Chapter 10

“And that’s the story of how I got an interview with the man who shot Kid Calvin.”

Clint rubbed his temples to try to ease the throbbing pain in his head. Damian hadn’t shut his mouth since they left the ranch three hours ago. The minutes had barely rolled past and his nerves were shot. He was pretty sure that he was hearing Damian’s life story in a few hours. If not, he would soon at the rate that the man was going.

Miss Cooper seemed to be enjoying the chatter, while Colt simply stared straight ahead and appeared to block any sound out of his thought process. Clint envied that ability. Damian chattered on to another story about one of his boring adventures as a newspaper journalist. Clint pulled his hat low over his eyes and leaned back. This was going to be the worst trip he had ever been on.

Another half an hour passed and it seemed that Damian was out of stories, because he resorted to personal questions.

“So how did you come about becoming a gunfighter, Mr. Slade?” he asked.

Clint rolled his eyes under the brim of his hat. Every writer asked him the same question, and he always gave the same monotone answer.

“I never became a gunfighter. I planned to stop injustice, and this is the way I saw to do it,” he said.

No matter what tone he put that phrase in, the writers always managed to make an entire article out of it, usually containing their side of his pathetic story.

“I see. Were you ever any relation to the Slade brothers of Virginia?” Damian asked.

“No,” Clint denied the men’s existence.

“How many men have you killed?”

“As many as I’ve had to.”

“Do you have a family?”

“No.” Clint pulled his hat lower over his eyes.

“What happened to them?”

Clint froze. That was never a question he had made up an answer for. He couldn’t bear to think of one. Determined not to say a single thing that might hurt his hardened reputation, Clint set his jaw and kept silent.

“Mr. Slade?” Damian asked.

“I think he’s asleep,” Miss Cooper’s voice said.

Clint didn’t prove him wrong. He simply sat there stock-still and pretended that he was oblivious to what was going on around him.

After a few more hours of mindless chatter off and on, Clint switched out with Colt and took the reins to the horses so the man could rest in the back, though Clint wasn’t sure how much rest he would get with Damian across from him.

Miss Cooper had sat silent for a while, and Clint had learned in his few days with the Coopers that her silence meant that she was thinking. He hadn’t learned if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. Either way, he wasn’t intending on finding out.

Sitting next to the woman made him nervous. Something about her came out at him and told him to beware of her. Maybe it was her inner strength that he had seen shine through occasionally. Maybe it was her free-spirited nature, or maybe it was just his imagination. He always got jumpy around women.

This is exactly why you shouldn’t have practically volunteered yourself for this job!

“What time do you want to make camp?” Miss Cooper asked to the whole wagon.

Then men shrugged.

“Whatever you think,” Colt said.

“Mr. Slade?” Miss Cooper looked at him.

Clint shrugged again. “I reckon about an hour before sunset ought to give us plenty of time to settle in before it gets dark.”

She nodded her agreement. “Sounds good.”

It was not good. They parked the wagon just before dusk and she took the opportunity to order him around everywhere.

“Fetch the firewood.”

“Light the fire.”

“Get some water.”

“Check on the horses.”

“Eat your supper.”

“Help me lift this pot.”

Clint groaned at the end of the day and fell face first onto his bedroll. He had ridden for a week straight after a killer, survived with barely any water out in south Texas for two days, and slept on a pile of rocks for a whole night, yet he had never been as sore as he was from doing all of Miss Cooper’s bidding.

Colt and Damian had simply sat by silently and watched her work him to death, not caring to even crack a smile at his plight.

Something’s really messed up about these people. What’s this woman trying to do?

Then it hit him.

Miss Cooper thought she was so slick…

*****

Bliss fell onto her bedroll that night, feeling proud of herself. She had worked that man to the bone tonight, and he was out like a light. Her plan was going as planned. The sooner she got rid of the man, the sooner she could get on about figuring out her mother’s death.

Part of her didn’t want him to leave. She liked having the protection if a gunfighter. Yet her father would continue to treat her like a child if she continued to allow it. That was something that she needed to fix. She would be treated as an adult again at the end of this.

Rolling over to face the rest of the camp, she watched Clint stare up at the stars across the fire. The bitter cold cut through her dress so she pulled her coat tighter around her and she watched his every blink. He had to have a chink in his armor somewhere. It gnawed at her that he was so secretive and was hiding so much. Why did it annoy her so? What information he wanted to divulge was his business. She shouldn’t want to pry. The only thing he wanted her to know about him was his accuracy with that shooting iron of his.

Besides, she didn’t want to know so much about a man she was trying to get rid of. Still, there was that nagging part of her that didn’t want him to go, that wanted them to be friends.

Suddenly, he turned his head and caught her staring at him. She couldn’t look away. She searched desperately for some secret behind his eyes of steel, but found nothing. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t look away from his steady glare.

Minutes passed, and they simply stated at each other as if in a battle to see who would look away first. The gentle roar of the fire was all the sound that the night afforded. She felt the thoughts of her mind being seen by the man across from her, as if he could see inside of her. She was beginning to think there was something supernatural involved until he finally rolled onto his back and looked away. She breathed deep and closed her eyes, trying desperately to fall asleep and pretend that what had just oddly transpired never happened.

The next morning was a busy occasion. Bliss resumed her task of running Clint to death and making him miserable. It was as if he packed the entire camp single-handedly and the rest of them only pretended to be busy.

She felt a twinge of pity for him, but then remembered that her future as an adult depended upon his leaving and her independence. She had to get out and live again. As much as she loved her life with her father, some things had to change about the way he looked at her as if she were still his ten-year-old little girl.

That had to change, or she might never heal from the last time she dared to venture out into the world by herself.

*****

Clint didn’t bother even trying to converse with the woman next to him on the wagon seat. She was a strange one, that was for sure. He had never met another woman like her. One minute he thought she might like the idea of having him around, then the next she would be ordering him around in so many different directions his head was going one way and his body another. He felt like a right royal mess.

This was exactly why he didn’t like women that much. He glanced at her, sitting with perfect posture as if he didn’t know exactly what she was doing.

She was trying to get rid of him.

Well, she wasn’t getting rid of him that easy. He could take whatever she wanted to throw at him. He was no quitter.

“I figure that we should reach Plateau at around noon tomorrow,” Miss Cooper said. She turned back to look at Colt. “Don’t you think, Colt?”

“Somewhere thereabouts,” Colt responded.

“How long did it take you to get out here, Mr. Slade?” she asked him.

Clint shrugged. “About three days. Two old coots in town told me the wrong directions.”

Miss Cooper giggled. “You didn’t ask Clark and Sam did you?”
Clint nodded.

Miss Cooper leaned her head back and laughed. Colt joined her and Clint was feeling very left out of the joke.

“The last thing to do if you don’t know where you’re going is to ask those two. They’d send you clear to California before you could realize that you were lost,” Miss Cooper explained after she had composed herself.

“No one saw fit to tell me that,” Clint grumbled.

“Now you know,” Miss Cooper nodded.

*****

I have no idea what's wrong with me guys! I'm going crazy! I hate not writing as much as I should and it's making me stressed and grumpy. I need to write, but I get so flippin' lazy! Anyways, hope you guys liked this chapter! Love you guys!