Chapter Fourteen

Nick

Justine stood on a crate, arms outstretched, while Charlotte adjusted the hem of the dress. Soft morning light spread across the porch and cast a warm glow across her face. A breeze stirred, ruffling the fabric of her dress. She stared at Nick with a fiery gaze. The look in her eyes told him more than he needed to know. The fitting wasn’t going well.

Charlotte glanced up at him and gave a weary sigh. Nick took a swallow of his coffee.

“That’s a mighty nice dress your Aunt Charlotte’s making you, Justine. Hope you thanked her.”

“Thank you, Aunt Charlotte,” Justine replied without hesitation.

Nick grinned. She held him in her stony gaze. Justine liked to try and sweet-talk him into a hundred different things a day. After she’d stolen and returned Clarice’s purse, she tried to persuade him to forgo her punishment of picking up rocks in the corrals. It hadn’t worked. She’d spent the last two days not only filling buckets with rocks, but hauling the load to a debris pile behind the barn.

Each night she’d barely had energy to eat dinner and take a bath. After, she’d fallen into bed, asleep before her head hit the pillow, according to Cora.

Cora suggested Nick was being too hard on Justine, but he refused to let the girl off easy.

“When you’re done,” he said, “you can brush Halston.”

Justine’s expression softened. A smile tugged at her lips. “I’d like that.”

“Halston likes it too.”

The sound of hoofbeats drew his attention away. Seth rode up to the house and dismounted. Nick set his cup on the railing. His brother’s expression was grim and in an instant Nick knew something was terribly wrong.

He went down the steps and crossed the yard to the hitching post.

“There’s been an accident at the Tarrant place.”

“What happened?”

“I sent the foreman over this morning to take some hay. Silas just got back. He says David Tarrant’s dead. Trampled by his bull. The one you sold him.”

Nick stared in disbelief. “C’mon…”

“Silas said it happened last night. Tarrant tried to move the bull out of a holding pen. When the bull refused to budge, Tarrant used the bullwhip on him.”

Nick let out a deep breath. David Tarrant went on about showing animals who was boss. He was heavy-handed, to be sure, but this went beyond anything Nick could imagine.

“His boy got him into the house. But his father was already dead.”

Nick scrubbed his hand over his face. “The kids are okay?”

“None are hurt, if that’s what you mean. I’m on my way over. I thought you’d like to come.”

“Course I do.”

He went to the barn and tacked up his gelding. By the time he trotted past the house on Halston, he’d forgotten all about his promise to Justine. Her startled expression reminded him.

She stood at the porch rail and frowned. “Where are you taking my horsey?”

“I got a little work to do this morning. He’s all yours when I get back.”

Charlotte came to Justine’s side, holding straight pins between her lips and a swath of fabric in her hands. She took the pins from her mouth and jabbed them in a pincushion. “Everything all right?”

“Seth and I need to check on the Tarrant place.” He lowered his voice. “Tell you about it later.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened.

“Let Cora know, will you? She’s in the kitchen, cooking lunch.”

“I’ll tell her now.”

Nick and Seth rode to the Tarrant place in somber silence. This sort of thing could happen to anyone. Bulls could be dangerous and needed to be treated with the utmost respect. Still, it both surprised and troubled Nick that one of his animals had killed a man.

When they arrived at the Tarrant ranch, they trotted past the bullpen.

“Half-expected someone had shot the bastard,” Seth muttered.

Nick dismounted and dropped his reins. Halston knew enough to stay put. The bull stood on the far side of the pen. Nick gave a short whistle and the animal jerked his head to face him.

“Watch it, Nick. If he charges, that fence might not do you much good.”

Nick went to the railing and waited. “Remember the time you helped me deliver a calf with a winch?”

“This him?”

“Yeah. I had to bottle feed him, cause the momma didn’t last more than a few days.”

“I recall.”

The bull crossed the pen and approached Nick, but stopped when he got halfway across. He flared his nostrils and pawed the sand.

“Nick?”

“Quit that, you big dummy.”

The bull stopped and after another moment of considering his options, returned to the other side of the pen. It was then that Nick saw the damage from David Tarrant’s bullwhip. Behind him, Seth drew a sharp breath. Nick had heard of David’s mistreatment of animals and almost hadn’t gone through with the sale of the bull. David convinced him otherwise, however, claiming that only a fool would abuse a 1,400-pound bull.

Nick was so taken aback by the sight of the animal, he didn’t notice Henry Tarrant approach. The boy stopped at the railing and looked up at him with swollen, red eyes. He still wore the shirt Nick had given him.

“He couldn’t get out of the way,” Henry said. “He whipped him. The bull tried to get out of the pen, jumping around and such. Then he charged. Daddy tried to run. Course the bull was faster.”

“I’m sorry, son.” Nick winced at the hollow-sounding words.

Henry put his hands on the railing and stared at the bull for a long moment. “I remember my momma telling me something about my father.”

A tear rolled down his face, but he made no effort to wipe it away. Nick studied the boy’s profile, wishing there were something he could do for the boy. Henry had tended to his dying father last night all on his own, and he was just a kid. Now he and his brothers and sisters were all orphans.

“What did your momma say?”

“Momma said my daddy hated animals almost as much as they hated him.”

Nick recalled the woman. Henry’s mother was a quiet, shy woman. She’d been the reason David Tarrant was able to stay out of the poorhouse. She inherited the ranch from her father, and when she died, she left it to David and Henry. When his second wife died, she only left him a handful of children.

“I suppose you’ve got a ranch to run, now. You and your brothers and sisters.”

Henry shook his head. “Their momma’s family will take them. They’ve got an uncle who always wanted to raise them up.”

“And leave you by yourself?”

The boy squeezed his eyes shut and shook away a wave of misery. “I’m not kin.”

Nick grimaced and turned away. While he and Henry had been talking, Seth had gone inside the house. Silas drove the buckboard down the path with a pine coffin in the back.

As the rest of the day passed, more people arrived. Neighbors. Friends. Pastor Phillips came in a buggy accompanied by his wife. Everyone brought a covered dish or a pie. And everyone inquired about the children’s welfare. In the late afternoon, David was laid to rest beside his two wives.

It wasn’t until later when the house was quiet that Nick offered Henry a bargain. He was about to take his leave and ride home with Seth. He didn’t want to go without leaving Henry something to think about. “I got a bunkhouse that’s not being used. When you’ve had a little time, think it over. If you’d like to stay there, you’re welcome to. I’d appreciate having you around.”

Henry’s shoulders sank. “I dunno what I’m going to do. I don’t have any money. My family still owes you for the bull.”

“Your daddy and I were already square. You don’t need to worry about anything. Unless you’d just as soon not have the bull around. You want me to buy him back?”

“It wasn’t his fault.”

“We can talk it over when you’re ready.”

Henry nodded, but didn’t say anything. Nick swung himself into the saddle. “We’re right up the road, if you need anything. I’ll be by in a few days.”

On the way home Seth and Nick talked about the Tarrant family.