Chapter Twenty-Three

Jeb wasn't quite sure what had just happened.

All he was sure of was that there was a pregnant whore pacing around while screeching about abominations and that Craig had raced away as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.

"What in the world....?" Jeb glanced back to see Eleanor poke her head from the house, clearly alerted by the volume of the screeches their unwelcome guest was emitting.

"Preston?" Gill called as Eleanor rushed back inside. Jeb knew the woman would be terrified. She was a nervous little bird at the best of times and, while she was comfortable around the family, new people sent her running.

"Yeah pa?" Preston asked as he came out of the corral and approached with his hands over his ears. "Go in and check on Eleanor."

Preston nodded and rushed into the house, clearly eager to be escape a bit of the noise.

Jeb saw Wyatt's gaze go skyward before the man let out a huff, stormed over to a pacing, ranting Susannah and clamped his hand over her mouth.

Jeb nearly chuckled at the comical widening of the woman's blue eyes and he heard that Zachariah did let a laugh slip out.

Susannah jerked away from Wyatt and wiped at her face. "Don't put your negro hands on me!"

Jeb stepped forward, his temper fully flared, but Gill's hand grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Jeb turned to look at the other man. "Jebidiah, go find your brother and talk to him. Talk not scold. I will deal with her."

"I don't want her on this ranch," Jeb growled. He was thankful for Gilliam in that moment. Gilliam tended to be the cooler headed one of the duo.

"She won't be," Gill promised.

Jeb nodded, threw one last threatening glance at the suddenly silent woman and headed for the barn to get a horse. He wasn't sure what he'd say to Craig but he knew he'd have to go easy... it was clear that Susannah was a snake and Craig had been through a hell of a lot.

***

Gill stepped off the porch and pointed to the wagon. "Get in."

"Don't order me around, negro," Susannah spat.

Gill chuckled. Clearly the woman thought she was something special. "I apologize, ma'am." He tipped his head politely. "If you'd be so obliged as to enter the wagon, I will be happy to drive you into town so you can rest a bit at the hotel."

Susannah huffed her way to the wagon. She stood beside the seat a moment and then cleared her throat loudly. "Am I to climb up alone?"

Wyatt smacked Gill on the arm to get his attention. 'Does she know slavery ended?'

Zachariah shook his head. "Brothels don't teach history."

Gill ignored them both and approached Susannah. "I'd be happy to help you up, ma'am. I was merely keeping my distance because I'm a negro, ma'am, and didn't want to soil you with my negro hands."

Wyatt let out silent laughter and waved his dark hands in the air.

Gill helped Susannah onto the wagon seat before sitting down beside her. He headed off toward town, knowing he'd have plenty of time during the ride to figure out what the hell was going on.

Jebidiah's temper had been too spiked by Susannah's treatment of his family and Craig certainly hadn't been in his right mind. Gill, however, was thinking perfectly clear and he knew something was very not right about the current situation.

"Ma'am, I have a few questions for you," Gill began. He'd interrogated more than a few people during his life. It was time to be a lawman once again.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Susannah replied curtly as she stared straight ahead.

Gill nodded. "Yeah, you do. Craig is my family, my brother, and when I see someone taking advantage of my family, I have a problem with that."

"Why do you think I'm taking advantage of him?" she inquired, in a much more subdued tone. Gill had been told before that, when he asked questions, there was an authority in his tone that made it nearly impossible to lie or deny him the answers he wanted.

Gill leaned back in the seat. "Why don't you just tell me how you and Craig found yourselves in your current situation."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

Gill nodded. "You're right. You don't. But, convincing me would go a long way in helping make your life here a whole lot easier."

Susannah seemed to consider that a moment before clearing her throat. "Yes, I was living in the brothel but I had never laid with a man until Craig. I was new to the brothel when a man stopped in. He took a liking to me and made a deal with the Madame. I was to be saved for only him and no other man was to touch me."

"Then why did you lay with Craig?"

There was the slightest shift in her eyes. The slightest tightening of her posture. "I made a mistake."

"Craig says he doesn't remember laying with you."

"He was very drunk," Susannah replied. "I had to help him to the room."

"He was so drunk he couldn't walk alone but he managed to put a babe in your belly?"

"I'm not on trial here, negro," Susannah spat.

Gill rolled his shoulders. "I'll keep that in mind, whore." He nearly chuckled at her indignant expression. "So, you were an innocent woman, promised to another man and you just so happened to enter a saloon, find a man so drunk he couldn't walk and wouldn't remember anything come morning and then, not only lay with him, but get with child?"

Again, just the slightest tensing. "I am done talking to you about this. It is none of your concern."

Gill chose not to argue. He'd heard enough.

***

Craig wanted to scream when his brother came riding up to the tree Craig had taken cover under. He just wanted to be left alone. He couldn't take any of his brother's condescending tone just now.

He waited for Jeb to begin his disappointed scolding any moment. Jeb slid from his horse's back, walked to the tree and settled himself down next to Craig without saying a single word.

The brothers sat there together in silence for several long moments before Craig let out a sigh. "It just doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?"

Craig was surprised by the question and by the concerned and quiet tone with which it was spoken. Jeb and Craig had always been close so Craig simply opened his mouth and began to speak the truth.

"I learned a lot about myself while I was gone. I was lost in liquor and anger for a while, wound up bloody and beaten in a ditch and a man saved me...." Pain lanced Craig's heart but he pushed it aside. "He took me to the ranch he was foreman on and got me a job there. I was doing pretty good, still letting loose but only on my days off. The man, he seemed to hate me.... And then it changed."

"What do you mean it changed?"

"I uh... I mean that I... I realized I wanted him and that he wanted me."

Craig spared a glance at his older brother and it was clear the man was surprised but trying real hard to rein in his own emotions and stay perfectly calm. "Oh....okay. So where does Susannah come in?"

Craig rubbed roughly at his face. "I was still trying to figure out what it all meant and I had a night off so I went into town and.... And I did what I do best and got shit faced drunk. But I remember half the night and what I remember was thinking that I'd been broken because I wasn't the last bit interested in taking a woman.

"I woke up in the hotel the next morning fully clothed, alone, in a room with the door locked from the inside and no memory of how I'd gotten there. That man showed up that morning and we spent the rest of the break from work together.... It wasn't until I checked out that I realized the clerk had checked me in with a woman. I decided not to tell the man because I figured nothing had happened. I'd been dressed and alone when I woke up.... Apparently I was wrong. Or at least she says I was wrong—and the clerk recognized her."

"Is there a reason you won't say the man's name?" Jeb asked quietly.

That certainly hadn't been what Craig had expected. He'd expected his brother to give him hell for his mistakes.

"Ezekiel. His name is Ezekiel. And I... I love him, Jeb."

"Why isn't he here?"

"Because, when Susannah came to me and told me she was pregnant, he left. I reckon he didn't love me as much as I'd hoped he did."

Again, silence fell over the brothers. Finally, Jeb spoke. "Do you think the babe is yours?"

"No," Craig admitted. "I don't. I think Susannah wanted out and I was the way she found."

"Then why did you bring her here?"

Craig swallowed hard. "Because what if it is mine? What if I'm wrong? Or, even if it isn't, you've met the woman...that kid is gonna need somebody."

"Do you even know for sure that she's with child?"

"Yeah, I reckon. She's been getting sick a lot."

Jeb grunted. "Well hell, Craig."

"Yep."

"So, what's the plan?" Jeb inquired.

"I told her I'd put her up in town until the babe is born and if it's mine, if I feel as if that's my youngin, I'll do what's right by her."

"And if it's not yours?"

Craig shrugged and his shoulders sagged. "I don't know. I've done lost him..... I just don't know."