Brighter than Gold (Western Rebels Book 1) (47 page)

Something broke inside of her. “I—I loved him. We had become so happy together—not just husband and wife, but also the best of friends. This past month has been so wonderful, it was almost like a dream. But perhaps that is just what it was. An illusion, with lies at its core....”

“Perhaps he was afraid to tell you the truth,” Lim suggested gently. “If, as you say, he had fallen in love with you, he had much to lose.”

“I feel as if I’ve been tricked. Tricked into marrying Jack, and then tricked into loving him.” Katie began to weep, silently. “I’m so confused! It’s as if I don’t know him anymore.”

“I feel certain that his conscience must have been bothering him, Katie,” Gideon said, frowning. “He probably has longed to tell you, and I’m sure Lim is right. He must have been afraid to, knowing how you feel about the Griffin—that even if he didn’t directly cause Brian’s death, he was still responsible.”

“Jack’s a very honest person,” Conrad exclaimed. “He would never have misled you without good reason.”

A voice spoke from the doorway. “Perhaps I can help to clear up some of this mystery.”

Katie looked up to see Sam Clemens, his hair in wild disarray above his pale face. “Sam! You’re here!” Her elation drained away as she remembered. “But of course you’d have come with him. I shouldn’t be surprised. You and Jack have been in league to deceive me for some time, haven’t you? You lied to me very glibly in San Francisco. There is no newspaper for sale in Carson City, is there? And your tale about the Griffin robbing stages again was for my benefit, wasn’t it? How could I ever imagine that my own husband was the Griffin, if he was in San Francisco and the Griffin had been sighted again in the foothills? After all, Jack couldn’t possibly be in two places at once, could he?”

“My dear Katie, your hostility is sadly misplaced. Do you love Jack so little that you are able to condemn him without hearing his story?” Sam’s eyes were filled with sadness as he crossed to perch on the worktable in front of her. “Have you never made a mistake, that you are so inflexible when it comes to the humanity of your husband?”

Suddenly Katie felt guiltily disloyal. “All I can sort out right now is what I know to be the truth,” she said. “I hurt too much to go beyond that.”

“Do you want some help?” he asked in a kinder tone.

Katie nodded, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

“Perhaps we should leave the two of you alone,” Gideon said.

Conrad opened his mouth to protest, but Sam saved him the trouble by replying, “No, I think you all should hear what I have to say. You’re Jack’s friends, and he very well may need your help.”

“Oh, God,” moaned Conrad. “I knew we shouldn’t have left San Francisco! If not for us, Jack would have had his confrontation with that imposter and gotten clean away. Katie, he might hang because of our interference!”

By now Katie was beginning to feel that perhaps she, not Jack, was to blame for the mess spread out around her. “Conrad,” she countered stubbornly, “I don’t think that’s fair! If Jack—”

“Let’s not waste precious time pointing fingers,” Sam interrupted. “I’ve just seen Jack and I think we’d all be better served by some explanations, don’t you? I’ll try to be brief.”

Katie and Conrad closed their mouths and waited. Abby brought Sam a beer and then went to stand in the shelter of Gideon’s protective arm. Lim still sat close to Katie, a comforting source of silent support.

“I’m going to go back a bit, back to a time before I came to Jackass Gulch. Jack told me everything, and I think that I’m the only person who knows the whole story besides Mr. Summers, his grandfather.”

Katie gasped. “Ambrose—
knew?”

Clemens continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Conrad, you were quite right; Jack started this masquerade because of what Rush and Van Hosten did to you. It took on a life of its own after he became aware that other human beings were suffering as a result of the unfair practices at the mine. He continued to play the Griffin long after Conrad’s injustice had been corrected because of all those other miners... and because, I believe, Jack’s new life here was a blessed relief from his structured existence in San Francisco.”

“Yes!” cried Conrad. “It makes perfect sense!”

“Then the situation became more complicated after he became friends with Katie and her father. He grew very fond of Mr. MacKenzie.” Sam focused on Katie. “Katie, Jack told me how your father died. The truth is that Van Hosten had a gun. He tried to shoot Jack, and your father grabbed for the gun. Jack told him that he should let go and leave Van Hosten to him, but then the gun went off, and Brian MacKenzie fell.”

“Oh, Papa,” Katie breathed, closing her eyes.

“Van Hosten then fired at Jack, and he fired back, killing him. Jack went to your father and held him in his arms, but he had already died. He was in agony, Katie, that’s why he returned to Columbia to be with you when you heard the news, and that’s why he wanted to take you with him to San Francisco. He felt that he owed it to your father to do everything in his power to make certain you had a safe and secure future.” Sam smiled slightly. “Also, I suspect Jack was already falling in love with you, and in light of what had happened, and your animosity toward the Griffin, it seemed an impossible situation.”

“Poor Jack,” Abby said softly.

“Well, at that point, he thought that he was finished with the whole business of the Griffin. Van Hosten was dead, and Rush, who had seldom been in town, seemed harmless enough. Then, back in San Francisco, I innocently told him about the attack on Gideon and the
Gazette’s
printing press. I think you all know the rest. After Jack came back up here, he did what he could to subdue Aaron Rush, including stealing back Tsing Tsing Yee’s valuable egg.”

Katie’s eyes were wide. “That’s why he was in the woods near that cabin when I needed rescuing!”

“Yes. The bad blood between you and Rush was a constant worry for him. Finally, when he felt he couldn’t stay here any longer, he went to confront Rush in the Griffin’s guise and, among other things, warned him to leave you alone. Rush looked delighted, as if he’d found the Griffin’s weakness, and so Jack felt that he couldn’t leave Columbia unless you came with him.”

“So he married me because he felt obligated?” she asked in a small voice.

“Well,” Sam replied dryly, “I that may have been the excuse, but you know better than anyone that both of you were a long way from acknowledging your feelings when you got married. The fact is that, by the time I returned to San Francisco the other day, you and Jack had a real marriage. He loves you with all his heart, Katie, and the last thing he wanted to do was come back here and become the Griffin again.”

“Then why did he?” Lim asked.

“Yes, what about all those recent stage robberies? The Griffin had gone from hero to villain,” Gideon said. “Even I had to admit that Katie had been right all along. I wrote editorials condemning him....”

“That’s
why Jack returned—just two days ago. When I told him what had been happening up here, we realized that it must be Aaron Rush impersonating the Griffin, serving his own needs while blackening the Griffin’s name. Jack decided to deal with him once and for all, by exposing him.”

“So that’s what that scene on the road today was all about!” Conrad exclaimed.

“I was so confused,” Katie said. “When the stage driver climbed down to take Jack prisoner, and then pulled the hood off Aaron Rush, I felt that it was all some sort of bizarre nightmare.”

“Of course Jack never meant for Rush to
die,”
Sam said. “He just wanted him unmasked and brought to trial. If you hadn’t been on that stage, brandishing your derringer, he would have made a clean escape and the two of us would be on our way back to San Francisco right now.”

“And I never would have known the truth,” Katie murmured, a note of bitterness in her voice.

Sam drained his beer. “No, my dear, that’s where you’re wrong. Jack intended to tell you everything when this situation was settled here. He told me that he couldn’t lie to you anymore.”

It was hard for Katie to breathe. “What’s going to happen now?” She paused, her heart aching. “How is Jack?”

“He’s in jail in Angel’s Camp, and more than anything else, he’s concerned about you. He knows the pain you must be in, and he blames himself for it.” Clemens sighed. “The judge is in town, and one of Rush’s henchmen, a big fellow named Potter, is pushing for an immediate trial. So the jury is being assembled, and I’d imagine that the trial will be tomorrow or the next day. Potter is telling everyone in town that he intends to see Jack hang for the murders of Aaron Rush, Harold Van Hosten, and Brian MacKenzie.”

“But that’s not fair,” cried Conrad. “It was Rush’s own fault that he was shot. It was an accident! And Jack didn’t even shoot Mr. MacKenzie!”

Sam shrugged. “This is the West, Con, where life isn’t always fair. People have little tolerance for highwaymen; they want to see them punished as a warning to others with similar ambitions. It would be one thing if we could prove that Jack was innocent in those deaths, but I don’t see how that’s possible....”

* * *

The little white frame house on the corner of Jackson Street looked forlorn to Katie as she came through the gate. The morning glory vines atop the porch roof were brown and withered and a few weeds straggled along the picket fence. As she opened the front door, Katie felt as if she were stepping into the past. Only three months had passed since she had last been here, yet it seemed an eternity. The air smelled faintly musty, and a thin layer of dust covered the tables. Abby and Lim had been taking care of the house and yard, but what was the point of regular cleaning when no one lived here?

As she gazed around the parlor and the kitchen, memories crowded her mind and an odd, bittersweet feeling crept over her. The winter of Katie’s eighth year had been unusually rainy and snowy, and each afternoon Mary MacKenzie had curled up with her daughter on the settee to read from
Tales of the Arabian Nights.
What magical hours those had been! That winter their parlor had been steeped in the wonder of genies, talking birds, cities of brass, pirates, turbans and silks, colossal jewels, and unforgettable characters like Ali Baba, Sinbad, and Aladdin. And, for Katie, that enchantment would always be laced with the warm sound of her mother’s voice. Looking now at the settee, she could almost see Mary MacKenzie sitting there, the big book open on her lap and her blue eyes brimming with pleasure.

Katie walked slowly into the kitchen, almost expecting Brian to be pulling a chair up to the table, his suspenders dangling and his woolen shirt open at the neck. They’d been so happy in each other’s company, taking care of one another, sitting down together for the evening meal and sharing stories of the day. Katie always knew that Brian had never stopped grieving for his wife, but he hadn’t let that cloud his life with Katie. It had been awkward for him at times, trying to be a mother as well as a father to a growing girl, yet Katie had never doubted his devotion to her. Tears stung her eyes now as she felt his big-hearted hug and heard the love in his voice as he murmured “Katie darling.” It still seemed impossible that she would never see her father again.

Her own bedroom was untouched, the narrow bed neatly made.
Jane Eyre
lay on the dresser, apparently overlooked by Lim when he’d packed her books and shipped them to San Francisco. Katie picked it up, thinking that her birthday seemed part of a distant past. That June morning when Brian had given her this book, she had been a girl, innocently living in a fantasy world. And then Jack had come into the saloon, and her life hadn’t been the same since. She was a woman now, and there was no going back....

Katie stepped out the back door and looked at the little yard with its lovingly tended flower and vegetable gardens. They had been a source of great pride and pleasure, particularly in the spring when the new seedlings sprouted and then thrived under her careful ministrations. She had always loved to sink her hands into the soil, loved the challenge of coaxing plants to grow. Lim had kept up the gardens, planting winter vegetables and pruning back the rosebushes. Katie paused at the gate for a last look, then wandered out of the yard.

Her thoughts were far away as she strolled west on Jackson Street toward St. Andrew’s Church. Memories of her childhood flooded back, and Katie could almost see herself running along as a little girl, chasing Lim. Her eyes misted again, and she wondered at the emotions that seemed so near the surface these days. Ever since she and Jack had opened their hearts to each other, Katie had found that she felt both joy and pain more keenly.

Passing the Barnstaple house, she saw Victoria peeking out the window, staring as if she’d seen a ghost. When Katie waved, the older woman threw open the window and leaned out.

“Katie!” she cried. “You’re here! Is it true what I’ve heard about your husband?”

“Mrs. Barnstaple, there is something I have to do now, but I would like to come by in a little while and talk to you. Would that be all right?”

“Of course, darling!”

Katie waved then and continued on her way. The sun was setting slowly, a blazing sphere of apricot and plum behind the blue spruce trees that ringed the church. Although she wore a plaid wool cloak, the chill wind nipped at her cheeks and nose, and she rubbed her gloved hands together to warm them. After a bit she quickened her pace, lifting her petticoats as she strode up the hill to the church.