Sins of The Father

The room was damp with humidity. The walls sweat, the air sweat, the bodies sweat. One with effort, the other from fear. Downstairs the house was quiet. Robert and Laura had retired hours before and the only sounds came from the bedroom that dripped with tension. She tried to block it out; the sounds and the feeling of his body on hers but tonight it wasn't working. The heat was making it impossible to escape into the recesses of her mind. Her tears added to the damp heat and she was at once filled with disgust for herself. The tears never came. Well hardly ever. She had stopped crying years ago, after she figured out that he liked it better when she was weak. Five years he had been coming into her room when the house was darkened. In the beginning she was too confused to be afraid, but little time passed before she grew to fear and hate the man holding her down. There was no use in fighting him anymore, he was stronger than her, he always had been. When she ran away last year, he had found her. To ensure she didn't try to run again, he made her a deal she couldn't refuse. Stay, and I won't go into Laura's room. How could she argue. It was her sister and she would die to protect her from the horrors that she herself had faced. The pressure ceased after what seemed like an eternity. He towered above her with a smirk, the same smirk as always. Sometimes he said something other times he just left. Tonight it was the former.

"Clean yourself up." That was all this time. The door closed behind him as quietly as it opened half an hour ago. Rolling over onto her side she pulled her sheet tightly over her shoulders and let the tears flow.

"Yes, Papa."

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The clean crisp air of Sweetwater was carried through the sun-drenched town on a gentle breeze. "Don't get too many days more perfect than this." The young blonde rider's comment was answered with nodding heads. All the Pony Express riders seemed to be in a jovial mood, laughing, joking, and doing as little as they could manage without Teaspoon and Emma breathing down their necks.

"Well now, Mr. Cody. What do you hope to accomplish on this beautiful day?"

Emma's comment was sweet as pie, but there was a subtleness about it that had Ike shaking his head as soon as he heard it. Cody, on the other hand, never having mastered the fine art of subtlety, answered with a smile.

"Well now let's see, Emma. I do believe I will...hmmm.. well I think I got some serious napping time that I need to catch up on. Maybe head on off to the saloon to play a few hands of cards. I think Thompkin's may have that new ten-center in."

Before he could continue Emma pounced. "So headin' into town on your day off are ya?"

"Well, I think I might do just that."

With a smile Cody plopped down next to the barn and tugged at the edge of his hat.

"But for now," he continued, "think I'll be working on that nap I was talkin' about."

"Well now Cody, you don't wanna miss Thompkin's new book do ya?"

Cody peered at Emma from under the brim of his hat.

"Why? Is it about Jimmy?"

"I don't know, but you remember last week. You went around moping for two days because he ran out books before you got there."

"Aw, Emma. You really think he may run out again? He just got 'em in."

Not wanting to interrupt his postponed nap or miss out on the new story, Cody struggled with his decision.

"Rightly could. Especially if it's about our Jimmy. Town thinks he's a celebrity you know."

The station mistress threw a smile over to Jimmy. Even though he was working on the barn and couldn't see her, she felt she needed to toss an apology his way for including him in her story.

"Yeah. Your right, Emma. I best get over there now. I guess the nap is gonna have ta wait."

As he dusted off his trousers and headed to the corral, Emma called out after him.

"Cody! Why don't you just hitch up the buckboard instead of Soda."

"Now Emma, Why would I do that? I don't need a whole buckboard just to get a book."

"Nope. But you do to pick up the supplies I ordered from Tompkins last week."

Cody's face dropped as the smiling woman handed him a list of supplies.

"Aw Emma."

Realizing she had tricked him fairly, that was about all he could respond with. Buck, on the other hand, who was in earshot of the whole transaction, responded with a laugh.

"She got ya good Cody."

Buck slapped the duped rider on the back but Emma interjected her last bit of humor into the situation.

"Why, thank you Buck, for volunteering to accompany Mr. Cody into town."

Buck's face dropped at once but Cody's smile returned and his blue eye's twinkled. "Yeah Buck, Thanks!"

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"So you boys going to the dance tomorrow night?"

The storekeeper's question was asked as he was gathering Emma's supplies.

"I spose so. Seems like all we do round here lately is have dances."

"Yeah, well Buck, I sure ain't complaining. There are some real pretty girls who go to those dances."

None that would dance with an Indian, though. Buck's response to Cody's statement was spoken only in his head. Sure it was fun to see all the riders decked out in their best clothes and watch the town's Marshal fall all over himself trying to dance with Emma, but each dance got a little harder for Buck to stomach. Sure Cody would look forward to the dances, he had never asked a girl to dance only to have her act like she hadn't even heard the request. Cody's comment broke into Buck's reverie.

"Like Robert over there. Now he has two sister's that would steal a man's heart in a blink of an eye."

Robert Martin looked up from his shopping list. He at once threw a friendly smile over to Cody.

"Now that is true, Billy. Not that either would give you the time of day."

The teasing smile that lit up Robert's face almost rivalled that of Cody's. The two had become friends when the express riders had helped the Martin's raise their barn last fall. Robert and Cody took to each other immediately. Both young men had a passion for living life on the edge and a sense of humor that let them get away with many of their exploits. Although similar in personality, the two could not have looked more different. Cody, lean, blue-eyed and blonde was almost the complete opposite of the muscular, brown-eyed man with black hair. Robert's face was tan from his toils in his family fields, whereas Cody's was pale from his afternoons of endless naps. Robert was in town picking up some extra material for the hem of Laura's dress. This was going to be her first dance, and at the age of twelve the young girl could not have been more excited.

"Is that for your dress for tomorrow?"

Cody continued his teasing when he noticed the yellow fabric in Robert's hand. The young man took his cue and held the material under his chin.

"Yeah, what do you think? Will I be the toast of the town?"

Buck laughed at the thought of the large man in front of him in a yellow lace dress. "Yeah, you'll have to fight off the men from the saloon with a stick."

Robert's eyes twinkled at Buck's comment. "So you guys are going right? Please say yes, or else I get stuck talking to old man Morris about the war again."

"Yeah, were going." Cody's voice lost some of it's joviality. "Emma says we gotta show the town's folk that we are capable of civility. Not like they'd know what civility was if it kicked 'em in the pants."

"Yeah, well I'm in charge of the girls. Pa's gone off to Fort Kearny. At first I wasn't even thinking about going. Madeline wouldn't have cared. She hates these things, but I couldn't disappoint Laura, it's her first dance ya know."

"Yeah, well you know Madeline might like the dances more if she smiled once in a while. You know it's hard to believe that your sister is seventeen. She acts like an old maid."

Robert frowned at the description of his younger sister. It was a description he had heard about her many times. It was hard to describe the effect their Ma's passing had had on the girl. That had been about five years ago. Cody would have had no way of knowing what a vivacious girl Madeline had been back then.

"Yeah, well maybe it's cuz no one asks her to dance." Robert's voice had become serious as he was once again made to realize just how much his sister had changed. "Anyway, looks like Buck's waitin' for you."

Cody turned to look out the door of the general store. Buck was sitting on the buckboard with the same sour expression as Robert. The rider reached out to nudge his friend's shoulder. "Hey, it's not all that bad. Someone will ask her one of these days."

"You will? Oh Cody, that would be really nice of you. I'm sure she couldn't resist you if you asked her to dance tomorrow night."

Now how was he supposed to refute that? He hadn't exactly offered to ask Madeline to dance, but if he tried to back out now it would be like admitting that she could resist his request. He was stuck, and a piece of him contemplated that Robert had set him up. That was twice in one day.

"Yeah, well okay. One dance. I gotta go. See ya tomorrow night."

"See ya, Billy. And thanks again!" Robert smiled at how easy it was to walk Cody into his promise. Now maybe Madeline would smile and have some fun.

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Laura squealed with delight as she twirled in front of the mirror with her new dress on. "Oh Maddy, don't you think it's beautiful?"

Madeline Martin sat on the floor behind her sister, lost in thought. She hadn't even heard her sister's question. It was Laura's first dance. She remembered her first dance. She had been so excited. Her mother had made her a green dress with little yellow flowers on the hem and neckline. Her blonde hair had been pulled up into a mass on the top of her head with curled tendrils that framed her face. She had danced and danced and never thought she would stop laughing. A smile touched Madeline's lip's as she remembered how proud her Ma had been of her. That brief smile disappeared however when the memory of her mother's death, just two days after, replaced the vision of the dance with that of the funeral.

"Maddy? Maddy? Hello, where are you?"

Laura waved her hand in front of her sister's face to grab her attention.

"What? Oh yes, yes Laura. What did you say?"

Laura sighed at having to repeat a question she felt she shouldn't have had to ask in the first place. "I said isn't it a beautiful dress?"

Madeline stood and studied her sister. With her hands on her hips and a sour expression on her face Madeline had to hide a laugh. "Yes, you do look beautiful. You look like Robert."

Laura's face darkened even more, "I look like a boy!? Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Madeline laughed out loud and Laura's face softened at once. It wasn't often that Madeline laughed and the sound released most of Laura's ire.

"No, no silly." As older sister circled younger she straightened out the wrinkles in Laura's dress. "It's that black hair. I don't know where you and Robert got it, but you are lucky to have such beauty."

"Maddy, sometimes I just don't understand you at all. You know that Mama had black hair, that's where we got it from. And you are the lucky one. Blonde hair and blue eyes, that's what all the boys want. You got all of Pa's good looks. He gave you all of it. All the girls are jealous. Clara was telling me the other day that she wishes she had our Pa so she could look like you. Blonde hair and blue eyes. That's what they all want."

"Green eyes."

The laughter was gone from Madeline's eyes and her face was stoic. Her sister's reference to her father filled her with coldness.

"What?"

"Green eyes, Laura. I have green eyes."

"Oh well, you know what I meant. Now c'mon. Let's go find a dress for you."

"Laura, why don't you just go with Robert. I could stay home. No one ever asks me to dance anyways."

Laura looked up at her sister and mustered up her most motherly tone. "Madeline Elisabeth Martin. You are going to that dance, you are going to smile, and have fun, and that is it."

Madeline was amused by her sister's tone but didn't let the emotion reach her eyes. "Yes Laura."

The mock obedience almost clued the younger sister into Madeline's mood, but not quite.

"Well then, Let's go. The dance is tomorrow night and we have some work to do on you. Robbie told me to make sure you prettied yourself up right good for this dance. Said it was important."

Madeline looked inquisitively at her sister.

"How should I know?" Laura answered the look. "That's just what he said."

Madeline pursed her lips, "Why is it so important?"

Laura rolled her eyes, "Well the dance is tomorrow. Guess you'll find out then won't you."

To Be Continued...Chapter II