Teaching Miss Maisie Jane (5 page)

“Not
until the Padre says his words.”

The
Judge grunted. “You’d better be telling that young’n she’s about to get her cherry popped.”  He walked out of his chambers and shut the door behind him.

Jake
opened the door on the holding room and Maisie Jane was across the room sitting primly in a chair. She looked up and she looked scared.

“Mr
. Maddox, what’s going to happen to me?”

Jake
took one of her small hands and held it. “Miss Maisie Jane, you’re going to have to trust me. You’re in some awful trouble here and I’ve done the best I can to get you out of it. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. Now, listen to me. The Judge didn’t like what you did, one bit. Neither did I, because what you did was wrong, bad wrong, but we’ll have to take that up later. Right now, I need you to keep your mouth shut, and do as you’re told.”

“You
don’t have the right to tell me do that,” Maisie Jane bristled.

“I
will in a few minutes and a lot more,” Jake promised. “In a few minutes, the Padre will be here and we’re getting married.”

“No!”
Maisie Jane jumped up and then swayed as the room tilted.

Jake
pushed her back down in the chair. “Yes!  Listen to me, because I won’t repeat these words again. Judge Lement is a crooked judge. He’s a hanging judge and he’s proud of it. He likes to throw his weight around. He don’t have any use for women except to use them. Either you marry me, or he’s going to send you up to spend some time in Cree Creek Penitentiary. That’s a men’s prison, Maisie Jane. Those guards are mean and most of men serving time in there are about half-dead. If the Judge delivers you up to the prison you’ll be raped before the wagon gets turned around. Then, you’ll be passed around from guard to guard while they all have their way with you. If you last a couple of weeks, then Judge Lement will bring you back and put you in his whorehouse. A girl over there gets paid four bits for an hour of a man’s pleasure, whether it’s with his fists or getting some loving. She has to give half of that back to Judge. Is that what you want to happen to you?”

“No,
that’s too horrible to believe,” Maisie Jane cried.

“Every
bit of it is the truth,” Jake snapped.

The
side door opened and Judge Lement was standing there. “The Padre is here.”

“Come
on Maisie Jane,” Jake said gently and he helped her to her feet. He bend down and spoke into her ear. “The Padre is going to marry us. Do as you’re told. No sass. ”

Maisie
Jane felt so weak and so dizzy. Mr. Maddox was so mad at her, but she’d heard those awful words he’d spoken and she feared he’d spoken in truth.

Jake
stood beside her in front of the Judges desk. There was another small man standing by dressed in a brown robe of a Catholic father.

“You
going to marry him?” Judge Lement demanded squinting at her.

Maisie
Jane looked up at the tall man standing beside her and nodded and wet her lips. “Yes, sir.”

The
Padre stepped up and opened a Bible and asked their names. He spoke for a long time and when he got to the “will you take this man and woman part”,  Jake said yes. Then, Maisie Jane said yes.

The
Padre blessed their marriage and bowed and signed the marriage license. Jake handed him two dollars and Padre picked up the pen and signed the certificate.

Jake
bent over and signed and handed Maisie Jane the fountain pen. She signed and stepped back. Jake picked up the license, blew on the ink, and folded it carefully and put it in his shirt pocket. Then, he handed the judge his badge, picked up his Walker Colt, and stuck it in the back of his pants.

“Jake,
can I speak to you for a minute?” the judge said motioning him outside the office.

The
two men walked out, but the door wasn’t shut all the way. Maisie Jane heard the Judge tell Mr. Maddox that it wasn’t too late to change his mind.

Jake
listened to the judge throw around a lot of worthless words, but he wasn’t changing his mind. He was a married man, and he’d protect and guide his wife the best way he knew how.

They
heard a thump and he stepped back into the judge’s office to find Maisie Jane on the floor. She’d fainted again. He walked over to desk, tightened the string on his money sack and stuffed it inside his shirt. Then, he scooped Maisie Jane up off the floor and carried her out of the judge’s office to raucous laughter.

Jake didn’t want to expose Maisie Jane to the stares of the townspeople by carrying her down Front Street, so he took a side alley, and wound his way to the Fair View Hotel’s back door.

Mrs
. Townsend opened the door and Jake stepped in quickly.

“What
have you done to her?” Mrs. Townsend demanded.

“I
haven’t done anything to her,” Jake denied. “She hit her head and now she’s fainted. Which room is she staying in?”

“Upstairs,
second room,” Mrs. Townsend said and she followed as he carried Maisie Jane up and laid her gently down on the coverlet.

“I
think, we need to get the Doc over here to check her out,” Jake said. “She’s got a lump on the back of her head and this second time, she’s fainted dead away.”

Mrs
. Townsend went to the door and hollered for her son Percy and sent him to fetch the doctor.

“You’ll
have to leave now,” Mrs. Townsend said bluntly. “I don’t allow men in the rooms of single women.”

“Maisie
Jane is a married woman now,” Jake said. “We got married about ten minutes ago.”

“Is
that true?” Mrs. Townsend exclaimed looking doubtful.

Jake
took the marriage document out of his pocket and unfolded it. “Signed by the Padre and the judge; it’s legal.”

Mrs
. Townsend folded her arms in front of her bosom. “Miss Jackson never said a word to me about getting married. What’s going on Mr. Maddox?”

There
was a knock on the door. “I’ll explain after the doctor sees her, ma’am. Will you stay with her?”

Mrs
. Townsend nodded in agreement.

A
few minutes later, the doctor met Jake in the hall.

“Is
she going to be okay?” Jake demanded.

“Yes,
she’s got a goose egg on the back of her head, but I don’t she has a concussion. She might have a headache for a couple of days. I left some headache powders with Mrs. Townsend for her to take if her head starts to hurt. She’s a delicate little thing. A couple days of rest and she’ll be fine. Did she really shoot that murderer Walter Banks?”

Jake
shook his head. “She shot at him, from four feet and still missed. When he grabbed the gun he was shot by the three lawmen in the courthouse. There’s no way of knowing which bullet killed him.”  Jake paid the doctor and shook his hand.

He
knocked on the door and Mrs. Townsend opened it. Maisie Jane was awake but she had been undressed and put into a nightgown. He sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. “Are you feeling okay?”

Maisie
Jane moved her head slightly and winced. “No, my head hurts, so bad. The doctor gave me a powder and he said it would make me sleep. I’m so sorry I caused you so much trouble Mr. Maddox, so sorry,” she whispered and then she drifted off to sleep.

“She
married you, and yet she still calls you Mr.?” Mrs. Townsend whispered fiercely. “What’s going on?”

Jake
motioned the woman over to a small settee by a window. “Miss Maisie Jane got herself into an awful mess. She tried to shoot a man in Judge Lement’s court a little while ago. Walter Banks killed her brother and she got the fool notion in her head that she was going to kill him. Course, she doesn’t know how to shoot, and she missed, but the Judge is pissed - excuse my language ma’am. He said he was going to send her to Cree Creek, but I couldn’t let him do that. He owed me a favor, so I got him to agree to let me have her instead of what he promised me. We’re wed, legal and proper, but I need to get her out of town and fast. Judge Lement runs this town and he doesn’t like not getting his way. He’s seems real determined to get her into his stable of girls—beg pardon ma’am.”

Mrs
. Townsend touched Jake on the sleeve. “Will you treat her right Deputy Maddox?  Treat her good?”

“Yes,
ma’am, I will,” Jake answered. “I made this choice, I’d rather not speak of my reasons why but I do have feelings for Maisie Jane. I will admit, most of the time it’s pure exasperation, but I couldn’t let the Judge do that to her. I would have had to kill him first.”

Mrs
. Townsend looked at him directly in the eye, and then she nodded her head. “I believe you. I believe you are a good man and a man of your word. You’re right; Judge Lement is a despicable man. You need to leave town as soon as possible and get Miss Maisie Jane out of his reach.”

“How
am I supposed to move her, if she’s ill?” Jake asked.

Mrs
. Townsend picked up one of the little papers with a white powder folded between them. “I have some of these. The doctor gives them to me for bad headaches. We’ll get a wagon, pad it real good in the back. The doctor said to only give her a half dose, her being so small and all, but we’ll give her a full dose and that should make her sleep and keep her quiet for hours.

Mrs
. Townsend went out into the hallway and called for Percy. The boy appeared as his mother went over the desk and wrote a note, folded it and handed it to him.

“Percy,
I want you to take this note to Old Moses. If’n he can’t read it, you read it to him. And, Percy I don’t want you to speak to anyone else about this, ever. Can you do that?”

“Yes
ma’am,” Percy agreed and he ran off with the note.

“I
hope you have some money in your pocket, Mr. Maddox,” Mrs. Townsend said looking determined. “If you don’t, I think she has some in her bag.”

Mrs
. Townsend’s plan was simple: Secret Maisie Jane out of town before anyone knew she was gone, especially the Judge. Old Moses showed up to the back door, and Jake paid him for a sturdy wagon, traded him one of the saddle horses for a good strong harness horse and paid for the second. Mrs. Townsend disappeared for a short time and she came back and told him she’d arranged for supplies to be delivered a week’s worth of supplies to Old Moses’ livery stable. She drew Jake a map to a ranch up near Kingston where her brother lived. It was a three-day trip, and she wrote a letter for him to give to the ranch foreman that would allow Jake and Maisie Jane to stay at her brothers’ home until Maisie Jane was able to travel further. She explained that her brother was not there, as he had accompanied his wife back to her father’s farm in Illinois to sell off the property and collect her mother. Jake discovered through Mrs. Townsend that there were many decent people in the town of Bisbee that did not like or trust Judge Lement. As soon as it was dark, Jake, Old Moses and Percy carried Maisie Jane’s luggage to the livery stable and loaded it into the wagon.

Just
as night was beginning to ease away to dawn, Old Moses moved the horses and wagon slowly and quietly out of his livery and a good distance past the town limits. A few minutes later, Mrs. Townsend and Percy met him there with an old feather bed mattress that they laid over a pile of spread in the bottom of the wagon. Jake carried a sedated Maisie Jane out of town in his arms and gently laid her down on the feather mattress. Mrs. Townsend tucked a quilt around her and gave Jake a shake on his arm.

“You
be good to that little girl, Jake Maddox. Treat her right.”

“Yes,
ma’am, I will, Mrs. Townsend. I can’t thank you enough.”  He turned and addressed Old Moses and Percy. “You too. Thank you for helping me.”

“Best
be getting on,” Old Moses said. “The Judge spent the night over at Rita’s place so he won’t be up ‘til mid-morning.”

“If
he asks, I’ll tell him you two are in her room,” Mrs. Townsend said. “If’n he tries to go after her, he’ll have to go through me first, and that won’t be easy!”

The
three conspirators watched as Jake Maddox gave a hitch to the reins and started moving out slowly by what was left of the moonlight.

As
they were walking back, Percy dug down in his pocket and handed his Momma a ten-dollar coin. “Mr. Maddox gave it to me,” the boy admitted.”

Mrs
. Townsend gave her boy a light clip on his shoulder. “You keep it, son. You earned it, helping to keep Miss Maisie Jane safe.”

“She
ain’t a Miss no more, Momma. Mr. Maddox said he married her so she’s a Mrs.” Percy said.

Mrs
. Townsend smiled. “There’s more to being a Mrs. than a piece of paper, son. Those two are going to have a fine time of it.”

Once
dawn broke, Jake allowed the horses a normal walking pace. Maisie Jane slept away the hours, curled up all innocent and looking sweet. Jake estimated they got a good twenty-five miles before he pulled over under the sparse shade of some very large rocks. He opened a basket Mrs. Townsend had sent and pulled out some ham biscuits and a jar of sweet tea. He knew what it was because Mrs. Townsend had said it was a favorite of Maisie Jane’s. Mrs. Townsend had seemed real taken with her. He climbed into the back of the wagon and woke her.

She
wasn’t easy to wake up, she refused to open her eyes and mumbled and grumbled. Finally, he poured some water over his handkerchief and washed her face. Only then did those sleepy eyes open.

“Hello,
again,” Jake said.

Maisie
tried to sit up but she shut her eyes again from the pain.

“Now,
now, don’t try anything that hurts,” Jake warned. “I woke you up because you need to drink and you need eat.”

Maisie
opened her eyes again, looked down at herself, sat straight up, and then keeled over groaning.

“Maisie
Jane, you need to learn to listen,” Jake said sternly as he pulled her up against his knee.

“What
am I doing in a wagon, wearing a sleeping gown?” Maisie whispered.

“Mrs
. Townsend re-dressed you,” Jake said easily. “And, you’re in your sleeping clothes because you’ve been sleeping. You got quite a knock on your head and the doctor said you needed to take some medicine he gave you for your headache, and you need to rest. That’s what you’ve been doing. Now you need to get some liquids in you and you need to eat. Then you need to take some more medicine and go to sleep again.”

“I’m
not hungry,” Maisie Jane said turning away from the biscuits.

“I’m
not asking, I’m a telling you,” Jake said. “We’ve got a ways to go before we get to where we’re going and I’ll not have you sick over not eating, or getting dehydrated. Are you listening?”

Maisie
Jane nodded her head and winced, but she ate part of a biscuit and drank a bit of sweet tea before her eyes closed again.

Jake
figured that was enough for the first try. She was talking and making sense, so he figured the knock on her head hadn’t done her too much harm. He finished his solitary meal and went back to driving. Two more times that day he tried to rouse her with pretty much the same results. He didn’t try to give her anymore of those powders because he figured she didn’t need them if she was already asleep. When he made camp for the night he slept alone in his bedroll while his new wife slept in the wagon.

The
next day Maisie Jane was awake more, ate a little more and drank a little more. They talked a bit about nothing at all of importance and ignored what they needed to talk about. Maisie Jane had a screaming hissy fit before it was time to turn in for the night when he helped her walk out behind a large rock but refused to leave when she needed to relieve herself. Instead he’d turned his back. When his back was turned she picked up a rock and threw it at him. But, her aim with rocks wasn’t any better than her aim with gun. One well-placed smack to her bottom put an end to that nonsense.

On
the third day, Jake realized that they had made good time on their travels, because he rolled right up in front of the ranch owned by John Shetfield, Mrs. Townsend’s brother, by mid-morning. The Double D was a nice sized spread, with what looked like well-fed cattle and a decent sized house. Jake showed Mrs. Townsend’s letter to the foreman and he agreed to let them stay a few days seeing as his wife was obviously doing poorly.

A
Mexican woman named Maria showed them into the house and up into a large bedroom. Maria called the room a guest bedroom, as Mr. John Shetfield and his wife didn’t have any children. Jake explained that his wife had had an accident and he carried Maisie Jane up and placed her in the large bed. By the time he left to take care of the horses and wagon, Maria was already fussing over her.

Jake
offered his services to the foreman, as any man would, considering he was taking advantage of the hospitality of someone he’d never met. By the end of their fourth night at the Double D, Maisie Jane seemed considerably improved. She was up, walking around and talking away a mile a minute to Maria. But she had little interest in Jake and it seemed to him that she was avoiding him. Jake considered himself a patient man, but there was a limit to his patience. After Maria left each evening, he’d been bunking downstairs on a thick piece of carpet in a room that looked like it was used for sewing. He’d been trying to spare Maisie Jane’s sensibilities, but now she was better and she was still acting like he was a stranger. The whole time Maisie Jane was hurt, he had taken care of her, and watched over her and he hadn’t felt any urges that he couldn’t control.