Chapter 10
Travis’s leg was getting stronger the more he walked.
His side was hurting less and less. He saw all the people he knew from before he went into the war.
He read all the headlines as Chris brought in the papers each morning.
‘Sherman’s march to the sea. Burning everything in his way.
The Union Soldiers winning battle after battle.
’ Surely this war couldn’t last much longer, he hoped his friends would be joining him in Angel Falls very soon.
Travis started thinking about what he was going to do.
Tate didn’t need his help in running the store.
Before he left, he did. Now, he had Mike and Jill.
He didn’t want them to find another job or a place to live.
But what was he really suited for or have any training for?
He could shoot really well, and he had learned to track in the war.
He could probably be a deputy if he wanted, but Sheriff Red Wilson had a deputy, he didn’t need another one.
He hated to be in an office working at paperwork.
He’d hate to be stuck in a bank all day long.
He sure wasn’t cut out to be a doctor or a lawyer either.
He hated blood…it didn’t make him sick, but he sure didn’t want to dig around looking for bullets or take out organs or deliver babies either.
And the last thing he wanted was to defend guilty men and set them free when he’d rather just shoot them and send them to hell where they belonged.
He kept thinking of all he could be when he heard a shot near the bank…
some men were trying to rob it. He headed over that way…
both the sheriff and the deputy were already shooting at them.
Travis joined in with his two Colts. There were five men in the robbery gang.
One outside holding the reins of their horses, four inside.
Red was at the front of the bank, and Rusty had gone to the back to make sure they didn’t escape through the back door.
Travis knocked out the man holding the horses and dragged him out of the way.
He pulled all five horses away from the bank.
When the men came out to get their horses, they were in for a rude surprise.
There were shots inside the bank, which is never a good sign.
All four men came out the front to get on their horses only to find the horses gone.
You could hear their curses for a block away.
They ran back into the bank to try to get away out the back of the bank.
Here they ran into Rusty Granger. Rusty started firing on them, they fired back.
He hit two of them, but in the exchange, they also hit Rusty.
Travis and Red joined them at the back of the bank firing at the robbers.
With Red and Travis firing at them too, the remaining two robbers dropped their guns and gave up.
Red arrested the two surviving men plus the one Travis knocked out and took them to jail.
He searched them and locked them up. He returned to hopefully take Rusty to the clinic, but he found him already dead.
So, were the other two bank robbers. Travis had already gone and got the undertaker.
The shots inside the bank had been to one clerk and at the safe to open it.
They did take the clerk to the clinic and returned all the money to the bank.
The safe was a complete loss. That would have to be replaced.
Red was distraught at Rusty’s death. They had been together for a long time.
They’d been colleagues and friends. What was he going to do now for a deputy?
The town hated losing Rusty as their deputy.
He was a good man to have backing up the sheriff.
He was respected and liked by the entire town.
Everyone came to his funeral. It was held in front of the mercantile.
No place was big enough to hold everyone who wanted to pay their respects to the man who put his life on the line for their town every day of the week.
It was at the funeral that Travis saw Angie and Lydia again.
He smiled at Angie and frowned at Lydia.
Somehow Angie looked very pretty with her two boys and Lydia looked like she always did…
like she was better than everyone else. Although several single men made a beeline for her.
This was their first time seeing her and realizing that she was a new single woman in their midst. Lydia perked up at getting so much male attention…
and then they told her they were cowboys fresh off the ranches, or men who just worked for a living in town…
nobody special or anybody who was rich. That’s when she reverted back to her snooty ways and almost ignored all the men around her.
Travis almost smiled at the turn off she gave the other men.
It was typical Lydia until one man wasn’t taking no for an answer.
He just picked her up and started walking toward one of the buildings to get to know her better.
Not even Lydia deserved to be raped again.
Travis stepped in and stopped the man holding Lydia against her will.
“Put her down…and do it gently. It’s clear that the lady doesn’t want to go with you.
In Colorado, no means no. If you force her to go with you, it’s called rape and you will spend twenty years in prison.
Is that what you want to happen?” He asked the man and put his hand on his six guns.
He was every bit as tall as the man he was facing, but he sure didn’t want to start fighting him. His side wasn’t up to a brawl.
“I like what I see. I don’t like a bitch that talks back to me.
I aim to take the starch out of her bitchy mouth while she’s flat on her back.
When I get through with her, she won’t be saying such crap anymore and she’ll know her place.
” The man told Travis with a smile that showed his black teeth and a breath that said he’d been drinking this early in the morning.
“That may be, but it would still be called rape. I can’t let you hurt or abuse any woman like that. You want a woman that bad, go to the saloons and take one of the whores. This woman is not for sale.” Travis told him again. He was losing his patience with the man.
“Is she your woman?”
“Hell, no! But I do know her, and I don’t like to see any woman abused and used against her will. Now put her down or I will use my guns to make you.” Travis told him for the last time.
The man dropped Lydia on the ground with a moan from Lydia. She didn’t like being carried like a bag of feed, nor being dropped like that on the ground. “No woman is worth twenty years in prison.” The man said and kicked Lydia as she lay on the ground and walked away.
Travis did help her up. But Lydia was too mad to think before she spoke.
“What do you mean ‘Hell, no’ I’m not your woman!
Men have been lining up all day to get some time with me.
Am I not good enough for the wonderful Travis Buchanan?
” She yelled at him and rubbed her hip where the man had kicked her as he left.
“Lydia, I just kept you from being carried off and raped by that man. I don’t need you yelling at me for not wanting you as my woman.
I haven’t forgotten what a spoiled, self-centered woman you are.
I know that you haven’t changed in a few weeks since we’ve arrived in Angel Falls.
I’m just glad that you are no longer my problem.
I’m beginning to be sorry that I stepped in and stopped that man from carrying you away with him.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pay my respects to the man who died saving the town’s money.
” Travis told her and left her standing there all alone.
True to Lydia’s temperament, she stamped her foot and felt like calling Travis every curse word she knew but instead walked back to stand silently steaming by her Aunt Mavis’s side.
She didn’t know if she had seen what had transpired or not.
How dare he not want her for his woman, of course she didn’t want to be his woman, but that was besides the point.
She felt like flirting with him enough to make him want to make her his woman and then dropping him like a hot potato…
that would fix him for good. But she didn’t know if he’d fall for it. It would take some thinking on.
Travis did spend some time talking to Angie. It was nice and not complicated at all. He also noticed that Cal Long liked talking to her. Interesting…she needed a man to be the father to her small boys. She’d make a good wife to any man.
It was after the funeral and after they were cleaning up that he was approached by Sheriff Wilson. “Travis…could I have a moment of your time.”
“Sure, Red, what can I do for you.” Travis asked him and stopped what he was doing.
“I need a new deputy. If I sent a telegram to the U.S. Marshals asking them for another person who needed a place to settle down, it would take some time…possibly up to a month before I could get anyone to come to a little town. Then, I’d have to interview them and see if we were compatible and would work well together.
You stepped right in with the bank robbery.
I liked that, I’ve always liked how well you worked here in Angel Falls.
Would you ever think about being a deputy…
my deputy for the town?” Red asked him hoping he didn’t have to send away for one.
“Red, I’m honored that you asked me to be your deputy.
As I walked up and down the streets getting the muscles in my leg to grow back, I thought about what I was going to do with my life now that I’m back.
Tate doesn’t need me for the store. Mike and Jill help him out real well, and I am sure I don’t want to take their jobs away from them.
I’ve thought about other work in town, and to tell you the truth I even thought about being a deputy before you asked me.
But you had Rusty, and he was a damn good man to have watch your back.
I think I’d like to be your deputy. But I have to be honest with you.
My leg isn’t a hundred percent yet and neither is my side.
I’m fine with my guns, but not in a brawl or a fistfight.
Would you still want me as your deputy with those handicaps? ” Travis asked him.
“Hell, yes. Even with your leg and side the way they are, you’re more of a man than most of the men in this town.
I did notice the way you stopped the man who was trying to carry the Hatcher girl away with him.
I was right behind you. You did a good job stopping him and you didn’t have to shoot him.
I also would have put her over my knee and spanked her the way she talked back to you.
She’s a handful all right, and I wouldn’t want her to be my woman either.
Can I get you sworn in today?” Red asked him and smiled.
“Yeah, you can. Just let me tell my brother and sister-in-law first. I want their blessing on my new job. I think Sam would be a good deputy, too, but Tate would never agree to such an undertaking!” Travis told him and they both laughed.
“You ain’t just whistling Dixie! Wait until you actually see that woman shoot.
She’s something else. I’d take Sam in a heartbeat.
I’ll be over in about thirty minutes to swear you in and give you a deputy badge.
Thanks, Travis. I think you’ll make a dandy deputy to the citizens of Angel Falls and I’m looking forward to my backup real well.
” Red told him and saw him head to where Tate and Sam were with all five of their children.
Tate didn’t hesitate to speak up. “Saw you speaking to Red. Did he approach you for being the next deputy? Sam thought he’d ask with you helping out with the robbery and all.”
“Do you read minds, too?” Travis asked her with a laugh.
“Sometimes, it doesn’t take a mind reader to know that it makes perfect sense to ask you to be the next deputy.
You’re good with your guns, you don’t put up with any stupidity, you use common sense, and the town knows you.
I’d pick you out to be a deputy over any of the men in town.
” Sam told him and grinned at her logic.
“I appreciate your vote of confidence, Sam. What about you Tate?”
“I don’t see you working at a desk or in an office.
You have never liked being closed in behind walls.
Even before the war, you never really liked working in the store.
You carried up bags and worked in the store because we needed two people running the store, not because you liked doing it.
I think being a lawman will be your cup of tea.
You’ll be outside, you’ll be telling people what to do, and putting the wrong ones in jail.
I think you’ll like what you do each day.
I’m glad you’ll have a job you’ll like, Travis. ” Tate told him and grinned with Sam.
“I’m glad, because Red is going to swear me in with you standing here as my witnesses. I’ll be starting my new job tomorrow morning.” Travis told them and they all smiled.