“This place has gotten bigger.” Joe grumbled as they rode into Barbadine several days later. Jonah glanced at Clayton. The boy’s eyes were as big as saucers as he gazed around at all the people and buildings.
“Wow…. It’d take ya three days just to see everything!” Clayton gasped with wonder, which of course only served to make Joe slump down even further in the cart.
“There should be a damned law against a place this big. This many damned people in one place just ain’t natural.” She stated grumpily.
Jonah chuckled and brought Copper up close to the cart so he could reach out and give Joe’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll get you back on the mountain just as quick as I can.” He promised. Truthfully he was hoping that he would be able to learn where Scarlett was and then, after ensuring that Joe and Clayton were safe at the cabin with Reb there for added protection, he would go after her and take her out. End the threat against his family.
In the past Jonah would have gone to the law and sent them after Scarlett but it was clear to him now that the law wouldn’t help him. They had let her go once and it would only be a matter of time until they did it again. Jonah wouldn’t let that happen. If slitting that woman’s throat in her sleep was the only way to ensure that his wife and son stayed safe then that is what Jonah would do and he and God could sort out the right and wrong of it later.
“Well why you two are trading them furs, me and the boy are gonna do some shoppin’.” Reb stated and Joe frowned at him.
“Shopping fer what?”
“I’m gonna get him a good knife.” Reb replied. “Somethin’ with a bit more backbone behind it than that little sticker he carries ‘round.”
Jonah glanced over at Joe and saw that she looked doubtful and he gave a slight shake of his head. “I think it’d be good for the boy to carry a little bigger knife. Obviously it ain’t gonna be any sixteen incher but maybe a good six or seven inch bowie.”
Jonah could tell that Joe wanted to argue at first but then she sighed and nodded. “Alright. I guess it’d be a good idea.”
“Well come on then, boy.” Reb said with a grin and Clayton smiled at Joe and Jonah.
“This is gonna be great!” he exclaimed before following eagerly after Reb.
“Thanks for that, Joe.” Jonah said once they were alone and making their way down a less crowded side street toward a trading post.
“I ain’t completely unreasonable.” Joe replied. “I can see where him havin’ a bit of a bigger knife would be a good thing. Especially after what happened to us and with her still out there.”
Jonah’s hands tightened a little on Copper’s reins. “Well I’m gonna leave you to get your furs traded while I go see about a few things.”
“What things?” Joe asked suspiciously. Jonah sighed and ran his hand over his scruffy face.
“I need to find the sheriff and have a talk with him.”
“You think he might know where that no good bitch of a cow is at?”
Jonah shrugged. “I don’t know what exactly I’m hoping he can tell me. I reckon I’m just feeling a bit desperate and hoping he can tell me something.”
“I can go with ya if’n ya just wait a while.”
“I’d rather just go do it now and then have some time to spend with you and Clayton.” Jonah didn’t add that if things went the way he was hoping they would with the sheriff, that he’d be saying goodbye to his family soon to hunt Scarlett down. He figured all that would do was cause a fight and Jonah didn’t want to fight with Joe until there was a real reason to fight. No point stirring up the hornet’s nest until he was getting ready to ride away from it.
“Alright then, but since we’re in Barbadine, you’ll owe me a drink to make up fer leavin’ me to barter these furs on my own.”
Jonah laughed. “It’s a deal, honey. But you know as well as I do that if I did come to the trader with you, you’d just tell me to shut up and stand aside while you dealt with him yourself.”
“You know me so well.” Joe replied with a smile. Jonah winked at her and then turned Copper around and headed back toward main street.
He made his way to the outskirts of town and the jailhouse that still looked the same as it had when he’d brought Scarlett to it years ago. Many things about the town had changed and grown over time but not this place.
“Well I’ll be damned! Jonah Winchester, where you been staying hid at?” The sheriff asked as he pushed himself off the porch banister and tossed his cigarette down onto the dusty street. The man still looked the same as he had before. Thick black mustache, small eyes and a hard jaw.
“Here and there.” Jonah replied, wiping sweat from his brow with his shirt sleeve.
“How have you been doin, Jonah?” the sheriff asked.
“Good the last few weeks.” Jonah replied. “Except for finding out the hard way that Scarlett was no longer in prison where she was supposed to be spending the rest of her life rotting.”
Sheriff Phillips eyes widened and then he let out a sigh and shook his head with disgust. “I heard she got let out.”
“Let out?” Jonah demanded through gritted teeth. Sheriff Phillips snorted and clicked his tongue.
“Escaped is more like it. Convinced a guard it would be worth it to give her a free pass out of prison.” Then the sheriff’s eyes narrowed. “You said you learned that the hard way… What the hell happened?”
“She sent her men after my wife and son.”
Sheriff Phillips immediately stood up straight. “Did they get ‘em?”
“They got her but I got her back. Trouble is I don’t know where Scarlett is but I’m sure she’ll send somebody else. She seems to want revenge for the death of that husband of hers.”
“But didn’t he get himself killed when he stuck a gun in your back?”
“I guess she forgot that part of the story.”
“That’s convenient.” Sheriff Phillips stated with a shake of his head and Jonah merely snorted in agreement. “I wish I could give you some idea where she might be, Jonah, but I don’t have an idea. I can put some feelers out there, send some telegrams and see if some other folks I know might have an idea.”
“I’d appreciate that sheriff. I can probably come up with some excuse to give to the wife for staying in town a day or two.”
“They didn’t hurt your woman did they?”
“Joe ain’t very easy to hurt.” Jonah replied with a small grin. “They roughed her up a little and shot her leg but she gave them worse than she got.”
Sheriff Phillips chuckled and nodded with appreciation. “Nice to hear that she paid them back. I’ll get busy seeing what I can find out for you.”
“I appreciate it, sheriff. We’ll be staying at the Imperial.”
“You and your family should join me at the Sunset Diner tonight around seven for supper. It would be my treat.”
“We might just do that.” Jonah replied with a nod. “You have a good day now, sheriff.”
“You too, Jonah. Take care of yourself.”
Jonah nodded and then walked off the porch and back to Copper. He swung himself up in the saddle and pulled his hat down lower as he squinted into the sun. He prayed like hell that the sheriff could find out something about where Scarlett was staying hid out because if he couldn’t then Jonah would be forced to travel roads he didn’t want to travel, and get answers from men on the other side of the law that he’d rather not have any association with.
He didn’t want men like the ones that Scarlett would hire, to be around his son or his wife… Jonah was finding that he had more than just a tad of a protective and possessive side when it came to his newfound family.
***
“Now, dammiit, I’m gonna tell ya somethin’ right now. Ya better stop tryin’ to pull the wool over my eyes and cheat me out of money that I deserve fer these here furs. Now these is some of the best I’ve ever gotten and I won’t settle fer no measly seventy-five dollars!”
Joe glared at the fur trader, a different man than she had traded to the last time she’d come to Barbadine. He was short, skinny and had shifty eyes. Joe could tell he was used to cheating people out of money they deserved but, by God, he wasn’t gonna do it to her.
The trader appeared a bit taken aback by her outburst and then he ran his hand over the soft beaver furs on the counter and glanced at the wolf furs.
“And you say you have how many pallets out there?” he asked in a voice that was just as squeaky and rodent like as the rest of him.
“I have just over thirty pallets. Ten beaver, two wolves, ten coyote, a bunch of rabbit and mink, a couple of deer and even a bear fur.”
“Mind if I go take a look?”
“I reckon not.” Joe conceded. “Just so long as ya keep yer paws off of ‘em ‘til after you’ve paid me my fair share of money.” The trader held her gaze for several long moments, obviously hoping to intimidate her. Joe kept her face blank and stern while she laughed on the inside. She’d faced scarier glares from her four year old son over breakfast.
“I feel sorry for any man who finds himself tied down to a sharp tongued little harpy like you.” The trader grumbled as he walked out the door with Joe right behind him.
“Thanks for the sympathy.” Jonah’s amused voice stated from atop Copper just outside the trading post door. The trader nearly fell backward with surprise. “She’s a bit hard to take sometimes but she bakes such a mean pie that it makes up for the sharp tongue.”
“I doubt that.” The trader grumbled as he ambled over to the cart and inspected the furs. Joe glared at Jonah as he hopped off of Copper and walked to her, sliding his arm around her shoulders.
“What did you find out?” she asked and she could tell by the tightness in his jaw that it wasn’t good news.
“Nothing. Exactly nothing. But the sheriff is going to ask around and see if he can find anything out.” Joe nodded and then she felt an uneasy trickle wash down her spine. Turning her head toward the train station, Joe saw a man watching her.
He was a big man, the biggest she’d ever seen as a matter of fact. While he was a good hundred yards away, he seemed to be close to seven foot tall, if not taller, and his body was as big around and as hard looking as an oak as he stood there in a peach colored chambray shirt, with the sleeves rolled up on his thick forearms, tight brown trousers, low slung gunbelt and bowler hat.
His eyes were locked on Joe and she swallowed hard, wondering why he made her so uneasy. It wasn’t like her to back down from someone but she couldn’t hold his gaze. Quickly she looked away and focused her attention on the man currently picking over her furs.
“You okay?” Jonah asked, clearly noticing the way her shoulders had tensed. Joe forced herself to relax as she chewed on her nail and then spit it into the dirt and nodded.
“Be a hell of a lot better if that bastard would quit tryin’ to cheat me!” she countered loudly, ensuring that the man would hear her. The trader sighed and stepped away from the wagon.
“Those are nice furs.”
“Yeah I know.” Joe replied with a snort.
“I’ll give you two-hundred dollars.”
“Three.”
The man let out a squeak sounding just like the rodent that he resembled as his nose twitched and his shifty eyes glanced from side to side.
“That’s awful high.” He mumbled and Joe shrugged.
“Jonah get in there and get those pallets I already took in. We’ll just head down the road to someplace else…..”
“Now wait!” the man exclaimed as he quickly stepped forward. Joe crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot impatiently. The trader rubbed the back of his neck and chewed on his lip. “Two-fifty.”
“Three hundred. I ain’t givin’ an inch on this one. I know damned well they’re worth much more’n that. That bear fur alone is worth more than a pretty penny.”
“And I guess your man here will get violent if I refuse.” Joe glanced up at Jonah who shrugged back at her, shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels with amusement. Joe put her hands on her hips and glared back at the mouse-like trader.
“Hell no, that man wouldn’t know how to get violent if’n ya forced him. Me, on the other hand, why I’ll kick yer ass and then convince ya it was yer idea so ya don’t get too cross with me fer it. Now ya either give me what my furs are worth or I’ll be takin’ ‘em to somebody who will.”
“Alright. Three hundred.” The trader finally conceded with a sigh. Then he plastered a placating grin on his face. “You’re right and they are worth that. You can’t blame a businessman for trying to save a few dollars.”
“That’s why my pa always told me not to trust a businessman.”
The trader laughed, a squeaking, high-pitched sound that made Jonah wince beside her. “Probably just as well.” He admitted. “Bring them furs on in here and I’ll get your money.”
As Jonah and Joe carried in the pallets of furs, Joe glanced back at the train station but realized the big man who had been watching her was gone. Shaking off the uneasiness that she still felt, Joe got back to work and forced that man from her mind. She hadn’t recognized him and he was gone now… She was sure it hadn’t meant anything. But just the same she’d stay on alert for the day and mention it to Jonah tonight.