Patty Wilkinson Writing, traveling, having fun and meeting up with friends old and new!

#77 A Winter's Tale

#77 A Winter's Tale
By
Patty Wilkinson
(Some strong language, adult themes and violence)

Many thanks to Pam Knych Klawinski for use of her lovely screen cap.

Forward by Mrs Daisy Cooper

Our Wyoming winters can be long and hard at the best of times, with North winds blowing in storm clouds, the rain lashing down causing flash floods. Even worse is the deep snow, so pretty but accompanied by bone chilling frosts and icy blasts of wind blowing straight across from the prairie, the drifting snow making travel impossible.
I suppose the winter affects us all differently. I for one have all the worry of trying to dish up nutritious and tasty meals sometimes with very few ingredients. Oh yes, I plan meticulously for the winter months, salting, bottling and laying down all manner of food stuffs. But sometimes it just isn’t enough especially when I have the vociferous appetites of three healthy young males to accommodate.
Mike as the rancher’s ward and youngest of my three ‘sons’, as I now think of them, is the happiest in the inclement weather. Mainly because it often means some time away from school if the Stage can’t get through…But not away from his school books though as Slim and I see to that. But he also has fun times building snowmen, having madcap snowball fights with Jess and generally larking about out in the winter wonderland as only youngsters can, never seeming to feel the cold.
Slim copes reasonably well when confined to the ranch and yard and once the chores are all completed and the animals fed and watered, he will settle down to his accounts or get lost in an improving book…He worries though, I know. Mostly about our safety, the odd marauding renegade Indian, or white man come to that…stealing out of desperation. The freezing conditions affect the wild creatures too and there is always the danger of wolf or mountain lion attacking the stock or even the house as happened on one occasion.
As to my middle and most beloved 'son ’ Jess he is the one who finds the bitter winters the hardest to bear. Being a southern boy, originally from Texas he found the Wyoming winters hard to cope with when he first arrived. But now he accepts the weather with stoicism as a fact of life…Not that he doesn’t grumble and moan about it all the time though, but that’s just his way.
No, the hardest part for Jess is being confined to the house for any length of time…a throwback to his past when he was once held in a terrible prisoner of war camp, where the conditions were barbaric, the experience having a lasting effect on him. He’s also been in jail more than once back in his days on the drift, when he briefly skirted around on the wrong side of the law. Well those days are long behind him now, but ever since then he can’t stand to be confined.
My heart bleeds for him when I see him standing on the porch looking out to the hills, desperate for his beloved Big Open, but knowing it is out of reach for the duration of the worst of the winter weather anyway. So, he turns back indoors and will occupy himself mending tack on my good dining table… Or even worse stripping down and oiling that dreadful gun he carries… But at least now I have taught him to lay a copy of the Laramie Sentinel down before he starts the dirty task. Oh, how I hate those guns that he and Slim carry… Even though I know they are essential for our protection in this still sometimes wild and inhospitable environment, where there is always the danger of outlaws.
So it was that we were all preparing ourselves for a hard winter with the men bringing the stock down to the lowlands. Then mending and securing the house and out buildings. Whilst I cooked and preserved as many provisions as I was able…But little did I know at the time that this was to be one of the most difficult winters we were ever to experience…and not just because of the bitter weather either, but the things that transpired over those bleak winter months.

Chapter 1
Jess Harper dismounted and ran over to the home pasture gate swiftly swinging it shut behind the herd. Then he stood leaning on it, hat tipped back and a cheerful grin on his handsome features.
Moments later he was joined by Slim Sherman as the pair surveyed the cattle now inspecting their new winter quarters.
“That’s the last of the strays now,” Jess said, “all present and accounted for.”
“And not a moment too soon either,” said Slim casting a wary glance up to the leaden skies, “looks like we’re in for some snow before dark.”
“Aw Slim, surely not, heck it’s still Fall, only just October,” Jess replied looking crestfallen.
“Don’t worry buddy,” Slim said reassuringly, “I figure it’ll just be a dusting, a couple of inches at the most…we often get some at this time…then nothing much until December or January…you’ll see.”
By the following morning the yard was a sea of white with a few inches of snow and drifting up to several feet by the barn door.
Jess stood on the porch shaking his head, “Just a dusting eh Hardrock?”
Slim who had followed him out had the grace to look a tad uncomfortable, but recovered well.
“Um, well it won’t hang around long, not at this time of year…”
“Yeah, I know… ‘you’ll see’,” quoted Jess chuckling to himself.
“Well look on the bright side, I doubt the Stage will be coming through so that saves us a job,” said Slim cheerfully, before returning to the warmth of the parlor.
“Now if you men are going to be hanging around the house just keep out of my kitchen,” Daisy said uncharacteristically brusquely. “I’ve all my jam and jelly making to do today, so if you want jam rolly-poly for dessert this winter and marmalade at breakfast you’d better stay out of my way!”
“Yes Ma’am,” Jess said quickly turning and making for the barn swiftly followed by Slim.
By the time they ventured back at mid-morning, hoping the coffee would be on, she had once more regained her sunny disposition and peace reigned.
Mike was sitting placidly at the dining table painting pictures whilst the dogs, Buttons and Blue, slept beneath it.
However, both dogs awoke when the men came in rosy cheeked from the cold, laughing and talking loudly, the animal’s tails beating as they jumped up barking in welcome…
Buttons, who was quite biddable, soon sank down again. But Blue stayed close by his master and made such a fuss of him that Jess laughing said, “Hey boy steady, I’ve been out in the barn for a couple of hours not six months!”
“He wanted to come out with you Jess, but Aunt Daisy said he’d only roll in the snow and bring half the yard back in with him,” Mike said giggling.
“That goes for you boys too, have you wiped your boots?” Daisy asked coming in from the kitchen bearing the coffee pot, but her eyes teasing and alight with merriment.
There was another fall of snow that afternoon and when Jess took a last look at the yard before turning in, he was captivated by the pristine expanse now sparkling under a full moon…
“Yup it’s mighty purty…hafta admit that,” he said softly to himself surveying the flawless sea of white, before turning back to the sanctuary of the cosy ranch house.
The following morning Jess decided to just go and check on Traveller before breakfast. He’d pulled a muscle the week before and Jess was concerned that the cold weather wouldn’t be aiding his beloved horse’s recovery any… He was warmly blanketed sure and the lameness almost completely healed now, but still…
Slim had rolled his eyes as he sat down to breakfast… “Heck Jess you treat that dang horse of yours like it was a new born…”
But Jess ignored his jibes, “That good old horse had always looked out fer me and I do the same for him,” he said quietly.
“I know pard, just kidding you,” Slim said, “but hurry up or I’ll eat all the bacon…”
Surprisingly Jess was back just a few minutes later.
“Where’s Mike?” He asked as he rushed back in looking anxious, so Daisy thought, as she brought the biscuits through…
“Why he’s still in bed dear, I thought I’d let him sleep in a little today as there will be no school again…”
“That’s just it,” Jess said, “he’s been out in the yard…must have been before we were up…is he OK?”
Daisy went immediately to Mike’s room and roused him…
“Mike dear have you been playing out in the yard today, really early?”
Mike struggled to wake from a deep slumber, “Huh?”
“I said have you been in the yard today?”
He was fully awake now, “Golly no Aunt Daisy, why would I do that…heck I was just havin ’ a real good dream about fishing with Buttons,” he said yawning widely…
“Alright dear,” Daisy said quickly, “you snuggle back down a while longer I’ll call you for breakfast later.”
When Daisy returned with the news both men left the house to investigate further….
“Over here,” Jess said, “see a child’s foot prints…and here too…they go to the barn…then the bunkhouse…”
“Hold on,” said Slim examining the prints carefully, “these aren’t Mike’s boots…they’re a tad larger…and the toe more pointed than Mikes…. Besides he just had new ones for the beginning of the school year…these are down at the heel…real old looking Jess.”
“Well dadgum it Slim, if it ain’t Mike what’s a little kid doin’ wandering around our yard in the dead of night? Not to mention the freezin ’ cold. Do you figure it could be a friend of Mike’s or somethin ’ maybe had a bust up at home?”
Slim scratched his head, “Possibly but where is he…not in the barn or the bunkhouse…he couldn’t just disappear into thin air.”
Jess shrugged, “Maybe he decided to head home,” he said looking up to the distant rise, “but heck Slim the nearest ranch where Mike’s got buddies is over five miles away…and in this weather?”
“No tracks to follow either,” Slim said, “they are only these around the yard…none heading off anyplace.”
“Beats me,” said Jess looking bewildered.
Then Daisy was calling them from the porch saying breakfast was getting cold and the two men turned back to the house.
Later they asked Mike about all his friends who lived in the area, but agreed none would have been able to make the arduous journey in the snow, in the dead of night, all the way to the Sherman place.
“Why would they?” Mike asked, “And if they did, they’d have knocked at the door, asked for shelter…it just doesn’t make sense.”
And Jess and Slim had to agree with the youngster, it was a total mystery. They’d checked out the barn and bunk house and there was no sign of anyone, so they agreed it must remain a mystery… However, Daisy was particularly anxious that there might be a child wandering alone in the snow, so eventually Jess saddled up and took a good look around the surrounding countryside but to no avail.
“It’s no good Daisy,” he said on his return…with that darned wind that’s got up any tracks that might be there are long gone…I guess we’ll just have to hope whoever it was is OK…If there was anyone that is,” he qualified.
“So, what was it then? The ghost of ‘Christmas Past’,” Slim said jokingly.
“Oh goodness,” Daisy said laughing, “a bit early in the year to be thinking about Christmas yet Slim…”
“What’s the ghost of Christmas Past?” Mike asked curiously.
“He’s a character from Mister Charles Dickens ’ novel ‘A Christmas Carol’. I think we’ve got a copy up in the attic I’ll dig it out for you Mike. There’s the ghost of Christmas Present and Future too…a whole raft of them!” Slim said.
Jess rolled his eyes, “Don’t go fillin ’ the kid’s head with ghost stories or he’ll be yellin’ with nightmares, wakin ’ us all up next thing we know Slim,” he said winking at the boy.
“No I won’t,” said Mike quickly, “I love ghost stories…we tell ‘em all the time when I stay over at my friend Rob’s house.”
Jess looked thoughtful, “You don’t think Robbie came over, you know for a dare?”
“Nah,” said Mike, “he’s got the chicken pox, was off school all last week…”
“Well I dunno then,” said Jess going to inspect what Daisy was cooking up for supper, “I guess it must just be one of Slim’s ghosts then.”
However, the following morning he was to change his mind.
There had again been a modest snowfall in the night and Jess was first out in the yard leaving Mike and Slim finishing off their breakfast.
He stood on the porch surveying the yard and then noticed the same small footprints now clearly visible winding their way from the bunkhouse to the outhouse and back.
“Ah-ha,” Jess muttered to himself, “a ghost in need of the facilities…um I don’t think so.”
He half turned to go back in and tell the others, but then thought better of it. Heck the wily kid had already given them the slip once, by the time he fetched Slim out he might have gone to earth again…Although where he’d been hiding Jess couldn’t imagine… Then he thought again, sure they’d checked the barn and hay loft pretty well, but had only really looked quickly in the dimly lit bunkhouse. All had seemed to be in place though….
Now he made a bee line for it and stealthily opening the door peered inside. Yes, all seemed to be in order…well sorta he thought grinning. As there were no guests using the now smart accommodation Mike and his friends had taken it over as a playroom. It was of wooden frame construction with beams crossing the ceiling. From one of the beams hung a strong rope…and just below it the old bunk beds that had originally been in Slim’s room. Then further down the room a thick mattress had been laid on the floor… Jess had observed the boys, Mike and Robbie at play and had kinda enjoyed their antics…
They made their way up to the top bunk and grabbing the rope firmly launched themselves off swinging across the large room and landing in a heap of arms, legs and laughter on the soft mattress. When asked about it later Mike said they’d been playing gorillas in the jungle, like in his comic book.
“Uh, well I guess Aunt Daisy wouldn’t be any too impressed with that game,” Slim had said, “or any broken bones you got along the way…”
But it looked to Jess like Slim’ s warnings had fallen on deaf ears…
He was just about to wander over and detach the rope from where it was securely tied to one of the roof beams when something caught his eye…on the top bunk….
“Rob…Robbie, that you?” He called out.
The figure was hunched up on the upper bunk, the rope in his hands. Even though the light was very poor Jess could just make out a look of such dread in his eyes that he was moved to call, “Hey come on down, it’s OK buddy, I ain’t mad at ya.”
Then just seconds later the unseen body launched itself onto the rope and vigorously swung himself across the room, feet up and smashing into Jess’s unsuspecting frame, sending him flying.
Although badly winded, Jess righted himself quickly and was soon in hot pursuit and seconds later caught up with his assailant who had fled through the open door.
He made a running jump on the youngster and easily brought him down….
“Dad gum it Robbie what are ya playin ’ at?” he yelled…Before he suddenly became aware that he was face to face with a young man of his own age…not Mike’s little friend.
They disentangled themselves and then stood peering angrily at each other.
Jess found himself looking down at a tiny man… probably no more than three-foot-high he surmised, but boy he sure could pack a kick.
“Who the devil are you and what are ya doin’ in our bunkhouse?” Jess gasped still rubbing his chest where the other had smashed brutally into him.
The dwarf sighed, knowing the game was up, “Just call me Checco,” he said, “Checco from the circus.”
Jess looked at the dwarf, his expression now one of anger mixed with compassion. The little guy sure was a mess from his dive into the snow. After a moment he said, “I guess you’d better come in, dry off and explain yourself.”
“So let me get this straight,” said Slim, looking perplexed, “you were with the Barnum and Willis Circus, currently in Laramie…but you’ve run away from the circus?”
The diminutive figure now sitting by the fireside, a blanket around his shoulders and hot drink in his hand merely nodded in affirmation.
Jess chuckled, “I though folk usually ran away to join the circus not run away from it!”
However, his joke was received with a stony glance from Checco and silence.
“Gee I’m so excited,” Mike said hopping up and down, “I remember you from the circus last year. I didn’t recognize you at first, wearin ’ those ordinary clothes. You’re a clown and ride real good. You do stunts on the horses dontcha,” he cried enthusiastically… “You’re ‘The Amazing Checco Russo Bagonghi’!”
“Indeed, kind sir,” replied Checco smiling for the first time, standing and giving a little bow that made Mike giggle. “Excuse my attire,” he said sweeping a hand from his battered Stetson through his worn jacket and denims to the down at heel boots. “I think I would be a little too noticeable in my clown outfit and makeup,” he said ruffling the boy’s hair gently.
Then seeing the puzzled expression on the others faces he said, “Amazing…well speaks for itself…and he gave a little chuckle…Checco Russo, my given name…of Italian descent you understand, my grandparents…and Bagonghi simply means a circus dwarf…that is who and what I am.”
Jess thought that through and then said, “So if that is who you are why leave…and why hide in our bunkhouse?”
Checco looked saddened; “It is complicated,” and shook his head.
“Try us,” said Slim…
After a few minutes Checco finally decided he should trust these young ranchers and their kindly housekeeper.
“I ran away because my employer Mr Barnum will not give me leave from the circus… He says I am too big a draw…sales will be down without the ‘Amazing Checco Russo ’ riding the horses, doing the stunts….”
“Well I can see as how that’s right,” Mike piped up, “us kids all come especially to see you…then try and copy what you do!”
“Yes, and nearly get a broken neck in the process if I remember rightly,” Daisy said indignantly…
“I soon put a stop to that,” she said smiling over at Checco. “But boys will be boys, not your fault Mister Russo…”
“Checco, please ma’am,” he said smiling kindly at her.
“Well he can’t stop you leaving, legally that is,” said Slim ever the practical.
“In theory no, in practice…” and Checco shrugged, “he would have his men fetch me back if he found me…”
“So that’s why you were hiding I guess,” said Jess, “but why here?”
“I need to get to Rawlins urgently…I didn’t dare stay in town to catch the stage… Then I heard this was a Stage Stop, so I walked here,” he said simply.
“In this weather oh my dear you must be exhausted,” said a shocked Daisy.
“No Ma’am I’m pretty fit, takes more than a little snow to stop me,” he said proudly.
“So why the heck didn’t you just knock at the door and ask to stay until the Stage gets through?” Jess asked.
“Because of the way we Bagonghi are treated,” Checco said quietly, “not only a dwarf, but an itinerant circus worker too, folk don’t always welcome us with the kindness you have.”
“Well quite a well-versed clown,” Slim said smiling at the dwarf’s vocabulary…
“My mother was a teacher…she never let her size hold her back…I guess some of her way of speaking rubbed off on me, she was quite a wordsmith,” he said proudly… She taught me to be proud of who I am too…but sometimes it is wise to be circumspect…I couldn’t know you folk would be so open minded…many folks ridicule or abuse me because I look different,” he reflected sadly.
“We take as we find around here,” Jess said quickly, “and apart from you near knocking me into next week, I ain’t found anything to ridicule…In fact I guess we’re real honoured to have the Amazing Checco Russo to stay,” he added sincerely.
Then Slim looked troubled, “It’s gone first of October you know Checco. The Stage doesn’t take the Snowy Range pass to Rawlins anymore at this time of year…it’ll be spring before the route opens up again…I’m really sorry.”
At that the little chap turned pale and looked agitated, “But I have to get there I just have to,” he said now deeply upset.
It was sometime later before Checco was able to compose himself enough to explain his dilemma.
He took a deep breath and then said, “It’s my wife, Stella. She is ill, very ill…in fact, I don’t think she’ll make it,” he said turning to Daisy with tears welling up in his dark eyes…
“I sent her to stay with my brother and his wife, thinking the mountain air near Rawlins would help her complaint…and I had a wire waiting in Laramie saying to come at once she is so poorly….”
“Oh my dear,” said Daisy looking near to tears herself, “what is her ailment, she still may be alright?”
“Consumption…she has the consumption,” he said desolately, “and I fear for her life Ma’am, I really do.”
Jess‘s head shot up and he exchanged a look with Daisy, both knowing what a killer the disease could be…
Flora, Daisy’s beloved God daughter, who had come to stay with them, occasioning the men to convert the old bunkhouse into cosy living accommodation for her, had suffered from the illness. From which she never recovered. Jess had granted her last wish and taken the beautiful, fragile Flora up the mountain to die the way she so desired, in the peace and tranquillity of a Wyoming mountain top…* See # 19 Daisy’s Dilemma.
Now it was Jess’s turn to look desolate at the memory of the brave beautiful girl who had been Flora Mc Donald…
“I’ll take ya,” he said impulsively.
“Huh?” Slim said looking shocked, “Across the Snowy Range, heck Jess you wouldn’t make it back before the real snow was down…you’d be stuck over in Rawlins until the spring….”
“We’d be OK if we set out tomorrow…take real good strong horses, Jonty and Seth, they’re tough and plenty of sense too, will get us up that old pass and back again just fine.”
“Not Traveller?” Slim asked in surprise.
Jess shook his head, “His leg still isn’t a hundred percent and anyways that old horse hates the snow almost as much as I do.”
The tears that had been threatening to fall finally coursed down Checco’ s cheeks, “You’d do that…for me…a stranger?”
Jess just nodded, “Sure, I’ll get you home to yer wife Checco, I promise.”
What could Slim say…hell he really didn’t want his pard to take that risk…But he knew it was worthless to try and stop him so he merely offered to help pack up their supplies for the long arduous journey.
It was later that night, when everyone else had turned in, and Daisy was packing up some last-minute supplies for Jess, that she turned to him and said softly, “This is all about Flora isn’t it…why you feel so moved to help Checco?”
Jess nodded, “I guess so. You know how it was with her Daisy…how sick she was. Then the end…well I guess it was as good as it could have been…but…”
“Nobody should have to die that way, so young, I know,” Daisy said. “But because of you Jess, she didn’t die alone. She had a good and dignified death….”
Jess nodded, “I know Checco ’s wife is with kin, but she needs him now and especially at the end,” and his eyes misted over as he remembered Flora’s last days….
“You need to know you’re loved and cared for at the end of life and he needs to be there for her. That’s all there is to it,” he said firmly, “I hafta take him Daisy…”
She smiled up into his determined face and ran a gentle hand down his cheek, “I know you do dear and I didn’t expect anything less of you…just come home safely won’t you….”

Chapter 2
So it was that Jess and Checco set off for Rawlins early the following day.
Jess had originally worried that the dwarf would be unable to manage a full-sized horse, but other than requesting he ride bareback, save for a saddle blanket Checco proved to be an excellent horseman. Even to the way he mounted via a dive from the hitching rail, equaling Jess’s innovative ways of getting up on a horse. Then the competent way he rode soon put Jess’s fears at rest. Yes, his travel buddy, though small in stature, was very much capable of the tough trail ahead of them Jess surmised.
They set off very early just as soon as dawn was breaking and made good time, reaching what is now Centennial by mid-afternoon. There was a small trading post serving the few white travelers and the occasional Indian found in the area. Jess stocked up with a half bottle of Moonshine for the trip. “The one essential ingredient Daisy seems to have forgotten to pack,” he joshed with Checco.
“A man has to have a few comforts,” Checco agreed and bought a small bottle himself.
“Are you going far Jess?” Martin Elliot, his old friend, who owned the trading post, inquired.
“Rawlins,” Jess replied, “and don’t say it…the pass will be closed by now huh?”
To his surprise the other grinned at him, “Nope I was gonna say we’re in for a thaw and once you’re over the top going down should be child’s play…good luck gentlemen,” he said grinning broadly.
“Well he’s a cheerful one,” Checco said as they rode off…
“Uh, just keepin ’ me sweet, knows I’ll be callin’ in for the other half bottle on my way back,” Jess said grinning at his new friend.
“You will make it back?” Checco asked earnestly, “I certainly wouldn’t want you to be in danger because of me.”
“Nah, I’ll be just fine.” Jess said quickly, “You just worry about getting to see your wife er…Stella huh?”
“I just hope we’re in time,” Checco said anxiously.
Jess nodded, “We will be. Look lets push on up the pass some huh…there’s a huge lake in about ten miles, (what is now called Lake Marie), we’ll camp the night there…might even pull some fish out for supper huh? “
Checco visibly brightened at that and urged his mount on to a faster trot.
They arrived in good time for some fishing before dusk and sat happily around a camp fire on the shore of the lake eating, drinking and just absorbing the incredible majesty of the mountains reflected in the lake as the sun set.
“One of my favorite spots,” Jess said, “I always camp here on my way to Rawlins.”
“You come often?”
“Ha, yup, well a couple of times a year, but usually in better weather,” Jess said smiling over at his new buddy and lounged back against his saddle, a coffee in hand surveying the timeless view before him.
“We’ve business contacts this way, do some trading with a big rancher, sell on our broke Mustangs…and the Sheriff of Rawlins, Red Smith, is a good friend…I visit him, play deputy sometimes,” he said modestly.
“Phew,” Checco said looking impressed, “I didn’t know you were a lawman as well as a rancher.”
Jess grinned across, “Well I guess I spent more than my fair share of time on the wrong side of the law in the past and now it’s payback time…I do the best I can to help out Red and Mort…Sheriff Cory that is, back in Laramie…”
Checco took another sip of his whiskey-laced coffee and glanced across at where Jess was laid back on his saddle, admiring the rays of setting sun glittering on the lake and casting a red glow on snowy mountains above them…
“You know something of this illness my Stella has don’t you Jess…I saw your reaction, the way you looked at Mrs Cooper?”
Gee the guy sure was on the ball Jess thought, there’s far more to him than just a circus clown…
“Yup,” he said quietly, “I guess I do. See Daisy’s Goddaughter, Flora died from the illness, so yeah I guess we understand something about it….”
Checco ’s head shot up, “I’m sorry, she was special…you loved her?”
“We all did,” Jess said softly, “and did our best to see her through it…”
“She died…and she was quite young I imagine?”
Jess nodded a lump in, his throat, “Just twenty-one yeah….”
“I’m so sorry,” Checco said quietly, “it is a terrible affliction…I visited the doctor in Laramie after I heard about my Stella getting worse…Doctor Baker…do you know him?”
“Huh…Sam, yup he’s a good friend, a good man,” Jess said.
“I asked him for a prognosis…for my Stella…asked for the truth…it wasn’t good Jess…but I asked for his opinion and he seems to be a much-respected doctor. He told me about the research done by a German doctor…uh…Brehmer…Doctor Hermann Brehmer. He believes he can cure patients by taking them high up a mountain, then they sleep in specially built outdoor rooms…lots of fresh air and a special diet…he calls them Sanatoriums. But hell, I can’t offer her that…we’ve got us a mountain at Rawlins sure…but as to the rest?” He shook his head sadly, “Well I just can’t afford it and that’s the truth…I’d use all my savings willingly…but I guess that’s not enough…and too late I fear…”
Jess nodded, “Sam would tell it like it is…if you really needed to know. But for all his fancy ideas about these here Sanatoriums I guess it takes a miracle to cure that dang disease.”
“I know it,” said Checco looking bleakly out to the lake, “but they happen…sometimes….”
It was bitterly cold up the mountain and although the snow at lower levels had begun to thaw, up at over 10,000 feet they were in the snow line and the brisk wind that blew all night didn’t help any either. Jess had built up a huge fire, noting that Checco seemed quite a tenderfoot as far as night camping was concerned.
“I guess I’m kind of spoilt always traveling in a circus wagon,” he said grinning across at Jess. “Is there anything else I should know apart from gathering as much wood as possible before night fall?”
Jess returned his smile, “Nope I guess not, just don’t go sleep walkin ’ most of the critters out there could do with a nice snack this time of year…Once the snow’s down they ain’t too particular what it is either,” he chuckled.”
Just seconds later they heard the sound of a lone wolf howling at the huge moon suspended in the clear sky. The diminutive man gave an involuntary shudder, before turning in, “You can be sure I won’t stray from the fire tonight,” he said firmly.
Once Jess had checked that Jonty and Seth were secured, well fed, watered and blanketed for the night he retired also. Soon just the distant sound of the wolf and gentle snoring were the only sounds to be heard.
It was daylight when Jess was rudely awoken by desperate screams coming from the shoreline of the lake…Then just moments later the vision of Checco tearing towards the camp with a huge bear in hot pursuit galvanized Jess to action.
He let off a barrage of warning shots over the bear’s head and it stopped, rearing up on to two legs and sniffing the air…trying to make out where the noise was coming from…Just two more shots, one whistling across the top of his head, was enough to deter him and he finally dropped down onto all fours again and loped off towards the tree cover away from the camp…
Two minutes later a sweating, panic-stricken Checco sprawled in the dirt by the campfire…gasping for breath.
After a few minutes he sat up and glanced behind him… “He’s gone?” He gasped.
Jess nodded, “Yup, he’s gone.”
Checco turned to look at Jess once he’d caught his breath and said, “Thank you so much…I thought bears hibernated this time of year?”
Jess shook his head, “Not for another month or so, I guess he was looking for something to fill him up over the next few months.”
“Well he’d not have a full meal off of me,” said Checco, regaining his sense of humor. “I’m hardly worth the bother…the size of me.”
Jess looked at his new friend and then they both burst out laughing, gee Checco sure was a great guy Jess thought…able to make jokes against himself that way…
Then Checco gave Jess a mischievous glance and said, “You neither Jess, hardly enough fat on you to satisfy a hungry bear either.”
Jess shook his head chuckling before pushing the coffee pot in place and stirring the fire to life.
“So, what were you doing out there so early anyway?” He asked, as they sipped a coffee apiece later.
Checco looked kind of embarrassed and said, “You’ll think I’m crazy but when we were fishing yesterday afternoon, I saw some real purty stones and I wanted to collect a few for Stella, she loves that kind of thing.”
“Let’s see,” Jess said intrigued.
Checco poured a selection of stones into Jess hands, from bright jade to blue, ruby red to sparkling ice all of them real purty as Checco had said…
Jess admired them and handed them back, “They’re real nice,” he said kindly, “but worth getting chewed up by a bear?”
“For my Stella, every time,” Checco said softly…
They set off soon after and as they went further on Jess could tell the chill wind was taking its toll on Checco. His clothes were old and threadbare, Even Jess in his warm under shirt and pants, thick work shirt, heavy denims and sheepskin jacket, felt the chill and he was concerned for Checco.
It was late afternoon when they arrived at Saratoga (as it is now called) and Jess knew exactly what to do…
I figure you need some warming up buddy he said a twinkle in his blue eyes I think we’ll take us a little swim huh?
Checco looked at him in amazement and then up to the chilly sky where snowflakes were gently drifting down, “Are you crazy?”
“Trust me,” Jess said.
They rode on through the rocky area with the sound of running water from many streams surrounding them. Eventually Jess reined in and they were able to make out misty steam rising into the darkening sky. They dismounted by a steaming hot pool of deep water and Jess turned to Checco, “This is the Place of the Magic Waters,” Jess said almost reverently.
“Huh?”
“Well that’s what the local Injuns call it,” Jess said grinning, “Hot springs to you and me…but it’s mainly the Injuns that make use of it, Cheyenne, Ute…Arapahoe...this is neutral ground for them all…”
“So, are we safe?” Checco asked anxiously looking all around.
“As safe as ya can be up here,” Jess said quietly. “I can’t guarantee there ’ll be no injuns, or wild beasts come to that…but I’ll tell ya, if you’re up for it I guess the Magic Waters are sure worth the risk.”
Then he quickly started divesting himself of his warm clothes and dived in watched by a startled Checco…
After splashing about in the blissfully warm water for a few minutes he called out to Checco still standing motionless in the gathering dark, “You comin ’ in or what?”

*******
“Well that sure was the best hot tub I’ve ever experienced,” a bright eyed and much happier looking Checco said as he grinned across to Jess on the other side of their blazing campfire.
“Told ya didn’t I,” Jess said with satisfaction, “I guess we’ll sleep better tonight for it too. That kinda warm glow lasts fer hours. We’ll push on at first light huh?”
Checco nodded vigorously, “We should make it to Rawlins tomorrow, shouldn’t we?”
Jess nodded, “Sure. I’ll leave you at your brother’s place and ride on into town, stay a couple of days I guess before heading back.”
“You’re welcome to stay at my brother’s home,” Checco said quickly. “Our hospitality is all I have to offer you in thanks Jess…”
“No need fer thanks,” Jess said sincerely, “and I’ve friends I need to catch up with in town…Besides you need this time alone with Stella,” he said softly…to say goodbye, left unsaid but hanging in the air between them…
Jess could never remember seeing such a tiny and very beautiful woman before…Like Checco she was only about three-foot-tall Jess estimated as he visited her briefly. She was sitting in a rocker beside her bed, a rug over her legs. Even though she was pale and very slender, with two high spots of color on her cheeks, she was still a stunning woman and it was clear she adored Checco.
When Checco left them alone for a few minutes while he went to fetch some water she smiled at Jess and said softly, “I can never thank you enough for helping my dear Checco get here in time…Had he needed to wait for the Stage to run again, well….” and she gave a little shrug… “I fear I wouldn’t have seen him again,” she said a catch in her voice.
Jess felt deeply moved and sat down beside her, taking her hand in his own…
“Don’t give up,” he said softly, “miracles do happen sometimes you know.”
She gave him a sad smile and squeezed his hand, “Thank you,” she whispered, “I’ll try and remember that,” and then Checco was back and the moment was broken…

*******
Soon after Jess rode out, feeling in need of a stiff drink and the company of Red Smith the Rawlins Sheriff and good buddy.
As he breezed into the Sheriff’s office sometime later his old friend’s face lit up when he looked up from some paper work and saw who was standing opposite his desk.
“Well howdy stranger,” he said standing and offering his hand, “you old son of a gun, it’s been far too long.”
Jess shook his hand firmly returning the grin, “It’s that pard of mine keeps me chained to the ranch, slave labor it is,” he said slumping down in the seat opposite the desk and tipping his hat back.
“Well that’s just too bad,” Sheriff Smith said laughing, “but you made it under the fence now though?”
Jess nodded “Yup, just giving a guy a helpin ’ hand,” and he explained about how he’d escorted Checco over the Snowy Mountain Pass. “He’s a real good horse man, but ain’t too used to ridin ’ in the big open…”
“Well that’s mighty neighborly of you,” Smitty said, opening his drawer and waggling a bottle of Red Eye at his friend, “drink?”
“Ha, you need to ask?” Jess said sitting back in his chair and accepting the welcome shot of Red Eye.
“Let me see now,” the Sheriff said thoughtfully, “that’d be the little folk up on the hill…Mr and Mrs Rosso ; they have their sister-in-law staying…uh Stella that’s it.”
Jess nodded, “She’s real sick Smitty, probably won’t make it.”
“Oh, that’s too bad, I know Marco and Penny real well, used to be in the circus you know. He still does the odd turn at kid’s parties, juggling and the like.”
“Must run in the family,” Jess said and filled Smitty in on Checco ’s work… “He ran away from the circus though,” he said with a quizzical look,” to visit his sick wife. But I get the impression Barnum and Willis ain’t any too pleased about it…”
Smitty shrugged, “Yup family has to come first every time though.”
“So, how are they?” Jess asked grinning.
“Ah,” said the Sheriff with a sly wink, “my Jane’s taken the kids over to her Ma’s for a few days…so looks like I’m at a loose end tonight…so how about the saloon later huh?”
Jess never knew if it was the bottle of Red Eye he shared with the Sheriff that night, or his friend’s persuasive powers, but either way he ended up agreeing to something he was to regret for many a day.

Chapter 3
“So let me get this straight,” Jess said sitting slumped in the chair in Red Smith’s office the following morning, nursing a monumental hangover. “You want me to escort a prisoner and guard back to the state Penn in Laramie?”
“Well seeing as how you’re going that way I kinda thought you could ride along with them yup,” he said not quite meeting Jess’s eye…
“So which is it then, a lousy guard or real dangerous prisoner… because otherwise I can’t see why they need me riding along as shot gun,” he said looking puzzled.
“Uh, well not lousy especially, maybe a tad inexperienced and the prisoner…um… well in for a five-year stretch…I imagine that’s what they’ll get after the trial anyways…”
“Hang on,” said Jess looking thoughtful, “so if they’re bein’ tried over in Laramie I guess that’s where the crime was committed huh?”
Red looked a tad uncomfortable, “Yup that’s right…uh a crime of passion I believe. The defendant shot a man in the Last Chance saloon, last December…been on the run ever since then…was caught a couple of weeks ago here in town.”
“Wait a minute,” Jess said his head snapping up and eyes narrowing, “I remember that shooting...It was on Christmas Eve, some crazy woman shot her boyfriend…didn’t kill him, but sure didn’t do him too much good,” then he paled, “Hell Smitty, you want me to escort a woman prisoner?” He asked looking startled.
“It’s OK buddy, don’t fret,” Red said cheerfully, “see the guards a woman too…”
“Oh no,” said Jess shaking his head and looking deeply alarmed, “I ain’t doin’ it Smitty…”
An hour later a tall well-built woman marched into the office. She was what Daisy would have called buxom; Jess figured. She was about forty with short greying hair and wore a guard’s navy-blue uniform that really didn’t do anything for her Jess reflected. The man’s pants tucked into riding boots were too large and the jacket way too tight, straining over her impressive bust.
“All present and correct Sheriff, Guard Braddock reporting for duty….” She said in a loud, no nonsense voice.
Then turning to Jess said, “You must be Harper, glad to have you along young man,” and she took Jess’s hand and shook it very firmly.
Red just gave Jess a helpless shrug and said, “I guess you’ll be in good hands with Mister Harper here to take you through the pass Ma’am,” the relief of finally getting the guard and prisoner off his hands clearly discernible in his voice.
Guard Braddock wandered away to check on some paper work and Jess turned aside and said very quietly, “I’ll dang well get you back for this Smitty so help me…”
The Sheriff replied in an equally soft voice, “A deal is a deal buddy, even if it is made from the bottom of a whiskey bottle…we shook on it remember?”
Jess just shook his head wearily, “Nope, can’t say as how I do,” he said honestly…
“Take my word for it,” said Red cheerfully…
Then in his normal voice, “So, um Deputy Harper,” he said slinging a badge in Jess’s direction, “I expect you’d like to meet your prisoner.”
The cells at the Rawlins Sheriff’s office were out the back and down a flight of steep steps but Jess could hear the only occupant cussing and shouting long before the cell’s outer door was pulled open by Red, revealing the prisoner within…
She was about thirty, Jess reckoned, with straggly blond hair falling over her eyes and was as slim as Guard Braddock was stout. She wore way too much makeup and looked every inch a tart with attitude, Jess surmised. She was wearing a skin tight scarlet dress with a deeply plunging neckline leaving nothing to the imagination. Well he wasn’t far off the mark he thought as she threw him a smouldering look and said, “Well hi there handsome…so things are lookin’ up…”
“Is this the guy that’s gonna escort us then Sheriff?” She asked turning to Red.
Red rolled his eyes to Jess before replying, “Yup this is Deputy Harper….”
“This,” he said turning to Jess, “is Nancy Kline…and you can’t trust her any further than you could throw her,” he whispered to Jess in an aside.
Then turning back to the prisoner said, “I thought I told you to put those duds on for the journey.”
She cast a disdainful eye over the riding britches and warm shirt and spat, “I wouldn’t be seen dead in those…”
“It’s mighty cold out there Ma’am,” Jess said figuring he’d try and be pleasantly persuasive, “you’ll be glad of those. Besides I don’t reckon you’d sit a horse in that dress,” he added with a cheeky grin…
“Oh, you think not?” She said, before bending down and ripping the hem from the bottom up to mid-thigh, on both sides… “There ya go Deputy, I shouldn’t ’ have no trouble straddling anything now huh?” She said with a suggestive smirk.
Jess and Red exchanged a part embarrassed part amused glance before she marched off to the bunk and returned with a full length, thick wolf skin coat…
“I guess this will keep me warm enough…until we become better acquainted,” she said with another shameless leer…pouting and making eyes at Jess.
Jess sighed deeply and turned to Red, “We shook on it…you sure?
“I’m sure,” said Red firmly, trying to hide a grin…
Jess just nodded, his fate sealed… “OK, bring the clothes with ya Ma’am, in case you change yer mind,” Jess said, and Red unlocked the cell and they escorted the prisoner upstairs to the office.

*******
They rode out sometime later and Jess was pretty surprised to see that Nancy mounted her horse with ease and didn’t seem at all encumbered by her dress…or lack of it Jess thought smiling inwardly at the fair expanse of shapely thigh that he’d just glimpsed.
His glance hadn’t gone un-noticed and she had thrown him a knowing look before clicking her mount off to a brisk trot…Guard Braddock taking the lead and Jess following on…
After a while Nancy cut back and waited for Jess to catch up, before riding easily at his pace.
“So tell me Mister Harper,” she said with a winsome smile, “what’s your first name…before Harper that is…. huh?”
“Deputy,” Jess said dead pan and without missing a beat, “just call me Deputy.”
“Well then Deputy,” she drawled, “what are we goin’ to be doin’ tonight huh? Once we’ve gotten rid of that mean ol’ guard …make a run for it? You and me could be pretty good ya know… dontcha think?”
“All I think is I’ve got me a job to do,” Jess said gruffly, “so how about you let me get on with it in peace huh?"
Heck after what Red had told him, this propositioning had come as no surprise…But even so he didn’t particularly enjoy the company of such an overtly wanton female, as Nancy appeared to be, he had to admit.
She delivered him a challenging look, before saying, “Hope I see more of you tonight Deputy huh?” And after throwing him another wanton look spurred her horse back into line.
For all her bravado Jess could tell she was a desperate woman and not without reason. He shook his head sadly. Of all the places to end up, the new Laramie Federal Penn was not one he’d recommend. They sure ran a tight ship there…or tried to anyway, although there had been plenty of rumors of escapes. Jess wondered how Nancy would get along with the silence rule, wearing a black and white striped overall and being confined to a five by seven-foot cell for twenty-three hours out of twenty-four…He shook his head and shuddered. He’d delivered a prisoner there once before and remembered the grim sound of the cell doors clanging shut at night, the deafening silence and the smell of despair. He shivered again and then pushed his mount on to a greater speed, evening was fast approaching and they still had a fair way to go before they reached his designated camping area.
Just an hour later he finally spied the steam rising up into the dusky late afternoon sky and realized they had reached the Place of Magic Waters. It hadn’t escaped Jess’s notice that both women were shivering and looking mighty pale by the time they reined in and he figured they’d be real pleased with the treat he had in store for them…
“Here we are ladies,” he said cheerfully, “we’ll camp here for the night…So who’s gonna be the first to use the hot tub then huh?” He asked giving them his cheeky grin…
There was as stunned silence as both women looked down at the brackish looking pool, its murky depths seeming to simmer with secrets and ancient mystery.
“Are you mad?” Guard Braddock asked, “I’m not stripping off in this weather and getting in there…It looks positively disgusting...”
“It’s OK” Jess said, “really it is...the Indians use it all the time, say it has healing powers. I guess it’s just what we all need to warm us up after riding in that dang northerly all day,” he said casting an eye up to the darkening sky where snow clouds were gathering…
“What?” Asked the guard now looking scandalized, “you propose we should all bathe together?”
Jess shook his head, “Heck no Ma’am, I thought I’d set up camp over yonder,” he said tipping his hat towards some distant cottonwoods, “get a fire going and tend the horses… I’ll go in later….”
All the time he’d been talking to the guard he’d ignored Nancy, until she said, “Well that’s a real shame, might have been kinda fun skinny dipping with you Deputy…”
Jess spun around to see the prisoner standing buck naked on the edge of the pool and she did a little pirouette, pouting in Jess’s direction. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in shock at the shapely figure, the pert breasts held high…the curve of her body and long shapely legs were amazing and she gave a little giggle before turning and diving into the warm waters of the pool.
Jess quickly averted his eyes, swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Flushing, he turned to the guard and trying to act normally said, “Uh you might wanna guard your prisoner Ma’am, bring her over to the camp once she’s finished and I’ll watch her while you go in.”
She still looked uncertain and Jess said, “I really would try it… It’ll warm you real well,” then he led the horses off…. his pulses still pounding at the unexpected vision he’d just witnessed. Yup Nancy Kline sure was a stunner, even if she was a bad ‘un, he thought to himself.
Sometime later, once Jess had established the camp and got the coffee pot on, Guard Braddock with Nancy in tow arrived… To Jess’s surprise Nancy had finally consented to wear the denims and warm shirt, although he noted several buttons were open revealing a substantial amount of cleavage…
He quickly averted his gaze back to the coffee pot and then up to Guard Braddock…
“I’ll be off then Deputy,” she said, “take your advice…try the waters,” she added before marching off through the evening gloom…
Jess tipped his hat to her, “Ma’am…”
Then he turned his attentions to Nancy, “Coffee?”
She nodded and he passed her a cup across to where she sat resting her back against one of the cottonwoods... her eyes dreamy as she looked around her…
“It’s real purty,” she said, “what with the hot springs and those old Snowy ’s in the back over there…”
Jess nodded, “ ’Tis quite a trek through the Snowy Pass…you up for it?”
She just shook her head, “Like I have any choice…?”
“So why’d ya do it?” he asked softly, “shoot a guy that way…”
Her eyes flashed with anger, “Because he dang well deserved it…lovin me…sayin ’ what we had was real special…and all the time he was seeing this Ruby….As soon as I found out I got me a gun and went searching ’… Ha didn’t hafta to look too far…he was in that dive, the Last Chance saloon…you know it?”
Jess nodded, he did…
“Well you’ll know the kinda women that frequents the place…and that Ruby was one of the worst…So I went in…called my Davy out… the low life…. shot him too…Only I missed,” she said ruefully…. “First shot ended up through the bar mirror…second was best…through his leg…then some bastard wrestled the gun off of me… So I kicked him real hard, where it hurts a man,” she said with a chuckle and suggestive glance. “Anyway, I got me free and high-tailed it out of town…thought it would all have blown over by now…”
“Well it ain’t and looks like you’re up for a three to five stretch,” Jess said, “Davy Watts nearly died…and as it is, well he’ll never ride again, not with that bullet through the knee.”
She considered that for a good minute looking down into her coffee cup and said, “I’m real sorry about that.” For a minute Jess thought maybe she was sincere...
“Too late to be sorry,” he said quietly, “I guess yer just gonna have to pay the price.”
“Well ya know Deputy I really don’t think I could hack it…heard stuff about the Fed Penn…I guess it ain’t for me…”
Jess sighed, “Well I’m real sorry, but I figure you don’t have much choice Ma’am…”
“Will you stop callin ’ me Ma’am?” She cried, “Its Nancy…you remember that huh Deputy…?”
Jess felt suddenly sorry for her…
But then just seconds later he cried out in agony as she threw her piping hot coffee in his face and jumping up made a dash for where the horses were tethered a few yards away….
Jess cried out in pain and anger and was totally blinded for a minute before rubbing his eyes with his sleeve and tearing after the fast disappearing Nancy…
He caught up with her just as she reached the horses and tackled her to the ground, both of them rolling over and over in the dirt…finally coming to rest with Jess on top…
There was a split second where their gaze locked and then she was pulling his head down and kissing him with abandon…
It took Jess just a second or so to come to his senses and finally push her away…and getting to his feet, he pulled her up after him…
“What the Hell are ya playin ’ at?” He yelled angrily….
“Exactly what I was going to ask,” said a very angry looking Guard Braddock.
Jess eyed her coldly, “She was tryin ’ to escape Ma’am…it was either this or shoot her, what did you want me to do?”
Then roughly pushing Nancy before him returned her to the camp.
“It was a dang good job that coffee weren’t any hotter,” he muttered angrily, “you could have blinded me…”
“Well I’m so sorry,” she pouted looking every bit none repentant, “but I’m fighting for my life here…I sure ain’t going to that there prison…not alive anyways.”
Jess took some handcuffs out of his back pocket and slipped one over her wrist and another round a sturdy sapling near the fire… “Just sit there and behave,” he said sharply…
Then he turned to where Guard Braddock had followed them into the camp…
“Could ya make a start on supper?” He asked nodding towards a gunny sack of supplies. “I’m gonna go get washed up,” and with that he marched off towards the hot springs without a backward glance.
When he returned sometime later it looked like Nancy had already turned in for the night and Jess noted that Braddock had removed the handcuffs.
Following Jess’s gaze she said, “She was complaining she couldn’t sleep the cuffs were rubbing...but with us both to guard her, I felt I could remove them. But I reckon we can’t be too careful Deputy, I think she’s pretty darned desperate, will try anything to escape.”
“Well wouldn’t you?” Jess said suddenly feeling a stab of sympathy for the now sleeping woman… After her soak she had returned without makeup and she looked years younger Jess thought. Now as he looked down at her beautiful sleeping face, she looked not only young but kinda innocent too he mused.
Then Guard Braddock broke the spell, “No I wouldn’t because I wouldn’t be in that position in the first place,” she said angrily… “No man’s worth that!”
Jess was kinda surprised by the sudden outburst as the Guard had seemed to be quietly professional up until now…she sure was a strange one Jess thought as she passed him a plate of supper over…
He peered at the contents of the plate and then looked back up at the guard… “What’s this?” He asked in a hushed voice, his face troubled.
“Why bacon and beans of course,” she said merrily tucking in. “Eat up Deputy.”
Jess hesitated and then very cautiously took a mouthful before almost gagging…
Braddock ignored him, wolfing hers down and then helping herself to seconds.
After a while she glanced over at Jess and said, “What’s wrong Deputy aren’t you hungry?”
“No Ma’am,” Jess said firmly, “I guess I ain’t,” and reached for the coffee pot.
“That’s strange,” she said, “the prisoner wasn’t either,” and shaking her head she refilled her plate.
Once she’d finished, she sat back with a contented sigh and peered over at where Jess was leaning on his saddle, sipping his coffee and looking morosely into the flames of the fire.
“Well this is nice,” she said at length, “so we can get acquainted now the prisoner is asleep and not taking notice. I am Bessie Braddock, and you can call me Bessie…but not in front of the prisoner of course.”
“Of course,” Jess said sarcastically. But his petulance was lost on his companion who went on cheerfully, “And you are Jess Harper, rancher, horse breaker and occasional deputy, from the Sherman Ranch…A young man with a penchant for getting shot, beaten up and ending up in dire straits on a regular basis…I’m right am I not?”
Jess just stared at her, “Huh?”
“I expect you’re wondering how I know all this,” she said playfully tapping her nose.
Jess just stared at her and didn’t reply, feeling he was losing the will to live here…He was hungry, tired, was escorting the prisoner from hell and now this woman was spouting nonsense at him, like some dang fortune-teller.
“You really don’t know who I am do you?” She said gleefully.
“No Ma’am,” Jess said deadpan.
“Why I’m Jane Braddock’s niece of course…Jane is my Aunt,” she clarified as Jess still looked baffled.
“Jane Braddock, Doctor Baker’s housekeeper?”
Then light dawned, “Oh yeah right…nice lady,” Jess said, meaning it. Yup he sure had a lot of time for Ma Braddock.
“I think Aunt Jane’s got a soft spot for you,” she said wiggling a finger at him. “She says you’re a terrible patient, but a sweet boy none the less…of course she’s never divulged any medical information,” she said quickly, “that wouldn’t be proper…”
“No I guess not,” Jess agreed.
But judging by the twinkle in Bessie Braddock’s eyes she was armed with far more information about him than he was comfortable with…
“Uh, I guess maybe we should turn in too ma’am,” he said quickly, “early start tomorrow, so shall I take first watch, wake ya say about four?”
Bessie Braddock looked slightly taken aback at the sudden change of subject but did her best to rally and agreed that would be just dandy.
“Um” …Jess said throwing her a less than friendly look and saying he was gonna check on the horses he wandered off.
“Bessie”, she said hopefully, “Its Bessie …Jess,” but he had gone.
When he returned some fifteen minutes later Bessie was still watching the prisoner.
“I’ll take over now,” he said briskly, “‘night Ma’am…”
“Goodnight Jess,” she said softly before pulling the blanket over and soon she was snoring gently.
Jess rolled his eyes wondering for the hundredth time how he’d got roped into this and then settled down with a strong coffee to keep him alert.
It was a few hours before dawn when he moved across camp and gently shook Bessie awake…
“Mornin ’ ma’am,” he said sleepily, “coffee’s hot and fire stoked up. I’ll get my head down for a couple of hours iffen you can take over now?”
She quickly roused herself and agreed yes, she was happy to take over…
It was much later when Jess was awoken by bright sunlight playing over his face. His eyes opened slowly and he peered up to the bright sunlight filtering down through the tree branches…then he heard a strange noise…. Snoring…dang it, who was snoring… he sat bolt upright and glanced around him…Across the fire Bessie Braddock lay on her back snoring loudly…and on closer inspection there was absolutely no sign of the prisoner.
“Garldarn it,” Jess exploded… “Wake up damn it woman!” He yelled, shaking the big woman awake…
“She’s gone dang it,” he yelled, “how long have ya been sleepin ’ on the job huh?”
Bessie looked dazedly at the rude awakening and peered around her in bewilderment…
“Oh never mind,” Jess gasped in exasperation… “She’s lit out, taken her horse… I’m goin’ after her, you put the coffee on, I’ll be back,” he said turning towards his mount…Then he paused and turned around… “And don’t you dare touch the supplies, I’ll make breakfast when I get back,” he barked, before mounting bareback and kicking Seth off at speed following the clear snowy tracks left by Nancy’s mount.
He caught up with her within half an hour, sitting beneath a huge Scotts pine and looking out towards the mountains…
He swung down from Seth’s back and wandered over, “Well that was hardly the great escape,” he said hunkering down beside her.
She glanced at him and shrugged, “I wasn’t escaping,” she whispered, “I just wanted some time alone with you…without that dumb guard watching…”
Jess raised a quizzical eyebrow and said, “So what did ya have in mind?”
She gave him a broad grin then and running a finger down his cheek, said, “I thought we might just carry on where we left off…huh Deputy?”
“Oh no,” Jess said backing off quickly, “I told ya I weren’t interested didn’t I.”
“Well in my experience what men say and what they actually mean are often two different things,” she said licking her lips and giving him a suggestive smile.
“Not this man,” Jess said firmly… “what I actually mean is I want you to mount up and come back to camp…”
When she still didn’t move, he sighed, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way Nancy,” he said.
Then before he could say anymore, she was upon him, kissing him passionately and running one had through his hair whilst the other attempted to unbutton his shirt….
That was it for Jess, he was kinda irritated before, but now he was real mad…
He pushed her firmly away and reached into his back pocket for the handcuffs and in one smooth movement cuffed her wrists again…
“I guess it’s the hard way then,” he muttered before picking her up and slinging her unceremoniously up into her saddle…
“Now you behave,” he said darkly, “or I’ll dang well take you over my knee….”
Even then as he mounted up and grabbed hold of her reins and led her back to camp, he knew exactly why he was so all fired angry….
Part of him was mad at himself. Hell she was a really sensual, striking woman and yes he had to admit it, he was physically attracted to her…He glanced across and saw a little smile playing around her lips and knew she dang well knew it too.
He shook his head and said gruffly, “Come on let’s get back before that woman tries to dang well poison us again….”
Nancy behaved for the rest of the day…To such an extent that Jess was kinda worried about her. She barely spoke and had the look of a broken woman…Gee he could understand how she felt. Who would be anything but desolate with the prospect of the Penn ahead of them? But even so the way she refused to eat, speak or even give eye contact was hard to bear.
They pushed on through the increasingly inclement weather until they finally reached the huge lake on the Snowy pass where he’d camped with Checco. Jeez that had been one hell of a lot more agreeable he thought as they reined in and made camp. What with Nancy seemingly in a world of her own and the Guard now making sheep’s eyes at him, Jess just couldn’t wait to get home.
He wondered fleetingly how Checco ’s beautiful wife was fairing. Had she succumbed to the wretched illness he wondered… Then he remembered the beautiful stones the dwarf had gathered at the lakeside as a gift for his dear wife and decided he’d maybe take a look and see if he could find some to take home for his beloved Millie…Maybe get the local jeweller, to thread some together into a bracelet or necklace he mused…they sure had been purty…Some sparkling like cut glass and others a beautiful rich shade of green. Then he remembered the bear incident and cast an eye up and down the shore line…but all was peaceful.
They made camp on the shore of the sparkling lake, the backdrop of snowy mountains giving the whole place an aura of remoteness and stunning beauty. Jess quickly set up camp and then suggested Bessie take her prisoner to wash up by the lake whilst he made a start on supper…
He was just getting the beans heating nicely when he was alerted that all was not well by Bessie’s loud yells…
“What the Hell now,” he muttered to himself before striding down along the river bank where the women were just out of sight, ‘for modesty’s sake,’ as Bessie had said as she marched her prisoner along. Not wanting any more shenanigans that she had witnessed at the hot springs... Fancy stripping stark naked that way and then making a show of herself. Well the woman was clearly wanton; Bessie surmised and prison the best place for her.
When Jess arrived at the water’s edge a few moments later he was shocked to see Nancy striding into the icy water and Bessie watching as if mesmerized.
Jess realized what was happening at once…Nancy was still handcuffed and there was no way she could swim once she got out of her depth…She would drown for sure…that’s if the shock of the icy waters didn’t take her first he mused, having heard how the bitter cold could stop ones heart.
“Hell Bessie, she’s aiming to end it…couldn’t ya stop her….?”
“I…I didn’t realize until it was too late,” she cried… “One minute she was looking out to the hills and the next she just walked in…almost like she was sleep walking.”
All the time Bessie had been talking Jess had been unbuckling his gun belt, toeing off his boots and finally shucked off his warm jacket before striding into the freezing lake after Nancy…
Even as he entered the bitter cold water, he saw her stumble and go under….
He dashed forwards and as soon as the water was deep enough he dived in and gasped as the icy conditions hit him hard…For a second or two he couldn’t catch his breath and his heart was practically beating out of his chest…Then he regained control and started swimming strongly towards where he had last seen her….
It seemed like an eternity before he finally felt something beneath the water….an insubstantial form…drifting lifelessly…
Jess grasped hold of her, but as soon as he had her in his grip she started fighting and kicking and it was a good few minutes before he got control.
“Dang it stop struggling,” he gasped… “I ain’t letting ya go...no matter what!”
At that she seemed to go give in and he was finally able to swim back to the shore…supporting her weight through the icy water.
They emerged coughing and spluttering…shuddering with cold and shock…
Once he’d regained his breath, he picked Nancy up and marched over to the camp fire depositing her on her bedroll nearby.
“Git her clothes off pronto,” Jess snapped, “all of ‘em and towel her dry… the shock of that freezin ’ water can be a killer even iffen you don’t dang well drown…Rub her real brisk, get her warmed up some…”
Bessie looked shocked and said, “Well that isn’t very seemly…rather improper to undress with a gentleman present…”
Jess yelled, “Dang it…just do it…or do I hafta …huh?”
Bessie threw him a stunned glance before starting to strip off Nancy’s clothes, as she lay in deep distress, violently shivering and coughing. While Jess dug about in the saddlebags for some towels…
Luckily the women had insisted on packing all manner of useless fripperies, as Jess viewed them… But as to the fluffy towels, well maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea he thought in retrospect. He tossed one over to Bessie and then started stripping off himself…feeling sick to his stomach with the bitter cold, his whole-body aching and shaking violently.
After a moment he felt her watching him and turning saw the look of horror in Bessie’s eyes and said, “I guess you’d better turn yer back iffen you don’t want more…er unseemly behavior. Because I’m stripping off and I hafta tell ya I won’t be straying too far from this fire either,” he said his teeth chattering…
Bessie turned away…flushing with embarrassment. Really she thought there was no call for such coarse behavior. But then a little later she chastised herself for being less than sympathetic. Goodness it was obvious how distressed both the prisoner and Jess were after their soaking in the icy depths of the lake.
Once Jess had removed all his clothes and placed them on a rock near the fire to dry, he found some clean undershorts in the bottom of his saddle bags and wearing those and a blanket around his shoulders he settled down by the fire, looking like a ghost so Bessie thought… His face white as a sheet, with an almost blue look to his lips and he was still shuddering uncontrollably…
Having stripped, rubbed dry and re–dressed the prisoner in dry clothes, Bessie regarded her as she lay wrapped in a blanket staring up to the sky. Her expression was vacant and she lay motionless save for the odd tremor.
“Is she OK?” Jess asked gruffly.
Bessie nodded, “Thanks to you, yes…she’s warming up a little now, I think. How about you, can I get you anything?” She asked trying to make amends.
“Coffee an’ a drop of Red Eye in it,” he said, tipping his head towards his saddle bags, “I’ve got a bottle in there…”
Bessie did as he requested and was startled to see he was still shaking when she passed the hot drink over a little later…
“I’m…I’m sorry,” she said haltingly, “I should have watched her better, but it never crossed my mind that she would try a stupid thing like that…why would she?”
Jess sighed deeply, “Have you been to the Fed Penn in Laramie Ma’am?”
She shook her head, “No not yet, I’m new on the payroll this is my first job…In fact I’ve never worked in a prison before…why do you ask?”
Jess just shook his head sadly, “Iffen you’d been there you’d know why she did it I guess….”
“You’re telling me she’d rather die than go to prison?” Bessie asked looking incredulous.
“Looks that way don’t it, maybe we should ask her” he said laconically, sipping his coffee.
However, it was the following morning before Jess talked with Nancy…They had both fallen into an exhausted sleep the night before, overcome by the day’s events. The next day while Bessie had wandered off to the lake shore to wash up Jess glanced over at a very sombre looking Nancy, sipping her coffee and staring into space.
He felt in his top shirt pocket for his smokes, which he’d found at the bottom of his saddle bag when he was seeking his clean undershorts the day before. He’d actually kicked the habit a good while ago…but right then he really felt the need.
He showed her the pack with a raised eyebrow and when she nodded he tipped a couple out and lit them both before passing one across…
She took a deep drag like her life depended on it and then exhaled looking up to the sky…as though seeking answers.
“So why’d ya do it?” He asked quietly.
“Huh?”
“Pull that crazy stunt yesterday…nearly got us both dang well drowned.”
“I didn’t ask you to rescue me!” She said hotly…
When he just drew on his cigarette and looked down, but said nothing, she said more softly…
“I guess you know why anyway. I just can’t do it Jess…it’ll kill me being locked up that way…”
He suddenly felt a surge of empathy for her. Heck, OK she’d shot her lover. But she had been real upset…he could understand how passion might rule over reason. But then again, she’d committed the crime so of course she had to pay…or did she?
“Davy Watts, you shot, you were lovers you say?” He asked throwing her a thoughtful look.
She nodded, “Oh yes more than that, we had an understanding…until that darned Ruby showed up on the scene…”
“So how do ya know he was seeing her? Did you catch them together?”
She shook her head, “No I just heard rumors….”
“Dang it Nancy, you done shot the guy on the strength of some ol’ gossip?”
She looked uncertain for a moment, before saying, “Well, he was drinking there, where she works.”
“Hell, I drink there occasionally…but it don’t mean nuthin’,” he said looking shocked.
“I know Davy some,” he continued,” and he sure don’t seem the kinda guy to cheat.”
Her head snapped up at that, “Really…so you think I could have been mistaken?”
“Possibility I…suppose…you want me to ask him?”
She looked stunned, “You’d do that for me?”
He nodded, “It might help some…do ya think he might forgive you?”
She shrugged, “I doubt it…would you if your girl shot you that way?”
Jess looked thoughtful, “I dunno…maybe iffen I loved her enough…knew she loved me and was just out of her head with jealously…which you were, I guess? “
She hung her head, “I reckon I was… It’s always been my downfall… I think that’s why I took this so hard. I really thought I could trust Davy…I’d been let down real badly in the past, you see.”
Then she looked kind of bashful, “It is the reason I’ve been coming on to you so much too… I guess it’s all bravado…trying to prove I’m still attractive to men I suppose.”
He raised an eyebrow at that, “And maybe trying to git me to let ya go, in exchange for certain favors too huh?”
She flushed up and then gave him a tiny smile, “Guilty as charged,” she said softly….
He shook his head sadly, “It ain’t gonna work sweetheart. Sure you’re a real attractive woman and maybe under different circumstances…But I’m spoken for too and there’s no way I’d cheat on my girl….”
Then there was a discrete cough and they both spun around to see Bessie standing behind them…
“Well that’s good to know Deputy,” she said sarcastically, “so maybe we could get going…I do believe you said we might make it back to Laramie sometime today?”
Jess glanced across the lake and then up to the sky and shook his head, “We’ve got us a good long way to go yet ma’am and with those old snow clouds rolling in I can’t guarantee it will be today or the day after either….”
They set off shortly afterwards but as Jess had surmised, they were in for some more dire weather and after a few hours the going was so bad that they had to dismount and carry on, on foot, leading their mounts.
Jonty and Seth, the horses Jess had brought from the ranch, were bearing up well. Jess riding Seth and using Jonty as a pack horse with the women’s luggage and all their supplies. However, the rather skittish grey Nancy was riding and the heavy old nag, Hero, Bessie was on were finding the going really tough.
As the snow started coming down again Jess looked around him anxiously. They were further down the pass now and the terrain had opened up to give a vista of open prairie, the wind blasting across it driving the snow relentlessly into their faces. However, there was no place to shelter so they just had to carry on as best they could through the ever-worsening weather conditions.
So it was that Jess gave a huge sigh of relief when he saw a bend in the road with some standing pines and knew they were coming up to an old abandoned line shack. It was now only mid-afternoon, but dusk was falling fast and he decided they should stay there for the night and hopefully be able to push on in the morning.
Both women were exhausted and happy to take an early break…until they saw where they would be spending the night that is… There was an old lean to for the horses, which on inspection was in quite good repair…
Then Jess advanced on the shack and as he pushed the door open it practically fell off its hinges…Taking it in his stride he pushed it open further and peered inside, the smell of damp and decay almost overpowering. He turned and saw the faces of the woman and said quickly, “Hey it’ll be just fine once we’ve got us a fire lit, you’ll see….”
The women folk were looking pretty dang miserable so Jess thought. And who could blame them with the wind moaning in the pines and a pack of wolves howling off in the distance…Well it sure weren’t the best way to spend an evening he surmised as he shivered and looked at their less than welcoming abode for the night.
As it happened it wasn’t as dire as he’d been expecting. They set a good fire and once that was blazing away Jess once more cooked supper, producing a quite reasonable rabbit stew. Afterwards they relaxed back sipping coffee, that Jess had once more liberally laced with Red Eye. They chatted quite convivially for an hour or two almost being able to forget they were guards and prisoner.
Eventually Bessie stretched out on her bedroll by the fire and was soon snoring softly.
Jess and Nancy exchanged an amused glance, before Jess topped up their cups with the warming spirit.
Nancy accepted it with gratitude and then sighed softly, “I guess this is where I try and seduce you again…my last chance before we reach the prison,” she said throwing him a cheeky glance.
Jess raised a quizzical eyebrow, unsure if she were joking or not…
But then she smiled properly at him, “Don’t worry I know when I’m beaten. You’re obviously an honorable man…and besides you’re besotted with um…Millie is it?”
Jess nodded and then said in surprise, “So what do you know of me and Millie?”
“I’ve seen her in town, we’ve talked some, plus I know what the guard’s told me… It seems her aunt, that housekeeper over at the doc’s, was real impressed at how you were when your girl was hurt one time?” * See #64 The Beginning

Jess’s head shot up and he drew a deep breath as he remembered back to that terrible time when Millie had been badly hurt, her life hanging in the balance. How he’d refused to leave her side when everyone had given up on her…and then finally how she’d pulled through… Sure Ma Braddock had been there seen it all…
He shook his head, “That ain’t anybody else’s business,” he said angrily…
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly, hanging her head, “that ol’ guard wasn’t gossiping exactly. She just said that her aunt, that um…Ma Braddock was real impressed at how devoted you were, that’s all she didn’t say anymore... I figure she was just trying to make a point,” she finished sadly. “That I was wasting my time trying to lead you on I guess…”
Jess relented a little when he heard that, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to snap at ya…it’s just…well she nearly died it was a real hard time….”
Then he peered across at the prisoner, where she was sitting peering sadly into the fire…
“You were my last hope,” she whispered, “I guess I’m going to have to face the fact that there’s no escape for me,” she said finishing on a sob…
“Look it’ll be OK,” Jess said quickly, never liking to see females crying that way. “I said I’d talk to Davy didn’t I…maybe he’ll drop the charges huh?”
“Really,” she said softly, “you’d do that for me?”
“Sure, I said I would, didn’t I?”

Chapter 4
The following morning Jess was delighted to see that the snow had stopped and the sun was shining down out of a crystal-clear blue sky. However, the snow drifts were high and it took him a good half hour to dig his way back into the old lean-to and feed and water the horses…
Once the horses were tended, he stood surveying the pristine scene before him. Sure it were real purty he said to himself, but hell it was dangerous too… He knew there was now no shelter between here and the prison and that the weather could change at any time… Hell if they were caught in a bad storm, he knew they wouldn’t survive it. But there again to stay put meant certain death…The wood stocks were low as were their food supplies. And with little likelihood of being able to shoot any game out in the winter wilderness he knew they just had to head out… Talk about bein’ stuck between a rock and a hard place he mused as he went to saddle up and chivvy the woman folk along.
The Snowy Pass had been closed to traffic since the beginning of October and so the snow hadn’t been compressed by other travelers and it drifted across the road, sometimes up to several feet high… They had to dismount frequently and negotiate their away around the drifts. So the journey that should have taken a few hours consumed most of the day.
It was late afternoon when the familiar profile of the Prison came into view.
Jess reined in and viewed the dark, forbidding building with mixed feelings… Sure he was glad to see it and be back in Laramie, couldn’t wait to get home…But there again he felt a certain amount of sympathy for Nancy and the fate that awaited her.
She had reined her horse in beside him and he saw a look of panic in her troubled eyes.
Turning in the saddle he motioned for Bessie to join them…
“You’ll look out for her won’t you Ma’am,” he said quietly, “help her settle in huh?”
Bessie nodded and then said briskly, “Come along my dear we’d better get it over with,” and she took the prisoner’s horse’s reins and led her off towards the prison entrance.
Thankfully Jess was spared a protracted farewell as Nancy was taken away at once…A heart rending look and little wave to Jess all she was allowed.
Then once the paperwork was completed to the Governor’s satisfaction Jess rode out…Somehow feeling as though he had abandoned the woman. He had begun to quite like her over the last few days… Even Bessie had grown on him a tad and he’d agreed he would pass on a letter to Ma Braddock for her….
“Tell her I’ll visit as soon as I get time off,” she said to Jess just before he rode out, “and maybe I’ll see you in town?” She added hopefully.
Jess just smiled, “Maybe,” and tipped his hat to her before kneeing Seth off at a brisk trot, Jonty following on.
He left to the bleak sound of prison doors slamming shut and shivered a little with apprehension as he hit the road into town once more. After a mile or so he crossed the tracks and made for Main Street.
He left the horses at the livery with strict instructions that they should have a good rub down and extra rations after their long arduous journey.
By now it was after suppertime and he was in a quandary as to what to do first. He knew Slim and all at the ranch would be worrying about him, so he needed to head out early the following morning…But he also had a few things he needed to do before then.
He decided as he was passing the Sheriff’s office he would speak to Mort first and explain about the prisoner he’d brought back for Sheriff Red Smith and inquire about the hearing with the Judge…Then he would call in at the saloon and see his girl, Millie, he thought happily…Visiting with Davy Watts, who now worked at the Stage Line Office, and delivering Bessie’s note to her aunt could wait until the morning he decided.
Mort was just pouring himself a coffee as Jess entered and smiling in welcome poured out another and carried both cups over to the desk, pushing one across to his old friend. Jess already making himself at home on the spare chair.
“Good trip he inquired?”
Jess nodded, and filled him in on delivering Checco safely to his beautiful ailing wife. He also told Mort about agreeing to escort the prisoner, Nancy Kline, back to the Fed Pen and offering to try and help her some.
“So you’re going to try and get Davy Watts to drop the charges then?” Mort asked with a quizzical glance…
Jess just nodded, “Hell Mort it was a crime of passion. She wasn’t in her right mind when she did it….I guess she don’t deserve to be in that Hell Hole…”
Mort just grinned… “So good looking woman is she then Jess?”
Jess just scowled at him, “I feel a mite sorry fer her ‘tis all Mort.”
Mort nodded deciding not to tease his old buddy, especially not under the current difficult circumstances they were going through at the ranch anyway…
He sipped his coffee and then said, “So I expect you’re in town to visit Slim then?”
Jess put his cup down with a clatter… “Huh?”
“Well you’ve been to the ranch, haven’t you? Heard about the accident?” Mort asked looking slightly wrong footed.
Jess just gaped open mouthed… “No I ain’t, come straight from Rawlins…what the hell’s goin’ on Mort, what accident?”
Mort sighed deeply and then said, “Well I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news Jess… but Slim took a bad fall from one of the ranch horses. That big bugger…er Samson, that’s it. He was pulling a tree root out and Slim was riding him. Well the horse lost his footing on some loose rocks and fell, taking Slim with him…he rolled on him Jess…”
Jess turned ashen… “He’s hurt bad?”
Mort nodded his head sadly, “Pretty bad, bruising and cuts of course, but the worst is a busted leg…It’s real bad Jess, broken in three places so the doc says.”
“The stupid fool,” Jess whispered, “why was he riding that dang horse…he should have been leading him….”
Mort shook his head, “He said he was playing up…only way he could get him to do as he was told I guess…”
Jess felt a stab of guilt almost akin to pain in his stomach… Hell he was the one that always worked Samson, their heavy shire horse… He was invaluable on the ranch for all the heavyweight work like pulling lumber and heaving out tree roots. But heck, he was one feisty critter and Jess was really the only one that could handle him.
“Garldarn it, why didn’t he wait for me to get back?” He spat angrily, the fear for his pard making him sound querulous, whereas he was actually just real upset Mort knew.
Then he leapt up from his seat practically knocking it flying before making for the door.
“Darn it, where are you off to?” Mort called after him…
“To see my pard of course,” Jess spat as he charged through the door…
“Kinda late to be calling on the sick ain’t it?” Mort ventured…but Jess had gone.
*******
“Ah I’ve been expecting you,” said Doc Baker giving Jess a warm smile, “come on through to the parlour…”
“Can’t I see him Sam?” Jess asked quickly….
But Sam merely steered him through and pushed him gently towards a fireside chair…
“All in good time…it’s rather late to be visiting the sick you know buddy...he may be asleep already.”
“Well can’t I go look, I won’t wake him,” Jess said pleadingly…
“You look worn out and pretty cold too, here get this down you,” Sam said pouring a glass of whiskey…then we’ll go check him a little later…But we need to talk first,” he said looking grave and passing the whiskey over. He took the chair opposite and threw Jess a wary glance.
“Go on,” said Jess ignoring the drink in his hand.
“It was quite a complex break, the femur…that’s the big old bone that runs up to your hip was smashed…and also fractures to the tibia and fibula…the ones of the lower leg.”
“OK, OK git to the point Sam,” said Jess irritably…
Sam sighed knowing that Jess’s impatience was born of fear for his pard…
“Well what I’m trying to say is that I needed to call a specialist in to help me set the leg. An osteopath from Denver and it was very uncomfortable for Slim, really took it out of him…He’s still in quite a bit of pain…but more than that he’s…”
“What Doc?”
“Well he’s really worried about the ranch. He thinks it will be too much for you to run it alone for weeks on end…”
“Weeks?”
“Yes Jess you see it will be a good while before he can even walk again, much less ride and work. He will be confined to bed here in my hospital room for quite some time. It’ll be down to you to run things at the ranch and relay for the winter months.”
Jess shrugged, “That’s OK I can cope, hell he should know that….”
“That’s not all that’s bothering him,” said Sam suddenly looking uncomfortable…
“What is it Sam? Spit it out fer God’s sake,” Jess said querulously, just wanting Sam to finish and let him see his pard.
“Well it’s about the fee,” Sam said looking acutely embarrassed, “as you know I often waive my fee if I can in exchange for hunting or fishing on your land…that’s what friends do. Or I charge the minimum for any drugs used that I am able…”
“I know,” said Jess looking up, “and it’s really appreciated you know that Sam….”
“Well it goes without saying we’re friends and like I say… that’s what they do…But I’m afraid Doctor James is an out and out business man and as the best in his field, well he charges rather high fees… which I needed to pay up front on your behalf.”
“Well I’m sure glad you got the best for Slim,” Jess said, “It seems like he’s been real sick…and of course we’ll settle up with you…so what are we talkin ’ about Sam?”
The doctor mentioned an eye wateringly large amount and Jess gaped before recovering…
“Sure Doc we’ll see you right…may have to wait a little until we’ve sold off some stock though…”
“There really is no rush,” Sam said awkwardly… “I wouldn’t have raised the matter if Doctor James hadn’t mentioned it to Slim directly.” He shook his head, “James may be a damn good osteopath, but he’s surely lacking in bedside manner and empathy.”
“Yeah well, he earned the money, so he has to be paid…you too,” Jess said firmly. “Now can I see him, please Sam?”
He entered the dimly lit room alone after reassuring Sam he wouldn’t stay too long or tire the patient.
He stood on the threshold of the sick room and took a deep breath…Then after a moment he entered and walking softly over to the bed stood looking down at his best friend…
The scariest thing, apart from the bandaged leg, held up on a cradle like support…was the fragility of his pard…. He looked so dang pale and scrawny. Even in sleep there was a tension about his handsome features. New pain lines around his mouth that Jess had never seen before…His blond hair lankly brushed back, dark shadows beneath his eyes…
After a few seconds he seemed to be aware of Jess’s presence and his eyes flicked open, focusing on his pard at once….
“Well you sure took your time,” he said with a ghost of a smile, “me and Miss Daisy figured you were spending the winter over in Rawlins getting pie-eyed with the Sheriff every night…”
Hell how could he make jokes at a time like this Jess thought.
“I’m sorry,” he said sinking down on the edge of the bed, “I’m so dang sorry Slim…”
“Hey what have you got to be sorry about?” Slim asked raising an eyebrow. “I was just joshing you. We knew you’d be back sooner or later and we all agreed you should help Checco out didn’t we huh?”
Jess just shook his head, “I should have been here…and what were you doin’ messin ’ around with that ol’ Samson, you know the way he is…”
Slim shrugged, “I know it…but there was just this one tree root in the way of where I was putting the new gate into the south pasture…I guess I should have waited for you…But I wanted it in place before the bad weather. It’ll make feeding and watering the herd so much easier if we have a bad winter,” he added.
“So how are ya feelin ’ does it hurt real bad?” He asked glancing at where the elevated limb was splinted and bandaged.
“Not too much now Jess, I’m just so darned annoyed it happened…The Jackson boys have been wonderful helping out, but we can’t expect them to carry on. Their Pa needs them on his own spread now the bad weather’s here.”
“Well I’m back now, it’ll be fine Slim, don’t worry huh?”
“How can I not? That’s a hell of an ask for you to run the place single handed Jess…it’s going to be weeks you know…”
“I know it …and it’s fine really…. And look on the bright side you get to see your Lily over the winter huh?”
Slim smiled at that, “She’s been great, Millie too…have you seen her?”
“Nope just rode in half an hour ago, then Mort told me….”
“Well heck what are you waiting for Jess…go see her and give her a big hug from me huh….”
Jess nodded and got up reluctantly, “I’ll call by tomorrow before I head home…if there’s anything you need?”
Slim shook his head sadly, “Just to turn the clock back I reckon,” he said ruefully….
Then he brightened a little and calling for paper and pencil made a short list out.
Jess made his way across the deserted, icy street to the saloon and on entering saw it was practically empty. There were just a few die hard drinkers propping up the bar and a couple of old timers off in the corner playing checkers.
Peering through the dim light his heart leapt as he saw Millie at the far end ofthe bar absently polishing a glass and looking into space… As he hurried over, she looked up and gave a little gasp of pleasure. Her face lighting up with joy, she ran from behind the bar and straight into his waiting arms…
He held her close for a moment before looking down into her upturned face and leaning in to kiss her tenderly on the lips…
It was the cat calls from the cronies at the bar that brought them to their senses and blushing she returned to her post and went to pour him a drink….
Once the teasing had abated, she sat at the end of the bar with him exchanging their news…
“Poor Slim, we’ve been visiting as often as we can,” she said. “Lily was so upset about it all at first… But the doc says he should recover completely…given time.”
“Thank God,” said Jess with feeling, “I feel so dang bad about it you know Mill…”
“Not your fault, you were just doing Checco a good turn.” she said kindly.
“Um…not the only good turn I got landed with,” he said sadly and explained all about bringing the prisoner back to the Fed Penn for Sheriff Smith.
“Uh, I know all about that,” Millie declared. “Nancy was a member of the Woman’s Group at one time and I thought she adored Davy…said he was the only man who had ever treated her right…”
“I guess that’s why she was so dang mad when she thought he’d cheated on her then,” Jess said.
“Oh but he didn’t, “said Millie quickly.
“You seem real knowledgeable about it all,” he said with a grin…
“Oh I do, he comes in here and drowns his sorrows occasionally…said she was the love of his life…That’s why it all happened you see.”
“Huh?”
“Well you know he was a wrangler at old man Black’s ranch?”
Jess nodded, “I can’t figure as to how he gets anyone to work for him mean ol’ skinflint.”
“Exactly that’s why Davy started playing the tables at the Last Chance…and losing terribly. He only did it to try and get some money together so he and Nancy could get Wed. That Ruby was aiming to get him to stop throwing his money away. She knew the tables were rigged and she was trying to talk him out of wasting his money…that’s all. There wasn’t anything going on between them.”
Jess shook his head in amazement, “So Ruby was just trying to help…and Nancy thought he was playin’ around with her?”
“That’s right…and then she shot him and lit out before he could explain.”
Jess sighed and ran a hand over his face, suddenly feeling weary. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” he said, before yawning widely…
“You go on up,” she whispered, “You look done in.”
He nodded, “OK, I guess I am. But Millie…uh….” Then he leaned in so he couldn’t be overheard, “You be sure and wake me when you come up huh?”
She flushed up a little her eyes sparkling, “I thought you were dog tired?”
He picked up his saddle bags and said softly, “Not that tired,” and with a cheeky wink made his way up to her room….
It was the first rays of sunshine filtering through a gap in the curtains that woke him the next morning.
He opened his eyes and looked around him, but the big bed was empty… then he saw her enter from her little kitchen, bearing two mugs of steaming coffee…
She placed them carefully on the nightstand and smiled down at him, ‘Morning sleepy head,” she said softly…
He grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her back into the bed beside him, “I thought you were gonna wake me last night,” he said forlornly.
“Aw honey, you looked so peaceful I didn’t have the heart to do it,” she said with a little giggle…
“Well I’m awake now,” he said, throwing her a smouldering look and leaning in he took her face in his hands and began kissing her very fervently…
The coffee was cold and the sun risen high in the sky before they eventually got up and started their day…
Jess had finally dragged himself away from his girl as she had to start work. But he left promising to visit again as soon as he possibly could, although they both knew that could well be some time off. What with the inclement weather and added responsibilities at the ranch, it was anyone’s guess when he’d get back to town he thought ruefully. He sighed deeply and giving his girl a little salute of farewell marched off down Main Street on his way to see Davy Watts at the Stage Office.
Once the situation had been explained to the young clerk, he was absolutely beside himself with horror that his beloved Nancy was ensconced in the prison…
Jess was somewhat amazed at how forgiving he was, but that was love for you he surmised.
“I must go there at once, have her released,” he said, ready to leave his desk and drive out that very minute…
“Hey hang on there Davy, it ain’t that simple,” Jess said quickly. “You have to do all this by the book. Visit Sheriff Cory and make your wishes known that all charges are dropped, and then attend the hearing in front of the Judge. At the end of the day it’ll be down to him whether she receives a pardon or not… And you really don’t wanna go off half-cocked. You walk out right now you could lose yer job…So just be patient a while huh?”
Eventually Davy saw the wisdom of Jess’s words and thanked him profusely, for all he had done to care for his girl and giving his invaluable advice too.
Jess was finally able to do the marketing for Slim and some half hour later was admitted to the Doctor’s Office by Ma Braddock.
“Hello Mister Harper dear, we were expecting you. Doctor is out on his rounds but he said you were welcome to visit, I’ll show you through and fetch some coffee,” she said kindly.
Jess thanked her and then gave a good imitation of Mose Shell, as he patted all his pockets looking for the letter from Bessie Braddock for her Aunt. He finally located it in the rear pocket of his denims and it was greeted with delight from the elderly lady.
She had already heard from the Doc that Jess had accompanied her niece from Rawlins. Now she asked, “So do you think dear Bessie will be a good guard Mister Harper?”
Jess coughed nervously, the woman had been caught sleeping on the job and let her prisoner escape and then Nancy had practically drowned whilst in her care…
“Um…I’m sure she will be,” Jess said crossing his fingers behind his back, “given a little more experience ya know?”
Ma Braddock smiled benignly up at him, “Oh I’m so glad dear. I’m pleased she’s found a suitable career… Poor Bessie just isn’t cut out to be a wife and mother I’m afraid.”
“No Ma’am,” Jess agreed remembering how she had practically poisoned him with her cooking the first night…How she dressed and pretty much acted like a man a lot of the time and conversely was exceptionally prudish and fussy the rest. Not to mention the fact that she had kept him awake all one night with her loud snoring.
“Anyway, I’ll make you boys that coffee,” she said brightly and she bustled off, leaving Jess at the hospital room door.
He was pleased to see his pard looking much more himself that morning as Jess unpacked the gunny sack full of the purchases, he’d made on his pard’s behalf.
He pulled out a couple of pairs of new undershorts, and several library books.
“I hope those are OK,” he said, “Ezra chose them from his library shelf in the mercantile; he seemed to think you’d like them?”
Slim looked at the titles on the spine of the books and smiled happily, “Perfect thanks…”
Then there was a bottle of whiskey, as a small thank you for Sam, so Slim professed, along with some candy for Ma Braddock and young Carrie, the doc’s pretty daughter cum nurse.
“I got these for you,” Jess said with a grin producing a half bottle of whiskey and a copy of the Laramie Sentential.
“That should keep you up to date with all the latest scandal in town,” he said grinning and then passing the whiskey over said, “I got a half, thought it would be easier to hide from Carrie.”
Slim chuckled but before he could thank his pard properly the door flew open revealing Carrie carrying a tray of coffee…
“Uh, so what would be easier to hide from Carrie?” She asked fixing both men with a stern look…
In one slick movement Slim secreted the bottle beneath his pillow whilst Jess reached for the box of candy…
“Why just this sweetheart,” he said innocently, “Slim wanted to surprise you, just a little thank you present.”
Carries expression melted and she grinned at her two favorite cowboys…
“Well thank you,” she said and after putting the tray down carefully at the bedside, went to receive a hug and kiss on the cheek from Jess… and they exchanged a look of deep mutual affection…
Gee time was this would have been real difficult Slim thought as he watched them so easy in each other’s company now… But heck it hadn’t always been that way and the couple had history. Back when Carrie was a mere teen, she’d had a monumental crush on Jess nearly driving him crazy with her unwanted attention. (See #3 The Doctor’s Daughter). Then over the years they had become real close, Carrie wanting marriage and Jess knowing it wasn’t right, she was so much younger, but sorely tempted at one stage. However now they were just the best of friends, thank goodness Slim thought, remembering all the angst their on/off relationship had generated in the past.
“So is he behavin ’ then?” Jess asked grinning down at his pard.
“The perfect patient,” Carrie said, straightening Slim’s pillow and beaming at him.
The she turned back to Jess, “I thank goodness it’s not you confined to bed for a few weeks,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, “you’re so impatient it would be a nightmare.”
“Huh, what... me? I’m a pussy cat,” Jess said looking deeply hurt…but the twinkle in his own eye giving away his true feelings…
Carrie laughed out loud, “You’re kidding me. Heck Jess you’d be like that old Bull of yours, stuck on the wrong side of the fence from the herd…You’d be stomping and blowing…not to mention bellowing in fury…after the first week!”
Jess grinned at her… “Uh so you see me as an ornery old bull do ya?”
She flushed a little then thinking the conversation was heading into slightly risqué territory…
“You flatter yourself I don’t really think of you at all,” she said in a very stern voice…before spoiling the act completely by giggling uncontrollably…
Jess and Slim joined in her laughter, “Oh well that’s good thanks fer tellin ’ me where I stand in yer affections,” Jess managed before they all fell about laughing again…
That’s the way the doctor found them when he returned from his rounds.
He strode in and said, “I hope you two aren’t tiring my patient,” but the grin on his face belying the strict words.
“Heck no Sam,” Slim said, “they’re a real tonic…”
But then he glanced out of the window, “Uh-uh….”
They all turned to gaze at the scene without, soft snowflakes drifting dreamily down...
Jess frowned, “I guess I’d better be heading for home Hardrock, whilst the goings still good.”
*******
He rode into the yard and heard the sound of cheerful whistling coming from the barn. Dismounting he left Jonty and Seth by the water trough and made his way into the barn, where he was surprised to see Chas Jackson busily grooming Alamo…
“Howdy buddy,” Jess said offering a hand to the younger man, “so how come you’re still here, I thought you were just coming by to do the heavy work?” He looked around and noted the barn had been mucked out, all the horses fed and watered and as he rode in, he’d noted the stock had been fed too…
Chas grinned at him, “No sweat Jess, the jobs needed doin’, but I guess I’m glad you’re home. Pa could do with us both on side right now. Pete’s back home helping out, but we’re moving the stock closer by. Pa thinks it’s gonna be a real bad winter.”
“Sure, sure,” said Jess quickly, “I can finish in here, you get off…”
Then as an afterthought, “So where’s Mike, this is his job…and he ain’t in school, the Stage ain’t running today.”
“Uh…oh the poor little kid’s sick,” Chas said as he made for the door, “Mrs Cooper’s kept him indoors the last few days…
Jess looked anxious, “Not serious?”
“Nope, don’t think so…see ya Jess,” and he mounted up and was off.
“Yeah, sure, thanks Chas, tell your Pa I’ll be by to settle up…
When he entered the house, he was greeted by the dogs, Buttons and Blue wagging their tails excitedly in welcome and he patted them quickly before marching over to the fireside. Mike was sitting in Jess’s rocker, pulled up to the fire, a blanket around his shoulders and a school book on his lap… He looked up as his hero approached, but made no attempt to stand up and run over.
Jess went and hunkered down beside the boy noting his pale peaky appearance. His nose was red and eyes lackluster. However, he perked up some when Jess ruffled his hair.
“Hey Tiger what’s up, you sick?”
The child nodded and when he spoke, he sounded very thick, “I’ve got me a kinda bad cold Jess…Aunt Daisy made me stay in…I’m real sorry I couldn’t tend the horses…”
“Gee Tiger, that’s OK, not your fault,” Jess said quickly, “you just keep warm and stay inside until you’re better huh.”
Then he produced a comic book from his jacket pocket, “ I figure that’ll make fer more interesting reading,” he said with a wink as he replaced the school book with the comic.
“Gee thanks Jess,” the child said visibly brightening…
“So where is Aunt Daisy?” Jess asked looking around him.
“Out back, she said she needed to dig up the rest of the taters before the ground got too hard...been out there for ages Jess.”
“The heck she has,” Jess said softly, “in this?” And he glanced out of the window to where the snow was now coming down thick and fast.
He made his way out of the kitchen door and around the back of the ranch house to Daisy’s kitchen garden. And there she was, dressed in an old rain-slicker of Slim’s up to her ankles in cold muddy earth digging away like her life depended upon it. There was a sack half full of potatoes at her side, and another full one in the wheelbarrow.
She was so busy, bent to her task, that she didn’t see Jess until he was upon her. She gave a little cry of shock, quickly followed by one of pleasure when she saw who it was standing over her.
Jess quickly removed the garden fork from her grasp, before firmly propelling her towards the house.
Once they were in the kitchen she said indignantly, “Why Jess whatever are you doing? I really must harvest the rest of the crop before dark.”
Jess just shook his head and cast her an amused glance tinged with affection.
“Well howdy Daisy good to see you too,” he said ignoring her statement and leaning in to hug her.
“Oh Jess dear I’m sorry…welcome home,” she said quickly, then disentangling herself from his warm embrace said, “But I really must finish off out there.”
Jess shook his head, “Nope only place you’re going is the fireside to keep Mike company. I’m gonna make you a hot drink and then fire up the stove to heat some water for the hot tub…Then while that’s heating, I’ll go finish up out there.”
“Oh Jess dear I can manage I’m fine really.”
He shook his head again, catching hold of both her hands, “No you ain’t yer freezin’. I’ll fill up the hot tub in your room when I’ve finished out back…and then you can have supper in bed.”
Before she could speak, he held his hand up, “and no arguments…”
She looked like she might start fussing, but no…she finally agreed. But said she would just like a little soup. “Mike had some for lunch… just heat the pan up dear and thank you… I am a little tired.”
Jess was pretty surprised, by her compliance, but it merely made him realize just how exhausted she really must be.
Once supper was over and he’d tucked Mike up in bed, he tapped on Daisy’s door.
“Just come to collect your dish,” he said quietly as he entered…
“Thank you dear, that was delicious,” Daisy said relaxing back on her pillows, “but I feel a dreadful fraud lying here and leaving you with all the chores.”
He sank down on the edge of the bed taking her hand, “Daisy are you OK? You look awful pale.”
“Oh I’m just fine my dear. I may have over done it a tad these last few days, but now you’re home things can get back to normal…I just wish Slim were here too,” she said softly.
“Me too…he sent his love, said you’re not to fret,” Jess said smiling down at her.
She returned the smile, “Bless him,” she whispered.
“Mike will be OK,” he added, “just a cold?”
“Oh yes, he’ll be fine. You know Jess, when he’s sick, but not bad enough to be confined to bed, he always settles on your old rocker… I think he feels closer to you there,” she said with a little chuckle.
“Crazy kid,” Jess said, but looking kinda pleased all the same…
“OK so Mike’s alright and Slim ’s  bein ’ spoiled rotten over at the Doc’s place so you’ve no cause to fret huh?”
“I’ll try not to Jess dear...but I am worried. Folk are saying this is going to be the worst winter in many a year…we will be safe here, won’t we?”
“Sure we will Daisy…heck what could go wrong? We ain’t gonna let a bit of bad weather bother us, are we?”

Chapter 5
Daisy tried very hard not to remind Jess of those, ‘famous last words ’ as she remembered that difficult winter when the three of them endured so much…
It all started for Jess the following morning when he awoke to a cold, quiet house… He sat up and looked blearily around him. Weak sunlight was filtering in through the threadbare curtains. So he must have slept in he reasoned…but there was no smell of bacon or coffee gently wafting into the room and as he dragged himself out of bed he shivered…dang it, he was freezing…
He stumbled about the room pulling on his clothes and boots before making for the parlor. He stood on the threshold looking perplexed. The fire that should be blazing cheerfully, having been stirred into life by Daisy at first light, was completely out. Then turning his head towards her door noted it was tightly shut…
He mooched over to the kitchen and found that too cold with no sign of the cook stove having been lit, or the coffee on…
He ran a hand through his unruly dark locks before ambling over to the stove…where he stoked it up before putting the coffee pot in place and going off to attend to the parlour fire… Then he stood irresolute wondering whether to check on Daisy or let her sleep… Then his mind was made up for him when he heard the sound of coughing emanating from her room.
On entering he saw she was coughing violently, her face puce from the effort and eyes streaming. He quickly helped her to sit up and then offered her a tumbler of water from the night stand… Once she caught her breath she collapsed back on the pillows and said, “Oh Jess dear I’m sorry I must have overslept…I’ll fix breakfast right away…”
“No, you won’t,” Jess said stoutly, “yer goin’ nowhere Daisy… I’ll bring you something to eat and you’re to stay in bed, until yer feelin’ better.”
When she started objecting, he shook his head grinning at her, “Hey Daisy have ya forgotten, that I’m the ornery one as far as bein’ sick’s concerned… now you just behave or I’ll bring Blue in here to guard you,” he said chuckling…
Then he sobered, “Besides I guess none of us can afford to get real sick right now Daisy, because way the roads are the doc just wouldn’t get through…fact is I wouldn’t even make it to town…so you have to be real careful, understand?”
She looked suddenly anxious, “Yes indeed dear, I do…and you’re right. I’ll stay in bed and keep warm all the sooner to be well again.”
“That’s my girl,” he said grinning down at her, “breakfast comin’ right up!”
Daisy was confined to bed for over two weeks and with Mike still out of action it was down to Jess to run the place single handed… Not that he minded, of course he didn’t, all he wanted was for dear Daisy to be her old self again…and if that took time then so be it.
He milked the house cow and fed and watered the chickens and all the livestock. He checked the herd and groomed the horses, chopped wood, cooked and washed up. Waited hand and foot on dear Daisy and played endless games of checkers with Mike, before making a final check on all the stock and falling into bed exhausted every night.
This went on for nearly two weeks and Jess was worried, real worried… about Daisy. The cough had persisted and he was concerned she might succumb to lung fever…So he upped his time with her, nursing her diligently. When a fever struck, he stayed with her every second he could spare, wiping her brow and making her take tiny sips of water when the coughing threatened to overwhelm her.
Daisy was completely stunned by the gentle care he showed her, nursing her so tenderly. Yes she had always known he had a caring side, although like all young men he preferred to keep it well hidden…But this? The way he had sat up with her night after night, when it was clear he was exhausted himself…Well it was truly inspiring…and rather humbling too…That he should invest so much time and care, goodness she might have been his Ma she thought, the way he’d looked out for her…This from a tough, hard hitting no nonsense ex gunslinger too she thought with a little chuckle…Jess certainly was a man of contrasts…The most complex and intriguing personality that she had ever met…
It was early one morning on the second week of her confinement when she awoke feeling a little better…the fever had broken in the night and she had enjoyed her first proper sleep in over a fortnight.
Her eyes sprang open and she peered around her in the dim, early-dawn light…her gaze finally coming to rest on Jess slumped in a bedside chair, sleeping deeply…His slender face looking pale and drawn in the ghostly light cast by the reflection of the snow from the yard outside.
He eventually seemed to feel her scrutinizing him and was suddenly wide-awake peering down at her anxiously….
“Daisy what is it?” He asked softly, a gentle finger wiping a tear away from her cheek, that she wasn’t even aware of…. “Do ya feel worse?”
She shook her head, “No dear, on the contrary I think I’m feeling much better…I’m going to be just fine.”
He raised a quirky eyebrow, “Well that’s good ain’t it, nuthin ’ to get upset about huh?”
“I’m, not upset dear, just so relieved and somewhat overwhelmed too…”
“Huh…overwhelmed?”
“By all the care and kindness you’ve shown me over these last weeks, Jess dear, I couldn’t have been better looked after if I was your own dear Ma…”
He looked down momentarily embarrassed, before looking up into her eyes, “I guess that’s because it’s the way we all think of you Daisy,” he said softly…squeezing her hand…
Then the tears started to flow in earnest, “Jess Harper you truly are a good man,” she whispered.
Jess fetched her hankie and grinning added, “no matter what folk say huh?”
That was one of Slim’ s favorite jibes and just what was needed to lighten the atmosphere…Before long Daisy had dried her tears and Jess had marched off to make them a slap-up celebratory breakfast…yes dear Daisy was on the mend…
*******
Once Daisy and Mike were both on their feet life became a little easier for Jess.
When he was completely sure his beloved housekeeper was on top form again, he went off to a small copse of standing pines on the far side of the home pasture to fell some trees for fire wood. The weather was still bitterly cold and as they had seen no sign of the Stage for over three weeks. Jess figured the road must still be blocked with snowdrifts or worse maybe a landslide…which would take weeks to clear in this inclement weather…So there was little hope of any support from friends or neighbours with the tree felling. They had used way more fuel than usual, as the weather was so cold, and there was nothing for it but that he venture out and do the task alone.
Leading Samson he marched off across the icy wastes of the pasture land and was soon busy felling a couple of young Scotts pine…and hauling them back to the yard…Samson seemed to know he was in the doghouse and behaved impeccably for Jess…But the damage had been done he reflected to Daisy later…
“Not that I blame the old fellah, I guess he couldn’t help losing his footing that way…but I sure wish he hadn’t.”
“I wonder how dear Slim is faring.” Daisy said as they finished supper that evening.
“Probably missing us as much as we are him…and we’ve Thanksgiving coming up soon too Daisy, I don’t reckon he’ll be home for that.”
“No,” she said wistfully, “even if he’s making a good recovery it will be at least another three weeks before Sam will let him begin to walk again…Then even if he could get here, maybe on the Stage…it can’t happen if the road is impassable….?”
Jess nodded, “I guess it is gonna be kind of a quiet celebration this year huh Daisy?”
Mike looked up from where he’d been concentrating on his Apple Pie and said, “What? You mean Slim won’t be coming home? Nobody will be coming for Thanksgiving?” And his huge eyes teared up.
Jess flicked an anxious glance over to Daisy and then said, “Hey Tiger don’t take on …it won’t be so bad. We’ll still have a real good meal…and we’ll say a special Thank you to the Good Lord for all our friends and hope to see ‘em real soon huh?”
The child nodded, “I guess so, but it won’t be the same without Slim and the Sheriff and Lily and Millie…will it Jess?”
“No,” Jess agreed dipping his head, “no it won’t Mike.” But then he rallied, “But we’ll make the best of it and have loads to tell Slim when we see him yeah?”
The child sighed, “I guess so…. Uh…so will we have a Turkey like we usually do?”
Jess cast a glance out to the yard where a northerly was blowing in more snow showers…the temperature dropping yet again…Heck even if he could make it as far as the old Indian burial ground, which was the closest place where he knew he’d find wild turkey, well he figured they’d all have perished in the bitter cold…or at least be holed up someplace out of the elements.
He shrugged, “I dunno if there will be any around in this Tiger,” he said tipping his head towards the window and snowy yard beyond, “maybe if it warms up some huh?” And he quickly changed the subject.
The following day they wrapped up warmly and Jess sawed the trees into logs and then split some kindling which Mike stacked neatly against the lean too by the kitchen wall ready for Daisy.
As the day progressed Jess became warmed and warmer…stripping off first his thick sheep skin jacket and then his vest …before rolling up his sleeves…
“I guess it’s true what the Arapahoe say ya know Mike, wood warms yer twice, once in the cuttin’ and then in the burnin’…”
Mike grinned at him, “I dunno about that Jess… I’m kinda warm too and I’ve just been stacking the wood…”
Jess stopped what he was doing, tipped his Stetson back and looked around him…Gee the kid was right…snow was melting from the roof…dripping down, and the sun had a definite ghostly warmth to it….
“Heck I guess you’re right,” Jess said looking elated, “I think this dang snow’s beginning to melt…Our friends might just make it through! Of course, downside is the Stage will be comin ’ through…so you’ll be back at school by next week at this rate.”
“Aw Jess,” the child said rolling his eyes, “did ya have to remind me of that!”

*******
The following morning at breakfast he made a decision.
“I’ve been thinkin’ Daisy, I reckon I’ll take a ride over to long acre on the far side of the Laramie road, see if I can scare up a Turkey for our supper next week, what do ya say?”
“Hey Jess that would be swell,” Mike enthused, “I guess it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Turkey and Aunt Daisy’s special gravy would it?”
However, Daisy was slightly more reticent, “I’m not sure dear, is it safe to venture that far in these weather conditions?”
“Oh I’ll be fine,” he said quickly, “it’s still thawing out there and the sky’s as clear as springtime…I can be there and back before you know it.”
“Please Aunt Daisy,” Mike said, “I’ll help out. Do all my chores and groom the horses too, so Jess can set off real early.”
Daisy and Jess exchanged a glance, neither wanting to disappoint the child…
“Well alright, but please be careful dear and come straight back if the weather turns, won’t you?”
Jess chuckled, “Heck Daisy you worry too much. It’s real mild out there this morning and tomorrow I reckon those ol’ turkeys will be takin’ a stroll around about dawn and I aim to be joinin’  them!”
“It’s not just the weather I’m worried about,” Daisy said later when they were alone. “There could be anyone lurking out there and desperate after the terrible weather we’ve endured…You’ve said yourself that a starving Indian will do anything to feed his family… Then there is that terrible Ramshaw Gang still at large in the area…According to that poster Mort brought when he visited before we were snowed in. Where do you suppose they are…possibly in one of our line shacks…they could attack you!”
“Hey Daisy, I reckon you’ve been stuck in here too long, lettin ’ yer imagination run away with you,” he said chuckling. “I really doubt there will be anyone ’lurking’ out there as you call it. It’s too dang cold fer lurking,” he said with a wink. “And if there is, I can handle it…you know that dontcha?” He continued with a cheeky grin…
“Oh you,” she said slapping his arm playfully. “Just be careful that’s all and set off early so that you’ll be home well before dark…
True to his word Jess set off before dawn the following morning, rejoicing in the warmer weather. Sure, it weren’t exactly balmy he had to admit, but the bitterly cold northerly had dropped and the snow was turning soft and slushy. Heck there was even a smell of spring in the air he thought as he headed off towards the copse about five miles away where he knew turkeys were usually plentiful.
He made good time and once the sun came up it shone down benignly upon him out of a cloudless, azure sky. He skirted past the old Indian burial grounds, knowing they were sacred to the Arapahoe, who still visited their dead there every year…Then he made his way down a steep bank and on towards the copse of Cottonwoods where he knew the turkey often roosted…
It was a mere hour later that he was retracing his steps back past the burial ground and heading towards home, a gunny sack tied to his saddle horn containing a good-sized turkey…
He had crossed a small river, heading for the Laramie road and about three miles from home when he was suddenly aware of a subtle change in the air around him…It had become several degrees colder and a nasty little wind had got up, ruffling Traveller’s mane and causing him to sidestep and blow through his nostrils, showing his displeasure…
“I guess you don’t like that old wind do ya fellah,” Jess said patting his neck, “don’t you fret none, we’ll be home real soon,” and he kneed him on to a greater pace…
It was the speed of events that completely stunned him…
One minute they were trotting along, the sun still smiling down on them…and then just minutes later they heard an almighty roaring sound…like an express train hurtling through Laramie … but was in fact a gale force wind…that had come from nowhere…
He looked around him and then up to the sky as the sun was obliterated by huge dark grey storm clouds…and then it was only a matter of minutes before the snow began to fall. Jess cursed the fact that he’d left his rain slicker at home in favor of his warm sheepskin jacket. Now he pulled the collar up and his hat down hard, squinting through narrowed eyes as the bitter wind whipped the icy snow in his face…
Traveller now pranced around in agitation. His ears back and showing the whites of his eyes, the sudden onslaught t having terrified him…
“Easy boy, easy,” Jess said reassuringly…as he looked around him feeling almost as overwhelmed as his good old horse…How in hell could the weather change so dang quickly he wondered as he kneed his mount on towards the Laramie road and home…
By the time he’d ridden down the road and entered Sherman land via a field gate into the south pasture he was soaked, freezing cold and darned mad. He muttered furiously under his breath calling Wyoming and its dang weather all the names he could think of. Which were quite colorful, descriptive and of the four-letter variety.
It was once he felt he was at least on home ground and should make it home safely that the force of the storm increased. It was suddenly as black as pitch…the wind driving the snow almost horizontal and it was impossible for Jess to see his hand in front of his face… That’s when he knew he must dismount and take things slow…real slow…
He had been walking for over an hour when he realized, he was completely lost… Hell he should have reached the fence and beyond that the new gate into the ranch yard by now… Even on foot it was less than two miles from the road gate…. However, what he could see of his surroundings, which was very little, the landscape was unfamiliar… The odd holly bush…some cottonwoods…and pine…hell this looked nothing like the grazing land of the south pasture. The plot of land was huge, over a hundred acres, but only twenty or so acres adjacent to the ranch had so far been fenced, the rest left fallow and wild…
Jess stopped in the lee of the trees and took stock… By his reckoning he had been walking in the exact opposite direction to the one in which he should have been heading. He was well on his way to the ranch hunting grounds over at Paradise. He cussed long and loud. How could he have been so stupid? He knew this land as well as the back of his hand. But this hostile environment had tricked him and for the first time he acknowledged he was in real danger.
He trudged on through the snow, sometimes falling over hidden rocks or branches, sometimes falling through pure exhaustion. But he always managed to haul himself up again, cursing and holding onto Traveller’s stirrup to pull himself up and forcing himself to carry on… knowing the alternative was certain death. The snow was now knee deep in places and drifting to several feet in others as he wandered on blindly through the living hell that he suddenly had found himself in.
Then he fell again and this time was just too weary to move….
Traveller stopped and turned …nudging the comatose body with his head and blowing gently through his nostrils as he tried in vain to wake his beloved master….
Jess came around a few minutes later with Traveller nibbling at his hair…his hat missing…
“Ger off,” he finally managed batting the horse away and groping around in the snow beside him for his hat.
Then he heard it, the unmistakable sound of a wolf in full cry, the desolate sound sending shivers down his spine…
It seemed to be coming from dead ahead and getting more and more frenzied as he listened… Then his blood ran cold…and he remembered his conversation of the day before with Daisy.
“You told me yourself a starving Indian will do anything to feed his family,” she had said.
“Hell,” Jess whispered to himself now, it weren’t just Indians that would do anything to support their starving family…wolves would too…
That old wolf was probably trying to get to Daisy and Mike, left alone in the ranch…right now…
He was suddenly charged with fear induced energy and pulling himself up, once more he picked up his hat rammed it in place and made off purposefully, leading Traveller, in the direction of the howling critter…
Maybe it was because he was rushing, heedless of his safety, that he tripped again in the now horrendous conditions…and fell heavily catching his head on a rock as he went down hard…knocking himself out…
This time all Traveller’s tricks couldn’t wake him and the exhausted horse just stood helplessly by, head hanging, shivering and looking totally spent as the wind wailed around him and the snow fell thicker and thicker almost completely covering his master…
Jess came around some ten minutes later, the pain in his head and whole body making him want to retch…blood streaming from the gash to his head…He was so cold he could hardly move…and then he heard the otherworldly sound of the wolf baying and yelping…But this time much closer….His last thought before he passed out again, ‘well at least he’s left the ranch and Daisy and Mike will be spared’.
Then just minutes later he came round and felt the wolf’s hot breath on the back of his neck…
He tried desperately to draw his gun, but his arm and hands were so bone achingly numb with cold he could barely move them…. he shuddered and waited for the attack he knew must come…and then….
There was a volley of excited barks…and he was being licked by a rough pink tongue… He rolled on to his back and looked up in astonishment….
“Blue?” Dear Lord…it was his dog Blue…
The animal capered around him in a frenzy of joy, barking and leaping about, before finally coming in close and whimpering as he seemed to feel his master’s pain… A rough tongue licked his face and after a few minutes Jess took a deep breath and managed to haul himself up…
Then leaning heavily on Traveller and with Blue walking real close, pushing himself against his master’s leg, he managed to trudge on towards the distant ranch…
He was amazed, in fact, at the proximity of the ranch because after a mere five minutes he reached the new field gate into the yard. Then he heard the ranch door open and Mike and Daisy calling out to him, fear and trepidation in their voices….
“Oh Jess dear, we’ve been so very worried with this terrible storm,” Daisy cried as he came into view…staggering along now, holding onto Traveller’s mane for support.
He came to a halt beside the porch, Mike staring in bewilderment at this snow-covered apparition…looking so unlike his beloved hero…
Daisy however took in the situation at once and said, “Go and put on your rain slicker Mike dear and then you can bed down Traveller for Jess, I think he needs to come in and sit near the fire awhile.”
Jess’s head shot up and it looked like he might argue, but then he saw the firm resolve in Daisy’s eyes and knew arguing wasn’t an option…
“Rub him down real good,” he muttered to Mike when he returned seconds later, “extra rations…and be sure he’s cooled off and dry before you blanket him …OK?”
“Sure thing Jess I know just what to do,” the child said taking the reins and marching off proudly, Traveller in tow.
Jess was now clinging onto the hitching rail for support and Daisy took his arm and helped him into the house. He shucked his sodden jacket, boots and gun-belt by the door…before staggering over to the couch which was pulled up in front of a blazing fire…
“Now dear, there are clean dry under garments by the fire there, you strip off and dry yourself,” she said in her most business like voice, passing him a towel, “then when you’re tucked up on the couch I’ll come back and dress that nasty wound on your temple.”
Jess stood there looking embarrassed… But Daisy was having none of it…
“Come along young man…do as your told, just call me when you’re ready,” and she marched off, even her back brooking no argument…
Jess stripped down to the buff and dried himself, before donning the fresh undershorts and shirt. Then quickly lay down on the couch, pulling the thick blanket over him…
However even in the dry clothes and the heavy blanket he was still shivering uncontrollably…
When Daisy returned with a stone hot water bottle and her medical kit a little later, she looked down anxiously at the young cowboy…
“Jess dear are you alright?” You look awfully cold,” she said.
“Shure,” …he slurred, “I’m fine Ma’am…”
She raised an eyebrow at the unusual way he addressed her, but said nothing, merely placed the bottle at his feet and went about dressing the abrasion to his head…
Once she’d finished, he said, “Where’s the kid…has he fed my mount?” Again he was slurring his words, and Daisy took a surreptitious sniff of his breath…But no he’d not been indulging in Red Eye…so it must be the bitter cold had affected him she concluded… She’d seen soldiers in the war act just this way…shivering, slurring their words and showing signs of mild confusion…Calling her Ma’am and then Mike the kid, was so uncharacteristic…
Then her worry was confirmed when he looked around him and said, “So where’s Slim, why ain’t he here lookin’ out for you and the boy?”
“Why Slim is in town at the Doctor’s Office, with a badly broken leg…you remember?”
Jess closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “Yeah, sure I do know Daisy. Everythin’ just feels a bit…odd…Like I ain’t really here, you know?”
“I understand dear…It’s because you have got way too cold…I’m going to massage your arms and legs to increase the circulation and then make you a nice hot drink…you’ll feel more like your old self soon, I promise, ” she said, taking his pulse and noticing how slow and weak it was.
“Thank goodness Blue found you,” she continued softly as she brushed back his unruly hair from his forehead. “He insisted on going out onto the porch and then just sat and howled for ages…it made my skin crawl,” she admitted. “They do say animals pick up on death…I was so worried.”
He took her hand and squeezed it…
“I figure he somehow picked up I was in danger and then managed to find me…guess we’ll never know how he did it…but yeah, I guess he really saved my bacon Daisy…”
Shortly afterwards she bustled off to make him a hot drink, but when she returned sometime later…having settled Mike for the night, he was fast asleep…. But on checking his pulse, the rate was back to normal and he had a more healthy flush to his cheeks so she decided to leave him to rest.
The following morning, he awoke to the sound of Daisy making breakfast in the kitchen next door… He leaned over to the table by the bed and turned up the lamp and peering up at the clock on the mantle was surprised to see that it was nearly nine o’clock. Yet it was still pitch dark outside….
He got up gingerly, his whole body still aching from the fraught journey of the night before. Spying his now washed pants airing on the rack before the fire he quickly pulled them on and made his way to the window…Yup he was right, it was as black as pitch…and he figured the storm must still be raging, even though there was no sound of the gale force wind blowing…
He spun around from the window when Daisy entered and said, “It is kinda dark for nine ain’t it Daisy…is that old storm still ragin ’?”
Daisy looked equally puzzled,” I don’t believe so dear…I certainly can’t hear anything…”
Jess walked stiffly to the front door and pulled it open, before reeling back in shock…He was faced by a wall of snow, completely blocking the doorway…After a moment he picked up the rifle that they kept by the door and using the butt pushed it into the snow drift…. and it disappeared almost completely into the hard packed snow…It was clearly almost as deep as it was high, blocking their exit and also covering the front windows…
“No wonder it’s so dang dark Daisy…we’re completely snowed in,” Jess said in astonishment….
A moment of panic washed over him as he raced to the back door. Although it was hard to move as it opened outwards…he got his shoulder to it and finally managed to push it wide…the snow drift falling away…
“I guess it’s drifted real deep to the front,” he said, “it ain’t as bad back here…”
Then he turned to Daisy, the color draining from his cheeks, “Oh dear God Daisy…the stock!” He cried in dismay, before turning and heading back to his room to get dressed…
He was back moments later…
“Jess dear you can’t go out in this, you’re not completely over the terrible journey in the bitter cold yet…where are you going?”
“To check on the herd of course,” he said curtly.
Then turning and seeing the fear in her eyes, said more gently, “It’s OK Daisy, I won’t be long…but I have to see if they’ve survived all this…or not,” he whispered before making for the home pasture.
The snow was laying almost waist deep in some places…drifting against trees and buildings up to fifteen feet and Jess had never seen the likes of it before…
After losing some stock to a bad winter a few years earlier the men had built a large open barn on the edge of the pasture near to the yard. Here they could replenish food and water easily in the worst of the weather and the structure also offered a modicum of shelter to some of the herd. The men always placed the most vulnerable animals in this enclosure, mainly young heifers in calf for the first time. The more resilient beasts left down in the south pasture where standing pines and cottonwoods also offered some shelter from the worst of the weather…
Now Jess surveyed the critters milling about in or around the shelter…all looking reasonably perky after the dreadful storm…he sat on the gate and did a head count…or as well as he could, but had a feeling they were short of a good ten head…
He cast a glance across the surrounding terrain and then a few hundred yards away he noticed a huge drift in the centre of the field…Why had that occurred he wondered…There was no building or tree there…. so what had caused the huge hump?
He hurried back with a pick and shovel and made his way across the icy meadow land until he reached the raised area…. and then began to dig…. Within minutes his worst fears were confirmed…some of the cattle were buried.
It was soon obvious that he couldn’t manage on his own and feeling sick at heart he went off to enlist Daisy and Mike’s help…
The three dug furiously for what seemed like hours in the bitter cold…until they eventually unearthed the first of the cattle…Who once was released from her icy bed trotted off towards the rest of the herd without a backwards glance….
So it continued, one by one the critters were all liberated, and looking none the worse for the their experience, the covering blanket of snow somehow insulating them Jess figured.
It was a good four hours later that the exhausted trio were able to return to the ranch and warm up by the fire, hot coffee for Daisy and Jess and warm milk for Mike…
Jess looked at the boy and elderly woman and could have wept for them…They looked just about done in…the child practically falling asleep beside the blazing fire and dear Daisy looking pale and drawn…
“Gee, I’m just so dang sorry I had to ask you to help me out,” Jess said softly…
“Goodness dear we don’t mind do we Mike?” Daisy said staunchly. “I’m just so pleased all those bred heifers survived… they will be alright…won’t lose their calves?”
“I sure hope not,” Jess said sincerely, “time will tell I guess.”
“So how come they didn’t freeze to death…like you nearly did?” Mike asked with interest and all the subtlety of a nine-year-old.
Jess exchanged an amused look with Daisy and then said, “Well ya see Tiger, they were all cuddled up together and so kept each other warm and that old snow drift sorta acted as a blanket to keep the weather off them…But I don’t reckon they’d have survived much longer if it hadn’t been for you and Aunt Daisy helping me out there.”
The boy beamed at his hero and said, “That’s OK Jess we’re happy to help out ain’t we Aunt Daisy…and I guess Slim will be real pleased when he hears how all the critters survived huh Jess?”
Jess just nodded, suddenly feeling real humble…Mike sure was a good kid…and Daisy one tough cookie he thought as he smiled across at her…
“Yeah Mike I guess he will,” he said ruffling the child’s hair.
Once he’d taken a break and had a hot meal Jess turned his attention to the snow drift on the front porch and an hour of hard digging, accompanied by Mike, saw the area cleared and the old rockers visible once more…
“I guess Slim wouldn’t be any too impressed to get home and find his rocker rotted away in a snow drift,” Jess said chuckling and giving Mike a gentle punch on the arm…
“So Jess, now we’ve shifted all that snow how about we make a snowman huh?” Asked the child joyfully….
“Dontcha ever get cold…or wore out?” Jess asked shaking his head in bewilderment…
“Nope….so can we huh Jess…Huh?”
What could he say…
Much later that day Jess and the boy went about the afternoon chores. Whilst Mike locked up the hen’s Jess gave the stock a final check and he was relieved to see none of the young cows seemed to have suffered too much from their ordeal.
The snow had ceased and the wind dropped, although it was still bitterly cold. Once the chores were completed Jess paused, leaning on the corral fence looking out to the snow clad mountains beyond. After a few minutes Mike joined him and said in a small voice, “Jess we are gonna be OK ain’t we?”
Jess looked down at the youngster and raised a quizzical eyebrow, “Sure we are Tiger, why do ya say that huh?”
The child looked down thinking hard and then said, “Well I’ve been readin’ all about Donner Pass in one of my story books….and those people were snowed in real bad…and half of them died you know.”
Jess nodded, “Yup I know Mike that was a real tragedy. But those folks were caught out in the snow…didn’t have the shelter and reserves of food, water and the like that we have…”
“Yes but what if this snow stays down for weeks and we run out of food…or we get sick and the doc can’t come…or…or…”
“Hey Mike take it easy huh….Nuthin’ bad is gonna happen to you….or any of us…And as long as we’re sensible, keep warm and do like Aunt Daisy says…then we won’t get sick…We’ve plenty of supplies…an’ even if we did run out I’d just go huntin’…so you’ve really no cause to be worried…huh…. Well that is unless….”
“Unless what Jess?” The child asked his eyes huge and troubled…
“Unless you ain’t done that Math or learned those spellings Aunt Daisy set for you…Because if you ain’t well I guess you’ve cause to be worrying,” he said with a bark of laughter…
“Aw Jess, you ain’t funny,” the boy said, but laughed in spite of himself…
“Come on Tiger, let’s go warm up, I guess Aunt Daisy will have supper on the go,” Jess said slinging an affectionate arm around Mike’s shoulders and leading him off to the house…
But on the porch, he paused and glanced back as the last rays of sunlight cast a red glow on the distant snowy mountains and a shiver ran down his spine…
Hell, he sure hoped they would be OK…because right then things were lookin’ pretty uncertain. The boy was right of course, this kind of weather could last for months and being completely cut off from even their nearest neighbors was a concern…What if one of them had an accident and needed the doc…or the stock became sick…Or they did indeed run out of food? Sure Daisy had stocked up real well, and they had some fresh meat in the cold store, the root cellar was full too…But even so stocks wouldn’t last indefinitely… He sighed and entered the warm ranch house the smell of chicken and dumplings raising his spirits some… Well if the worst comes to the worst I’ll dispatch that ornery old Cockerel, he thought to himself…

Chapter 6
That night they were all pretty worn out after the day’s traumatic events liberating the cows and shoveling snow. So Daisy went off to bed soon after Mike, suggesting Jess did likewise…
“I will Daisy, just gonna check the horses and stock one last time,” he said putting on his gun-belt and jacket. Pulling his hat down firmly he left with a cheery, “I won’t be long…night…”
“Good night dear, “she said stifling a yawn as she made for bed.
The yard was flooded with moonlight, the snow sparkling in its cool light…and although there was no wind it was bitterly cold…
Jess checked on the herd first and then entered the barn, making for Traveller…
To his surprise all the horses were awake and kind of restless… He mooched over to his horse’s stall and rubbed his velvety nose, whispering to him and offering a sugar lump from his shirt pocket…The horse took the treat eagerly, but then nodded his head, and stamped restlessly in his stall…
“Hey what’s up fellah, you getting stir crazy too? Want a nice long gallop huh? Well you and me both. But I figure that ain’t gonna happen for a while boy, so you just settle OK?”
It was when he was walking back across the yard that he heard it…
The sound of a lone wolf baying, far off in the distance and he stopped in his tracks, cocking his head and listening intently, one hand automatically resting on his gun butt. Then the solitary cry was joined by another and another…Jess cast a glance back to the barn. So that’s what’s upsetting the horses he thought, those dang wolves…But heck they were miles away and shrugging he made his way back to the house and his bed…
Because of the bitterly cold weather all at the ranch had been sleeping with their bedroom doors left open, allowing some of the warm air from the parlour fire to drift through…However that wasn’t the only thing to ‘drift through ’ and over the last week or two Buttons and Blue had become firmly ensconced in their respective master’s beds… Daisy, taking into account the exceptional circumstances, had turned a blind eye…So now as Jess slept deeply, Blue lay on the bed beside him one paw and his head resting on his master’s chest…
It must have been about three in the morning when the dog lifted his head suddenly alert, and seconds later he dived from the bed barking loudly and tearing towards the front door…
“Garldarn it,” Jess muttered sleepily, “Blue…Blue? What the Hell?”
He dragged himself up out of bed…and as he hurried after the dog he heard it…
The unmistakable baying of wolves and then a loud thud as one threw itself at the front door sending Blue into yet another frenzy of barking.
Jess rushed to the window and peered out to find the yard teeming with a pack of maybe a dozen or more wolves…some sniffing around the barn door and others whining and baying on the porch…
As he turned back to the room a terrified looking Daisy and Mike joined him….
Jess quickly assessed the situation and grabbing Blue by his collar he hauled him over to Mike and pushed them both into the child’s room, followed by a frantically yapping Buttons…
Once they were in the room Jess quickly shut the door behind him and kneeling down, so he was on eye level with the boy,said firmly, “Now listen up Mike you are to stay in here with Blue and Buttons. Don’t let them out and don’t come out yourself… no matter what, until I tell you… understand?”
“Yes…but…”
“No but’ s Mike just do it OK?”
“Yes sir,” the child said meekly, “but be careful huh Jess?”
He nodded, before ruffling the child’s hair affectionately and diving out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him again.
“I don’t understand dear,” Daisy said looking bewildered, “won’t Blue help to see them off?”
Jess shook his head, “Heck Daisy he wouldn’t stand a chance out there. They’d rip him to bits in seconds…He may be part wolf, but he’s part sheep dog too and he’s smaller and lighter than they are…But he’d sure try to take them on to save us…and I can’t let him do that.”
Daisy visibly paled, “Oh Jess what will happen?”
“It’s OK, I’ll deal with it,” Jess yelled, having to shout over the clamoring of the wolves outside and the yelping of Blue and Button’s within…
“Just stay in yer room, I’ll call you when it’s safe,” he added before taking the rifle from its place by the door.
He opened the door a crack and took aim, killing the nearest wolf outright and scattering the rest…. However just moments later they were crawling back on their bellies… and it took another few shots over their heads to scatter them as far as the rise…But Jess knew it wasn’t over…Dang it a starving wolf would do pretty much anything to survive and he knew they could smell the humans and dogs…not to mention the horses and stock out back…
Jeez, the stock…He tore to the kitchen door and headed out the back towards the Home Pasture, already hearing the cries of distress from the bred heifers…
He dispatched another three wolves before the pack dispersed yet again, only to regroup and crawl back in even greater numbers…or so it seemed to Jess…Their amber eyes glinting in the dark…the patchy moonlight illuminating them sporadically, so Jess was able to eventually pick a few more off.
A vicious wind had gotten up now and was moaning in the pines. Occasionally sending clouds scudding across the huge winter moon and whisking the powdery snow around…
Jess stood in the bitter cold waiting for the wolves to advance upon the stock again…
But then he heard others, once more hurling themselves at the front door…followed by anguished screams coming from the terrified horses in the barn… Hell how long would the doors hold up to that sort of onslaught he wondered?
Why oh why wasn’t Slim here, standing beside him, protecting their stock and family…it was just too much for one man…alone.
But even as he thought that he felt a presence behind him…and then as the wolves returned a shot was fired and the closest one fell as the others retreated again…
Spinning around he saw Daisy standing very tall and resolute, wielding Slim’ s rifle…
“It’s alright dear I’ve got this covered, you go and check on the house and barn,” she said firmly, brooking no argument and with not even a tremor in her voice…
“Daisy…what the…?” Jess said in amazement…
Then they heard renewed banging and crashing coming from the porch as the critters desperately tried to gain entry once more. Knowing how terrified Mike would be Jess just nodded.
“Take care…just keep shootin’ over their heads if they come back,” he cried, before tearing off around the front of the house…
It was some half hour later that the terrible skirmish was finally over…
The last wolf fell… dead to Jess’s bullet and then he raised his head listening intently…the total silence almost deafening…
He cast one more glance towards the rise and barn…but nothing…merely the sound of the horses stomping anxiously around in their stalls…Then he heard the muffled barking of Blue and Buttons emanating from the depths of Mike’s room…
He needed to check on the child, reassure him…and the horses…but first he must find Daisy…
He marched around the side of the house and over to where he had last seen her near the Home Pasture gate. Sure enough he saw a lone figure standing unyielding, still clutching the rifle… illuminated in the moonlight with her back to him…
The sky had now cleared, the glow of the cold winter moon shining down on the corpses of several more dead wolves…
He ran lightly over towards Daisy and hearing him, she spun around raising the gun, but quickly lowered it again and gave a little sigh of relief when she saw who it was.
He put up his hand in mock submission…
Then casting an eye around the yard said, “Gee Daisy you’re quite a sharpshooter!”
She gave him the ghost of a smile, “Pa taught all us girls to shoot well, in case we ever needed to protect ourselves…
“Well he did a dang good job,” he said admiringly…
However, Daisy was somewhat less enthusiastic, “Such a shame to have to kill these beautiful animals,” she said softly, “and looking so like Blue too… I felt just terrible shooting them.”
Jess threw a comforting arm around her shoulders, feeling her trembling, and said gently, “I know Daisy me too…But I guess if it’s them or us…then we don’t have no choice huh?”
“No dear you’re right of course. So do you think that it’s over now, no more of them prowling about?”
“I guess not,” he said, “come on let’s go check on Mike and then I’ll take a look see at the stock… I’ll move this lot in the morning,” he finished tipping his hat to the bloody corpses, “before the buzzards get wind of them.”
Daisy looked up to the east, the palest dawn light just perceptible “I don’t think that will be too long coming dear, come on let’s get in the warm….”

*******
The ‘night of the wolves ’ as it would always be called, was just one more incident that had to be endured and then put behind them as more and more challenges had to be met…
It wasn’t just the life threatening, terrifying incidents that had to be dealt with…but the more insidious day to day grind of the bitter cold, meagre rations and pure boredom and loneliness…
Sure they had each other and all got along as well as they always had done…but what was sadly lacking was the company of others…fresh topics of conversation…news…
It was now over three months since they had seen another living soul and a week after the wolf attack. Daisy reckoned it was the worst winter in living memory in Wyoming…She certainly had never heard tell of such extreme weather conditions and Slim would surely have mentioned it…
Both Thanksgiving and Christmas had come and gone without sight or word from those they loved and cared about…All roads to Laramie still impassable. The countryside for miles around shrouded in a cloak of freezing snow and ice.
Sure they had made the best of things for young Mike’s sake. Having been confined to the ranch for so long all of them had ample time to fashion homemade gifts…which were truly appreciated…Both Jess and Daisy had made the days special for Mike and he seemed to cope well with the absence of all their usual friends…. Although he did shed some tears when it became clear that Slim wouldn’t make it though.
Now he was sorely missing his school pals and even the thought of school itself didn’t seem too bad…Poor Daisy was also greatly in need of the female company of her good friends at the Women’s Group and was deeply concerned about how they would all be coping…. Especially some of her elderly widowed friends and she thanked God for Jess’s reassuring presence.
As to Jess, hell he was sure missing female company too…well one female in particular and he really thought he might well go crazy if he didn’t hold his beloved Millie in his arms again soon…The frustration of wanting her and needing her just adding to the emotionally taxing time….
All of them were missing Slim dreadfully too. For his calming, reassuring presence that Daisy appreciated so much and the fun-loving banter that Mike and Jess missed…
And heck how he missed sharing all the back-breaking work around the ranch too. As Jess felled yet another tree to replenish the nearly empty log store, he wished for the hundredth time that his pard was by his side…
Jess knew that supplies were gradually being eroded away and just that morning Daisy had admitted that they were down to their last sack of flour and the sugar was nearly gone…
“But we’re alright for coffee ain’t we Daisy?” Jess asked looking anxious…
When she turned away and started clearing the breakfast table he said, “Daisy?”
“I’m sorry dear, I’ve been drinking tea these last few weeks, but even so the last pack of coffee is nearly empty….”
Jess’s jaw dropped and he looked horror stricken…OK so they’d experienced the worst weather in living memory…He’d dang near froze to death on that hunting trip…Then the wolf attack…all that he could take in his stride…But starting the day without a couple of cups of Arbuckle ’s best…hell it was just unthinkable…things were getting serious…real serious…

*******
The following day…there was a change in the weather…the thaw had begun….
At first none of them could believe it and Daisy was very anxious when Jess suggested he take off on a short hunting trip.
“Oh my dear please don’t go! Not until we are really sure the weather is settled…Remember last time when the weather turned within the hour? You could have perished out there in that blizzard…if Blue hadn’t found you.”
They were standing on the porch looking out to the distant hills. The sky clear and deep blue, the light breeze giving a promise of spring.
Jess looked down at her and then bent to fondle Blue’s ears…
“Yer right there Daisy, about Blue anyways. But I guess the weather’s set fair now. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised iffen we didn’t see that old Stage rattling down the rise before the week’s out,” he said cheerfully.
They both exchanged an excited look at that prospect, but Daisy was sticking to her guns…
“Maybe so dear, but until we are sure it’s safe…please be patient a while longer…I really don’t think I can face any more worry.” For once her brows furrowed and she looked like she might well cry.
“Hey Daisy,” said Jess immediately contrite, “I’m sorry, sure I’ll wait another day or two huh…be really sure the thaw’s here?”
“Thank you my dear,” she said with relief and bustled off to supervise Mike’s home studies…while Jess mooched off to do the morning chores.
It was mid-morning and he decided to mend some harness in the barn…Daisy and Mike engrossed in a geography project, taking up the whole of the dining table…with maps, paper and paints.
He wandered across the yard and then stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a figure emerge from the barn leading Slim ’s mount, Alamo…
For one deliriously happy moment he thought it was his pard returned…but then the man turned to face him and he was nothing like Slim…
Sure he was tall and lanky, but his hair was mousey and his face thin, the eyes that stared at him hard and calculating….
“What the hell do ya think yer doin’ with that horse mister?” Jess yelled drawing his Colt with lightning efficiency and striding over to confront the stranger…
“I thought there was nobody here,” the other mumbled.
“Sure you did,” Jess said glancing back towards the house where there was washing swinging on the line and smoke issuing from the chimney…
The stranger chose to ignore the rebuke and said, “I was gonna leave some money for him…honest…”
“Honest?” Jess roared getting dang near the jumping off place, “Hell I doubt you even know the meaning of the word, now get off of my property right now before I blow yer goddamn head off!”
“Oh I don’t think it need come to that,” said a steely calm voice from behind him…and Jess felt a rifle barrel digging into the small of his back…
He spun around and was looking into the amused eyes of a tall ugly looking brute of a man… who was vaguely familiar.
Jess glanced down at the barrel of the rifle and then up at the man and he had the grace to back off a little….
“The horse ain’t for sale,” Jess said firmly, “now I ain’t tellin ’ yer again, you and that trained monkey of yours git off of my land….”
The stranger looked even more amused at that, “Well I’d heard you were kind of hot headed Harper, but I doubted even you would be so dang cocky with two guns targeting you…So drop your iron son and get out of the way… you’re wasting our time.”
If Jess had been kinda mad before, now he was beside himself with rage…as he dropped his gun…
Everything suddenly rose up within him…The worry, pain and suffering he’d endured over the past weeks and months…Being lost in the blizzard…The wolf attack… The endless backbreaking work in arctic conditions…The fear for the safety of Mike and dear Daisy… His pard hurt and far away and Millie probably missing him as much as he did her…and dang it he hadn’t even had any coffee that morning!
He half turned to see the other man had moved away from Alamo and had now drawn his gun…
“See, two guns trained on ya,” said the smug rifle toting man, “Now git. Like I said yer wasting our time, we’ve places to be and we need that dang horse!”
“Is that a fact?” Jess muttered, before turning back to the big ugly man…
Then in the blink of an eye he grabbed hold of the rifle barrel and twisted it out of the others grip, simultaneously bringing a knee up to catch him in the groin…He fell like a might oak, cussing and yelling in agony, as Jess followed through with a hay maker to the chin. Then he dived on top of his opponent just as a bullet, from the other outlaw, narrowly missed him, whistling past his ear.
Jess ignored it and threw a couple more punches at ugly mug, aware that the other was delaying shooting at him, in case he hit his partner in crime…But then two more shots rang out into the cold morning air…. One within a hairsbreadth of catching Jess on the temple…
Satisfied that his quarry was out for the count Jess peered over to the other outlaw and was surprised to see him lying in the dirt crying out in pain….Then he glanced beyond him and a few yards away saw a man mounted on a large grey, leading another horse…whose rider appeared to be handcuffed.
Jess peered across the yard, the sun in his eyes…
The rider of the grey dismounted and limped slowly forwards…before tipping his hat back and grinning that broad open smile that lit up his whole face…
“Hell, Jess I know it’s been a long time but don’t you recognize your partner …huh?”
“Slim? Jeez, Slim… that you?” Jess cried in pure delight.
Slim grinned again…then tipped his hat towards where the outlaws were still lying in the dirt…
“Can’t leave you alone for five minutes but you get up to your neck in trouble,” he observed cheerfully…

*******
It was sometime later, once the outlaws had been dealt with, that Slim filled Jess in on who the horse thieving outlaws really were…
No less than the Ramshaw Gang. And as Daisy had predicted they had been holed up locally and could well have attacked Jess when he went off on his hunting trip and was caught in the blizzard. But, with great strength of will, she declined to say ‘I told you so’.
“Gee I thought that big ugly guy looked familiar, he was on that poster Mort brought a while back,” Jess said.
Slim nodded, “I caught the lookout up by the road and recognized him…Mort had already warned me there had been a couple of sightings of them yesterday. They robbed a ranch near to town the day the thaw started. It seems the plan was to attack the Stage once it got through…They figured it would be full up with supplies for all the relay stations and they’d make a killing...selling them on to folk who have nothing left.”
“Well that’s real neighborly of them huh,” Jess said sarcastically…
“I figure they’ll have plenty of time to reflect upon the error of their ways locked up in the root cellar,” Slim said grinning at his pard. “Mort’s on his way, would have ridden in with me but the circuit judge just hit town … He’s come for the hearing on that Nancy Kline you escorted to prison Jess…Anyway he said he’d be with us tomorrow at the latest. He reckoned they were in these parts and wanted us to ride posse. I guess we’ve saved him a job!”
“Uh, if you’re OK to hold the fort I figure I’ll ride back to town with Mort and give my evidence. I said I’d stand character witness for Nancy.”
Just then Daisy bustled in from the kitchen holding the coffee pot up high like a trophy…Mike carrying a plate full of cookies…
“Oh Slim dear it was so good of you to bring a few supplies with you…Mike was really missing his cookies, but with no sugar left…” and she shrugged. “As to Jess and his coffee well….”and she looked as though words failed her.
Slim grinned, “I can just imagine Daisy, no wonder he gave those outlaws short shrift I imagine he’s been like a grizzly with the toothache since you ran out!”
“I have not,” Jess exclaimed hotly, “I’ve been real calm ain’t I Daisy?”
“If you say so dear,” she said winking at Slim…
Then she sobered, “Are you sure you’re not in any pain Slim dear, you’re still walking with a limp…”
“I’m just fine Daisy. Doc Sam said it would be another few weeks before I get all the strength back in the muscles, that’s all...and he said the best thing for that was lots of exercise.”
“Well heck Slim we ain’t got no shortage of work for ya,” Jess said happily, “More timber needs cutting, barn door needs re setting after those dang wolves near brought it down…the heifers will be calving soon…and then…”
“Oh Jess do let Slim settle in first…I’m sure he should take things slowly…Now will one of you escort me to the prisoners I just need to check the dressing on that young man’s leg, we really don’t want him bleeding to death before the Sheriff gets here do we?”
“We don’t?” Jess said softly to Slim, but never the less drained his coffee cup and offered to take her across to where the outlaws were locked up.

Chapter 7
Early the following morning found Jess in Mort’s office, enjoying a cup of the Sheriff’s best gut rot black coffee…after having helped him deliver the outlaws to jail at first light.
“So, it sounds like you’ve all had a pretty rough time up at the ranch?” Mort said peering at his buddy over the top of his cup…concern in his kindly eyes.
Jess just nodded, “No worse than other folk I reckon, better than some. At least the supplies lasted out…mostly…I figure we’ve all lost a pound or two and if the thaw hadn’t happened when it did…well,” and he shook his head sadly. “I’d have had to slaughter some of the stock. Thank God it didn’t come to that…It’s others I feel dang sorry for. The old timers and folk who hadn’t put by enough stores,” and he shook his head sadly.
“Yes it was a terrible shame about Widow Jenkins…and the Brown family too…But living so far out, well nobody could reach them without putting their own lives at risk…and they’re only the ones we’ve heard about. There could be many more starved to death or just plain froze,” he said shaking his head and looking dejected, “worst dang weather I’ve ever seen I can tell you…”
Jess nodded, remembering all they’d been through…but at least they’d survived… Ma Jenkins was an old friend of Daisy’s and as to the Brown family, heck they’d lost three young ‘ uns…
He sipped his coffee reflectively and then said, “I heard they’d had it pretty bad at the State Penn too…being over the tracks there I guess supplies couldn’t get through?”
Mort nodded, “They grow some of their own produce, but they had a few fatalities too…some old guy died, heart they thought…just got way too cold, I guess. As to that Nancy, heck she’s lost so much weight…she’s hardly recognizable.”
Jess looked upset by that, “The hearing still set for tomorrow?”
“Huh…oh yeah…and it seems that her man, Davy Watts, is dropping all charges. So with your character statement I guess she’ll get her pardon.”
Jess nodded, “I’m glad….”
“So Jess what are your plans, you’ll stay in town tonight… for the hearing tomorrow, I take it?”
“Ha, wild horses wouldn’t keep me away,” Jess said looking suddenly animated.
“Um, now why do I think there’s more to this than meets the eye huh?” Mort asked looking amused. “Uh, it wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain Miss Millie would it?”
Jess grinned unable to help himself, “Well maybe…”
“To be honest I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long, I thought you’d be over at the saloon the minute we hit town…”
Jess tapped his nose and said, “Got me some business to do first….”
Then he glanced up at the clock on the office wall standing at a quarter to nine, “So does Tom still go over to Miss Molly’s for his breakfast everyday?”
Mort looked puzzled, “He sure does nine on the dot…but it was Millie you wanted to visit wasn’t it?”
Jess ignored the question….
“So uh, Mort you said there was a Bounty on the Ramshaw Gang?”
“Heck yes,” said Mort scrabbling in his desk for the safe key, “you and Slim are sure deserving of it…and it’s quite substantial too…going to split it are you?”
Jess nodded, “But I’ll take his share too Mort, I figure he’ll be wanting to settle up with the doc…”
Mort grinned broadly, “Heck there’s enough for that and to buy that prize bull he’s been hankering after,” he said. “Two of the gang are wanted for murder and so the Bounty is quite a sum, like I say.”
At one minute to nine, Jess said his farewells to Mort and with a bulging brown envelope in his vest pocket he marched jauntily across the street to Miss Molly’s café….
As predicted Tom, the barkeep from the saloon, was just sitting down to the works, but when he saw Jess he leapt up and offered his hand.
“By jingo Jess, it’s good to see you. It’s been like a ghost town these last few months…we’ve been missing folk something fierce.”
Jess grinned back pumping his old friend’s hand, “Good to see you too, Tom.”
Tom sat back down pushing a chair out for Jess, “As to your Millie she’s been missing you dreadfully…moping around the place,” he said shaking his head sadly.
“Now about Millie…I’ve got a proposition for ya,” Jess said sinking down into the chair opposite and helping himself to the coffee pot…
Some quarter of an hour later, with a successful transaction between himself and Tom completed he strode triumphantly down Main Street and into the saloon.
As he expected Lily and Millie were hard at work just finishing clearing up from the night before. But Millie stopped in her tracks when he marched in…and throwing down the cloth she was wiping the tables with, ran over to him crying out in pure delight….
“Jess thank goodness! You’re alright? I’ve been so worried…stuck out there in this terrible weather Slim was fretting too. We kept thinking maybe you’d run out of supplies or….”
“Hey…hush sweetheart,” he said pulling her towards him and effectively silencing her with a passionate kiss…
Then he relinquished his hold on her and said, “So you about finished down here? Don’t you and Lily usually have a coffee break round about now?”
She nodded eagerly, “Yes but I guess Lily can do without my company if you want to come up and have coffee in my room?” She asked with a teasing little smile…
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said as he gave Lily a friendly grin and wave before he escorted Millie up the stairs…
“I can’t be long though,” Millie said as they entered her cosy room. “Tom is expecting a real rush this week. Now the thaw is here he figures folk will be rushing into town for supplies and most of the men feeling kind of dry and ready for a drink or two, after all they’ve been through.”
“Well that’s not your problem honey,” Jess said once more taking her into his arms…
“What do you mean?” She asked raising an eyebrow. “I do have to work you know Jess, I can’t leave everything to dear Lily…”
“Won’t have to,” Jess said mysteriously, “see Cindy’s working you’re shift today and tomorrow…. and you’re having a little holiday.”
“Huh?”
“I saw Tom, asked him to get Cindy to cover for you,” he said leaning in and tenderly kissing the top of her head, “give us some time…seein’ as we ain’t seen each other for so dang long.”
“Jess, that’s wonderful…but how did you get him to agree to pay for extra staff?”
He just winked at her, “Never mind that…so do ya want that coffee…or not?” He asked grinning at her and then leaning in for another kiss before she could answer…Somehow knowing the answer would be…not.
Apart from going to give his evidence at Nancy Kline’s hearing, Jess never left her side for the next two days, the couple revelling in each other’s company after such a long difficult winter apart.
It was the last afternoon, when Jess was preparing to leave, knowing it was unfair to leave Slim with the burden of running the ranch single handed any longer, that she asked about Cindy again…
Jess shrugged, “I guess you’ll find out sooner or later anyway…I paid her wages Millie…so we could have some time together…”
Her eyes misted then and she said, “Oh Jess, you did that for me…?”
“For us,” he agreed, “well it was worth it weren’t it?”
She smiled at him then, “You know it was… every last cent…but even so, spending your hard earned money”
He shrugged, “Well to be honest, it were come by real easy…was the Bounty on the Ramshaw Gang.”
Then he patted his vest pocket checking on the money…
“That reminds me I’ve gotta go over to the Doc’s place and pay Slim ’s debts before I ride out….”
“Never mind that,” she said impatiently, “what’s all this about the Ramshaw Gang…you never told me…Jess…Jess?”
After reassuring his best girl that no, he hadn’t been hurt apprehending the gang. Then promising to visit again as soon as he was able, he left and went across to see Doc Baker and pay the large bill owing for the osteopath’s services…
Carrie opened the door and was delighted to see her old friend… But instead of showing him through to her Pa’s office at once she ushered him into the parlor, whispering, “I need to talk to you first Jess…”
He raised a quirky eyebrow at that, but nonetheless followed her in and asked gently, “Something  wrong honey?”
She nodded and sat down on a fireside chair, gesturing that Jess should take the one opposite…
Once he was settled, she said, “Its Pa I’m worried about him Jess…he’s not himself… not at all…”
“Oh? So what’s up?”
“I guess you’re aware that we are hearing of fresh fatalities everyday…All victims of the appalling winter weather we’ve endured?”
“I have yes,” he said looking dismayed, “it’s real bad…all those folk starved to death…hurt or sick…and no help with them stuck out at ranches in the middle of nowhere…Folks are saying the deaths are set to rise as the thaw continues. New bodies are being found every day,” and he shuddered, “terrible business…”
She nodded, “And my poor dear Pa feels so responsible…He says he should have done more. He tried to do home visits…but it was just impossible… He’d hate me for telling you Jess…but he got stranded in a terrible storm and if Mort and some town’s folk hadn’t rescued him…he’d have perished too. But even that didn’t stop him and Mort threatened to jail him if he tried to get out to the distant ranches again…He wasn’t really serious…but I do believe he’d have restrained him…for his own safety.”
Jess shook his head sadly, “I’d no idea…Slim didn’t say anything.”
“He didn’t know, Pa didn’t want to worry him…didn’t want anyone to know…but now…”
“Now?”
“I think you…his friends have to know...because it’s left him dreadfully down Jess. He’s really not his usual positive self…In fact I haven’t seen him this way since Ma passed… So can you help…try and talk some sense into him?”
“Well sure Carrie,” he said taking her hand and squeezing it, “I’ll do my best….”
He entered Doc Sam’s office sometime later and was surprised to see how gaunt and sombre his old friend looked…But Sam quickly slapped a smile on his face and stood up to shake Jess’s hand when he saw him enter…
“Good to see you Jess,” he exclaimed. “Slim ’s settled back home alright?”
Jess nodded grinning back, “Sure has, I left him mendin ’ the barn door…”
“Oh yes of course you’ve been in town for Nancy’s Hearing…she got off I believe?”
Jess nodded, “Yup, and moved straight in with Davy Watts…says they’re getting wed in the spring…”
“Good I’m glad,” said Sam, “that prison sure took it out of her…she’s lost so much weight…but all will be well for them now, I truly hope…”
Jess nodded, “Looks like you’ve trimmed down some yourself doc?”
Sam just patted his flat stomach, “I guess we’ve all been on short rations during this terrible interlude you too…”
Jess agreed…that they too had needed to cut back some…
“Thank God you all survived at the ranch,” Sam said with feeling. “So very many have not been as lucky…”
Jess looked down at his hands for a moment and then back up at his buddy…
“I know that Sam…they’re saying it’s been the worst winter in living memory…There’s a lot dead and gonna be a whole lot more by the looks of things…but I guess that’s to be expected huh?”
“Hell Jess…that’s not like you!” The Doc barked looking suddenly furious and jumping up from his desk chair. “You of all people fight these things…whether it be outlaws…wild beast or the dang weather…you never let it defeat you, never! Whereas…well I did,” he said, now slumping back down in his chair again…all his anger suddenly spent, “I did,” he whispered…
“That’s not what I heard,” Jess said staunchly. “I heard you took yer life in yer hands and went off tryin’ to visit a ranch way out of town… How you got real lost and had Mort and half the town out lookin’ for you….”
Sam rolled his eyes, “So Carrie’s been talking to you then?”
Jess nodded, “Heck she’s real worried about you Sam…This darned idea you’ve got that you should have been out there doin’ yer rounds as usual…well that’s plumb crazy…”
“You really think so?” Sam asked.
“Heck do ya think I didn’t wanna go check on the Harrison’s, with that new baby down the trail south… or old man Smyth…ten miles north of us? Sure I did but I’d got the common sense to know it was impossible…and all that would have dang well happened was that Daisy and Mike would have perished without me there to support them…”
Sam looked up then and really started listening to Jess and forgot his own problems…
“Same with you,” Jess continued, “how do ya think this town would cope without a Doc? So sure Mort was right in stopping you trying to go off on visits…and iffen I’d been in town I’d have joined him…”
“Really?” Sam asked looking suddenly much more his old self.…
“Sure. Hell Sam, who’s gonna look after all the survivors if not you huh?”
“Uh…well I hadn’t looked at it that way…maybe you have a point Jess…”
“Yeah…and um…Sam don’t beat yerself up for getting lost in that dang blizzard…I did just the same. I reckon with that break in the weather a whole bunch of folks were caught out. I was just a few hundred yards from the house…and I’d have laid down and died there if it hadn’t been for my good old dog Blue…So I reckon we’ve both learnt something this winter ...huh…”
“Well you’ve certainly taught me something Jess…here I am wallowing in self-pity…when my patients need me…thank you,” he said with a genuine smile.
Jess grinned across at his old friend, “Don’t thank me, thank that daughter of yours …she’s some girl.”
Jess left his old friend looking a whole lot more perky and made his way down to the livery where he picked up the buckboard. He’d driven it into town when he’d accompanied Mort and the outlaws two days previously. Now he made his way down to the mercantile to stock up on much needed supplies.
He was just paying when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder and spinning around found himself looking into the teasing eyes of Nancy Kline.
“Hey honey,” he said grinning down at her, “I thought you’d be off celebrating with Davy?”
She smiled back, “Oh we have been, but he’s had to go back to work and I saw you coming out of the doc’s place and thought maybe I could take you for a coffee?” She asked raising a hopeful eyebrow…
Jess really needed to get home, knowing Daisy was waiting on the supplies…but heck half an hour wouldn’t make no difference he thought and taking her elbow escorted her across the street to Miss Molly’s café.
Once they were seated and sipping their drinks, she looked almost shyly at him…
“I um…I wanted to thank you…for all you did for me,” she said softly, “not just speaking up for me at the hearing…But before that on the journey over…”
He opened his mouth to reply but she raised a hand, “Please Jess let me finish…”
He just nodded and smiled encouragingly at her…
“On the journey…I behaved appallingly,” she said flushing a little. “I don’t know what you must have thought of me…I behaved like a little tramp…”
She paused and glanced up at him…
“I thought…you were real troubled and fighting for your life…your sanity anyways…I guess you’d have done pretty near anything to escape a sentence in the Fed Penn…and I really don’t blame ya…if that’s what you’re thinking?”
She gave a deep sigh as though the weight of the world had been lifted...
“Thank you,” she whispered, “when I think back on how I was then I feel so ashamed… and if Davy heard about my exploits…well…” and she shrugged helplessly.
Jess took her hand across the table and looked deeply into her eyes…
“Well he won’t hear it from me…And anyway Nancy I guess you don’t do him justice…He must love you something fierce…to forgive you for what you did, shootin’ him and all. So why dontcha just relax and start enjoyin ’ life with him huh?”
“Oh Jess thank you…thank you so much,” she whispered, “and I will. I’ll be the best wife ever…he’ll never regret it…I promise you that.”
Shortly after they parted and went their separate ways…
*******
So life continued at its usual pace at the ranch and relay station. An unusually wet spring ended the disastrous winter, but all the stock survived well and the calving season went without a hitch.
Slim ’s leg gradually strengthened and the day came when he was hard put to it to remember which leg he had broken and he was happy to pull his weight around the ranch once more…much to Jess’s relief.
After Jess and Sam’s little heart to heart the Doc pulled himself together and formed an Allegiance Group to tackle the aftermath of the terrible winter. It comprised of the Padre, Rev Joshua Wesley and some of the town council and several members of the Women’s Group who all got together to support the many bereaved families following the ‘Winter from Hell’ as it had been dubbed by the town’s folk.
Daisy was a very active member after the sad loss of her good friend Widow Jenkins and she did all she could to rally around and help the many sorely tried, despairing families… Women who had lost their spouse and only bread winner…folk who had lost their elderly relatives to the ravages of the winter weather…and most tragic of all some parents who had lost their children to the elements…Many of them having been caught out in the same terrible blizzard that had nearly done for Jess…
There were fundraising events galore from dances to fairs and hog roasts… but the best of them all was Daisy’s idea. She knew that the whole town embraced the Barnum and Willis Circus and looked forward to their late summer visit. So with great foresight she suggested the town’s Allegiance Group write to Messer Barnum & Willis asking for a donation to support the locally bereaved families… But it was to be much later before she was to find out exactly what results her plea would bring about.…
In the meantime, during spring and early summer, everyone in the town and outlying ranches had supported those in need as much as they were able…practical help being greatly appreciated by the beleaguered families.
Jess and Slim especially had spent many hours, they could really ill afford, helping friends and neighbors in their hour of need…
One of which was an old friend and close neighbor Mary Hughes, whose husband Ike had perished in the same storm that Jess had been caught in…They had two young ‘uns, one Mike’s age, Freddy and a little five year old daughter Amy.They had a small spread just adjacent to the old Benson place and their home pasture abutted the south pasture on Sherman land…
Jess and Ike had been particularly good friends as they both hailed from Texas and they drank and played cards together on the odd occasion Ike visited the town. His wife Mary was a real beauty and Ike adored her as he did his small family and he would have done anything for them…Unfortunately that was to be his downfall.
He, like Jess, had decided to go hunting the day of the terrible blizzard…But poor Ike never made it home… his body being discovered by his young son a few days after the thaw, near the ranch barn…so near and yet so far.
It was just a few days after that, when Jess drove in on his way home from town, thinking he could maybe share some supplies with their old friends.
He pulled the buckboard to a standstill in the yard and yelled for Ike…But when his buddy didn’t march out from the barn whistling, a cheery grin on his face and words of welcome, Jess was immediately worried…
He looked around the yard and the alarm bells started ringing…the hens were still locked up, even though it was well past noon…. and there was no sign of life around the place…No smoke issuing from the chimney…although it was a bitter cold day…and no welcoming shouts from young Freddy and Amy…No pink cheeked welcome from Mary either, wiping her hands on her apron and bidding him to come in for coffee and cake…
He jumped lightly down from the buckboard and made his way over to the house knocking loudly and waiting for answer…growing more and more anxious…
Eventually the door was dragged open by Mary, but Jess barely recognized her…. She had lost so much weight, now almost skin and bone and she peered up at him out of huge anxious eyes, still dressed in her night attire.
“Jess …oh thank God,” she whispered.
Jess put a hand out to her shoulder, “Mary… sweetheart, what is it… what’s wrong?”
She just stared up at him and then dissolved into noisy sobs, falling into his arms…
Jess held her close for a good couple of minutes before pushing her gently away, “Heck Mary what is it…tell me,” he pleaded again.
Then he saw a movement in the room behind her and young Freddy came into vision looking like a poor little waif, his face so pale and thin, almost emaciated.
“It’s Pa, Uncle Jess…he’s…dead…And Ma’s been sick.”
At the sound of her son, Mary finally pulled herself together and asked Jess in…but it was a good hour or more before he got the full story out of them…
He’d lit a fire and made hot drinks all round and tried to reassure the children, before Mary eventually seemed to make a huge effort and told him everything…
How they had underestimated the power of the Wyoming weather and hadn’t stocked up sufficiently with basic provisions… Then Mary had got sick and although Ike had tried to make it to town for the doc, he’d had to turn back…
“I was expecting another baby,” she said softly.
The children now busily putting away some supplies Jess had offered them, including some candy to their great delight, were out of earshot.
Jess glanced down at her very slender body before quickly looking back up into her sad eyes…
“But it wasn’t to be,” she finished, “I lost the baby…”
Jess felt choked, “Jeez, I’m so dang sorry,” he whispered…
She just hung her head, “Thank you Jess…Ike was so darned happy…until it all went wrong…”
She took a deep breath, “Then he could see we weren’t going to make it unless he went hunting…so the morning of the bad storm he went out real early, promising he’d be back for dinner…but he never came home,” she whispered…
Jess took her hand and squeezed it, “I’m just so very sorry Mary…”
She nodded, “I know…anyway it was Freddy that found him, just a few yards from the barn…can you believe that?” She asked looking up at him with bewilderment. “I keep thinking, if I’d gone out…searched for him more?”
“No,” Jess said firmly, “you can’t think that way….I was out in that storm and you couldn’t dang well see yer hand in front of your face…You could have wandered around out there all night, still not found him and perished too, then what would have become of Amy and Freddy huh?”
“You’re right of course,” she said sadly, “but it’s just so very hard…”
“I know honey, but you ain’t alone. Me and everyone back at the ranch will help you out…see you though, I promise…”
So it was that Jess supported the little family through their initial grief and then helped on a more practical basis. He and Slim helped sell Ike’s herd and then Jess spent all his spare time fixing up the old homestead for sale.
It had been a hard decision to make, but Mary knew she would be unable to run the spread single handed and it made sense to buy a small place in town. It would be easier for the children to go to school and she would hopefully find a job to help keep them all.
As days turned to weeks with Jess visiting regularly to fix up the barn, mend fences and generally spruce up the place, so Mary and the children became reliant upon him… But it was one day in late spring that things came to a head…
Jess had been busy painting the front of the ranch and he’d stripped off his shirt as the day had turned really warm…He was just thinking of calling it a day and going home for a nice cool shower when Mary pulled the buckboard up beside him. She’d been visiting with Daisy, the children having had a good time playing with Mike, it being a Saturday and no school.
Mary bustled into the house to fetch Jess a cold drink and the children some milk and cookies.
The youngsters jumped down from the buckboard and ran over to Jess…then it happened…Little Amy called out, “We’re home Pa…”
Jess turned looking deeply shocked and saw his expression mirrored by Freddy…but Amy seemed oblivious to what she’d said and just ran over for her usual cuddle…
Meanwhile Freddy turned away and entered the house, looking real upset…
Jess gave the little girl a gentle hug and then said, “Hey I ain’t yer Pa honey…He is up in Heaven with the angels remember?”
Heck she was only just five and her Pa had been dead several months…but even so, surely, she hadn’t forgotten him?
She looked shocked for a moment and then her little face crumpled and she sobbed as though her heart would break…
Jess scooped her up and went over to a seat on the porch and sitting the little one on his knee he held her close. Finally, the storm of crying passed and she sat there red eyed, with just the occasional little hiccuping sob…
After a while she said softly, “I miss my Pa SO much.”
“I know you do honey; he was a swell guy and we all miss him…I liked him a lot, he was a good buddy.”
The child thought about this and then said, “And Pa liked you too…he said so. He said, ‘Old Jess sure is a swell guy!’ That was after you let us have that little Jersey cow for extra milk for me …do you remember?”
Jess nodded, “Sure I do…”
Then the child thought hard again, “So, Uncle Jess, you could be my Pa, couldn’t you? Because you’re real kind and Pa liked you and I know Ma does too… She’s always saying, ‘God bless dear Jess, what would we do without him.’”
Jess grinned at the uncanny way the child mimicked her Ma…but then he sobered…
“Well I’d be real honored to be yer Pa,” he said sincerely, “but you see honey for that to happen I’d have to Wed yer Ma…and I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
“Why not?” She asked, sitting back to peer at him more carefully, “She loves you I know she does and me and Freddy do too…so what’s stopping you…huh?”
Jess was finding the logic of a five-year-old kinda hard to reason with and finally opted for the truth…
“Well see honey, thing is, I love someone else…Millie Johnson, you know her dontcha? She’s a friend of your Ma’s. Well we’ve gotten like an understanding that we’ll Wed someday…and it ain’t right to have two wives so…”
The child looked slightly woebegone, but could appreciate the reasoning behind the argument.
She sighed deeply and then said, “I guess I can understand that, and Miss Millie’s real pretty…almost as pretty as Ma.”
Then they heard a little cough behind them and turning saw Mary standing in the doorway, “There’s milk and cookies in the kitchen Amy,” she said smiling at the child, “now scoot and give Jess some peace.”
The youngster got down reluctantly and then gave Jess a final hug, “Well iffen you can’t be my Pa you’ll always be my Uncle Jess, won’t you?” She persisted…
“Sure I will,” Jess said kissing her tenderly on the top of her head, “Now scoot, like your Ma says.”
The child grinned at him then, “Love ya!” She cried before running off happily…
“Love you too,” Jess said softly, before looking up into Mary’s beautiful face…and was surprised to see her blushing deeply…
“Hey what’s up?” He asked, noticing her discomfort.
She came and sat down on the seat next to him, “I’m so sorry,” she said, “I hope Amy hasn’t embarrassed you?”
“Heck no, she’s just a little kid missing her Pa,” Jess said quietly…
Mary took a deep breath and then smiling at him admired his handy work with the paint brush…
“All done,” he said proudly, “but don’t tell Miss Daisy I’ve been paintin ’ or she’ll want the dang house doin’ again…”
Mary giggled, “I won’t…and I just want to thank you so much for all you’ve done for me ...Slim too…”
Jess raised a quizzical eyebrow, “Why does that sound like I’m gettin ’ my marching orders, you trying to get rid of me?”
“Oh it’s not that,” she said quickly, flushing once more. “It’s just that I think everything is shipshape now…I’ve some potential buyers due out next week, and I’ve already put a deposit on that sweet little cottage on the edge of town…so…” she babbled on, before coming to a halt.
Jess put out a hand and gently squeezed her arm, “Mary what is it, have I said something to upset ya?”
She looked down at his hand, now resting on her arm, the touch sending a shock-wave through her whole body…
She glanced at his bronzed torso, already tanned in the early spring sun, and took another deep breath…
“No of course not,” she said lightly, “We’re old friends aren’t we. But you’ve spent way too much of your time over here, Slim must be getting tired of holding down the fort there…and I can manage now, really I can…”
Jess knew the truth of it, tidying up the spread had taken a lot of his time and energy, so maybe it was right he should back off a little now…Heck he sure didn’t want Slim to have another accident because he wasn’t around.
“OK,” he said quietly, “if that’s what you want…But promise me you’ll just come over if you need anything. And if you sell this place, Slim and me will help ya move out OK?”
She nodded, “OK and thank you Jess.”
Then she suddenly leaned in close and kissed him very softly on the lips…and pulled back just as swiftly, glancing up into his surprised eyes for a split second, “thank you for everything,” she whispered …
Then she got up and moved to the door, “I’d better tend to the children before they eat all the cookies, “and then she was gone…
Jess stared after her for a full minute, still feeling the gentle pressure of her lips on his own...a slightly troubled expression in his deep blue eyes…
Sometime later he rode out unaware that Mary was watching him from her bedroom window, a single tear running down her cheek.
Yes, her dear friend Daisy had offered good advice that afternoon, when Mary had admitted to her that she had feelings towards Jess…
“I don’t know if it is love or just that I am truly grateful to him,” Mary had confided. “I don’t seem to know anything since dear Ike passed… But I do know it’s unhealthy…it’s not right. He is promised to Millie… I just feel so alone and now this…All I want is for him to stay with us, keep us all safe… love us…but it can never happen,” and she had broken down in tears…
Daisy had dealt with the matter in her usual competent, but caring way, offered advice mixed with compassion in equal proportions. Of course, she understood what dear Mary was going through. Her whole world turned upside down by the terrible winter… losing a much-wanted baby…and then the heart wrenching loss of her beloved husband. Followed by the kindness and compassion shown by the dependable, handsome Jess…What woman wouldn’t have been captivated? But Mary was sensible enough to know it was all just a fantasy and nothing could come of pursuing her dream. Knew it had to stop now before anyone was hurt…
“I’ll tell him I can manage alone from now on,” she had said bravely, “I’ll tell him this very afternoon. But oh, Daisy you don’t think he suspects how I feel do you?”
Daisy shook her wise old head, knowing how completely unaware Jess was of his effect on women…
She had smiled and said, “I very much doubt that my dear. Just simply say he’s needed back here at the ranch; his conscience will do the rest. He would hate to think Slim was overdoing things after that nasty accident. But, should you need him or Slim, then you must come and ask for help…promise?”
Now as she stood at the window watching him ride out, her heart was breaking. But then she remembered Daisy’s kind words of wisdom, “All things pass my dear,” she had said sagely and Mary had to hang on to that thought...
When Jess arrived back at the ranch, he took his shower to cool down, then freshly washed and dressed in clean clothes he wandered into the kitchen to see what was cooking for supper.
Daisy turned from the stove and smiled at him, “Oh you do look nice Jess, are you seeing Millie tonight?”
He just nodded, “Yup, Saturday, usually do…”
Then raising a quizzical eyebrow, said, “Did Mary seem OK when she was round this afternoon?”
Daisy opened her eyes wide in an expression of innocence, “Why yes dear, why do you ask?”
“I dunno,” he said mooching over and inspecting the contents of the pan, “she seemed kinda funny, says she can manage over there from now on…”
“Um, well maybe she can dear. I believe it’s probably not good to get too reliant on one person, especially for the newly bereaved.”
Jess’s head shot up and he looked deeply into her wise eyes… “And you think she maybe is?” He asked…
When Daisy merely looked into his eyes and said nothing, he gave her a slow smile…
“OK I get it, back off huh?”
“I think so dear, now would you set the table this is nearly ready…”

*******
Spring gradually merged into summer and then before they knew it the Circus was due back in town again…
Jess cast his mind back to the previous fall when he had first spied those diminutive footprints in the early snow…and how they had turned out to belong to Checco, or ‘Checco Russo Bagonghi, my given name….Of Italian descent you understand, my grand-parents…and Bagonghi simply means a circus dwarf…that is who I am and what I am, ’ as Checco had first introduced himself…
Now he wondered sadly what the pocket-sized little man was doing with his life…He had confided in Jess that when his dear wife, Stella, passed over he would not return to the Circus…
“Me a clown, with all that laughter and merriment…I just couldn’t bear it Jess,” he’d said as they sat by the lake on their way to Rawlins to see his poor dying wife…
Then Jess remembered his words… ‘Bagonghi…simply means a circus dwarf…that is who and what I am…’
It would seem the poor guy had lost his wife and his identity too, Jess mused as he stood in the hot August sunshine one Saturday, staring at the Circus flier in the mercantile window. It was advertising the advent of the Circus to town the following week. It really wouldn’t be the same without the Amazing Checco, Stunt Rider, he thought sadly… Sure there was a dwarf stunt rider on the bill…
“But he won’t be the same…not anywhere near as good as Checco,” Mike observed, standing beside him and chewing on his Saturday candy treat…
That’s why Jess was so surprised to receive a letter from Checco just a few days later. It contained free Circus tickets for all at the ranch and an invitation for Jess to visit him in his wagon before the start of the show.
Jess guessed that maybe the little guy wanted to share Stella’s last few weeks on earth with him. After all Jess had been through a similar experience of having lost a loved one to the terrible disease of Consumption and so he could really understand. Then he wondered why Checco had changed his mind about performing…maybe the roar of the crowd and the smell of the greasepaint had proved too much for him he thought with a faint smile.
On the day of the Circus performance Jess made his way into town on Traveller, leaving Slim to follow on in the buckboard with Daisy and Mike. As it was a special occasion, they had splashed out on a hotel room for Daisy and the youngster and the child was beside himself with excitement.
Jess reined Traveller in as he entered the area on the outskirts of town where the Big Top was erected and asked for directions to Checco ’s caravan…
He hitched up Traveller and then as he walked in the direction he had been told, he spied a familiar figure ahead of him…
“Sam, hey Sam wait up,” he yelled at the Doctor’s receding back.
Sam stopped and turning around smiled in welcome, “Howdy Jess…come for the show?” He asked.
“Yup, but I’ve an invitation to meet up with Checco in his caravan for a drink first.”
Sam beamed at him, “You too eh…so I wonder what all the mystery is about?”
Jess shrugged, “I guess he wants to talk about his wife passing. You saw him I believe, offered advice about a…er special kinda hospital or something?”
“Ah yes a Sanatorium…the latest research by a German Doctor. He is getting excellent results by housing patients up in fresh mountain air…with a special diet of the very best produce…Complete bed rest in this environment is producing very pleasing outcomes with a number of patients recovering,” he said smiling happily.
“Uh, that’s all very well iffen you catch it in time and you’ve got the money to spend on these darned er…Sanatoriums and special diets,” Jess growled. “But poor old Checco don’t have two cents to rub together and his wife was stuck in a bed in a valley at the bottom of the mountain…with pretty basic food…so I guess yer fancy ideas wouldn’t have done her a whole lot of good…”
Sam frowned, “Oh my dear fellow of course you’re right, forgive me I do tend to get a tad carried away where new research is concerned you know…”
Jess was immediately contrite, “No I’m sorry Sam. I didn’t mean to ball you out… I guess I’m just feelin’ kinda upset for Checco, he’s a great guy and really didn’t deserve losing that pretty young wife of his that way…”
Sam nodded throwing his friend a compassionate glance, knowing how he had nursed Daisy’s God daughter Flora through her final days before she succumbed to the same illness… No wonder he was so touchy he thought sadly as they walked on in silence.
Jess rapped a tattoo on the caravan door and stood back expectantly and moments later the door was hauled open by Checco…
The dwarf beamed up at his visitors and quickly bid they come in…
Jess and Sam entered and were transported into another world… The interior reminded him of the Fortune Teller’s Vardo that he had been astonished by a few years ago. Its splendor and opulence something he had never witnessed before. See # 46 The Fortune Teller’s Daughter

Now he stood back in amazement at the small but beautiful room set out before him… There was a small kitchen area with brass pans and stove gleaming, then as they moved through to the main seating area Sam too looked surprised by the red velvet couch and chairs set before a brightly burning range…
“Oh my,” said Sam in wonder, “this is a regular little palace Checco,” he observed looking around the room that was neat as a pin and full of precious paintings and photographs of Checco and his wife working with the horses…
Checco grinned at him, “Thank you Doctor please take a seat, and turning to them both, “A drink…whiskey?”
Jess and Sam nodded in thanks.
Jess watched Checco and was surprised at how relaxed and happy their host looked…He cast his mind back to the last time he had seen him and how terribly troubled and anxious he was as he sat with his beautiful dying wife…but now he seemed a different person…
Checco went through to the kitchen and returned with their drinks on a neat silver tray, before saying, “Excuse me gentlemen, I have another guest here, I’ll just fetch her,” and he disappeared behind the lush red velvet curtain which Jess guessed led to the sleeping area…
He exchanged a puzzled glance with Sam both wondering if their friend had found a new love already…But surely not so soon after Stella’s demise Jess thought…
Then the curtain was pulled back with a flourish and Checco stood there holding the hand of a stunning looking tiny woman who smiled shyly at them…
It took Jess several seconds to realise he was looking into the eyes of…none other than Checco ’s beloved wife Stella!
Jeez though, she looked so well, positively bursting with health and vitality…her long golden hair glossy and her eyes sparkling with delight as she saw Jess’s look of pure amazement followed by joy….
He marched forwards and hugged her before turning to Sam and saying, “Meet Stella Russo, Checco ’s wife!”
There was a split second while both Jess and Sam tried to make sense of things and then there was laughter and a clamor of questions and answers…
“So you see,” Checco concluded sometime later, “we took your advice Doctor… I had a cabin built up on the mountain top…specially designed with outdoor living in mind…a huge porch and fire pit adjacent. There we could sit in the fresh air in all weathers…wrapped in wolf skin and buffalo hides we were plenty snug… We ate like royalty too, only the best cuts of meat, wild salmon from the river and even fresh fruit and vegetables.”
“It was so cold up there last winter we had our own cold store just outside the door,” Stella laughed, “so all the good produce was kept fresh for weeks…”
“This is amazing,” Sam said, “my goodness I’d ask to examine you…but there is no need, you are a picture of health and vitality my dear!”
“No need,” she smiled, “the doctor in Rawlins, who advised us further after your talk with Checco, checked me over before we came on tour. He says my lungs are completely cured and I should out live him,” she giggled.
“Well I sure am glad to hear it,” Jess said with feeling. “But how on earth did you afford all that Checco? Paying to have a special cabin built…all that prime food…medical care… I don’t get it…you won at cards or somethin ’ huh?”
Checco grinned and said, “Nope, better than that… Jess do you recall that affair with the bear that chased me on the shore of the lake?”
Jess chuckled, “Don’t I just…never seen anyone run so dang fast in my life…you can sure cover the ground fast when you want to for a little guy.”
Checco gave a bark of laughter, “I did, didn’t I! Anyway, do you remember those pretty stones I was gathering for my Stella just before Mr Bear arrived?”
Jess nodded, “Sure I do, they were real pretty…but like I said at the time hardly worth gettin ’ chewed up by a bear for.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Checco said triumphantly. “My friend the jeweler in Rawlins valued them and they were worth a fortune Jess! “
“Huh?”
Checco beamed at him, “The greeny blue ones were pure Jade and the shiny ones, looked like glass…were uncut diamonds!”
“The hell they were,” Jess gasped in amazement, “we’ll I’ll be….”
“Anyway, that’s why I invited you two here for a drink before show time,” Checco said suddenly serious…
“Stella and I wanted to thank you properly. You doc for setting us on the right track…giving me all that special information…it was invaluable…”
“And as to you Jess,” he said turning to the young cowboy, “offering to take me home that way…I could never have done that journey alone… nor would I have found those precious stones that saved my dear Stella’s life,” he said turning and smiling at his wife…
Then raising his glass, he said, “To Jess and Sam,” and Checco and Stella repeated it in unison as they raised their glasses…
They all took a drink and then Stella put her glass down and pulling out a drawer next to her removed two small boxes and passed one to Jess and the other to Sam…
“What’s this?” Jess asked
“A little thank you gift from us,” Checco said smiling. “We couldn’t leave without sharing our good fortune with you both…My jeweller friend made them up into a necklace, for your girl…Millie, Jess. The other for your beautiful daughter Carrie…who showed me such kindness,” Checco said, smiling at Sam.
Jess was the first to open his box and stared in amazement at the beautiful necklace set with a large cut diamond…
“Heck Checco, I can’t take this…it is way too much!” But his protests where disregarded and he finally accepted with sincere thanks as did Sam…
The laughter and merriment that followed suddenly ceased as they heard a whimper and then a full-blown wail emanating from behind the red velvet curtain and Stella got up immediately and ran from the room…
“What heck was that?” Jess asked looking bewildered.
But his question was answered as Stella returned carrying the cutest tiny baby Jess had ever seen…He sat up in his mother’s arms blinking and taking in the scene around him before chuckling in delight and waving his diminutive fists …
Checco took him gently from Stella and placed him in Jess’s arms where the child scrutinized him closely with wide intelligent eyes…
“Meet Checco junior Jess…I guess he’s down to you too in a way,” he said grinning wickedly…It was you and Sam here that helped Stella get well anyway. But I guess the rest was down to me,” he laughed… “Well there wasn’t too much to do in that old cabin…and so once Stella was on the mend… “and he just shrugged…to much happy laughter…
It was just as they were leaving to attend the performance that Stella hung back for a second and said softly to Jess… “It wasn’t just the fact that you brought my dear Checco home and enabled him to find those stones to pay for my treatment that I was cured,” she said softly, “there was something else you gave us…”
“Oh?” Jess asked throwing her a quizzical glance…
She nodded, “You said to me, ‘Don’t give up…miracles do happen sometimes,’ and because of that I never gave up hope Jess…that’s the most important gift of all…hope…”
He smiled down at her, “Well I’m sure glad you didn’t give up, because you’re one special lady.”
She smiled at him and squeezed his hand, “Thank you,” she whispered, before they joined the others…all talking excitedly about the performance ahead.
They caught up with Slim, Daisy and Mike in the Big Top and much fuss was made of the new baby as Stella was introduced and the story of her miracle recovery told…
Then before they knew it there was a drum roll and the blast of a trumpet and they made their way to their front row seats…
The show was a kaleidoscope of amazing sights and sounds. From the lions and tigers to daring trapeze feats…but the star of the show was definitely the diminutive daring, Amazing Checco Rosso and his riding extravaganza!
During the interval Jess looked around him and was pleased to see how many town’s folk were enjoying the evening too, with the exception of Millie and Lily he thought sadly as they had to work…But he’d make it up to her later he thought…and gee, she sure would like that necklace with the beautiful cut diamond…
He looked across the ring and notice a lady wiggle her fingers at him in greeting and saw it was Nancy Kline…now Watts he remembered with her with her husband…Davy…He hardly recognized her from the frail, skinny woman he had seen at the hearing all those months ago…Now she looked…well what Daisy would call buxom.
Daisy too had noticed Nancy waving and waved back…
“Gee, she’s sure filled out some,” Jess whispered to Daisy, who was sitting on one side of him, “she was just skin and bone last I saw of her and now she’s well...um.” He didn‘t like to say fat…but…
“Um…pregnant is the word you’re groping for I think dear,” she said with a little giggle, “with twins too!”
Jess’s head snapped towards Daisy, “She is…gee…”
“Uh-huh, and she asked to be remembered to you especially, when I met her in the mercantile the other day…said it was thanks to you that she managed to get her life back on track and now finds herself in this happy condition…”
Jess looked over at Nancy with a soppy grin on his face, “That’s just swell,” he replied…
Then Slim, on his other side nudged him, “ It sure is swell pard…By my reckoning that’s two ladies tonight that have said the happy state of motherhood is all down to you…yup, I guess that’s some record even for you Hotshot,”he said with a bark of laughter and sly wink…
Jess nodded happily still in a daze as he relished how motherhood suited some women, making them even more beautiful…and then Slim’s comments hit home…
“Why YOU…!” He roared…but Slim was out of his seat and away before Jess could reach him…
“You’ll keep,” he muttered with a murderous look in his pard’s direction…
Then he shook his head and chuckled…Slim could tease him all he liked…but life felt pretty good right then, yes siree…

Epilogue
As told by Daisy Cooper

It was that special night at the circus when everything came full circle, I think… The adventure had started with Jess finding those small footprints in the snowy yard…Then ended happily with the owner of those footprints reveling in the joy of being a new father and as Slim teasingly said that was down to Jess…in the best possible way of course…
Likewise, it was dear Jess, bringing Nancy safely across the Snowy Mountain Pass and then later speaking up for her that helped her to gain her pardon from the Judge. Eventually allowing her to marry her Davy and know the joys of motherhood…
Oh how joyous it was for all of us to see new life returning to the town after so many sad losses, and see the happy children’s faces around the Circus Ring…. The horrors of that dreadful winter with its death and despair if not totally forgotten, then at least cast to the backs of our mind for a spell….
But then something happened at the close of the show that was to remind us all of those sad times…but somehow in a good and positive way….
Once the final bow had been taken the Ring Master introduced a tall, red headed, larger than life man as Mister TG Barnum…one of the circus owners…
He took the floor and after a little banter with the crowd he called out Checco to help him with a special presentation…Then to my astonishment he called for me to join him in the ring…Well Slim and Jess assisted me in entering and I must admit I felt rather strange and nervous in such an exposed environment…with the crowd all cheering and clapping.
Then Mister Barnum was speaking and taking my full attention…
“It is with great pleasure that I have a check here to present to this dear lady as the representative of the Town’s Allegiance Group. Given with all our good wishes that it will aid the victims of the ‘winter from Hell’, as you call it,” he said, looking up at the crowd who were now silent…
“I know that you have all suffered terribly in this town and still widows and orphans are benefiting from the good works done by this group and supported by you all… Thanks to a letter I received from Mrs Cooper explaining the needs of your community I am happy to support this good cause.”
Then he paused and looked at Checco…
“I believe the star of my show, Checco, has a very special reason to be thankful for the help he has received from certain folk in this town too. Therefore, it is because of him that not only am I making a substantial donation from the proceeds of tonight’s show…but all Checco ’s fellow artists have donated their wages from tonight’s performance too...In an act of solidarity with our most greatly loved and valued artist….”
Then he paused and looked down, “I know we were in very real danger of losing our Checco…and I am forever indebted to the kindness and support he has received…I think we can all learn something from that…especially myself,” he said flushing a little…
Then he took a deep breath and smiled up at the audience.
“Uh, so it is with great pleasure I hand over to Checco, for the presentation…”
Checco made a short speech and then presented me with the unbelievably large check…
Well I can tell you I was almost lost for words…but managed to give my sincere thanks to one and all before retiring to my seat…feeling truly blessed.
*******
It was several weeks later and early fall when I was able to update my boys with all the latest gossip.
I had returned from a shopping trip to town and was full of all the news as we sat around after supper enjoying a welcome coffee and relaxing by the fire…
“I visited Mary Hughes when I was in town,” I told them, “she and the children have settled in well and Amy sent you a drawing Jess,” I said passing it over…
He looked at the bright drawing and smiled, “She’s a great kid he said softly…and Mary, she’s OK?”
I nodded, “Yes she’s getting there dear, it’s early days but she’s stronger everyday…says she has to remain cheerful for the children…”
“That was a real shame about Ike,” Slim said softly, “he was a good man…”
Jess said nothing but absently leaned down and fondled Blue’s ears and then flicked a glance in my direction and I knew he was thinking, ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’
We’d tried to keep the details of the worst events of that terrible winter from Slim as we didn’t want him to fret over the fact that he hadn’t been there to help protect us… It had been a truly dark time and even now I awoke in a cold sweat if I heard a lone wolf baying in the night…I gave a little shudder and then came back to happier topics.
“I met Carrie in the haberdashers, I said and Nancy had her twins yesterday…two big healthy boys!”
“Well that’s wonderful,” said Jess, “I’m glad…”
“She’s not the only one either apparently there are quite a few new mothers and more expecting babies soon, the poor doctor has been run off his feet,” I continued.
“Well only to be expected after a long winter,” Jess said with a chuckle and winking at Slim…
“Why’s that then Jess?” Mike asked looking curious…
“Huh? Um not sure Tiger, just nature’s way I guess,” he said vaguely…
Then, “Ain’t it time you were in bed huh?”
Once the child had gone off moaning that he really wasn’t tired yet, as usual, Jess rolled his eyes, “Kids eh!”
“Well you should know Jess,” Slim said flicking a glance at me and winking…
“Huh, what do ya mean?”
“Well you’re always banging on about how motherhood is a wonderful thing and how pretty women look when they’re pregnant and new mothers are so dang cute…”
“So…what’s that got to do with anything?”
“Well you did give Millie that diamond necklace didn’t you Jess?”
“Sure…you know I did why?”
“Oh nothing,” Slim said looking innocent and picking up the newspaper…
“Slim? Daisy…what’s he gettin ’ at?” He asked now looking alarmed…
I felt a bubble of mirth rising and couldn’t speak, so just shrugged….
“Slim, so what’s wrong with that necklace and me thinkin’ young mothers are really pretty huh?”
Slim lowered his paper… “Well nothing Jess…it’s just well diamonds are forever you know….”
“Huh?”
“You give a woman a diamond ring then you’re engaged, that is promised…But give her one on a necklace…well that’s way more serious…It means you just promised you’d be with her forever and that you can’t wait to start a family….”
Jess’s jaw dropped and he turned pale, “It does?”
“Uh-huh,” said Slim, not missing a beat….
“Daisy…he’s lyin ’ ain’t he…Daisy…huh?”
I just couldn’t speak for laughing and it was a good couple of minutes before I was able to put the poor boy out of his misery….
Oh yes, he would have babies one day and lots of them and be the best Pa I’d ever seen…but not yet… no not quite yet…
He still had a lot of living to do before he settled down… but that, as they say, is another story….

The End
Thank you for reading!

NB Some of this story was based on the true storm of 12 January 1888 when a terrible blizzard hit after a pleasant day…
‘The day of January 12, 1888 was unusually pleasant due to a warm air from Montana. Children and teachers enjoyed the weather and farmers were happy to have a day of respite from the bitter Midwestern temperatures. Many people ventured outside the home for errands or school without enough dense winter clothing---but the good day did not last, and a freezing cold front slammed into the unfortunate states. Within an hour, the calm day turned into a terrifying blizzard with 60 mile an hour winds and 15-foot-tall snow drifts.’