Chapter 24

Clint flinched as Bliss’ father’s boots clomped down the hall. Sherman entered the room, laid eyes on his daughter, and suddenly his eyes filled with relief. He rushed to her just as she got up out of her chair, and wrapped her in his arms. Bliss simply stood there, stiff and her hands clenched into fists. She was probably thinking about that knife in her pocket and all of her nagging suspicions.

Clint found himself under the accusing gaze of Sherman Cooper. He let go of his daughter and crossed his arms.

“What did you do with her?” he asked.

Clint rolled his eyes. That was the last straw.

“If you people don’t trust me with Miss Cooper, then why am I even here?” he stood, placed Miss Cooper’s shoes on the table, and walked toward the hall toward his room.

He didn’t care what they said about him after he was out of earshot; he was too tired to care about anything. Every one of them accused him of doing something with Bliss, when all he had done was helped her home… and forgot to tie up the horses, but that was beside the point.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, and bent down to remove his boots.

They weren’t there.

The corner of his mouth tilted up as he lay back on his back. He closed his eyes and tried to force unwelcome thoughts from his mind.

*****

Bliss looked up at her father.

“What’s wrong with you?” she drew her eyebrows close together in anger.

“It was a logical question,” Daddy insisted.

“No, it was not! Mr. Slade has been the perfect gentleman ever since he arrived. Look at my feet,” Bliss motioned to the oversized boots on her feet and grabbed her broken shoe. “My shoe broke, but instead of taking the extra time to pound it back together, he chose to sacrifice his own boots and carry them for mw while he walked all the way here barefooted. He didn’t even get upset with me or complain once. He climbed to the top of Almighty for me even though he’s afraid of heights. He even saved my life today, and yet he comes home to your incessant accusations. I would even be surprised if he’s in there packing his gear to leave right now.”

Daddy took her broken shoe from her hand and looked at it. “What do you mean; he climbed to the top of Almighty?”

Bliss inwardly groaned. She’d done it now.

“I meant just what I said. He climbed that slope on the east side and then threw a rope down so I could get up, too. He knew how much I wanted to get up to the top, so he made it possible. Once we were up there, I slipped and fell over the edge. Just when I was about to slip, he grabbed by hand and pulled me up,” Bliss explained.

“What were you doing up there? You could have died!” Daddy exclaimed.

Bliss didn’t have to explain things to him. Her defiant nature rose up and she grabbed her shoes from the table and Daddy’s hand before walking back to her room without another word.

“Bliss, you come back here!” Daddy called after her.

Bliss reached her room and flung the door open to enter before slamming it as hard as she could behind her, rattling the walls.

“What am I doing?” she suddenly blurted to herself.

She was being no better than the spoiled brat that had married Seth Ryder. Placing her shoes on her dresser, she removed Clint’s boots and changed into her nightgown. When she finally slipped under the handmade quilt on her bed, she couldn’t get to sleep. Her eyelids felt heavy, but she couldn’t get them to stay closed. Questions bombarded her mind about the secrets that her father was keeping and suspicions filled her thoughts. Suddenly, she remembered the newspaper he had tried to hide from her.

Getting up and walking across the room, she reached inside her writing desk and withdrew the old, yellowed newspaper. She walked back to her bed and sat cross-legged. What was it about Kassidy Klaine that her father had to hide from her? Was he involved with the robbery? He had told her how desperate they were for money after the war. Could he have resorted to drastic measures in order to provide for them?

She didn’t let her imagination run to far as she flipped through the newspaper, the lamp on the bedside table giving off enough light to read by.

Suddenly, a knocking sound came from her window. She folded the newspaper, knowing the second what the knock sounded who was outside her window. She set the newspaper aside and pushed the curtain away from her window before opening it.

“Something wrong, Colt?” she asked, poking her head through the opening.

“Just wanted to make sure that you were really okay,” Colt said.

Bliss nodded. “I’m really okay. Just tired and confused.”

“What did you find up there?” Colt asked.

Breaking from her earlier resolve to keep Colt out of this, she reached to her beside table and picked up the knife and the buckle she had found.

“I found these,” she said as she handed them over to him.

Colt looked over the objects. “What about them?”

“That’s Daddy’s old knife,” Bliss replied.

Colt looked at her with shocked eyes. “You mean…”

“I don’t mean anything yet. Clint told me that a number of things could have happened up there that we know nothing about.”

Colt sighed deeply. “I wish you didn’t have to go through this.”

“Well, if Daddy sees fit to keep these secrets from me, then I’ll go find them out on my own.”

“This is dangerous. You could get caught up in something far worse than you anticipated, you know,” Colt handed the items back to her.

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take if it will give me peace,” Bliss mumbled.

Colt thought a moment. “I don’t think finding the answers to your mother’s death will give you as much peace as you’re anticipating.”

Bliss looked up at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Ever notice how you started getting curious about this in the past few years? What had calmed your suspicions in the years before that?” Colt asked her.

Bliss didn’t answer.

“I think we both know how you’ve strayed from God over the past little while. Maybe He is the peace you’re trying to find,” Colt mentioned.

Bliss breathed deep of the night air. “God doesn’t care about me, Colt. He never has.”

A look of hurt crossed over Colt’s eyes. He didn’t speak for a moment or two.

When he finally did speak, his voice was shaky. “Why do you say that?”

“Do you really think God has time for every single person on the earth? So many people have their own life and their own worries that they take to Him all the time. He picks and chooses who he helps. I wasn’t in his special group, I don’t guess,” Bliss explained.

Colt stared at her momentarily. “You’ve got it all wrong, Bliss. God is everywhere. You can’t escape Him by convincing yourself that He has better things to care about. Sure, God had the power to reach into the future and exclude certain people from His grace and not allowing Jesus to die for certain people, but He didn’t. He chose everyone knowing what we would become.”

Bliss rolled her eyes. “You really expect me to believe that? It’s not like He’s done anything special for you. What miracle have you seen that made you believe everything about God?”

“I don’t have to see a miracle.”

Bliss ribbed her temple, feeling a headache coming on. “Can we talk about this tomorrow, Colt? I’m really tired.”

Colt nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

Bliss nodded and ducked her head back inside. A few moments later, she heard her name again.

“Yeah?” she looked back out of the window.

“I’m really glad you’re back here and not hurt,” Colt said.

Bliss nodded. “Me too.”

*****

Early the next morning, Bliss woke up at her usual time, not used to sleeping in later than six o’clock, and got dressed and ready for the day. Faint dark circled under her eyes hinted that she hadn’t slept well last night, but she managed to conceal the rest of her weariness by a smile on her face. She pulled on her shoes before exiting the room, carrying Clint’s boots with her.

Once she confirmed that he wasn’t awake yet, she set the boots in front of his door and walked down the hall toward the kitchen, where she could smell eggs and bacon coming from the stove. She had to apologize to her father this morning for her awful behavior last night before another word was spoken between them. She may have her suspicions about him, but that was no reason to treat him the way she did.

She entered the kitchen to find her father sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in his hand as he watched Grace make breakfast. She sat down beside him.

“Mornin’, Daddy,” She said.

Daddy looked over at her, the usual twinkle missing from his eyes. “Mornin’.”

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior last night. It wasn’t fair of me to lash out at you like that.”

“I agree.”

Bliss took a deep breath. “I know that I’m old enough to make my own decisions about things, but that was no reason for me to treat you the way I did. Forgive me?”

There was a brief moment of silence, just long enough for Bliss to get nervous. Then, her father turned to her, the twinkle back in his eye and a smile on his face.

“Of course I do, sunshine,” he assured her.

Bliss smiled as Grace began to place plates of food on the table. The scents of Grace’s breakfasts always made Bliss feel famished in the morning. She breathed deep and looked around at the toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and gravy that filled the room with their tantalizing smells.

“I better go wake Damian and Mr. Slade up so we can eat,” Grace said with a smile.

Bliss waited and listened as Grace walked down the hall and banged on the men’s doors with a wooden spoon. When she came back to the kitchen, she placed the spoon beside her plate on the table and went to get cups for the coffee.

It wasn’t long before a sound so atrocious came from the hallway that one would think that the house was being torn down.

Damian entered the room, his hair unkempt and his shirt crookedly buttoned. Once he saw that there was no emergency, he finger combed his hair and scowled at Grace, who merely laughed at him.

Damian sat down at the table without a word while Clint entered the room, hopping on one foot while putting the other in a boot, his gun belt slung over one arm and his hat between his teeth. His hair was in disarray and his unshaven jaw clenched tightly on the brim of his hat.

Bliss couldn’t help but laugh at the pair of them.

“Where’s the fire?” Clint asked sarcastically, removing his gun belt and buckling it in place low on his right hip.

“Hurry up and sit down so we can eat,” Grace demanded. “Colt’s gonna be a little late because he’s helping Mason pick out a cat in the barn. You know how that boy is around animals.”

Bliss nodded. Both of those boys were crazy about animals. She smiled. Colt was good with living things in general, whether it be with animals or humans. Everyone couldn’t help but like him around town in Plateau and the ranch. She was proud to call him one of her best friends.

Clint sat down at the table across from her in his usual spot right beside Damian. The two scowled at each other but made no other attempt at communication.

Grace sat down, made them all join hands, and made them all bow their heads to pray. Bliss didn’t pray, but rather thought about what Colt had said the night before. Was it true that God cared about even her? That Jesus had not only thought of her when he was dying, but also for everyone else in the future that would ever accept His grace?

Such a thing was improbable. Colt was probably just reciting his mother when she had sat down with him to tell him Bible stories when he was a child and she was alive.

No, there wasn’t any way possible that God singled her out for anything.

I've had this chapter written for a few days but I wanted to give everyone a chance to read Chapter 23 :) Let me know what you guys think! :D Thanks a bunch guys!