Heart of the Hawk (12 page)

Chapter 8

“YOU’RE SAFE NOW, Kate,” the man said.

“Safe?” Her voice had risen, sounding nearly like a yelp.

“I heard as soon as I got off the stage that The Hawk had killed Arly, and that he was in here with you right now. I grabbed my carbine and came running.”

“Put that
down
!
No one is safe with you waving that thing around.”

Josh blinked as she issued the order to the man in the fancy suit. People were gathering in the doorway, gaping at the display before them. The man looked uneasy, but didn’t lower the rifle. A lock of sandy brown hair fell forward over his brow, and he flipped it back with a snap of his head, but never took his eyes off Josh.

“Yeah, Mr. Hall,” Luke said, recovering rapidly from his fright, “put it down. Everybody knows what an awful shot you are.”

The man flushed. “Well, maybe I’m not a crack shot, but I backed down The Hawk, didn’t I?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Alex, only because he was afraid you were going to hit Luke!”

Alex, Josh thought. Alexander? The memory came then, of a name painted on a building.

“You’re the lawyer,” he said.

“I am,” the man said proudly.

“You’re also a fool,” Josh said sourly. “If that boy hadn’t been between us, you’d be dead.”

The lawyer held his gaze, hazel eyes unwavering. He was clearly nervous, but he didn’t back away; Josh had to give him credit for that. Hall might not be a crack shot, as he’d said, but he wasn’t short on nerve.

“You expect me to believe that a man of your ilk would stop simply because a boy got in the way?”

“I expect you to believe the evidence of your eyes,” Josh said. “Was there any other reason for me not to drop you where you stood? With witnesses who saw you come charging in here waving that old Sharps around?”

“I would have shot you,” Hall pointed out.

“And it would have been your last act.”

Hall paled. Then a chuckle came from the doorway. “And you woulda missed to boot, Alex,” Marshal Pike said.

Laughter broke out among the group gathered just inside the doorway, a group that had apparently seen the young man heading this way at a run, armed.

“Before you charged in here to rescue the lady, you shoulda made sure she needed it first,” somebody called out from the group. Hall flushed. And at last lowered the carbine to his side.

“You’re a fine lawyer, Alex,” Kate said soothingly. “Isn’t that enough?”

Hall cleared his throat. “Well, yes.” He cast a wary eye at Josh. “But what is he doing here?”

“Working,” Josh answered.

Hall blinked. “Working? Working at what?”

“Sweeping,” Josh said blandly.

Hall looked from Josh to Kate and back. “Sweeping?”

“Is that a habit with lawyers?” Josh asked. “Repeating things?”

Luke laughed, and Hall flushed again. His sheepish expression clearly showed that he realized he’d made a rather embarrassing mistake.

“Come on, Alex, we’ll paint your tonsils with something to wash down that road dust,” Pike said.

The clearly embarrassed young lawyer seized the offer quickly. The group continued to harangue the man, clapping him on the back as they herded him toward the saloon and that promised drink, but with the kind of good humor that spoke of liking, not contempt.

Pike lingered in the doorway for a moment, looking at Josh. “That true? You didn’t fire on account of the boy was in the way?”

Josh shrugged. He wasn’t sure himself why he hadn’t shot the man; it had certainly been his first instinct when Alex had burst into the store with that rifle.

Pike seemed to accept his gesture as an answer. “The reverend’s been saying you’re working here because of killing Arly, and Mrs. Dixon here helping you out.” Josh shrugged again. “That’ll do, for the town folks,” Pike went on. “But you start drawing them in from the territory . . .”

Josh nodded. Pike nodded back, then turned and walked off after the others.

“What did that mean?” Kate asked.

Josh shrugged again. “He was reminding me my welcome here is limited.”

“Why?” she asked. “You were freed, and Luke told me the judge’s order came through on the telegraph, declaring you innocent of murder.”

“No man with my kind of reputation stays welcome in any town for long. Not any town with any kind of lawman, anyway. Pike’s just letting me know I have until the men looking to build their own reputations start showing up.”

She frowned. “But that’s not your fault.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“But Caleb is a fair man—”

“He’s also a good marshal. And a good marshal stops trouble before it starts.”

“But it’s not fair for you to have to leave because of what somebody else does.”

“Worried about me, Kate?” he asked softly, more to see her blush at his use of her name than anything else. She did, prettily. She didn’t seem plain at all at the moment, he thought. Nor had she when she’d been so riled at that lawyer fellow. When she got her blood up, those golden eyes fairly snapped. “That lawyer, he a special friend of yours?”

“Alex?” she said, sounding surprised.

“Aww, he’s sweet on her,” Luke said. “Has been for a long time, but he was too afraid to say anything because of ol’ Arly.”

“Luke!” Kate exclaimed. “Don’t be silly. Of course, he’s not.”

“Then why did he come in here like a Texas brush popper when he thought you needed help?” Josh asked.

Her color deepened and she turned away from him.

“Told ya,” Luke crowed. “Why, he even cozies up to Miss Deborah, ’cause she’s her good friend. Now that that ol’ bastard Arly’s gone, he’ll probably—”

“Lucas Mitchell, that’s enough,” Kate said sharply, turning on the boy. “And I’ll thank you not to use that kind of language!”

Luke stopped, staring at her. Josh didn’t know if Luke’s shock was at her tone, or her use of his full name, which, Josh realized with some chagrin, he’d never asked of the boy. Either way, the boy was startled.

“I’ll not have you calling the dead names under my roof,” she said. “Arly is gone and buried now, and there’s no use in speaking ill of him.”

Luke backed up, blinking rapidly. “Why not? He called me the same thing. Said I was nothin’ more than a catch colt.”

“A . . . what?” Kate asked, in a tone that sounded like she was regretting her irritation with the boy in the face of his obvious hurt.

“It means a colt that comes out of an unplanned breeding,” Josh said bluntly, realizing she was embarrassed, but feeling badly for Luke at the same time. He dug into his pocket and flipped the boy a dime. “Do me a favor, Luke. Go check on Buck for me, and give him a good grooming. I haven’t had time yet today.”

Luke caught the coin, and with a final glance at Kate, turned and ran out of the store.

“Guess we’ve both been a little hard on that boy’s feelings today,” he said.

“I didn’t mean to be. But Arly’s dead. He won’t hurt anyone anymore. Let him rest in peace.”

“As he let you live in peace?” Josh asked softly. He knew it had been the wrong thing to say the moment he saw her eyes. Anger flared again in the golden depths.

“What would you have me say? That he was a mean, brutal, angry man? That’s no surprise to anyone in this town. That he took it out on people smaller and weaker than him? That’s no surprise either. That he only married me because it would make it clear he owned me, so if I ran away he could have me brought back?”

“I doubt that was his only reason,” Josh said, wondering how Arly had reacted to this fire in her. Had it fired him in turn, or had he, as many brutal men did, felt the need to stomp out that courageous spirit? He suspected he already knew the answer to that.

“No,” she agreed, “it wasn’t his only reason. There are decent people in this town who were his customers, and he couldn’t afford to alienate them entirely by openly keeping a whore.”

Josh stiffened. “Don’t say that.”

“Why? What else do you call a woman traded for a pair of boots because she’s the oldest and plainest of four girls, with a father who’s afraid he’ll never be rid of her?”

“Kate, stop.”

She kept on, like a pebble picking up speed as it rolled downhill. “And poor Arly got stuck with her because he was so mean none of the women in town would go near him. He couldn’t be choosy—”

He took a quick step toward her, grabbed her arms, and pulled her around to face him. “Stop it!”

“NO!” She screamed it, and instantly began to fight him fiercely, clawing, kicking, twisting. “No, no more!”

The instant he realized what she meant, he released her and backed up. She backed away until she came up hard against the counter. Then she stood there, staring at him, wild-eyed, her breath coming in short, harsh pants.

“Easy,” he said, holding his hands up and away from her, palms out. “Easy. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not Arly, Kate.”

He saw her bite her lower lip, as if trying to regain control of herself.

“Easy,” he said again, instinctively reverting to the low, soothing tone that had once calmed the girl who had once been his sister Ruthie. “It’s all right. It’s over, Kate. No one will ever hurt you like that again.”

Her breathing slowed, and some of the panic left her eyes. He kept talking.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just wanted you to stop talking like that about yourself.”

She took a deep breath, and he saw her steady herself with a visible effort.

“You’ve had a hard time, Kate. But your father was heartless and your husband just plain evil. There’s no reason for you to believe a word they ever said about you.”

“He . . . hated me. My father. He’s hated me since I was eight years old.”

“Kate—”

“No. I mean it. He hated me ever since I told a lady who asked where we were from that we’d left Virginia when I was a little girl so Pa wouldn’t have to fight in the war.”

Josh winced. “Was it true?”

She nodded. “I know it was. I heard them talking about it when they thought I was asleep.”

“When did . . . this happen?”

“The year after the war ended. We were in Kansas.”

He winced again. In Kansas, a year after the war, blood and emotions had still been running high. He could guess what had happened—a man with obvious Southern speech, who had abandoned his home rather than fight for it, probably amid men who had lost the war but had never surrendered. . . .

“He’s lucky he survived,” Josh said.

“He ran again. That’s why he wanted to get rid of me. My sisters were too little to understand, so they couldn’t tell anyone.”

“Where was your mother?”

Kate smiled, a twisted, dreadful little smile. “Where she always was. In my father’s shadow, hiding, hoping he wouldn’t come after her.”

She was talking again, at least, and not staring at him in that awful, panicked way. That was something, he supposed, even if what she was saying wasn’t very pretty. Again it struck him as so very odd, that of the three of them, himself, Luke, and Kate, he was the one who had had the best life.

“I’m sorry, Kate,” he said softly.

She seemed to come out of it then, coming back to herself with a suddenness that was visible in the widening of her eyes and the embarrassment in her expression.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what made me go on like that, wasting your time with my sorry past.”

“How old are you, Kate?”

A hint of color touched her cheekbones. “I . . . twenty. I know I look older—”

He shook his head. “That’s not why I asked. I just wondered how long you’d survived such a life.”

She lowered her eyes. “Oh.”

“You’re a strong woman.”

She shook her head wearily, without looking at him. “I’m not. If I had been, I’d have found a way to get away from Arly long ago.”

“You tried,” he said. Her head came up sharply. “Luke told me,” he explained. “He also told me what Arly did to you. No wonder you gave up.”

“I didn’t!” Her chin was up, her eyes alive again. Josh let out a silent breath of relief; she was going to be all right. “I never gave up. Never. I started saving again, planning again, as soon as I could.”

“Like I said, you’re a strong woman.”

“I’m going to be,” she said, determination echoing in her voice, “now. I won’t be like my mother, I won’t. No one will ever treat me like I’m nothing again.”

As if impelled by her own words, she drew herself up straight. “I have work to finish,” she said firmly.

He grinned at her, glad beyond what he ever would have expected to be to see the tough, practical Kate back again. “So do I.”

She gave him a businesslike nod and retreated to the storeroom. Josh walked over to the broom that had lain forgotten on the floor during the recent encounter. He frowned to himself as he picked it up. Had he really been so lost in thought that he hadn’t even heard Luke talking to him? True, he’d been preoccupied, but that kind of preoccupation got a man in his line of work killed.