Mrs. Little Joe (Romancing the Ponderosa Book 1)

Chapter 9

I make it downstairs just as Adam, Pa, and Roy finish talking. They all grab their rifles and take a post within the big room. Adam's at the window behind the kitchen table, while Pa's at the window behind his desk. I grab my rifle off the table where I had left it, and watch Roy cover the front door. I look between the three and can't help but wonder where I'm supposed to be in all this mess. "Hey, Pa, where do you want me at?"

"Cover Roy from behind."

I move over behind Roy. Just as I lean my back against the wall gunshots and yells mingled with hoofbeats sound from outside.

"They're here." Roy says even though we all know it. "Once they get close to the house, I'm going to go outside and see if I can try and talk some sense into them now. Little Joe, I want you to come and cover me. I also want you to have your gun out in plain sight so as to show them we're not playing around. Ben, Adam, I want you two in the house, covering us from the inside. Don't come outside unless you're needed."

"Yes, Roy, but don't you think it would be better for Joe and I to switch places?" Pa's voice comes from around the wall.

"No, Ben, these men need to see somebody new standing up to them. And not only new, but young, too." I hear Adam mutter to himself. "No offence to you Adam, but these men are just going to be hard to take down, and we've got to use what few men we have to do it. I'm not saying you're aren't as good, but Little Joe here is a good shot and not only good, but fast, too. He's what I need out there with me."

There's more yelling and gunshots outside, but now they sound closer. Pa says that they're in the front yard dismounting but he begins to chuckle. "I know this is no laughing matter, but they're all so drunk that five or six of them just fell off their saddles onto the ground. They're not getting back up either!"

"Well, Little Joe, are you ready?" Roy asks, his hand already on the door latch.

"Yes, sir." I nod, pushing myself off the wall and cocking my rifle.

He opens the door and steps outside. I follow right behind him my rifle laid across my arm, ready to fire if I need to use it. I take a good look at the men who're coming to take Hannah. What I see disgusts me. Men so drunk they're staggering on their feet, eyes all glassy looking. I presume the man in front is Lunberg. The man has sagging cheeks and a potbelly, clearly showing the fact that he's a drunk. His clothes are dirty and so thin and torn that Hop Sing would refuse to use them as rags.

"Cyl Lunberg!" Roy calls out. When the same man I was watching starts walking towards us, I know my assumption was correct. "I want to talk to you about Hannah Crawford."

"Yeah, well, she's my stepdaughter." I can smell the liquor on him from ten feet away. "And that makes her my property. I have a right to her and I want her."

"I don't believe that just because she's your stepdaughter makes her your property. She's a human being, not a piece of livestock."

"Lil ole Hannie girl's been under my care ever since her ma died." He pauses to take a swig from the whiskey bottle tied to his belt. "Her ma wanted me to take care of her, and that's just what I's a doin'. Ya see I've found a man who wants to get all hitched up to that scrawny lil brat. And I's won't leave rest until I's get her to that preacher."

"Well, Mr. Lunberg, you can't force any person to get married, so why don't you let Miss Craddock make that decision. Anyhow, who's the man who wants to get married to Miss Craddock?"

"Old Man Llyod."

"Is he with you?"

"Of course he's with me, he wants to see his lil bride." He gives us a creepy smile before turning around and yelling, "Old Man Lloyd, get over here!"