“Yore house! Yore house! Why you… you—”
“If you say it, I’ll do my best to knock every tooth out of your head.”
Hearing Ben’s voice behind him, Louis spun around. “I told ya to get off Callahan land. I ain’t tellin’ ya again.”
“I told him to stay.”
Louis turned back to Dory and shouted, “I ain’t talkin’ to ya, so keep your mouth shut.”
“But I’m talking to you,” Ben said. “I’m staying until James and Dory tell me to leave. Even if they did that, I’d still stay until I got the money coming to me.”
“Ya didn’t finish the job.”
“I did what I said I’d do.”
“Ya caused more trouble than it was worth. I wish I’d never heard of the goddamn machine.”
“I’m glad you did.” Ben’s eyes flashed a secret message to Dory.
“Where’d James go to?” Louis demanded in his loud voice. “I can’t be runnin’ both places. I got to get to the mill.”
“Why can’t you run both places? You’ve been interfering at the cutting camp for years.” Dory’s tone of voice showed her contempt.
“Keep outta this! Ya done already gone an’ got a man killed!”
“A worthless no-good little weasel who was going to rape me!” Dory’s aroused voice overrode that of her half-brother, who was spitting and sputtering with rage. “And look what happened to me because I resisted.”
“Rape? Ha! Ya wanted it! It’s what ya get fer swishin’ yore tail an’ gettin’ a man stirred up.”
“You stupid lout! I don’t know what holds your ears apart. It sure isn’t brains.”
Louis looked at Dory with a face distorted with pure hatred. His eyes were wild.
“Ya got what ya had comin’. If we’d done our duty an’ whipped ya in line long ago ya might not a turned out like ya done.”
“If either of you lift a hand to me again, I’ll blow your head off.” Dory’s expression said that she meant every word.
Louis was so angry that spittle came from the corner of his mouth. He stood first on one foot and then on the other.
“Yore just like her! Ya ain’t nothin’ but a… slut!”
Ben hit him.
He had kept out of things up to now. He landed two blows before Louis fell: a tight fist to his stomach and an uppercut to his chin. Louis reeled back a step or two, then hit the ground like a fallen timber and sat there with a look of disbelief on his face. The only sound above his labored gasps for breath was Jeanmarie’s tinkling childish laughter, which stopped when she darted behind her mother’s skirts.
With more patience than he realized he possessed, and in spite of the storm of anger that flowed through him, Ben waited for Louis to get up. He had hit him mainly because of what he had called Dory, but also because he didn’t like him or his attitude. He was glad Louis had given him the excuse.
“Be careful how you talk to my wife or about her from now on,” Ben said, his voice icy cold, his eyes iron hard.
Almost choking on his fury and keeping his eyes on Ben, Louis rolled to his knees, then stood and backed away. He rocked on unsteady legs, holding his belly. His mouth worked and his chin quivered.
“I thought as much. Ya want it all, just like her,” Louis hissed, his small bright eyes fixed on Dory with an icy glare that reminded her of a poisonous viper. With a jerky stride he went to his horse and mounted, then yanked on the reins cruelly. The animal squealed in protest, then dug in its hooves and took off toward the mill.
“There’s a few things I wish I’d said to that mule-brained, stupid, block-headed jackass. He’s rotten buzzard bait and a pissant to boot!” Dory sputtered.
Ben stepped up onto the porch, a teasing sparkle in his eyes.
“Honey, I think you’ve said everything that needed to be said.”
“By jinks damn! He makes me so mad! He’s always comparing me to my mother. He hated her, so he hates me. I’m glad you hit him. I wanted to hit him myself.”
“You’re like a feisty little rooster when you get riled up. I’m going to have to watch my step.”
“Men like Louis and Milo think women are nothing but dumb heifers to breed and take their pleasure on.”
“Cool off, sweetheart.”
“Oh, Ben.” Dory dried her hands on her apron. “Are you sure you want a bobbed-haired wife who shoots off her mouth like a drunken river pig?”
“I’m planning on getting me a big old hickory switch and putting it over the door. I’ll use it when my wife calls me a mule-brained stupid jackass.”
“Oh, you!” Dory’s arms went around his waist. Her insides warmed with pleasure when his arms tightened around her and a delicious joy invaded her innermost being as it did each time she was close to him.
“I like your spunk,” he said close to her ear. “I’m proud of the way you stood up to him.” He pressed his lips to the curve of her neck. The warm moist lips traced a line to her jaw. Love and tenderness welled within her. Aware, but not caring, that Odette and Jeanmarie were watching, they stood quietly as if to absorb the feel of each other. When Ben pulled back he lifted her chin with a forefinger.
“I’m helping Wiley put a rim around a wagon wheel, but I’ll keep an eye out.”
“I know. We should know in a few days what’s best to do. James thought it would take about three days for Howie McHenry to get to Judge Kenton and back.”
Before it was time for the noon meal, the clothes were drying on the rope line that had been strung from the porch post to the windmill and back to the corner of the house. The tubs, except for the one containing the soapy water to be used to scrub the kitchen floor, were emptied and hung on the nails on the porch.
Odette had been unusually quiet and Dory wondered if she were uncomfortable with the display of affection between her and Ben. As one side of her mouth was still swollen and it was hard for Odette to understand her, Dory got out the pencil and tablet.
Do you mind that I love your papa and he loves me?
“No, Dory. Papa is happy. I’ve not seen Papa so happy. He smiles.”
You are dear to your papa. He loves you like I love Jeanmarie. The love between a man and a woman is different.
Odette read quickly. “I know that,” she replied. “I am a woman. I love James. James loves me. I don’t think Papa will like for me to love James.” Dory gave Odette a hug then began to write:
James will talk to him. Ben might think James too old for you. He is almost twenty-five.
“I will soon be seventeen. Eight years is not so much.” A worried look crossed Odette’s face. “I wish that papa would be happy for me.”
After the noon meal, Ben and Wiley went back to work in the barn and the women scrubbed the kitchen and hallway. The house needed to be thoroughly cleaned, the windows opened and the curtains washed. In other years Dory had enjoyed spring cleaning, but not this year. She couldn’t get into the mood for it.
The possibility that she and Ben might be going away from here weighed heavily upon her. But where her husband went, she would go. James was in love with Odette. Dory had known it almost from the time he had tended to her when she was sick. If Ben didn’t approve of James for his daughter, would she be able to go away with them, leaving her brother broken-hearted?
James returned in the late afternoon, sooner than Dory had expected him. He unsaddled his horse, turned him into the corral and went into the barn. Minutes later he came out followed by Wiley and Ben. The men came toward the house.
James’s eyes found Odette the minute he stepped into the kitchen. He winked a greeting. Flustered, Odette began to wash the dust from the fireplace mantel.
“Give me some coffee and something to tide me over till supper, Sis. I haven’t had a bite since I left here.”
“For heaven’s sake! Why didn’t you stop at Bessie’s? You know she dotes on you. She always gives you big helpings.”
“I didn’t have time. She’s got her potato vine out and spread across the
front of the restaurant.”
“That’s the sign that spring is here. It wouldn’t dare get cold after Bessie puts out her potato vine,” Dory explained to Ben. Then to James, she said, “Why were you in such a hurry you couldn’t take time to eat?”
“I wanted to get back.” He looked at Odette, who was lingering by the fireplace. “Come sit,” he said when she looked at him. Odette took a chair beside Ben and across from James so she could see his face.
Dory set a plate of bread and apple butter on the table in front of her brother, then sat down. She wished that she were near Ben and could hold his hand. She was afraid that what had brought James back in such a hurry was something unpleasant.
“I went to the burying,” James began. “Chip was quite decent. He said to tell you to take good care of his granddaughter.” Dory raised her brows in a noncommittal gesture and James shrugged. “Howie left for Coeur d’Alene this morning before I got there. McHenry sent him to buy goods for the store. While I was at McHenry’s he pulled me back into a corner and told me that Steven was there. Someone laid for him and shot him three times. He’s in bad shape.”
Dory drew in a trembling breath. “Oh, my goodness! Who would do such a thing to Steven?”
“I talked to him. He thinks it was someone who thought he was going to Judge Kenton to get the property divided.”
“It’s my fault,” Dory exclaimed. “I should never have taunted Louis with that possibility.”
James continued. “I doubt it was robbery. Steven never carries cash money to speak of. Whoever shot him wanted to kill him. They shot four times.” He repeated word for word his conversations with McHenry and Steven. “No one knows he’s there except the McHenry family and now us. Steven doesn’t want it reported to the marshal. Of all people, he doesn’t want the marshal to know where to find him. He said he would explain later.”
Wiley shuffled his feet and moved restlessly in his chair. Ben saw the old man’s hands shake when he took out his pocketknife to cut a chew of tobacco.
“What do you think of it, Wiley?” Ben prodded.
Wiley took his time putting the chaw in his cheek and returning his knife to his pocket.
“I’m thinkin’ that if’n Steven don’t want the marshal ta know ’tis his business, he bein’ the one what was shot.”
“It’s a big responsibility for the McHenrys,” James said. “Steven is afraid that if someone comes and tries to finish the job, some of the family could be hurt or killed.”
“Milo or Louis wouldn’t risk that, but they could have hired someone,” Dory said.
“Louis knows that if it wasn’t for Steven the company would have gone under. What surprises me,” James said, “is that they haven’t tried to get rid of me.”
“You’re the best cutting foreman in the Bitterroot,” Dory said. “You get more work out of ten men than Louis or Milo can get out of twenty. Another thing, they didn’t think that you or I could persuade Judge Kenton to divide the property, but Steven could, because the judge likes and respects him.”
“Makes sense to me.” Ben was watching the way James’s eyes kept going to Odette. Her silent adoration of him was obvious. I’ll have to tell him. Only he can put a stop to this before it goes any farther.
“What shall we do?” Dory reached down and lifted Jeanmarie onto her lap.
“I’ll go back down to Spencer the day after tomorrow. By then Steven should be better… or worse. Howie will be back by then and I’ll have him take the letter to the judge.”
“Louis was here today looking for you,” Dory said.
“Yeah?”
“He had been to the cutting camp and was in a rage because you weren’t there.”
“If I’d been here, I’d a told him where he could put the whole damn company. I’m tired of it.” James got up and refilled his cup. “I’m tired of playing games with him and Milo. I’m tired of keeping away from here when I think they’re here, and I’m tired of wondering if I’ll be shot in the back and you’ll be left alone,” he said to his sister. “All my life, and yours too, Dory, we’ve had to walk on eggs to keep peace, even when the folks were alive. They made life miserable for Ma and Pa, and now they are doing the same to us.” James ran his fingers through his hair. “I want a home and a family to work for, and I don’t want people thinking that all the Callahans are trash. Is that too damn much to ask?”
James went to the door. looked out and came back to the table.
“The entire town turned out for Marie Malone’s funeral,” he said, looking at his sister. “How many would come to yours, Dory? Or mine? It isn’t our doing. We just happen to be Callahans. It makes a person stop and think.”
“I’m not one bit ashamed of being a Callahan,” Dory said quietly, her eyes mirroring her distress. “Papa was a good and decent man. He did the best he could for Milo and Louis and for us. We can’t help the way they are. I realize that I contributed to the way people think about the Callahans—I had a child out of wedlock. I’m sorry if I’ve disgraced you. But James, you can make what you want out of your life in spite of your relatives.”
“Oh, Sis. It isn’t you and Jeanmarie. If you had married Mick, even if you were big as a barrel, folks would have welcomed you with open arms because you’d have been a Malone. After Mick was killed, it would still have been all right if Milo and Louis hadn’t been so busy spreading stories about you.”
“What’s done is done, James. We can’t go back and change things.”
As Ben listened, he knew that he had made no mistake choosing this woman to share his life. His mind filled with pride, his eyes with admiration when he looked at her. He saw behind her pride and courage, to the misery inside her.
James paced back and forth and Dory’s worried eyes followed him. Suddenly he stopped, looked at Ben, then moved around the table, took Odette’s hand, pulled her to her feet and drew her into the hallway.
When the door closed behind them, Dory looked at Ben. Her heart sank. His brows were drawn down in a scowl. She was vaguely aware that Wiley had got to his feet and was moving toward the door.
She wanted to cry.
CHAPTER
* 24 *
The kitchen was as silent as a tomb after Wiley left. Dory looked down at her daughter sleeping in her lap and brushed the curls from her forehead. She wasn’t even aware that she was miserable. She just knew that what she’d thought she had a moment ago had vanished and once again she was alone. There was a difference now. Now she knew how wonderful life could be.
She didn’t look at Ben. She didn’t want to see the disapproving scowl on his face. Into her mind floated a dozen unanswered questions that merged into one. Why did he not want James to court his daughter? It could only be that he didn’t think James good enough; that he thought brutality was ingrained in all the Callahans. If that was true, why did he want her? She and James were full brother and sister; the other two had only their father’s blood.
“Ben?”
He didn’t look at her. He was looking at the stove as if it were something he hadn’t seen before. He was thinking that he had not realized that James was so serious about Odette even though she was smitten by him. Odette had had no experience with boys her age, much less with a man like James. It was natural for her to be flattered by his attention. Damn him! She would never understand now when James broke things off between them. He couldn’t tell Odette that there was a chance he wasn’t her father, that one of James’s half-brothers may have sired her.
Ben turned to Dory and saw the hurt on her face. It was like a blow in the gut. She had gone through so much, and now this.
“Why, Ben? Is it that you think James has bad blood? I have the same blood.”
“It isn’t that. I don’t believe in bad blood. Never did, never will.”
“He isn’t like Milo and Louis. He’s got the softest heart in the world. He’d never hurt her.”
Ben was silent. He didn’t want to discuss it with Dory until after he had talked t
o James. This could be the death of his dreams as well as Dory’s and Odette’s. But he couldn’t let it go on. It was too risky.
Dory took his silence as a rebuff and said no more. They sat in silence and waited for the door into the hall to open. When it did, Ben got to his feet. James had an arm around Odette and a beautiful smile lit the face that looked up at him.
“I want to talk to you outside, James.” Ben spoke before they had taken two steps into the room.
Smiles faded from the couple’s faces.
“Now?”
“Yes, now,” Ben replied and headed for the door.
“Papa?” Odette had not caught all the words, but she knew from the look on Ben’s face that he did not like what was happening.
With a finger on her cheek, James turned Odette’s face toward him.
“It will be all right,” he said silently, his lips moving with the words. “Don’t worry.”
Ben waited for James beside the woodpile. The younger man walked purposefully toward him, his face set in angry lines of resentment.
“Here I am! Whatever you’ve got in your craw, spit it out.”
“I have nothing against you. Under different circumstances I’d be happy for Odette. I blame myself for letting this go this far, because it can’t go any farther.”
“I asked Odette to marry me. I’ll love her and protect her. We will go away from here so that she’ll not have to put up with my half-brothers.”
Ben knew there was no easy way to say what he had to say, so he said it as bluntly as possible.
“I may not be Odette’s father. Her father could be Milo or Louis.”
For a moment James looked as if he had been poleaxed; then his face turned fiery red.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The summer I was eighteen, I slept with a woman in Seattle. Milo and Louis were there at the same boardinghouse. Thirteen years later the woman named me as Odette’s father, but there is no way for me to know for sure if she’s my flesh and blood.”
“You knew Milo and Louis back then?”
“I didn’t know them. I sat at the table with them and listened to them brag. They were so full of themselves they paid no attention to a skinny bashful kid.”
Sins of Summer Page 27
