9. Chapter 9 (1/2)
acing his feet on either side of the ladder, ezra slid down at a much faster rate than he could climbing rung by rung and landed lightly at the bottom. spinning around jauntily, he fell back against the ladder awkwardly after bumping into the formidable form of chris larabee.
"nice descent, ez. only person i've seen come down a ladder like that was an old sailor i knew during the war…"
standing up and
ushing down his sleeves, ezra carefully plucked a minute speck of straw off his jacket before giving an obtuse answer to the gunslinger's oblique question, "it's a handy skill to have when on a sea faring vessel. rungs tend to be slippery and there is often a need for haste in getting below decks."
vin's mouth dropped down as he gasped, "you's been ta sea, ez?"
"
iefly, vin, very
iefly. it wasn't an experience i'd care to repeat either, since the ship i was on met an a
upt and watery end," replied the southerner, reaching forward to push vin's stubbly chin up thus closing his gaping mouth. putting an arm around each man, he started herding them towards the livery door announcing, "i'm positively faint with hunger, gentlemen. shall we adjourn to the restaurant to see what toothsome comestibles await our delectation?"
vin and chris exchanged a look of shared dismay over the gambler's head. given the sudden reappearance of ezra's more complicated verbiage, they judged that the gambler's experience at sea had been horrific. chris smirked as he saw the look of resolve cross the texan's face. poor ole ez was in for an interrogation, that was for sure. the older man knew that the quiet tracker had a well hidden, yet insatiable, thirst for knowledge and stories. before they'd become a close knit family, chris had often seen ezra entertaining the children of the town with fables and fairytales, with the tracker silently absorbing the stories from the shadows. now though, the tracker sat at ezra's feet along with the children, usually with one of the little ones in his lap, his blue eyes as wide and beguiled as the children's. sometimes, ezra even managed to get the shy man to tell stories of his own - of indian legend and lore. at these times, ezra sat down amongst the children, usually claimed as a seat by little fanny wiltshire, his green eyes gleaming with pride at his
other's story telling abilities. chris chuckled as he realised just how many of the town's adults ended up hiding in the shadows to listen to ezra and vin's story times. wild horses couldn't make him tell vin though, as the shy tracker would shut up tighter than a clam if he knew. as for telling ezra… he'd probably charge the adults admission.
***m7***
a few days had passed since vin and ezra had returned from visiting hannah and all the men had now seen the new buildings. vin and chris had trailed around behind their
other as he'd eagerly shown the buildings off to the judge and mary travis. when mary had seen the school, she'd squealed excitedly and thrown her arms around first ezra, then the judge and then chris. chris wasn't sure why he'd been included in her cele
ations, but he enjoyed the em
ace nonetheless. vin made sure to sidle behind ezra to avoid the exuberant mother's affections, blushing fiercely at the thought of having the usually austere mary travis hanging off his neck.
mary's subsequent edition of the paper had included a glowing account of the generosity of the southerner, a
ief obituary of the man behind the bequeath and an editorial extolling the civilising benefits of having a town li
ary, school, bakery and doctor's surgery. she made sure to mention the training of nathan jackson, so people would know that he was to succeed doctor fletcher. there was an advertisement for the bakery and a short article on the li
ary which explained the rules and processes of membership. also mentioned was the fact that a photographer had been hired to attend the grand opening and would be available for a week thereafter to anyone who wanted to have their portrait taken for a reasonable fee. ezra had made the arrangement and mentioned to mary that she would be able to use the photos in her paper. he hoped to convince his fellow peacekeepers to pose for a portrait too.
ezra was becoming more and more excited at the thought of his friends' arrivals and christmas, having received many telegrams, letters and parcels on the daily stage coaches from eagle bend. the rest of the seven had developed the happy past time of badgering the gambler about what was in the correspondence and packages, much to the green eyed man's equal amusement and agitation. wagging a cautionary finger at them, he'd ward them off with threats of coal in their stockings, even resorting to smacking the audacious hands of buck, vin and jd on occasion.
the weather had taken on a positively arctic chill, but they all gathered on the porch of the hotel to await the stage's arrival. today was the day that the new teacher was due to arrive, along with ezra's friend doctor fletcher. vin, chris and josiah all cast sneaky looks towards the outwardly calm cardshark, trying to gage his mood. judging by the way his cards were flying between his hands, their
other was nowhere near as calm as he'd have them believe.
"here it comes!"
head snapping up at jd's shout, ezra smoothly returned the cards to his pocket and stood up, tugging his jacket into place and flicking at imaginary specks of dust.
"ya look good, ez, but he ain't gonna care 'bout that," soothed vin, coming up to stand beside his
other and putting a calming arm around the soberly blue clad shoulders.
glancing over to vin gratefully, ezra nodded and tried to wait patiently. he'd noticed that he wasn't the only one of the seven to take special interest in his attire and appearance that day. nathan was wearing his best pants and shirt and had bought a new jacket. well, it was a second hand jacket, but there was plenty of wear left in it and it was new for him. the healer wanted to look as professional as possible in order to make a good impression on doctor fletcher, despite being assured by ezra that the doctor wouldn't notice if he was naked unless he had a rash or injury.
buck had been aflutter since they'd heard from the judge about the new teacher's arrival. he'd taken pains to bathe and dowse himself in his cologne, making sure to wear his best clothes. smoothing down his moustache, he drew himself up to his full height and threw out his chest in order to appear at his most manly and impressive, fixing a bewitching grin onto his face. watching from the front of the saloon, inez rolled her eyes and tutted at the display from the man who swore his devotion to her at least ten times a day.
starting to move towards the door of the stage as it rolled to a stop in front of the hotel, the seven men each froze at the sound of a southern woman's dulcet tones, calling, "be sure and take care of mah luggage. it's genuine french leather."
"no. nonono!"
turning to look at ezra, vin and chris were horrified to see their
other shaking from head to foot and white as a sheet, looking wildly towards the stage. hurrying to his side, they each took an arm and started reassuring him in whispers as they guided him hurriedly into the shadows of an alley.
josiah had hastened his step towards the stage once he'd heard the voice that continued to thrill his foolish heart, despite what his head knew of the woman behind it. sweeping open the door, he offered his arm to the conwoman who was waiting, saying, "why, ms maude, what a distinct pleasure to see you again."
"thank you, josiah. i had thought i'd seen my darlin' boy waitin' on me, but i must have been mistaken," purred maude, clasping the strong arm of the ex-preacher. "it's most kind of you to see me into the hotel. the journey was just terrible and i really must freshen up before i look towards procuring myself a refreshin' libation. i just know that the new owners have allowed my improvements to degrade, but i'm hopeful they will still have my suite available."
"i'm sure they will, ms maude," agreed the smitten man, guiding his vision of loveliness towards the building in question, oblivious to his heart son's distress just a few feet away.
the next one out of the stage was a young lady dressed in plain travelling clothes, her hair pulled back in a severe bun and her wire rimmed spectacles slightly askew on her nose. anxious hazel eyes scanned the crowd waiting, looking for the elderly gentlemen who'd hired her. instead, she found a tall, handsome cowboy holding a large, warm hand out to her in offer of helping her from the stage.
blushing slightly, annie macgregor took the hand of the devilishly good-looking man and stepped lightly from the stage, praying she wouldn't trip on her skirts. unused to the attentions of men, let alone men who were as fine looking as this tall man was, she stammered, "th-thank you, s-sir."