Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold (48 page)

Cord walked out of Ephraim’s house that day without a word and in the years since had avoided Hannah with great skill whenever she visited. On the few occasions she caught him, she subjected him to increasingly vituperative attacks in what he recognized was an attempt to provoke a reaction. Occasionally she succeeded.

Once he said, “You’re turning into a viper-tongued shrew,” before walking out.

Another time he had muttered, “A saint couldn’t stand this,” and left.

In the past weeks, however, Cord had given his sister some painful thought. Aside from the fact he was not letting Anne get in the middle of another emotional disaster, if he was now getting along with both his brothers fairly well it was more than time to stop being stubborn about Hannah. He was sure Hannah could be jolted out of the destructive pattern of their recent relationship if he wanted to make the effort. Surprisingly, he did want to. So now he waited, and it wasn’t long.

Hannah’s face was set in grim lines as she approached, and Cord didn’t make the mistake of letting her get the first word in. “So, Hannah, how are you? Frank says things are better.”

It was a jolt all right. Her face contorted, and she sat quickly on the sofa. After a long pause, she chose to respond to this ordinary conversation in the same way.

“I’m fine. Things
are
better. The store is doing better than ever now with Caroline’s husband managing it.”

Jim Reading’s feed and implement store had always made a good profit, but he drank up and gambled away so much money those last years Frank had supported Hannah and her children, including Caroline’s husband. Caroline was the oldest daughter. Cord let all that pass.

Hannah’s mouth was trembling, but she had never been one to avoid hard truths. “Cord. Frank told me what you said - about that fight. If there was any way to take back that slap or the words….” She stopped, too emotional to continue.

“Guess you just did.”

Hannah was still shaky, but she had her own rigid self-control. “And since you’re sitting still for a minute, I’ve never thanked you for what you did about Carnes and those other gamblers. Ephraim’s letter had no effect on them, and I was afraid to tell Frank the truth. Carnes caught Caroline alone one day and frightened her half to death. We never heard another word from any of them after the day you were there. It must have taken you at least a week, what with the ride down and back.”

After Reading’s death, Frank paid all the debts he considered legitimate. Three gamblers in the southern Colorado town had notes for huge sums, supposedly gambling debts, that didn’t look right to Frank, and he refused to pay them. All three men continued to harass Hannah and her family, and Ephraim wrote each a letter, threatening legal action if they didn’t stop.

Cord overheard Frank and Eph discussing it one day and his assessment of the situation had been correct - gambling men weren’t going to back down over a gentle threat like Ephraim’s, and if Frank lost his temper and got involved there was liable to be killing. Cord had a quiet talk with Riley and then disappeared for eight days, riding south and spending a few minutes with each of the three men in turn. It never occurred to him that Hannah would find out.

“What makes you think I had anything to do with your gamblers?”

“A friend of mine saw you go into one saloon. You’re rather distinctive, you know. You and that big ugly horse you insist on riding. There was never another threat after that day.”

Cord ignored the slight to Keeper. “Your friends know about me?”

“You don’t seriously think a woman who has a brother who can throw a knife accurately over a distance most men can’t handle with a pistol doesn’t boast occasionally, do you?”

He made no response, so Hannah made her last confession of the day. “I don’t like admitting I’m wrong any more than anyone else, but I have to tell you after all my assertions to the contrary, you look very distinguished in that suit.”

Cord felt a strong surge of the old affection for this sister. “Yeah, I do, don’t I?”

Hannah relaxed too. “Now tell me the truth about this wife of yours. She seems like a rather delightful creature, but Frank and Ephraim have told me some of the strangest stories.”

“Mm. They’ve been telling her stories too. Had her so scared of you I had to talk her out of staying home today.” Cord felt nothing but the purest pleasure at the trouble he knew these words would cause his brothers. He basely hoped she raked them over coals for hours.

Hannah stiffened perceptibly. “Well, I’m going to have to have quite a talk with those two, but that can wait. Did she really run them out of the old house with a gun the first time they tried to visit you?”

“Ran them out all right. Sounds like they left out a few details. After dinner why don’t you ask her to tell you the whole story of how we got married? She makes a good tale of it. Bet Martha and Judith never heard it all either.”

“All right, I will. How about her - assault - on Ephraim?”

“That. Her father hired some thugs. Supposed to beat me up and drag her home. When it got down to the last one Frank and Eph got in the usual panic about me beating the fool to death and started talking about stopping me with a gun. Eph was holding Anne to keep her out of it. She’d have been right in the middle trying to help otherwise.”

Hannah nodded. Frank and Ephraim had probably told her a fairly accurate version of the story, just put their own twist on things.

“She thought they were going to shoot me. If she’d understood what they were talking about it wouldn’t have made any difference. She’s not in favor of having my skull split with a rifle butt either. So she kneed Eph, ran out, pulled me off. I got mad, grabbed her and drug her over to Eph and reamed him out for letting her go.

“I kind of noticed he was red in the face and hunched over at the time but didn’t pay much mind. If you’d been there you’d have been laughing so hard you couldn’t stand. Best part was when she apologized. Said she only gave him ‘a little tap.’”

Hannah did laugh at this. Enjoying the conversation thoroughly now, she asked about the last incident. “Luke and Pete claim you told them she beat you once. Pounded your back with her fists.”

His nephews were overdue for a hard lesson in discretion Cord thought. Then again, there was no harm telling Hannah as much as he’d told Luke and Pete. “Yeah, she did. I turned my back on her once too often.”

“So what did you do?”

“Turned around.”

She laughed a second time, then leaned forward and kissed his cheek and hugged him. “Well, dear, one thing I know already. That woman has to have something to do with the fact you’re sitting there looking like a cat with cream on his whiskers, and I’m going to love her like a daughter even if she pounds on me.” She went back to the kitchen then, smiling broadly.

Before any of the incredulous witnesses summoned the courage to approach him, Judith came to announce dinner was ready, and Anne was on her heels. She sat next to him, alight with pleasure.

“You were right. She’s very nice. I do like her.” She tipped her head at him in the way that begged for a kiss. “Did she yell at you? We didn’t hear anything in the kitchen.”

“Nope. Got myself some more hugging and kissing.”

“Really? Maybe Frank and Ephraim said nice things about us after all.”

“Sure, babe, maybe they did.”

Frank was giving Judith a thorough kiss across the room under some greenery the family called mistletoe, and Cord found himself wondering why he couldn’t just use the same excuse. Or carry her into an empty room and finish what they’d begun in the barn. He decided against it, and they started sedately for the dining room, but he couldn’t think of one good reason why he couldn’t - or why he shouldn’t.

* * *

Chapter 47

FRANK AND EPHRAIM HAD BOTH
been born in February, about a week apart, so the family always had one big celebration. This year the day chosen was the day of the town’s Valentine’s Day dance. There would be dinner and cake at Ephraim and Martha’s, and then the Bennett clan would attend the dance.

More than seven months pregnant, Anne felt shy about the party and dance. Perhaps she was not yet waddling, but she was feeling heavy and less than graceful. Any excuse at all was enough for Cord to refuse to let her take the two-hour buggy ride to town. He was coddling her so mercilessly it was often hard not to laugh at him, but in the end she took the time to alter another of her Chicago dresses. It was a deep blue-gray velvet, and eliminating the bustle provided enough extra material for a fit. The February day was cloudless with no wind and unseasonably warm, providing Cord no reason not to make the trip. Riley would take care of their stock or send someone.

Dinner was congenial. The cake was a scrumptious success. Not until after the feast did the Bennett men struggle into suits and ties, and the women put on their fancy dresses for the dance.

Cord and Anne dressed in the little bedroom Martha had assigned to them again. Her excuse was that after all these years it was fitting that Gil and Martin do the sleeping on the floor from now on, but Judith gave a knowing smile as Martha spoke the words.

Assurances as to how nice she looked did not lessen Anne’s worries about attending a dance this heavy with child. She could not even finish buttoning the back of her dress. Cord made her feel better when he unbuttoned instead of buttoning three times, but it was his words when they were a little apart from the others on the walk to the town hall that reassured her completely.

“You know, Ti-gress, it’s a good thing the whole town’s afraid of me, or the men would riot when they saw you tonight.”

“Do you lay awake nights thinking of things to say to make me feel good?”

“Lay awake a lot lately. That baby kicks like a wild man.”

It was, of course, a son day. Even if they didn’t mention it for a week, he always knew. And he could avoid the baby’s kicking merely by pulling away from her in the night but was too pleased with the whole process to do anything of the sort.

By the time they got to the hall Anne was beaming. She could dance only the slow dances, but dance she did. People seemed to be stopping by where Cord relaxed in a chair quite frequently whether she was gone or there. As Martin escorted her back towards Cord, the crowd hid him from view until they were on top of him - and Rob. Anne stopped dead barely aware of the polite words Martin spoke before disappearing.

Her brother rose uncertainly to his feet and started to turn away, then visibly straightened and faced her again. “I don’t suppose you’d dance with me if I asked.”

“Why don’t you ask and find out?”

“May I have the honor of the next dance - the next slow dance?”

“Yes.”

Suddenly Cord decided he was thirsty and headed for the punch bowl. She glared at his retreating back. Drat him.

“Can we talk? Until the next slow dance?”

Seating herself, she turned slightly on the chair to face him. “All right, Rob, we’ll talk.”

“You have to know how sorry I am. How ashamed I am that I ever….”

“I do know that. But it’s over, isn’t it? How do you feel now?”

“You know I’ve been seeing him.”

“Luke and Pete tell all.”

Rob told her then how Cord had simply shown up at the Wells house one Sunday afternoon, how he asked Rob if he would help with a Christmas present for Leona. “I told him I didn’t think you’d go along, but he said we’d only do it if you agreed, and he thought you would.”

Cord turned up again unexpectedly with Pete and Luke the next Sunday. Rob had been invited to Weinerts’ for a formal dinner that night and was home alone at loose ends. They had indeed played poker. “I kind of liked him anyway, you know. I just couldn’t admit it even to myself because - well, you know why. That Sunday….” Rob gazed across the room, seeing something not there but inside himself. “I haven’t had so much fun since I was a little kid, Anne. The teasing, the stories. They’re so different from us, from our family. It made me start to think.”

“Is it because of us you aren’t seeing Nancy Lee any more?”

“Yes and no. They never said anything about you when I was around. They acted like I didn’t have a sister. Then that same night after we played poker the first time, there I was. They had a lot of guests and some of them started in about you, about him. They didn’t say anything as bad as I said myself, nowhere near it. It wasn’t that. It was….” He struggled to find words. “I thought Weinerts were everything I wanted. That’s the way I wanted to live, to be, and all of a sudden I was looking around and comparing how, how
pompous
they were with the way the Bennetts were that afternoon. I can’t be like the Bennetts, and I know it, but I don’t want to be like the Weinerts - or like Father either. There has to be something in between for me. Maybe not, but at least I’m going to look around a little and see. So I have to admit, it wasn’t that what they said made me so angry I flew off the handle or anything. I did what I did because I knew it would end it with Nancy Lee, and I wanted out.”

He told them he couldn’t understand why they felt that way about his brother-in-law. He admired Cord and hoped he and Nancy Lee could spend as much time with his sister and her husband as possible.