Chapter Eight—Finishing Up in River Bend

     A few days after our initial meeting with Kragan, Gail said to me, “Can you come for dinner tonight? I’ve invited Clint Bailor and, well, maybe you could invite Kelly Atkins. If you wanted to, of course.”
     I smiled. Kelly had told me that Clint had a crush on Gail and so maybe she was giving him a chance. I had only seen Kelly once since the morning of the Perry attack, and I wouldn’t mind seeing her again.
     "Ok, I’ll come and I’ll go ask Kelly. Not sure if she’ll be able to make it or not, but I’ll be there regardless.”
     “Good.” She named a time and I went to the Atkins place to invite Kelly.
     “Gail Sanders?” she asked, a bit nonplussed. “What’s going on?”
     “I’ll tell you on the way. Get ready.”
     “Well, I want to take a bath.”
     “I do, too. Let’s go to town and do it and ride on out to the Sanders place from there.”
     “Ok, but I’m going to wear jeans.”
     “Those little short things you wore the day of the attack?”
     “NO!” she exclaimed, and then laughed. “Pa told me to burn those.”
     “Hmph. What a fuddy-duddy he is,” and she laughed again.
     The dinner was splendid and we were all having a good time. All of us except poor Clint. He was star-struck with Gail Sanders, and he was so afraid of saying or doing something wrong. Gail tried to put him at ease—it seemed that she did like him, too—but Clint was all thumbs. And Gail was pretty—very—strong-willed, so old Clint was taking a drubbing. I glanced a couple of times at Kelly and saw her grimace. I thought maybe I needed to step in and help.
     We were all sitting in the living room after supper. Kelly and I were on the couch, she to my right, and Clint and Gail sat on the love seat. Clint had just said something and Gail had cleaned his clock again. I winked at Kelly.
     “Clint, ol’ boy, let me give you a piece of advice.”
     He looked at me with a face that said “Please! Anything!”
     "Women are nice to have around and all that, but sometimes they get to thinkin’ they’re as good as us men. And when they start thinkin’ that, there’s only one thing to do.” And with that, I grabbed Kelly, laid her across my left leg, pinned her legs with my right one, and patted her a few times on the bottom. In preparation.
     “Sometimes this is the only language they understand, Clint,” I said to him.
     Kelly was screeching at me. She had NOT expected this at all. “Don’t you dare! Let me up…I’ll scratch your eyes out…” She tried to wiggle but I had her pinned good, and when her hands came back, I grabbed her wrists with my left hand and held them in the small of her back.
     “It’s a shame, Clint,” I said, patting Kelly’s upturned rear a few more times, “but it has to be…”
     I proceeded to give Kelly a firm spanking—not hard enough to really hurt, but she screamed and shouted death threats and carried on like I was torturing her. “Oww…that hurt…Stop it, Robert Constance, right now…I mean it…do you hear me?… ooohw….you’re hurting me…”
     “They’ll always say that,” I told Clint, and continued to smack Kelly’s behind.
     I glanced at Clint and Gail. He was smiling; she was staring at Kelly’s backside getting smacked, her eyes as big as saucers. “Yes,” he said, “I think I get the idea…”
     I stopped spanking Kelly for a moment. She was still screaming, but I smacked her hard and said “Hush.” She whimpered but went quiet. Clint was looking at Gail. “Yes,” he repeated, “I understand perfectly now…”
     Gail did, too, and she got a horrified expression on her face. She jumped up. “Don’t you dare, Clint Bailor! I’ll never forgive you…”
     “Ignore all that nonsense, Clint,” I told him.
     He was on his feet now, smiling at her. She was backing up and he was coming towards her. “I mean it, Clint, don’t you do it. I’ll scream...”
     “Go on, Clint. That woman needs it bad. Almost as bad as this one.” I smacked Kelly again and got an “ouch!” in return. “Will you let me up now?” she asked with obvious exasperation.
     “Hush,” I told her again, emphasized with another swat.
     I heard Gail squeal as Clint grabbed her. He sat on a chair and flipped Gail over his lap. She squirmed and hollered and threatened and did everything she could, but he was having the time of his life. And quite frankly, I didn’t get the impression that Gail Sanders was totally committed to getting away.
     After a minute or so, he stopped and looked at me. “Yes. Thank you. I’ve seen the light.”
     “There’s one more thing, though, Clint.”
     “Oh? What’s that?”
     Gail was still lying across his lap, kicking and struggling, and Kelly had gone passive across mine, but I could hear her mumbling threatenings and slaughter against my person….”just wait till I get up…you just wait, mister…” That sort of thing.
     “Once you finish letting them know who’s boss, you need to do this…” And I jerked Kelly up, sat her next to me, put my arms around her, and kissed her, holding my lips on hers, and not letting go. She kicked, squirmed, pushed, and made all kinds of noises, but I kept kissing her…and kissing her…and kissing her….and I finally felt her hands on the back of my head and she started kissing me back in a fever of passion and desire. We didn’t break for 15 minutes, and when we did, we were both breathing hard. I flicked a glance at Clint and Gail—she was sitting in his lap and they were wrapped in a kiss of their own. Kelly and I grinned at each other. I whispered to her, “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
     She whispered, “I think it worked.”
     “With you, too?”
     She pulled me to her. “Especially with me…”

     I was still staying in the River Bend Hotel and I got in late that night because I rode with Kelly to her house to make sure she got home safely. But even though it was late, I didn’t fall asleep immediately. I lay on my back with my hands under my head, looking up at the ceiling. Thinking. Kelly…she’s…sweet…kinda feisty…level-headed…I’d like to see her again… I rolled over onto my side but still didn’t close my eyes. I listened to the clock ticking the seconds away. I thought about Julie, my Julie, but I couldn’t go there, it hurt too much. I thought about Julie Ratliff, but not for long, though I had nothing but fond memories of her. I thought about…but I didn’t want to go there, either. I saw her. I saw her at the Indian camp. I saw her on that horse, with that man, being chased by those renegades…I actually saw her again…why didn’t I do something? Why didn’t I go to Whitewater? I rolled over onto my other side, the agony and frustration building. Oh, Robin, Robin… you’re the only one who could ever help me forget Julie…
     But you’re gone forever, too…
     I rolled onto my back again and stared at the ceiling once more. I sighed. Well, maybe Kelly…
 
     There was a lot going on in Clearwater Valley, and most of it revolved around Gail Sanders. As noted, she had purchased Jim Perry’s land, the Circle P ranch, and also filed and bought her own land, just to make sure nobody ever squatted on it again. Those settlers who had been on her land were all willing to take more, and better, land on the other side of the river. So Gail had all her father’s land back. She had to put it all up as collateral—“mortgaged” it, as the bank referred to it—but, by selling off the old Circle P land, she hope to pay off the debt. She had asked me to stay around and help, and she agreed to pay me $100 a month if I would do so. I was beginning to need the money, so I decided I’d do it. Kelly Atkins might have influenced my decision a little bit as well, but I told myself the money was more important.
     “What do you think I ought to do with all of Jim Perry’s stock, Robert?” Gail asked me a couple of days after the dinner related at the end of the previous section. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough grass here on Clearwater to support all of them.”
     “Well, you’re getting ready to sell some of your own stock, aren’t you?”
     “Yes.”
     “Sell some of his, too. It’s yours now. Bring what you think your grass will handle over to Clearwater, sell the best of the stock, and leave the rest on Circle P land. Then when people come and want to buy it, you’ve got another selling point—‘there’s already some stock on the range.’ You can even sell for a higher price that way.”
     She smiled at me. “Thanks. That’s what I was thinking as well, but I just wanted your input. You think like a rancher.”
     I smiled back at her. “Well, I told you I once was one.”
     “Have you decided whether you want a plot of that land or not? I’ll give you a discount and I’m sure Kragan would loan you the money.”
     It was a perfect situation, it really was. I loved that valley, and there was some very good grassland available—I could get 160 acres, there would already be cattle on the range, the people in River Bend thought I was the living end for what I had done to clear the place of riffraff like Jake Benton and Jim Perry, and there were a couple of pretty females that I could court. Yeah, Clint Bailor was making a play at Gail Sanders and I wasn’t going to monkey with another man’s monkey, but she and he weren’t a done deal yet and I wasn’t convinced they ever would be. Besides, Kelly Atkins was still available and we had parted on very good terms after the dinner two nights previous.
     So, like I said, a perfect situation. I had a new identity, nobody knew I was a wanted man, I could get a good piece of land and start ranching again, and I could probably end up with a wife out of the deal, and maybe the biggest ranch in the valley.
     Thus, my response was, “I’m not sure yet. I’m still thinking about it.”
     What was there to think about? Intellectually, nothing. Logically, it was ideal. But emotionally…am I ready to go back to ranching? Would it remind me too much of Julie? Am I ready to get married again? It hasn’t even been a year…would it be fair to Kelly or Gail—IF either of them would have me...
     And I had the same problem Robin had…Kelly was…all woman…Julie Ratliff was, too…but can anyone ever replace my Julie…Gail?…she’s pretty strong-willed, I don’t know if I like that, although she’s seem to mellow some now Perry isn’t around…maybe Clint can handle her now…well, I’ll just stay around here. It’s a good place to live, and good place to grow, a good place to raise a family…I’ll forget about Robin soon enough…
     Then I sighed. Who are you trying to fool, Conners?…what difference does any of that make?…but Robin’s gone…she’s gone forever…she’s gone, gone, gone…
     I could tell myself that. But telling myself and believing it weren’t always the same thing.

     Over the next few weeks, I helped round up the cattle on the Circle P that Gail wanted to sell. She had two large herds to send to market, so she needed to hire a few more men to drive them to the railhead before it got too cold. The nearest rail line was only 200 miles away, so it wasn’t a big drive, but it needed to be done now. I volunteered to go on one of the drives, but Gail wanted me to stay around River Bend. She wanted me to help move the stock from Circle P over to her grass. There was also some hay to cut and store for the winter, and I was involved in that. It was starting to get cold now, and we were trying to get all the stock we could bunched together to make for easier feeding. There was a lot of work to do and I stayed busy. Gail paid me too much, but that was the figure she had given me at the restaurant that first day, even though at the time she had wanted to hire my gun. But I had helped her in other ways—more on that in a moment—so I guess the $100 a month was her way of rewarding me. And paying me for some extra work.
     She did very well on the cattle sales and was able to pay off a nice part of her loan to Kragan. That was a big relief to her. It was quite obvious that Gail was financially a worry-wart, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I was pretty much a tightwad myself, though I’d gone through that $1,400 I’d taken from the drummer and gambler pretty quickly. Of course, $400 of that had gone for Robin’s horse, and another $500 to pay off the rest of the Atkins loan. So I had been down to less than $200 before Gail started paying me. And she gave me room and board, too.
     “I want you to stay in the house,” she said.
     “Why? What will the other hands say?”
     “I don’t really care. Well, maybe I should. But I’m paying you more, so you’ll do more. You can work the books, too, you’ve done that, I suppose.”
     Joy. “Yes, I have.”
     “Ok. So you’ll not only work the fields, you handle my books, too. That gives you the right to have a room in the house.” Many was the night, however, that I slept out under the stars. It was simply too far to go the Gail’s house each night, only to turn around the next morning and go back out to the range. I figured I’d earn the $100 a month.
     I actually saw more of Kelly Atkins than I did Gail Sanders, mainly because I spent so much time on the range. A few days after the dinner with Gail and Clint, I went up to the Atkins cabin just to see how the two of them were. Kelly was there, but Fred wasn’t. “He’s out with the cows.” She smiled at me. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”
     “Why not?”
     She shrugged. “You sounded like you were going to leave the valley.”
     I shook my head. “No, Gail hired me,” and I told her about the whole situation.
     “Oh,” she replied, a little distant. I didn’t want that.
     “Can we meet for lunch sometime? Tomorrow, maybe?”
     She hesitated. “You sure?”
     “Kelly, there’s nothing between me and Gail, I promise you that.”
     I’m not sure she believed me, but she said, “Well, ok. Tomorrow will be fine.”
     “Wear those little short cut-offs again.”
     She laughed. “I told you my dad ordered me to burn those.”
     “But the question is, did you?”
     She smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
     I camped by a stream that night and laid my nice blanket out to sleep on. Sleep didn’t come easily. I remembered another time, not too many months ago, when I lay on that blanket…near a stream…no, Conners, don’t go there…don’t think about her…don’t….I sighed, my emotions in turmoil. Why…why do I think of Robin before I think of Julie? It shouldn’t be that way… I only knew her 24 hours…how can anyone get so deep…I rolled onto my side. Maybe Kelly can help…I did like Kelly, a lot…but can she be Ro—Julie? Another sigh.
     And not much sleep.

     Kelly and I actually met for lunch nearly every day for the next couple of weeks. “Pa wants me to come into town every day anyway and get our mail. And also ride some of the horses, give them some exercise. So it’s no trouble.” There were a few days when I was just too far out on the range to make it to town, but I usually could. A couple of times I just took the afternoon off and we walked around town, doing a little shopping.
     “I still have some of that money left you threw at me that first day,” she said with a laugh. “But we were able to sell some stock recently and got a good price, so we’re pretty well set, money-wise, for awhile. We don’t really buy much in town anyway.” She shrugged. “We grow our own vegetables. Dad occasionally slaughters a hog or kills a deer for meat. We have eggs from the chickens, milk, butter, and cheese from a milk cow, and there are a lot of wild fruit trees growing on our land. I’ve canned a lot of stuff, so we have plenty to eat. It’s just nice to have a new dress or something occasionally.”
     I smiled. “I’m sure it is. Have you been practicing with your new rifle?”
     “Uh huh. Every time some cowboy comes up the path I get a lot of practice.”
     I laughed. “You run all the men off?”
     She made a face. “There are a lot of misnamed cowboys in this valley. They should be called ‘wolves.’” And I laughed again.
     We went into the clothing store; I wanted to buy a new shirt and a pair of pants. I picked out two shirts I really liked, and a pair of jeans, and then walked over to where Kelly was. She, of course, was browsing through the women’s section and when I joined her, she held up a lovely red dress and asked, “Do you think this would look good on me?”
     I thought it would look marvelous on her and I told her so. It had short sleeves and was cut below the neck, but not too low, with a red belt and flared skirt. “It’s got this hat that goes with it,” she said, showing me a cute, round-topped, wide-brimmed straw hat with a red cloth ribbon band around it.
     “Is it your size?” I asked her.
     She made a face. “Yeah. It would be.”
     “Well, try it on.”
     “Check this price.” I read the tag. $10. That was high, even with the hat.
     “Oh, miss, these shoes go with it,” a saleslady came over and showed her a pair of red shoes. “I’m sure we’d have your size.”
     “It’s still too expensive,” Kelly said. “My pa would rawhide me if I bought this.”
     I told her, “I’m going to rawhide you if you don’t try it on. So do you want it now or wait till later? Besides, you may not like it once you get it on.”
     She narrowed her eyes at me. “I know what you’ve got in mind, Robert Constance, and I don’t like it.”
     I started to take off my belt. “Ok, ok,” she said, “I’ll go try it on. But you aren’t buying it for me, and that’s final.” I smiled and winked at the saleslady.
     Before Kelly went into the dressing room, the saleslady asked what shoe size she wore. Kelly told her, and the lady went to see if they had her size. Kelly went on into the dressing room, and a couple of minutes later, the saleslady came out with a shoe box. She shoved the box under the door where Kelly was changing. “Try these on, they’re your size.”
     “Ok.”
     I made a motion for the saleslady to come over to me. “$10 for the whole thing?” I whispered the question to her.
     “Yes. But I’ll give it to her for 9.”
     I gave her $9. “If she doesn’t like it, give it back to me.” She smiled and nodded.
     Kelly came out a couple of minutes later, dress, shoes, and hat, and she looked absolutely delightful. She spun around, a smile on her face, then checked herself in a mirror. “I don’t know,” she said, turning this way and that.
     “It’s absolutely adorable, Kelly,” I told her. And the saleslady echoed my words.
     She seemed pleased. “You think so?” But it was pretty obvious that she had fallen in love with it.
     “Do you like it?”
     She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, I can’t afford it.” Her eyes blazed at me. “And you can’t, either.”
     The saleslady stepped in. “Oh, didn’t I tell you? Every day, just as a marketing ploy, we give away one outfit for free, and that’s the one today. Oh my, I forgot to mark it. But that’s the free outfit.”
     Kelly wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination, and she gave the saleslady a “Come on, do you think I’m an idiot?” look.
     “Honest,” the saleslady said, all innocence.
     Kelly gave me a very annoyed look. “You gave her $10, didn’t you.”
     “No, I did not give this woman $10. I resent the accusation.” And, of course, I hadn’t given her $10. I’d given her $9.
     Now Kelly was puzzled. “Free? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
     “I told you, a marketing thing. And I’m sure you’ll come back and do a lot of shopping with us because of it. Do you like the dress, dear?”
     “Oh, I love it, it’s gorgeous, but…”
     “Then it’s yours. Go change back into your other clothes and I’ll box it all up for you.”
     Kelly looked helpless. I almost laughed. “But…my dad will think I bought it and he’ll be livid.”
     “I’ll go up there with you, if you want me to, and tell him that you didn’t. You really got lucky, with this store offer.”
     She looked skeptical again. “Yeah. I sure did. I don’t know what you did, but whatever it is, I don’t like it.”
     “Well, blame the store. Go change, I don’t want to stand around here all day.”
     She started to say something, but just turned and went back into the changing room. She came out a few minutes later and handed everything to the saleslady. “I need to go pay for my stuff,” I said to Kelly. She was still looking at me accusingly.
     I asked the saleslady, “Are you having the same deal on any men’s clothing today?”
     “Yes, but I’m sorry, not in your sizes.”
     “Tough break.”
     Kelly stood next to me, watching me, as I counted out exactly how much the shirt and pants cost. She still hadn’t figured it out. The lady put Kelly’s clothes in boxes, then placed them all in a big sack with a handle on it. “I hope you enjoy it, dear.”
     “I will, thank you.” She smiled.
     The lady handed me my bag of stuff and Kelly and I left.
     We walked down the sidewalk a little ways silently, and then she said, “How did you do that?”
     “Do what?”
     “You gave her the money while I was in the dressing room, didn’t you.”
     “I told you, I never gave that woman $10.”
     “I don’t believe you.”
     I turned to her, and grabbed her by the upper arms. “Do you like that dress?”
     “You know I do. I’ve never seen a dress I liked more. But I didn’t want you to buy it for me.”
     “Well, then, give me something in return.”
     “What?”
     I leaned down and kissed her. “That,” I said smiling. “And believe me, I think a kiss from you is priceless.”
     “Oh, Robert.” I could see tears in her eyes. She dropped her head. “Thank you.” Then she looked back up at me. “And thank you for paying off the rest of the note on our land. I know you did it. We would have lost it otherwise and it would have killed my father. He loves that land so much.”
     “What makes you think—“
     “Robert, please don’t.”
     I looked into her eyes, then nodded. “I’m thirsty. How about a glass of lemonade?”
     She tried to smile. “Ok.”
     We went to a nearby restaurant and ordered. As we sat there, she seemed a little despondent. “What’s the matter?” I asked her.
     “Robert, I…you…you just shouldn’t. My dad and I don’t want charity. I mean, if we can’t earn it. Dad has been trying to find out who paid that note so he can repay them. We don’t want it this way. Like the dress. And the rifle.” She twirled her straw in her lemonade glass.
     “Kelly.”
     She glanced at me.
     “Don’t you dare tell me you and your father wouldn’t do the same thing for somebody, given the opportunity.”
     She looked back down.
     “What is life for if we can’t help other people occasionally?”
     She said nothing.
     “Besides, I owed you the rifle because I destroyed your shotgun. I didn’t pay for your land just for yours and your father’s sake. There were a whole lot deeper issues involved in this valley and somebody needed to do something and I was in a position to do it. And, blast it, I can buy you a dress for your birthday if I bloody well want to.”
     I saw her start to smile. “It’s not my birthday.”
     “Well, you’ll have one before this time next year.”
     She tried not to laugh. “You still shouldn’t have done it.”
     “Well, I did and there’s nothing you can do about it now. And if you ever tell your father I paid that note, I’ll never speak to you again.”
     She was smiling now. “But you fibbed to me.”
     “When?”
     “You said you didn’t buy me the dress.”
     “No, I did not say that. I said I didn’t give that woman $10. And I didn’t.”
     “Well, what did you give her?”
     “A promise. She works at the joy house down the street at night.”
     Kelly busted out laughing.
     I smiled. “You aren’t supposed to ask what somebody paid for your birthday present.”
     “Well, it was too much, whatever it was.”
     “That, my dear Kelly, is purely a matter of opinion, and one with which I wholly disagree.”
     And she lowered her head again. “Thank you, Robert.”
     “You’re welcome. You through? Come on, let’s get you home.”
     “You don’t have to go with me, I can make it on my own.”
     “I know that.” I grinned at her. “But don’t you want me to be there when you show your dad that new outfit?”
     She smiled. “Yeah, I guess so. I want you to be there tonight when I wear it and fix dinner for you.”
     “Well, then, I’ll be there…”

     Most nights I camped out where I mentioned a few pages ago—under a huge willow tree near a creek that had good water. It was simply much closer than going all the way back to Gail’s house every night. I did go back to the house on weekends; she’d hired me to do her books, so I spent some time on Saturday and Sunday with that. Kelly had asked me about where I stayed each night, and I told her where I camped. And the night after I had dinner at the Atkins home, I had a big surprise waiting for me when I got to the camp.
     I saw Kelly. She was dressed as she had been on the morning of Perry’s attack—cut-off jeans, and a shirt hardly buttoned and with the bottom tied in a knot under her breasts. Even more interesting was her position. A rope had been cast over a branch about 20 feet over her head. Her arms were stretched above her head, and her wrists were tied. The other end of the rope was tied to the base of the tree. She stood there, looking at me, a helpless, pleading expression on her face.
     “What in the world…?” I muttered as I rode closer, searching both directions for possible danger.
     But there wasn’t any.
     “Oh, please, m’lord,” Kelly wailed. “I beg of your gracious heart that you will forgive me. Please. I know I deserve punishment, but I throw myself upon your mercy and beg clemency, not justice.”
     I caught on immediately to the—very sensuous—game she was playing. I rode up closer. “Ha. Female knave. So. You’ve been caught trespassing on my land again, no doubt with the intent of stealing from my flocks or vineyards.”
     She shook her head violently. “No, no, no, m’lord, I would never steal from you. I beg of you to believe me. I am innocent. I did not know…”
     “Hush, peasant! Of course you knew.” I got down off my horse and stood about 20 feet from her. “The only question is the type and severity of your punishment.”
     “Oh, m’lord, mercy, mercy! I am a loyal subject of yours and I would never want to displease you.”
     I walked up to her and looked down at her. Wow, she looks good…”I see. After you get caught being disloyal, you suddenly become loyal. A suitable punishment for attempted theft…is to take something of value from you….”
     “Please, no, m’lord. I won’t do it again. I promise I won’t. Please do not punish me.” She was playing her part perfectly. And incredibly seductively.
     Her eyes looked into mine, and I didn’t see much penance. Then she smiled wickedly and jerked on the ropes over her head. And a second later I got drenched in water as a great big balloon filled with the stuff landed on my head and burst.
     “Why you little imp…” I said, shaking the water off me as best I could.
     Kelly laughed and laughed and laughed. And she didn't stop laughing as I tickled her ruthlessly...
     I released her from her fetters and told her to go get some clothes on, “Before I…before I….”
     She was smiling and her eyes were laughing. “Before you what, Mr. Tough Guy?” Standing there, hands on her hips, legs spread…Yeah, seductive…
     I gave her a perplexed look. “I thought you said you burned that outfit.”
     “I didn’t say that. I said my father told me to.” And she laughed again.
     I laughed, too, went over to her, and started to put my arms around her. But she pushed me away. “Ooo, you're all wet. Why did you go swimming with your clothes on?”
     I growled at her and started to take off my belt. She squealed and ran off behind some bushes. In a few moments, she came back—wearing the lovely red dress I had bought her.
     “Now you go change,” she said, “and I’ll think about letting you put your arms around me.”
     I changed clothes. And she thought about it. Long and hard. And while she was thinking about it, I was doing it…

     Kelly wasn’t through with her little tricks. The next night I arrived at the camp I saw her lying on a blanket, spread eagle, and staked to ground. She was wearing that red and black shirt with jeans that she had on the first day I saw her. “Oh, sir, thank you for coming by. Oh, I am so happy…I was captured by a band of outlaws. They staked me here and said they were going into town to get some spirits and rob the bank and then they would return. If you had not come by, surely they would have abused me all night long…”
     I stood about 30 feet from her . “I’m not about to come anywhere near you, girl. I have no desire to have a gallon of water dumped on me again.”
     She laughed. “No water, I promise.”
     I looked up. She wasn’t under a tree. I walked around her, in a circle, searching for some kind of trap. “Hurry,” she said. “Untie me before those outlaws get back.”
     “I’m a whole lot more worried about you than I am about them.”
     She giggled. “There’s nothing, Robert. Just me.”
     I sighed. I couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean…
     I walked over to her and started untying her, ankles first. “If this is some kind of trap, girl…”
     “No trap. Just me. That’s all. Just me.”
     I wasn’t sure I believed her, but when I finished untying her wrists, she reached up, grabbed me, rolled me over, and looked down at me. Smiling.
     “See? Just me…”
     Just her. All night long….

     I couldn’t help but ask the next morning, “How in the world did you get tied to those stakes like that?”
     She smiled. “I told you…Outlaws.” Then she sighed and laid her head against me. “My hero,” she said in a mock fawning voice.
     I grunted, sat up, and pulled on my boots. “I’ve got to get to work….”

     People in River Bend asked me when Kelly and I were going to get married. “What’re ye waitin’ fer, feller? You’d have the jewel o’ the valley. Man, don’t let her get away…” I wasn’t sure if Kelly seriously considered me as husband material, or if I was just a playmate for her. We continued to have lunch together, frequently, and we enjoyed each other’s company. But I didn’t have a total read on her. And I wasn’t sure about her, either, for my own sake, though I had just about made up my mind to ask her to marry me. She was an enjoyable companion, but…night after night I lay awake…Kelly IS wonderful…but she isn’t Julie…yet…and she isn’t…Robin…I closed my eyes, remembered another tree, another stream, same blanket…Robin…why can’t I forget you?…but I will, I know I will…I’ll forget her…or at least the memories will dull… I grunted a chuckle and shook my head. Yeah, maybe…but it doesn’t matter…I can’t go back…Julie is dead, and Robin might as well be…I’ll just stay here, get a ranch like Gail suggested....should I marry Kelly?...I wasn't sure.  I was afraid of something...I hope Robin doesn’t come between us….Robin…always Robin now….

     The next time I saw Kelly—well, I didn’t see her until too late. She had climbed way up in a tree, and dumped a load of dirt on my head. And then made me come after her. I chased her all over that tree before I finally caught her, and when I did, I draped her over a branch and worked her backside over good. I think she giggled the whole time. I never could spank her hard enough to keep her from laughing at me. We were up in that tree and talked about our future together, and decided that we shouldn't get married.  Kelly was only 19 and told me that she just didn't think she was ready.  After Julie and Robin, I didn't think I was, either.  As much as I adored Kelly, so much—perhaps too much—of my heart still belonged to Julie, and maybe even more than her, to Robin, which just didn’t compute to me at all. How can I love that woman so much when I spent so little time with her?  So we both agreed that it wasn't the time for marriage.

     I left Clearwater Valley soon after.  The bank had been robbed and the outlaws killed the sheriff, and a couple other people.  Clint was going to raise a posse and go after them, but I told him I'd go get them, and since the sheriff was dead and Clint didn't think he should leave town, he let me.  So I chased them.  I checked in with Gail first, and she paid me off, but invited me back if I wanted to come. I wouldn’t go back to River Bend, I knew that. The outlaws had headed south and I was going to find them, even if they ended up in Rogersville and got me a rope around my neck. I don't know why I was so dead-set on finding these guys; the sheriff in River Bend was a first class jerk.  But I promised his deputy and, frankly, I was ready to leave the area anyway.
     Following them wasn’t difficult, and I wasn’t in any hurry. I came to a town that they had passed through just a day or so before me—I didn’t even know the name of the place—and I got a huge surprise.
     “Mr. Constance!”
     I turned and saw a face I recognized. “Sergeant McCoy. What are you doing so far away from Fort Tyler?”
     He walked up to me and actually saluted. “I was looking for you, sir.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. “Colonel Ratliff wanted me to deliver this to you, regardless of how long it took to find you. I don’t know what’s in it, sir, but I reckon it must be important for him to give me the orders he did.”
     “I guess so,” I said, taking the envelope from him. “Thank you for your diligence, Sergeant.”
     He stepped back, saluted, and said, “Colonel Ratliff said there would be no reason for me to stay with you once you received the letter. With your permission, sir, I’ll head immediately back to Fort Tyler.”
     I wished he’d quit “sirring” me, but I threw him a salute and said, “Carry on, Sergeant. Give the colonel…and his daughter…my regards.”
     “Yessir.” One more salute, and he turned on his heel and was gone.
     I slit open the envelope; in the frame of mind I was in, I figured it had to be more bad news. Something like my mother had died again even though she had been dead for many years now. I read the letter. And then because I didn’t believe what it said, I re-read it. And everything in my life changed.
     I frowned. Or did it?…Did it really change what I was going to do? And, for that matter, what was I going to do?
     I read the letter again, then put it back in the envelope and stuffed it in my pocket, my mind in a whirl. What to do what to do what to do…? I knew what I had to do; I had to try, though I wondered how I’d be able to stand it if I failed…
 
     Well, the first thing I did was capture the bank robbers. There were three of them, and I found them camping out two nights later. I didn’t shoot them; if they had gone for their guns, I would have, but, as tempted as I was, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just kill them in cold blood. So I tied them up and rode them into the next town.
     “Here, sheriff, these fellows robbed the bank up in River Bend and killed at least three people, so you can put a rope around their necks if you want to. And here’s the money. You can handle it from here.” And I turned and started to walk away.
     “Sheriff, this here fella is lyin’,” one of the outlaws said. “We was a-mindin’ our own business when he pulled a gun on us and brought us in. We didn’t rob no bank an’ kill nobody.”
     “You just happen to carry a large sack of money with you wherever you go,” I said sarcastically.
     “Well…yeah. Inny law ‘agin that?”
     “Easy to solve this,” the sheriff said. “I’m going to lock all four of you up and send a wire to River Bend. If your story jives, mister, then I’ll let you go.” He said that last to me.
     “Suits me,” I said. “Just bring me something to eat.” It would save me some money. And I headed toward the cells.
     “Now wait a minute, sheriff,” one of the outlaws said, “You cain’t jest lock us up like this. We got rights, you know.”
     “The only rights you have right now, fella, is to take a seat in that cell back there. I find this money very suspicious. If you’re innocent, you’ll be out soon enough.”
     I could see one of the outlaws looking around desperately, obviously wanting to find a way to escape. “Don’t try it, buddy,” I said to him in a low voice. “You killed the sheriff and two other people and I’m just itching to get my hands around your scrawny neck.”
     The sheriff had a gun on us and ushered us back to the cells. “Killed the sheriff?” he asked.
     “Yeah, and at least two more. Maybe others, I don’t know.”
     “Well, I’m sorry to hear about that. But I really do need to hold you…I mean, just in case. You understand…”
     “Yes, it’s fine, sheriff. Like I said, bring me something to eat. I’ll take a nap while you wait for confirmation from River Bend.”
     He had it before the end of the day. “You’re free to go, mister,” he said to me, unlocking the jail cell. Then, to the outlaws, “I’m keeping you here until the deputy up to River Bend arrives. Then you’re going to a neck-stretching party at which you fellows will be the most honored guests.” Then he spoke to me again. “Thanks for your help.”
     I glanced at him while I strapped on my belt. “I was tempted to leave them out in the mountains for the buzzards to feed on, but that’s not the way things ought to be done, I reckon. Take care of them till Clint gets here.”
     “You know the deputy up there?”
     “Yeah. He’s a good man.” I put on my hat and turned to leave.
     “One last question, fella,” the sheriff said.
     I paused with my hand on the doorknob and looked back at him.
     “Who are you?”
     I gave him a wry grin. “An honest citizen, I guess, who wants to see justice done.”
     “Yeah, but you got a name? You going back to River Bend? I reckon the bank might want to reward you for capturing these fellows.”
     I paused, and dropped my head. “No, I’m not going back to River Bend. The bank can keep their money.” And with that I left.
     I rode away.  Where to go?  What to do?....That decision wasn't long in coming.
     I decided to do something I had to do.
     Or do I?....