Recluse Island

Chapter 8

July 1845

Taylor's Landing, Texas

When Byron Huntsville arrived at the Bootstrap Saloon, he found it crowded with town locals and a fair number of travelers just passing through.

Byron did not normally enjoy leaving his ranch. He wasn't interested in keeping friends or staying abreast of gossip and news; that is of course unless it affected his business.

At present he had lived in Taylor's Landing for nearly twenty years and his ranch was thriving. But now over forty he knew his time was quickly running out. He wanted to leave the ranch to a son but that couldn't happen unless he found himself a wife. And he thought he had until that tragic storm that supposedly killed his bride to be the beautiful and exotic Miss Eugenia Ovechkin.

            He knew what they were all saying. That she was dead, that it was foolish to believe her alive and even more foolish to have hired Captain Mayhew to go in search of her. What they didn't understand was that if Miss Eugenia was dead then he'd have to marry Eden Wright the milliner who wasn't much younger than Byron himself whose face was pockmarked and hosted a large bulbous nose. Byron cringed at the thought of having to make her his wife but unfortunately this town didn't have many single women, that's why he went to the mail order bride agency to find himself a wife.

He was intrigued by having a foreign woman and from Eugenia's descriptions of herself she would be most pleasing to the eye. He hadn't been too happy when Eugenia insisted, she would only come if he provided passage for her younger sister as well, but he supposed that was just part of the price he'd have to pay to have the woman he wanted as the mother of his children.

            And then that storm; that dratted storm had ruined everything! He had become the laughingstock of town. People saying how lucky she was to have died without ever laying eyes on Byron or it was just as well because once she found out he still lived with his mother she'd never go through with the wedding.

            Winifred Huntsville had not been pleased when Byron had informed her of his intentions.  She felt Byron should find a wife on his own and thought it was shameful he had to resort to sending away to get one. But Byron knew she just didn't want to let another woman into the house. Winifred reigned there and preferred to be in charge and the center of attention.

His father abandoned them when he was just four, Winnie never remarried and once Byron had accrued a decent amount of wealth, she became suspicious of any woman interested in him. Which admittedly there weren't many. Regardless this is why Bryon hadn't mentioned his living arrangements to Eugenia. He didn't feel it was really a deception, he had after all upheld his end of the bargain. It's not as if she could leave once, she arrived. She had nowhere to go, knew no one in America, it was the perfect plan. Or at least it had been.

            Byron's purpose for coming to town this warm summer evening was to find out if anyone had heard word of Captain Mayhew and the Princess Augusta.

It has been over a month now since he left, and no news had reached them yet on his progress. The lack of communication was making Byron extremely nervous. He still hadn't worked out what he would do if Mayhew returned without her or worse not at all. For in that case, he knew the townspeople would blame him (and though he grudgingly accepted this Mayhew was a favorite citizen admired for his tenacity, kindness, leadership, and jovial personality. He was everything Byron wasn't) and he didn't even want to imagine what they would do to him knowing it was Byron who sent him off in the first place on what was quickly becoming referred to as, "The Nutter's Last Act." Naturally Byron was the nutter in this scenario. 

            Ignoring the looks that passed his way Byron headed straight to the bar after tying up his horse outside and walking through the swinging doors into the loud and boisterous room and promptly ordered himself a whiskey. Not long after Byron was approached by Fitzgerald Pomeroy, another local rancher, though everyone just called him Fitz. Fitz was a giant of a man well over six feet tall with an enormous belly that preceded him into every room. His eyebrows were bushier than a raccoon's tail while his black beard reached well past his chin.