by Linda Ford
Wyatt stared at the flames. They could leave. Or they could stay. If they left, he’d be riding away from the best thing that had ever happened to him and Lonnie—the acceptance and warmth of Cora and her family. But if they stayed, would the Bells suffer?
Was the nighttime visit from those two men a sign from God to leave?
Or was it a challenge to face his past?
He turned to Lonnie. “I was wrong to think we can outrun our past. Running is not the answer.”
“Then what is?”
“I don’t know.” He gave Lonnie a sideways hug. “Go to sleep. I’ll figure out what we need to do.” Tea forgotten, he dumped out the pot of water and stared at the fire until nothing remained but coals.
Finally, he crawled into his bedroll. He knew what he must do.
He’d confront his past head-on.
Chapter Nineteen
Wyatt’s mind was clear the next morning, despite his lack of sleep. He washed and shaved. He’d recently had a haircut but he might be getting another one for free soon. Might have saved himself the two bits.
He pulled on clean trousers and a clean shirt. Might as well go looking his best.
Lonnie watched him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to face my past.” He threw a saddle on his horse.
Lonnie jerked to his feet and clenched his fists at his sides. “You’re going to turn me in?”
Wyatt grabbed the boy and hugged him tight. “Never. That crime has been paid for. You can forget it.” He held his brother until a shuddering breath released his lungs and he relaxed.
“Then what are you doing?” Lonnie’s face wrinkled with worry. “What will happen to me?”
“The Bells have promised you can stay with them.” It was his one consolation. That and Cora’s continued faith in him. “Let’s go.”
Lonnie held back. “Where are we going?”
Wyatt led his horse and Lonnie trotted after him. “You’re going to the Bells and I’m going to deal with this.”
He had no idea what he’d say to Cora, but when she faced him, her eyes wide with shock, he wished he’d thought of a way to explain what he meant to do. They escaped to the privacy of the orchard.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I can’t stay unless I can lay this matter to rest.”
“Can’t stay?” She turned away from him to stare past the fruit trees.
He looked at the wizened green apples on the tree before him. Hadn’t he once wondered if his ways could be grafted into the gentle ways of the Bell family? The question needed to be answered to his satisfaction before he would feel free of his past.
“I need to talk to Jack. Explain this turn of events. He might change his mind about wanting me for a partner.”
“And then what?” She gave him a look that pierced to the depths of his soul—accusing, begging, promising all at once. “What if he says no? Will you ride away? And if he says yes, he still wants you to be his partner, is that enough to make you stay?” She grabbed his arms and shook him. “Wyatt, what is enough to make you stay?” She dropped her hands and stepped back. “I hoped I was.” Her voice trailed off into despair.
“Cora, you are. But only if I can stay here without fighting my past.” He wouldn’t tell her any more. No point in filling her with false hope. He pulled her close, brushed her hair back from her forehead and kissed the spot his fingers had touched. “Pray for me.” He forced himself to release her and hurried away before he changed his mind.
* * *
“Wyatt.” She called his name. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”
He strode on without turning. Without answering her questions.
“Wyatt!” she screamed, but still he hurried away.
She raced after him, but he swung into his saddle and rode off without a backward look.
Cora sank to the ground. He was gone.
The twins joined her, sitting on either side.
“Lonnie said he went to put his past behind him,” Rose said. “What does that mean?”
“What’s he going to do?” Lilly asked.
“I don’t know,” Cora replied. “He’s going to see Jack. Says he’s going to face his past.” She pounded the ground. “Then what?”
The girls pulled her to her feet and led her to the house. Lonnie hovered in the shadows.
Cora had promised that Lonnie would always have a home with them, no matter what. “Come along,” she called to him. “Let’s see if Ma has tea and cookies.” Did Ma have a special blend to fix broken hearts?
She joined the others at the table. Heard her parents say Wyatt would do what was right. All the while her thoughts circled madly.
What was right for Wyatt? If he thought leaving was the thing to do, he was wrong. She couldn’t imagine life without him. She didn’t care what anyone else said about him. If they accused him of things he hadn’t done, she’d face them defiantly. If they tried to drive him away, she’d tell them to mind their own business.
And if he felt he had to leave the community, she would go with him.
She would stand by his side through good and bad because—
“I love him.” She blurted out the words, then clamped her hand to her mouth.
Lonnie stared.
“Well, I do,” she said, bringing her gaze to her ma. Would she scold Cora?
But Ma smiled gently. “Does he know?”
“I never told him.”
Pa cleared his throat. “It might make a difference.”
She nodded. “But what am I to do now?”
“I think you’re the only one who can answer that,” Pa said.
“I need to think and pray.” She excused herself and hurried to the river, where she could be alone with the vast rolling plains and the majestic mountains and listen to the tumbling of the water.
“God, I love him. I thank You for bringing him into my life.” She trusted Wyatt without reservation, but a thread of fear lingered. What if he left? Just like her papa. Just like Evan. She snorted. Wyatt was not Evan or her father. He was a man willing to face difficulties and do what was right. Thank You, God, for bringing such a man into my life. He’s shown me a man can be trusted.
If God brought Wyatt to her, did He not have a plan for how to deal with this problem? What was her role in it?
“God, show me what to do. Help people see that Wyatt is innocent of any crime in the past or present.”
That was it! The answer she needed. She would go to Sheriff Thomas and explain that Wyatt was innocent without implicating Lonnie.
She raced back to the house. “Pa, Pa, I need to go to town.” She explained her plan.
“You do what you must do.” Pa hitched the horse to the wagon. “Just don’t do anything rash.”
She waved as she drove the wagon forward. She’d do whatever she needed to prove to one and all that Wyatt was not only innocent but a good man they should welcome into the community.
* * *
Wyatt found Jack in the barn examining a harness.
“I been expecting you,” the older man said. “Where’s that brother of yours? I’ve been wanting to meet him.”
“I didn’t bring him. There’ve been some developments that might be cause enough for you to change your mind about wanting us to join you.”
Jack grunted. “Sounds like something we should discuss over coffee. Come to the house.”
Wyatt couldn’t stop himself from looking around as they crossed the yard. He’d need more corrals if he meant to raise horses and break them. Maybe add a shed to the side of the barn for Lonnie’s pigs.
His fists clenched as he forced his thoughts to stop. They might never move here.
“Whatever you got to say can wait until I pour c
offee.” The blackened, dented pot stood on the back of the stove. Jack threw a chunk of wood into the stove and pulled the pot forward.
Wyatt thought the man had made an attempt to tidy the place since Wyatt had seen it a couple of days ago. He tried to see it through Cora’s eyes.
Why was he tormenting himself with such thoughts? Yes, he wanted to share his life with her, do everything in his power to make her happy. But she’d never said anything to make him think she felt the same, and he sure hadn’t spoken the words buried deep in his heart. A couple of times he’d considered doing so, but now he was glad he hadn’t.
Jack set two chipped cups on the table and poured in coffee so black Wyatt thought he might have to use a spoon to get it from the cup. No milk or sugar was offered.
Wyatt hoped he wouldn’t choke on the stuff that Jack sucked back with obvious satisfaction.
Jack nursed his cup. “Now tell me what’s bothering you.”
Wyatt began with how his father had grown mean, meaner with every passing day. How Wyatt had tried to protect Lonnie from the abuse. “I guess I was more like a father to him than our pa.”
The story poured forth, every detail revealed. “Lonnie didn’t handle the beatings as well as I did. Inside, I told myself the old man could beat me to death but he could never touch me. Just my body. Lonnie was different. He let it hurt him inside. Until he couldn’t take any more.”
Jack nodded occasionally but never interrupted Wyatt’s flow of words.
“One day I was away from home and Pa flew into a rage. Near as I can figure, he went after Lonnie with a shovel. Somehow Lonnie got it from him and turned on Pa. When I found them I had to pry the shovel from Lonnie’s hands. Pa was unconscious and bleeding. Someone had heard the commotion and called the sheriff. They found me with the shovel in my hands. It was easy to say I did it.”
“So you went to jail to protect your brother and now everyone says you’re a jailbird and a dangerous man? That about sum it up?”
“There’s a little more. The people in town believe I’m responsible for the rash of thefts.” He allowed himself a beat of silence before he added, “I’ll understand if you withdraw your offer.”
Jack fixed him with eyes that made Wyatt feel exposed. “Huh. So you going to turn tail and run?”
“Maybe. If that’s what it takes.”
Jack had been tipped back on two legs of his chair but now he crashed down. “Boy, tell me one thing. Do you want to throw in with me?”
“Almost as much as I want Cora to be part of our agreement.”
“Fine. I’d say you got plenty of reason to stand and fight. If you have a mind to, that is.”
Wyatt nodded. “I have a mind to, all right. But I don’t know if it will do any good.”
“Guess you won’t know if you don’t try.”
“Guess I won’t.”
Jack slammed his cup to the table. “So why are you still here?”
It wasn’t until Wyatt was on the road that he thought of the answer to Jack’s question. Because he didn’t have any idea what to do.
Somehow he found himself heading toward town. That seemed as good a place as any to start standing. He rode down the main street. Looking neither left nor the right, he made his way to the sheriff’s office.
He tied his horse to the post and strode inside as if he knew exactly what he meant to do.
Sheriff Thomas sat behind his big wooden desk, sharpening a pencil with his pocketknife. He saw Wyatt, closed his knife, stuck it in his trousers pocket and put the pencil at the top of the blotter covering the desk in front of him.
“What can I do for you?”
“I haven’t come to confess to anything, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Can’t say as I was thinking that, but okay.”
Seemed the man wasn’t going to invite Wyatt to sit, so Wyatt grabbed a chair and pulled it to the desk. “I’ve been in jail, just like everyone says. But I’m no criminal.”
“Uh-huh.” The man packed a lot of doubt into a couple of syllables. “Then why were you in jail?”
Wyatt stared at the sharpened pencil. How much could he tell without sounding like a whiner and without bringing censure down on Lonnie?
“Someone got beat up. And I went to jail, but I didn’t do it.”
“Let me guess. You’re protecting someone?”
“I’d do it again if I had to.”
The sheriff shoved his chair back. “They don’t send innocent men to jail. You didn’t answer my question.”
“Is the penalty paid?”
“I guess it is.”
“So no one will have to go to jail for it in the future?” He had to know in case the truth about Lonnie got out. He’d leave and ride clear to the Yukon with his brother if he thought the boy would end up in prison.
“Can’t see it happening unless that person confesses.”
That wasn’t going to happen. If Lonnie ever got the notion in his head, Wyatt would point out he’d gone of his own free will, and his sacrifice would be wasted if Lonnie went, too.
“That’s good to know. I hope you’ll believe me when I say I was innocent when I went to jail, and I’m innocent of these current crimes.”
The sheriff tipped his chair back and considered Wyatt for a long moment. “You willing to prove that?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Then make yourself comfortable in one of the cells while I investigate these robberies.”
“You’re locking me up?” He sprang to his feet. “What kind of justice is that?”
“Look at it from my side of the desk. If you are truly innocent, you’ll hunker down and wait for me to complete my investigation. If you leave, what assurance do I have that you won’t ride away? The thought tends to make me a little nervous.”
Wyatt considered his options and finally nodded. “If that’s what it will take to convince you.” He followed the sheriff into the cell block with its two side-by-side cells. His nerves jangled in time to the keys the sheriff carried. He never thought he’d be back in jail. And of his own accord.
He turned his back as the sheriff clattered the door closed and locked it. He flung himself down on the hard, bare mattress and stared at the pocked ceiling. This might be the second hardest thing he’d ever done.
He’d done the first one to protect Lonnie. He did this for the hope of putting the past behind him and living in this community.
About all he could do at this point was wait and pray.
The street door opened and closed a number of times. Once he heard voices, then all was silent. Was he alone?
He stared at the cell door. Did he lie on the cot in vain? While he hoped to be proved innocent, was the sheriff collecting evidence to prove him guilty?
Was this to turn into something he’d regret?
Chapter Twenty
Cora pulled the wagon to a halt in front of the sheriff’s office and jumped to the ground.
Young Robert Patton ran along the boardwalks, the thump of his shoes echoing loudly. He skidded to a halt in front of Cora.
“Ya looking for the sheriff?”
“Why, yes I am.”
“He ain’t here.”
She hadn’t considered that possibility. “Do you know where I can find him?”
“Nope. Best you wait for him to come back.”
“Okay.” Wait? She didn’t have the patience to wait. But what choice did she have? She glanced up and down the street, but she didn’t want to visit with anyone or face questions as to why she was in town on a Monday afternoon.
A trio of ladies stepped from Frank’s Hardware and Necessities. One looked in her direction then leaned over to speak to the others.
Cora turned and hurried away, not stoppin
g until she reached the church. She tiptoed inside. The place was empty. She sat on the end of the nearest pew and let the quiet fill her senses.
God, I know Wyatt is innocent. Help me be able to make the sheriff and everyone in town see it.
She sat for some time as peace and assurance filled her soul. God would make the truth clear to everyone. She had to believe it. For she doubted Wyatt would stay if he had to live with daily accusations.
But either way, before he left, she would tell him how she felt.
And if he still left...
Well, she’d been left before and she’d survived. Her insides curled like dry autumn leaves. This time would be different. She couldn’t imagine the agony. She’d told herself she’d leave with him, but would he ask her? Could she ride away from Ma and Pa and the twins? If she must, she would. She would do whatever was necessary to be with Wyatt.
She sprang to her feet. She must convince the sheriff Wyatt was innocent.
Her racing feet carried her back to the sheriff’s office and she burst inside. Sheriff Thomas sat behind the desk but leaped to his feet at her rushed entrance.
“Miss Cora, to what do I owe this honor?”
She hurried to the chair across the desk from him and perched on the edge. “I’ve come about Wyatt. Wyatt Williams. I know people are saying all sorts of things about him but they aren’t true. He simply can’t have robbed anyone.”
“What proof do you have?”
“I know it in here.” She pressed her hand to her heart.
The sheriff smiled gently. “And you consider that proof?”
“Sheriff, I love him. I know without a doubt that he’s a good and noble man. What you need to understand is he is so noble he would go to jail for another person.”
The sheriff nodded, his look thoughtful. “Miss Cora, I value your opinion, since you are such an upright citizen, but to prove anything, I need good, solid evidence. Do you have that?”
She thought for a moment. He’d helped on the barn. He’d taken good care of his horses. He was tender and gentle with Lonnie. He’d kissed her. Without thought, she pressed her fingers to her lips and then, realizing what she did, she jerked them away. All of those things and many more proved his innocence to her satisfaction. But they weren’t the sort of thing the sheriff meant. She shook her head. “I don’t suppose I could prove it to you.”
