Read Online Beartooth Incident by Jon Sharpe - Free Book Online Page B

slicked it as quick as could be.
    Fargo went into the main room. There was the real surprise. Delicious aromas brought a roar from his stomach.
    Two candles were on the table. Mary had set out her best plates, with a fork and a spoon beside each. A cup and saucer sat by the plate at the head of the table. She was cooking and humming, wearing what had to be the best dress she owned. Nelly and Jayce were over near the hearth, staring at her as if they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.
    “Are you hungry?” Mary asked.
    “I could eat those wolves raw,” Fargo said.
    “No need for that.” Mary brought the coffeepot over. “Permit me.” She held out the chair for him, and after he sat, she filled the cup with steaming-hot coffee. “Courtesy of the late and never to be lamented Tull Fitch.”
    “Oh?”
    “I went through his saddlebags and found coffee and flour and cornmeal and a few other things. Not a lot, but it will do us.” Beaming, Mary beckoned. “Children, why don’t you have a seat?”
    They came over slowly, as if afraid the table would bite them, and sat staring at Fargo as if afraid he might bite them, too.
    “Something the matter?” Fargo asked.
    Nelly leaned closer and whispered, “What did you do to our ma?”
    “I thanked her for the use of your pa’s clothes.”
    Jayce fidgeted and regarded his mother with unease. “She’s been acting different ever since she tucked you in.”
    “Different how?”
    “Nice.”
    Fargo chuckled. “It could be she’s just happy that Tull won’t bother her anymore.”
    “She’s happy about something but it’s not that.”
    Mary placed a bowl of scrambled eggs on the table. She had also made flapjacks and johnnycakes. There was a plate of toast, smeared lightly in jam. For meat they had the leftover chicken. And for dessert, she informed them, there were iced pastries.
    Jayce’s eyes were wide with amazement. “We haven’t ate this good since I can remember.”
    “When we get to a town and I find work, there will be more meals like this. Now dig in and help yourselves.”
    Fargo wolfed down the eggs. He didn’t realize that he was the only one eating them until he was almost done. Then he noticed that they had all taken small portions of everything, leaving the lion’s share for him. He put down his fork and sat back. “You have to be hungrier than that.”
    Mary was about to take a bite of toast. “Believe me, for us this is a feast.”
    “I’m no hog.”
    “You need to regain your strength.” Mary smiled. “And it’s my small way of saying thank you.”
    Fargo turned to the kids. “Help yourselves to more. If you don’t, I won’t take another bite.”
    “But Ma said—”
    “Hush, son.” Fargo reached across and put a slice of toast and a johnnycake on each of their plates.
    “I have died and gone to heaven,” Jayce said.
    As the kids ate, now and then one or the other would close their eyes and make small sounds of pleasure. Mary, too, had a look of serene contentment.
    Fargo could only begin to guess how rare this must have been. They were worse off than he thought. Toward the end of the meal, after Mary brought over the iced pastries, he asked something he had been wondering about. “Of all the places you could live, why did you and your husband pick here?”
    “It was Frank’s doing,” Mary answered. “He wanted to get away from people. He wanted somewhere we could live in peace.”
    “The middle of the Beartooth Mountains?” Fargo never ceased to marvel at the ridiculous things people did.
    A sheepish look came over her. “You have to understand. My Frank was very much his own man. He liked doing things his way. And he took great pride in being able to provide for us all by his lonesome.”
    Fargo gazed about the spare room and at their threadbare clothes. He almost asked, You call this providing? Only a harebrained idiot would think that bringing his family to the remote Bearthtooths was good for them. He