Runabout (26 page)

}Her heels sounding sharply on the red-brick sidewalk, Emma angrily began to make her way down the street.

}It was sheer bad luck that Luther was leaving the grocery and market, finally managing to excuse himself from Mrs. Puser's endless suggestions for good and proper uses of his new building. He looked at Emma, surprised.

}"Luther!" Emma's startled exclamation sprang from an uneasy feeling of having conjured up her own thoughts.

}Almost as startled as she was, Luther could think of exactly nothing to say. Politely he tipped his hat as he might for the most casual of female acquaintance and without a word began crossing the street.

}Emma watched his back as he walked away from her. He had walked away without even saying hello. Her fury turned to rage. And her thoughts became fused on revenge. Revenge. She would make Luther Briggs pay. And she didn't care at what cost.

}Chapter 14

}Emma was not the only one to watch Luther Briggs cross Main Street that morning. Doc Odie, returning home from an early house call, spotted him also. The doctor had been thinking a lot about Willie Dix and about Emma. Willie was not long for this world, that fact was clear. And Odie had made the old man a promise he was not sure how he was going to keep. Reluctantly, Doc Odie pulled his team to a stop and followed Luther into his building.

}Luther stood in the middle of the lower floor of his Main Street building. Slowly, he turned around, giving the place a thorough once-over. It seemed that everybody in town, except him, knew the perfect use for this building. Usually he was decisive, but somehow none of the options he thought of felt exactly right.

}"Good morning, Luther."

}Turning to the doorway, he saw Doc Odie hesitating on the threshold.

}"Morning, Doc," he replied. "Come on in, I suspect I ought to hear your two cents' worth as well as everybody else's."

}The doctor did come inside, but his expression was puzzled. "My two cents' worth on what?"

}"On this building." Luther looked around again and shook his head. "Everybody in Prattville knows what I should do with it except me."

}Doc Odie glanced around at the bare plaster walls, but his expression was more annoyed than puzzled. "I don't care what you do with the building. You can burn it down for all it means to me. I've come to talk to you about something really important."

}"Oh?" Luther sensed from Odie's rather aggressive tone that the subject would not be pleasant. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

}The doctor paused. He obviously was searching for the right words when he just blurted out his question. "I want to know your intentions toward a young lady."

}Luther's serious expression slowly faded into a genuine grin. "Oh, you do?" He couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice. "What's the matter, Odie? Feeling a little jealous these days?"

}The doctor sucked in his cheeks angrily and his eyes bulged in fury. "My feelings have nothing to do with it!" he proclaimed sharply. "It's the young woman that concerns me."

}Luther shook his head, actually laughing. "Now, Doc Odie, you had your chance and you got cold feet. Don't expect me to step aside now that you're realizing what a mistake you've made."

}"Mistake?"

}"Besides, Doc, I honestly don't think you've got a chance with her. Tulsy is not the kind of woman to let a fellow treat her lightly and then walk back in whenever he's got a mind to."

}"Tulsy?"

}"Miss Tulsa May."

}"I'm not talking about Tulsa May."

}Luther was confused. "Then who in the world are you talking about?"

}"Emma Dix."

}"Emma?"

}"Yes, Emma," the doctor answered. "Old Willie isn't going to last much longer. I'm afraid he'll be going to his reward in a matter of weeks."

}"That's too bad," Luther said. "He's a fine old man and I've always liked him."

}"He likes you too," the doctor said. "In fact, it was his idea for me to come and talk to you."

}"Talk to me about what?"

}"About Emma, of course. Very soon she will be alone in the world with no one to take care of her."

}Luther shrugged. "Don't worry about Emma, Doc. That woman can take care of herself."

}"Perhaps so, but she certainly shouldn't have to." The doctor looked up solemnly at the taller man. "I think it's time that you married the girl, Luther."

}"Married!" Luther was genuinely shocked. "Marry Emma?" He shook his head and laughed. "Doc Odie, you've got to be joking."

}"I don't find anything about this topic amusing."

}"Emma Dix, the sweet little woman, sitting by the fire and mending my overalls? You don't need much imagination, Doc, to see the humor in that."

}"The young lady would make a fine wife."

}"Not for me she wouldn't."

}The doctor took a step closer, his thin arms folded stubbornly across his chest, his expression belligerent. "Where is your sense of honor, young man? Your sense of duty? I realize you haven't had the most fortunate of upbringings, but surely even you understand that when you've been dancing to the tune, the time will come to pay the fiddler."

}"Not if the music has been offered for free," Luther said emphatically. "I don't owe Emma Dix a blessed thing on this earth."

}“How can you say that when you've been seeing her on the sly and no doubt sullying her reputation?"

}"Emma's reputation was pretty well sullied before I ever laid a hand on her."

}"You are despicable!" the doctor proclaimed through clenched teeth. "You've been seeing this woman in less than honorable circumstances and you can joke and cast her off in her hour of need as if she were
nothing?"

}"I never said she was nothing," Luther answered with growing irritation at the doctor's high-handed attitude. "I like Emma. She's a good old gal and we've had some good times together. But she knew from the start that I wasn't interested in anything beyond a little fun. And neither was she."

}With a hiss of fury, Doc Odie raised his hand as if to strike the younger man. Stepping back out of his range, Luther glared at the doctor.

}"You best not be starting something that you won't be able to finish, Doc. How dare you come down here and lecture me. Duty? Honor?" Luther snorted in disgust. "Where was your duty and honor when you left a sweet, innocent, trusting young woman like Tulsa May to face the pity and gossip of every busybody in this town?" His eyes narrowed and he surveyed Doc Odie as if he were a worm. "I never promised Emma anything. Not companionship, not security, not even a permanent place in my bed. But you, you promised Tulsa May lawful, holy wedlock and all she got was a ruined party and a lifetime's worth of embarrassment."

}"This is different," Doc Odie mumbled, suddenly a bit unsure of himself.

}"You're damn right it's different! Now take your worthless promises and your holier-than-thou attitude and get out of my sight before I lose my temper and start picking on somebody not nearly my own size."

}

}Maybelle pushed her bicycle under the overhang at the Briggs's shop. She ran a hand over her hair to assure herself that all was in place before announcing herself.

}"Luther?" she called inside the building, knowing full well that he was still in town.

}Only a moment later, Arthel came to the door, wiping his hands on a greasy rag. His glossy black hair had grown a little long and was tucked behind his ears. He was shirtless under his overalls and Maybelle was surprised at the unexpected width of his shoulders and the muscle definition in his arms.

}"Well, good afternoon." His smile was broad and welcoming. "Luther's down in town." He gave Maybelle a long, pointed look before he continued. "But I'm always here for you, honey."

}Maybelle tossed her bright blond curls in an attractive show of pique and stuck her nose in the air. "I need someone to fix my bicycle tire. I suppose even you could manage that."

}" 'Spect I could," Arthel answered. "Pretty girls' bicycles are my specialty."

}Maybelle raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh, really? Why, Cochise, I thought you were more into buffalo killing and war dancing."

}Arthel's eyes narrowed slightly, but he ignored the jibe. Wordlessly, he moved past Maybelle to the bike.

}She hadn't intended to antagonize him. In fact, she'd come out to the shop hoping that he'd be alone. But his light tone made her mad. How dare he talk down to her as if she were some silly, ignorant nobody. He acted as though he barely knew her.

}Squatting beside her, Arthel checked the tire, easily pulling it completely off the rim. "The inner tube is practically rotted. It will need another one."

}He looked up at her, but her icy gaze quieted whatever question had been on his lips. Without asking her permission, Arthel removed the rim from the frame and carried it, the tire, and the shredded inner tube into the shop.

}He neither spoke nor looked back. It was as if Maybelle had ceased to exist. And he'd made no indication that she should follow. Sniffing genteelly, Maybelle was more than a little annoyed at being left standing awkwardly in the doorway.

}She remained there all of a minute and a half. Then with a mumbled comment to herself about his lack of manners, she entered the work room uninvited. Arthel didn't even bother to look up.

}"This inner tube must be as old as you are," he said finally.

}Maybelle shrugged with unconcern as she walked around the room, pretending interest in the tools and metal parts hung on the walls. "I haven't ridden in a long time."

}He looked up at her and grinned. But she was staring at a wrench as if she'd never seen anything so fascinating. "So you decided to have it fixed today in case you might want to in the future?"

}"It was certainly time that I had it fixed," she said.

}"I suppose it is."

}Arthel began to whistle. Maybelle found that particularly annoying.

}"And here I was thinking," he continued casually, "that you were coming out here just to see me."

}Her face flushed a rosy pink, but it was nothing like the bright red that she saw when Maybelle turned to look at the man grinning at her.
He was
laughing at her!
She held her discomfiture in check by stoking her anger.

}"I most certainly did not come here to see you, Geronimo," she answered sarcastically. "There is an Indian just down the street from me, in front of the cigar store."

}Arthel raised his eyes to her and nodded slightly as if conceding the point. "But I understand," he replied, "that he's not nearly as much fun on a dark, lonely road as I am."

}Maybelle's cheeks were flushed a very becoming rose, but her teeth were clenched in fury.

}"Oh, that," she said, feigning unconcern remarkably well. "I suppose that because I let you kiss me a few times, you think it means something special to me. That
you
mean something special to me."

}"And it's not anything special." It was more a statement than a question.

}Waving away the subject with a flighty giggle, Maybelle shook her head. "Certainly not. Really, I am not some pale prairie flower to be overwhelmed by the wicked redskin's attention." She laughed lightly and then sighed with studied sophistication. "I've kissed so many men that another one, more or less, doesn't mean a thing to me."

}Arthel looked at her questioningly for a moment and then nodded. "So which am I?"

}"What?"