Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" T.V. series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide.
Maude did not win the gambling tournament but she was one of the last players at the table when the final hand was dealt. While she was disappointed that she had not won, there was no shame in being defeated by a legend like Brett Maverick, who proved to everyone once again, why he was truly the best at the game. Jethro Lewisham did not remain in Eagle Bend after his defeat, particularly when he learnt that not only was Maude's son present to protect her from any further mischief he might conjure up, Ezra Standish appeared to be in the company of five rather formidable lawmen.
No doubt, Lewisham would emerge sometime in the future to cause her more discourse but Maude had severed her ties in New Orleans prior to her departure and knew she had allowed enough time to pass since her last visit to St Louis to return there without incident. Besides, Maude knew how to watch her back. She had made countless enemies in her life and had always managed to stay one step ahead of them. Lewisham would be no different and if by some instance he decided that he would like to take another shot at her, Maude knew she could always run to the protection of her darling son.
Ezra spent the rest of the evening trying to not feel any disappointment that he had been forced to miss such an auspicious tournament, particularly when all the greats were present and he had been unable to pit his own skills against any one of them. Still, he had hardly the time to feel too badly since he had to spent the rest of the evening convincing the love of his life that he was not the lowest thing to emerge from the primordial ooze since the arrival of the tube worm. Although they had presented some measure of solidarity when confronting Jethro Lewisham when he was holding Maude to ransom, things were far from right between them.
Ezra had no idea that Julia could be so angry. In truth, he had never seen her rage inspired so prolifically when it usually culminated in some form of acerbic wit or deviously wicked scheme aimed at whoever had provoked her ire. He supposed he could understand her anger although he did not know how to explain to her why he had done what he had since he himself could not fathom what had kept him from telling her about Maude. In any case, since they were forced to remain in Eagle Bend for the night, Ezra found himself very much alone when it came to retire and realised it would take more than an apology to fix this situation between himself and Julia.
It was going to take a ring.
Thus he waited until the next morning after Inez had left the suite she and Julia were sharing, apparently intent on mounting a formidable shopping expedition for maternity clothes, an endeavour that was even more amusing when she allowed Buck to accompany her. The former Lothario felt the need to share in the complete birth experience, much to Inez chagrin and would not let the Mexican bartender rest until she relented and let him come with her. Ezra would be surprised if Inez did not kill him before they returned.
Knocking on the door, Ezra waited patiently outside in the hallway, wondering what approach to use when she finally let him in. Of course there was no guarantee that she would, she was still very angry. He could not blame her for that since it was rather an underhanded thing he did. It was just that Maude had a tendency to ruin everything that he touched and as he thought about, he supposed that constituted much of the reason why he had kept Julia a secret. He did not want Maude's interference to ruin this too. Julia meant too much to him for that.
"Good morning Julia." He said oozing charm as she swung the door open and stared at him.
"What do you want Ezra?" Julia responded by turning on her heels and returning to what she was doing prior to the interruption, leaving the door parted for him to enter. Ezra walked into plush surroundings, admiring the room she had spent the night and frowning with distaste as he recalled the saloon where he and the others had slept, since none of them were comfortable with staying at a place like this.
"Julia, how many times am I going to have to say sorry?" He exclaimed with a hint of exasperation in his voice. He hated this unhealthy atmosphere between them and wanted things to be the way they were before he had left Four Corners.
She was walking back to her bedroom when she paused and looked over her shoulder at him with a look of mischief in her eyes. "Until I say stop." A hint of a smile crossed her face as she said that.
"You must be joking." Ezra looked at her and saw that she was not.
"Well," Julia retorted. "In that case, be prepared for a lot of lonely nights Mr Standish." With that she resumed her journey to the bedroom.
"Come on Julia!" Ezra cried following her. "You cannot leave me to languish like this." He implored as he breached the walls of the bedroom. Julia was packing her things into the valise on top of the mattress, preparing for the inevitable departure at some point today.
"Oh yes I can." She replied shortly as she folded her things neatly and placed them inside the bag. "In fact, you will be languishing for quite a while."
"Julia," Ezra swallowed, knowing he was going to have to say something other than desperate pleading to make her understand that he had not meant to hurt her or insult her in anyway. Reaching inside his coat, he removed the ring which he had carried around for so long and intended for one special person. This morning, he had set out early and found himself a jeweller to have the ring cleaned and polished before being placed in the velvet box that he was about to present to Julia. "I apologise for my mistake in not telling my mother about you. I swear to you it was not out of any sense of reservation about is. You know that I love you and always will but my mother has a tendency to meddle in my affairs and I did not wish that interference in our relationship."
Julia could tell when Ezra was lying and knew that he was telling her the truth at this moment. Whatever was being said now, was coming from straight the heart and she felt her anger dissipate in the face of his honesty. Besides, he had proven a number of times, how deeply he felt for her and despite her reluctance to admit it, Julia knew it was only her pride that had been hurt, nothing else.
"Ezra, you ought to know better than that." Julia sighed. "Your mother could not come between us unless you let her." She stared at him at him as if he were an unlearned child.
Men could be so thick sometimes.
"You do not know my mother." Ezra frowned.
"Well I've had a chance to get acquainted and I have to admit she's growing on me." Julia replied with a small smile of reconciliaion. "Of course it also helps that she will be leaving soon so I can tolerate the momentary inconvenience."
"After awhile, everyone does." He grinned, genuinely pleased to see that she was thawing out somewhat. "Regarding the other matter to which I was remiss," Ezra cleared his throat as he took a step closer to her. "You have every reason to be angry and on this I have no excuse except to say that I should have given this to you long before this because you are the only person I can imagine wearing it." With that, he presented her with the velvet box.
Julia did not react as she took it in her hand and opened it to be greeted by the sight of a most delightful looking band of silver with its prolific gem twinkling light in every facet. "Its beautiful Ezra." She said quietly. "But I don't want it."
"What?" He looked at her. "If this is because I did not present it to you earlier..."
"It is and it isn't," she said quickly, trying to reassure him she was not angry that he had not given it to her before now. "I am mad that you held it back from me but I also like things the way they are between us right now. Don't you?" She met his gaze.
Ezra could not lie. He did like the freedom of their relationship. While they were very closely attached to each other, Ezra like the fact that he could enjoy the intimacies of being with her without being trapped in a domestic situation, to which he was not yet ready to commit fully. He had a feeling that Julia was enjoying being her own person and was unprepared to let that go either. Marriage was something neither of them had given serious thought to and the existence of a ring should not be the reason that they be goaded into it prematurely. "I suppose I do." He replied, never loving her more than at that moment.
"So," she closed the lid of the box gently and handed the box back to him. "When we are ready to do it, I would love to wear that ring. In the meantime, if you ever do anything like this again, I will have to kill you."
"Actually," Ezra remarked, slipping the ring back into his pocket. "Since we're on the subject of disclosure. At what point are you going to tell me whether or not you have any family that's likely to emerge out of the woodwork one of these days?"
"That's different." She said evasively and then added with a conspiratory smile. "We're talking about you not me."
"I see," he folded his hands and stared at her critically. "Do you not think that is something of a double standard?" He looked at her with an accusatory glint in his eyes.
"It is." She neared him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her lips brushed gently against his neck as she whispered in his ear seductively. "However, if I plead my case in just the right way, do you think we could just skip the subject?"
As her mouth started attacking the sensitive skin of his neck and Ezra gave himself to her tender ministrations, he could only grin. "Madam, you do know how to drive a hard bargain."
With a smile, Julia replied. "Not yet but soon."
Chris and Mary had decided to remain in Eagle Bend to spend a few days with the Judge and Evie Travis who had been asking them to stay for quite some time. With Billy boarding with Audrey King and her daughter Lilith, Mary was confident that Billy was in good hands as Audrey seemed to have a knack for entertaining both children. Besides, they had not spent any time alone since their honeymoon and Mary was astonished because it was Chris who made the suggestion. She had the impression that Chris was somewhat offended that she never suggested that they go to a luxurious hotel for the weekend but then Mary could never imagine Chris indulging in that kind of opulence. Still Chris had surprised her on numerous occasions during their marriage with things she never imagined a hardened gunslinger might do. Like taking up horse ranching for instance or going into partnership with Vin and Buck for such a venture even though it seemed like a natural progression of the way things had been going lately.
Since Alex had paid for their suite for the next two days, she had offered it to Chris and Mary. Alex was pleased that her friend was going to get some use out of it as the doctor had than her fill of adventure and of Eagle Bend being eager to return home to Four Corners. Dylan Pierce was still languishing inside Eagle Bend's jail and Judge Travis had promised to keep him there indefinitely while at the same time, checking with Kansas City to see if the former henchman had any outstanding warrants on his head. In any case, he had been charged with kidnapping as well as a slew of other crimes the inhabitants of Coventry were willing to testify now that the proper authorities had answered their prayers of deliverance.
It was about midday before the entire group chose to return to Four Corners with Mary and Chris bidding them farewell in front of the hotel as the party prepared to leave Eagle Bend. Mary was secretly thrilled to be spending two blissful days alone with Chris since her weekend had gone so badly but she was still sad to see her friends departing.
"I can't believe how stuff you women need." Buck complained as he waited impatiently on his horse and commented to Inez. When he had volunteered to go shopping with Inez, he had assumed they were alone and did not realise until after they had embarked upon the expedition and found that it also involved Casey and JD. Both men had suffered incredibly as they followed each woman into what felt like every store in the town.
"You wanted to come." Inez pointed out as she sat next to Casey on the wagon. "I told you what we were going to be doing." It was not to say that having Buck and JD around during their shopping trip had been any more tolerable for herself or Casey either. The men had bordered on rude as they stood in the stores waiting, obviously bored and not afraid to voice their impatience each time Inez or Casey decided a fitting was required for any garment they wished to buy before a decision could be made.
"I know," JD added. "But I can't understand why you're buying a new dress Casey. I mean it's only a dance."
Julia rolled her eyes. "You men can be such morons." She shook her head in disbelief.
"Yeah JD," Casey snorted. "Its not like I bought the dress for you or anything." Casey said with a slight hint of teasing in her voice. Although she had bought the white gown with its pretty rose bud print with every intention of wearing it when she arrived at the dance at his arm, there was no reason for JD to know that.
JD did not like that idea at all. "What do you mean Casey?" He demanded, much to the amusement of his older companions who were more seasoned and knew when a girl was playing a man for a fool or in this case JD. "Who did you buy it for?"
"It's none of your business JD." She replied haughtily.
"Casey, that's not funny." JD insisted. "I want to know." Suddenly, JD had this strangest premonition that he was going to be asking this question numerous times before he reached Four Corners.
"JD," Buck shook his head in disgust. "Ain't I taught you anything? You don't beg a woman! Have some dignity for Christ sake." The older man leaned over and swatted him over the head with his hat while JD was still persistent in his desire to learn just whom Casey had intended that new dress for.
"Sure Buck." Chris said with a completely straight face while winking in Inez's direction who knew better on that subject. Buck saw where Chris's gaze was going and threw the gunslinger a dirty look. Considering how Buck had been trying to win Inez's favour, he was the last person on Earth to rebuke JD about dignity.
"Some friend." The man scowled in his direction as the others started to laugh.
"So Mr Larabee," Ezra said ignoring the juvenile antics taking place between his friends and turned to their leader. "I gather you will be taking a few days for yourself with your fair lady?" He tipped his hat in Mary's direction respectfully.
"Yeah," Chris nodded, throwing a faint smile at Mary as he nodded in answer. "We'll ride back in a few days. If you could just let Audrey know to keep Billy for a few days, we'd appreciate it."
"I am sure Master Travis will keep himself entertained." Ezra sighed, guessing that he was going to be plagued by Billy's infatuation with Julia for the duration of his parents absence. "Where is Mr Tanner anyway?"
Just as Ezra asked that question, Vin Tanner and Alexandra Styles appeared out the main entrance of the hotel. Vin had his hand securely on Alex's and was fairly pulling her out onto the board walk as they argued loudly upon their approach.
"Five minutes!" Alex exclaimed. "All you had to do was give me a lousy five minutes!"
"You said that an hour ago." Vin grumbled, clearly unimpressed as they returned to their friends.
"I'm telling you, he was bluffing!" She protested. "I could have beaten him."
"You had two pair!" The tracker exclaimed.
"Yeah but he didn't know two pair of what!" She retorted.
"Alex..." Vin looked over his shoulder. "You lost $200 dollars!"
"I would have got it back!" She insisted.
"Jesus!" Vin said exasperated. "Get in that damn wagon before I really get mad." He ordered.
"You're no fun." She pouted and begrudgingly obeyed as he went towards Peso.
"Trouble in paradise?" Chris asked.
"She got into a game with that Maverick guy." Vin explained, throwing Alex a look as he mounted his horse. "If I didn't drag her out of there, she would be in the same state as Ezra when he lost to that old gambler a couple months back."
"Must we bring that up?" Ezra groaned, remembering how he had been consistently defeated by an elderly card sharp who had managed to cheat him out of everything including his clothes and forced him to walk the streets of Four Corners in nothing more than a table cloth.
"I'll have you know that I could have beaten him." Alex replied, her voice full of dignity as she made the statement.
"Sure you could." Vin retorted and then turned back to Chris. "We better get going before she decides to jump the wagon and go back in there."
"Very funny!" Alex sang out.
"Just a moment," Ezra remarked. "I do believe Mr Sanchez is escorting my mother here. She intends to spend a few days in Four Corners before making the trip back to St Louis."
"Probably a good idea with Lewisham out there." Chris agreed. Although Ezra did not believe Maude would not have any more difficulty with Jethro Lewisham, Chris was not so sure and felt that a few days in Four Corners was probably a good thing. It would allow Lewisham some time to calm down and ensure they did not run into each other while on route to their respective destinations.
"I felt the same way." Ezra answered, having aided Maude to reach that decision by convincing her strenuously the night before.
Maude Standish emerged from the entrance following that statement, as always at Josiah's arm that always seemed at his most gallant in the presence of the lady. They were laughing quietly as if sharing some intimate joke, which immediately made the gambler sit up in his horse uncomfortably, as if what was going on between the two was making him exceedingly nervous.
"Oh Ezra," Maude beamed as she came up to them. "I have the most wonderful news." She glanced at Josiah. "Should I tell them Josiah?" She asked, her voice sounding coquettish and complete unlike his mother that Ezra immediately felt all the hairs stand on the back of his neck.
"I think you should." Josiah replied, facing Ezra with a smile that froze the blood and was full of smug satisfaction. "After all, he is your son."
"Not for long." Maude replied and inspired all their curiosity with her unspoke announcement even though she and Julia had planned this the night before as a means of gaining vengeance on Ezra for lying to the both of them.
"Mother, you are scaring me." Ezra said suspiciously.
"Ezra don't be silly," Maude declared reproachfully. "Its nothing terrible at all." She said this while linking her fingers through Josiah's in a clearly intimate gesture that made Ezra's eyes widen. "Josiah and I are going to get married."
"Married!" Ezra exploded as the others around him burst into laughter. Even Chris was grinning and trying hard not to let a snigger escape him but the look of utter terror in Ezra's eyes at this shocking revelation was not giving him any help. "Are you insane! You can't marry Josiah!"
"Now son," Maude looked at him sternly. "You are grown man now. This should not be of surprise to you."
"You are joking with me aren't you?" His eyes shifted between Maude and Josiah to see which of them would crack first and tell that this was some ruse they were playing with him.
"Just call me dad." Josiah grinned and Ezra almost choked on his spit.
"Ezra," Julia called out, unable to stand seeing her lover suffer any more but could not keep herself from enjoying one last piece of revenge.
"What?" He looked at her stricken.
"Now," she said with a wide and devious smile, almost as devious as the one Maude was wearing on her lips. "Now, we are even."
THE END