The Diary of Jerrod Bently, J.W. Osborn [the false prince series TXT] 📗

/> “Silence, Jerrod Bently.,” he said “I told him to bring her horse.” I did not understand what was going on. I was worried, exhausted and barely able to keep my sanity. Scrub Pot walked away from me and took the stud’s lead rope from Ely. He then quietly stood with the stallion at his side and as I watched, I understood what he was doing. Trouble was someone familiar to Sam, to call her back from where she had gone. I heard him nicker softly and rumble in his throat. Then, the old man looked up at me. “Come,” he said . As I walked over to them, I saw the stud’s head reach into the back of the wagon. I stopped and waited. It was almost like he was communicating with Sam and as I watched I saw her reach out to touch his quivering nose.
“It’s alright,” Scrub Pot said “You stay with her now.” and he led Trouble away.
Through out the night each of the men took his turn standing guard outside the wagon. Scrub Pot never slept, he sat cross legged on his blanket, his eyes closed in prayer, his bible in his hands, beseeching God that his grand daughter would survive her injuries. Doc dozed near the fire, exhausted from his long ride, while his deputy snored loudly from the back of the buckboard. I lay down under the wagon and maybe I slept, maybe I didn’t. I could not lose her, that was all there was too it. She was hurt badly, but I knew that had I not come along when I did, it would have been far worse.
“A man like Tom Dalton needed killing,” Scrub Pot said quietly as though he was able to read my thoughts.
“I will go back with Doc as soon as I know Sam is going to be all right,” I said .
”You will lead us, Jerrod,” Scrub Pot answered stoically, “Have faith.”
“And what about Sam?”, I asked “She can’t go on....” Scrub Pot cut me off . “She will go back to Portersville with Doc and stay there until she has recovered enough to return to Texas with me.
I turned over on my blanket thinking of what the old man had said and as I closed my eyes I prayed for all of us.

+++++++++++++++++


“Her injuries are too severe.,” Scrub Pot said “She will have to go back with you.” “ That’s why I brought the wagon,” Doc replied “ You know she will want to get right back into the saddle. That girl is just like her daddy, Indian stubborn. Worse, than a mule.!”
Scrub Pot tossed a handful of dry sticks into the fire in front of them. “She will have to listen to me,” he said “She took a heavy blow to the head and that will take time to heal. I lost my son and I will not lose his daughter too.”,
“Victoria and I will look after Sam.” Doc promised “ I am only sorry that it wasn’t me who killed Dalton.”
Scrub Pot was silent for a moment. “It was by the grace of God that Jerrod went after Sam that day, Elliot, “ he said “What is done is done. Nothing can be changed.”
Doc gazed into the dancing flames of the early morning cook fire as they waited for the water in the old enamel coffee pot to boil. “You will need Jerrod to get these cattle to market, “ he said “I can’t take him to jail, like the law says I have to.”
“After all he told you, can you not say he shot Dalton in self defense?”, Scrub Pot asked worriedly.
“It is his word against Jeb Vickers accusations if he shows up ane makes any,” Doc replied “I hope that Sam will remember what happened when she gets her senses back. Then Jerrod won’t be headed to jail or worse. “
“The boys are watching for trouble since Vickers ran off.” Scrub Pot replied. “Sam will not be happy with either of us.” he added “It is decided . She is going back with you as soon as she is able to travel.”
“I saw men during the war, hurt worse than she is, get back on their horses and fight,” Doc said quietly, “and when it was over, they collapsed, dead as a door nail.”
Scrub Pot was quiet for a moment “She is too young and too stubborn to understand ,” he said “Besides it will be good for her to be around your wife.”
Doc smiled “I think so too. Victoria is quite a lady.” The old man grinned “It is good to see you happy, my brother.” he said.
Doc slapped his friend on the back. “Who knows, Zachariah, maybe you will meet someone too.”
“No, ” he replied sadly “ I would always look for Alice in another woman.”
“I thought that way once,” Doc replied “But when I met Victoria, and well, I just knew she was the one for me.”
“Humph,” the old man growled and went back to stirring the fire. The night crew would be coming in soon and he had to have breakfast ready.

I stayed with Sam every free moment I had. I did not care about anything other than praying that when she awakened she would be the same as she was before the accident. I heard someone at the rear of the wagon and a second later Doc Stevens was climbing in.
“How is she?” he whispered as he sat down on a wooden barrel next to me.
“Still sleeping,” I replied as I gently stroked her cheek with the back of my fingers. “She has moved around a little, but that is about all.”
“She’ll be all right, Jerrod,.” Doc said with strong conviction in his voice. “There isn’t a man in this outfit who isn’t out there praying for her in one fashion or another.”
“I am grateful for that,” I answered as I looked down at her, lying there under the Indian blanket in the dim smokey light of the lantern. She looked awful, her face bruised, stitches at her hairline where Scrub Pot had sewed up the wound, and her arm splinted with two pieces of board. I had been very glad that she was not conscious when her grandfather set those broken bones. At least Sam had not seemed to feel that. Every time I saw her like she was, I wanted to kill Tom Dalton all over again. I could see by the look on Doc’s face that he felt the same way. As we sat together beside her, Sam became restless and for the first time since she took that deadly fall, she called out in her sleep to her mother somewhere in her memories. I took her hand as Doc moved closer to her bedside. “Wake up honey girl,” he said softly, “It’s me.. Doc. I am here and so is Jerrod. Come on Sam. Open your eyes.” Doc muttered something in what sounded like Blackfoot. The familiar sound of his voice began to call her back from that place in her mind where she had gone.
She moved again and whispered an answer in the same language. He looked over at me, his face a mask of relief. “Praise God,” he said “Say something to her, Jerrod,” he prompted. I raised her hand to my lips and kissed her fingers. “I love you Sam Dodge,” I said “You have to come back, because I can’t live my life without you.”
“I can’t go home to Victoria until you tell me you are coming back to us, honey girl,” Doc added.
Her dark eyes slowly opened and she looked up at me. “Grandfather?”
I did not care who she asked for, if it was me, or her horse, it did not matter. She was coming around slowly. Outside the wagon, Scrub Pot heard her voice and it took the old man only a few seconds to get to his feet and into the wagon with us. “Samantha Ann,” he said in his usual stoic way “I am here.” She looked at him and a hint of a smile came to her lips. “It wasn’t Trouble’s fault,” she said in a dry whisper “I fell.”
“I know child,” Scrub Pot replied and then speaking in the language of the Blackfoot, he told his granddaughter that he was fully aware of what had happened and that her stallion was all right and waiting for her.”
Her dazed eyes turned to Doc. “You came back?”, she questioned. Doc and I looked at each other, not knowing what to say. “Sure I did, Sam,” Doc replied “Jerrod sent for me when you got hurt.”
From the look on her face, I could tell she was pulling her thoughts together and after a moment she looked up at me, a smile like I had never seen before and a warm light slowly coming back into her eyes. “I heard you, Jerrod.” she said softly . Scrub Pot smiled knowingly at Doc as he motioned him to come outside with him so Sam and I could be alone. Once outside, he stuck his head back in, peering into the wagon. “She needs rest, Jerrod Bently,” he said “Only a few minutes with her.”
I nodded and smiled down at her. As bruised and banged up as she was from the fall, to me she was the most beautiful woman in the world, the woman who would one day be my wife, no matter what I had to do to persuade her.
She reached up and touched my hair, and then my face. I took her hand and kissed it again.