North of Austin chapter 20

Back Home to my Abby

 

Chapter twenty

I was glad to get back home after my stint in Chicago but I was a little disappointed the boys didn’t make over me as much I thought they would.

Daniel had a dog and he thought more of the dog than me. Sammie was still tied to his mother’s apron strings and is suspect he will be vying for his mother’s attention in competition with Sally Loraine for years to come.

Sally Loraine was crawling now and she would pull to a standing position by pulling on my pants leg and then stand there with her arms stretched upward wanting to be picked up.

I could tell she was going to be as pretty as her mom, by looking at Abby’s baby pictures. I often think back to when we were kids and I first became infatuated with her.

I had many fights with other boys who were in love with her when I told them she was my girl and future wife.  I got whipped most of the time but would do enough harm to discourage the boys to want to fight me again.

It was hard to wait for the day to end and the children to be in bed for it had been three weeks since we had been alone, and I was ever so glad that I had married such a passionate woman, just lucky I guess.  As a result of an amorous evening Abby was pregnant again. It didn’t seem to bother her because she loved all of her children and didn’t mind having another one.

Boy or girl it didn’t matter now since she had both. Before Lorry was born, Abby was desperate for a girl to go with her boys but now she didn’t care.

I was always fond of boys but that was before we had Lorry. She won me over rather quickly so now another girl would be just fine. Four kids before we were thirty years old. That sounded so strange to my mind

City wise things were too quiet for me and I kept waiting for something to break loose.  The City aldermen wanted to have a new judge appointed for the city’s court house. Our town had grown so much that the citizens wanted to make our town the county seat and appoint me as its judge.  The townspeople finally won out and I became the judge like Abby’s father had been before me.

I made it clear that I would only hold the position until they could get a permanent judge appointed by the state.

You really need a sense of humor when holding court otherwise you would get mad at some of the silly things people sue for. 

 

Chickens, eggs, someone beating your time with the widow down the street and occasionally a serious matter like when a soldier beat one of the local whores quite badly.

One of the other ladies of the night proceeded to stab the soldier and they both had to be tended to by the local doctor. The army didn’t want me to preside over the case but I felt otherwise.

The army threatened to make the town off limits for all of the soldiers which got the town tradesman get upset.  Seems they didn’t want to lose all of the army business. Not only would they lose the soldiers pay but the army also bought much of their supplies from the local merchants.

Then the army said they wouldn’t buy any beef from the ranchers or any horses which they trained and sent west.  All of a sudden we were talking serious money. My family were also going to be affected by this money wise for they supplied feed and beef to the depot for shipping to the western outposts.

Then Abby got involved saying even if she was just a whore the soldier needed to be judged by me to make sure he got what he deserved. I enquired for some advice from a guy I knew who was in the Adjutant General's Corps and he said; the army will come down harder on this soldier than you can for even if he is found guilty the army won’t allow you to put him in prison.

His input helped me to come to a more reasonable decision and I decided this is just the way things are at present. He went on saying it would be best if you try the woman who stabbed the soldier and let the army handle the soldier for they are pretty mad at him for stirring up this mess.  If he gets well enough he will be sent to where no one wants to pull duty.

 

I thanked him for his advice and after thinking it over accepted his counsel.

After having a hearing on the stabbing I found that the second woman acted in a reasonable manner and set her free figuring the beating her friend got was enough punishment.  By this time the whore that got beat up was back to work and was laughing about what happened.

Seems she had done something to provoke the whole situation, which I won’t discuss here, but she felt she had got even in advance.

Overall I felt all things came out even and every one seem to agree. Some of the more prominent women were glad that things were back to normal for during this episode they were forced to do their marital duties.

Normally they were excused from this task because their husbands were patrons of the house on the edge of town.  Most of their husbands were not up to snuff when it came to love making and the unsatisfied ladies had a saying which went something like this; ‘better not to try than to be unsatisfied.’

Perhaps I shouldn’t have told you that but everybody in town knows it so why not tell you.

I know quite a bit about the women in this town for when I was a lawyer many of them came to see me about their marital problems. In many cases I ended up being little more than a marriage counselor.  

I tried to help them find a way out of the situation they were in but in the process a lot of them formed an attachment to me. They would want to favor me with what belonged to their husband and I would have to reject their offer without it seeming like I was rejecting them.

The one thing that worked rather well was to say you know we’re dealing with something only a woman can understand so I’m going to have you talk to Abby.

 

She is smarter than me and is the rock of discretion. Your name and nothing you tell her will ever be spoken of in the sewing circle.  

Upon me recommending they talk to Abby the woman would lose any interest in a tryst with me.

To be Continued