Only 04 - Only Love

and she had none left.
    “I will always love you,” Shannon whispered. “Now ride on, my sweet yondering man. Just…ride on.”

21
    S HANNON walked into Murphy’s mercantile with Cherokee’s six-gun shoved into a belt at her waist and an irritated Prettyface at her side. She didn’t know how much time had passed since Whip left. She knew only that the aspens had been a vivid, living green while he was here and had turned to beautiful, unliving gold since he left.
    She felt the same as the leaves. There had been a time of pouring sunshine and growth and beauty; and then the world had turned and everything had changed.
    A pity that I’m not like those bright, lifeless leaves, able to lift on the wind and be whirled away forever.
    But I’m a woman, not a leaf, and Cherokee needs me. That ankle of hers will never be the same.
    Maybe one day I’ll get used to Whip’s loss the same way Cherokee is getting used to her changed ankle. Maybe one day the pain will no longer surprise me, making me feel as though it has just happened all over again for the first time.
    As Shannon quietly looked over the merchandise, a miner she had never seen before started arguingwith Murphy over the weight of the slab of bacon he had on the scales.
    “Five pounds?” scoffed the miner. “Hell’s fire, man, back home I have me a redbone hound what whelps bigger pups than that there miserable hunk of bacon.”
    “Then maybe you oughta go back and smoke one of them pups to et with your beans, rather than waste my time with all yer whining and—”
    Murphy’s words stopped cold when Prettyface walked out from behind a stack of dried goods near the front door. The storekeeper stepped back from the counter so quickly that the scales jumped, rattled and settled into a new weight.
    “Three pounds and some for good measure,” the miner said with satisfaction. “That’s more like it. Folks in Canyon City tell me you’re a real cheeseparing son of a bitch, but I guess they was thinking of some other Murphy.”
    The storekeeper grunted unhappily, took the miner’s money, and sacked up the remaining supplies without another word. When the miner turned around with his supplies in hand, he spotted Shannon.
    “Well, Lordy me, would you look at this sweet little thing,” he said, walking toward Shannon. “You Clementine or Betsy?”
    “Neither,” she said tightly. “I’m Silent John’s…widow.”
    Murphy’s eyebrows shot up but he kept quiet.
    The miner halted. He looked chagrined at his error, but was no less eager to talk to Shannon.
    “Sorry, ma’am,” said the miner. “Mean no insult. No one told me there was more than two women loose in Echo Basin. Can I make it up to you over supper?”
    “Thank you, no.”
    “Can I come calling?” he asked, walking forward again.
    Prettyface’s upper lip lifted in a rippling, gleaming snarl.
    The miner stopped dead.
    “There would be no purpose in calling on me,” Shannon said neutrally. “I will never offer the kind of companionship you’re seeking.”
    “And if you’re of a mind to just help yourself anyway,” Murphy said from behind the counter, “this here gal belongs to a man called Whip Moran. He told me that most particularly, just ‘fore he went off looking for gold. He been gone a month or two, but he be comin’ back soon enough, and there be pure fiery hell to pay if’n his woman is bothered.”
    Shannon wanted to object that she was no longer Whip’s woman, he wasn’t off looking for gold, and he wouldn’t be back at all. But she kept her mouth tightly shut. For a time, at least, Whip’s reputation would help to protect her in the same way Silent John’s had.
    “Whip?” asked the miner unhappily. “Be that the one what sent them four Culpeppers straight to hell?”
    “Yeah,” Murphy said with malicious pleasure. “And if that ain’t enough to take the starch out of your pecker, Whip’s brother is a gunfighter called Reno.”
    The miner looked even less happy.
    “And Whip told me right forcefully,” Murphy continued, “that Caleb Black and Wolfe Lonetree think of this little gal as one of the family. Any man goes to botherin’ her will answer to them. And her dog ain’t no bargain, neither.”
    Shannon gave Murphy a shuttered look and wondered just how “forcefully” Whip had presented his arguments to the storekeeper. Whatever had been said or done, the result was a remarkable improvement. It was clear that Murphy wouldn’t be acting