Black Conley (7 page)

The close proximity of the Heath home came as a surprise to Black. It was no wonder the woman was able to go home in the afternoons. She could easily make the walk between the two places within a few minutes.

A man who could be Ed, only older, answered his knock.

"Wondered when you'd get here, son,” Roy greeted him. “Come on in, and Annie will get you some fresh apple pie. Never saw a boy who would turn down a piece of Mama's apple pie."

Black didn't want to offend Roy, so he accepted the invitation to come into their home. It was a smaller replica of the ranch house, and just as well kept.

"Mama does a good job, not only here but up at Belle's place, too,” Roy said once they were seated at the kitchen table enjoying pie and coffee.

"The pie is good,” Black admitted, “but that's not the reason I came. It was you who sent for me, wasn't it?"

Roy nodded. “I sent for someone, didn't know it would be you. Mama knew the minute she laid eyes on you this morning. I would have, too. Should, since Ed's described you enough in his letters."

"So what's your stake in this? You certainly haven't lost any cattle."

"No, but our girl has. You see, her pa and me was best friends for longer than I care to admit. When his wife died, Annie and me tried to talk him out of sending Belle back east, but he was set on it. He kept saying that his wife's kin could take better care of her that he could. Maybe he was right, but it almost broke our hearts when he sent her away. I always thought that her and Ed would get married, but young folks have different ideas than the older generation."

"What Roy is trying to say,” Annie said when she joined them at the table, “is that this is our home. Both Belle and her pa have been very good to us. What affects the Double Bar B affects us as well. Belle doesn't think I know about the rustling that's been going on, but I'd have to be blind and deaf not to have caught wind of it."

"Mama and me figured that if we asked Ed to send us one of his men we'd be able to at least have a hand in getting the rustling stopped. As much as we'd wanted our boy to come home, we knew it would be best if he sent someone else. We asked for the best and that's what he sent us. He tells us no one is better than Black Conley. Maybe you can get our little girl out of this trouble she's in and remind her she's a woman with a woman's needs. I can't believe she hasn't let at least one man in her bed, what with all the goings-on over there."

"What a terrible thing to say, Roy,” Annie admonished.

"Don't see why you'd think it so terrible. We both know what them girls do at night with the passengers from the stage. A good roll with a good man might be just the thing Belle needs. Even at our age, it's good to warm up the sheets now and then."

Black laughed at the banter between husband and wife. Even if he agreed that Belle needed to be fucked, preferably by him, he wouldn't come right out and say it. “From what I can see, Belle needs to have someone catch that no-good neighbor of hers in the act. What can you tell me about Clayte Adamson and Joe Calhoun? I have a gut feeling that the two of them are in this together."

Once Annie went back up to the ranch house to fix supper, Roy filled Black in on the thefts that had prompted his letter to Ed.

"Is anyone else getting hit?” Black asked, once Roy stopped for a bite of pie and a sip of coffee.

Roy nodded. “There are four ranches that have lost cattle. Pete Morison's spread is to the north of Clayte's place, Jeb Taylor to the south, and Zeek Willows to the east. If you ask me, which you didn't, I think they've lost steers to take the suspicion off of Clayte. If it were only Belle getting hit, everyone would suspect Clayte immediately. The others are all friends. You know, the kind who drink together every Saturday night, take a poke at the whores who work upstairs at the Purple Moon and act pious as hell on Sunday morning in church."

"What about Joe Calhoun?"

Roy's brow knotted and a dark look filled his eyes. “That son of a bitch runs after Clayte like a puppy dog. Clayte says shit and Joe asks what color and how much. He's as bad as Clayte when it comes to the way he treats his wife. She ain't been to church in weeks. It's probably because she's too ashamed to show her face. Word is that Clayte pays Joe to let him fuck her. It's a real shame; she was a sweet gal before Joe got her in a family way. He's kept her like that ever since. Him and Clayte are certainly cut out of the same pattern. For a while I thought the two of them were having a race to see who could have the most kids the fastest."

"Then you think the two of them are in this together?"

"I don't have to think, I know."

Black finished his coffee. “I think Saturday night I should take a ride into town. I haven't had a night of drinking in a long time. It always fascinates me just how much you can learn when you're buying drinks for the house."

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Belle sat at the table long after Black left the house. She was still sipping her now cold coffee when Annie arrived.

"Was there a reason you sent Black over to our place?” Annie asked.

Belle wondered if she should tell Annie. “Ah..."

"You don't have to say anything, honey. We know who Black is and why he's here. Roy wrote to Ed and asked him to send us the best man for the job. We had hoped it would be Ed who came, but we certainly weren't disappointed to find out it was Black. Ed speaks very highly of him."

"Why didn't you tell me?” Belle questioned. “Shouldn't I have known that there was a U.S. Marshal coming here? If I had, I wouldn't have kept going into town to be humiliated by Joe Calhoun."

"And what if we would have gotten a letter from Ed saying that he couldn't spare anyone? What good would knowing have done you? It was better this way. You hired him on thinking he was nothing more than another drifter. Now you know that he's here to help you out of this predicament. When I left the house, Roy was filling him in on all the other ranchers who are losing cattle. Of course, I doubt they'll side with us. You know that Clayte and that bunch are as thick as thieves. They watch out for each other. I'm afraid it's us against them in this fight. Have you told the girls yet?"

Belle shook her head. “I really haven't had a chance to talk to any of them. I thought Kate should know, but I'm undecided about the others."

"Roy and I think all of them should know. They have a stake in this the same as you do. It would be like not telling family. That's what we all are here, you know."

Belle agreed. They were a family. For the past ten years it had been her against the rest of the ranchers around Larson's Gap. At first Roy and Annie had been her only allies, but slowly the girls started coming. Kate was the first, and then the rest followed. It wasn't right that they should be kept in the dark about what was going on.

After washing the grime of the day's work from her body, Belle went back to the kitchen to help Annie get supper. The times when she was at the house this early in the day to help with the preparation of meals were few and far between, but she did enjoy it when she could.

Black was surprised when the clock struck five. He certainly hadn't expected to stay at Roy's place for over two hours.

"I guess we should be getting back up to Belle's place for supper,” Roy said. “Mama don't like folks being late for meals."

"You take your evening meals at Belle's place?"

The old man nodded. “Belle's pa and I came here together from Texas, since we didn't like the way things was looking with the Mexican government. That was back in thirty-five. We didn't want to get mixed up in that mess with Santa Ana. We were only sixteen, and we thought running away from home and striking out on our own would be a wonderful adventure. We worked a lot of ranches in the year before we made it to Montana. That was when we decided to let our folks know where we were. Matt's folks were so glad to hear from us that they sent him the money to buy this spread. We weren't without our troubles, but at least we were together. That was when the wagon train arrived with Annie on it. She was the prettiest little thing I ever laid eyes on and as soon as I saw her, I was as gone as a lovesick calf in the springtime. I knew I wanted her. I was real surprised when Matt hired her on as the cook and the rest, as they say, is history."

"What about Belle's ma?” Black asked.

"Now that's a real sad story. She was the daughter of the man who ran the trading post. Right after she was born, her ma ran off with a trapper and no one ever heard from her again. Old Andy raised that girl in the right way. When we arrived here, she was the prize of Larson's Gap. Her and Matt hit it off and before you know it, he was sayin’ ‘I do’ and acting like a real husband. They tried having kids right off the way me and Annie did, but Janie just wasn't meant to be a mother. She lost about three babies before they finally had Belle. After that, she lost two more and when Belle was three, she carried one until it was ready to be born. The birth went wrong, and both Janie and the boy died. It damn near killed Matt. That's when he sent Belle east to be with Janie's aunt. He said it was because he couldn't raise her right, but I knew better. It was because she looked too damn much like her ma. He never looked at another woman after Janie died. He did go to visit the whores once the Purple Moon opened up, but that was just to relieve the longings that come on a man."

Black was grateful to Roy for answering the questions that crowded his mind. He didn't have to be a genius to figure out that Belle was an outsider where Adamson and the other ranchers in the valley were concerned. Now he knew the reasoning behind it.

"Mama will have my scalp if we're late for supper. You'd better be prepared, those gals get all gussied up just to eat supper. Mama says it's because they don't like wearin’ those britches. If you ask me, I'd say it was because they want to look special for them men on the stage. On nights like tonight, they just want to be feeling like ladies. You can say what you want about them gals working that ranch, but they're all damn good at it. If I weren't so old and crippled up I'd give them a roll, but Mama would have a fit about it. Besides, Mama is damn good in bed herself. Anyone would think that she used to work above the Purple Moon rather than those youngsters."

Roy laughed heartily, bringing on Black's own deep chuckle. Annie was gray-haired, plump and the deep dimples in her cheeks gave her an almost angelic appearance. “Somehow I just can't picture Annie plying her trade for strangers, like...” He left the rest of the sentence unspoken. Even sixteen years after the death of his mother, he had problems talking about what she did with the men who came to the house after the lights were out at night.

"Like your ma,” Roy said, finishing Black's statement. “Don't look so shocked, son, I know all about you. I should, I've read enough of the letters Ed sends home to say nothing about the accounts about you in the newspaper. I just have one question. Why did you become a U.S. Marshal?"

Black ran his tongue over his lips as he contemplated his answer. He rarely had to account to anyone as to why he'd decided to work for the law. The reason was that he usually worked undercover, with his badge out of sight. People knew him as a gunslinger and as such, he was able to gain the confidence of the folks who were close enough to the ones he was investigating to build his case.

"At the time, your son made it sound damn appealing. It sounded like it was something I could to with my guns and not have to worry about some piss ass sheriff arresting me. It's turned out to be more work then I thought it would, but it's good work. At least when I go to bed at night I'm satisfied with what I'm doing. That's more than I can say for when I was hiring out my gun to whoever paid the most money."

"So do folks think you're here as a hired gun?"

"Doubt it. The first night I made it quite clear that I was looking for work and that I didn't do anything with my guns anymore except maybe scare people. As far as I'm concerned, it's best if you folks and Belle are the only ones who know the real reason I ended up in this town."

"You'd better rethink that, son. Annie is over at the house right now persuading Belle to tell the girls about you. We both talked it over and it's only right. Those girls work their asses off in more ways than one for the Double Bar B. They deserve to know. Trust me, no one else will have any idea what the real reason in that you're working for Belle this winter."

Even though the idea hadn't appealed to Black at first, it was starting to grow on him. He couldn't work with these women—or play with them if the need arose—without them knowing what his real assignment in Larson's Gap was.

"Guess you got a point, Roy. If breakfast and dinner was any indication of the kind of cooking Annie can do, we'd better get over there before those gals eat it all up."

Belle went up to her room to wash up and change. It surprised her to see the dress Annie laid out for her to wear. It wasn't unusual for Annie to do such a thing, but the dress her friend chose for tonight was certainly not something Belle would have chosen. The neckline was dangerously low. She was certain to give Mr. Black Conley a good look at her breasts if she wore it.

Rather than put on the dress Annie selected for her, she went to her closet for something more suitable, only to find the remainder of her wardrobe had suddenly disappeared. Belle knew what Annie was up to. She should, Annie had tried to set her up with enough men in the ten years since she'd come home. She wondered what Annie had against seeing a woman without a man in her life.

Out of defeat, Belle put on the dress and fussed with the neckline in the hopes of making it less revealing. Unable to pull it any higher, she brushed out her hair and secured it away from her face with a ribbon the same shade of blue as the dress.

It surprised her to see Black exiting his room when she stepped into the hall. When had he come upstairs? She certainly hadn't heard him. Maybe what everyone was saying was true and he was part Indian.

"Good evening, Miss Barton,” he said as soon as he saw her. “Roy told me that you all dress up for dinner. I was surprised to see this suit laid out on my bed. I trust it was from one of the gentlemen on the stage. I will have to thank Annie for her kindness when I get downstairs."