The Law and Miss Penny (24 page)

"Get in here." Cain took her by the hand and pulled her into his room. Then he kicked the door shut behind them.

Down the hall a few feet, the door to room 223 softly clicked to a close at almost the exact same moment.

* * *

The Penny family prided themselves on the manner in which they manufactured their medicines, taking special care to always use the freshest, most authentic ingredients available. Even their own brand of wizard oil was made largely from its working properties: camphor, ammonia, chloroform, sassafras, cloves, and turpentine. Many of their contemporaries made wizard oil with up to seventy percent alcohol as its main ingredient, but the Pennys added just enough for preservation. As for the other medicines, nothing but pure mineral water would do as the base liquid for these recipes.

Although their travels took them to almost every corner of the Southwest, no matter which route they chose to follow each year the Pennys always began their show season in the town of Pagosa Springs. There the family not only manufactured as much medicine as they could carry, but filled two large barrels from the geysers which bubbled over near the bathhouses in the little town. They occasionally sold this mineral water as is, but more often than not, they kept it in reserve to use in replenishing their supply of elixirs.

Now that their stay in Durango was almost at an end, one barrel of mineral water was empty, and the second was just over half-full. This afternoon, two days before they would board the train to Silverton, was not a show day, but a time to refill the water barrels at Trimble Springs, a fashionable hot springs resort some nine miles north of town.

Mariah, in particular, was looking forward to a visit to Trimble Springs, for the family usually stopped in long enough for each of them to take a soothing hot mineral bath. After three consecutive nights in Cain's bed, parts of her felt almost raw, while others ached from her unusual exertions. Smiling to herself as she recalled the events that had given her such an assortment of aches and pains, Mariah tightened the rope which secured the water barrels in the supply cart and then walked to the back of the medicine wagon.

"Need any help in there?" she said.

Zack appeared at the back door, and then carefully made his way down the stairs. "Got her all buttoned up, baby. Is the supply cart ready to go?"

Mariah nodded, watching as Oda stepped from the back of the wagon and plodded down the stairs after her husband. Then she said, "All that's left is hitching up the mules. Where's Cain? I thought that was supposed to be his job."

Zack spun on his good leg and began to head toward the stable. "He borrowed another twenty bucks to go into town. I can take care of the mules this one time."

Mariah froze in her tracks. Cain in town? And with twenty dollars? If not for the last three nights they'd shared, her top priority might have been wondering what he intended to do with the money
,
but her first thought now was of his safety. And of her heart if any harm should befall him. What if the members of the Doolittle Gang came across him?

Hurrying to catch up with her father, she asked, "Did Cain mention where in town he was going, or what he needed the money for?"

"No, baby, and I didn't ask him." Zack turned and fixed his brown eyes on his daughter. "It ain't none of my business—or yourn. I thought your ma and I had a long talk with you about that man. I still ain't too happy that you went and told him he weren't your true and natural cousin."

From behind Mariah, Oda said, "Neither am I."

"Oh, you two." Mariah tried to laugh them off. "I told you it was an accident when I let it slip out about him not being my real cousin, but there's no reason to worry about Cain. He treats me just fine. I am a little concerned about him going to town alone, though. What if someone should recognize him?"

Zack shrugged. "He's got Artemis with him. They'll be all right."

Although Mariah didn't think much of the kid as a bodyguard, at least he knew whom to watch for around Cain. He'd been every bit as interested as she in the Wanted poster featuring the Doolittles—maybe more. Glancing at the rig, she said, "Is there anything else I can do to help get this show on the road?"

Zack kept a skeptical eye on his daughter, but started down the main aisle. "Why don't you and your mother get them mules brushed and in their traces. I promised Artemis I'd saddle up his horse for him. He has a hankering to go to Trimble Springs with us."

"He has a hankering for just about everything that comes his way." Mariah laughed, thinking about what a sweet but frightened young man Artemis was as she picked her way through the scattered straw to where the leather goods were hanging on a large wooden peg.

Just then, Zack's voice called out from the other end of the aisle.

"Lord almighty. You two get on down here. Quick."

Mariah dropped the traces where she stood and raced to meet her father. He was standing in front of the last stall, his mouth agape.

"Take a look at that horse, baby." Waiting until his wife had joined them, he said, "I believe that Artemis must have 'found' this sorrel. Don't he look like the one that belonged to our dear cousin Cain?"

Mariah peered into the murky stall. "It does look like it's the same horse."

Zack grabbed the horse's halter, steadying him, and then brushed the animal's flaxen forelock aside. "Ayuh. Look at those markings on his forehead. A perfect three-point star with a comet-tail blaze. That's about the last thing I noticed before this here gelding run off on me. It's the marshal's horse all right. Question is—if he ain't seen him already, what's Cain gonna do when he does? Might just be enough to jar the man's memory loose."

Feeling off balance, Mariah grabbed the stall and leaned against it. "We have to think of something, and fast."

"How about this?" Oda pushed her way between Zack and her daughter, glanced briefly in Mariah's direction, and then looked up at her husband. "I think it's time we tell Cain who he is, cut our losses, and get the hell out of town."

Mariah whirled on her. "No, we can't risk it. What if he wants to press charges or something? We could all wind up in jail."

"Now, baby," Zack said. "I don't think he'd go and do a thing like that, not after the good way we've been a-treating him and all. He might get in a bit of a fret over the way we done him at first, but I expect he'll just rant a little, then pack up and be on his way."

Not if she could help it. Mariah wouldn't allow this to happen—not now. She turned to her father, and pleaded with him. "Please listen to me, Dad. I think it's really important that we keep him with us as Cain Law for as long as we can. Besides, I've never known anyone like him, never—" She cut herself off just short of revealing too much. "I've never had any man treat me as kindly, except for you. I really don't see any harm in keeping him around a little longer."

"I do," said Oda.

Concerned by the knowing look in her mother's eye, but much too short on time to do anything but continue to plead her case, Mariah said, "Cain will probably cause us more harm and a lot more trouble than any of us ever imagined if we tell him who he is now. I say we stick to our story." Then she turned back to her father, making one final effort. "If I can think of something to do with this horse before Cain gets back, will you promise to let things go on the way they are?"

Zack tucked his chin up against his throat and stared down at his daughter in surprise. "What's got you in such a state? You haven't gone and let yourself get all google-eyed over that man, have you?"

"Oh, Dad," she said, purposely using that term. "For heaven's sake, no. I'm just afraid he'll come back before you two give me a chance to do something about this horse." From behind her, Mariah could swear she heard Oda muttering under her breath.

Zack scratched his head. "I don't know."

"Well, I do," Mariah said, unlatching the stall. "And I wish you'd just promise to leave things be."

Because he still couldn't say no to Mariah, Zack slowly nodded his head. "All right, missy, but just you watch yourself around that man. He tries anything a'tall, you come running to me, hear?"

"Thanks, Dad, I will. Now why don't you and Oda go get those mules ready." She blew him a kiss and then stepped inside the stall.

"You go ahead, Zachariah," said Oda. "I'm gonna stay and help Mariah." Once her husband was out of earshot, she leaned across the waist-high door and whispered, "I seen you in the hallway last night."

Mariah sucked in a breath of air stale with urine and animal droppings. Turning to face her mother, her movements slow, deliberate, she said, "I, ah, couldn't sleep, so I took a little walk."

"I also seen where you went on that walk. Right into the marshal's room."

With her mother's gaze boring into her, there was no way in hell that Mariah could deny the obvious. She lowered her gaze. "All right, I did go to his room, but I—Oh, my God. Did you tell Zack?"

"What do you think?" Oda smirked. "He'd a' been screeching like a scalded cat by now if he knew what I knew."

Although she was relieved, Mariah knew by the look in her mother's eyes that she only had a temporary reprieve. "Are you planning to tell him?"

"That depends on you. If you go to your father and say that you've changed your mind, and that you think it's time we sent the marshal on his way, then he'll never know a thing about what's been going on with you and that man."

Tears stung the backs of her eyes and Mariah stared at her mother. "I can't do that. I love Cain."

"Love." Oda grumbled to herself, and then to Mariah. "Love ain't nothing but trouble. Haven't you learned that much from me here lately?"

Mariah's smile was ironic as she softly said, "I never learned a thing about men and their ways from you. I had to find out about them pretty much the same way you did, I guess."

At those words, Oda did something Mariah had never seen her do: She began to cry. Sick at heart, Mariah rushed to the stall door, put her arms around her mother, and said, "Oh, please stop, Mother. I don't want to hurt you, but I can't stand the idea of having to send Cain away. Can't you understand? Try to remember how it was with you and... Storm."

Sniffing back her tears, Oda gripped her daughter's arms. "That's exactly why I want you to stop seeing Cain. He'll be nothing but trouble for you. Nothing but heartache and trouble."

"No, no." Mariah released her mother and backed deeper into the stall. "What I have with Cain isn't the same."

"No," Oda whispered. "I suppose it isn't. It's worse, because you are living a lie. The marshal doesn't know yet who he is, but when he does—"

"You think I don't know that? Of course I do, but what if this is all I ever have? What if I never feel this way about another man as long as I live?"

Oda stared at her, measuring her with sad blue eyes, but she didn't say a word.

Feeling her mother's empathy, if not her approval, Mariah went on. "I don't mean to belittle or slight the way you feel about Zack, but can you tell me you felt the exact same way about Storm?"

Oda blushed, her normally robust complexion darkening to an almost purple hue. "No, I can't. It weren't the same," she quietly said.

"Then you do understand." Mariah stepped forward to take her mother's hands. "What I feel for Cain is at least what you had with Storm, and maybe a little of what you have with Zack—it could even be both, I don't know for sure."

"Mariah... it's all a lie."

"Yes, it is, but I don't intend to do a damn thing about that until I absolutely have to." At the thought, she trembled from head to toe. "Just tell me the honest truth: Could you or would you have given up either man, your lover or your husband?"

Oda looked at her daughter, staring long and hard as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. "It don't matter what I did, or what I think now. You can't have Cain for much longer. He's bound to remember who he is someday soon, and then he's going to wind up hurting you. Hurting you real bad."

Mariah couldn't help but concede that much. It was the truth. "Maybe he will, but it's my hurt and my heart that will have to suffer. I'm willing to take that risk for as long as Cain wants me. Please, Mother, I beg you—keep what you know to yourself, and help me figure out what to do with this horse."

Oda, wishing to hell she'd brought a cigar with her, wiped her hand across her mouth in an effort to still the sudden trembling there. Then she dried her cheeks and leveled her pale blue eyes on her daughter. "We might get rid of this here horse the easiest by just taking him to the edge of town and turning him loose."

Mariah now believed that nothing on earth would be able to drag what Oda knew about Mariah and Cain from her, and that drew a wealth of emotions from her. She threw her arms around her mother, hugging and squeezing her, mingling tears, memories, and their very hearts.

Then, swallowing the lump in her throat, Mariah smiled and said, "Thanks for everything." She glanced at the horse, wiping her eyes as she studied the animal's flaxen mane and tail. "I'm afraid if we turn him loose, he'll just find his way back here again, and we'd still have the same problem. We need to figure out a way to disguise him."

"You mean like put a hat and coat on him and call him Brother Law the Second?"