Deborah Camp (18 page)

“You poor thing.”

“I appreciate your concern, but this is a private matter and I’m at work and--.”

“He was a gentleman and timid as a bird. He was lonely when I first saw him and I felt so sorry for him. I could tell he was missing someone real bad.”

Unexpected emotion squeezed her heart and she blinked to hold back tears. Charles had missed her? Charles had been lonely for her? Just as she had yearned for him to return to her and Oliver?

“That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” she admitted. “All anyone else has told me was that he was dancing and having a fine time with Luna Lee.”

“That came later,” she said, still whispering. “First few months, his chin was scraping the ground, he was so low. He’d buy one drink and sip it all night while he listened to Claire sing sad songs. He loved them sad songs.”

Jennie smiled, nodding. “Yes, he was partial to those.”

“Weeks went by and then one night he came in with Luna Lee and she was hanging on him like a cheap suit. I knowed what was going on. Luna has a knack for knowing what a man is lacking and giving it to him. He was a moth to her flame.”

Now we’re back to that, Jennie thought, not interested in hearing anything else about how smitten her husband had been with Luna. She pasted a polite smile on her lips and smoothed her hands down her apron front. “Yes, others have told me about that. Is there anything else I can help you find in the store?”

“Things changed again after they got married,” Ruby said as if Jennie hadn’t even spoken. “He got sad again. Dragged hisself into the saloon without Luna and wanted to listen to more heartbreaking songs. I asked him once, ‘Honey, what’s got you so down? You’re a newlywed, ain’t ya’?’ And you know what he told me?”

“What?” Jennie asked, halfway afraid of the answer.

“He said that he had sinned and was going to hell.”

The answer rocked her back on her heels. She wasn’t sure she believed the woman. Charles had never been one to talk much about heaven and hell or of sin and redemption.

“That’s what he said,” Ruby confirmed, evidently reading the disbelief on her face. “I told him that everyone sinned now and then and he shouldn’t kick himself too much about it. But he said – and he had tears in his eyes, I swear he did – he said that he would never be forgiven or forgive hisself. I felt sorry for him. Then when I heard about you and all, I understood what he was talking about that night.”

With some difficulty, Jennie gathered her wits about her and gave her a sincere smile. “Thank you for taking the time to seek me out and share this with me –.”

“Ruby.”

She nodded, finding it odd to call this stranger by her first name. “Ruby.”

“I’m glad to do it. It just kept eating at me, like I said. I would see you every once in awhile around town, sometimes with your little boy, and I wanted to pucker up and bawl.”

“That’s very kind of you.” Jennie marveled that this woman she didn’t know had felt such sympathy for her and Oliver. She had thought all this time that many of the people on the streets of Guthrie were snickering at her for being a blind fool. But this woman had changed her opinion. Perhaps people actually were on her side and felt she was a wronged party in a sordid affair of which she’d had no knowledge. “It means more to me than I can say.”

“Glad to do it,” Ruby said, then leaned closer still to whisper, “You got a precious little boy. I bet you’re mighty proud of him.”

“I am,” Jennie said, almost choking on her tears. “As was his father.”

#

Oliver sat tall in the saddle and grinned from ear to ear as he reined his mount to a stop right in front of where Zach was standing in the corral behind Jesse’s City Stables. After three riding lessons, he was handling the horse with ease and no sign of fear or trepidation.

“That’s the way to do it, pard,” Zach praised him, lifting one gloved hand to stroke the horse’s white-blazed face. “What do you think, Diamond? Is he ready to learn how to rope a calf.”

Oliver bobbed up and down in the saddle, making Zach laugh. “Yes, yes! Let’s start now!”

“We’ve done enough for today. Your mama is expecting you home for supper, so we need to shake a spur. Get on down and let’s unsaddle her and give her a brushing and some feed.”

Crestfallen, Oliver swung a leg over and slid to the ground. “Come on, Diamond,” he said in a “woe-is-me tone.” Zach tried not to laugh aloud as he followed Oliver and Diamond into the stables and to one of the two stalls Zach leased for his horses. The boy was a quick learner and he was proud of him. He never showed fear and he was gentle with the horse. Zach figured he would learn how to rope as quickly as he had taken to the saddle.

He was seeing more and more of Jennie in Oliver. The things he said and the way he said them. The way he set his jaw when he didn’t like what he heard or saw was just like his mother. He had a big, soft heart like her, too.

Oliver upturned a bucket, stood on it, and began loosening the cinches. Zach removed Diamond’s bridle and then helped Oliver lift the saddle off and set it on the saddle tree. Even though they had done this routine together only a few times, they moved as if they had saddled and unsaddled horses for years. Oliver tugged off the saddle blanket gave it to Zach to fold as Zach handed Oliver a brush. While Oliver brushed Diamond, Zach poured some oats into the feed trough for the horse.

“Mr. Warner?”

Zach looked around the horse to see what Oliver needed. The boy nodded toward the stall door. Inez Rainwater stood outside the stall, her dark eyes glinting as she rocked nervously from foot to foot. Moving around the horse, Zach paused to rest a hand on Oliver’s shoulder.

“I need to speak to this lady. You finish up, partner, and I’ll take you home.”

“Okay.”

Not bothering to hide his surprise and curiosity, Zach nodded a greeting to Inez. “Are you looking for me?”

“Yes, Mr. Warner. I hope you don’t mind. I wanted to talk to you without anybody nosing around or seeing us.”

He glanced around. “We’re alone here. Is there a problem I can help you with?”

“I have something to tell you about Mrs. Bishop.”

She was talking so low that Zach had to crane forward to catch her words. His heart kicked when he realized she was about to tell him something that could obviously get her into trouble if Luna found out about it. Why else would she be here?

“I’m listening,” he said.

“I heard you and her arguing the other day at the house.”

“You were hanging out laundry,” Zach said. “I’m sorry if that upset you. I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

“She can drive any man to it,” Inez said, her eyes snapping.

Zach smiled and waited. Let her talk, he told himself. It’s her show.

“The judge, he hired me. He’s good to me. She is never happy with anything I do. I am a dog to her.”

His anticipation began to wane. She was here to complain about Luna as an employer, that was all. Shifting his weight to one foot, he drew in a deep breath and resigned himself to hearing a litany of how Luna didn’t appreciate a good maid.

“I am not the dog.”

“Of course you aren’t.”

“She is the one who barks. All the time, she barks at me.”

Zach looked over his shoulder to make sure Oliver was doing all right. The boy stood on the bucket and ran the brush through Diamond’s black mane.

“The judge is so good to me. He deserves to be treated with respect because that is how he treats people.”

“Judge Bishop is a good man,” Zach agreed, turning back to face her.

“He’s smart, too.”

“Very.” Zach shrugged. “He was a judge for many years before retiring.”

“So, I think he must know that she wasn’t really married.”

His mind suddenly sharpened to a razor edge. “What? Why would you say that?”

“That Hastings man married too soon. He wed Luna four months after he got his divorce.”

“What makes you think that?”

She tapped a finger against her temple. “When I got divorced, you told me I could not marry for six months.” She tapped her temple again and narrowed her eyes to slits. “I remember because I think that I will never marry again, so I didn’t care about that. But Luna and that man, they married before six months was up.”

Zach tried to get his head around what she was claiming. “He divorced Jennie Hastings so that he could marry Luna.”

“When I decided to divorce my husband, I went to the court to see how it was done. One of the days I was there, that Hastings man was there getting his divorce. Luna was there, too, but she didn’t go near him in the courthouse. I saw her looking at him, though, and giving him a wink now and then. Later, I saw them hugging each other outside.”

Zach was gripping her upper arms and leaning into her face before he even realized he’d moved. “Are you sure about this, Inez?”

“I was in that courthouse in March. I know because my birthday is the twelfth of March and my husband forgot all about it and stayed out all night and came home the next day smelling like whiskey and cheap perfume. The day after that, I go to the court to see what this divorce is all about. That’s when I saw you, too. I saw you fighting like a cougar for the women.” She grinned and her dark eyes sparkled in the dimming light in the stables. “That Hastings man, he married Luna in June, yes? That’s what the judge told me. In June, and that man left Guthrie and her the very next month.”

Listening closely, he checked off the information she delivered, one by one. If she was right, and she was crafting a mighty good case, then this might be the loophole he’d been praying for. He caught himself nodding, speechless for a few moments. “You think the judge knows about this?”

She spread out her hands in a wide shrug. “How could he not? He is smarter than me and I know about it.”

Before he could stop himself, he kissed her forehead before he let her go. “Inez, you are an angel in disguise. I’ll check on this, and if you’re right, you might have just given that boy in there and his mother one hundred and sixty acres and a home.”

Inez ducked her head. “You helped me, so now I help you.”

Zach rested a hand on her shoulder and she looked up again. “That’s what friends do for each other and I count you as a friend, Inez Rainwater.”

She dipped her head again, but not before he saw her smile from ear to ear. “I have to go,” she whispered, then hurried away.

Zach turned around to Oliver, who had climbed off the bucket and was now sitting on the saddle and pretending he was riding the range. He felt like he might burst. He wanted to take Oliver to the boarding house and tell Jennie about Inez Rainwater’s amazing revelation. But he couldn’t. He had to do some research first to see if Inez’s theory held up. No use getting Jennie’s hopes soaring only to find out that Inez was wrong about her dates.

But if he was a betting man – and he was – he would bet the farm that Inez Rainwater’s memory was as true as the North Star.

Chapter 14

Sitting in the buggy she had borrowed from Gloria Philpot, Jennie felt a peace steal over her as she gazed at the gently undulating land and the small, tidy house in the distance. The brown pony pawed at the dirt road and flicked his tail at blue flies. Since Zach had shown her the land, she had borrowed Mrs. Philpot’s buggy twice to come back to admire the ranch. After a week of ups and downs, she had asked Mrs. Philpot again for the horse and buggy as a way to soothe her nerves.

“Why are we just sitting here, Mama?” Oliver asked.

Continuing her study of every tree, every patch of wildflowers, and every fleeting shadow as the sun and clouds played hide-and-seek, Jennie placed an arm around Oliver’s shoulders and hugged him closer to her side. “I like to come out here and look at the land your papa bought. It’s so pretty, isn’t it? See that half-circle of trees behind the house? And look at that big patch of sunflowers by the fence.”

“Are we going into the house this time?”

“No. We can’t be on the property. It’s not ours – yet.”

“But it will be soon, won’t it?”

“It will be yours someday, I hope, Oliver. That’s what Mr. Warner and I are trying to arrange.” She glanced down at him and saw him heave a sigh and stick out his bottom lip. Laughing, she tickled him. “Do you think your mama is a silly goose to come out here and sit and look at the land and the house?”

“Stop, stop,” he said, giggling as she continued her tickling attack.

“Okay.” She kissed his cheek and gathered up the reins. “I suppose we should get back to town.” But the land drew her attention again and she let the reins go slack in her lap. “Look at that hawk, Ollie. How beautiful.”

“Somebody is on the porch, Mama.”

Her gaze snapped from the hawk to the porch where a man now stood, naked from the waist up. He stretched, then shaded his eyes and looked in their direction. Flustered, Jennie snatched up the reins and tugged, the pony into a tight turn. Panic bubbled in her and she told herself to calm down, even as she looked over her shoulder to make sure the man was still on the porch and not coming toward them across the field. He wasn’t on the porch anymore.

“Where did he go?”

“Back inside.”

He’s getting a gun or rifle to shoot at us!
her mind screamed at her. She urged the pony to continue turning, finally getting the buggy headed back toward town. Looking over her shoulder again, she couldn’t see anyone, and she puffed out a breath as she laid the reins over the horse’s back.

“Getup, getup,” she said, and the pony cantered.

“What’s wrong, Mama?”

“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. We’re going back home, that’s all.”

“Are you afraid of that man on the porch?”

“Afraid?” She laughed, and then realized that the laugh was stilted and her tone had crept up an octave. Oliver was looking at her with wide eyes and a worried frown. “Of course not, Oliver.” She ruffled his hair. “We need to get the buggy back to Mrs. Philpot. It will be time for supper before you know it.” She gave herself a minute to settle her frazzled nerves before she spoke again. “How are your riding lessons coming along?”

“I’m going to rope cattle soon.”

“Oh my! Really? You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

“Mr. Warner says we will rope barrels and fence posts first.”

“That’s good. Do you have fun with Mr. Warner?”

“He knows everything, Mama. How to ride, rope, brand, and spit.”

“S-spit? Oliver, it’s not polite to spit in public. You know that, don’t you?”

“Mr. Warner told me that already, Mama. But a man has to know how to spit anyways.”

“He does?” She glanced at him and saw that he was completely serious. She shrugged, figuring it was some kind of male ritual.

“Mr. Warner says I can call him ‘Partner.’”

“Is that what you want to call him?”

He nodded vigorously. “We call each other that.” Thrusting out his small chest, he tucked his chin and said in a deeper voice, “
Pahrrrdnerrr.”

Jennie laughed at his exaggerated drawl and Oliver laughed with her. “You’re turning into a cowboy right before my eyes.”

“By the time we move into our ranch, I will be riding and roping.”

“You’re learning very fast.”

“Mama, did Papa have another wife?”

The joy vanished from her. From the corner of her eye, she could see Oliver gazing intently at her. Her first inclination was to fib, but she couldn’t do that to Oliver or to her own sense of decency. “Yes. Yes, he did.”

“But he didn’t have another little boy, did he?”

She bit her lip to keep from sobbing and shook her head. Tears blurred her vision and she blinked them away and swallowed the rest of them.

“Why did he need another wife?”

“I don’t know for sure, Oliver. The important thing is that you were his only child and he loved you very, very much.”

He gave a quick shrug. “Okay.”

Jennie smiled, loving the simplicity of innocence. Something brown flashed to the right of them. “Look, Ollie, a deer!”

“Two of them, Mama!”

“Oh, yes. It’s a stag and a doe.”

“Do you think they’re married, Mama?”

“Deer don’t marry, but it seems they are a couple.”

“Is Mr. Warner married?”

“No.”

“Maybe he will marry you, Mama. Could he do that?”

The question almost took her breath away. She glanced up at the sky, seeking guidance. “He could, I suppose.”

“Then he would live with us, wouldn’t he?”

“That’s how it works, yes. But just because he could marry me, doesn’t mean he will, Oliver. And I don’t want you talking to him about it. Do you hear me? It will make him uncomfortable.”

“I think it would be fun to all live together. We could find someplace with more than one room.”

Jennie laughed and handed the reins over to him as a diversion. “You take the reins until we get to town.”

“Okay!”

Good, she thought. It worked. For the rest of the ride back to town, she kept him occupied by pointing out butterflies, goats, and long-horned steer.

Tapping on Adam’s office door, Zach waited for him to look up from the papers scattered on his desk before he walked in. “Got a few minutes for me?”

Adam motioned to the chairs in front of the desk. “What’s on your mind? Something with a case?”

“Yes.” He sat down, feeling weary and sleep-deprived.

“You look like you’ve been rolled over by the trouble and toil wagon.”

Normally, he would smile, but nothing seemed normal today. “I have been sorting through courthouse documents and I want you to look at a few of them.”

“Be glad to.” Adam shoved aside the papers he’d been working on. “Which case is this about?”

“Jennie’s.” He passed over the first sheet of paper. “Here is Charles Hastings’ divorce decree, signed by Judge Enos Olson.”

Adam took the document and glanced at it. “So it is.”

“This is another divorce decree signed by Judge Enos Olson.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed as he took the next document and glanced at it. “Okay.”

“And here is one more divorce decree signed by Judge Enos Olson.”

Adam reached for it, but his gaze was still held by the second document. Slowly, he shifted his attention to the third one, then back to the second one, and then he stared at the first one. Zach nodded, knowing exactly what puzzled Adam and the realization that would soon burst like a bubble in his whirring mind.

“Zach, these signatures are – not the same.” He held up the Hastings document and one of the others. “They are not even that close. The writing on Hastings’ is up and down and a little shaky, but Olson’s signature on these two is slanted to the left and steady as ticking clock.”

Leaning back in the chair, Zach tipped his head back and closed his eyes, satisfied that he had hooked a fish. “And we both know what that means.”

“Have you showed this to Judge Olson?”

“No, I haven’t discussed this with anyone except you. I don’t know if I should go to Judge Olson or Judge Bishop first.”

“Who do you think tried to forge the signature on Hastings’ decree and why?”

Zach sat up and stared at Adam. “You’re pulling my leg, right?”

Adam shook his head. He removed his glasses and cleaned the lens with his handkerchief.

Zach sighed. Adam still wasn’t seeing the big picture. “Judge Bishop did it, Adam.”

“But why?”

“Because Charles Hastings was not divorced six months before he married Luna.”

“How did you leap to that conclusion?”

“Inez Rainwater tipped me off. I looked it up in the court records, Adam. The court docket shows that Hastings was in court for his divorce hearing on March 15 and his divorce was granted that day. He and Luna married in June.”

“To hell you say,” he murmured, staring at the papers again. “If this is true, then that land has never belonged to Luna.”

“Any fool can see that the signatures on those documents don’t match. When Judge Olson sees them, he will blow his top.”

“Judge Bishop could go to jail for this.”

“I don’t think that will happen, though. He’ll be fined, probably and have his privileges revoked.”

“Maybe he had nothing to do with this,” Adam said “Maybe Luna paid off a court clerk or office worker to file the phony document and get rid of the real one.”

“My gut tells me it was the judge and that Luna put him up to it. That’s why they are holding on to that land like it was a damned gold mine.”

Adam nodded. “They paid dearly for it.”

“Yeah, they broke the law for it. I think Luna wanted to get something out of her marriage to Hastings and the land was it. I think I will spring this on Judge Bishop and see how he reacts. Who knows? He might blurt out a confession because it’s been weighing on him.”

“Let’s think about this.” Adam patted the air in front of him.

“I have been thinking about it. All night. I’m going to tell Judge Olson about it, but I think I should use this weapon on Judge Bishop first to see what he has to say for himself.”

“When are you going to tell Jennie about it?”

“After I talk to the judges and see what happens. Once I tell her, she will think it’s a gift that all she has to do is unwrap and the land will be hers.”

“And it’s not that easy,” Adam added for him.

“Nothing is easy with it comes to Jennie Hastings.”

“Oh? Is she giving you trouble?”

“Nothing but.” Zach looked away from Adam, gathering his resolve to come clean.

“I thought you two were getting along.”

“We are. That’s the trouble.”

Adam studied him for a few moments, then ran a finger around his collar, pulling it away from his neck. “I don’t think I want to hear this.”

“Adam, I’ve never had a problem keeping things cordial and proper with our clients, even though a couple of them have tested my endurance, but she’s different.”

“Are you in love with her?”

Zach shifted in the chair, despising that question. “Hell, who knows? What I do know is that I don’t want to keep my hands off her and I can’t keep her off my mind.”

“I was worried when you started spending time with her son. I told Bert that was a bad idea, but she told me I was being a curmudgeon.”

“I admit I’m fond of the boy. He’s starving for male attention. He’s at the age that he needs a man around to mirror.”

“You want to be that man on a permanent basis?”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to take it that far —.”

“Zach, you need to think long and hard about this. You don’t want to hurt that child by making him think you’re going to be his new papa and then drop him like a hot rock.” He lifted his hands to stop Zach from speaking. “You are at a serious juncture in this case and you don’t need any missteps. Put aside your manly stirrings and concentrate on how you’re going to handle this information you’ve uncovered.”

“I promised her I would talk to you about us.”

Adam’s brows shot up. “You’re making promises to her?”

“I want to do right by her, Adam. I’m serious. She and the boy have gotten under my skin, I guess.” He stood and paced. “One Sunday I took her out to the land Hastings bought so she could see it for herself.” He stopped and faced Adam. “You should have seen her. The way she looked at the land and the house – it was like she was staring at heaven. I realized then just how deeply Hastings hurt her. The land had been her dream, her way out of a life she was desperate to leave. He not only stole that from her, he also made her question everything he ever said to her and every promise he ever made to her. I loathe that cowardly bastard.” He swallowed hard, hearing the primal growl in his voice.

“You have represented many women who were steeped in sorrow and bleeding from broken promises, Zach,” Adam gently reminded him.

“I know, I know.” He ran a hand along the back of his neck. “I told her that I thought it was best if we didn’t continue our … that we wait until the case is resolved.”

“That is an excellent plan, Zach.”

Zach shrugged. “The best way to keep your word is to not give it foolishly. I’m not saying I will deprive myself of her company. I can have good intentions and they all fall away when I’m in the same room with her.”

“I do believe that you’re in love with her,” Adam said, obviously astounded. “You might still be denying it, but let me give you some advice. You’ll make more progress if you get out of your own way.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Adam leaned forward, fixing Zach with a serious, unwavering gaze. “It means that as your law partner I would prefer that you keep your relationship with Jennie Hastings strictly professional. But as your friend, Zach, I think it’s time for you to quit preaching a sermon about how deep, abiding love is for nitwits, and simply let your heart guide you.” He cleared his throat, gathered the documents, and handed them back to Zach. “Don’t drag your feet showing these to Chief Justice Olson. He deserves to know that he has been the victim of fraud.”

Zach nodded. “I’ll handle this like it’s a stick of it dynamite.”

“That, my friend, is an excellent analogy, because if you’re not careful it could blow up in your face.”

Knocking at the front door of the Bishop house, Zach dreaded seeing Luna again, but this visit was necessary. He had to talk to the judge. After leaving the office, he’d headed to Second and Harrison where the Blue Belle beaconed. After a quick drink and a game of darts, he knew what he’d say to the judge about what he’d learned. Now he wished he’d had one more stiff drink.