A Town Called Fury

The wind was really howling, now.

Jenny huffed out a little sigh. “You don’t wanna be where I am?”

“That’s just it! Jen, you could come back East with me! Think about the dress shops and the shoe stores and the grocery stores where you can just go in and buy food, and not have to raise it yourself. Think about all those boys and men who are out there, just hungry for wives! Think about—”

She held up her hand, silencing him. “That’s just it, Jason.” There was a crash as something glass collided with the back of the house. Probably the lantern he kept out back.

He glanced out the window, then back at Jenny again. “What’s just it?”

“Rafe asked me to marry him.” She just said it out and let it lay there.

“What?!”

“You heard me.”

“When did this happen?” He was suddenly as mad as a rabid badger, and ready to beat the living tar out of something or someone, Deputy Rafe Lynch in particular.

“While you’ve been busy doing all your official marshal things,” she said calmly, “he’s been courtin’ me. Took me to lunch at the cafe three times, sweet-talked me on the porch, showed me how to check when my mare needs shoeing, and went to visit my kitten with me at the Milchers.”

“You’re marryin’ somebody because he went to visit your cat?!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, calm down!”

“No!” He shoved back his chair with a scrape that would have been deafening, but for the storm raging outside. “I won’t! Jennifer Fury, have you lost your mind? Have you forgotten that he’s wanted for murder? For murders? Plural?”

“I don’t care. Love doesn’t read wanted posters, Jason.”

“Well, I do. And I’m gonna put a stop to this right now.” He ripped the napkin from his collar and started for the front door.

“Jason? Hadn’t you better wait ’til the storm calms down some?”

Past the front window, out in the street, a small saguaro surrounded by swirling dust moved west, end over end, giving him pause. My only sister, marrying a criminal! he thought. The world’s coming to an end.

Something on the front porch went bang, but he couldn’t bring himself to look down. Sweet-talked her on the front porch! They probably kissed, too! Dear God, what would his father think?

What would his father think. Jason slumped into a chair. Was that what had him all het up? Worrying about the opinion of a dead man? He hadn’t realized it until just then. He figured he’d better calm down and think this over rationally.

He sat there in the dark for a long time, listening to the storm’s thuds and howls, until finally Jenny came in, bearing a fresh cup of coffee and his untouched desert. She placed them before him.

“Just in case you weren’t full up,” she said.

He muttered, “Thanks.” Then he looked up at Jenny, really looked at her. She was no longer the fifteen-year-old kid who had started the journey west. She was a woman, fully grown, and able to make her own decisions.

“When you plan on making it official?” he asked her.

“Three weeks come Saturday,” she said as calmly as if he’d never objected. “Rafe wanted to ask you first. Isn’t that cute? Anyway, guess I kinda jumped the gun. Pretend like you don’t know, okay?”

Jason just looked at her. How could he feign ignorance? But then he reminded himself of the mental breakthrough he’d just had, and slowly nodded while he picked up his coffee. “’Kay.”

“Just leave your dishes in the sink. I’m going to bed, all right?”

“Yeah. ’Night.”

She smiled at him, then bent and kissed his forehead. “I knew you’d get used to it.” And then she was gone.

Jason put down his coffee and rolled himself a cigarette. Lighting it and listening to the storm outside, he thought, It was on purpose. She did it on purpose, just to keep me here. The bitch! And then he scolded himself for calling his sister names. She was right. Love didn’t read—or reason, either. It just happened. She couldn’t help it, and likely, neither could Rafe.

He set the cigarette, half-smoked, in the ashtray and picked up his pie plate. Jenny had done it again—the pie was great. And then he started to think about his stomach. What would he eat with Jenny gone? At least, he assumed she’d be gone, with a home of her own.

Now, there was another good reason to be angry with Rafe: He was liable for starving the marshal to death!

He heaved a sigh, inaudible over the storm. His old life was over with, that was all there was to it. He couldn’t go back East now. Leaving Jenny alone in Rafe’s hands was out of the question, although leaving her with Matt MacDonald would have been far worse. Thank God she was over that!

He found himself smiling, imagining how MacDonald would react when he heard that Jenny was not only marrying another man, but his deputy! And then he wondered whether Abe had ever made it back to the Double M to talk to Matt.

None of his business, he told himself. That was county stuff, or territorial stuff, but not anything to do with Fury. He’d just wait and see, and that was all there was to it.