This story started out as a western and ended up as a romance, somewhat to my surprise. As usual, any resemblance of a character in the story to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All persons engaging in sexual activity are over the age of eighteen. And, again as always, I look forward to constructive comments and feedback. Enjoy.
THE FIXER
I was sitting in the boarding house finishing my breakfast when the territorial governor's secretary walked in. "Governor wants to see you, Dan. NOW!!!"
"Can I finish my coffee?"
"He said NOW and he meant it. I'll get you another cup when we get to the governor's mansion."
As we walked down the boardwalk to the governor's so-called mansion, really just a large house set back from the street in the territorial capitol, I thought back about my relationship with the man now holding the position of territorial governor. I'd first met Joseph Madison while riding for the Jessie Scouts, the cavalry unit organized by General Fremont and named for his wife, Jessie. I'd started off as a trooper, then had become his orderly. Being relatively well educated, thanks to a school teacher mother and an Episcopal priest father, I'd become more a secretary and messenger than a servant. We'd ridden over much of western Virginia, the area that had become West Virginia, and up and down the Shenandoah Valley for several years.
When the war ended, I'd gone home to discover my parents and younger brother dead, killed by one or another of the partisan gangs who objected to their abolitionist views, and our farm and church both burned to the ground. Big for my age, I'd enlisted as a sixteen year old and spent three years as a trooper. When I'd mustered out, I'd managed to keep the Spencer rifle, a cartridge carrier with seven tubes, and both of my Colt Army revolvers, along with a horse and saddle. Seeing no future in my old home, I'd tracked down my former captain and joined him and his brother, Aaron, as they headed west to grow the fortune Joseph's brother had amassed by trading in military supplies during the war on behalf of the both of them.
Initially, I performed as his secretary, but as I reached my full growth of over six feet and two hundred pounds, I began to receive other assignments. The loss of my family, combined with the horrors of the war, particularly in the West Virginia hills, had hardened me. I became the Madison brothers fixer. Issues which could not be resolved by persuasion, money or law became my responsibility. That I'd been an expert rifle shot since childhood and had become an equally skilled shooter with a handgun as a result of my military training simply added to my abilities to achieve by force what my bosses could not otherwise achieve by more socially acceptable means. By the time I reached age twenty-five, I had a reputation within the territory that generally resulted in my reaching the Madisons' desired outcome to a matter simply by appearing and stating that outcome to the person the Madisons were trying to persuade.
I'd also filled a secondary role as bodyguard to the Madison families. I sat in almost all meetings, propped in a chair against a wall, not participating, but simply observing. My mere presence had the effect of putting the other party to a discussion or negotiation off balance. I also traveled with the family when it moved from town to the ranch, by now the largest in the territory. Finally, when family members left the ranch headquarters for rides or hunting trips, I accompanied them, not always visible, but always within eye and ear shot.
Joseph and his wife had never had any children, although several of Joseph's mistresses apparently graced him with issue and were kept on a stipend which I was responsible for delivering each month. In return, those women kept their mouths shut about the paternity of their children. Aaron had lost his wife when she died giving birth to his second child, a son, who lived only a few hours after his mother. His older child, Jessie, was five when her mother died.
I was about fifteen years older than Jessie. Oddly enough given my role in the Madisons' business empire, I'd played a considerable role in helping Aaron to raise her. He was busy with the businesses, which had grown to include mines, railroads, and timber, along with the ranch. As Jessie matured, I taught her to ride. At her request, and largely without Aaron's or her nanny's knowledge, I taught her to shoot, first a rifle, then a revolver. By the time she reached age sixteen, she was an expert shot, probably the finest on the ranch other than me.
When she had turned sixteen, Aaron and the nanny decided that Jessie needed to live with her Aunt Elizabeth in Philadelphia, where she would attend one of the country's finest ladies' finishing schools, equipping her to move in eastern society with the same ease that she currently moved among the territorial elite. Jessie had objected, vehemently, and I had the unpleasant task of ensuring that she'd boarded the train that was taking her to Philadelphia. She'd made no bones about her dismay. "Dan, I'm a western girl. I grew up here. Everything I love is here. The ranch is my home. Philadelphia is some crowded, dirty, smelly city that I never need to see. My father and my uncle tell me I need this experience so I can be a proper wife to some elite businessman. I don't want some soft, fleshy, son who is going to inherit his father's money and whose only goal is a life of leisure. I want a man, a hard, self-made, determined, ambitious man. Someone who I can be partner to, not an ornament to display. Someone to build a life and a family with."
"I understand. But your father has tasked me with putting you on this train and on this train you go. If it helps, you can write to me. I'll keep you informed about what's going on with the family business, at least to the extent I'm able."
"Do me two favors while I'm gone. First, take that stallion of yours and breed my mare, Ginger. I've been riding Ginger since I was ten and she's almost thirteen years old now. I want a replacement waiting for me when I get back, because she'll be going out to pasture."
"I can do that. And the second favor?"
"Write me regularly. At least every two weeks. And not just lightweight letters. I want to know what's going on here, especially with my father and my uncle. I'm going to inherit all of this one day and I want to know all there is to know about it, or at least as much as you can tell me. I'll keep confidences, but I know you have more information about the businesses than any of their staff. And you know their secrets, too. I need to know everything."
"Unless I'm specifically asked not to tell anyone, I'll let you know everything I know. You won't like all of it, I'm sure. You know what my role is. I'm no saint. I'm the Madison family's attack dog."
