She pushed the hair that had escaped her bun behind her ear and smoothed down her apron. Bracing herself with a quick breath, she joined them.
Lionel greeted her with an ear-to-ear smile that did her heart good. “Look, Ma! Look what Mr. Taggert gave me. It’s a real fishing pole with a winder wheel and everything.”
“Yes, so I see,” she said and turned questioning eyes on Matt.
Matt met her gaze with a shrug. “I was in the area and thought I’d check on the patient. I also wanted to deliver that pole. Thought Lionel could put it to good use.”
Once again, she was reminded what a handsome man he was. It wasn’t just his finely chiseled features or arresting brown eyes that she found so appealing. His proud bearing made him seem even taller than his actual six-foot height. Then there was that devastating smile…
“Watch me,” Lionel called.
Pulling her gaze away from Matt, she watched her son draw his rod back and release the button on the reel. The line shot out in a wide arc and fell to the ground a distance away.
Ellie-May clapped her hands, and Matt nodded approval.
“Good job,” he said. “Just be sure to check behind you before you cast off. You don’t want to snag anyone or get tangled up a tree.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Lionel reeled in his line. “Mama, can I go to the pond and try it out? Maybe I’ll catch something for supper.”
“That would be mighty good.” Ellie-May bent to gather Lionel’s shoes. “Put these on,” she said. “One snakebite is enough.”
Matt waited for Lionel to put on his shoes before handing him a bucket. “Don’t forget your bait.”
Ellie-May gave her son a meaningful look. “What do you say to Mr. Taggert?”
Balancing fishing pole and pail in his hands, Lionel stared up at Matt. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Matt said.
Lionel’s gaze remained on Matt’s face. “If you marry my ma, you can be my pa,” he said.
Ellie-May practically choked. “Lionel! You mustn’t say things like that!” She turned to Matt with flaming face. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I don’t know what Lionel is thinking.”
Lionel frowned. “I’m thinking he would make a good pa.”
“Well now,” Matt said, looking somewhat befuddled. “That’s the nicest thing anyone ever said to me.” He reached out to straighten Lionel’s hat. “What do you say that for now we just remain friends and fishing partners?”
Seemingly satisfied with Matt’s response, Lionel nodded and took off in the direction of the pond.
Ellie-May drew in her breath and fanned her heated face with a wave of her hand. Matt’s kindness to Lionel struck a chord deep in her heart, and she felt herself drawn to him in a new and worrisome way.
A moment of silence followed Lionel’s departure before Ellie-May spoke. “You’d make ‘a good pa’ is the nicest thing anyone ever said to you?”
Matt flailed his hands with a sheepish smile. “What can I say? The people I arrest aren’t generally inclined to hand out compliments.” He chuckled. “Far as I know, none of them ever wanted me to be their pa.”
Ellie-May laughed and then grew serious. “I…apologize for my son,” she said and, by way of explanation, added, “Lionel misses his pa something fierce.”
“No need to apologize. Lionel is a fine boy. You should be proud of both of your children.”
“I am,” she said. “But…” She cleared her throat. “We…we can’t keep accepting gifts from you. First the music box. Now the fishing pole.”
“Consider the fishing pole my way of thanking you for your hospitality the other night. That was the best meal I’ve had in a very long time.”
Since he made it sound like his generous gift was his way of repaying a favor, she let the matter drop. “Could I offer you some refreshment?” she asked.
“Much obliged, but I can’t stay,” he said, and she wondered if she only imagined the note of disappointment in his voice. His gaze held hers for a moment before he tossed a nod in the direction of the house. “How’s the patient doing?”
“I think he’s better than he lets on.”
Matt quirked an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“One of my neighbors has been helping out. Anvil pretends otherwise, but I do believe he likes all the attention.”
“Can’t say I blame him there.” They stared at each other for a moment, and it was as if the world stood still. As if catching himself gaping, Matt cleared his throat. “I better get a move on. I told Jesse to meet me at the Feedbag Café.”
Ellie-May tilted her head. “Sounds like you and Jesse spend a lot of time together.”
“I guess in some ways, Jesse reminds me of myself when I was that age. Though I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat as much as he does.”
Laughing, she tried to visualize Matt as a skinny, awkward kid and couldn’t.
Adjusting the brim of his hat against the sun, he let his gaze linger on her for a moment longer before he made a motion to leave. “Give your farmhand my best.”
She nodded. “Will do.” Turning, he walked to his tethered horse, and she called after him. “Thank you for the fishing pole. You made my son very happy.”
He acknowledged her with a raised hand. “It was my pleasure.”
She watched him ride away with conflicting emotions. The man was trouble, no question. He’d made it clear on several occasions that nothing would keep him from pursuing and catching his man.
Still, even knowing the damage he could do to her and her children, she was drawn to him in a way she couldn’t explain. Perhaps it was his kindness to Jesse that appealed to her, or his concern for Anvil. Nor could she forget his generous gifts, first to Alicia and now Lionel. Then there was the empathy he’d shown when she’d told him about her father.
Whatever it was, it was hard not to like him. It was harder still to keep her wits about her whenever he was around, and that was a worry. A very big worry.
18
The first thing Matt did the following morning upon leaving the hotel was head for the sheriff’s office. Last night, after sending Jesse home, he had been given a note by the hotel desk clerk stating that Sheriff Keeler had wanted to see him.
Stifling a yawn, Matt decided to walk rather than ride. He needed to clear his head. He’d not slept well. For some reason, Lionel’s words kept him twisting and turning until the wee hours of the morning.
I’m thinking he would make a good pa.
A good pa.
Matt drew in his breath. He’d always liked children but wasn’t ready to be a father. Not yet. Maybe one day. Right now, he had things to do. Criminals to catch. His brother to track down. So why Lionel’s words had affected him so, he couldn’t say. All he knew was the sooner he tied up his business in Haywire and left town, the better.
Matt found Sheriff Keeler seated in his office behind his weathered desk. “You wanted to see me?”
Keeler stuck his pen in the penholder and sat back in his chair. “Thought you’d be interested in knowing that we had a break in the stagecoach robbery.”
“Oh?”
The sheriff tossed a Wanted poster across his desk, and Matt picked it up. The name on the poster was James Stanford, but he recognized the likeness as someone else. “Roberts?” he said. “He’s wanted for robbery in Kansas?”
“Was.” The sheriff indicated the jail cells upstairs with a glance at the ceiling. “He’s now behind bars.”
“How do you know he’s your man?”
“I had a visit two days ago from a Pinkerton detective,” Keeler said. “He’d tracked Roberts all the way from Montana where he’d pulled the same stunt.”
“You mean, he held up stages in Montana, too?”
“Yep. But guess what? When I arrested him, he thought I was arresting him for the stage robbery he
re. Said he didn’t mean to do it and spilled the beans. How lucky is that?”
Matt frowned. “Did he say what he did with the stolen loot?”
“Nope. Soon as he realized what he’d done, he clammed up. Couldn’t get ’nother word outta him.”
“So you don’t know if he worked alone or had a partner?”
The sheriff raised a questioning brow. “None of the witnesses saw a second man. If you can’t trust a state senator as a witness to a crime, who can you trust? I think that pretty much answers your question.”
Matt wished it were that simple, but there were still too many loose ends for his peace of mind. One of them being the conversation Jesse claimed to have overheard between Roberts and Blackwell.
“I need to talk to him.”
“You’ll be wasting your time. Far as I’m concerned, we got our man and the case is closed. The rest is up to the judge.”
“It’ll be hard to prove his guilt without the stolen money,” Matt said. “Roberts could be the only way we’ll find it.”
The sheriff made a face. “Like I said, you’re wasting your time. The money’s probably long gone.”
Matt had reason to believe otherwise. He doubted Roberts offered to help work on the Blackwell farm out of the goodness of his heart. He had to have been looking for something. If Matt was a betting man, he’d wager that something was the loot stolen from the stage.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll waste my time the way I see fit.” With that, Matt turned and stumped up the stairs to the jail cells.
Reaching the second floor, he scanned all three cells, but today only the middle cell was occupied. “We meet again,” he said.
Roberts sat on his cot with a blank stare and said nothing.
“Guess you got yourself in a heap o’ trouble,” Matt said. “Robbing stages is serious business.”
Roberts’s upper lip curled, but he remained silent.
“The penalty is pretty steep,” Matt continued and made a motion across his neck to indicate just how steep, though Roberts’s chances of being hung were slim. Most robbers nowadays got prison terms. All it took was a lenient judge or a halfway-decent defense lawyer. “If I were in your shoes, I’d do everything I could to gain leniency.”
This time, he had Roberts’s attention. “Like what?”
“You can start by telling us what you did with the loot you stole from the Haywire stage robbery.”
“Don’t know nothin’ ’bout no Haywire robbery.”
“Then why did you confess?”
“I got confused is all,” Roberts said. “I admit to robbin’ that stage in Montana, but that’s before I got myself religion and became a changed man.”
“I have a witness who said he overheard you talking to Blackwell about the stolen loot.”
Roberts studied Matt with glittering eyes. “And like I told you, your witness is lying through his teeth!”
“Are you saying that you and Blackwell were never in cahoots?”
“I work alone,” Roberts said, a note of pride in his voice. “Always have. Always will.”
“Then I’m sure it won’t pose any great hardship when you hang alone.”
Roberts clamped down on his jaw and refused to say another word.
* * *
Ellie-May dreaded having to attend the dedication of the new school, but if she failed to show, tongues were bound to wag.
She reached for her cloth bonnet and changed her mind. Today, only her Sunday-go-to-meeting hat would do.
She lifted the straw hat off the hat stand and carefully arranged it on her head. The feathers tipped sideways, and the ribbon was frayed. No question the hat had seen better days, but wearing it still made her feel like a lady and more self-assured. Today, she needed all the confidence she could muster.
She stepped back from the mirror for a full-body view. After examining herself with a critical eye, she sighed and reached in her glove box for the pair of white kid gloves saved for special occasions. At least her red callused hands would be hidden from public view.
“Come along, children,” Ellie-May called. “We don’t want to be late.”
She waited for Lionel and Alicia to join her before marshaling them outside and helping them onto the narrow buckboard seat.
Alicia looked especially pretty in her blue dress. People often commented on how much Alicia looked like her, but Ellie-May couldn’t see the likeness, except in the color of hair and eyes. It was much easier to see Neal in her son. They were alike in so many ways and not just in looks. They both had quiet, reserved personalities. Neal would hate all the fuss the town was making over him.
Seated in the driver’s seat, Anvil greeted her with a toothy smile. “Morning, Miss Ellie-May,” he said.
“Good morning,” she said and took her seat next to her children.
Anvil had lost a lot of weight in recent days but had otherwise fully recovered from the snakebite. His skin was still red from Mrs. Buttonwood’s treatments, and he looked like he’d been in the sun too long. It seemed that the so-called cure was worse than the poison.
Anvil gathered the reins in hand. “Ready?”
Ellie-May smoothed down her skirt and hoped no one noticed how faded it was. How frayed. “Ready.”
Anvil clicked his tongue, and Jingles moved forward with a flick of her tail, churning up dust with each languid step.
Guiding the buckboard along the bumpy road, Anvil glanced over the heads of the two children. “You okay?” he asked when they were halfway to town.
Ellie-May straightened her daughter’s bonnet and retied the ribbon beneath her chin. “Yes. Why do you ask?”
“You’ve not said a word since leaving the house.”
“I’m just a little…nervous, I guess.”
“You have no call to be nervous. This is a proud day for the family.” Anvil tugged on his felt hat and addressed his next comments to the children. “Your pa was a fine man. Never met anyone quite like him.”
Ellie-May took a deep breath, which made her regret wearing her whalebone corset. As much as she appreciated Anvil’s kind words, the bag of money beneath the porch continued to haunt her. It was worse than a thorn at her side, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t put it out of her mind.
“Don’t know if you’ve heard,” Anvil said. “But it turns out I was right to be suspicious of that Roberts fellow.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. Turns out he was a wanted man.”
Ellie-May frowned. “Really? What was he wanted for?”
“Stage robbery.”
Gasping, she stared at Anvil. “The Haywire stage robbery?”
“That’s what I heard.”
Ellie-May shook her head in disbelief. She’d always felt there was something strange about the man, but it had never occurred to her he was an outlaw. Chewing on a nail, she considered this new information with increasing alarm. Did that mean Neal had worked with someone else? That his partner was Roberts?
“W-why do you suppose he acted like he was Neal’s friend?” she asked.
Anvil shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he thought a friend of Neal’s would not be considered a suspect.”
Ellie-May knotted her gloved hands on her lap. It was a comforting thought but didn’t feel right. The only way the sack of stolen money could have ended up under her porch was if Neal had put it there. Now that Roberts had been arrested, there was no telling what he would say or what lies he might tell to save his own skin.
Feeling herself begin to panic, she tried pushing her dark thoughts aside. Pushing away a boulder would have been easier, but it was either that or drive herself crazy with worry. For the children’s sake, she needed to keep her wits about her. At least until after today’s dedication.
It took longer than usual to reach the new school because of
the traffic. The number of vehicles vying for a place to park made her mouth run dry. A large group of people never failed to remind her of the crowd that had gathered at her father’s hanging.
Anvil drove past the new schoolhouse and pulled the horse and wagon onto an unfenced field where others had parked. He drew up behind a buggy and set the brake. “Here we are,” he said.
Ellie-May’s stomach churned from nerves. Determined to make this a day Alicia and Lionel would always remember, she lifted her chin and forced a smile. “Come along, children.”
Moments later, the four of them joined the crowd gathered in front of the school. Ellie-May waved at Claudia Peterson, who juggled two small children in her arms and had two more tugging at her skirt.
Ellie-May could barely bring herself to look at the sign reading NEAL BLACKWELL GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Still, the building was impressive.
The original one-room schoolhouse had been replaced by a building with two classrooms. Children six to twelve years of age would occupy one room. The second room would be for older children. Two classrooms meant that the school would now require two teachers.
As usual, Mayor Wrightwood stood behind a podium ready to speak. Ellie-May hoped the mayor kept his remarks short, for the school grounds provided little shade and it was already hot. Next to him stood the teacher everyone called Miss Holly.
Ellie-May decided that the fashionably dressed woman standing next to her must be the new teacher. Her face was as round as a powder puff, and her stylish frock marked her as an Easterner. The stuffed bird occupying her three-story hat brought curious stares from children anxious to get a look at their new teacher.
Glancing down at her own plain homespun dress, Ellie-May pulled off a glove and fanned her heated face with it. How long before the new teacher learned the folly of such fashion and took to dressing more sensibly?
She’d failed to notice that Lionel had wandered off until a man’s angry voice suddenly rose above the murmurs of the crowd. All eyes turned to a man holding Lionel by the shoulders and shaking him like a housewife shaking a dusty rug.
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