Page 17 of Follow the Lonesome Trail
“Spying on us?” That came from Tate who quickly shoved his hand over Walter’s mouth as the boy opened it.
Walter apparently didn’t appreciate that, because Tate yelped and pulled his smarting hand away, sticking it beneath his arm.
“Serves you right,” Gideon laughed, then looked toward Constance. “You want a seat?”
She eyed the rocker next to Gideon. Marsh lounged in her path, but he quickly swung his legs out of the way long enough for her to get around him.
The chair rocked smoothly as the thunder rumbled once more.
“I’m hungry,” Walter shuffled his pennies around with two fingers. “Dinner was ages ago and we worked hard after, and besides Marsh ate all the cornbread and I didn’t get none…”
“Then go get you something to eat.” Tate shoved him over. Walter glared at him but got up and went inside.
“And bring me something!” Tate shouted, then grinned at Walter’s, “Get your own!”
Lightning flashed and all three brothers still on the porch shouted numbers. Constance opened her mouth to ask what they were doing, but jumped when the thunder cracked. Marsh stuck his hand out, still lying half upside down, as Tate and Gideon both groaned and tossed pennies at him. One hit him in the eye and he slapped Gideon’s foot in retaliation.
After a few moments more of silence, Gideon cleared his throat rather loudly. Constance turned to look at him, but noticed he was glaring in Tate’s direction.
“Ma’am, we shouldn’t’ve robbed you off the train.” Tate said it vaguely, waving a hand.
Constance blinked then stifled a grin when Gideon not-so-subtly kicked Marsh.
“We’re sorry and it won’t happen again.” Marsh sounded as if he was a schoolboy giving a recitation. It took everything in her not to laugh. Funny, but she wasn’t quite so upset with them anymore.
Gideon looked as if he wanted to smack both of them, but said, “With all of that being said…we are in a rough spot.”
Constance raised her hand as if she were in a classroom herself. “Might I ask a question?”
“If you’d like…” Gideon sounded skeptical.
“What exactly were you planning on doing with me once you had me? I mean, you must have had a plan to go to this much work to kidnap me. Robbing a train isn’t a simple thing I would think.”
“You’re darn tootin’ it ain’t! Do you know how hard it was to round up that many blanks?” Marsh blurted.
“And how hard it was to bribe Betty at the telegraph office to tell us what train you were coming on?” Tate added as he restacked Walter’s pile of pennies.
Constance waved a hand in his direction. “See there, I thought so. Wait,” she pulled up short. “How did you know I was coming out here?”
Tate sighed a little and said, “Everybody in town knew that Morrow’s kid was gonna come be the school master. Except we thought you was ahe, considering everything you sent had nothing but your initials.”
“Well.” Constance frowned, then shook her head. “Anyway, back to the kidnapping itself: what was the plan in the first place?”
“Well, see…we didn’t know what we was gonna do…exactly.” He glanced at Marsh as if looking for backup. “We kinda thought we could hold you for ransom.”
Constance frowned. “But didn’t you realize you’d be arrested? Once you returned me?”
Gideon was rubbing the spot between his brows as if he had a headache coming on.
“Well…we hadn’t, exactly thought that far,” Tate admitted with a shrug, “We were just desperate for a way to get the ranch back.”
“Get the ranch back?”
As Constance spoke, Walter came back outside with several biscuits in his hands. He chucked one at Tate who managed to catch it after it bounced on the porch railing.
Gideon sighed. “I suppose you’ve the right, all things considered. It all sort of started two years ago. I tangled with a steer and ended up flat on my back for a while. The boys had a hard time keeping up with everything and we fell behind on the payment to the bank.”
Constance nodded, though she couldn’t imagine what this had to do with her.
