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One Year later
The wagon bounced and jolted over the deep ruts in the road. It was evident that no one had been traveling out that way in a long time. In some places, there wasn’t any road left at all, as the shrubbery and sand had covered the area completely.
Tom kept the horses moving at a steady pace, while Abby held Baby Billy in her arms. She’d been quiet for most of the journey, respecting Tom’s somber mood along the way. Tom was grateful for his wife. She’d been his silent supporter, his solid rock, ever since they’d met.
“How much farther is it?” Abby asked when she scanned the area.
“Just another mile or two,” Tom said. “It’s been years since I’ve been over this way, so I’m trying to remember right where it is myself.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie, and Tom felt good about that. He’d been trying to tell fewer lies in his new life, telling himself that it was what Bill would have done. Bill had always cared about the truth of things more than he’d cared about being right or keeping himself out of trouble, and Tom hoped to live up to that level of honesty.
Sure, that hadn’t stopped him from lying to Ellie. He felt guilty telling her that Samuel Colton had been responsible for her brother’s death. He’d not wanted to taint Buck’s memory by telling her the truth, that Buck was the one who had killed Jack.
He figured there wasn’t any way for her to learn the truth. Jack was dead, Buck was dead, and Ranger Colton was dead. It was just his word that mattered. And it made him feel better telling her that Jack had been killed by the man who had allegedly been turning on the gang himself.
He still didn’t know for sure whether he believed what Jerry had claimed about Ranger Colton. On the one hand, it had seemed like there was some truth to it. But on the other hand, there were things about the Texas Ranger that just didn’t seem to fit Jerry’s narrative.
Like so many other things in the situation, Tom was forced to accept that he wasn’t ever going to know the truth. It didn’t really matter whether Ranger Colton had been a friend of Jerry’s, or if the whole thing was a lie. At the end of the day, Ranger Colton had been the one to kill Buck, and Tom had killed him for it.
Tom slapped the reins on the backs of the horses, and the wagon rumbled along. The farther they went, the more Tom recognized the territory, and the more the place felt like home. It was a deep, overwhelming wave of nostalgia that ran through him. One that he couldn’t stop from bringing a tear to his eye.
The past year with Abby had made him more comfortable with his emotions. Though he was still a reserved and rather stoic sort of man, he allowed himself to shed a tear every now and then.
“That’s it,” he said as he indicated with the reins. “That’s where I grew up.”
“It’s… something,” Abby said, clearly trying to find something nice to say about the place.
Tom laughed. “You don’t have to sugarcoat it, darlin’, I know it’s falling apart.”
“It doesn’t look like anyone has been out this way in years,” Abby said as she cradled Billy in her arms.
“I’m sure no one has,” he told her. “Back when we were kids, hardly anyone came out this way. There were men who worked with my pa who would come by, and then there was that day the Texas Rangers came and shot my ma. But besides that, I think we had the reputation that it was dangerous to come near the house, so no one did.”
“I guess that has its benefits,” she mused. “You didn’t have to worry about having too much company.”
“I’m not sure if that was a good or a bad thing,” Tom said after taking a moment to think it through. “I’m sure Ma would have liked having more people over. It probably would have kept Pa’s temper in check more often. But at the same time, I’m sure that Pa would have only attracted more people like himself. Though it does make me wonder what would have been different about mine and Bill’s life if we hadn’t grown up in such isolation.”
“I think your life turned out pretty good,” Abby said. “It hasn’t been without its hardships, but look at your son. You’ve got a lovely little family, and it’s something you should be proud of.”
“And I am,” Tom said as he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I wonder where I would be if I never got involved with Jerry Bishop.”
“You might not be nearly as happy as you are now,” Abby said, always looking for the bright side of things. That was a quality that Tom had come to love about her. Though she had been through plenty of hardships herself, largely due to his own actions, she still looked for the silver lining in most every situation.
“Come on, let me show you where we’d play in the woods,” he said as he pulled the wagon to a stop outside the front door. “I’m not sure I’m ready to go inside yet.”
He briefly thought of the nightmare that had haunted him. The one in which he’d gone inside to find the coffins laid end to end in the middle of the room. Of course, that was nothing more than a bad dream and couldn’t happen in real life, but it still left him shaken as he stood outside the front door.
So, he took Abby and the baby around the back of the house, showing her where he and Bill used to play cowboys and Indians. Abby took in the scene with shining eyes, clearly happy to get that glimpse into Tom’s childhood.
“I’m glad you’re telling me more about yourself, Tom,” she told him as she reached for his hand. “I’m happy to know the man I married.”
“I should have told you the truth about me ages ago,” Tom said. “I was afraid that if you knew the truth, you wouldn’t want to be with someone like me. I didn’t exactly live the sort of life that attracts most women.”
Abby laughed. “I guess you could say the same for me. I wasn’t really living like most men want a girl to be.”
“You were perfect for me,” Tom told her, lacing his fingers through hers. He led her up a path that cut through the trees, at times having to move around the shrubbery that had grown in the way.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“There’s something else I want you to see,” he said, though he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to see it himself. She clutched his hand, and he kept moving forward until they came to a small clearing among the trees.
It was right on the edge of his parents’ property, and there, in the middle, stood two gravestones. “My Ma and Pa.”
“Oh, Tom,” Abby breathed.
“I’ve been thinking,” Tom said, not letting his emotions get the best of him. “That I wanted to bring Bill either here to be buried, or put him in San Marcos.”
“How are you going to do that?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“I can hire someone to dig him up in the cemetery in Clear Creek, and they’ll move him to where I want. I’ve still got some of the money left from the bank robbery. Enough that I can get the job done. And with the law firm open and working now, we don’t need to keep relying on that money.”
She nodded. “I agree with that. But how are you going to decide where to put him?”
“I don’t rightly know,” he admitted, shaking his head. “On the one hand, I feel that he would be happier here with Ma and Pa. But there was this time when he and I made a promise to each other.”
“What promise?” she asked, looking up at him.
“We said that we were never going to come back to this house. I guess for as many good memories as I have here, there’s twice as many bad memories. It might be better to have them bring my brother down to San Marcos, where we can go see him any time we please.”
“That might be better,” she said with a nod. “I don’t rightly know, Tom. But I’m going to support you either way.”
She gave his hand a light squeeze as she spoke, and Tom smiled. He couldn’t have asked for a better partner in life than Abby.
“I know you will,” he said as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “Come on, let’s go clean up the house a bit.”
She agreed, walking back with him down the path toward the house. Tom hesitated before he opened the front door. The dream came back to him, but he refused to let that hold him back. Taking a breath, he pushed through to the inside of the house.
The place was empty. No furniture, no coffins. Nothing like he remembered, or like the dream had planted in his mind. He felt a wave of relief wash over him as he looked back at Abby with a smile.
“It’s small,” he said. “But it’s cozy. Bill and I lived back in this room here, and that was Ma and Pa’s room.”
“It’s not in too bad of shape, considering,” Abby said as she looked around the place. “I’ve seen a lot worse-off buildings.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too. I don’t know, maybe we can bring Bill here and clean up the place. It might be nice to have a cabin out here where we can come to get away from the city every now and then. I wouldn’t mind Baby Billy having a piece of his past as he grows up.”
“I think that’s a lovely idea,” Abby said with another smile.
“Ellie does a fine job of running the firm while we’re gone, so it might not be a bad idea after all. I don’t know about you, but I get kind of tired of living in the middle of the city. I can’t really say that I miss my old life, but I do miss being out under the stars.”
“There’s a lot of dust and people in town, that’s for sure,” Abby agreed with a laugh. She adjusted the sling where Baby Billy lay, and she grabbed a broom she found in the closet. Tom watched with tears in his eyes as she started sweeping the floor, looking so much like his ma had so many years ago.
“What’s wrong?” she asked when she saw him watching. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said as he walked over to her, taking her in his arms. “I’m just watching you, the most beautiful woman in the world, sweeping the floor.”
“Oh, stop,” she said, but she blushed and laughed in his arms as she did.
Tom pulled her tighter against him. “I just say it like I see it.”
“That’s one of the things I’ve always liked about you,” she admitted as he leaned in for a kiss.
“I love everything about you,” he whispered. “The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of us keeping up the place and making this our second home.”
“I like that,” Abby said, pressing her lips against his once more.
And just like that, it was decided. Tom would fix up the house, and he would arrange for Bill to be brought from Clear Creek to be laid to rest near their parents. They’d make visits to the cabin a regular occurrence.
Tom finally felt something he’d not felt before. He was at peace.
OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Guns and Justice in the West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my new western adventure story as well as the extended epilogue! Let me know what you think below.
Hi Johnnie thanks for the great read I really enjoyed it and was happy to read the epilogue as it gave closure to the story.
Hey Michael, thanks a lot! I’m excited to hear you loved it!