Allie's Moon (37 page)

Judge Cavanaugh commented sourly, “Two
witnesses have been sworn in this morning, and I have the feeling
that no one has told the truth yet. Mr. Hicks, you sit down right
now. This isn’t a free-for-all, it’s a court of law. We’ll get to
the bottom of this if it takes us till kingdom come!” Then turning
to Allie, he ordered, “Miss Ford, you come up here and be sworn
in.”

He excused Olivia, who left the stand without
sparing her a glance. Terror made Allie feel as if she were running
a gauntlet to reach the chair next to the judge. All eyes in the
room were turned upon her, assessing her. They stared at her as if
they would stone her for fornication, but she also sensed their
hunger for salacious detail. Shame flooded her cheeks with hot
blood. She felt no shame for what had passed between her and Jeff.
But it had been private, to be shared with only him, not a roomful
of people.

After she raised her right hand and promised
to tell the truth, prosecutor Marshall Hastings sauntered up to
her. He wore a faint, smug sneer.

“
Miss Ford, please tell the court how
the defendant came to be on your property in the first
place.”

“
I hired him to make repairs around the
farm, and to plant my kitchen garden.”

“
Isn’t it true that Mr. Hicks, who has
a reputation for chronic public drunkenness, was arrested for
robbing” —here he consulted his papers— “one Farley Wright, and the
sheriff sentenced him to work for you?” His tone was so insulting
and self-satisfied, she wanted to smack him.

“
He took one egg. And he’s not a
drunkard anymore.”

“
Yes or no, Miss Ford.”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“
Apparently he did improve, working for
you. So much so, that you developed, shall we say, a fondness for
Mr. Hicks?”

“
I respect him, yes.”

“
Oh, come now, Miss Ford. That would
seem to be an understatement, in light of your earlier
proclamation. Don’t your feelings run somewhat deeper than
respect?”

Allie looked at Jeff as she spoke, connecting
her gaze with his bottomless green eyes. “I love him. He is a
worthy, honorable man.”

“
And isn’t is safe to assume that those
feelings prejudice your testimony? Are you really willing to throw
away your reputation for a condemned man? Would you brand yourself
as a woman of loose morals, a veritable whore of Babylon, in a
doomed attempt to exonerate him?”

Rapt silence blanketed the saloon. If
circumstances had not been so grave, Allie might have even laughed
at Hastings’ ridiculous attempt to give the small, backward town of
Decker Prairie Babylonian proportions. But nothing about this was
the least bit amusing.

Allie looked at Jeff again and saw love and
emotion brimming in his eyes. Then she leveled a direct, even gaze
on Hastings and lifted her chin. She spoke to the prosecutor, but
raised her voice to carry to every ear in the place. “I would much
rather be known as Jeff Hicks’ whore from this day forward, than to
live with the knowledge that I allowed a gentle, good man, an
innocent man, to be convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. Yes, I
was in his company the night of Cooper Matthews’ murder. And when
Mr. Hicks heard trespassers and went to investigate, he took the
axe with him.”

“
How can you be so certain of that?”
Hastings demanded.

“
I’ve been responsible for our farm and
everything on it since my father became ill years ago. I know which
tools we own and those we don’t. We don’t own a pick. When Sheriff
Mason brought Mr. Hicks out to work for us, he didn’t carry a pick
with him. Not only that, last winter I had Seth Wickwire check the
shovels, the axe, and the rake in the barn for faulty handles. He
took all of them into his father’s store for replacements. Seth
would testify to that, I’m sure. If every merchant we’ve ever done
business with produced our sales records for farm tools, they would
not find one for a pick.”

“
Where, then, did the pick come from
that pierced Cooper Matthew’s skull?” Hastings asked.

“
I saw the empty salt sacks that Floyd
and Cooper left in our destroyed field. I’d say they were split
open with the pick they brought with them.”

“
By God, that’s a dirty lie!” Floyd
exclaimed, jumping up from the bench where he sat. “Hicks had that
pick in his hands when he come out to the field.”

“
I saw it too!” Olivia agreed, her eyes
wild. The insane glint she saw there reminded Allie of the morning
they discovered the dummy. She had charged out of the house like a
she-devil, not the delicate flower she had always pretended to be.
With a blinding flash of insight, Allie suddenly realized that the
taunts might have been true—perhaps there was a crazy Ford sister.
Olivia. But regardless of that, she could not allow Olivia to
condemn Jeff.

Allie looked directly at Floyd first, and
then her sister. “The pick that killed Cooper Matthews belonged
either to Floyd Endicott, or to Cooper himself.” Eyeing Floyd
again, she said, “I’m willing to bet my life that Jeff Hicks didn’t
kill Cooper. And if he didn’t do it, who does that leave? Who had
the motive? Wouldn’t he have been so furious when he learned that
Cooper had cheated him, that he flew into a killing rage?”

In the midst of her nervous righteousness, a
fragment of a memory popped up in Allie’s mind—never look a
threatening animal in the eyes. It will only provoke—

Floyd’s jaw flopped open, revealing gums that
were missing several teeth. “You can’t hang that on me, you
goddamned meddlin’ female!” He lunged across the saloon and
launched himself at Allie. She fell backwards, still in the chair,
with Floyd sitting on her chest, and his hands around her throat.
The man’s face twisted into an angry, frustrated mask. “Cooper was
always sayin’ how stupid I was, an’ how he had all the brains. He
called me names and cheated me out of the money I was supposed to
get—me, the only friend he had. I wasn’t gonna put up with it
anymore—no, sir! He cussed me out again that night for takin’ the
wagon out to the road and leavin’ him to face Hicks. Called me
stupid, again. I seen that pick in the wagon bed—I was just gonna
knock him on his ass. It was just a tap, a little tap! But it went
right through his brain and finished him off! I guess he won’t be
callin’ me stupid no more!”

Panic filled Allie, a gnawing mortal fear
that she would die. Floyd’s filthy hands around her neck were like
iron vises cutting off her air. She couldn’t breathe—God couldn’t
they see she was suffocating? She struggled and tried to lift her
own hands to claw at his, but her arms were trapped under his
knees. In her chest, her heart was screaming for air. Faces. There
were faces behind Floyd’s, fading in and out—there was Jeff with
his arm around the man’s neck, and Will Mason was on the other
side. No air . . . no air. Everyone was talking
at once and yelling, but the sounds began to fade away as if
disappearing into a dark mist. The faces dissolved behind a grainy
black curtain that materialized before Allie’s eyes. Jeff—dear God,
where was he? She couldn’t see him.

She couldn’t see anything.

~~*~*~*~~

As tense as a buggy spring, Jeff sat beside
Althea’s inert form where she lay on Doc Brewster’s examination
table. It smelled of carbolic in here, and faintly, of ether. His
elbows on his knees, he rested his chin on his interlaced fingers
and never took his eyes from her face. He was afraid that if he
did, even for a second, she’d be gone. Jesus, she was so pale and
fragile-looking; except for the wine-colored bruises on her neck,
she looked, well, he dare not let himself even think the word.

He’d carried her in his arms here to the
doctor’s office once they were able to pry Floyd’s hands off her.
Jeff had taken a swing at him, connecting solidly with the man’s
unshaven jaw, and Will Mason had immediately taken Floyd into
custody. Amid the chaos, Judge Cavanaugh had found Jeff not guilty,
and then ordered Will to return after locking up Floyd to charge
Olivia with perjury and obstruction of justice.

Jeff had been keeping vigil by Allie’s side
ever since, and it seemed as if hours had passed. Before going back
to the saloon, the doctor had said she’d be fine, but he also said
she was in shock. Jeff took one of her hands and pressed her
fingers to his lips, terrified by their iciness. He’d never known a
finer, stronger woman, or seen a braver deed than when she strode
through the disapproving crowd at the Liberal Saloon, saying that
she had spent the night with him. He hadn’t wanted her to say that.
He’d wanted to spare her from the ostracism that must surely follow
her admission, especially with that bastard, Marshall Hastings,
roasting her over the open flame of the witness stand. But she
hadn’t faltered or hesitated.

Allie Ford had saved his life, in every
possible way a man’s life could be saved. She’d given him back his
dignity and self-respect, she had faith in him, and in front of the
town of Decker Prairie, had declared her love for him.

“
Allie, honey, please wake up,” he
murmured, trying to swallow the knot of emotion closing his throat.
“I want to tell you how much I love you. Do you know that? I love
you more than I do my own life.”

The long, slender fingers he held in his hand
twitched then. Jeff jumped up and stared into her still face.
“Allie?”

She moaned and turned her head slightly.

“
Allie, it’s Jeff. I’m right here.” He
squeezed her hand. “Can you feel that?”

She squeezed back, and her eyes fluttered
open. She looked puzzled and disoriented, but Jeff grinned with
relief and said a silent prayer of thanks that she’d been restored
to him.

“
What happened?” she asked muzzily. Her
voice was a bit hoarse, no doubt from the way that son of a bitch,
Endicott, had bruised it. Slowly she looked around and a slight
frown creased her brow. “Where is this?”

“
Everything is fine now, honey, just
fine.” He reminded her about Floyd’s attack. “You passed out and I
brought you down here to Doc Brewster’s. How do you
feel?”

“
Kind of achy, like I fell or
something.” Her eyes widened as they cleared. “What about the
trial?”

“
I’m free, Allie. Because you were
brave enough to speak up.”

“
Oh, Jeff, really?” She lifted heavy
arms to hug his neck. They fell back to the table. He scooped her
into his embrace. “But what about Floyd?”

“
Floyd’s in jail and he’ll stand trial
for murdering Cooper. After all, he confessed in front of a couple
of hundred witnesses.”

Her smile was radiant, then it dimmed. “I
wonder what will happen to Olivia.”

Jeff sighed. “It’s time that you stopped
worrying about her. You did more than anyone could expect of you.
Now it’s time for your to live your own life. You have that right.
You have the right to be happy. And, hell, I guess I do, too.” He
pressed his forehead to hers briefly, his eyes closed. “God, when I
think about how close I came to losing everything—we’ll go make a
new start. We can leave, or there’s my land. I’ve still got that.
We could go there.” He kissed her, savoring the feel of her tender
lips beneath his. “What do you say, Allie? Will you be my
wife?”

With a sound that was something between a
giggle and a sob, she threw her arms around his neck. “Yes, Jeff,
yes. I will!”

“
How about a quiet little ceremony
before Judge Cavanaugh leaves town?”

She looked at him, and Jeff saw the love and
devotion on her pretty face. “It sounds perfect!” She hugged him
tighter.

Allie was so happy, she wanted to share it
with the whole world. She would climb to the roof of Wickwire’s and
shout that Jeff Hicks loved her and she loved him. Everyone in town
would gather in the street below and give her gracious applause,
glad that two of Decker Prairie’s least popular citizens had found
joy at last. She almost giggled at the fantasy, as implausible as
it was.

Just then, Doctor Brewster walked into the
examination room. “Well, young lady, I’m glad to see you back among
us again. You gave us quite a scare.”

He looked into Allie’s eyes and had her stand
up to make sure her balance and strength had returned. “Good girl,”
he said, nodding in approval. “In case you didn’t hear, your sister
is in a peck of trouble with the judge.”

Allie gazed up at the doctor. “Is—is he going
to send her to jail?”

“
Bah, no! John Cavanaugh wouldn’t put a
woman in jail for something like perjury. She might wish he had,
though, before long. He sentenced her to work for Mary and Louise
Pratt, for five years. They’ll having her hopping night and day.
And Will Mason has to make sure she serves her time. They might be
old, but as their doctor I can tell you they’re in perfect health,
and I imagine they’ll both outlive that sentence.”

Allie sighed. Five years. Now her sister
would learn what it meant to fetch and carry and wait on someone,
to the extreme. As angry as she was with her sister, Allie was glad
that Olivia wouldn’t be going to jail. But she couldn’t muster one
spark of sympathy over the punishment that had been imposed upon
her.

“
Doc, do you know if the judge is still
down at the Liberal?” Jeff asked, putting his arm around Allie’s
waist.

“
As far as I know. But I wouldn’t think
you’d want to have anymore dealings him for a long
time.”

“
Just the opposite—I need to talk to
him right away, before he leaves.” Jeff smiled and pulled Allie a
bit closer. “I need to see the man about a wedding.”