by Lily Wilspur
David pressed his lips together. “Fine. Go ahead. Go ahead and do your job for once in your life.”
“Thank you, I will.” The sheriff turned back to Lou Ann. “Now, then, Miss—I mean, Mrs. McGee. If you’ll just tell me which one of them pulled a gun first, we can lay this whole thing to rest and I’ll leave you two newlyweds to celebrate your honeymoon.”
“Is that it?” David interrupted. “Is that what all this boils down to?”
“That’s right,” the sheriff replied. “If Shipler shot first, then you killed him in self defense. But if you pulled a gun on him first, then I’ll have to charge you with murder.”
Chapter 10
Both men turned to Lou Ann.
“So, Mrs. McGee,” the sheriff continued. “Tell me which of them shot first.”
Lou Ann foundered, staring back and forth between the two men. How could she answer? How could she speak, knowing her answer might put her new husband in danger? “I don’t remember.”
“Come, now, Mrs. McGee,” the sheriff chided her. “Protecting him won’t do any good. Your best bet is to tell the truth. It will come out sooner or later anyway, and if I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll have to arrest you, too, for perjury.”
Lou Ann bristled. “I am telling the truth, Sheriff. I really don’t remember which of them fired first. From where I was standing, it looked to me like they pulled their guns at the same moment, and the guns went off at the same moment. You have to remember I was scared out of my wits at the time. And because I’m the only witness you have, you won’t be able to prove whether I’m lying or not.”
“I don’t have to prove it,” the sheriff shot back. “He’s your husband, and he’s under suspicion of murder. I can assume you’re lying to protect him. Any judge in the country will agree with me.”
Lou Ann stared at him. He disgusted her. Was it possible for a person to be such a toad? His greasy skin shone in the light coming through the window. His rummy eyes shifted back and forth from her to David and back again. “You can’t do this to us. We just got married this morning.”
“I can do it,” the sheriff assured her. “It’s my sworn duty as an officer of the law to bring a murderer to justice. But in view of Shipler’s character and reputation around this town—not to mention certain family circumstances connected with the case—I’ll do you both a favor. I won’t arrest your husband until tomorrow morning. I’ll give you twenty-four hours together before I take him in.”
“You can’t do this!” Lou Ann cried.
The sheriff moved toward the door. “It’s done. I’ll see you both tomorrow morning.” He tipped his hat and slithered out.
David and Lou Ann stared at each other in his absence. Lou Ann felt her lips quivering. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. She was supposed to go home to his father’s farm tomorrow morning and live happily ever after. She’d just become used to the idea of David killing Shipler. She could just see her way to putting the gun fight aside and being happy with him. Now the world turned on her again and thrust this fresh nightmare on her.
David sat down at the table and stared at the tray of food. “Thank you anyway for trying to protect me.”
“I didn’t,” Lou Ann told him. “I really don’t remember who fired first.”
“I did,” David replied. “It was the only way to make sure I hit him before he hit me. He was too good a gun fighter to let him get the jump on me. He would have shot me for sure.”
“But he did shoot at you,” Lou Ann pointed out. “Why didn’t he hit you?”
“I hit him first,” David told her. “It must have affected his aim. Anyway, he’s dead and I’m alive, and that’s all that matters.”
Lou Ann heard a sob come out of her own mouth. “But you’ll be arrested for murder. You’ll stand trial and they’ll hang you. You’ll be dead along with him.”
“They won’t arrest me,” David countered.
“That rotten sheriff will find a way to make you guilty,” Lou Ann wailed. “It doesn’t matter what I saw or what I said. He came here to make you guilty. I could see it in his eyes.”
“He’s rotten. That’s for certain,” David agreed. “But he wouldn’t make me guilty if he didn’t have to. He hated and feared Shipler as much as anyone. Shipler had him over a barrel. He couldn’t do his job even if he wanted to, not with Shipler around. No, he’s under pressure from the governor to make an example out of me. That’s all.”
“But they’ll still hang you,” Lou Ann insisted.
“No, they won’t,” David told her. “because they won’t arrest me tomorrow morning. I’ll run away and they’ll never find me. I’ll ride down to Canyonlands and hide out there. I might have to spend the rest of my life on the run, but they’ll never hang me for Earnest Shipler’s murder—not as long as I have breath in my body to resist.”
“But that could take years!” Lou Ann cried. “What am I going to do while you’re gone?”
“You can stay at the farm. I might be able to come and visit you there from time to time. And Dad and my brothers will be able to protect you. I know you’ll be safe there.”
“Not if the sheriff arrests me, too,” Lou Ann pointed out.
“He won’t,” David assured her. “As long as he drives me out of town, he can tell the governor that he doesn’t know where I am, and that will satisfy whoever is looking for me. But he’d never be able to show his face in this town again if he arrested you, too. You don’t need to worry about that. That was nothing but a hollow threat.”
A hot tear streaked down Lou Ann’s face. She brushed it away and examined her fingers. Until she saw the moisture on her fingertips, she didn’t know she was crying. “This isn’t fair! We just got married, and now you have to go away.”
David paused, gazing at her. Then he stepped closer and laid his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t cry. Everything will be all right. I’ll get away, and you’ll be safe at home. Maybe when this whole thing blows over I’ll be able to come home, too.”
Lou Ann broke down in choking sobs that tore her apart. She tried to say again how unfair it all was, but nothing came out except more wrenching sobs.
David folded her into his arms. “There, there. Don’t cry. It’s all right.”
Chapter 11
Lou Ann tucked herself into the hollow of David’s arms. They lay on top of the bed. Lou Ann felt the raw flesh of her cheeks and eyes burned by endless tears. She didn’t want to think about the future any more, but she couldn’t stop her mind from turning automatically toward the next morning.
Just a few short hours separated her from isolation in this wilderness. She would be living with three strange men, while her stranger husband ran from the law in the desolate corners of the frontier.
How did this happen? How had she fallen into this pit of despair? In less than a day, her future, her world, her life fell into shattered fragments at her feet, and all because she happened to look out the door of a train car.
David stroked her hair. He didn’t speak, but he must be thinking the same thing. He represented everything Lou Ann had learned in her life to avoid. Yet here she was, lying next to him, and dreading her coming separation from him.
Finally, she couldn’t keep silent any longer. “Where will you go, down there in Canyonlands? Where will you stay? How will you live?” As soon as the words escaped her, her tears flowed again, wetting the shoulder of David’s shirt.
“We have a hunting cabin down there,” he replied. “I’ll stay there.”
“Won’t the sheriff know where to find you there?” she asked. “That will be the first place he’ll look.”
“He doesn’t know about it,” David told her. “No one knows about it except my Dad and me. We built it together when I was a boy.”
“How will you survive there?” she asked.
“I’ll hunt,” he answered. “It won’t be hard. I mean, it will be hard but I’ll do it. It’s better than jail or hanging.�
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She choked on her sobs again. He didn’t try to comfort her anymore, but let her cry. He petted her hair and stroked her cheek. “It isn’t fair!” she whispered.
“It isn’t fair to you,” he agreed. “But I’m not going to spend a single day of my life in jail for killing Shipler. He should have been gunned down by Federal Marshals years ago. It’s only because the so-called lawmen in this state are all as crooked as a dog’s hind leg that he got away with what he did for so long. I’m not going to jail for killing him, and that’s my last word.”
“I just wish you didn’t have to go,” Lou Ann sobbed.
David cupped her chin in his hand and lifted her face. His eyes bored into hers. “I’m sorry for your sake that it had to be like this. I’d like nothing better than to stay with you forever.”
Her jaw shivered in his hand. “There must be another way.”
“There is no other way,” he murmured.
His lips landed on hers with the weight of a butterfly landing on a flower. Salty tears mixed with the elixir of their kiss. Before she knew what she was doing, Lou Ann felt her body pressing against his hard muscular frame.
So this was it. She always wondered what it was like. The intoxicating fire shimmered through her brain like the waves of a mirage. She almost didn’t hear the knock at the door.
David pulled away and got up from the bed. When he opened the door, his father stood in the passageway outside.
“Is this a bad time?” Arthur McGee asked.
David chuckled. “What can I do for you?”
“Do you mind if I come in?” the father asked.
David stood back from the door, and the older McGee entered. He tipped his hat to Lou Ann sitting on the edge of the bed. She wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“I can see you’ve had a visit from the sheriff,” Arthur McGee told them. “I just met him in the street, and he filled my head with the biggest bunch of nonsense I’ve heard in twenty years. I was hoping to break the news to you lightly, but I can see he’s been here before me.”
“He’s been here,” David replied.
“What are you going to do?” the father asked.
“I’m going on the run,” David told him. “I’ll head down to Canyonlands and hole up in the cabin. I was just discussing it with Lou Ann. If you don’t mind, she’ll stay with you and the boys at the farm. She’ll be safe there.”
Arthur McGee caught sight of Lou Ann starting to cry again. She turned her head away from them, but she couldn’t stop her tears. Just when she thought she didn’t have a single tear left to shed, another flood came just as fast as the others.
“It’s fine with me,” Mr. McGee replied. “As long as it’s all right with her, it’s fine with me. We’d be honored to have you. It isn’t exactly the marriage you planned, but it’s the best we can do under the circumstances. It sure beats going to jail.”
“That’s what I think,” David agreed.
“Well.” The father looked around the room. “Should we get your things moved out to the house now? I’ve only got the buggy outside, but I could send one of the boys with the wagon to pick up your trunk and your bag.”
“We’ll spend the night here tonight,” David told him. “The sheriff gave me twenty-four hours with Lou Ann. So you can come and get her in the morning. I’ll light out just after sun-up. That’ll make sure I get clear before the sheriff comes looking for me.”
“That sounds good to me.” Arthur McGee faced Lou Ann. “I sure am sorry about all this. You deserve better than this. If I was twenty years younger, I’d have to take that sheriff to task myself.”
Lou Ann tried unsuccessfully to smile at him. But her face contorted into a mask of despair, and the tears stained her cheeks. Much as she would like to answer him, she only sobbed louder, forcing David to step in and answer for her again. “That’s all right, Dad. I appreciate you helping Lou Ann any way you can while I’m gone.”
Arthur McGee nodded. “I’ll be here again at sun-up. I’ll bring you some supplies from the house—some guns and ammunition and some food for your journey. I’ll see you on your way, anyway.”
David walked his father to the door and saw him out of the room. “Thanks, Dad. See you tomorrow.”
Chapter 12
David sat down at the table and stared at the tray of food. “We should eat this. We’re both hungry, and we haven’t touched it.”
Lou Ann sniffed. “I’m not hungry.”
“You don’t feel it now,” David replied. “But you can’t go on forever without food. Why don’t you come on over and join me? We’ll both feel better after we’ve eaten.”
“You go ahead,” Lou Ann muttered. “I’m not hungry.”
David picked up a slice of bread and a piece of meat. He held them together and took a bite. “You’ll wear yourself out,”
Lou Ann didn’t answer. She stared at the floor.
David scrutinized her while he chewed his food. Then he set it back on the plate and went over to sit next to her on the bed again. He took her hand. “Listen to me.”
She didn’t respond. Her hand lay limp and lifeless in his grip.
David turned her face toward him with his hand. “Listen to me. We barely know each other but you’re my wife. So I want to tell you that you can’t just let yourself fall apart because of this. I’m counting on you to take care of yourself and keep your spirits up while I’m away.”
“This isn’t what I signed up for,” Lou Ann grumbled.
“It’s not what I signed up for, either,” David told her. “I signed up to spend the rest of my life with you, and run the farm when the old man dies, and have a houseful of kids, and grow our own food, and all that. But something happened, and now we have to change our plans.”
“I don’t want to change our plans!” Lou Ann moaned.
“You have to remember,” David reminded her. “that I could come home at any time. That fat sheriff could drop dead, or the people above him who want me strung up could drop dead. Anything could happen, and I’ll be coming home.”
“I guess so,” Lou Ann replied.
“You have to believe it,” David told her. “And when that happens, I want you there, waiting for me. We’ll pick up the pieces and carry on as if all this was a bad dream. Then we’ll live happily ever after.”
Lou Ann raised her gaze to him. “Do you really think so? I wish I could believe that!”
“I do believe it.” His eyes glittered with the pleasant vision he imagined, and a cheerful smile played on his lips. “And I want you to believe it, too. No matter how terrible things seem now, I want you to hold that thought in your mind and remember me. I want you to be ready for me to come home.”
“You’re asking the impossible,” Lou Ann sobbed. “How can I keep that in mind when you aren’t here?”
David’s eyes flashed. “It’s not impossible. I’ll hold the same thought in my mind while I’m away. We’ll connect with each other through our shared idea of the future. Whenever we’re feeling down or sad, we’ll think about what it’s going to be like when we’re together again.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” Lou Ann told him.
“You can do it,” David declared. “You’ll do it for me, and I’ll do it for you. You’ll be strong, knowing that I’m thinking of you, just like I’ll take strength from knowing you’re thinking of me.”
He kissed her ever so gently, and she burst into tears again.
Lou Ann buried her face in David’s neck. Her tears joined the skin of her cheeks to his. His hands pressed into the small of her back, and a charge of lightning jolted through her body. In spite of the time they’d spent side by side on the bed before, for the first time, she became aware of his body just beyond the thin veil of their clothes.
She stiffened automatically, and he sensed her resistance. He softened his embrace to let her go, but she clung to him still more tightly. She signaled her resolution to give herself to him by pressing her body against his.
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He heard the signal loud and clear. His arms crushed her against his chest, and his lips found hers in a primal embrace.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Lou Ann’s eyes sprang open. She stared at the ceiling, listening to David’s steady breathing next to her in bed. The heat of his body radiated into hers under the blankets. Beyond the room, the night noises sang a gentle lullaby.
Beyond the undertone of insect voices and coyote calls, something Lou Ann couldn’t identify whispered to her. It breathed over the vast distance between her and her childhood home in Georgia, telling her a story about her past, her present, and her future.
The story it told her didn’t end with David riding away in the morning, leaving her alone with her unknown in-laws. It didn’t end with her waiting months or years or even decades for David to clear his name and come home. It didn’t end with her separating from this husband of hers at all.
This story didn’t resemble the mail-order bride fantasy she’d spun for herself ever since she arranged to marry David McGee. It didn’t resemble it in the slightest. But then again, the Lou Ann McGee in this new story didn’t resemble the Lou Ann Hawkins who left Georgia, either. You wouldn’t know the two were the same person, because they weren’t the same person.
The possibilities played out in front of Lou Ann’s eyes in the darkness, and she smiled up at the ceiling. So that was why David’s plan to hide in a cabin in Canyonlands seemed so far-fetched to her. Sure, he could go. It was her own role in the plan that didn’t fit.
Now everything made sense. She could rest now. She could let the exhaustion of shock, grief, and uncertainty wash away. She could sleep and dream of her new life, now that it sprang fresh and green out of the scorched earth.
Chapter 13
The pink highlights of dawn glowed in the window of the hotel room. David opened his eyes and found Lou Ann watching him.
He sighed and stretched. “How long have you been awake?”
“A while,” she told him.
