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

just saying that to make me feel better?’
    ‘Nope. Your mom knows. She knew all along, in fact.’
    ‘How you know that?’
    ‘Told me so … at the farm an’ at your uncle’s house in Old Calico. Said she was the luckiest woman alive. Said God had given her a fine husband who loved her an’ treated her special, and a loving daughter who meant more to her than anythin’ in the world.’
    ‘Momma said that?’
    ‘More’n once. So quit your worryin’, OK? Get some rest. You have to spell me in a couple of hours.’
    Nodding, Raven lay back and smiled at Gabriel. ‘I love you,’ she whispered. ‘I know I say hateful things sometimes, things that make you madder than a spit-on hornet, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I do. More than anyone else in the world. Never forget that.’
    He smiled, and gently kissed her on the forehead. ‘Go to sleep.’
    She yawned sleepily, ‘Hope that ol’ bear don’t come back,’ closed her eyes and almost immediately drifted off.
    Gabriel pulled the blanket up under her chin. He then stirred the fire, sending sparks shooting up into the cool darkness. Stretching the aches from his weary muscles, he sat down, leaned back against his saddle and began rolling a smoke.
    Being a surrogate father, he realized, was more complicated than he’d expected.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    A little more than a year ago, when Ingrid and Raven had moved west to Old Calico, theirs was the farthest farm from Santa Rosa – almost an hour’s ride from the edge of town.
    Now, as they crested Mimbres Hill and looked down the long slope that reached across the desert to the farm on which she’d been born, they saw three other small spreads had sprung up. Beyond that the framework of a fourth partially built house stood at the foot of the hill.
    ‘Good-God-awmighty,’ Raven said, whistling. ‘Where’d all them folks spring from?’
    ‘Easterners, most likely,’ Gabriel said disgustedly. ‘Ain’t enough they cluttered up all the land east of St Louis; now, thanks to the railroad, they have to stampede out here an’ crowd our territory, too. Progress!’ he spat out the word, adding: ‘Pretty soon there won’t be a place left where a man can ride without bumping shadows.’
    Raven chuckled. ‘Now you sound like my Dad. He hated to be crowded. That’s why he and Momma moved way out here, even though she would have preferred to live in Santa Rosa oreven Las Cruces.’
    ‘I never met your father,’ Gabriel said as he guided the wagon down the hill. ‘But the more I hear ’bout him the more I wish I had.’
     
    Twenty minutes later they reached the farm. The entire property was now fenced in and there was an arched gateway with a sign welcoming travelers.
    Gabriel reined in the team and stared about him in surprise. Beside him, Raven couldn’t believe her eyes either: the new owner, Lylo Willis, who’d once owned the telegraph office in Santa Rosa, had turned the farm into a way station.
    The cabin was now a large two-story wood-frame house, painted gray with white trim. Wooden steps led up to a shady front porch with a fancy trellis from which hung a sign announcing: ‘Hot Meals Available!’ The old barn in which Gabriel had recovered from near death had been enlarged and turned into sleeping accommodations. Next to it were two outhouses with ‘Ladies’ and ‘Gents’ signs on the doors. And beside the well, a well in which Ingrid had once hidden him from the law, stood a modern windmill bearing a sign with big red letters offering travelers water: fifty cents per adult, twenty-five cents per child and one dollar per horse.
    ‘Is that legal?’ Raven asked, shocked.
    ‘It’s their well,’ Gabriel said grimly. ‘No law sayin’ they can’t charge for the use of it. But it sure ain’t neighborly.’
    ‘Well, I’m not paying for water. ’Specially water that used to be mine. And I’m gonna tell Mr Lylo Willis that right to his mean ol’ face!’
    ‘Caution’s the way,’