James shook his head. “He is not infirm. I have seen infirm. Lots of men missing bits of themselves after the war. Robbie is, well, bruised, shall we say. He has a limp and a weak hand. What was done to him probably gives him nightmares, if only because it was a senseless brutality, but those will slowly fade. We’ll just keep a close watch on him. If he can make it through this, maybe it will give him a better view of himself.”
“That is what I am hoping.” Geordie stood up and stretched. “I want a drink. Have no idea why, but it just seems as if this day should end with a drink. Or two.”
“Good idea,” said James as he also stood up. “Should we wake him?”
He went to his bag and found a pencil and paper. “Nay. I will leave him a note so he doesnae wonder where we went. Robbie isnae much of a tippler. Likes his cider but not much else. And if he is sleeping while we talk, he obviously needs a rest.”
Setting the note on the table, Geordie grabbed his coat and left with James. He hoped the man was right, that Robbie would gain some confidence in himself if he finished this journey. It would be good if his brother gained some benefit from it all.
Chapter Six
Mehitabel answered the pounding at the door, not surprised to see her neighbor and several of his men standing there. Her little dog was with her, so she knew it was not a complaint about him getting through the fence and harassing the cows again. Odin sat down by her feet looking cute and innocent, which he was this time. Mehitabel suspected Charles Bennet did not believe it any more than she usually did. But this time Odin really had been with her all day.
“Your damn goats have been at my fence again,” Bennet snapped, and held his rifle so that it was more visible.
“I sincerely doubt that. They are over at my aunt Mary’s. She needed them for some yard clearing.”
“What good can they do?”
“Quite a lot, actually. They crop the grass down neatly and they eat all those things you don’t want growing in your yard, like that vine that gives you itchy spots.”
“Poison ivy?”
“That is the one. You have it all over your annoying fencing. It is one of the reasons I had to lend my auntie the goats. As the weather warmed she noticed it was spreading all over her grape arbor. They kept going over to the fence to try to get to the treat winding all over it.” She tensed when he aimed his gun at her. “Now, Bennet, that will only cause you more trouble.”
“It might be worth it. I would finally get this land, and I suspect your family would like the money.”
“Then you would suspect wrong,” she said as she pulled her rifle from where it was hidden by her skirts and aimed it at him. “My family does not want your money. They don’t want money instead of the land. They might not be your kind of rich, but they have enough to get them through some hard times. They want the land. They have always wanted the land. That is why it is so protected in the will and in any other way they were allowed to protect it.”
“So you’re hanging on to it. Plan to give it to the Injuns. Yeh, I heard about that. Fine. We’ll just take it from them.”
“Not easily. They are Amplefords, and this is listed as Ampleford land.” She watched the red flush of anger come and go in his face. “Aunty is an Ampleford, too. Pa made sure of it.”
“Stupid cow. I need this land.”
“Why? Appears your cattle have plenty.”
He was breathing hard, which worried her a little, but then he started bellowing at her, calling her foul names and insulting her in some crudely creative ways. Mehitabel was sorely tempted to shoot him, but all his men were also armed and appeared ready to shoot her. She really did not want to die in a shoot-out at her own front door.
It puzzled her that he was so out of control. For a long time he had been unreasonably angry with her refusal to sell to him, but never this crazed with anger. Then he leaned a little closer to hiss a few insults and she caught the smell of whiskey on his breath. He was drunk, and she worried that could be enough to turn what was an old, and too frequent, angry confrontation into a deadly one. Drunken, angry men were dangerous creatures.
As she wondered if there was a way to calm things down, to say something that might placate him, she saw movement behind him. Looking over his shoulder while trying to keep a close eye on him, she saw three men walking toward her house. She prayed they were not more of his men, most of whom were just local boys. The men approaching did not look like local boys.
* * *
Geordie took a deep breath and savored the ocean scent that was so special, that salty crispness. A train had brought them up to the northern coast. Now they rode calmly along the beach. He noticed Robbie was almost as enthralled as he was. It was sunny and warm and colorful, with the rays of the slowly setting sun brightening up the water. Then he felt a slight bite to the wind coming off the water and frowned.
“I am thinking the weather is going to turn on us,” Robbie said as he looked up at the sky and rubbed his leg. “My bones think so, too. Especially the broken ones.”
“Damn,” grumbled James. “I was hoping a storm would hold off for a while.”
“Ye kenned one was coming?” asked Geordie.
“Could smell it in the air, which occasionally has a telling bite to it. We should look around for a place to sleep. By dark I think it will be raining. At least, I hope it will be rain.”
“Bit warm for it to be much elseandtoo late in the year.” Even as he spoke, Geordie felt another cold bite in the wind and he cursed.
James laughed. “You can never be sure of that in this part of the country.”
