Jodi Thomas (27 page)

August laughed and shoved Carter, almost knocking him down. “You found Zeb, didn’t you, dummy’s son? You found him when he was out cold and stole his money.”

Carter didn’t answer. The question was too insane to deserve a reply.

August didn’t seem to notice the silence. He was a man tone deaf to every sound but that of his own voice. “We figure you’ve spent a few of the coins, but you probably got the rest stashed out here somewhere. Trouble is, my partners and I don’t have the time to look. Zeb will be out sometime after dark doing his own looking, and, since he’s not the type to share, we’ll be left without any gold if we don’t hurry.”

He grinned. “So we thought we’d come out first and ask you real nice to hand over the saddlebags full of coins. It’s your only choice. We’re even willing to forget you stole the gold from Zeb, since he stole it from a big sheep rancher over near Santa Fe.”

Carter’s head pounded.

“So, how about it, dummy? Do we take you in for robbery and leave that wife of yours out here to face Zeb, or do you hand over the gold and we call it square?”

When Carter didn’t answer, August stormed to within an inch of his face. “Don’t go thinking these drifters you got nesting at your place will help you. Zeb will squash them like they was a bed of baby rattlers. In his prime he could down a hundred buffalo in one day and still have time to skin them before dark.”

No one but August laughed at his joke so he continued. “Samuel may be good with a hammer and saw, but he’s not a fighter. Folks in town never had much to do with him because they say he ran when he was called to fight for the South. A man like that’s not going to risk his life to save a woman he don’t hardly know.”

August moved his finger across the blood on Carter’s cheek and wiped it on Carter’s shirt. “Talking is over. Where’s the gold?”

Carter didn’t say a word. He braced himself for another blow as he heard the side door of the barn open. August and his men didn’t notice. They were too busy trying to beat an answer out of the dummy’s son.

B
AILEE LISTENED TO THE BLOW-BY-BLOW STORY ROM told. First, he rattled off words in his own language, then he slowed down and tried to tell her what was happening in the bam. Though the words were jumbled, she pieced Rom’s story together. Wheeler was looking for gold, the gold Zeb had the day she tried to kill him. Somehow, they thought Carter had it.

When Rom finished, Bailee was silent for a long moment, listening as she stared at the closed door just beyond the corral. Without a word she began pacing the porch. She wanted to storm the outbuilding and rescue Carter, but there were three armed men inside. Her army consisted of Samuel, who couldn’t see, Rom with a knife, an old man with two unarmed sons, and Lacy.

Someone, maybe several, would be hurt, and Deputy Wheeler wouldn’t be among the first. Wheeler was a dull blade, and his two helpers were worse. If they were rushed, there was no telling what they’d do.

She looked around her. These men were not warriors. Except for Samuel, they had wives and children to worry about. A man in a barn getting beat up wasn’t worth risking their lives for.

“Rom said Carter didn’t deny stealing the money!” Lacy joined Bailee as she paced. “If he took the money, he knew Zeb was still alive. He could have stepped forward and saved us a week in jail and the fine.”

Bailee nodded. She tried to tell herself that Carter wasn’t the kind of man to take money off an unconscious man, even one as evil as everyone claimed Zeb Whitaker to be. Carter was honest. He wouldn’t let three women face a crime when he knew they didn’t kill anyone. Yes, he hated talking, and, as far as she knew, he’d only been in town the day of the lottery. It might have been possible that he didn’t even know anyone thought Zeb dead.

But facts kept gnawing at her logic. Carter did have gold. The same kind of gold that had spilled from Zeb’s bag the day they’d clubbed him. He also didn’t know how to use it, always holding it out to her as if he wasn’t sure. A man who earned gold would know more about it, wouldn’t he? A farmer who traded for supplies wouldn’t have any use for handling gold. Unless he found it? Unless he stole it?

Another fact crossed her mind. When she’d first heard Zeb might be alive, Carter hadn’t seemed surprised. Maybe Carter didn’t believe she killed him in the first place? Maybe Carter knew the truth?

“What do we do?” Lacy’s huge eyes were filled with excitement. “I say we go in after Carter. We got to hang on to our husbands no matter what they do. Can’t let them be snatched away.” She punched the air as if fighting an invisible man five foot tall in front of her.

“We do nothing,” Bailee answered, realizing Lacy was too young to know the danger. “Those are armed lawmen in the barn talking to Carter. They may be going about it in the wrong way, but they are just trying to find out the truth.” She didn’t believe her own words, but she had to calm Lacy. Panic wouldn’t solve anything; she’d learned that the hard way back in Independence.

Lacy didn’t look convinced. “Carter wouldn’t commit a crime, not even stealing from a man he thought was dead. We have to believe that, he’s your husband. We’ll stand and fight with him, if trouble comes.”

Bailee’s cheeks reddened. Lacy was right. He was her husband, a man who’d risked his life to save her. A man who cared about her. A man who’d been willing to stand beside her no matter what trouble came. How could she do less?

She felt ashamed. The blood of her father must run inside her. A part of her no longer hated her only parent so completely for not believing in her. A part wanted to slice her wrist and let her father’s blood drain out forever.

Bailee grabbed the handgun from the bookshelf and placed it in her pocket. “I’ll go talk to them.” She glanced up at her troops waiting for orders. “Get Piper to the orchard. Carter says it’s safe there. The rest of you stay here, by the house. I’m only going to talk to them, but if there is trouble, I don’t want them thinking I’m all alone.”

With Lacy at her side, Bailee stepped off the porch and walked toward the barn. “There’s no need for you to come,” she tried to reassure her friend.

“You’re not going in there without me. I can feel trouble, and I plan to be with you,” Lacy insisted.

They were within ten feet of the barn door when August Wheeler stepped out. He glared at Bailee and Lacy for a moment as if debating even bothering with them.

“Where’s Carter?” Bailee’s hands molded around the handle of the gun in her pocket.

“He’s all right. We’re taking him to town to ask him a few questions. He may have information on a recent robbery.”

“Does Sheriff Riley know about this?” Lacy placed her hands on her hips and stood her ground, just behind Bailee.

“Riley doesn’t need to know anything.” August growled. “I’m in charge while he’s gone, and, from his telegram this morning, it may be days before he returns.”

“Well, you’ve got the wrong man.” Lacy moved an inch farther behind Bailee as she shouted. “Carter McKoy is a good man. I know, he’s married to my sister. He didn’t commit any crime, so you’ve no business taking him anywhere.”

Wheeler mumbled, “Children should be seen and not heard. Besides, she’s not your sister, little witch.”

Bailee wasn’t sure which of his statements made Lacy more angry.

The short woman-child fired back, “I’m not a child. I’m a woman, fully grown and rightly married. And Bailee is my sister in my heart, and that’s the only place that matters. You’d know that if you weren’t dumber than a box of muddy river rocks, August Wheeler.”

August reminded Bailee of a bully on a school yard. He wasn’t about to back down. “Well, if you’re so smart, maybe you know where two saddlebags of gold are stashed. Maybe you’ll be the next one we bring in for questioning, witch.”

Lacy wasn’t frightened by his threat. “My father-in-law would have a paper out within the hour if you tried something like that. The whole town would come after you. And stop calling me a witch, or I’ll cast a spell on you that’ll turn your toes so green, they’ll all fall off and roll around in your boots.”

August hesitated. Threatening men, even beating them, was one thing, but bothering the wife of a local hero whose father ran the newspaper was another. He frowned. “Well, you’d better be careful, Miss Married Lady.” It was an empty threat, and they all knew it. “And I don’t believe in spells and hexes.”

Lacy leaned around Bailee and whispered just loud enough for him to hear. “Remember that tonight when you can feel your hair falling out, Deputy.”

Bailee was almost enjoying the exchange. She smiled a moment before Carter stepped from the barn.

For a second she was frozen, standing there in the hot sun with her hand wrapped around the gun in her pocket and the silly smile still on her lips. Then Carter’s appearance washed over her. His shirt ripped to rags and stained. Blood dripped from two cuts along his face. His hands were tied in front of him as though he were a common criminal.

Bailee rushed to him, fighting back sobs. “What have you done!” She glared at August.

“Nothing, ma’am. He fell over a shovel left on the barn floor,” Ludlow answered in an almost believable whine. “We’re just taking him in to ask a few questions—right. Wheeler?” Ludlow glanced at his boss, making sure his words were right. “If he cooperates, he should be home by dark.”

Bailee drew the comer of her apron up and blotted it against Carter’s cuts. He watched her with a worried stare.

August grabbed one of Carter’s arms while Ludlow held the other. “Don’t no one get in our way or try to stop us, or someone will die this day, and I can promise you it won’t be me.”

“Carter...” Bailee brushed his hair away from the blood still on his forehead.

“Stay here,” he whispered. “You’ll find safety in the house. No matter what, stay safe.”

His eyes told her so much more, but they were words he couldn’t say now, couldn’t let anyone else hear.

“Did he say something to you?” August jerked at Carter’s arm. “Has the dummy decided to talk?”

Carter didn’t answer.

“He’s guilty of stealing. All he has to do is give the gold back, and I’ll let him go.” August put his arm around Carter as though they had suddenly become friends. “What do you say? Hand over what you stole, and I’ll ride off your land. You can stay here with your wife. We’d stay around and help you remember where you put it, but there are reasons I don’t want to stay long. Someone else might make a visit.”

Carter wasn’t even looking at August. He stared at Bailee.

August turned away to get the horses while Ludlow pulled his gun. He waved the old Walker Colt as if daring anyone to question their actions as he pulled Carter toward the horses.

Lacy tried to comfort Bailee. “Don’t worry. I’ll get word to Sheriff Riley. He’ll know what to do. They can’t just put a man in jail like this. In a day, this will all be over and Carter will be back.”

Ray, Wheeler’s overweight assistant, helped Carter onto a horse, then drew his own gun. He mimicked Ludlow’s stance as best he could.

Bailee clung to Carter’s leg, wishing he would tell her what to do. Stay here and stay safe didn’t seem like enough.

She looked up at him, but the sun robbed her of a clear view of his eyes. She shifted until she could see his face. “Did you do what they say you did?” The words were out before she could stop them. The moment they were said, she would have pulled them back if she could. But it was too late.

Carter’s blue eyes turned to steel. She felt the coldness between them as quickly as if they’d both fallen into icy water. He was so still, she thought ... she prayed ... he hadn’t heard her ask the question.

“I never asked you!” His words were no more than a whisper of wind between them, but they slapped across her face just the same.

August jerked the reins of Carter’s horse, and the men rode toward the gate as though bullets were flying around them.

Carter’s words echoed in Bailee’s mind as tears ran down her face. “I never asked you,” she repeated, trying to make sense of the words.

Then she knew. When he met her, he never once asked if she was guilty of the crime she not only was charged with, but confessed to. Yet, even so, he never questioned her. No wonder he wasn’t surprised Zeb Whitaker was alive. He never believed she killed the man. Or if he did, it hadn’t mattered.

“What are we going to do?” Lacy asked.

Bailee looked around. Samuel and the others were waiting for the answer.

Bailee straightened her shoulders. “We’re going to make a plan,” she said, knowing she had to do this right, “and then I’m going after my husband.”

Everyone offered to help at once, even Samuel.

Papa Farrow stepped in front of her and bowed. “My people will help. We are not good in a showdown or gun-fight, but we have skills in moving unnoticed and retrieving things. We will go retrieve your husband for you.”

Lacy laughed. “I’m not much good at anything that I know of, but you’re not going without me. If I’m mad enough, I can fight. I’d like nothing better than knocking that Ludlow more senseless than he already is.”

B
Y NIGHTFALL ALL THE CHILDREN WERE TUCKED away safely in the orchard with their fathers on guard. Carter had been right when he’d told Bailee to hide in the trees if trouble came. They’d been planted, not in rows, but in circles, making it almost impossible to find someone who didn’t want to be seen.

Papa Farrow objected when Rom wanted to go into town with Lacy and Bailee. But if they planned to see Carter, they needed to enter town as quietly as possible, and Rom was a master at playing a shadow.

They waited until dark to start out so the night would act as cover. Samuel hitched his own wagon because, with the cover, someone passing might think he was traveling alone.

Bailee left lanterns burning bright in case Zeb was watching the house, he would assume she was still there. She even took the time to build a small fire in the stove so smoke would circle into the night.