by Paul Lederer
‘Earl started that way days ago. He’s going to watch things until we get back.’
‘Until you get back,’ Russell said glumly. ‘I’ve still got six months duty, in case you’ve forgotten.’
‘I haven’t forgotten,’ Holly said cheerfully. ‘Colonel Little has agreed to give you a hardship discharge, Russ. You’re free to ride with us.’ Russell was obviously stunned. When he spoke it was with a trembling voice, as he tried to digest this fact.
‘I didn’t expect to see you, Trinity,’ he finally managed to say. ‘Still not in uniform?’
‘He’s resigned his commission,’ Holly said, clutching Trinity’s arm more tightly as she looked up at him. ‘He’ll be riding back to Owl with us – as our new foreman.’
‘How.…’ It was too much for Russell to take in all at once. ‘You both waited for me?’ It dawned on him as he saw the glint of sunlight on the golden ring Holly wore on her third finger. ‘You’re married!’
‘We’d better be – now,’ Holly said. He thought she blushed a little.
‘The post chaplain did the job,’ Trinity told Russell.
‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ Russell said, shaking Trinity’s hand. ‘I hope you know how to tame a wildcat.’ He glanced at his sister.
‘She’s settled down a little,’ Trinity replied. ‘Now that there’s not so much trouble on her mind.’
‘Well, fine. I wish you the best,’ Russell said sincerely. He grinned suddenly. ‘Let’s get on the trail right away, if you don’t mind. I’ve seen enough of this place, and I’m ready to go home.’
The three trailed into the Owl yard two days later, travel-weary and dusty. The skies held clear on this late afternoon and there was a cooling breeze blowing, shifting the upper limbs of the cottonwood trees and rustling the heavy bows of the blue spruce. They approached the house from the rear and swung down there, tying their horses up thankfully. They had all had enough riding for a while. They did not see Earl or any of his Texas hands around. As they neared the porch outside the kitchen in a group, Cooky stepped out of the doorway, glancing back.
‘Just exchanging recipes,’ he said, although no one had asked him.
Alicia was humming to herself as they trooped in, closing the door behind them. Trinity and Holly glanced at each other, but said nothing, only greeting Alicia.
Passing through into the front room, they found Earl setting a fire in the fireplace. The big, blond rancher glanced up from his work.
‘Is everything all right around here, Earl?’ Holly asked, half-expecting bad news the way things had gone in her life lately. Her brother stood, dusting his hands on his jeans.
‘Fine as can be,’ Earl Bates told her. ‘We moved the herd a little farther down the valley to new grass. My men have been paid off and they’re mostly healthy or healed. I guess we’ll be starting back to the home ranch in the morning. You can ask them if anyone wants to stay on the Owl, but I really need them all down home.’
‘We don’t want to strip you of your crew,’ Trinity told him. ‘It will take a while, but we’ll find some good men – I’m thinking some of the old crew might want to drift back to the Owl with Vincent Battles gone.’
‘Hope so,’ Earl said. ‘Holly, I need to talk to you, Millicent and Russell about settling accounts. I’ve already tapped my cut to pay my men. We need to run through the numbers and make sure everyone gets his fair share.’
‘Where is Millicent?’ Trinity wondered, looking around.
‘She’s been staying upstairs since I’ve been here, acting all sulky as if something had gone wrong.’ Earl shook his head. He glanced at Trinity and said, ‘Sometimes I wonder if.…’
Then he shut up. Trinity thought he knew what Earl was going to say. He, too, must have wondered if it was possible that Millicent had thrown in her lot with Vincent Battles and had her plans upset when Battles’s scheme fell apart.
‘You told her what happened on the trail, then?’ Holly inquired. ‘That Battles was dead.’
‘Yes, that was when she took to her room,’ Earl said unhappily. ‘Anyway, Holly, can we get financial business taken care of this evening? I’ve got a ranch in Texas that needs seeing to.’
After that the group split up – Earl to tell his crew that they were headed home, Russell to wash up and take a nap. Trinity and Holly sat on the old leather sofa in front of the slowly growing fire while beyond the window the sky purpled and the wind began to die down.
‘I’ve got one matter I wanted to discuss with you,’ Trinity said, putting his arm over Holly’s shoulders. She turned to him with a smile.
‘We have to wait until everyone else has gone to bed,’ she said with a laugh.
‘Not that,’ Trinity said with a grin of his own. ‘It’s a small matter to us, but important to someone else. I wonder if Tonio can’t be put in charge of the horses full-time. He loves the animals and old Roger just isn’t up to it anymore. Roger can be a sort of yard man around here, just raking and hoeing weeds – whatever needs to be done. I think he would be happier without any real responsibilities anyway.’
‘Go ahead and do it,’ Holly agreed. ‘So long as it doesn’t upset Roger. He’s been with us for a very long time – he was one of the men who worked for my father when they drove the first cattle on to the Owl range.’
Trinity did not think the old man would mind if it was explained gently to him. From what he had seen of Roger, it must now be a strain for him even to throw a saddle over a horse’s back. He did know that Tonio would be thrilled.
They settled in quiet, comfortable companionship as the day went to night and the fire burned low. Holly stretched, yawned and rubbed her shoulders. ‘I’d better poke that fire to life,’ she said. ‘It’s starting to get cool in here.’
Trinity watched her rise, walk to the fireplace, her slender figure both a memory and a promise in his mind. The sound of rustling garments behind him brought Trinity’s head around Millicent, in back crepe, stood at the bottom of the staircase. Her eyes were wide, dark in her pale face. There was a big Colt revolver in her hand.
‘I know what you did,’ she said, drawing nearer. ‘You killed Vincent Battles.’
‘Millicent…’ Trinity said, getting to his feet.
‘You killed Vincent Battles, and now I am going to kill you.’
TWELEVE
Millicent held the Colt revolver steady in both of her hands. Her dark eyes glinted crazily in the firelight. Trinity was certain that she meant to do what she had said. He was not wearing a gun, and even if he had been, he doubted he could have shot her. That left him with few options. He dove for the floor as the big gun’s echo racketed through the room. Her shot came within inches of his head.
Holly had turned from the fireplace at her sister’s voice. Now with a hiss, she flung the iron poker in her hand at Millicent. It windmilled through the space between them and struck Millicent on her neck and head. The woman dropped to the floor, losing her grip on the revolver. Millicent still did not move as Trinity rose and scrambled toward her. He tossed the pistol aside and checked Millicent’s wounds.
‘Well?’ Holly asked.
‘She’ll make it. You just knocked her cold. Help me get her upstairs to her bed.’
‘All right,’ Holly said with resignation. ‘I suppose it’s only human to do that much for her.’ Holly’s eyes remained angry as they hoisted Millicent from the floor, carrying her by her shoulders and feet toward the stairs. ‘Don’t you remember, Trinity – I told you she could shoot.’
Breakfast was subdued. Russell, Trinity and Holly were the only ones at the table. Russell had been up to visit Millicent earlier and he told them, ‘She’s moaning and crying a lot. There’s a lump on her skull. Otherwise, I think she’s all right now. She’s bound to figure out sooner or later that Vincent Battles never loved her, that he was just using her. Until then,’ he shrugged, ‘she’s going to be a sad presence in this house.’
‘When was she not?’ Holly said sharply.
&nbs
p; Alicia served them breakfast then. Steaming cornbread and omelets, Spanish style, with melted cheddar cheese and onions inside and a thick blanket of white queso fresco cheese over it, smothered with rich red salsa heavy with fresh green and red peppers and cilantro. Trinity hoisted his fork and glanced across the table at Holly who was already working on her omelet.
‘I thought you didn’t care for Alicia’s omelets,’ he said.
‘Holly!’ Russell Bates laughed. ‘She’d have one every morning if she could.’
‘But.…’ Trinity said, ‘That morning we first met out on the range – you said the reason you were out riding alone that early was because you couldn’t stand the way Alicia fixed your eggs. Why did you tell me that, if it wasn’t so? What were you doing riding alone out there, Holly? You can’t have just been looking for.…’
‘Eat,’ Holly said, her golden eyes smiling at him. ‘Just eat, you big lug.’
About the Author
Paul Lederer spent much of his childhood and young adult life in Texas. He worked for years in Asia and the Middle East for a military intelligence arm. Under his own name, he is best known for Tecumseh and the Indian Heritage Series, which focuses on American Indian life. He believes that the finest Westerns reflect ordinary people caught in unusual and dangerous circumstances, trying their best to act with honor.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Logan Winters
Cover design by Michel Vrana
ISBN: 978-1-4804-8814-4
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY PAUL LEDERER
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign up now at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
