“Will it make any difference that the crime was committed in Mexico?” I asked, and got a look of grudging respect from Marshal Hayes.
“Bragg’s an American citizen, ain’t he? An’ bushwhacking’s bushwhacking. If the judge says we can’t try Cord here, the Rurales will be glad to give him their kind of justice over there. We’ll be real glad to extradite him, you bet!”
“Thank you, marshal!” Mark said firmly, and gave my fingers a warning kind of pressure before I could speak. “Rowena, I’m sorry you had to be faced with such terrible news, but I knew you would want to hear it.”
“Of course I did! But oh, Mark!”
“I’m sure you’ll need a little time to recover from the shock. I’ll take you back to the hotel, and then—” he looked significantly at the marshal. “I might just have some further information to give you, Marshal Hayes. Nothing I am certain of just yet, but after I have talked to some people and clarified some questions in my mind. You won’t let the news get out yet? I’d rather talk to my uncle first in case he thinks I’ve gone behind his back by not confiding in him first.”
“Sure, sure Mr. Shannon! I understand! Glad to see you in here anytime.”
Mark hadn’t wanted me to say anything to the marshal yet, although my shock and anger were so great I would have blurted it all out, Lucas Cord’s presence in this very town; the way his brother had approached me. But Mark was right, of course. This was something we should discuss together before we made up our minds as to what must be done.
We went outside, Mark’s firm hand holding my arm, I still carrying hatboxes. I remember that we paused on the wooden sidewalk, to allow our eyes time to get used to the glare that reflected off the dirt-packed street. And then it happened.
I saw Todd come out of the saloon, towering head and shoulders above the two men with him. He was laughing, his head thrown back.
I saw a flash and a puff of smoke from somewhere high up, across the street, and then the explosion of sound, reverberating in my ears. There was a crimson splotch of color on Todd’s white shirtfront; widening under my horrified eyes, as very slowly he seemed to crumple and then fall.
Everything had gone very still, all motion suspended for an instant, and then everything was sound and confusion. Running feet and shouts, the marshal, running lightly and fast for a man his age, going past us. Mark’s quiet “Oh my God!” and his fingers tightening around my arm.
And then I had pulled away from him, dropping the hatboxes so that they went scattering over the sidewalk, and I was running—running.
I could not see past the crowd of men who stood closely packed together, their shocked exclamations drowning out Marshal Hayes’s shouted questions.
“Please!” I begged, “please let me through!”
I would have pushed and shoved if I had to, but my distraught face and manner made them give way for me.
I heard the murmuring and the muttering of voices all about me and I did not hear what was said. I had eyes, at that moment, only for Todd, whom I had fought and hated and been drawn to unwillingly. God, how still he lay, how unlike him it was, he who had always been so vital, so forceful that one could never be unaware of his presence.
A gray-haired man in a black frock coat was on his knees beside Todd. I heard him grumbling, “Will you keep the crowd back, for God’s sake! Go get whoever did it, and leave me with my patient!”
Somehow, I pushed my way forward and the two cattlemen who had been with Todd moved aside to give me room.
I looked down at him, and his usually ruddy face was alarmingly pale; his eyes were closed. Someone had cut aside his jacket and shirt and the doctor’s fingers were busy, probing into a bloody, terrible wound that made me collapse to my knees beside him.
“Todd!” I said. “Todd Shannon—don’t you dare die!”
I thought I saw a muscle by his mouth twitch, miraculously and his eyelids moved slightly.
“Not… yet! Marry you… first…”
He spoke with difficulty, the words hardly more than a whisper, but I could feel the color rush back to my cheeks.
“Shut up, Shannon!” the doctor said with the familiarity of long-standing acquaintance. He cocked a bushy gray eyebrow at me.
“Better tell him yes, miss, or I won’t answer for the consequences! Stubbornest, toughest, orneriest bastard in the world in case you didn’t know it!”
With a trace of his old, bullying manner, Todd whispered, “Gonna… marry me! Always knew it… too. Didn’t… you?”
“Oh, damn you. Shannon! I suppose I’ll have to now!”
I could almost swear he gave a satisfied grin before his eyes closed again. And then, looking up, my eyes met Mark’s. The sun was in his face, and I saw the strange and unfamiliar look of anger and frustration in his expression.
He came forward.
“Doctor?”
“He’ll live! Bullet just missed the heart though. Deflected by a rib. He’s gonna have to lie low.”
“Thank God!” Mark said in a low voice.
And like a hammer-beat in my brain the thought kept repeating itself. What have I done? What have I let myself in for?
I found myself walking, like a woman in a dream, towards the hotel.
“Someone has to tell Flo. Are you sure you feel up to it?”
Mark’s voice had sounded distracted. “I’m going with him, of course, and I’ll have to talk to the marshal. But will you promise to stay in your room until I can come to you? You may be in danger too! Be careful,” he said in a quiet, suppressed voice.
It meant nothing to me at the time, for I was still reacting to the shock I had had. But now, as I walked into the hotel lobby, my mind began to function again.
I let my legs carry me past the staring desk clerk and the small knot of men who leaned over the counter, talking excitedly.
My fingers clung to the rail as I walked up the staircase. Mark had sent me away, but the look in his eyes had held hidden meaning. I wondered if he too had seen the flash of orange light and the smoke, and if he too thought as I thought.
Thought? No, I knew it! I was certain that Lucas Cord had shot at his enemy through one of the windows of this very hotel, meaning to kill him, just as he had shot Elmer Bragg. And Ramon? Had he suspected, and tried to warn me?
It’s my fault—oh God, if I had only listened to Mark—if I had warned Todd! Was it my own feeling of guilt that had made me tell Todd Shannon that I would marry him after all?
I had my hand on the door to our room when Flo came running down the passage in her robe, hair flying loose. She was panting; her eyes were large with shock and fear, shining with an unnatural brilliance.
“Is he dead? Tell me! Is Pa dead?”
I looked at her, and the terrible suspicion that had suddenly flashed into my mind became so intense that I was speechless. I pushed open the door and walked into the room, leaving her to follow me.
“He is dead then! I know it!”
I found myself staring at her, and I know that my eyes must have looked like stones in my cold, dead face.
“Where is he?”
She had stared towards me, but now she stopped as if struck.
“Have you gone crazy?” she whispered at last. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I tell you I asked you about Pa.”
“Your stepfather is very badly wounded, but he’s still alive.” I could hardly bear to look at her with her tangled blonde hair hanging loosely about her shoulders, full red lips half-open; lush curves of her body showing whitely through the thin silk of her wrapper.
“Do you make a habit of running down hotel corridors half-naked?”
She made an instinctive gesture of clutching the folds of silk together under her breasts, still staring at me.
“I had been sleeping!” she cried defensively. “And then I heard the shot and I ran! It was so close, so loud. I was afraid! I tell you, I knew something terrible had happened!”
“But you didn’t run outside,”
I said with cold, pitiless logic. “You ran in the other direction, didn’t you? If you had run towards the front of the building I would have seen you earlier. And it’s been a good twenty minutes between the time of the shooting and now.”
“What are you trying to say? Why are you questioning me this way? Do you think I did it? Oh God! That’s almost funny! That’s…”
“Be quiet!”
Something in my voice must have warned her, for her mouth dropped open.
“How did you know your stepfather had been shot at? You said you were sleeping, and then you ran. How far did you run?”
“I’m not on trial!” Angry spots of color flared in her cheeks.
“You might well be, if you don’t come up with a more likely story. If you persist in protecting a criminal that makes you just as guilty as he is!”
“No! You’ve gone mad, that’s what it is! You saw Pa shot and you’ve gone insane!”
She had flung her head back defiantly, but when I took a step towards her she shrank away.
“Don’t come near me! How dare you talk to me this way?”
“How did you know that Todd had been shot at? I’m warning you, if you won’t answer me, I’ll fetch the marshal here and you can answer his questions.”
“You’d do it too, wouldn’t you? You’ve always hated me!” Catching the look in my eye she bit her lip, and spoke quietly.
“I ran to the window first. Isn’t that the natural thing to do? When I saw—well, how can you blame me for being so upset? I grabbed my robe off the chair, and then I thought I heard footsteps, running! I was so afraid! So I grabbed up my robe and ran outside.”
“Where to?”
“Why do I have to tell you? You aren’t…”
“Go on,” I pursued inexorably, and she dropped her head sulkily, bare toes tracing a pattern on the carpet.
“How can I remember? I was hysterical by then. I remember screaming, and then I was just running! Away from that horrible sight, I guess. Upstairs. To Mark’s room, and I pounded at the door and screamed for him to come out until—until I remembered that I thought I saw him out there too. And afterwards, oh I just can’t remember! I think I sat on the floor, all huddled up, and I cried.” Her hate-filled look said to me, “Just try and prove anything different!”
“What clever lies you can dream up on the spur of the moment!” I murmured viciously, unable to help myself. Because she was lying, of course. I would have sensed it, even if I hadn’t seen it on her face.
“Why don’t you admit you don’t want to believe me? You’d like to get me out of the way, wouldn’t you? So you and Pa…”
“Do you really imagine I’d need to get you out of the way, as you put it, in order to do anything I please?”
Sick at her, and sick at myself for my lack of control I turned away and saw the bed with its rumpled damp sheets; covers kicked off onto the floor, pillows pushed to one side.
I walked towards it slowly, as if drawn by a magnet
Behind me, Flo’s voice rose hysterically. “Well? What’s wrong now? I was sleeping. I already told you that!”
God, but she sounded guilty!
The animal scent of their mating rose from the bed to assault my nostrils as I walked closer, bringing back ugly memories.
“Then tell me this. Did he fire that shot before or after? Did you watch him aim the rifle and squeeze the trigger?”
She put her hand up against her mouth, her eyes going from me to the bed and back.
“I—I don’t…”
“Where did he go?”
“There you go again! Attacking me! Flinging accusations…”
I was suddenly so tired, so sick to my stomach that I had to sit down. Not on the bed. Like animals… the thought went round and round in my brain. No wonder she didn’t want to go out with me this morning. She knew where he was and she knew he’d come, as soon as I was out of the way.
I sank down onto the small, plush-covered chair in front of the dressing table and rested my chin on my hand.
Thinking she had won some kind of victory, Flo’s eyes began to glow with hysterical anger.
“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself! You have a vicious, evil mind! Even with Pa lying hurt you have to try and get at me, don’t you?”
“Oh, stop it, Flo!” My voice was quiet, but it stopped her in mid-sentence. “Do you take me for a nitwit?” I went on wearily. “I know what happened here in this room—on that bed. The whole room reeks of your lovemaking! How could you do it? How could you let him touch you? And especially after…”
“After what? After what? And you tell me something, you bitch, with your airs and your cold manners, how would you know what it’s like?” She spat the words at me, coming closer, her eyes gleaming with hate. “Ah, but you gave yourself away, didn’t you? Accusing me and pretending to be such a saint yourself when all the time…” She gave a peal of shrill laughter. “God! What a hypocrite! Wait till I tell Pa. Wait till I tell Mark! Or was it one of them? How many times has your bed looked this way and smelled this way, Lady Rowena?”
I looked back at her without expression. “At least I haven’t fallen into bed with a murdering animal. Where is he, Flo? Did he fire that shot from this window?”
She glared at me defiantly, and with a shrug I rose to my feet and started towards the door. She came after me.
“Where are you going? Damn you!”
“To fetch the marshal. Better get dressed before I return with him.”
“No! No you wouldn’t dare! Because I’d tell…”
“Tell what, Flo Jeffords? I think it is I who will tell the story.”
“No, wait!” Her fingers clutched at my sleeve. “Wait, I’ll tell you, but only if you promise you won’t tell them! You can’t! Pa won’t like it, anyhow! I think he’d rather die than have that old scandal dragged up.”
I paused, leaning back against the door because I didn’t want her to know that my knees were weak with tension.
“All right then, it is true, I’ve been seeing Luke. You’d already guessed that, hadn’t you? He told me you’d found that red silk, and he said we had to be more careful.”
“And today?”
She gave me a gleaming, resentful look. “Yes! He did come today! I knew he was going to be in town and I spoke to him but you weren’t clever enough to guess that, were you? We arranged another signal, and soon after you left, he came to me.” Her eyes taking on their old, wild brilliance she said, “He couldn’t stay away from me, you know! If you only knew all the risks he took, just to see me again! And he’s a man, do you hear me? You wouldn’t know what it’s like to have a real man, after having had to lie with a soft, potbellied slug with creeping hands and nothing much else!”
“I don’t want to hear the sordid details! It’s today that concerns me.”
Flo shrugged sullenly. “I don’t know! I was with Luke, but we had to hurry because you might come back. He left. And then later I heard that shot! I was telling the truth! I’d almost fallen asleep when I heard it, and I ran out, just as I told you!”
“You ran looking for him, didn’t you?” I accused. “You saw what had happened and you knew he’d done it!”
“Maybe I did go looking for him. Maybe I didn’t. You can guess till you’re blue in the face, but that’s all I know!”
She burst into a storm of hysterical weeping that seemed genuine enough.
I left the room, closing the door on the sound of her sobbing. And because I could think of nowhere else to go, I went upstairs to Mark’s room, feeling the door push open easily when I twisted the knob. Another lie, then, but I was too strained and exhausted to think about it just then. I sat in the chair by the window and waited.
Part III:
The Violent Peace
Fourteen
We returned to the SD in very different moods from the ones in which we had left it. Mark kept telling me that I had changed. His face was concerned and sad when he attempted to talk me out of what he c
alled my “frozen coldness.”
I was impatient with him.
“But I haven’t changed. Don’t you see, Mark? I had let myself grow lazy. I let my emotions rule me, and I allowed things to happen that should not have. I should have listened to my reason.”
“You’re a woman, Rowena!”
“Must that inescapable physical fact also make me weak?”
No one would ever be able to accuse me of weakness again. I had let myself go in this warm climate; let myself be coddled into relaxing my guard against people. And look what it had done! Todd was hurt, still forced to lie in loudly complaining inactivity in Silver City. And I, who had procrastinated and sat dreaming in the sun, waiting for something to happen, was the new manager of the SD. It was Todd himself who had insisted upon it.
“Mark will help you. He knows enough about ranching to tell you what has to be done. But you might as well learn the ropes, gal. Ain’t you always reminding me that you’re a full partner? Gonna be that way after we’re married too, except in the bedroom.”
“You’re in no condition to think about that now, Todd Shannon!” I said severely, but he had only laughed; the laugh turning into a cough that had sent the doctor hurrying in, with a quizzical glance for me.
“Didn’t I tell you this old goat was to be kept quiet? Look at him—laughing, with a bullet hole that grazed his lung! Out with you, miss. You two can talk over weddin’ plans later.”
Todd was jubilant, in a better mood than I had ever seen him in before, in spite of his wound. But I would not let myself think about a wedding yet. We would talk about that later, when Todd was well, and back at the SD. In the meantime, I would be able to show him how well I had managed. I was determined that nothing would go wrong.
I moved my things into the big house, although my father’s house would always remain my own special home to which I could escape whenever I pleased. Jules and Marta would manage very well, as they had done before I came. I had to explain to them, though, how practical this new arrangement was. I must learn as much as I could about running a big ranch, and the palacio was the hub of all the routine and activity. If I displayed any weakness, it was in not telling Marta the whole truth about the events in Silver City. Sooner or later she would learn that her “señor Lucas” was a hunted outlaw again, the price on his head endorsed by the Territorial Governor himself.
The Wildest Heart Page 20