by Lilah Rivers
“You … you wouldn’t do that?”
“Not on purpose,” Josh said with a little smile.
The land agent and the saloon owner shared another worried glance.
“Well, we’ve already refused your offer,” Otis said, “so I think we can all walk away from the matter and leave it in this room, a gentlemen’s agreement between the three of us.”
“Absolutely,” Bristol said. “Discretion being the better part of valor.”
Josh nodded. “Very good. If Decker does come to you, I’d suggest pretending to know nothing of it. I mean, he wouldn’t much appreciate you not telling him, which of course you’d be fools to do.”
The two men were stumped, Josh had outwitted them, and they both seemed to know it. All they could do was sit there stunned as Josh stood up and extended his hand to each man. They took it in turn.
“Think it through, gentlemen.” With that, Josh turned to cross slowly, confidently out of the saloon.
Chapter 28
Bella and Dean rode into town in their family buckboard. Bella glanced at the Moss General Store on the right, the church just around the corner. But about a block further down the thoroughfare from the store was a new iced cream parlor.
Bella said, “This may be a little … sensitive, Dean.”
“I can imagine,” Dean answered. “Coming to him bonnet in hand as you are.”
He chuckled, and she gave him a little swat. “Don’t be so cruel! You and your brother …”
“I’m sorry, Sister.”
“Indeed. But you can make it up to me by leaving me some time alone with Turner. Go to the iced cream parlor, sit down and relax a bit. I’ll meet you there when I’m done.”
Dean glanced down the street, then back at Bella. “Not a bad idea. Good luck.” Dean stopped the buckboard, and Bella climbed off, waiting for him to pull away before turning to walk into Moss’ store.
The bell over the door jingled as she stepped into the store. Turner smiled, his black mustache curling. “This is a pleasant surprise. How are you, Bella?”
“Very well, Turner, thank you.”
“It’s been some time since I saw you last. I almost had the impression that I’d said or done something to offend you somehow.”
“Oh, um, no, Turner, not at all. Your company was perfectly charming.” Bella swallowed hard, eyes darting nervously around the store. “I … my family and I, that is, would like your family over to our house for dinner, perhaps this Sunday after services. Your father’s feeling well enough, I trust?”
Turner seemed to give the matter some thought. He pulled a glass jar from the shelf behind him and opened it for her. “Lemon drop?”
Bella took one, popping the little yellow ball into her mouth. “Thank you.” Sourness poured out of the little candy, Bella’s nerves twitching, eyes and mouth puckering. “Delicious,” she barely managed to say.
“My father is doing well, I’m happy to say, and we’d be glad to attend. We’ll come along after church, make a day of it.”
Bella tried to smile. She knew she wasn’t being completely forthright with him, but she wasn’t completely dishonest either; she didn’t dislike Turner, not at all. And there was still a chance that she’d wind up marrying him.
Bella parted with a few friendly words and a pleasant smile, stepping out into the street. She walked quickly and turned around the corner, heading straight for the church, but she spotted none other than Josh Callahan himself, walking down the street, the saloon behind him.
“Josh!”
He brightened as soon as he saw her, the two rushing toward one another and meeting in front of a cobbler’s shop.
“Bella, what a surprise!”
“For myself even more.” She glanced over his shoulder. “On your way from somewhere in particular?”
Josh turned, and then looked back at her. “Oh, um, the saloon, actually. And I have news, about what’s happening with the range war brewing.”
Bella looked around nervously. “You better tell me now; I can’t ride out to meet you at the creek anymore.”
“Why’s that?”
“It’s … there’s a little tension among the homesteaders and … I suppose you should know this; they’re taking up a warlike posture. They don’t trust my father anymore; they may be targeting us as betrayers, as working with Decker and the ranchers.”
Josh clearly gave it some thought. “You’ve been threatened?”
“Not directly, no, but … we have to be cautious, that’s all.”
Josh pulled his lips tight over his teeth, rubbing his cheek as he thought it through. “Who?”
“It’s hard to say, and it doesn’t really matter. What did you learn?”
“Well, we know for sure Bristol is in Decker’s pocket, Otis Remington of the Golden Loon too, but I already knew about Bristol. That’s why I was there, trying to get ’em to turn on Decker.”
“Will they?”
“Not yet,” Josh said. “I told ’em I was going up to Decker myself.”
Bella knew her expression clearly expressed her legitimate surprise. “Are you?”
“Have to now. I was hoping it wouldn’t be necessary, that I could talk the other two around, but Otis and Bristol wouldn’t budge.”
Bella slipped her arm into Josh’s and turned to pull him into a hurried walk down the street, further from the iced cream parlor. In a hushed tone, she asked, “What are you going to say to Saul Decker? I don’t understand.”
“My play is to tell Decker I want to be his man among the ranchers … replacing my father.”
Bella gave it some thought, her blood rushing nervously in her veins. “You mean … usurping him, then selling the others out?”
“And the homesteaders too.”
“Josh!”
“I don’t truly intend to do it, of course. If he’ll agree, I can take that back to the ranchers and homesteaders both, use it to ally them against Decker. I figure the land officer and the saloon owner will fall in with the majority at that point. We’ll prevail over Decker by sheer force of numbers. He’ll find another way to run his cattle.”
Bella thought it through, but the new information only inspired more questions than answers. “And what if he won’t go along with it?”
“I don’t think it’ll change things. With the war coming, it’ll suit his purposes to do and say as little as possible and just … see who survives.”
Bella nodded, hideous visions crackling in her imagination. She blotted them out and concentrated on Josh, so tall and handsome by her side. Her arm in his felt so comfortable, so right.
Another image flashed in her head, eyes wide with inspiration.
“I should go with you.”
“What? Bella, no. It’s too dangerous.”
“But you’re willing to do it? Think about it, Josh. If you go in there alone, he really could gun you down, claim you were trying to gun him down, something like that. But he’d hardly be able to sell that story with me!”
Josh shook his head, but he didn’t offer any contradiction.
“And if we go together, he’s more likely to believe it. Imagine; we go in as … as a couple.” Bella swallowed hard before going on, “We tell him that our fathers have forbidden our betrothal, as they’re mortal enemies in this conflict. We decide to take matters in our own hands.”
Josh rubbed his chin. “It does make good sense. But you’d be taking a big risk with your father.”
“No less a risk than you’re taking.” Josh shrugged. But before he could offer another objection Bella said, “I won’t hear another word. You’ve been to this place, this man’s den?”
“I have. It’s about an hour north.”
Bella glanced around. “My brother is at the iced cream parlor, waiting to take me back to the ranch.”
Josh seemed to give it some thought. “What brought you into town? You couldn’t have known I’d be here.”
“No, um, no … actually, I was here … for a few t
hings at the Moss’ store.”
Josh nodded but looked at her empty hands. “They’re not well stocked, it would seem.”
“Oh, well, yes, I, um …”
“And what’s all this?” Bella stopped, a bolt of panic shooting through her. She didn’t need to turn to see the face of her brother Dean to know it was him, but she also knew she didn’t have a choice.
“Dean.”
Dean glared at them, his eyes finding their interlocking arms. “Arm in arm?” Bella slid her arm out, suddenly self-conscious. “What’s going on here?”
“Okay, Dean,” Bella said, holding her hands out to calm him, “it’s … well … it’s not as bad as you probably think.”
Dean shook his head a bit. “Frankly, I don’t know what to think!”
Bella and Josh glanced at one another, and Bella slipped her arm in the crux of Dean’s arm instead. “Let me explain …”
Chapter 29
Josh walked along with Bella and let her do most of the talking. Dean is her brother, he reasoned, and he doesn’t like me much to begin with. The less I contribute, the better. But Josh did offer the facts he knew, the things Bella couldn’t quite explain.
“Incredible,” Dean said once he’d heard the facts. “I knew there was something fishy on the rancher’s end of things. How deep is your father in all this, Callahan?”
Bella said, “Josh is a friend, Dean.”
“We’ll see.”
“My father is his own man,” Josh said. “He’s certainly not on this Decker’s payroll. Remember, Decker wants to see us all under the ground.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.” Dean seemed to read Bella’s expression, one of silent reprisal. “But it makes sense that it would be Decker, and he’s who we should be focusing on.”
“Precisely,” Bella said.
After a prolonged silence, Josh asked, “Where do you stand, then?”
“On our plan? I think it’s outlandish … and that’s just what’s required.”
Josh turned his head as if to hear Dean better. “Our plan?”
Dean shrugged. “Bella, you don’t think I’m going to let you go there alone?”
“She won’t be alone,” Josh said.
“That’s right,” Dean answered, tension rising between the two men.
Bella said, “Dean, our … our story is that we’re a couple … in the romantic sense.”
“With one sympathetic twin. We’ll tell them I’m split with Jonah on the issue, or we never got along. If they want to believe, they will.”
“But he won’t want to believe,” Bella said, “that’s just the thing.”
“I’m not letting you go without me,” Dean said, mostly to Bella. “So either we all three of us go in together, or I go back and tell Pop.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“For your safety? You can believe I will.”
Josh had been giving it some thought, and he was finally ready to say, “All right, it’s … it’s fine. But let’s get going. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and daylight’s wasting.” Bella glared at Dean, who was wearing a vaguely satisfied grin. The three decided to head out on the Archers’ buckboard, leaving Josh’s horse hitched near the saloon.
There was some tension about who would sit up front with Bella, but she insisted that, should they be spotted, she and Josh really should be seen sitting side by side. Dean begrudgingly accepted the logic and took up the reins, Josh and Bella behind him.
They made it a few minutes before a little smile crept over Dean’s face when he looked back. Bella was sitting more directly behind him, which gave Josh a good view of the young man.
“So, you and my sister. How’d this happen?”
“She saved my life,” Josh said. “I was thrown by my horse, hit my head, nearly drowned in that creek.”
“Really? Well, that’s … quite embarrassing for you, wouldn’t you say?”
Bella said, “Dean …”
But Dean went on, “I mean, don’t make a very … capable impression, does it?”
“He’s quite capable in other ways,” Bella said. Quick to correct any misunderstandings, Bella went on, “He’s very clever, I mean; very charming, so courageous. If it weren’t for him, we’d all be facing the slaughterhouse, sure!”
Dean glanced at Bella. “Already using cowboy terms?”
“Maybe we should be more concerned with the upcoming meeting,” Josh said.
“Indeed,” Dean said, turning to Bella. “Of course, you have other things on your mind.”
“Dean —”
Josh asked Dean, “What do you mean by that?”
“Hhhmmm? Beg pardon?”
“You heard me. You may think you’re something special, Dean, but as far as I’m concerned you’re just a single shoe missing its match. You’ve got a big tongue and a worn-out soul, and you smell like an old sock.”
Dean turned angrily, sneering at Josh. Josh knew under other circumstances, the twin would be moved to fisticuffs. And while Josh was ready for that, he knew these were not the right circumstances for that.
It was proven when Dean said, “Whatever I am, I’m still Bella’s older brother.”
“As far as I’m concerned, one of the very few things which stand in your favor.”
“Boys, enough, please,” Bella said. “We’ll need our strength for the fighting to come.”
“He started it,” Dean said.
“You started it,” Bella said. “If I may take this moment to say it, you and your brother share a sense of humor which can be most annoying!”
They rolled on a bit further when Josh turned to Bella. “What other things do you have on your mind, Bella?”
Bella seemed suddenly nervous, glancing around and biting her lower lip. Josh couldn’t be sure, but he was ready to guess that her brother was teasing Bella about her emotions for Josh, which he was certain he was not misreading. He was what she had on her mind, and he didn’t need to hear her say it. The question lingered, half-answered and half-not, and that seemed as satisfactory to Bella as it was to Josh.
Chapter 30
Elroy Archer looked around the Nebraska countryside, a slope rising up on one side of the creek. Barton Callahan climbed down off his horse and the two men shook hands.
“Thank you for coming, Barton.”
“Of course, Elroy.” Barton glanced around. “We can be seen here.”
“It’s not a likely spot to be staked out, I wouldn’t think.” A rattlesnake’s rattle shook out from nearby, sending a bolt of instinctive fear up Elroy’s spine. Both men turned to see a big timber rattler coiled up near a limber pine, blue tongue flicking before it slowly slid backward and away from them.
