Chapter 2
Cedar Bluff, Texas
Sheriff Nathaniel Cross was making his rounds through the town of Cedar Bluff, greeting passersby with a nod and a touch of a finger to the brim of his hat, or with a bit of brief conversation with local townspeople and business owners.
It was an unusually warm spring afternoon in the panhandle of Texas.
The early spring grass had already turned a deeper green, and the shrubs and small scrub oaks growing along a range of rolling hills to the south had leafed out.
Behind the town, a lazy offshoot of the Canadian river flowed by and abruptly took a bend to the south along a low ridge of bluffs covered by thriving red eastern cedar trees.
Occasionally a largemouth bass caused splashes in the water, leaving behind ever widening ripples on the surface.
“Nathaniel!”
He glanced over his shoulder to find his younger sister, Lillian, approaching. As usual, she’d forgotten her bonnet, likely adding more freckles to the smattering that already graced her cheekbones and the bridge of her nose. She approached with a smile that held part humor and part annoyance.
He heaved an inward sigh and waited for her to reach him. A long, sandy-brown braid drooped over her left shoulder. Vivid blue eyes focused on his as she approached, her face lifted upward toward his, as he stood a foot taller than her petite five feet and several inches.
Nathaniel had been the sheriff of Cedar Bluff and its surrounding county for the past five years, ever since the death of his and Lillian’s father, Clyde Cross, the former sheriff.
His father had been killed by outlaws who’d bushwhacked him.
For several years before that, Nathaniel had served as one of his father’s deputies.
“Didn’t you hear me calling you?” Lillian asked, arms akimbo.
He shook his head. “Nope, sorry. What is it?”
His sister peered up at him with narrowed eyes as she shook her head. “Do you always have to be so …” She heaved her own put-upon sigh. “We heard you got back in town last night. Mama wants to know if she should set an extra place setting at the table for supper tonight.”
Nathaniel had left town several days ago and ridden to Amarillo after hearing rumors of an outlaw gang causing havoc in the area.
To this day, even after so many years had passed since his father’s death, he was determined to track down and arrest every last one of the members of the outlaw gang that had killed him.
The lead in Amarillo had turned out to be a false lead.
Nathaniel didn’t answer for a moment, trying to tamp down a mild sense of annoyance.
Though twenty-nine years old, his mother had a tendency to hover.
It was one of the reasons he’d moved into the small structure behind the sheriff’s office, even though it used to be the tack room back when his father held the position. His mother had disapproved.
“Why would you want to live in that tiny, stuffy shack when you’ve got a perfectly good house to live in right here?” she’d asked at the time, hands on hips and eyebrows raised.
“Because I’m a grown man and the sheriff of this town and surrounding area. I can’t live with my mother. I’d be the laughing stock of the county.”
She’d made a face and rolled her eyes but let it go. What she hadn’t let go was her expectation of him coming for supper at least once or twice a week, especially on Sundays.
“Well, what do I tell her, Natty?”
She was the only one in town who still called him by his boyhood nickname. In turn, he often used his own pet name for her. “Yes, I’ll come for supper, Lilly, unless something comes up,” he replied. “What’s she fixing?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes,” he replied bluntly. “If it’s fish, the answer is no. Anything else, it’s a yes. Except liver.”
Lillian shook her head, her lips curved into a grin. “You’re the only person in town that doesn’t like fish, you know that?”
“So?”
“I just think it’s … strange. After all, there’s a stream full of bass right behind town. Who doesn’t like fish?”
“I don’t and you know it. So what’s she fixing?”
“Roast chicken,” Lillian told him. “Is that all right with you?”
He grinned. “Yup.” He eyed his pretty sister, today wearing one of her ‘visiting dresses’ she liked to call them. This one was a soft yellow calico with tiny white shapes that looked like stars. “Where have you been off to?”
“I rode out to the Jefferson place this morning to help Sadie. She’s got her hands full with that new baby, in addition to the four-year-old twins. When I got back into town I had to stop at the mercantile and pick up some sewing thread.” She glanced around. “You almost done with your rounds?”
He nodded. “Soon as I’m done, I’ll head over to the boarding house. The Barkley cousins still there?”
Lillian laughed softly. “No, thank goodness, they’ve gone on to Abilene.”
Nathaniel’s mother, Dalia, had converted their rather large four-bedroom family home into a boarding house after the death of his father, needing a way to make a living.
She rented out three bedrooms for short or longer stays.
His mother slept in a bedroom on the second floor while Lillian had made a cozy room for herself in the attic space.
A small one-bedroom cabin stood behind the boarding house, where his parents had lived after they’d arrived in town as newlyweds.
“Mama is still hoping you’ll change your mind about living in the tack room and take one of the bedrooms in the house.”
“It’s not a tack room and hasn’t been for years now, and you need to remind her, again, that it even has curtains now, thanks to your sewing skills.” He sighed. “I suppose it’s too much to think she’ll ever change her mind about having her grown son living at home?”
Lillian laughed. “Not on your life.”
His mother never missed a chance to bring up how convenient it would be for him to come back and live in his childhood home, but he’d told her—truthfully—that as the town sheriff, he needed to be closer to Main Street and the jail.
“She’ll be glad you’re joining us for supper,” Lillian said, placing a hand on his arm. “She misses you.”
He knew his mother’s comment was more than just missing him at the supper table. She worried about him. After all, his father had been killed on the job. She worried the same might happen to him.
“When you left town the other day, she brought up the subject again.” She paused. “She knows your absences from town aren’t just about the demands of your job. She knows you want revenge against those outlaws and she worries about that.”
Nathaniel said nothing for several moments. Over the years, he’d grown so focused on finding the outlaws who’d gunned down his father in cold blood that he often neglected what remained of his family. Following the awful incident, and nearly overnight, his mother’s hair had turned gray.
He still often saw the haunted, despairing look in her eyes.
His sister had changed as well. She’d been transformed from a rather willful and happy-go-lucky sixteen-year-old to the serious twenty-three year old standing before him now.
Even so, he couldn’t let go of the anger that burned deep inside him, not even after so many years.
It was never completely gone, always a glowing ember that would surge to life every time he heard or saw news about the Blackwell gang.
“You need to hire a deputy,” she murmured. “You’re too busy all the time.”
He softly groaned. “Don’t start, Lilly, I get enough of it from Mother.”
“You can’t really blame her, Natty,” she said. “She wants you to get married and have a family of your own to focus on. She’s constantly asking me if you’ve met anyone.”
“How many times have I asked you not to call me that in public?”
She glanced around and grinned. “Why not? Most of the people who live here have known you since you were a baby and that’s what Mama always called you. And me too, once I could talk.” She tilted her head at him. “And you’re trying to change the subject. We were talking about you finding a wife.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “In Cedar Bluff?”
“I know it’s still a small town, but it’s growing some. Besides, you’re gone so often, riding throughout the county and beyond. Surely you’ve noticed a lovely lady a time or two that’s gained your attention—”
“I’m too busy,” he cut her off. This was an old conversation with both her and his mother. “I’m not particularly interested in finding a wife at the moment. I’m barely thirty years old. There’s plenty of time for me.”
She made a face. “I knew you were going to say that.” She stiffened her back and gave a sigh. “Oh well, I’m off.” Her expression softened and she placed her hand once more on his arm. “I’m glad you’re coming for supper tonight.”
“Only because you know that she’ll be pestering me about finding a woman instead of wondering when you’re going to find yourself a beau.”
Lillian laughed, her eyes twinkling. “I’m finicky.”
“You’re twenty-three years old—”
“And you’ll be thirty next spring!”
“It’s different for women than it is for men.”
“Oh pish posh,” she exclaimed. “I have just as much right to wait and find the right man for me as you do finding the right woman for you!”
He grinned. “I’m teasing. You know that.”
“Well,” she sighed. “I guess what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.”
“Yes,” he agreed, smiling fondly down at his often annoying sister. “And this gander has to get back to work.”
Lillian gave him a smile and continued heading toward the western edge of town and the boarding house. Nathaniel continued on his rounds. He lifted a hand to Layton Rawlins, the hardware store owner, as he came outside to sweep the boardwalk in front of his store. “How you doing, Layton?” he asked.
“Good now that business is picking up,” Layton replied. “Now that spring has arrived, every farmer or rancher in the area suddenly needs tools or equipment repaired.”
Nathaniel laughed. “Nothing new about that. You have a good day.”
“You too, Sheriff.”