Jack Marston is at a low point in his life. His family is dead, Beecher's Hope is in ruins, and he has nothing left to live for. Most days he spends so drunk he can barely remember anything, he kills and robs people at will, and there isn't an ounce...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
1922
Eva twirled her wedding ring absentmindedly around her finger. Jack had been gone to town most of the day, and she always worried when he was gone for too long. She trusted him not to get himself into trouble, but she didn't always trust trouble not to find him.
"What are you doing, Tía Eva?" asked a small boy with Archer Fordham's eyes and Vivian's wild, blond hair. "Aunt Karen said I shouldn't bother you, but I wanted to know."
She smiled at him and answered in Spanish, "Waiting for Uncle Jack to return from Blackwater, Archie. He went to town to buy some supplies this morning."
"Momma took me to Blackwater last week," Archie said proudly. "We got candy, saw a picture show, and then went to pick some flowers for Pa."' He replied in English, climbing into her lap with a wide grin on his face.
Eva set him on her knee and smiled happily. "That sounds like a fun day, my dear," she replied. "I'm sure Uncle Jack is having just as much fun."
"Si," Archie agreed.
Many of her conversations with the boy went this way. They spoke a mix of Spanish and English, switching from one to the other without reason or rhyme. The boy spoke both languages fluently thanks to Eva speaking Spanish to him since he was a baby.
"Tengo hambre," Archie complained, wriggling around on Eva's leg. "When do you think supper will be ready?"
"Not until Uncle Jack is home," she replied. "Best not to complain to your mother about being hungry now, though. She and Aunt Karen work very hard to cook food for all of us. Besides, if you are hungry, go pick a few of the tomatoes I'm growing for salsa and eat those. Stay away from my chili peppers, though. They'll make your mouth burn like fire."
"Not my mouth," Archie said proudly. "I eat the bigger ones for a snack sometimes."
"The jalapenos? Those are not the hottest peppers in my garden, sweet child."
"Uncle Jack told me they were good, so we picked some and ate them together."
Eva smiled at the boy. She'd wondered where all her peppers were going, but up until now she'd thought it was the birds. "I'll just have to scold Uncle Jack then," she laughed, ruffling Archie's hair lovingly.
He might not have been her own son, but she loved him like one. They all did. Karen and Mary-Beth had never seen fit to remarry, and Vivian never wanted to marry in the first place after what had happened to her fiance. Eva couldn't have children, which meant that Archie was the closest any of them would ever come to having a child of their own. Vivian, his actual mother, had been the one to give birth to him about nine months after Archer Fordham's death, but the whole ranch more or less raised him together.
As Archie had never known his father, this meant Jack was the closest thing he had to one. After all, Jack was the only man on the whole place. It was run mostly by the women, which drew quite a bit of gossip in Blackwater. There were whispers that Jack Marston practiced polygamy and all other sorts of outlandish nonsense, but Eva knew the truth. She was the only one he loved. The other women were like family to him, even though he'd fucked Vivian once back when they first met.
