Dorothy Garlock (14 page)

“I sure do love givin’ Jefferson a heapin’ pile of grief,” Hank exclaimed.

“It’d take a blind man not to see that you do.”

“It’s the most fun I’ve had in weeks.”

Eli was untying his horse from the hitching post and preparing to climb back into the saddle when his uncle snapped his fingers and swore. “Damn. I told your momma that I’d get her a couple of somethin’ or others from the mercantile when we was in town and I ’pert near forgot!”

“Good thing you remembered.” Eli nodded. “She’s already madder than a hornet’s nest being poked with a sharp stick. You come home empty-handed, and we’re all gonna be sleeping in the barn.”

“I’ll walk over and get what she needs and then we’ll get on home.”

As Hank crossed the busy street to Malek’s, Eli leaned back against the hitching post and pulled his hat down over his eyes. He lazily watched two dogs playing with a stick in the dusty street. He tipped his hat as a woman passed by carrying a baby, a small boy hanging onto her skirts. A smile had just colored the edges of his mouth when he was suddenly grabbed hard about the waist from behind.

“What in the hell?” he barked in surprise.

Flipping back his hat, Eli was dumbfounded to find a woman pressed tightly against his back. The arms of her blue dress peeked out on each side and the strong scent of a floral perfume enveloped him. As he tried to turn his head to get a glimpse of the woman’s face, she clung to him tenaciously, refusing to give up her identity.

“Who—who in the . . . ?” he muttered.

As suddenly as he had been grabbed, the woman holding him let go and took a step back. Just as quickly, Eli spun around to face her. The face that looked up at his was plump and round, with high cheekbones and a pert nose. Bright green eyes blinked under long lashes, and an ear-to-ear smile flashed brightly.

“Fa-Fawn?” Eli stammered.

“Oh, Eli!” she squealed. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

As she spoke, her eyes shining brightly, Eli realized that hers was the name he’d guessed, although she was a little plumper than he remembered. Try as he might, he could never seem to rid himself of Fawn Billings.

“I didn’t recognize you for a moment,” he managed.

“Oh, you silly, silly goose!” she exclaimed as she playfully batted his shoulder with one gloved hand. “I was just walking about and watching the goings-on when you trotted out of the doctor’s office right in front of me! It was as if not a single day had passed since I last saw you! I just had to come over and say hello.”

“Hello . . . yourself,” Eli said, not knowing what else to say.

Fawn Billings had been born in the same year as his younger brother, Caleb, and had grown up beside the Morgan boys, attending school with them in the one-room building at the edge of town. Her father, Jonathan Billings, ran the Bison City Bank and Trust, and was, by default, an important town figure. One trait that Fawn had acquired early was an air of self-importance. Incredibly vain and needy, she was used to getting what she wanted. Unfortunately for Eli, what she had made clear she wanted most of all was to be Mrs. Elijah Morgan. No amount of persuasion had ever convinced her that he did not share her dream.

“I’d thought that maybe you might come back to town, after what happened to your father,” Fawn continued sweetly. “And I was right! How come you didn’t let me know you were home?”

Eli was about to speak, to offer up some reason that didn’t involve going into his dislike for the town that killed his brother, when a deep baritone voice spoke from the shadows of the boardwalk.

“Well, look who’s here.”

Eli immediately recognized the man who had spoken; his was a voice that he could never forget. Stepping out into the sunlight, his long, thick, muscular form looking smart in his dark suit was Seth McCarty. Nearly half a head shorter than Eli, with thinning black hair and a close-cropped mustache, Seth had also grown up alongside Eli and Fawn. But unlike Fawn, he held nothing but hatred for the Morgans.

“Eli.” The well-dressed man nodded.

“Afternoon, Seth,” Eli offered coldly.

“I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to acknowledge me.”

Eli could hear the disdain and dislike that dripped from every word Seth uttered, but he could care less if the other man was put out. From the first moment that they had met, Seth McCarty had rubbed him the wrong way. Seth was a bully in every sense. He’d taken great pleasure in picking on the other children of Bison City, but he had held a special enmity for the Morgan brothers. They’d had more than their share of scrapes when they’d been boys, and many a nose had been bloodied or cheek bruised. In the end, Eli had always seemed to get the better of his rival. But, like a true bully, that hadn’t been good enough for Seth. Not content with being on the losing end, he had turned anger upon a victim who had had a harder time fighting back: Caleb.

It had begun with a shove here, a kick there, until poor Caleb, five years Seth’s junior, was as terrorized as a rabbit in a forest of foxes. One day, when Eli had come upon his younger brother wailing a flood of tears, blood streaming from his nose, Eli had had enough. He’d found Seth behind the mercantile, laughing about what he’d done, and proceeded to thrash him mercilessly. If Abe hadn’t managed to pull him off Seth, he might not ever have stopped. From that day on, Seth had let Caleb alone, but the anger that filled his heart had grown right alongside the boy himself, never blowing over as boyhood rivalries tended to do. It was as clear as the sun in the sky.

Seth hates me still.

“I didn’t see you standing back in the shadows,” Eli replied.

“I suppose I can’t fault you for that.” Seth snorted, his lips curled in a wry smile. “After all, far more sophisticated men than you have found themselves overwhelmed by Fawn’s attentions.”

“Now, you just hush that kind of talk,” Fawn admonished, her voice as rich with honey as it always was. “I haven’t seen Eli in what—four years at least—so it should be easy to see how I might be overcome with emotion seeing him again, isn’t it?”

“Quite frankly, I can’t imagine why anyone would miss such a man, let alone be happy to see him,” Seth said with a sneer. He gave Eli the once-over and, from the expression that crossed his face, he didn’t like what he saw.

If it weren’t for the fact that he was waiting for Hank to return from the mercantile, Eli would have mounted his horse and ridden out of town, rather than stand and take Seth’s abuse.
The man is a silver-tongued snake.
Seth would keep biting and biting until Eli had had enough and bit back. If Seth kept on, he just might get what he wanted.

“Tell him,” Seth said evenly.

“Oh, Seth, dear . . . ,” Fawn said nervously. “I don’t know if—if—”

“I said, tell him!”

“Tell me what?” Eli asked, annoyed.

Fawn was silent for a moment longer, and it looked as if she might protest a bit further, but her head dropped and she said, “Seth and I are to be married in the fall. Ever since he came to work for Papa, he’s been courting me, and when he asked for my hand in marriage, I accepted.”

From her tone, Eli could see that Fawn was reluctant to tell him the news and did so only because of Seth’s insistence. On the other hand, Eli was thrilled. Hopefully, that would take care of the attentions she had been directing toward him. Although what Fawn could see in Seth was truly beyond him.

“So I’m telling you to stay clear of Fawn,” Seth stated firmly. “It wouldn’t do to have my future wife be seen talking with someone like you. Just think of the scandal that would take place if loose lips began to flap. I have a reputation to uphold in this town.”

“Now, just wait a goddamn minute,” Eli shot back. “Only one man ever told me what I could or couldn’t do and I had enough trouble abiding by him, so there’s no way a dressed-up peacock like you would manage!”

“Oh, Eli!” Fawn practically purred. “Don’t fight over me!”

“There’s no place for you here anymore, Morgan,” Seth said with a sneer as he took a menacing step forward. “When you left here with your tail between your legs, life went on without you. We’ve kept on building our lives in this town. When the day comes, God forbid, that Fawn’s father has to step down as head of the bank, I will be the man to take over. You best watch your tongue around me. Just imagine how your words would weigh if you needed a loan to keep that pitiful ranch of yours going!”

“Now, Seth!” Fawn admonished again.

Eli’s pulse raced and his fists were clenched tight in anger. With all that had happened in the last few days—with his time spent in the flooded river and the hurt that filled him just being in the town that had taken Caleb from him—Eli could stand no more. He’d had to put up with Seth’s bullying, his insults to his family, and his cocky attitude for longer than he cared to imagine. By God, he wasn’t going to take any more!

If it’s a fight that Seth’s after, it’s a fight he’s going to get!

He had just taken the first step toward slugging the bastard in the mouth, to teaching him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget, when he was stopped by the familiar voice of his uncle.

“Well, I’ll be a weak-kneed calf,” Hank crowed. In his hands were a couple of jars he’d brought from the mercantile. “Do this old man’s eyes deceive me or is it that pretty little Fawn Billings I see?”

“Mr. Gallows.” She chortled happily. “It
is
a pleasure to see you.”

“Seth.” Hank nodded to the other man.

As a reply, Seth simply grabbed Fawn by the elbow and pulled her back onto the boardwalk and began walking away. Fawn peeked back over her shoulder at Eli. They were soon lost among the many faces that crowded the boardwalk.

“I reckon I finished my business at just the right time.”

Eli didn’t answer and instead unhitched his horse and swung up into the saddle. He led the way out of town. With every step of the black and tan’s hooves, Eli’s anger grew.

Chapter Thirteen

“W
HAT DO YOU
want now? Haven’t you already asked for enough?”

In the face of Mrs. Morgan’s resentment, it was all that Hallie could do to hold her temper in check. Standing in the ranch house kitchen, she forced herself to turn away from the older woman, allowing her gaze to wander around the room; it passed over the cookstove, the small pump that sat at the end of a long counter, the trestle table and chairs, the tall kitchen cabinets that held the flour bin and the dishes and bowls, and even lingered on the pie safe, all to escape looking at that woman for one moment longer.

Even as she tried to formulate her sentences, Hallie couldn’t help but wonder if she shouldn’t have become used to the older woman’s abuse by now. Over the course of the five days that they had been staying at the Morgan ranch, the family matriarch had done everything in her power to make their stay as uncomfortable as possible. There had been sharp, biting words and angry stares from hooded eyes, all mixed with a generous air of contempt. Each confrontation seemed to be worse than the one that had come before.

“I’m terribly sorry to have to inconvenience you, Mrs. Morgan.”

“Not a one of you dirty trollops would even begin to know what it means to inconvenience a Christian woman like myself!” the older woman snapped. “You just waltzed right in here and took over the house like you owned the place!”

“We wouldn’t have asked to stay here if Mary hadn’t needed—”

“Mary this and Mary that!” Mrs. Morgan said angrily, refusing to hear Hallie’s explanation. “That’s all I’ve heard since you got here. I will not be at your beck and call. What do you think this is—a hotel? I hope I never see the likes of you again!”

Hallie sighed silently. It was hard to believe that
this woman
was Eli’s mother. They were complete opposites: Eli was a kind and considerate man, while his mother was a shrew. From the way she acted, you would think Hallie had asked her for the deed to the ranch!

Still, there was a part of Hallie that understood Mrs. Morgan’s anger. The three of them
had
intruded upon her and her family.
Wouldn’t I be put out by complete strangers being thrust upon me?

“I’m sorry to have to bother you, Mrs. Morgan,” Hallie explained in a voice that she’d always reserved for speaking with children, calm and easy, “but I need a pan I can fill with water. My friend is still running a fever and I’d like to be able to cool her. The sooner her fever goes down and she is able to eat a bit, then the sooner we can move on.”

Her last words seemed to give the older woman pause and her eyes narrowed. Her jaw was still clenched and her arms folded over her chest, but Hallie thought she could see Mrs. Morgan had softened a bit. When she spoke her voice was not
completely
laced with venom.

“Over there,” she said, nodding in the direction of the pantry.

“Thank you.”

When Hallie turned away a faint smile curved her lips.
My mother had always told me that you could get much further in life using honey instead of vinegar!
But she had taken no more than a few steps toward the pantry when Mrs. Morgan’s biting tongue began to lash her yet again.

“Don’t think for one second that I ain’t been keeping track of all you’ve been borrowing,” she said snidely. “I’m wise to how your sort operates! If you think I’m just going to let you waltz on out of here with everything but the stove, you’ve got another thought comin’!”

Hallie spun quickly on her heel, anger rising hotly in her chest, and stared defiantly at the woman’s wrinkled face. “Are you saying that I am a thief, Mrs. Morgan?” she managed, her voice trembling.

“It’s obvious to me that you’re no saint!”

“I’ve never pretended to be a saint, but I
am
a decent woman.”

Mrs. Morgan paused, letting the aspersion linger over her like the smoke over a battlefield. Hallie could see satisfaction written across the older woman’s face for having delivered a wound to her pride. “If there’s even one spoon missing, I won’t hesitate to call upon the sheriff.”

Hallie’s heart caught in her throat at the woman’s accusation. After all that had happened to them, after all of the insults Mrs. Morgan had already leveled at them, she still found herself shocked at being labeled a criminal.