Friends and Enemies (3 page)

“If Sammy truly owes them something, he will pay, I know that,” Robert said. “But they had better show up in person and have some proof of their accusation, because lots of folks want a piece of Sammy's bank account nowadays.”

“Are you really going to try to arrest my Uncle Sammy?” Veronica quizzed.

“Can we watch?” Patricia pleaded. “Mama, you've got to let us watch.”

The man wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Actually, I don't think I'll go to Deadwood after all. In fact, maybe I'll ride back to Rapid City with the sheriff's posse.” The man backed down the slope of the hill toward the train, his hat in his hand.

The passengers were given the option of waiting out on the hillside or reboarding the train and waiting there. Most of them, like the Fortunes, remained out in the fresh air of the Black Hills.

Little Frank tucked his boiled cotton shirt into his ducking trousers, and tugged his worn, wide-brimmed hat down low across his eyes. “Daddy, can I go look at the horses while we are waiting?” He stared toward the far end of the train.

“What horses?” Jamie Sue queried.

“The two horses that are going to Deadwood for the big race,” Little Frank reported. “It looks like they're unloading them to give them some exercise.”

Her narrow eyes pinched; her thin lips tightened. “I will not have my son hanging around that racehorse crowd,” she insisted.

Robert reached over and hugged her narrow waist. “He only wants to see the horses, Mama, not run off and join the circus,” he laughed. “Besides, it will be a history lesson.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “And just how is this going to be a lesson in history?”

Little Frank rocked back on the heels of his worn brown boots. His blue eyes danced. “The big gray is a descendant of Traveller, General Lee's favorite. And the other is a descendent of General Grant's horse, Cincinnati!”

“Oh, my . . .” Jamie Sue reached up and tried unsuccessfully to tuck a wild strand of brown hair back under her straw hat. “I can see how this will be a horse race of epic proportions and national significance.”

“Does this mean I can go watch them exercise the horses?” Little Frank pleaded.

She reached over and brushed his hair off his forehead. “How can I refuse such a historic event? It would be unpatriotic.”

When Robert attempted to withdraw his arm, she clamped it around her waist. They watched Little Frank sprint back toward the livestock car.

“The girls are right,” Robert admitted. “I should stop calling him Little Frank. He's almost as tall as I am.”

She pulled his hand over to hers and laced his calloused fingers in hers. “No matter what we call him, Daddy Brazos will call him Little Frank.”

“Mama, we want to go for a walk too,” Veronica insisted as she stood and brushed down her lacy white cotton dress.

Jamie Sue raised her thick dark eyebrows. “You want to go look at some horses?”

“No, she wants to go look at that young blond boy with the curly hair that's standing by the big lady and the half-naked little boy,” Patricia announced.

“I do not.”

“Yes, you do.”

“How do you know?”

“‘Cause I want to go see him too! So there!” Patricia stuck out her small, pointed pink tongue.

“Please, Daddy,” Veronica begged, “can we just walk around?”

He glanced at the milling crowd of impatient passengers. “As long as I can keep you in sight.”

Patricia jumped up next to her sister. “Why do we have to stay in sight, Daddy? Little Frank doesn't have to keep in sight.”

“Because Little Frank isn't one of the two cutest girls on the face of the earth,” Robert replied.

Patricia and Veronica grinned and wrinkled their identical round, upturned noses in unison.

“Daddy is one smooth talker, Mama,” Veronica beamed.

“Yes, he is.” Jamie Sue drew his fingers up to her lips and brushed a kiss across them. “It's a Fortune characteristic.”

The girls held hands and giggled their way over to a stand of short ponderosa pines. Soon, they wormed their way close to the blond curly-headed boy.

“Well, Daddy, you sweet-talked them this time, but they won't fall for that forever,” Jamie Sue lectured.

“Can you imagine what life's going to be like when Veronica and Patricia are sixteen?” he said.

“You'll have solid-gray hair, Robert Fortune, just like your father.”

“And Sammy. He's been gray since he was twenty-five.” Robert took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We haven't all lived in the same place since . . . since Mama died.”

Jamie Sue stretched her arms out and could feel stiffness and pain at the base of her back after several days on the train. “I predict you'll make a quick adjustment.”

“How about you?”

“I'm looking forward to settling in. But I'll have to get used to it,” she admitted. “I'll be only one of many Mrs. Fortunes. Rebekah is the queen. Abby's the one with stunning looks, . . . and Dacee June . . . well, there is no one on earth like Dacee June Fortune Toluca.”

“The whole family is defined by our relationship with Lil' Sis, aren't we?” Robert concurred.

“Yes, and I'm just not quite sure where that leaves me.” She stood and rested her hands on her lower back. “Where do I fit in?”

Robert pulled her over toward his knees, tugged her around, then began kneading his thumbs into her lower back. “You're my darlin' Jamie Sue, the original heartthrob of the Black Hills. There wasn't a prospector in '75 who didn't stare at that handbill of yours and dream,” Robert grinned.

“That was a long, long time ago.” She flinched. “Just a little higher.”

“Not for me, it wasn't,” he replied. “It seems like yesterday that I came through that blizzard on the prairie and you bushwhacked me. How's that?”

“Bushwhacked you? You wrestled me to the ground, and we hadn't even been introduced. Oh, yes . . . right there . . . oh my, I think I'm in heaven,” she moaned as he continued the massage.

“Wrestled you to the ground? You tried to bust my skull!”

She sat on his knee as they laughed.

“We've been bushwhackin' and wrestlin' ever since, haven't we?” He slipped his arms around her.

She leaned her back against his chest. “Are you bragging or complaining, Robert Fortune?”

“I am continually amazed that a woman of your beauty and charm ever wanted to put up with the likes of me.”

“Are you trying to sweet-talk me like you do the twins?” she pressed.

“Did it work?”

“Yes, it did.” She turned her head back and kissed his narrow, slightly chapped lips. Then she scooted over on the log next to him and surveyed the crowd until she spotted her daughters. “But I'll never know how in the world you three Fortune boys turned out to be such smooth talkers growing up with Daddy Brazos's rough, blunt ways.”

“Ah, Jamie Sue, you never knew our Mama.”

Some of the passengers had pulled out dinner baskets and were picnicking on the hillside by the time the sheriff and his men drove up. They brought a doctor, two train officials, a buckboard wagon, and several outriders with them.

Robert spent a half-hour explaining the entire capture scene to the lawman and officials of the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad. Soon after, the engine was stoked, the whistle sounded, and the livestock and passengers, including the Fortunes, were reloaded.

“His name is Harold McGinnis, but everyone calls him Curly Mac,” Veronica reported, her lace-up boots dancing with each word.

Patricia bit her lower lip. “He's almost as old as Little Frank.”

“He used to live in El Paso.”

“And Las Cruces.”

“And Santa Fe,” Veronica added.

“And Durango,” Patricia blurted out.

“And Denver.”

“And Ft. Laramie.”

“And Custer City.”

“But now he's going to Central City,” Patricia declared.

Veronica untied the lacy bow at her waist, then retied it. “And he's going to visit his aunt in Central City.”

Robert glanced over at his wife. “I presume we're talking about the blond-headed boy.”

“No doubt.” Jamie Sue squinted at Veronica. “You have a smudge on your chin.”

Both girls wiped their faces.

“He can't tell us apart,” Veronica added.

“Very few people can.” Jamie Sue studied her daughters.
How can that same wisp of hair fall out of their hats at the same time and droop in identical fashion across their foreheads?

“Veronica pinched him and then said she was me,” Patricia reported.

“You did what?” Jamie Sue gasped.

“He was showing us his muscles and he . . .”

Robert felt his neck stiffen. “His what?”

“The muscles on his arms, Daddy. He bet I couldn't even pinch him there he was so strong. So I pinched him.”

Patricia chewed on her lower lip. “Veronica made him cry.”

“I did not. He said some dust got in his eyes.”

“Well, why did you tell him you were me?”

“I was afraid he would get mad.”

“Did he get mad?” Jamie Sue asked.

“No, but he did quit bragging about his muscles,” Veronica announced.

“Well, you shouldn't have touched him. Touching could produce sinful thoughts,” Jamie Sue warned.

Veronica grinned. “In me, or in Curly Mac?”

“The only thought in his mind was pain!” Patricia added.

Jamie Sue tapped Veronica's bouncing knee. “You are not building a ladylike reputation, Veronica Ruth Fortune.”

Veronica stopped bouncing her knee. “That's OK,” she smirked. “He thought I was Patricia.” Her toes began to tap.

“Trisha and 'Nica should have come down with me to look at the racehorses.”

“We are not allowed out of Daddy's sight!”

“Veronica!” Jamie Sue scolded.

“Sorry.”

“Did you know that dark chestnut is over sixteen hands?” Little Frank continued. “I bet he's going to win the race!”

“You will not wager on the horse race.” Jamie Sue sighed. “Robert, your children have lived around too many forts and too many soldiers.”

As the train picked up steam and resumed full speed, a man with a dark brown wool suit and leather vest strolled into the car and down to their seats. “Mr. Fortune, may I have a word with you?”

Robert turned to Jamie Sue. “This is Mr. Vanborg, a railroad supervisor.”

The man with a thick gray mustache tipped his round hat. “Actually, I'm the vice-president of the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad. I just happened to be in the Rapid City office when we got word of the attempted holdup. Mrs. Fortune, I want to thank you and the children personally for assisting in capturing the train robbers.”

“Mr. Vanborg, I confess I thought only about protecting my children, not your railroad.”

“I completely understand. Thank you for your courage, anyway.” He leaned closer to Robert Fortune. “I thought perhaps we could step to the back of the car where we could have some privacy.”

“Why don't you just sit down on the seat across from us?” Robert suggested. “Jamie Sue and I have never kept anything from each other. This way I won't have to repeat what you say word for word.”

“Well . . . yes . . . certainly . . .” Vanborg perched himself on the edge of the leather seat across the narrow aisle. “Mr. Fortune, I believe in getting to the point. I'd like to hire you to go to work for the railroad.”

Robert didn't even look back at his wife. “Thank you, Mr. Vanborg, but I'm not looking for a job.”

“I'm glad for that. The unemployed are not always the most stable workers. But I do have an offer I'd like you to consider.”

“What do you want my husband to do?” Jamie Sue asked.

“As you probably know, this route is new, just completed right after Christmas. I'd like to hire you to be in charge of train security between Deadwood and Rapid City. It's our most troublesome division of the line, and often we have shipments from the mines. We need to be able to tell the mine owner this is the safest stretch of railway in the West.”

“I suppose today's adventures will not help your reputation for safety,” Jamie Sue offered.

“Yes and no,” he replied. “Thanks to you folks, not one penny was lost, not one passenger hurt. We can't do anything to stop people from trying to rob our trains. However, we can do a lot to see that they don't succeed.”

“And it would help you to hire the man who stopped the robbers today?” she asked.

“Precisely.”

“You want me to ride shotgun for a train full of gold?” Robert asked.

“It's much broader than that. I see you as running the security operation. I'd want you to hire two men. Then you would set up a schedule where one of the three of you is on every train, providing the first line of defense against attacks.”

“It sounds dangerous,” Veronica added.

Vanborg glanced at the children. “It's no more dangerous than any lawman's job. I think once the word of what happened today gets around, there will be very few who want to take on the man who stopped the Wild Bunch.”

“The Wild Bunch?” Patricia quizzed.

“That's what they like to call themselves.”

“I never heard of them,” Robert admitted. “They've actually been successful?”

“Mainly in Nevada and Wyoming,” Vanborg reported.

“I understand your need, but I'm committed to helping out in a new family business,” Robert declared. “I don't believe I could consider backing out without discussing it with all of them.”

“Let me make the full proposal, then you and Mrs. Fortune and any others can think and pray about it for a while.”

“Why did you say, ‘pray about it'?” Jamie Sue quizzed. “Are you a Christian, Mr. Vanborg?”