Last Promise (16 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Luke headed to the telegraph office to send Colt a message. He started to leave, but decided to send one more telegram. When he was finished, he met up with the other men and they walked to the sheriff's office. They confronted the sheriff with the rumors they'd heard about him and Arina. He denied having a relationship with Arina, swearing he'd only seen her in town a few times.

They finished questioning the sheriff and when they left they saw the judge walking into the saloon. At first, Judge Rivers was not forthcoming about the nature of his relationship with Arina, but after they plied him with whiskey, he became more talkative. He insisted his relationship with Arina was strictly platonic. He said he hadn't heard the rumors that Arina was seeing other men while Sam was alive, and he wouldn't have listened to the gossip. He also told them that he knew Sam, and he had never heard an ill word spoken about the man.

Luke thought the judge genuinely liked Arina. When he talked about her his whole demeanor changed and his face lit up. Not many people had good things to say about her, but the judge was one of them. But to be fair to the judge, Luke had to admit he also spoke highly of Sam.

The judge pointed out three men in the saloon who worked for Sam, so Luke spent some time talking to them. The three men did not share the judge's opinion of Arina. They admitted they heard the gossip she was seeing another man, but no one could give them a name. They also insinuated the judge's relationship with her seemed more than neighborly.

“You know, Luke, the way Arina was throwing herself at you I think it was her intent to make you her next husband. That would have been the best of both worlds, she'd have the mine and a younger man,” Jake told him when they left the saloon.

“Yeah and I wonder how she would have eliminated me,” Luke replied.

“I don't think she likes men,” Cole said.

Luke, Jake, and Rafe stared at him in disbelief. “Well, if she doesn't she sure spends a lot of time with them,” Rafe said.

“I know. But if she really liked men don't you think she could settle down with one who treated her well?” Cole questioned.

“You may have a point,” Luke said.

“We still need to find the man she was seeing before Thomas, if he wasn't the one helping her,” Jake told them.

* * *

Mary Ann sat down at a table in the corner of the restaurant and opened the letter she had dreaded receiving.

Victoria walked into the hotel and saw Mary Ann sitting at a table in the restaurant looking very sad. She walked toward her but stopped when she saw Mary Ann wipe tears from her face. Victoria didn't want to intrude on her, yet she couldn't help thinking she might need to talk with a friend.

“May I sit down?” Victoria asked.

Mary Ann was surprised to see Victoria standing there. “Of course. Shall I get you some tea?”

“No, Colt will be coming for me soon, he may want something then. I came ahead to give you this.” She handed Mary Ann a piece of paper. “It's a telegram from Luke.”

“What does it say?”

“I don't know, it's for you. He sent Colt one as well.” Victoria watched as Mary Ann tentatively unfolded the paper. A sad smile crossed her face as she read. “Are you okay?”

Mary Ann picked up the letter and handed it to Victoria. “I received this from Mother. “Now, I fear all of my plans will be for naught.”

After Victoria read the letter she placed it aside. “They cannot force you back to England, or to marry this Edmund! If he comes here tell him you refuse to go back if you don't want to go.”

“It's not so simple. Things are so different in England. Everyone expects us to marry.”

She sounded so dejected that Victoria didn't know what to say. “Did Luke have good news?”

Mary Ann opened the telegram and placed it on the table. Victoria glanced down and saw three words.
I miss you
.

“That is sweet of him. Luke's a man of few words.”

Her comment made Mary Ann smile. “He's talkative enough when he's making promises to women. When I first came here every time I saw him he was making a promise to a different woman. Usually he was promising to show them a good time.”

Victoria laughed. “Luke is a unique man. He has a real appreciation for women. He will be the first one to notice if Promise or I change our hair, or if we are wearing a new dress. We always ask his opinion when we are selecting a new hat. As a matter of fact, he told us about the beautiful pink hat you were wearing the first day he saw you. He said you were the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.”

“Really?” She didn't know why that surprised her. He had told her several times he thought she was beautiful, but she thought he probably said the same thing to all women. She'd never expected him to discuss her with his family.

“He's never said such things about another woman.”

“I find that difficult to believe considering the way he flirts.”

“It is true. I've never seen him so taken with another woman.”

“It's flattering to be sure, but it will make no difference.” She pointed to the letter. “It looks like I will be going back to England.”

“Don't let your father determine your future.” Victoria didn't know if she should say more, but she couldn't resist. “Do you care for Luke?”

Since Luke had been gone she could think of nothing else. She'd never felt the way she did when she was in his arms, or when he was kissing her. From the first day she saw him, her feelings had vacillated between indignation over his behavior with women and a desire to be the woman wrapped in his arms. “I'm enamored with Luke, but I'm not certain he is husband material.”

* * *

Luke and Jake were on Sam's ranch talking to some of his men about Arina. One man told them Arina had mentioned she couldn't wait to get rid of her husband. She told him Sam was too old and she didn't want to be tied down to him forever. Still, she hadn't approached him to murder her husband. But every man on the ranch seemed to think it could easily have been Arina who pulled the trigger on Sam. They all felt she was a woman with few scruples.

One man told them he saw her with a man at the lake on the ranch a few times, but he couldn't identify the man.

“If you were so far away, how did you know it was Arina?” Luke asked.

“You've seen her. Do you think I wouldn't recognize her body a mile away?” the man replied. “The man had his back to me.”

Before they rode back to town, Luke and Jake decided to ride to the lake. They didn't expect to see anything, but as Jake had learned as a Marshal, sometimes you just got lucky when you weren't expecting it. They were talking about home and barely paying attention to their surroundings when they rode around the bend of the lake. Luke glanced ahead and saw two saddled horses standing at the water's edge a few hundred yards away. He motioned to Jake and they slowly backed up their horses to a copse of trees, all the while scanning the area for the riders.

Luke spotted two people walking toward the horses. “Can you see them?”

“Yeah.”

“It's Arina, but I can't make out who the man is. Maybe it's her new husband.”

“I don't think so, he's not tall enough. Let's ride in slow, maybe they won't notice us,” Jake suggested.

Luke leaned closer to his brother. “Are you sure you just don't want to get a good look at Arina if she has her clothes off? I'm going to tell Promise.”

“I'll tell Mary Ann,” Jake replied.

Luke stared at his brother. How did he know he had feelings for Mary Ann?

“Don't look so shocked, little brother. Any fool could see she has you chasing your tail.”

On that point, he could agree. He winked at Jake. “I won't tell if you don't.” Together they moved slowly in the direction of the couple by the water.

They hadn't expected the man with Arina would be the judge. By the look on the judge's face, he was equally surprised to see them. True to form, it didn't seem to concern Arina one way or the other. It looked as though they'd caught the two of them in the middle of an argument.

“Does your new husband know where you are?” Luke asked.

“New husband?” the judge repeated, and grabbed Arina by the arm, whirling her around to face him.

“Looks like you let the cat out of the bag, Luke,” Jake said. He glanced at the judge. “You mean she didn't tell you she got married?”

The judge was not only surprised, he was angry. “Arina?”

Arina pulled away from his bruising grip. “It's true, I got married. I came out here to tell you.”

“She married her new foreman, Creed Thomas.” Luke wondered why this news upset the judge if his relationship with Arina was simply platonic.

“But why? I thought you didn't want to be married,” the judge asked.

Arina's impatience with him was evident. “You didn't want me working in a saloon.”

“What does Thomas have that you need? You have the ranch now. There's no need to marry another man you don't love,” the judge said.

She didn't respond to the judge's question. Instead she turned her attention on Luke. “Now why are you here?”

“Just waiting for you to slip up.”

She walked to get her horse. Once she was in the saddle, she turned to Luke. “As he said, this is my ranch now and you are trespassing. Get off my land.”

Luke watched the judge as he grappled with the news of Arina's nuptials.

“Why is her marriage so upsetting to you if you are not involved with her?” Luke asked.

Running his fingers through his white hair, the judge just shook his head, but he didn't answer the question.

“I have a feeling you haven't been honest with us about your relationship with Arina. Are you the man she has been seeing in secret?” Jake asked.

The judge looked appalled. “Of course not. I'm her father.”

Chapter Seventeen

Luke and Jake rode to town with the judge and listened to his story. The judge told them he'd been married when he was a young man studying law. His wife died giving birth to a daughter and in his grief he didn't think he was capable of raising a baby alone. He relinquished the care of his daughter to his sister and her husband.

“I left town and never went back. That little girl grew up and never knew her real father. My sister and brother-in-law provided for her quite well, and I sent them money to supplement her care. They weren't wealthy people, but they had a comfortable home and they loved her as one of their own. Over the years I received letters from my sister telling me my child was lovely, but very troubled and they were unable to handle her wild ways. When she was thirteen she ran away from home and they never saw her again.” The pain of the past was evident in the judge's voice.

“How did you find her?” Luke asked.

“I didn't, she found me two years ago. I was in Denver and she came to see me and told me she was my daughter. All of those intervening years, we didn't know where she was or what happened to her,” the judge explained.

“Did she say why she wanted to see you after all this time?” Luke asked.

“She said she was always curious about me, and wanted to know why I didn't love her enough to ever visit.”

The judge was quiet for a minute. Luke and Jake could tell he was trying to control his emotions.

“She made it sound like her life was terrible with my sister and she blamed me. I wrote my brother-in-law and asked about Arina's accusations, but he said they weren't true. He said Arina never told the truth. It didn't really matter since Arina blamed me for leaving. Rightly so.”

“Did you bring her to Arizona?”

“It took me some time to talk her into coming here. I tried to make up for all of the things I should have done for her. She was working in a saloon, and I took her out of there, bought her a new wardrobe so she would look like a lady. I told her I would buy her a home here in Arizona and she could start over. She had already met Sam in Denver, and when she came here she married him. She didn't need the home I offered, but I continued to give her money.”

“Did she say where she had been all of these years since she ran away from home?” Jake asked.

“She wouldn't talk about her past other than to blame me. She said it brought back too many sad memories.”

When they reached town, they stopped at the judge's office. The judge dismounted but he didn't move. “I've done a lot wrong in my life, I shouldn't have left her. My sister died never knowing what happened to her and I know she loved that girl. I'll regret that the rest of my life.”

* * *

When Luke and Jake met up with Cole and Rafe, Rafe had news about the woman who'd poisoned her husband in Santa Fe. He'd received a telegram with a description of the woman and it seemed to match Arina.

“But with those general descriptions it would probably match a few women in this town alone,” Luke said.

“Maybe, if there are a few beautiful women in this town, but they are sending me a likeness of her by stagecoach. We'll have to wait, but at least we're going to know if it is her or not,” Rafe told them.

“You mean she was photographed?” Jake asked.

“A photographer was traveling through Santa Fe and he photographed the women in the saloon where she worked.”

Luke wanted to leave Arizona soon, but he couldn't leave before he knew if that was Arina in the photograph. “If it's Arina in the photograph, the judge is sure to be devastated.”

“Yeah,” Jake agreed.

Luke explained the judge's relationship with Arina to Cole and Rafe.

“Well, if that don't beat all,” Cole said. “I sure never expected that.”

“Since their relationship wasn't what everyone was gossiping about, maybe she's not involved with anyone,” Rafe said.

“By the way Arina was acting in Wyoming, I'd bet there was another man,” Luke said.

“Yeah, she had taken Thomas to her bed before she even knew she was a widow,” Jake said. “Maybe they are both lying and they'd been together all along, before Sam's death.”

As much as Luke didn't like Thomas, he thought he'd been telling the truth about the first time he was with Arina. “I guess waiting on the likeness will give us more time to see if we can find the man if there was one.” He wasn't happy about waiting, but he didn't want to leave with unanswered questions. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about going home and seeing Mary Ann.

“Well, as my pa always said,
where there's smoke, there's fire
,” Cole said.

“I agree. I wouldn't trust that woman out of my sight,” Luke replied.

* * *

Mary Ann listened to the piano music from the saloon, a nightly ritual as sleep was eluding her lately. Luke had been away for so long that she wondered if he would ever return. She hadn't heard anything from him other than those three little words,
I miss you
. She'd read his telegram so many times, trying to read between the lines, but always ended up with more questions than answers. Victoria had told her that the McBride brothers were known to be men of few words. That statement certainly applied to Luke. She worried he'd fallen under Arina's spell. It would be hard to compete with such a worldly woman. Victoria said Luke had felt responsible to look after Arina because she was the wife of his partner, and that they weren't involved. She wasn't so sure Victoria was right on that score. Even if she was right, with Arina's husband dead and buried, Luke had no reason to stay away from her now. But what would happen if he did come back without Arina? Now that her father was on his way to Wyoming she could never have a relationship with Luke. Her mother was right, it was her duty to marry Edmund Stafford. Her mother didn't come out and say the marriage would help the estate, but she knew it was the reason her father was so determined to find her. What would happen to the family estate if she didn't marry Edmund? Even knowing what the future held for her, it didn't lessen her desire to see Luke once again. She longed to feel his lips on hers, feel his strong, hard body holding her. These emotions were new to her, and no matter how she tried, she couldn't erase them from her memory. It saddened her to know she would never again feel like this once she was married to Edmund. Could a woman live her life with one man knowing she was in love with another? She had to find a way to get Luke McBride out of her mind for good.

She walked to the table beside her bed and picked up his telegram and read it again. It was possible Luke sent the same telegram to several women in town. She couldn't forget how adept he was at wooing women. That was one thing her mother had told her about the opposite sex.
If you allowed them to take liberties they wouldn't respect you. They will take what you offer, but they certainly won't marry you.
She hadn't exactly allowed him to take liberties, but it was a close call. She wasn't sorry for what occurred between them, they were memories that would have to last a lifetime.

* * *

Luke, Jake, and Cole were having breakfast at their hotel and were discussing the cowboys they had talked with about Arina. They were no closer to finding out the identity of the mysterious man said to have been Arina's lover.

“If there was another man, they were very discreet, or just lucky. I'm not sure we are going to figure out who it is,” Luke said.

“You might be right about that,” Jake said.

“If the photograph doesn't arrive soon, I say we head home,” Luke said.

Jake and Cole nodded their agreement. “Yeah, I'm ready to go. We can leave Rafe to find out the truth,” Jake said.

Before they finished their breakfast, Rafe came into the restaurant and took a seat beside them. He placed a photograph on the table in front of Luke. “Here it is.”

Grabbing the photograph, Luke studied the line of scantily clad women for Arina's likeness. “What? I don't believe this!”

Jake took the photograph from his brother's hand. “This is a big help.” He handed the photograph to Cole.

“Impossible!” Cole said, looking at the women who were lined up in a row. Two women were standing side-by-side and they looked exactly alike in the photograph.

“I couldn't believe it, either,” Rafe concurred. “I've never seen two women who looked so much alike. They could be twins.”

“We can't even tell which one is Arina. How are we to know which one killed her husband?” Luke asked.

“I can't figure it out. I'm going to telegraph the office and see if there is something I'm missing,” Rafe told them before he left.

Jake looked at the photograph again. “This is the strangest thing I've ever seen.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should take this and show it to Arina and get her reaction,” Cole said.

“At least she could give us the name of the other woman. These gals get close working together in saloons,” Luke suggested.

“You should know, little brother, as much time as you spend in them,” Jake teased.

“I told you, I'm the smart, single brother,” Luke retorted.

Two hours later, Rafe received his response. “They were no help. There is no way to tell which one is the murderer. All we know is it's one of the two women.”

“Let's go show this to Arina and see what she has to say,” Luke said.

“How will the Marshal's office know which one to arrest?” Jake asked.

“They don't. Both women left the saloon at the same time. No one had been able to identify which one married the older man. I guess they figure if they make an arrest then they will confess,” Rafe answered.

* * *

Luke and Jake arrived at Arina's ranch to find the door ajar. Luke stuck his head inside and yelled, “Hello.”

Hearing no response, they stepped inside. “Arina?” They were met with silence, and they both pulled their guns at the same time. Slowly, they walked through the house, and didn't see anything amiss until they reached a bedroom and heard what sounded like a man weeping. Luke pushed the bedroom door open wider with the barrel of his pistol. Creed Thomas was on his knees on the floor with his face in his hands leaning over Arina's lifeless body. The thin robe she was wearing was gaping open, leaving her nude body on display for all to see. Luke had seen her wearing that very robe the night he was in her room at the hotel in Wyoming.

They holstered their guns and walked to Thomas. Luke kneeled down beside Arina and saw the belt from the robe was wrapped around her neck. He removed the belt and felt for a pulse. Dead. Someone had used the belt to strangle her to death. He looked up at Jake and shook his head.

“What happened here?” Luke asked Thomas.

Thomas looked up and seemed surprised they were in the room. “I found her like this.”

Jake noticed the bed was unmade and the pillows and sheets were in disarray. Nothing else in the room had been disturbed.

“When did you find her?” Jake asked.

“I don't know. Not long ago.”

“Where were you?” Luke asked as he reached for a quilt to cover her body.

“On the range. Why would anyone do this?”

“Was she seeing someone else?” Jake asked.

“What do you mean?” Thomas asked.

“I think you know. Look at the way she was dressed. It's not like most women would be dressed at this time of day.”

Thomas slowly shook his head. “She might have thought to surprise me. She had no reason to be with another man; she said she was happy.”

“But how would she know you would be coming in early?”

Thomas had no answer.

Jake pointed to two glasses on the table beside the bed. He walked over and picked up one glass and sniffed the small amount of liquid. The whiskey bottle next to the glasses was uncapped. “She was drinking whiskey with someone.” He poured a shot into one of the glasses and handed it to Thomas. He looked like he could use a stiff drink.

Luke and Jake walked through the house to see what they could find, but nothing gave them any clues as to who might have been in the home. Luke left Jake at the ranch with Thomas while he rode back to town to get Rafe. He reined in near the judge's office when he saw Cole talking with Rafe. Once he told them about Arina, Rafe rode out to the ranch and Luke and Cole walked inside the judge's office to tell him about her death.

As soon as they walked through the door they saw the judge sitting at his desk with a revolver lying in front of him. He didn't look at them as they approached.

“Judge,” Luke said.

The judge didn't respond, he was staring at the gun. His face was pale and his eyes were vacant.

Luke thought the judge looked like he was in a trance. He reached over and removed the pistol from the judge's reach. “Judge, we need to talk to you.”

The judge finally looked up and focused on the men in front of him. “I know.”

“You know what?” Cole asked.

“Arina's dead,” the judge responded, his voice flat and void of any emotion.

“Do you know how it happened?” Luke questioned.

“Yes.”

“How do you know?” Cole asked.

“I killed her,” he told them.

Luke and Cole exchanged a glance. They needed to get to the truth of what happened because Rafe was going to bring Thomas in for murder.

“Judge, why don't you start at the beginning,” Cole said.

The judge nodded. “I went to the ranch to see Arina to ask her why she married Thomas.” As if they wouldn't understand, he thought he would explain what happened when she arrived in Arizona. “You see when she came here she promised me she would make better decisions. I didn't want to see her go back to the kind of life she had in Denver. I'd seen how she lived in Denver, selling herself to any man who came along. She said she didn't choose that life, but it was the only way she could survive. But she lied. She couldn't stay away from men. She knew I was a churchgoing man and she said she would start attending church. She married Sam, telling him she loved him and wanted a family. I was happy for her, I thought she was going to turn her life around. I didn't learn the truth until later when I heard she wasn't being faithful to Sam. We had several arguments because I knew she wouldn't stop with one man. I was trying to do right by her after all the years I'd neglected her, tried to guide her to respectability. But she didn't want respect, she didn't want to change.”