Chapter Fifty-one
Red Ryan and John Latimer spent two weeks lying in adjoining beds in a ward in the New Orleans Charity Hospital being cared for by nuns, who were aware, as Red told them several times, that they were nursing a representative of the Abe Patterson and Son Stage and Express Company and that he took no sass. The nuns ignored that and gave him plenty of sass because he was a difficult patient, especially when Buttons Muldoon left for Austin with four passengers and a temporary shotgun guard.
John Latimer, suffering from a wound in his lower back, was visited every day by Hannah, and they talked about renewing their engagement.
During the second week, Hannah visited with plans for their future.
“John, when you’re stronger, we’ll travel to Paris and start our balloon journey around the world from there,” she said. “And with Mr. Chang as your valet.”
“I’ve nothing to offer you, Hannah,” Latimer said. “All I own are the clothes I wear . . .”
“And right now, you ain’t even wearing those,” Red said.
“The only thing I was ever any good at was soldiering, and now that’s gone,” Latimer said. “I’ve never done anything else, except some saloon swamping when I first arrived in Texas.”
“We’ll make out just fine, you and I, John,” Hannah said. “You don’t have to offer me anything when we have the whole world to share.”
“Listen to the lady, Latimer,” Red said. “She makes sense. That is, if you don’t mind going up in the air in a balloon. It would scare the hell out of me.”
“After what I’ve been through recently, I don’t think anything can scare me ever again,” Latimer said.
“Then it’s settled,” Hannah said, smiling. “We can get married in Paris.”
“The hell you will,” Red said. “As soon as Buttons gets back, you can get hitched right here in New Orleans. Me and Buttons love weddings, and Buttons always cries. We’ll especially love yours, and he’ll cry a lot.”
“Hannah? What do you think?” Latimer said.
“That’s fine by me. Red will be best man and Buttons will give the bride away.”
“Sure thing,” Red said. “All right, Latimer, now’s the time to haul off and kiss her.”
And he did.
* * *
Red was recuperating in the coaching inn when Buttons got back from Austin. After he’d seen to his horses and had a schooner of beer in hand, he joined Red on the porch.
“How are you feeling?” Buttons said.
“Better,” Red said. “I was shot through and through, but Cooley’s bullet didn’t hit any of my vitals. Still hurts like hell, though.”
“Can you ride the coach?” Buttons said.
“Sure, I can.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Red had to ask the question. “How was your hired shotgun guard?”
“Right nice feller, neither smoked not drank. He’d gotten religion and kept preaching at me about death and Judgment Day. Said if I don’t repent and lay off whiskey and whores, I’m surely gonna be one of the damned.”
“Cheerful kind of feller, huh?” Red said.
“That he wasn’t.” Buttons took a pull of his beer, wiped foam off his mustache with the back of his hand, and said, “How is Latimer?”
“Just fine. Him and Hannah are getting hitched, and we’re invited to the wedding.”
“Good. I’m right partial to weddings. I always cry at weddings.”
“You’re giving the bride away, so be on your best behavior,” Red said.
“When are the nuptials?”
“Next week.”
“Good, I’ll have lined up some passengers by then. We got schedules to keep.”
Buttons stared out into the street for a while and then said, “Well, tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Red said.
“Are we wanted men?”
“Nope,” Red said. “It took the law a long time to make up their minds, and for a spell, men in them blue police coats visited me in the hospital to warn me that there could be some hangings. But in the end, they decided that we’d acted in self-defense and dropped all charges.”
“What about them two youngsters I locked up?”
“Gone. Hannah says they’re probably headed back to England.”
“Good riddance,” Buttons said. “They surrendered ” —he snapped his fingers—“just like that. Damn yellow-bellied cowards. Of course, Latimer was a coward, but he redeemed himself.” He locked eyes with Red. “But no more cowards are allowed on the Patterson stage. That’s a new rule I just wrote down on my last trip.”
Red smiled. “Sounds like a good rule to me, Buttons.”
“Damn right it is. And no more adventuresses and their Chinamen. I wrote that down as well.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Red said.
“When I get a chance, I’ll show ol’ Abe Patterson my new rules and see what he thinks,” Buttons said.
“He’ll give you a pat on the back, Buttons,” Red said.
“Damn right he will,” Buttons said.
* * *
Hannah Huckabee thought it appropriate that she and John Latimer be married on the dock where their life together was beginning and no longer ending. Captain John Pickering was in favor of the idea and volunteered the services of his ship’s chaplain to perform the ceremony.
Red Ryan and Buttons Muldoon, freshly bathed and shaved, were in attendance when the chaplain made the happy couple man and wife, and Captain Pickering, a little the worse for wear from rum, got so carried away by the occasion that he ordered a joyful five-gun salute to celebrate the union.
Unfortunately, the cannonade caused great consternation in New Orleans when the word quickly got around that the British had declared war on the city and had bombarded the dock area.
The constabulary arrived, and after the matter was explained and official congratulations were made to Hannah and Latimer, the tipsy Captain Pickering received a stern warning from the mayor and the chief of police that further broadsides would be punished to the fullest extent of the law that could, and probably would, end up with the confiscation of his warship. Nor was the lawman impressed by the groom’s best man in his buckskin shirt and plug hat or with the stagecoach driver, acting as father of the bride, saying in a loud aside to one of his officers that they looked like “a pair of desperate characters.”
That afternoon, after seeing Hannah and John Latimer off on the train for their honeymoon, Buttons decided that chiefs of police would no longer be carried on the Patterson stage, and he wrote down that new rule in his book.