Saddle Dust

Chapter 12

1866
one month later...

"Are these all of your bags, ma'am?"
The stagecoach driver asks rather apprehensively as he ties down yet another suitcase and hat box to the roof of the coach.
"Yes, that's all of them. Thank you."
Maxine purses her lips curtly and turns back towards her mother who is standing alone on the porch. She walks up to her and smiles warmly.
"Maxine, are you sure you'll be alright in Dodge City? Are you sure you want to go especially when there are bound to be rough cowboys and cattle hands around with no manners?"
Maxine hugs her mother tightly.
"Yes mother, I'll be just fine. I am going with father and Richard and Mr. Waterton after all. Besides, you have Sam here to make everything safe and sound." Maxine pulls away and her mother smiles weakly. "Ye-es. I suppose...but still. Dodge City!"
Frederick walks up next to his daughter and places a hand on her shoulder.
"Julia, please. We've had this planned out for a while now. Maxine is to come along to get out a little. Maxine has only ever been around this little place- and after all! She's a grown woman now and can handle herself properly especially since she was brought up under the roof of such a good and loving home as this."
Julia's smile warms and she kisses Frederick lightly on the cheek.
"Well, alright. But just be sure to watch out for her. You and Richard both. Waterton too, I suppose."
"Yes ma'am! Now come on Maxine, we don't want to have to travel when it's too dark out."
Frederick takes Maxine's arm and the two walk to the stagecoach. Dr. Arlington helps his wife into the coach and is followed shortly after by Waterton and Frederick. The driver whips up the horses and Julia waves her white handkerchief in farewell as the coach picks up speed.
Inside the coach, Frederick makes several attempts at conversation which flicker and die quickly with his three other companions. He thinks that Maxine is just nervous about going to such a busy place as Dodge but he isn't sure why both Waterton and Richard are also silent. The two have traveled their fair share and have been to cities like Dodge several times.
Frederick supposes it is the late hour which they left at. The sun is hanging low in the sky already. The packing took much longer than expected especially with Julia's insistence that they travel with extra clothing for the city. You just never know the fashions they're wearing nowadays! Don't want to be unprepared. These were some of Julia's many words of advice to Maxine as she had jammed yet another pair of lady's kid boots into a box to be packed onto the stagecoach. Frederick looks at his daughter and catches her eye. She flashes a hasty smile at him before turning to look out of the window over Richard's shoulder. Frederick's heart warms. Yes, she's definitely nervous for the city. Just like when he brought her into town for the first time to buy a new bonnet for her birthday. Frederick looks out of one of the windows and watches the landscape flutter by. If only Casey had picked up on Maxine's polite habits, then maybe things would have turned out differently.
Frederick doesn't realize that his thoughts mirror the exact purpose of the sudden trip to Dodge City sprung upon him by Dr. Arlington just a week before. Dr. Arlington had said that Waterton had sent a letter to him saying that he was being presented with a "very small and unimportant award for his service in the medical field" and that he was to be collected by a stagecoach and by Waterton himself to go to Dodge City for the presentation of the award. Richard had also requested that Maxine come along as well in order to see more of the country and because she would "be simply depressed if she wasn't allowed to follow her husband along on such an excursion."
Frederick had agreed that the arrangement sounded right enough but Julia wasn't so willing to let Maxine go. Frederick finally convinced her to give her blessing by agreeing to go to Dodge City with them. Julia had finally relented and given her permission.
Maxine's anxious eyes stare out at the passing landscape. She secretly wishes that her father hadn't offered to go with them on their trip to Dodge City. He doesn't know that the real purpose of their journey north to Kansas is to put an end to Casey Long's vile ways. She knows her father would, despite his mixed feelings towards Casey, not support the ambush they have planned out for her. Maxine sighs gently. Well, some things simply cannot be helped. Dr. Arlington places a warm hand on her own.
In his own seat across from Maxine and next to Frederick, Waterton picks at a cuticle and cooly observes the sky. He thinks about a section of forested bank just south of Dodge City that rests several feet above the Arkansas River. He pictures a lone rider entering the forest and the sudden sharp cracks of several rifles suddenly crackling through the silence. He smells the gunsmoke rising from between the trees and hears the rush of the water as rocks drag a heavy load to the bottom of the river. It's deep there...probably no less than ten or eleven feet at the oxbow...four...five men plus me should do it... three of my hired boys, Arlington, and Hadley maybe? Yes. I think so...