Wilding In The West update (Patreon)

He stepped out onto the porch to build a quirly and add its smoke to the clouds. Hailey came out with him. She'd taken off the blouse her father had ripped and wrapped a Navajo blanket over her slip. She held a slice of pie in a saucer.

“I thought you might like a little more home cooking before you leave.”

“What, you won't have no hotcakes come the morning? Hell of a start to a border raid.”

Hailey went vehement. “We're not raiding anyone! We're defending ourselves from that… horrible man!”

“I'm not sure the Texas Rangers would see it that way. Much less Billy Yank.”

“The government!” Hailey muttered bitterly. “What have they ever done for us against those bandits?”

“Not my experience of the government. They seemed to do an awful lot about banditry when I was one.”

Hailey clapped her hands together so enthusiastically that the sound nearly startled Chad from his skin. “That's right! Oh, how could I forget it? You're the Nevada Kid! You're probably a tougher hombre than any of those Grande-crossers! Yes, I can just picture it. You'd hold up a bank or stop a train, then ride off with so much money that you could afford a different saloon girl every night!”

Chad coughed. She sounded about as excited by the idea as, well, the man should be. “Maybe not quite that much money.”

“Oh, oh of course not. In fact, I doubt any girl worth the dress would charge you. Who could put a price tag on a night with the Nevada Kid?”

Chad cleared his throat and found himself unable to resist a little fun. “Well, the second girl.”

“Second girl?” Hailey repeated. “You mean, on the next night.”

“No, on the first night, when you're cash rich as they say. The first girl might not charge, but the second would want you all to herself. Getting only half of you puts her in a mercenary mood.”

Hailey shook. The saucer and fork clattered together. “And the women are alright with this… arrangement?”

Chad reached out to steady the plate before she spilled the pie to the ground. “Of course! Variety is the spice of life. And it beats two men all hollow.”

“Two… men…”

Hailey’s lips worked soundlessly after that, seeming to try and make a word on their own that then her mind could follow up on. Chad spared her having to make work such an unorthodox arrangement.

“Actually, I’m pulling the longbow. I didn’t do much drinking or whoring or even gambling.” Chad smiled sheepishly. “Most of the money I invested.”

Hailey broke out in laughter like a music box had been wound up. “Now that is corral dust!” Then her face settled, her lips pursing seriously like she’d shamed herself with that giggle. Hard for Chad to believe with how much he’d liked hearing it. “Del Rio nearly killed my father. He did kill my uncle. The boys are real tough—they’ll ride out and do their duty—but they’re not heroes. Having a man like you along… why, the confidence it would give them alone…”

“I’m no hero myself. I’m not a mercenary either. I’m sure there’s plenty of gunhands who would happily sign on if you put the word out.”

“There’ve been a few rough men,” Hailey admitted. “The old guard doesn’t like them, but Daddy seems to be able to keep them in line. They’re not like you, though. No one, not Ned Buntline or even Ned Buntline’s dog, would write about those… ruffians.” Hailey’s eyes lit up like a rebellion against her tried seriousness. “Now you riding for the One Eye Ranch would make a heck of a story! You’d be well-paid, too!”

“I have enough money.”

“No man I know has enough money.” Hailey moved for him and it was only the burning ember at the tip of his cigarette that held her at bay. “Or enough women… I don’t believe you about the whoring. I’ve read the stories; all the girls I know have. And they’d all have you, so you must’ve had some of them. But I do believe you don’t pay for some used up painted lady. Who did you do it with, Mr. Connors? Young girls fresh off the cat wagon from back East? Or maybe dollfaces who cost as much as top-shelf liquor? Did they enjoy it? Did you?”

Chad set his teeth, trying to tighten them enough to break any ill-considered word before it got past his jaw. “You sound like you’re a bit more interested in saloon girls than in me riding to Mexico.”

Hailey broke off, her face coloring, and Chad felt a stone in his stomach for having shamed her. But at the same time, it was that much less a temptation with her five steps away. And it’d be even less of a temptation if you punched her in the gut and made her vomit up her dinner, said the part of him meant to be crueler to himself than it was to others.

“You’re a very exciting man, Mr. Connors,” Hailey said apologetically. “With you here, a body can think all kinds of things. But that’s just a want. What I need is for this business with Del Rio to be over so things can get back to normal. Dr. Solheim can maybe make Daddy look like he did before, but his heart, the heart of this place—we’ve lost so many of the old hands, men I grew up with, men who were like a gang of uncles to me. And these new men, I know they’re handy with a gun, but the way they look at me… it’s like living with a pack of wolves as pets! And Daddy, he barely leaves his room, hardly even talks, it’s like he’s a different man. If this war were to end, I have to believe it would be like it was before. And that’s worth quite a lot to me.”

Chad snorted. “If that’s how you motivate a boy, I can’t see your problem with the wolfpack. Just tell them the first one back with ten scalps wins the prize.”

Hailey raised her hand as if to slap him, but the fist she knotted it into was not meant to harm anyone. Finally, she banged it to her breast. “Oh, it’s different! Can’t you see it’s different? I’m not a child, Mr. Connors. I know everything Ned Buntline writes isn’t as it happened. But you’re… you… if you’re half the man I hope you are, you’d be everything to me! Isn’t it worth a gamble to find that out? I don’t expect to find a diamond in the rough. I know those wolves are good for nothing but killing and dying. But I also know you’re not like them, the way you saved Dr. Solheim, the way you just… stand and hold yourself. At least… at least it’s something to believe in.”

Chad felt a great swell of pity for her. She was a good girl. The world, if she let it, would violently disabuse her of this sweetness that belonged rightly in a little girl, a kitten or puppy, not someone grown enough to match such sentiment with grace and beauty.

But hell if he’d let it be him that made her accept there was no such things as the Knights of the Round Table or St. George the Dragon Slayer.

“Tell your father I’ll ride out for him, if’n he pays me what I’m worth.”

“You mean it!?” Hailey cried, clapping her hands together in such girlish glee that Chad didn’t know if any amount of killing, anything out upon the savage plain, could spoil what was fresh and right in that moment.

“I said it, didn’t I?”

Hailey threw herself to him in a hug like she loved him enough to want to be a part of him, to go everywhere with him and never again be the unhappy creature she’d been before their meeting. But eventually, she came away and ran to tell her father of the agreement.

Chad was grateful. Her talk of saloon girls and whoring was still warm. And if there was a man with warm blood that wasn’t urged to take a girl like that when she was so willing and ready, even if it was upon the town plankwalk—that man sure wasn’t him.