A Coffin for Santa Rosa by Steve Hayes Read Free Book Online

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CHAPTER SIX
    That night they made camp in a remote, sheltered gully.
    While Gabriel built a fire Raven went off and killed a rabbit with her slingshot. They roasted it over the flames and ate it for supper. When they were finished, Raven threw the bones and carcass out in the desert for the scavengers, leaving Gabriel to water the horses.
    When it came time to bed down, he hobbled the Morgan and built the fire up in case the bushwhackers returned and tried to jump them. He then took the first watch and told Raven he’d wake her in three hours.
    ‘You won’t forget, will you,’ she said skeptically.
    ‘Gave you my word I wouldn’t lie to you again, didn’t I?’
    Raven nodded, satisfied. Kissing him on the cheek, she yawned, said goodnight and curled up in her blanket beside the fire.
    Gabriel refilled his mug with coffee, fired a smoke and leaned back against his saddle to contemplate his future. Now that he had Raven to look after he could no longer go through life not caring what happened to him. He had to stay alive, no matter what, until she was old enough to look after herself. That meant they had to get Ingrid buried, return to Deming and board a train for California as fast as possible – all the time hoping that no more bounty hunters recognized him from the reward posters scattered throughout New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.
    A coyote yip-yipped in the darkness, interrupting his thoughts.
    Gabriel looked at Raven asleep in her blanket. Just the sight of her made him feel good. But it also reminded him of her mother, Ingrid, and that didn’t feel so good.
    Rising, he went to the wagon. The pine coffin looked pale and lonely in the flickering firelight. Sadly he placed his hand on it, the wood feeling damp to his touch, and thought about the dead woman inside. Fate had thrown them together under the most unlikely of circumstances and now he was responsible for her daughter.
    At first he’d thought Raven would be a burden, a nuisance even, but in fact the very opposite was true: having her around not only gave him comfort but added purpose to his life and now he couldn’t imagine being without her.
    ‘You miss her, don’t you?’
    He turned and saw Raven sitting up, watching him from her blanket.
    ‘What’re you doin’ awake?’
    ‘Was having a nightmare. This big ol’ black bear was chasing me and…. You do, don’t you?’ she repeated. ‘Miss Momma, I mean?’
    ‘More’n I reckoned on.’
    ‘Me, too. Lots.’
    Feeling her pain, Gabriel came and hunkered down beside her.
    ‘It’s too late now, I know,’ she continued, ‘but I wish I’d been nicer to her. Momma always loved me and treated me fairly – even when I didn’t deserve it – and I never realized that until she … till it was too late.’
    ‘Only natural. All part of bein’ a young’un. When I was growin’ up I never thought much of my pa—’
    She wasn’t listening. ‘You don’t know this, Gabe, but I used to hate Momma and be mean to her.’
    Gabriel remembered Ingrid saying that she was having problems with Raven, but decided not to mention it. ‘Must’vethought you had a reason.’
    ‘Sure – on account of how Dad got killed. I blamed Momma for it. Said if she hadn’t made him take her into town to pick up her stupid birthday dress he’d ordered from St Louis, he wouldn’t have been in Santa Rosa and accidentally gotten shot by them three drunken cowboys. ’Course it wasn’t really Momma’s fault. Deep down, I knew that all along. Fact is, Dad was the one who nagged her into going. I heard him. Heard her telling him she didn’t mind waiting until another day, too. But it didn’t matter. Not to me. I was so angry about Dad dying on me when he didn’t have to … that … well, I had to blame someone.’ Raven paused, tears coming, and then said: ‘You think Momma knows I really loved her? Now that she’s dead, I mean?’
    Gabriel smiled and put his hand against Raven’s cheek. ‘Sure.’
    ‘Not