by Lisa Harris
“Alaska’s a frontier that sweeps thousands of miles, and because your source doesn’t place him there, then he’s lying? I thought you were more intelligent than that, Corbin Hunter.” Catherine quickened her pace toward town. “The thought that Harrison could be a bank robber or a murderer for that matter is ridiculous.”
“Not if I’m right. His real name is William Marker. He’s a bank robber, a con man…and a womanizer.”
Catherine stopped and crossed her arms. She obviously wasn’t buying into his reasoning. “I don’t believe you.”
“Like your sisters don’t believe you about your father?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Why not? I’ve been tracking this gang for months, and I’m finally closing in on them. And I’m going to make sure they pay for what they’ve done.”
“What led you to Harrison?”
They started walking again, but at a slower pace. “I have a source named Brad Sanders. He’s a Pinkerton agent who’s following the case. He’s the one who originally told me that he believed Harrison Tucker is the leader of the Masked Gang, and that he’d recently arrived in Revenge. He just didn’t have enough solid evidence to prove it.”
“So you used your connections to get the job here so you could catch Harrison.”
“That was part of it. Mr. Sanders and I met about a month ago and swapped information. He’d followed up on a tip regarding Harrison and found that parts of his story didn’t check out. Including the fact that there is no record of him applying for a stake of gold anywhere in the Alaska Territory. The timing of his arrival in Revenge also corresponded closely with new territory the gang took over.”
“What was Mr. Sanders’s original tip that Harrison was involved in this?”
Corbin paused, not sure he was ready to confess the one main weakness of his case. “It was an unidentified source, but everything they said checked out.”
“Which means you have nothing. There still isn’t enough proof in anything you’ve told me to convince me that you’re after the right man.”
“All you have to do is look at Harrison. He knows how to work his way into a town and win the hearts of the entire population in a blink of an eye.”
“Since when is that a crime?”
Corbin watched her expression and knew exactly what she was thinking. The man who’d swept into town like a fresh summer breeze was nothing more than a farm boy who’d managed not only to inherit his grandfather’s land, but who’d happened to steal the heart of her sister. And if Corbin was honest with himself, he wanted her to be right. But there were too many facts stacked up against the man that he couldn’t ignore.
“Let me ask you a few questions.” He cleared his throat, determined to convince her that there was at least a possibility that Harrison wasn’t who he said he was. “Where did Harrison live before Revenge?”
Catherine shook her head.
“Catherine…”
“I don’t know.”
“What about his family?”
“He…I’m sure he said that he’s an only child. His parents are dead. His grandfather was his last living relative.”
“And what of his grandfather? What proof did he bring with him when he claimed the land?”
Catherine shook her head. “The land claims office obviously didn’t have any problem with his claim. But the bottom line is that Audrey loves him and—”
“And you’re going to let her love for him override anything I might say? If I’m right, this man could end up doing more than simply breaking your sister’s heart. The man’s a murderer.”
“No!” She flung her hands toward him.
Corbin grabbed her wrists and held them against his chest. Whether Catherine liked it or not, he would find a way to prove Harrison’s guilt. “I know you don’t want your sister hurt, but if it’s true, then we have to stop him.”
“I won’t let you hurt her. Not the way you hurt me.”
“The way I hurt you?” Both of them fell silent. He dropped her hands and let his arms fall to his sides. Resentment bared its ugly head. She stood in front of him, looking as vulnerable as she had the first day he’d come calling on her all those years ago, but he knew the truth.
“Since we’re speaking the truth, why don’t you remind me what really happened that night I left. I was there. And if I remember correctly, it wasn’t about me walking out on you.”
She turned away from him, but he grasped her arm and pulled her back.
“It’s time both of us face what happened that night,” he continued.
“Why? So you can break my heart again?”
“I never meant to break your heart, but I was eighteen years old and didn’t know how to deal with the situation.”
Catherine broke free from his grip. “And I had no choice but to deal with the situation.”
Chapter Seven
By the time Catherine slipped through the back door of the store, her heart still pounding over her encounter with Corbin, the sky had begun to clear, allowing the sun to drop over the edge of the horizon and cover the surrounding farmlands and wooded areas in the yellow glow of twilight. Grady’s buggy was gone from out front, which meant that Emily had already returned home, a fact that didn’t surprise her. Grady would never allow her sister to travel alone after dark in her condition.
Catherine closed the door behind her then waited for her eyes to adjust to the fading light in the kitchen. If only she could shut out the prevailing guilt that rose within her like the humidity of the Ohio evening. Meeting Corbin had only added to her turmoil. Thankfully, the house was quiet. Emily’s absence was just as well. After what happened this evening, she wasn’t ready to face any of them again.
Especially after Corbin’s disturbing accusations regarding Harrison. His words still stunned her, but she knew the town’s new sheriff well enough to realize he would never point fingers if he didn’t believe his suspicions were true. But if his instincts were correct, fate had just played another trick on all of them. Losing their father, no matter what he’d done the past eight years, had devastated her sisters. She’d seen that in their eyes. Losing the man Audrey planned to spend the rest of her life with would be yet another devastating blow.
Yet, while her head might be forced to consider the possibility of Harrison’s involvement in the recent robberies, her heart struggled to believe it could be true. Harrison hadn’t lived in this town long, but surely she was a good enough judge of character to know the difference between a young man in love and a criminal. And just because a person could spin a good story and engage an audience in the telling, that certainly didn’t make him a murderer. Even Corbin had to have something more substantial on the man before he arrested him.
She started to shed her wet coat then stopped midway when she heard someone coming down the stairs. Audrey entered the room carrying a lantern.
“Catherine?” Audrey set the light on the counter before planting her hands on her hips. “I was about to send the sheriff after you. Where have you been? You’re absolutely drenched.”
Catherine looked down at her rumpled clothes then pushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes. The last thing she was ready to confess was that she’d been with Corbin. As the town spinster, there was bound to be enough talk over his return and their past relationship. She wasn’t going to add any fuel that might fan that fire, even to her sister.
“I went for a walk to clear my head and got caught in the rain,” Catherine began.
Audrey grabbed at the sleeve of her wet coat. “If you don’t hurry and change into something warm, you’ll catch your death of cold.”
“I’m perfectly fine and not even a bit chilled.”
“All the same, you need to change. I’ll take care of these wet things.”
Catherine obeyed and peeled off her soaked dress before laying it on top of her coat. “I see that Emily went home.”
“Grady drove her.”
“And Lily?”
“She
fell asleep upstairs not too long after you stormed out.”
Another wave of guilt pressed through her. Even in the flickering lantern light, it was obvious that Audrey’s eyes were red from crying. She knew Corbin was right, and they’d eventually forgive her for what she’d done, but the pain was still too raw at the moment, even if her actions had only been to protect them.
“I know you’re upset, Audrey, but you have to believe that I never meant to hurt any of you. I am sorry.”
Audrey’s silence seemed to fill the house, and not knowing what else to say, Catherine started up the stairs, shivering beneath the thin fabric of her undergarments.
“You were wrong, you know.”
Catherine turned to face Audrey, who still stood at the bottom of the stairs. “I was wrong to tell you the truth?”
“No.” Audrey mounted the stairs, stopping halfway. “You were wrong to tell us the truth after all these years of making us believe he would return.”
Nights of restless dreams and unanswered prayers returned to haunt Catherine. The picture she’d painted of her father throughout the years had been one lined with false hopes and expectations that had never materialized. But in spite of that, part of her had grasped onto that very same hope she’d offered her sisters—the hope that one day Isaiah Morgan would appear on their doorstep with that pot of gold he’d searched for—and even more importantly, that he would once again take up the role of father he’d laid aside when he left for Alaska.
But obviously her attempts to help her sisters had only managed to create a wedge between them in the end.
“Don’t you think I, too, hoped he’d return? No matter what he’d done?” Catherine swallowed hard. “No matter how he treated Momma, he was still our father. Every night I prayed that he’d find what he was looking for and come home, because I knew you needed him.”
“Even later on, when you knew he was never returning?”
“It was never that simple.”
Catherine sank down onto the edge of the top stair, wishing she had easy answers to Audrey’s questions. But as many times as she’d attempted to prepare herself for this day, every answer she’d thought of evaded her. The fact was that while she had prayed for Isaiah Morgan’s return for her sisters’ sakes, she held little love for the man she’d once called Father.
“I was eighteen years old when Momma died. Father was gone. I had the shop to run and the three of you…I did the best I could, Audrey. And back then I wanted to believe his letters and promises. Especially if it was the one thread of hope left to tie the four of us together.”
“And later? After the months and years passed?”
Catherine fiddled with the perfectly stitched hem of her white cotton chemise. “I finally realized that no matter how hard I prayed, or how many times I asked him in my letters, he wasn’t coming back.”
“Then why didn’t you just tell us the truth?” Audrey sat down beside her on the top stair.
Catherine gnawed on the side of her cheek. “I suppose it was because for a long time I believed he really would return. And then later I was afraid that saying what I felt out loud would simply make it all the more real for me. I knew how much you longed for him to return. That you held memories of a father who loved you, and that Emily longed for him to see her child. And maybe part of me, even after all these years, still held onto the slight hope that those things would happen. That he’d show up for Christmas dinner this year and hold his first grandbaby. I wanted that, Audrey. I wanted it for you.”
Audrey grasped the heart locket she wore around her neck and dropped her gaze. “I guess I never thought about it that way.”
“I heard you at the dinner table tonight. You remember all the good things.”
“And you?”
“A good father doesn’t leave his family and never return. Not even Mother’s death brought him back home.”
Audrey’s frown deepened. “But knowing he’s dead makes everything so final. Especially when I always believed he’d come back one day.”
Catherine eased up from the stairway. In a way, their father’s death came as a relief. If nothing else, the truth would eventually bring closure. No longer would they be caught up in a tangle of dreams that reality had turned into dashed hopes.
“Your locket’s beautiful,” Catherine said, changing the subject as she made her way to her bedroom. Healing and forgiveness wouldn’t come overnight for her sisters, but for the first time she could believe that it would come. “I don’t remember seeing it before.”
A smile flickered in the depths of Audrey’s eyes as she looked down at the gold heart in the lantern light. “Harrison went to Lancaster yesterday and bought it. He stopped by to give it to me this afternoon.”
“He was in Lancaster?”
The bank in Lancaster had been robbed yesterday.
A shiver swept over Catherine as Corbin’s words replayed in her mind. He’s a bank robber…a con man…and a womanizer… No. She choked back the words of caution she was tempted to speak. Now was not the time, because this was nothing more than a coincidence. She’d seen the way Harrison looked at Audrey. There was no doubt in her mind that Harrison was nothing more than a young man in love.
“Catherine?” Audrey set the lantern down on the dresser in Catherine’s room before turning back to her sister. “You’ve caught a chill.”
“No, I’m fine. Really. I suppose just the combination of all that’s happened today…” Catherine searched for the right words. She may not believe that Corbin was after the right person, but she still had to know more. “Why was Harrison in Lancaster?”
“He needed a few supplies for the farm. He’s building on to the barn to hold a larger crop come winter.”
“He seems to have taken to farming.” Corbin’s earlier concerns continued to ripple through her, and she realized that no matter how badly she wanted to believe in Harrison’s innocence, she also couldn’t let her sister marry him if there was any chance that he wasn’t the man he claimed to be. Even if it meant telling Audrey the truth and breaking her sister’s heart again. But not yet. So far, Corbin’s accusations were nothing more than a pile of coincidences.
Catherine proceeded cautiously. If there ended up being no truth to Corbin’s claims, she wasn’t going to spoil Audrey’s wedding. Nothing would be said to Audrey unless the proof Corbin came up with was indisputable. “I heard that the bank in Lancaster was robbed yesterday afternoon.”
Audrey’s face paled in the lamplight. “That makes how many times? Five? Six?”
“Six, I believe.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“I don’t think so.” Catherine measured her words. “I wonder if Harrison saw anything?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t mention anything. Perhaps it happened after he left.”
“Or perhaps he simply didn’t want to scare you.”
Audrey’s hand rested against her chest. “What if he had been there and something happened to him, Catherine? I don’t think I could bear to lose anyone else I love. Not after Father.”
Catherine gave her sister a reassuring hug while trying to swallow her own fears. “Harrison’s fine, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“You’re right, of course.”
Catherine told her sister good night, praying that she wouldn’t end up being the one to dash her sister’s dreams.
Catherine paced the boardwalk in front of the sheriff’s office a dozen times the next morning before finding the courage to walk inside and face the town’s newly appointed lawman. She’d stayed up half the night trying to find the elusive answers to Corbin’s suspicions, but as much as she longed for him to be wrong, she couldn’t deny that his accusations could be true. If he were right, she certainly had no intention of allowing Audrey to marry the man. Gathering up her courage, she turned the door handle and stepped into the small office.
Corbin sat behind his desk with a coffee cup in his hand and a frown on his face. The bare room boasted
of little more than a wood desk, chairs, and a handful of wanted posters tacked on a wooden board. Nothing had changed since Sheriff Lansing’s departure, including the pile of dime novels on the shelf and the prevailing smell of burnt coffee that filled the room.
“Sheriff?”
Corbin looked up from the paper he was filling out, not bothering to mask his surprise at seeing her. “Miss Morgan. How are you?”
“Dry.” She shot him a half smile, hating how his presence stirred up memories she preferred to forget. She felt the back of her chignon to ensure her hair was still in place. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t here for personal matters.
She clutched her handbag with her gloved fingers and eyed the door. “If you’re too busy right now, I could come back later…”
“No. Of course not.” He stood awkwardly and nodded at an empty chair. “I can’t offer much more than a wobbly chair and a cup of bad coffee.”
“The chair’s fine.” She perched on the edge of the wooden seat, wishing she could shake the air of suspicion that settled between them every time they were together. Surely he’d been right the other night when he’d said they were both wiser. Which meant that their turbulent past shouldn’t affect them today. Or so she’d hoped. Pride reared its ugly head and made forgetting the past, even with all the years between them, impossible. She started to stand. This was definitely a mistake. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“But you did, so sit down.”
She obeyed without another word. All she had to do now was to say what she came to tell him and leave. Any personal feelings she felt—or had felt—didn’t matter anymore. “I talked to Audrey last night after I returned home.”
“Has she forgiven you?”
“I think so. For the most part anyway. But that’s not why I came to see you. She said something about Harrison that…well…that I felt you should know.”
Corbin leaned forward.
“I’m still not convinced that Harrison is the hardened criminal you’ve made him out to be, but…”
“But…” Corbin prodded.
Catherine squirmed in the chair. “She told me Harrison was in Lancaster day before yesterday.”
