She sat down opposite him and smoothed her skirts. Tension crackled in the room.
“You don’t have to pretend with me, Miss Cope,” he told her. “It doesn’t matter if you have the Deed to the Rocking Horse Ranch stashed in your dress. I would have to kill you anyway to stop you telling anybody what you know. So far as I know, you’re the only person outside my circle who knows the truth. Not even young Kirk knows, so that will make it especially easy to clean up this mess. All I have to do is get rid of you.”
Cici took a firm grip on herself. Guns still cracked outside. Merrill wanted to act casual, so she mirrored his behavior. “I’m sorry, Mr. For. I can’t let you do that. You see, I promised Kelvin upstairs that I would marry him, and this Deed is the one thing standing between us and happiness. You’re going to let me out of here. What you do about the Rocking Horse Ranch is your business, but you won’t kill me.”
Merrill smiled, and this time, his eyes twinkled. “I like you, Miss Cope. May I call you Cici? I think it’s a charming name.”
“Thank you.”
“I always appreciated feisty women, especially when they know how to handle a gun,” he went on. “There’s something intoxicating about a woman who knows how to take care of herself, but business is business. Come along with me. I believe Sheriff Rupert is in the kitchen getting his head bandaged.”
He held out his hand and raised her to her feet. He led her to the door. He turned his head and extended his hand to the door latch. Quick as lightning, Cici jerked a pistol from under her skirts and jammed the barrel against his forehead.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Fox,” she told him. “I’m afraid I have to leave now. Thank you for your hospitality. I think I know a few people in this town who would be interested to see this Deed of Title.”
She backed toward the door, still holding him at gunpoint. She slipped into the hall. She bolted for the front entrance when all the gunmen from outside came barreling inside. Jed, Kelvin, and the doctor herded them up the steps, and they blasted into the house for cover. They ran straight into Cici.
Cici raised her gun to take aim at them. She squeezed off three shots. Men tumbled at her feet, but more and more of the enemy rushed through the door. She backed away. How could she ever get out of this house?
At that moment, Merrill burst out of the office. He leveled a menacing finger at Cici. “Capture her!”
The gunmen rounded on Cici in fury. She would have given anything to sink through the floor and disappear, but she had nowhere to run. The gunmen closed in. One of them tore the gun out of her hand. Another one grabbed her arm when a devastating shotgun blast exploded through the open front door.
Kelvin charged into the house. He let off three shotgun blasts, one to the right, one to the left, and one straight ahead. The gunmen scuttled for cover.
Kelvin and Cici lunged at each other at the same instant. Kelvin grinned, and Cici laughed out loud, but they never got a chance to celebrate before the gunmen recovered. A bullet whizzed past Kelvin’s head and disturbed his hair.
Kelvin and Cici whirled around to face the assailant when all the gunmen fired at once. Kelvin towed Cici to the door amid showers of bullets. The plaster shattered around the door frame.
“Come on!” Kelvin shrieked. “We have to get out of here!”
Cici hesitated long enough to grab a gun from one of the fallen before she charged for the woods with Kelvin.
12
Cici and Kelvin tore down the long driveway to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Merrill Fox’s mansion. A few gunmen pursued them. Cici and Kelvin paused long enough to fire back on them.
A wagon waited for them next to the large marble gate leading back to town. Jed Wilcox and Doctor Kearney sat on the driver’s seat. “Come on!” Jed waved Kelvin and Cici forward.
Kelvin lifted Cici into the wagon box and vaulted aboard. Jed whipped up the horses, and the wagon teetered away to the forge.
“Get inside,” Jed ordered. “I’ll put the horses away, and Betsy’ll take care of you. Then we’ll decide what to do next.”
Kelvin lifted Cici down, and they went into the kitchen with Doctor Kearney. Betsy gasped when she saw them. “Well, this is a fine how do you do! What’s the meaning of this—storming Merrill Fox’s house and shooting the place up?”
“Sorry, Ma’am,” Kelvin replied. “You know we never meant to cause any trouble.”
“This is my fault, Betsy,” Cici told her. “If I hadn’t tried to be a hero, none of this would have happened.”
“What did I tell you?” Doctor Kearney cut in.
“If you hadn’t tried to be a hero, I’d be dead,” Kelvin reminded her.
Cici snapped around to look at him. He gazed at her in the flickering glow of the fireplace. He murmured into her face, and his fingers entwined in hers. “Don’t forget your promise.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” she replied.
“What promise?” Betsy asked.
Kelvin’s hypnotic green eyes bored into Cici’s soul. “Cici promised to marry me.”
Betsy flew into a frenzy, but Cici didn’t hear what she said. Kelvin filled her whole world.
“I don’t know how I’ll make a living,” he told her. “I’ll work it out somehow.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she replied. “We’ll be together. That’s the most important thing.”
Jed entered and sank into a chair. “It’s all clear out there. It doesn’t look like we were followed.”
“Oh, heavens!” Betsy exclaimed. “Look at the state of you! Your shoulder’s bleeding again. Don’t tell me you got shot again. I can’t deal with all this. I’m going out of my mind.”
“I didn’t get shot again,” Jed growled. “It’s the same old wound as before. Don’t give it a thought, darlin’. It’ll heal one of these days.”
“It sure won’t heal one of these days if you keep straining it,” she shrieked. “How am I supposed to live in this town with a crippled husband?”
“I’m not crippled,” he fired back.
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Wilcox,” Doctor Kearney interrupted. “I’ll handle this. Take your shirt off, Jed.”
Jed submitted to the doctor’s treatment. Betsy turned her back on them and sniffed. Cici put her arms around her friend. “It’ll be okay. There’s no harm done.”
“Not yet,” Kelvin countered. “It’s only a matter of time before they come after us again. Then what will we do? They’ll bring the fight here, to the forge. We better be ready for that.”
“They won’t come after us,” Cici muttered. “They won’t bother us ever again.”
Everybody faced her at once. “What do you mean?”
Cici pulled the Deed of Title from her bodice. “This is what Merrill was so concerned about everybody finding out. He doesn’t own the Rocking Horse Ranch. The real owner put it up for sale. Merrill started ranching it while it was up for sale, and he’s been ranching the land so long, everybody’s forgotten he’s not the real owner. See? Here’s the real owner’s name: Horace Fulbright.”
Kelvin stared at her. “Are you serious?”
“He was going to kill me to stop me telling anybody,” Cici replied. “He said it would be easy, since not even you knew the truth. Now that all five of us know, he can’t contain it any longer. I don’t think he’ll send his goons over here any time soon.”
Betsy threw her apron over her face and burst into tears. Jed sank back in the chair. “Thank God for that.”
Kelvin took the Deed out of Cici’s hand. “Do you realize what this means?”
“It means he doesn’t own the land,” Cici replied, “but he still controls the Rocking Horse ranching operation. He’s still your boss, and he can still remove you or even fire you. It doesn’t get us any closer to figuring out what to do with the rest of our lives.”
“Never mind about that.” Betsy straightened up and wiped her face. She threw back her head, and her eyes flashed fire. “What matters now is that we
have a wedding to plan. You better leave, Kelvin. You and Cici shouldn’t see each other until the wedding.”
“Hey, wait a minute….” he began.
Betsy hustled him to the door. “You leave all the details to me. Jed will let you know when we’ve got the time and date settled.”
She opened the kitchen door and tried to shove him through it. He fought her off at the last second. “Wait a minute!” Betsy froze. Kelvin pushed back into the kitchen. “At least let me say good-bye to her before you kick me out.”
Everyone in the room stared as Kelvin drew near Cici again. He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “See you soon.”
She blushed scarlet and smiled at him. “See you soon.”
He slipped out of the house and closed the door behind him. A heavy silence fell over the kitchen. Only the fire popping disturbed the tension.
All of a sudden, Betsy flew into action. “We’ll need to get your trunk sent over from the Hotel, Cici. You’ll stay here until the wedding. Is there anything you need—clothes, bedding, underwear?”
Cici stared at the closed door. Kelvin was gone, just like that. The next time she saw him, they would be man and wife. What would happen then? “I have everything I need,” she murmured.
Betsy didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. She bustled around the kitchen. “I’ll go over to the church later today and tell the minister. I’ll set a time when he can perform the service.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” Jed told her.
“Why not?”
“Because if you tell the minister, he’ll tell his wife and she’ll tell everybody else in this town that Kelvin Kirk is getting married. Half the town will want to attend, and I’m sure neither he nor Cici wants that. Don’t tell anybody until the day comes. We can have a small service at the church with just you and me as witnesses.”
“I’m coming, too,” Doctor Kearney added.
“And the doctor,” Jed went on. “Then we can come back here and have some cake before the happy couple goes…wherever they’re gonna go.”
Cici fidgeted. She didn’t want to think about where they would go, but she shook those thoughts out of her head.
“Do you have a wedding dress?” Betsy asked.
“I don’t have a dress,” Cici told her, “but I have money set aside for one.”
“Good,” Betsy replied. “We’ll go see Sam Dolan, the tailor, tomorrow. Then we’ll visit Catherine Marsden. She will probably want to help with the sewing.”
“Will the tailor let her help? He might get annoyed.”
“He’ll love it,” Jed cut in. “Dolan’s always busy. He needs all the help he can get, especially for a big job like that.”
Cici cast a glance around the kitchen. “I don’t like putting you out like this. You have your own work here, Betsy. I’ll stay at the Hotel until the wedding.”
“Don’t you dare!” Betsy fired back. “You’re alone in this town with no relatives to take care of you. You’re staying here, and I’m helping you prepare for the wedding, and that’s final. Now stop arguing. We’ll get the buggy and go over to the Hotel to give instructions for your trunk. Then we’ll come back here and I’ll get you settled into your room.”
Doctor Kearney handed Jed his shirt. “You better take it easy for the next few days so it doesn’t break open again. I’m afraid your wife is right. You need to slow down if you expect that shoulder to heal.”
“How am I supposed to heal with a business to run?” Jed asked.
“That’s for you to figure out,” Doctor Kearney replied. “I better get out of your wife’s way before she gives me a job, too.”
Betsy pressed his hand. “Thank you so much, Doctor. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I’m sure you’d do just as good a job doctoring him yourself. Have a pleasant afternoon. Good afternoon, Cici. Nice shooting out there, by the way. I’ll see you at the wedding, if not before.” He stuck on his hat and slipped out of the house.
“He’s a nice man,” Cici remarked.
“He certainly is,” Betsy replied. “He needs a wife. He’s very lonely.”
“He said he’s going to get one from the Matrimonial Times.”
Betsy stopped in her tracks. “He is?”
“That’s what he said. He said he’s been lonely since Martha died.”
“He’ll have a project finding a girl as nice as her,” Jed chimed in. “It’s a real shame she died. I would have liked her to marry him. I wish she’d told me when she was alive that she was sweet on him.”
“You couldn’t ask for a nicer brother-in-law,” Betsy replied. “I hope he finds somebody. He deserves the best.”
Jed winced in pain when he shrugged into his shirt. He headed for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going, Mister?” Betsy asked.
“You said you wanted the buggy,” he replied.
“You’re not fit to hitch it up,” she told him.
His shoulders collapsed, and his chin fell on his chest. “What are you trying to do to me, woman?”
“You have a simple choice,” she told him. “You can sit in that chair over there and relax, or you can go to bed. Those are your choices. If you think you’re going to do anything more strenuous than that, you’ll answer to me. Do you understand?”
He dragged his feet across the kitchen and flung himself back into the chair with a tattered sigh.
“Dang, Betsy,” Cici exclaimed. “Take it easy on the poor guy.”
Betsy flung a shawl around her shoulders. “When you have a husband of your own, you’ll understand. Men don’t always know what’s best for them. Sometimes as their wife you have to put your foot down for their own sake. You just heard the doctor tell him to slow down and take it easy, and that’s what he’s going to do as long as I’m around. Now come on. You can help me hitch up.”
Cici and Betsy went out to the barn. Betsy pushed the buggy into the yard while Cici got the horse out of the stable. The two women chatted about Cici’s wedding dress while they laid the harness on the horse’s back.
“Do you have a particular style in mind?” Betsy asked.
“I have an idea,” Cici replied, “but I imagine Mr. Dolan will be the better person to talk to about it.”
“Tell me what you’ve got in your trunk,” Betsy told her.
“I’ve got two work dresses and a few aprons,” Cici replied. “I’ve got my knitting and two hats and my Granny’s shawl. I’ve got a very nice summer dress and my best black chiffon, along with a set of white sheets and pillow slips. That’s about it. I don’t want any more clothes until I know where I’m going to live.”
“Well, we won’t talk about that.”
Betsy got into the driver’s seat, and Cici climbed in next to her. They whizzed into town and parked in front of the Hotel. Cici gave the manager her instructions to send her trunk and other affects to the forge as soon as possible. Then she and Betsy walked to the tailor’s shop to talk to Sam Dolan about the wedding dress.
The tailor sat cross-legged on his table with scraps of cloth piled all around him. Cici expected a rotund man with grey tufts of hair sticking out of his bald head. Instead, she met a young man build thick and strong with flashing hazel eyes and thick blonde hair tied behind his neck.
His needle flashed in the sunlight so fast Cici couldn’t follow the stitches. He shot one glance at the two women without stopping his work.
Betsy did most of the talking while Sam listened. When she finished, Sam measured Cici up and down with his eyes. “Is that what you want?”
“Well, I do have a few ideas,” she stammered.
“What are they?”
She rattled off a few scattered thoughts she came up with on the coach to Brimstone. Sam Dolan gave her a crooked grin. “I understand. When do you want it?”
“We haven’t scheduled the wedding yet,” Betsy told him. “We were waiting to find out when you could finish the dress.”
“I
could have it done by Friday.”
“Friday!” Betsy gasped.
“Why not?” he asked. “Is that too soon?”
“That would be wonderful,” Cici exclaimed. “Thank you. The sooner the better.”
“Friday it is, then,” he replied, “and I’m certain you’ll be happy with the dress.”
When Cici looked into those eyes, she could well believe it. She thanked him again, and she and Betsy left the shop. They stopped on the sidewalk outside.
Betsy glanced over her shoulder at the door. “Maybe we should schedule the wedding for next week, just in case.”
“I think we can take him at his word,” Cici remarked. “I trust him. I trust him to the ends of the Earth. It might be foolish, but something about him makes me believe he can do what he says.”
“I trust him, too,” Betsy replied, “but Friday! How could anyone finish a wedding dress that fast?”
“Let’s get back to the forge,” Cici told her. “We’ll schedule the wedding for Friday. I don’t want to put it off any longer than I have to.”
“You’re right,” Betsy replied. “We have no reason to delay it. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It is amazing that he can work that fast,” Cici remarked, “but we have no reason to doubt him.”
Just then, a dappled horse trotted into Main Street. It glided past the two women, and Sheriff Rupert glared down at the two of them. Betsy and Cici froze in place while he rode past. He dismounted and disappeared into the Jain. Betsy shuddered. “That man gives me the willies.”
“He’s a toad,” Cici snarled.
“It looks like you were right,” Betsy remarked. “He didn’t say anything or do anything to harass us. Merrill must have told him to keep to himself for now. They’re probably fouling themselves worrying about you blowing the lid off their little secret.”
13
Back at the forge, Betsy showed Cici into a bedroom upstairs. “Make yourself at home here. It’s only four days, and then….” She paused, glanced at Cici, and shifted from one foot to the other.
“Don’t worry about it,” Cici told her. “What happens then is anybody’s guess. We can concentrate on the wedding for now. Kelvin and I will figure out what happens after that.”
The Forgotten Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 2) Page 8