The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw (13 page)

“It was Malcolm’s. He really did sell everything and come to you. I’m sure he fell in love with you, too. You’re an easy woman to love, Lizzie Cobb. The money is yours. That’s why I wanted the bank account in your name. I intend to buy the Abernathy place just like we planned unless you decide to turn me in to the marshal.”

Lizzie wrapped her arms around her waist, tears forming in her beautiful eyes. “I don’t know what to do, Mal…er…Ed. I just don’t know what to do, but we have to do something about Harvey, or he’ll do what he said.”

Ed’s hand covered his Colt. “I’ll take care of Harvey. I promise you, he won’t hurt you again.”

“How can you promise that? He’ll tell the marshal you’re Ed Talbot and you’ll both go to jail.”

“Harvey won’t go near the marshal for fear of there being a wanted poster with his picture on it.” Ed stood with his hands clenched into fists. “I intend to close on the Abernathy place on Friday morning and be at the church on Saturday. I want to marry you. I love you Lizzie, but what happens from here is up to you.” He opened and closed his fists. “If you love me, you know what to do and if you don’t, well I guess you know what to do then, too.”

“This isn’t fair. None of it is fair. You shouldn’t have had to grow up like that. You shouldn’t have pretended to be Malcolm. I shouldn’t feel about you the way I do.” She lowered herself to the top step, covered her face with her hands and wept.

Ed sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulders.

She shook him off. “Don’t touch me.”

He persisted and finally, she accepted his arm and leaned into him. Wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest, she bawled.

Ed knew all of this was his fault. Guilt tightened his chest and made his throat dry. He needed to take care of Harvey, once and for all time. Harvey had to leave and never come back. One way or another.

“I’ll take care of Harvey. He won’t hurt you ever again. I promise.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll force him to make a choice, leave and live or stay and die. Simple enough even Harvey can understand.”

“You can’t kill him. He’s your brother.”

Ed set her away from him, her soft body reminding him of everything he could lose. But his new life would all have been a lie. “He’s nothing to me but bad memories and I can’t let him hurt you. I
won’t
let him hurt you.”

“What if he kills you instead?” She swiped at her eyes. “What about me then?”

He hated to see her like this and tried to assure her. “That won’t happen. I’m better with a gun than he is and he knows it. He’ll leave rather than die. Then we can talk about us.”

“Us?” She laughed and shook her head, the sound bitter and full of anger. “All this time has been a lie.”

“No,” his heart, his very life was at stake. He had to convince her. “It hasn’t. I’m still the same man, Lizzie. That hasn’t changed. The man you know is the man I am, the man I want to be.”

“The man I knew was Malcolm Brandon. A dead man. Is that what you are Ed? A dead man?”

“I am if you leave me. Help me, Lizzie.” He held his arms out toward her. “Help me be the man you fell in love with. Help me be the man I want to be.”

She scooted away from him, shaking her head all the while. “No. This is wrong. You can’t be him, you can’t just take someone’s place and expect everything to be all right.”

“Whether it is or not depends on you, Lizzie. Whether they hang me or not for a murder I didn’t commit is up to you.”

She shook her head. “You can’t put that on me. You can’t make this all about me.”

“But this situation is about you. I fell in love with you. I took a chance on love because of you. You love me, too. You just don’t want to say it again.”

“No,” she ran down the steps to her horse. “No.” She hollered at him before galloping away in the direction of the ranch.

His worst fears were realized. Throat tight, Ed sat on the porch step and hung his head.

CHAPTER 9

Lizzie rode hard and fast toward home. She needed to talk to Atina. Her mother would have the answer; she would know what to do. Lizzie took the horse to the barn and while she cared for it, she regained her composure. Being a screaming ninny when she talked to her mother wouldn’t help anything.

Atina was finishing the lunch dishes when Lizzie came in.

“Mama, I need to talk.” She sat at the table, crossed her arms on the surface and rested her head upon them.

Her mother turned and looked at her. “This I can see. What troubles you, daughter?”

“Mal, though he’s not really Mal.”

“Explain yourself.” Atina hung the dish towel over the cupboard door, went to the table and sat.

Lizzie told her mother everything that Mal or Ed had told her.

Atina was silent for some time after the telling was finished.

“What should I do?” Tears fell and she couldn’t stop them. Her heart hurt so bad, all she wanted to do was cry. Maybe it would take away the pain.

“You must love this man, whoever he is, or you wouldn’t be crying.”

“Yes, but he’s not the man I thought he was.” Tears continued to track rivers down her cheeks. “He lied.”

“You did not know the man you thought he was. He was just a name and words on paper to you. This man, this Ed, is real. He is who you fell in love with. What you do with that knowledge is up to you. If you really love him you will know what is right and you will do it. If you did not really love him, then what you do won’t matter, because he will be destroyed no matter what you do. The answer is here.” Atina touched her fingers to Lizzie’s heart. “What is inside you is what the answer must be.”

Lizzie cried all the harder. Why did his dishonesty hurt so much? Why did she feel so betrayed? Because she’d loved him. Loved? Was love already in the past? No, she still loved him, but what could she do about it? She supposed she could stop him from destroying himself. If he killed Harvey, he would be a murderer. He would become what he’d managed not to for the past fifteen years. All because of her. She couldn’t let that happen.

Tomorrow was Friday. They were supposed to close on the Abernathy place at ten in the morning and on Saturday they would marry. Would they? How could she marry a man she didn’t even know? But that was the crux of the matter, she did know him. This kind, gentle, strong, funny man she fell in love with. She did know him. Not the man on paper. Mal was just a name until he come alive. Until Ed brought him to life.

Her life would be so much easier to pretend today had never happened and go on with the charade. But could she, now that she knew the truth? And yet, it was just a name.

They would buy the place together because Mal needed a home. Needed a place he could finally call his. She would give him that because he’d tried to save Malcolm, unsuccessfully, but she shouldn’t punish him. He’d tried and that was more than most men would have done in his position.

Harvey was the problem. Or was he. Mal was right. He wouldn’t reveal who Ed was for fear of his own life. And if by some chance he did she could claim he was Malcolm. Who would the marshal believe? Someone he’s known for years or a two-bit drifter and known criminal?

She took out her handkerchief and wiped her face then blew her nose. Time to tell Mal…Ed. That was what they needed to decide. Was he Mal, or Ed? There was no decision. He had to be Mal. That’s who everyone in town knew him as, so that was who he must be.

Ed Talbot was dead.

* * *

Lizzie knew Ed didn’t need her to close the deed, but he did need her silence and for her not to say he wasn’t Malcolm Brandon. She decided not to go to the closing. Instead she stayed home and did her chores and Mal’s, just like she used to do before he came into their lives.

Last night, he’d come inside the house after everyone else had gone to bed. She thought he was going to go to sleep, but he’d only stayed a few minutes and then left again.

She went into his bedroom. All his belongings were gone. All his clothes except the original suit she’d met him in. Lizzie supposed he left it because it really did belong to Malcolm, a dead man. The only thing standing between her and happiness was that suit.

The suit belonged to Malcolm and would forever remind her Ed was not the man she thought he was. She grabbed the garments and rolled them up into a ball. Then she put the wad of clothes in the bottom of her closet, ready for the can they burned the trash in. She wasn’t letting a bunch of cloth decide her fate for her.

* * *

Ed woke with the morning sun. He sat up on the porch of the Abernathy place. He figured the house was about to be his anyway, he could sleep on its porch one night. His body ached. Seems it didn’t take long to get used to living like a normal person and sleeping in a bed rather than the ground.

He combed his hair and put on a clean shirt. This morning he’d eat in town. If that called anything into question he’d tell the truth—he and Lizzie had a fight. That wouldn’t be so hard to understand. Lizzie was known to have a temper. They didn’t need to know it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with him.

The ride to town was worse than he expected. When he got to the edge of Lizzie’s property he slowed and watched for signs of her moving around. He might have stopped if he’d seen her, but she must have already been in the barn milking the cows. He rode on to town, but at a slow walk so he could watch for her as long as possible. She never came into view. Finally, he kicked Satan into a gallop and put Lizzie’s place far behind him.

Ed stopped at the marshal’s office first and gave over his gun. Then he stopped in front of the Silver Lode hotel. He didn’t see Harvey’s horse. Ed hoped the Silver Lode, being one of the better hotels in town, was out of Harvey’s price range or maybe, if Ed was very lucky, he was gone.

That fairy story ended when he got inside the restaurant and saw Harvey having breakfast.

Ed sat at a table near the door where he could keep an eye on his lethal older brother. He ordered eggs, a steak, toast and fried potatoes with lots of black coffee.

“Well, look who the cat dragged in.” Harvey threw his napkin down on his empty plate, tossed a quarter on the table and ambled over to Ed. “Your little half-breed throw you out when she found out you killed her fiancé?”

“Keep your voice down. I didn’t kill anyone, never have. You’re the one that did the killing.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. Got us confused for a minute. Think that little gal will get us confused, too?”

Within seconds, Ed was on his feet and had Harvey by the front of his shirt. “You stay away, you hear me. You are not to go anywhere near her. You do and I’ll kill you.”

“Ah, but you just said you’ve never killed anyone,” Harvey pulled his shirt out of Ed’s grasp and smoothed it. He acted like it was every day that his brother grabbed him by his shirt front.

Ed’s body was still rigid with indignation. “For you I’ll make an exception.”

“I’m touched, truly I’m touched, but I warn you,” he tucked his shirt back into his pants. “Don’t get in my way. Either cut me in on the scam or prepare for that little filly to meet a new kind of lovin’.”

“If you need sex that much go find a whore or better yet leave,” he pointed toward the exit. “Go find Belle. You and she are meant for one another. You like the same sick things.”

“I’ll be seeing you around, brother. I’ll be seeing
you
.” Harvey took a step toward the exit. “Enjoy your breakfast. The food here is real good.”

“I’m not your brother,” said Ed under his breath. “I don’t claim you or Josiah. You’re nothing to me. You understand? You are less to me than a bug under my boot and I’ll kill you if I have to.

Harvey laughed. “You go ahead and try.” He turned and walked out laughing all the way down the street.

Ed wasn’t hungry now, but the poor waitress brought his breakfast and it looked pretty good. He had to eat, the time might as well be now and he cut a piece of his rare steak. Nice and bloody, like Harvey’s head would be when Ed was done with him. He continued to eat, all the while thinking of ways to get rid of Harvey. Killing him was the only sure way but he couldn’t do that unless he was publically provoked. And Harvey wasn’t a fool. So Ed would have to find another way.

Time to go to the bank. Ed had hung around the restaurant drinking coffee for as long as he could, then he walked up and down the streets of Tombstone. He kept his eye out for Harvey, but didn’t see him.

Taking a deep breath, and wondering if Lizzie would come, he walked into the bank. John Peterson the bank’s president, came out to greet him.

“Hello, Malcolm, glad you could come in, but where is Lizzie?”

“She decided someone needed to do our chores so she stayed home. We don’t need her to close the paperwork, do we?”

“No, of course not.” He guided Ed to his office. “You’re the one buying the property, and you can put anyone’s name on the deed you wish.”

“Just mine and Lizzie’s.”

“Take a seat.” John pointed at one of the chairs at the round table. He then brought a file to the table with him. “Let’s start with the money. I have a draft here to Mr. Abernathy in the amount of eight thousand dollars. All you have to do is sign here at the bottom.”