuffing the dirt as she walked slowly along.

"You still sore, cry-baby?" Jamie yelled from the porch.

"Jamie," Lou warned.

"What? She can't go 'round behavin' like a wild cat just 'cause someone told the truth."

"You don't need to rub it in."

Charlie dawdled around the hitching post and kept her head down, her face hidden by her riding hat. Her dress was mud-stained as it often was, her lunch pail hanging limply by her side. Lou frowned.

"Charlie, come up here." When she didn't move Lou rose to her feet, worry suddenly clouding her features. "Come here right now."

Charlie walked even more slowly towards her mother, not looking at any of them. When she climbed up the steps Lou pulled the girl towards her quickly and lifted her tear-faced face.

"What happened? Are you all right?"

Charlie nodded but fresh tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes, her mouth down turned.

"What is it?"

Slowly Charlie pulled her hat off, revealing a very shaggy head. Her long braids had been shorn off unevenly, leaving the dark ends of her hair sticking out haphazardly. Everyone drew a collective breath.

"Who did that to you?" Lou cried, clutching her daughter's shoulders, her voice sharp with fear.

"I did it!" Charlie moaned pitifully, then threw herself into Lou's arms and started crying anew.

Jamie stifled his laughter when Lou glared at him over Charlie's bushy head.

"Ain't you got chores to do?" she asked him, and he ducked off the porch towards to the stables, his chuckles still audible.

Lou held Charlie at arms' length.

"Why would you do such a thing to yourself?"

"I was tired of the boys always pickin' on me just 'cause I'm a girl," Charlie said between gulping breaths. "They never let me join in and say I should stick to playin' with the other girls but I don't like their games and they're mean to me and anyway I'm better at spittin' watermelon seeds than most of them boys and I can beat 'em in their stupid races and–"

"All right, all right," Lou said tiredly when she could see there was no point in arguing. She ran her hand over the bluntly-cut, uneven ends of Charlie's hair. "What on earth did you use?"

"The old fish knife we keep down at the creek."

Lou crinkled her nose in distaste. "What am I gonna do with you, Charlotte?"

Charlie's hands went immediately and obstinately to her hips. She fixed her mother with an unhappy glare for the use of her full, very feminine, name.

"Come on, Charlie," Melanie intervened, bustling over and thrusting Jake into Lou's arms, "let's see what we can do to straighten your hair up."

Charlie allowed herself to be led inside, Lou still shaking her head. Melanie threw her a grin and took the girl upstairs.

"Lucky for me we only got us one daughter in this family," Lou murmured to Jake, and kissed his forehead. Her chest was still tight with pain at the sight of Charlie's hair, reminding her too much of her own when she had cut it off so many years ago. She was thankful Charlie's reason had been very different from her own, but that didn't stop the terrible thoughts invading her mind. Lou would die before she ever let anything like that happen to Charlie. Unsettled, she went back to her seat next to Ethan who was chewing on one of his wooden blocks. She calmed herself by making baby talk with Jake, and smiling again when he belly-laughed in response to her tickling. After a while she saw two riders approaching the ranch out of the corner of her eye.

"Is that your Pa back from town already? Who's that with him, huh?" she whispered to Jake, relieved. She knew Kid would not be happy about Charlie's actions, but at least he would understand Lou's own feelings about the matter and could reassure her in the strong, quiet way he always had.

Lou settled the baby onto her hip and walked to the top of the porch steps. Jamie had stopped what he was doing in the top corral and watched the riders approach too. He pulled off his work gloves as he walked towards the house.

"Who's that with Pa, you reckon?" he called to his mother. "Maybe the army's lookin' for more horses?"

"I doubt it, we only delivered those ten to them a month ago," Lou replied, shielding her eyes against the sun as she peered towards them. Her husband's horse she would recognize anywhere, but the rider beside him wasn't a neighbor, or even a friend from town. It wasn't until they drew closer and could see the grin on Kid's face that she felt a strange pull in her stomach. She clutched Jake closer to her.

"I don't believe it," she murmured under her breath.

Jamie, who was only a few feet away from her at the bottom of the steps, looked up curiously. "Who is it, Ma?"

"It's your Uncle Jimmy."

* * *

Chapter 3

"Take your brother," Lou said to Jamie without removing her disbelieving gaze from Jimmy. "And watch Ethan for a minute, all right?"

She thrust the baby into his arms and walked towards the approaching riders. Jamie was too excited to protest, a grin plastered on his face. He had been hoping to see Wild Bill Hickok again. His friends had ribbed him for years, not believing he had actually met the man, let alone called him 'uncle'. Now Jamie could show them all.

Kid and Jimmy trotted into the yard. Lou glanced apprehensively at the house where Melanie and the children were, then watched Jimmy as he drew his horse up before her and dismounted. He had aged notably since she'd last seen him, but then she supposed they all had. His hair was as long as it had always been and he still wore a mustache. His face was darker and more lined, especially around his eyes as he smiled at her, but he was still the same Jimmy.

"Look who I found in town," said Kid happily, noting the stunned look on his wife's face.

"Hey Lou," said Jimmy, his voice deep and familiar.

She momentarily forgot the upheaval his arrival would cause her friend and was relieved to see him safe and sound. They'd heard tales of his exploits, most of them probably false, but each time she said a silent prayer for Jimmy's safety. Lou embraced him tightly, not able to find the words to welcome him properly.

"It's been a while, huh?" he murmured into her hair.

Lou stepped back and nodded, wiping at her eyes. "We missed you, Jimmy."

"I missed you too, Lou."

She let out a shaky breath, an attempt at a laugh.

"Hey, Uncle Jimmy," said Jamie as he approached with a squirming Jake.

"Well, now, this can't be Jamie." The boy was as tall as Lou and looked even more like Kid than Jimmy remembered.

"Yessir. I'm almost fifteen now."

"You just turned fourteen," corrected Lou.

Jamie beamed proudly, ignoring his mother, as Jimmy shook his hand.

"And who's this young man?"

"This is Jake," said Kid.

Jimmy reached out a finger to shuck the baby under his chin. Everyone smiled when Jake chortled in response, but the expression faded from Lou's face faster than the others.

"We ain't seen you in so long, Jimmy," she said solemnly. She looked towards the house again.

"I know."

"You never wrote. You never let us know where you were." Lou's words were quiet but neither Jimmy or Kid missed the hint of anger in them.

"But you're here now," said Kid, clapping him on the back to break the tension he could see rising within his wife. He thought she would have been happier to see their old friend, but she wore a strange, nervous look that he didn't understand. "Come on in the house, Jimmy. Jamie will take care of your horse."

Jamie quickly handed Jake back to his mother and eagerly took the reins. The nod he was given in response had him grinning again.

"The place looks good, Kid," Jimmy said as they walked towards the house. Little had changed from his last visit seven years earlier, the ranch still looking prosperous and settled. To Jimmy it felt like home, even though he had spent very little time there since the days it was a Pony Express station.

"We're gettin' along," Kid said with pride.

They approached the porch just as Adam came outside. He picked up his younger brother who was teetering towards the steps.

"You remember Adam. And this is Ethan." Lou motioned to the younger boy with his arms clamped around Adam's neck. "Your Uncle Jimmy has come to visit."

Jimmy was shocked to see how much Adam had grown too, though he was still considerably smaller than his older brother. The last time he'd seen the boy he had typhoid fever that nearly claimed his life. Jimmy was relieved to see he had recovered well.

"I remember you," Adam said.

"It's been a while since I was here. Long before this one too," Jimmy said, smiling at Ethan. He was about to comment on the size of the family when yet another child came out onto the porch, the screen door banging behind him.

"Lord, how many boys you got here, Lou?"

Unlike Kid and Lou's other brown-haired children, this boy had a bright red mop of hair gracing his head. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the stranger, and turned to run back inside when Melanie appeared behind the screen.

Jimmy had been preparing himself to see her, even hoping she hadn't left Sweetwater after all this time. But he hadn't expected to meet with her so quickly, before he'd even had a chance to catch his breath from the journey. She stood silently inside the shadows of the house for a long moment, her eyes fixed on Jimmy's. When she finally opened the door her face was expressionless, carefully masking any surprise she felt. The red-headed boy immediately moved behind her.

"Jimmy, you remember our friend, Melanie Brooks," Kid said, oblivious to the look that was passing between them, or the worried frown on Lou's face.

"Of course," Jimmy replied gruffly, pulling his hat from his head. "How are you, Mrs. Brooks?"

"Well as can be expected, Mr. Hickok," Melanie said without censoring herself, then blushed. She reached behind her to cover her embarrassment.

"And who's this?" Jimmy asked, as she drew the boy out from behind her skirts.

"This is Walter," she said, her voice only faltering slightly. "Walter, this is Mr. Hickok. Say hello."

"Hello," the boy said shyly.

Jimmy wasn't paying attention as his stare returned to Melanie. She was just as beautiful as he remembered, her green eyes darkened by the somber dress she wore. Her expression wavered under his intense gaze and she looked helplessly at Lou to intervene.

Lou didn't have a chance to say a word when Charlie burst out of the front door, cookies clutched in both hands, to see what the commotion was.

"Charlie?" said Kid, puzzled at the very boyish haircut she now sported. "What happened to your hair?"

"Aunt Melly cut it for me, Papa!"

Kid opened his mouth to ask why but Lou gave a resigned shake of her head to let him know she would explain later. She motioned towards their friend. "You remember your Uncle Jimmy?"

Charlie nodded uncertainly.

"Is that you, Hickok?" came a gravelly voice behind her. Teaspoon limped onto the porch, his grizzled face alight with joy.

Finally tearing his eyes away from Melanie, Jimmy stepped up onto the porch and took Teaspoon's hand, before the old man pulled him into a bear hug.

"It's about time, son," Teaspoon said, not letting him go straight away.

"Children, go on in the house now. You got your homework to do and supper will be ready soon," Lou ordered, wanting to get Melanie inside quickly so she could talk to her friend.

"How long can you stay?" Teaspoon asked, as Lou bustled the children past him.

"Ah, I don't know exactly," Jimmy stammered, caught up in the small bodies moving inside. He walked with them into the parlor of the ranch house. It had not changed much since it was Emma's and he was struck with a sense of nostalgia.

"You're welcome to stay as long as you like," Kid said. "It's a little more crowded these days, but there's always room for family."

Jimmy assumed he was referring to the two new additions to Kid and Lou's family, but then Melanie told Walter to go on up to his room too.

"You're livin' here?" he asked Melanie before Lou could whisk her away to the kitchen.

"Y-Yes," Melanie stammered. She was about to say more when Lou butted in.

"Melanie, come give me a hand, will you?" Lou said quickly.

But Jimmy and Melanie were staring at each other again in such a meaningful way that Lou wondered how Kid and Teaspoon did not notice.

Melanie glanced at Lou, deciding whether to take the opportunity to escape or face up to him now. She felt disorientated, never expecting to see him again. Not now, not like this.

"Walter and I have been here for three months. Since my husband passed," she explained evenly.

"He died?" Jimmy asked quietly.

"Yes."

Jimmy glanced at Lou who was staring hard at him, willing him to keep his mouth shut. "I'm sorry to hear that, Melanie."

Melanie's lips pressed into a thin line for a moment before she answered him. "Thank you."

"You all rest a moment while we get some lemonade," Lou said, this time pulling Melanie away by the arm. "Won't be long."

Jimmy watched as they walked away, still digesting the news that Melanie Brooks was a widow.

* * *

Melanie preceded Lou into the kitchen and set about taking some tumblers from the cabinet. She kept her back to her friend as she tried to compose herself, pretending that nothing was wrong.

"Melly, are you all right?" Lou asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, Louise." Melanie turned around and gave her a brave smile. "See?"

"You're not fine, how could you be?" Lou retrieved a cloth-covered pitcher of lemonade from the keep and set it on the kitchen table. "I had no idea he was comin' here."

"You always said he was unpredictable," Melanie said with a shrug, willing her hands to keep from shaking as she put the glasses onto a tray.

"What I mean is, I didn't write him about Howard. I never told him he died."

Melanie looked up in surprise. "I didn't think you had."

Lou didn't mention that she had contemplated that very thing just about every day since Melanie and her son had come to live at the ranch. Howard's death and been sudden and taken them all by surprise, but Lou knew it was with a sense of relief that Melanie watched him be planted in the ground. Howard Brooks had been a poor excuse for a husband and, though he had been a doting father to Walter, Lou believed with all her heart they were better off without him. This was only reinforced when it was discovered that Howard had sold the note on their farm without telling Melanie, and she found herself without a home and only a debt-riddled gambling establishment to her name. Kid and Lou had taken them both in without a moment's hesitation.

Lou had thought about writing to Jimmy to tell him that Melanie was finally free. She thought perhaps it had been her marital status that had stopped Jimmy from taking her away with him all those years ago, or at least it had been the excuse he told himself. If it hadn't been for Walter, Lou would not have even contemplated getting involved. But she knew the truth about Walter's parentage, and she also knew that Jimmy did not. She struggled with the knowledge that Jimmy had a son and didn't know it.

Melanie's vehement pleas that Jimmy not be told had kept Lou silent for seven long years. Only the two of them knew the truth, Lou had not even told Kid. She hated keeping anything from her husband, but she knew in her heart that Kid would insist on telling Jimmy if he ever found out. And that, Lou knew all too well, Melanie would not allow.

Howard had never guessed that the son he had always longed for was not really his own. Walter had been his pride and joy, spoiled to within an inch of his life, if Lou admitted it, but even she could not deny Howard's love for the boy. Melanie never spoke about Jimmy, and sometimes it was easy to forget what had happened between them. And though Walter took after his mother in appearance, every now and then Lou would spy a glimpse of Jimmy in a look and she remembered all over again.

Now he had come back she wondered if the secret they'd been keeping for so long would finally come out.

Email Broedy
HOME