Dorothy Garlock (32 page)

“Why—why would you say such a thing?”

“Even though I had tried to convince you to stay, had begged you not to leave Bison City, you wouldn’t listen,” Fawn explained. “You were always so darn stubborn! There wasn’t a blessed thing that I could do to change your mind, but it was then that I realized you might stay if you had suffered a loss, some tragedy that required you to stay at the ranch and, just maybe, drive you into my arms.”

Hearing Fawn’s explanation and understanding that it was insanity that lay behind it, Eli was overcome.
She killed Caleb, murdered my younger brother in cold blood in the hope that the tragedy would keep me rooted to home, to the ranch, and to her!
A bloodcurdling scream built in his lungs, but he could not let it loose, so intent was he on every word that Fawn spoke.

“It wasn’t an easy thing for me to do,” she further explained. “When I stood at the end of the alley, and watched him relieving himself in a drunken stupor, it took all my courage to finally confront him. I kept reminding myself why it had to be done and, when I finally pulled the trigger, I did so safe in the knowledge that it was for our love!”

While anger continued to stir in Eli’s heart, hot tears began to fall down his cheeks, emotion no longer checked.
She killed Caleb!
Murderous intent swelled in his heart, his hands clenched as he fought the desire to wring Fawn’s neck.

“Now she’s going to kill us,” Hallie whispered.

In that moment, Eli knew that she was right; Fawn was simply too far gone to let them live, to let her murderous secret become known. They were at her mercy, a mercy that could be snatched away at a moment’s notice to leave them cold and dead beside Seth’s corpse.

But what can I do?

None of the options which leaped to mind were appealing: to stand and do nothing was to court death, to dive for Seth’s discarded gun was to bring the speeding bullet even faster.
But what other course is available?
If it were only
his
life that was in jeopardy, he might have chosen a more daring path, but with Hallie by his side, he had to be more cautious; if he were to lose her as well as Caleb, it would be more than he could bear.

Then the idea struck him, the one way in which he might be able to end the madness that had forever changed his life. He would have to swallow his revulsion and embrace a lie, but it might mean their lives, their love, their future together!

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he began.

“It’s too late,” Fawn disagreed. “You’ve already made your choice!”

“But what if I’ve made a mistake,” he said as he slowly disentangled himself from Hallie’s arms, ever careful to keep her behind him and out of the line of fire. Hallie’s face registered surprise and alarm, but he gave her a small nod that she seemed to understand. “What if I regret the choice that I’ve made and want to make it right?”

“What—what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you’ve given me a great deal to consider here,” he offered, smiling at Fawn as warmly as he could manage. Slowly, his heart beating wildly in his throat, he took a small step toward the armed woman, unsure and unsettled as to his safety. “If only I had known just how strong your feelings were for me all of these years, maybe . . .”

“Maybe you would have looked at me differently,” Fawn finished.

“Maybe so.” He took another step, then another.

“It can’t be this way, can it?” she asked, her voice rife with confusion, her eyes darting about the barn looking for answers.

“It can be any way that you want it.” Spreading his hands before his chest, smiling as if it were the most pleasant thought he could imagine, he moved steadily forward. “You and I, together, starting a life as husband and wife just the way you always wanted it to be, just like you dreamed.”

He was only a few feet from Fawn, from the gun that threatened his life and Hallie’s. He couldn’t flinch, couldn’t make any sudden movements lest he startle her into squeezing the trigger. The charade had to last but a moment longer . . .

“Will you have me, Fawn?” he asked.

She was taken aback by his question, blushing a most brilliant red, her lashes fluttering as quickly as her heart. This close, he could see the madness in her eyes.

“Do you mean it?” she asked hesitantly, her tears welling.

Swallowing his emotion and birthing a lie, he answered, “Yes.”

“I will!” she shouted. “Oh, Eli! Of course I will!”

As joy overwhelmed her, Fawn dropped the pistol to the ground where it kicked up a cloud of dust. But before the dirt could settle, Eli swung his right fist like a hammer, striking Fawn’s chin, snapping her head to the side, and sending her crashing to the ground, as immobile and unmoving as her weapon had been only a scant moment before.

Hallie ran to Eli, throwing her arms around his back and holding him with all her might. Even though she had known he was lying about his feelings for Fawn, enacting a ruse that would save their lives, it still pained her to hear him speak to Fawn the word she longed for him to say to her.

“It’s over now,” he told her quietly.

Through his words, she could feel the pain he had suffered since his return to town, wondering just who had snuffed out Caleb’s life. Now that he knew, she hoped that he would find peace, but that was far away. Now the pain remained as raw and ugly as it had ever been.

“I’m so sorry,” was all that she could manage to say.

Holding her hand in his for a moment before turning to face her and tip her chin upward so that he could gaze into her eyes. “You’re safe now,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”

He pulled her to him; once again she was in the safety of his arms, her face pressed to his broad chest. It was in these arms, with
this
man, that she felt her first stirrings of love, a love that she wanted to nurture and grow. What happened with Caleb, with Fawn, with Seth, and even with Chester was behind them. She had left Whiskey Bend to start a new life, to celebrate a new beginning and that was just what she intended to do.

Epilogue

H
ALLIE STOOD ON
the long porch of the ranch house, a shawl wrapped tightly about her shoulders, a protection against the early spring morning air. The sun had just risen above the horizon. Already the last remaining winter snows were beginning to melt. It would be only a week or two before the first flowers peeked out of the thawed earth.

Hallie treasured moments such as these. She came out to see the beginnings of each day alone, reveling in the quiet. At this time of year, few birds dotted the high sky, usually only hawks and eagles searching for breakfast. The boughs of the neighboring elms and pines creaked in the slight wind, scant company but beautiful all the same.

“This is my home,” she whispered, her breath a small cloud.

Just as the world around her was reawakening after the long winter months, so, too, were the inhabitants of the Morgan ranch. All that occurred in the scorching heat of the previous summer now seemed only a nightmare filled with unpleasant memories. They had survived and grown.

Pearl and Hank had decided to go forward together, marrying in a simple ceremony in Bison City, both of them dressed in their finery, although Hank’s arm was in a sling, healing from the vicious wound he had received at Chester’s hand. There had been much laughter and more than a few tears that day, at a party that had lasted until morning light. Both of them were a bit older, a bit rough around the edges, but Hallie was delighted that they had found each other. They were currently in Denver preparing to take the train across the mountains to California, to get away and celebrate their life as newlyweds. They would be back soon, Hank to work on the ranch, continuing the life that he had always led, Pearl to the settled existence of housewife, a life that she had always wanted but had been unable to find. They would be welcomed back with open arms.

As happy as she was for Pearl, there was a part of Hallie that was even more elated for Mary, for the life that she had finally found after all the tears and nightmares she had been forced to endure. From the moment that she collapsed into Abe’s arms after that fateful night when Chester reappeared, a monster set upon returning her to a life of bondage, Mary’s life was different. It had taken her a while to come to grips with the tall, bearded man’s strangeness, but she responded to his gentle nature and he crept into her heart.

For his part, Abe remained the gentleman that he had always been, a bright smile at the ready for his beloved Mary. A week earlier, Eli had said that he had begun to see traces of the
old
Abraham Morgan shining through his brother’s presidential exterior, and he wondered if, with the passing months, his malady might ease. Time would tell. In the meantime, Abe and Mary had each other. Theirs was a love that grew straight and pure, with new memories made daily to replace those that were best forgotten.

Another thing that Mary had going for her was the surprising affection of Adele Morgan. The older woman had slowly recovered from the injuries she sustained when she fell. Nowadays she used a cane, hobbling a bit here and there, but she was walking again. Even though her voice could still carry the authority of a whip, lashing out at those unfortunate enough to have incurred her wrath, she did not use such a tone when she spoke to Mary. Hallie imagined that Adele could see the change the young woman had wrought in her son, bringing him back from the darkness in which he had dwelled for so many years, and that she attributed the change to Mary’s presence. Mary, in turn, seemed to be genuinely fond of Abe and Eli’s mother.

The tension between Eli and his mother had also lessened considerably. They were not yet at the point where they could sit down and have a private conversation, but she now refrained from her constant badgering and cutting remarks. In regard to Hallie herself, Mrs. Morgan’s icy exterior had also shown signs of thaw; one week earlier, the older woman had shared a recipe that had belonged to her mother, a gesture that had been as surprising as it had been warm and welcome.

Counteracting the matriarch’s feelings for the rest of the ranch’s residents, Hank had laid down the law to his sister before he and Pearl were married, telling her to accept Pearl as his wife, or they would leave the ranch and never come back. The threat worked, and the two women now tolerated each other. It was a start.

Chester had been buried in a pauper’s grave, a hole in the Colorado earth, without even a marker to memorialize the spot. In time, even the shanty he shared with Mary back in Whiskey Bend would rot and collapse, blowing in the wind and rain, until nothing would remain that spoke of his life.

The matter was certainly not that simple when it came to Fawn Billings and Seth McCarty. News of their scandalous actions sent the people of Bison City talking, the whispers and rumors soon outracing even the most heinous of their crimes and sins. Seth’s death had set off a crisis at the bank. Townspeople feared that he had committed the greater crime of stealing their hard-earned savings instead of the somehow lesser offense of trying to murder Eli. He would have been proud to know, however, that his funeral brought mourners from as far away as Denver and Casper.

But it was Fawn’s actions that truly set the town atwitter. Coming as she did from a prominent family, she set tongues wagging at the litany of accusations that had been brought against her. Her father, though sickly and mostly bedridden as a result of his daughter’s acts, fought desperately to have her released, but it was Fawn herself who shooed away his efforts. When she faced a trial for her crimes, she openly admitted to each of her offenses, the murder of Caleb Morgan some five years earlier and that of Seth McCarty. She had not shed one tear, nor uttered one harsh word, and instead took her sentencing as stoically as if she had been carved from stone. If she were lucky, she would be released from prison before she was an old, decrepit woman.

Footsteps sounded loud on the wooden planks of the porch, but Hallie did not need to turn to know who was approaching her. The feet stopped behind her and strong, muscular arms embraced her. A steaming mug of black coffee was held out to her.

“You always know just what I need,” she purred.

“It just so happens that I do,” Eli agreed with a chuckle, the warmth of his body filling her as satisfyingly as the drink. “I figured I’d find you standing out here, freezing. Penny for your thoughts?”

In that moment, the only thought that Hallie had was of how meeting Eli Morgan on the banks of the swollen Cummings River had forever changed her life, how the pleasure she felt sharing his life, and his bed, was greater than any she had ever known.

After the horror of that fateful summer night, they were inseparable, two lives lived as one. They bent their backs to building a life on the ranch, working to increase the herd of cattle and erecting a small cozy cabin in the woods near the scarred old oak tree. Their days were filled with talk of the future and their nights filled with passion. Little more than a week after their ordeal in the barn, Eli proposed, as nervous as a boy asking for his first kiss and, despite his bruises, as handsome as any man she had ever seen. She accepted his offer with tears in her eyes, tears of unmitigated joy. They had slipped away and were married by the preacher in town.

“What if I said I was thinking of you?” she answered.

“I’d believe you.” He nodded.

“You would?”

“Of course I would.” He smiled down at her. “I’m darn near unforgettable.”

As her lips found his, the spring morning was suddenly less chilly, and Hallie could do nothing but agree.

About the Author

D
OROTHY
G
ARLOCK
is one of America’s—and the world’s—favorite novelists. Her work has appeared on national bestseller lists, including the
New York Times
extended list, and there are over fifteen million copies of her books in print translated into eighteen languages. She has won more than twenty writing awards, including five Silver Pen Awards from
Affaire de Coeur
and three Silver Certificate Awards, and in 1998 she was selected as a finalist for the National Writer’s Club Best Long Historical Book Award.