Good As Gold
an excerpt

“I think we’re more or less safe at this rate, as long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves.” Rose said, removing the feedbag from Granite’s nose.

James ran his hands through Aspen’s mane. “Most likely. Although I’m still worried that my father might pull some strings and have a bit more attention given to this.”

“Well, we’ll just have to be careful and not cause too much ruckus.” Rose said. She pulled herself into the saddle and began checking all her saddlebags. James set his foot in the stirrup and jumped up into the saddle. They started off down the road, weaving between carts, people and livestock. They would take the road north, paralleling the railroad. Rose was quite pleased. They had a lot of supplies and that always made her feel satisfied leaving a town. When you left a town with less than you came in, that made her feel scared and shaky. With the horses loaded up and well-fed, that signaled good omens for travel (Rose believed in making your own good omens).

“James!” A voice cut through her thoughts. She startled and looked at James. He was looking confused and craned his neck behind him to see the source of the voice.

“James Durant, you are under arrest for horse theft!” A young man was standing in the road behind them, hand on his sidearm. He looked a little bit older than James, with a well-kept sandy moustache and a sheriff’s deputy badge pinned to his leather duster. Rose shot a look at James.

“What?” James winced and glared at the man standing there.

“Michael Adamson. He lost Aspen to me in a bet. I won her fair and square, there were witnesses, but he wouldn’t hand her over. So I took her.” The man standing in the street cleared his throat.

“James, you filthy liar, get down from my horse or I will shoot you, so help me God.” James took a deep breath and lowered himself out of the saddle, but he didn’t let go of Aspen’s reigns. Rose contemplated her options: she noticed that Michael was alone and everyone else on the street was attempting to pretend that they didn’t see what was going on.

Michael seemed to realize just then that he was alone, too. He looked at Aspen and then James and Rose. Trying to figure out how to keep control of the situation, arrest James and also get hold of Aspen. Rose drew her pistol and James moved so the horse was between him and Michael. He drew his own gun and leveled it over his horse’s back. Michael paled, the people walking by on the street were no longer pretending not to see, now merely milling around pretending not to watch.
“Michael, you know I won this horse fair and square. I certainly hope you’re not so cowardly at admitting you lost at cards to let yourself get shot right now.”

“This isn’t fair!” Michael whined, glancing between Rose and James. James wondered, not for the first time, how he’d been made a deputy. Brown-nosing, he always had to conclude. And he wasn’t a bad shot, good under pressure so long as he had others around him as back-up. On his own, Michael pointed his pistol at the ground. Rose continued pointing her gun at him and James came out from behind the horse.

“Toss me your guns.” James ordered. He glanced sideways at the people on the street. They weren’t causing an alarm but there was no telling whether or not someone was right now running to get the sheriff. Michael gaped at him but James cocked his gun. Michael growled in annoyance and threw his pistols in the dust at James’ feet. James knelt and picked them up. Michael’s eyes were wide with rage. James emptied the bullets from them and tossed the pistols into a water barrel next to the horses. He then turned and quickly climbed back into the saddle.

“Goodbye Michael!” James called as he urged Aspen into a trot. Rose waved at the speechless deputy and blew him a kiss before she rode off after James. They hurried out of town, the horses in a full gallop with Michael shaking his fist and stamping his feet in the dust.

“You can’t just ride off, James! We’re coming after you!”

Rose caught up with James and smacked him on the shoulder. “What did I say about not causing a ruckus?!” She yelled over the wind. He shrugged helplessly.