Unrequited Love

September Round-Up Challenge

by littlejoefan

0*0*0

Prologue – Ben

He turned to me with a look I could not at first decipher. It was watchful, but there was a hurt there, and I thought, not for the first time, that Joe was an emotional man and could feel things very deeply. As with all those who felt deeply, he could feel that pain intensely.

“Pa, please help me. I don’t know what to do.”

I smiled and rubbed his shoulder. “Alright, Joe. I’ll try. I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll try.”

I watched him visibly relax and exhale heavily, as if he had been holding his breath up until now.

Joe

I had never meant to get mixed up with a married woman. At first I had merely felt sorry for her, but my feelings had developed since then. Although there was no romance between us, I counted her as a friend.

Her husband, Jeremy Fisher, had worked for Pa at one time, but Pa had sacked him for drinking and wild fighting. Now he lived on a corner of land on the edge of the Ponderosa, working in the mines while his wife struggled to grow desultory crops on their narrow piece of land. I would see her from time to time as I passed or in town or church. He was still a bully and a loud-mouth and he still liked to drink. She kept herself to herself, her face drawn and thin, often sporting bruises.

“It’s disgusting the way he treats her,” I said to Pa one day when she had been badly beaten.

“Try not to get involved, Joe.”

“How can I not? How can’t you? Don’t you care?” 

My hot temper would be the death of me. Pa scowled.

“Of course I care. I’ve spoken to him before about his violence. Heck, I fired him for it. Not that that helped Penny, of course. She made a bad choice in marrying him, Joe.”

“So she’s made her bed, she has to lie in it, is that what you’re saying?” I was trying my hardest not to yell, but my anger was getting the better of me.

“Don’t speak to me like that, Joseph.”

“I’m sorry, Pa, I just don’t know how you can be so callous!”

“What goes on between a husband and a wife is their business. There’s nothing I can do. Of course, if she asked me, I’d try to help her, but there’s so little I can do.”

I was surprised, and to be honest, disgusted by my father’s reaction.  I hated to see a bully. I found myself passing their house more and more often, even seeking her out. She was a kind and gentle lady and I loathed what was happening to her.  I would help her with her tasks and lend a hand generally and she grew used to me being there. On the odd occasion when she had finished her work, we would take a walk around the neighboring woods.

“Joe, you need to keep away,” Pa said more than once. “Remember, she is a married woman.”

“Pa, we aren’t doing anything. It’s completely innocent.”

“I know that and you know that. But if Jeremy Fisher finds out you’ve been keeping company with his wife, he’ll put two and two together and make sixteen.  You need to be careful, son. He’s not the most reasonable of men.”

Of course, I thought I knew better. Penny was growing to rely on me too much, only I couldn’t see it. I don’t know if she harbored feelings for me, but perhaps it was because I was the only person in her life who treated decently. She softened towards me and began to tell me more about herself.

“He wasn’t always like this,” she said to me once. She knew my opinion of her husband and I was not good at hiding my feelings. “He was really sweet at the beginning.”

“Sweet?!” I scoffed.

“He brought me flowers.”

“So when did he change?”

“With the drink. At first he fought it but then…He tried to start again. He got a job with your father, but…but that didn’t work out.”

“Pa had no choice, Penny. He was drinking while he was on the job. He was causing problems with the other hands, he – “

“Oh, I know, I know. I don’t blame Mr Cartwright, Joe. He was always very kind to me. When we left he came to me and gave me a box of provisions and some money. He said how sorry he was but he just couldn’t keep him on.”

“Did he?”

“You can’t be surprised. Your father is one of the best men I’ve ever known.”

No, I wasn’t surprised. That was Pa all over.

Of course, he was right. Pa was always right. Jeremy Fisher soon got to know about our assignations. One morning I found her yard deserted, the chickens still cooped up and the milk cows lowing in distress in the barn. I knocked on the door for a long time until she was forced to answer it.

She was cowed and would not lift her head. Once I had lifted her chin I found out why. The left side of her face was completely swollen.

“I’ll kill him!”

“Joe, no. You’ll make it worse.”

“Worse? How can it possibly be w – “

She burst into tears. “Please! If you have any feelings for me, any at all, you’ll do as I ask.”

She told me of the obscene allegations he had made against us, of the beating she had endured. “He says he’s going to kill you, Joe.”

“I’d like to see him try!”

“He was drunk,” she said quickly.

“No change there, then!”

I galloped into town. I was so enraged I could barely see straight.

Afterwards, I could barely remember what happened. I recall the search – naturally I found him in the saloon – but later all I can remember was the ringing in my head and the pounding of fists on splitting flesh. I was a hard fighter, but I had always thought of myself as a fair one. Pa had always tried to control my hair-trigger temper and largely he had succeeded, but that day the devil got into me. I behaved like an animal; I was not in control, they told me later.  They took Fisher off on a stretcher to the doctor’s and I was thrown into a cell.

Pa was disgusted with me, and I shared his feelings. I felt ashamed and small. It was not that the beast did not deserve it, but I had let myself down in becoming as bad as him. I had several days to kick my heels in prison, but then came the news that he was pressing charges for assault. Sheriff Coffee released me on bail.

 Even Penny rebuked me. “I told you not to,” she said. Her bruising had come out in the last few days and erupted into all the colors of the rainbow. 

“I’m sorry, I really am. I lost my temper. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“That’s what he says.” So it was official. I was no better than a wife-beater. She saw the look on my face and softened. “I know you did it for me, Joe. I know you were angry. It’s just that some of the others said you were trying to kill him. He’s got a broken nose and fractured ribs.”

“I’m no better than him.”

“Don’t you dare say that! Don’t even think it. You’re a better man than he’ll ever be!”

“Why do you stay with him, Penny?”

“What choice do I have?” she wept. “Where could I go? How could I live?”

*

At Pa’s insistence, I stopped seeing her. I felt I was abandoning her to that brute, but I had the sense to realize that I would only make things worse. The weeks passed and the court date neared. Pa said he would speak for me and I knew his word carried considerable weight. But I would still do time, I had no doubt. 

*

Ben – Conclusion

It was the day before the trial and we were waiting for supper. The weather was abysmal, cold constant rain and wind howled around the house. We were all on edge, I suppose, thinking of the morrow. Adam and I tried to read, although I gave up and stared into the fire, my unlit pipe still between my lips. Hoss and Joe were playing chequers in a very desultory way. My youngest son had lost much of his spark recently and it made my heart sink to think of it.

Suddenly the silence was interrupted by a wild thumping on the door. I had barely gathered my faculties when it burst open. My hand, Jeb Taylor, came in with a woman in his arms.

“Quick! Lay her on the couch!” I cried.

“What’s going on?”

“I found her on the path a couple of miles back! She’s injured – real bad!”

“Jeb, go get a doctor! Now!”

We gathered round Mrs Fisher as she lay crying and twisting in agony. 

“She’s stabbed!” Adam ran to the cupboard and started yanking out tablecloths and drapery. “She needs pressure on the wound.”

“Joe!” she sobbed. “I want Joe! Where is he?”

“I’m right here.” Joe knelt beside her and took her hand as Adam desperately tried to staunch the bleeding from below her ribs. “What happened, Penny? Who did this to you?”

“I told him, Joe!”

“Told who what?”

She was having trouble breathing. “Oh! It hurts so much!”

“We’re going to get the doctor, dear,” I said, leaning over her.

“Too late!” She swallowed deeply. “I always knew one day he would kill me!”

“Jeremy did this?” Joe asked.

She tried to nod. “I told him, Joe.”

“Told him what?”

“I told him I didn’t love him. That I loved you. He became insane. He said if he couldn’t have me, then nobody could. He said he wouldn’t be a cuckold. I tried to explain….you were honorable….that nothing happened, but…”

She trailed off, grabbing at his arm. 

“Alright, alright, Penny, take it easy. It’s OK. The doctor will come, and then we’ll go to look for him – “

“No. I’m hurt bad, Joe. It’s OK. I’m with you, that’s all that matters.”

He squeezed her hand and bent closer to her. He kissed her forehead as she took her final breath. He looked up, tears in his eyes, but they were tears of rage.

“I will find him. If it’s the last thing I do, I will make sure I see him hang for this!”

*

The trial was adjourned and then cancelled permanently. They had a murderer to find and bring to justice. We joined the search and tracked him down to an unused mine way out of town where he was hiding out. I saw the satisfaction in my son’s eyes and knew he would not rest until Fisher had hung. Although he had not returned Penny’s feelings, he wanted to see justice done for his friend. The trial was short; the jury only took minutes to return a verdict, so the date of his execution was set.

On that Tuesday, I saw Joe push to the front. I understood he wanted his to be the last face Fisher saw before he died. He was brought kicking and screaming to the gallows. I averted my head until I heard the trapdoor give way, the body fall and the gasp from the crowd. 

I put my arm round Joe and led him back to the horses.

“Finally, she’s had justice,” he said. 

THE END