Pouring the coffee into cups, Mary shook her head. “Only in dime novels does every train pass through Santa Fe. In fact, few trains even come out this far west and then only to a few cities that have track laid. We don’t have any laid yet, but everyone keeps saying that the railroad is coming. Right now, we have the stage or horses to help us get around.”
But Jack had already had enough adventures dealing with horses for a few days. There was no point in reminding him of his night in jail. Later on maybe he would get an animal that was actually his. He would actually need to do that if he intended to ever leave town but they needed to get Jack’s feet under him before they discussed him venturing beyond this scrap of civilization.
“Right now you are in Arizona, near the Mexican border. New Mexico is east of us, nest to Texas. Santa Fe is in northern New Mexico, nearer the Colorado border then anything out here.”
If Santa Fe was his destination, he was off by a long shot. Still, if he was hellbent on going there, Mary was sure they could figure something out. Even so, he would have to wait here for a bit as even the stage heading east was not due back for a few more days. If that time, the odds were alarmingly high that Jack would start getting ideas in his head about the town’s current situation. Then he would want to do something about it.
Her suspicions were confirmed by his words. “Maybe.” She set the cup of coffee in front of him. “I’ve wired my father-in-law to come out and take a look at our situation. He’s a circuit court judge though, so it’ll be a few weeks until he can reach us.” Taking her own cup of coffee in hand, she settled in at the chair opposite of Jack. “I would like to resolve this peacefully if possible. Dime novels rarely tell you about the….cost of standing up to powerful people and how high the bill can run.”
A slight tremor in her hands betrayed her emotions and she quickly wrapped them around her cup and pulled it toward her before breathing out slowly. Jack was young. He had probably never considered something like that—he was idealistic and all he could see was that a wrong that needed to be made right. Mary could see the wrong too but she already had to live with the daily cost of trying to confront it. Jack was a stranger with no connections here. She had a son, and she was trying to preserve some kind of future for him.
What kind of future was this for Billy though, if the ranchers terrorized the townspeople at will and killed anyone who challenged them?
Unwilling to confront that question and the implications inherent in it, she just took a sip of her coffee and held it in her mouth. The bitter taste distracted her and it was a safer option then trying to speak at the moment.
