by Karen Cogan
Instead, they spent a pleasant evening drinking hot cocoa and popping popcorn in the fireplace.
Kathleen didn’t expect visitors the next day. A knock on the door the next afternoon was a surprise.
Had Martin come to apologize?
A woman stood on the porch. It took Kathleen a minute to recognize Polly, the girl from the brothel. Polly was clutching her shawl against the chill.
“Please come inside.” Kathleen remembered the last time she’d seen her sitting outside the saloon with her friend. She had not been friendly.
“I know you’re surprised to see me,” Polly said. “But you’ve been decent to me and I thought I should warn you. Martin Long is a regular customer of ours. He came in last night mean as a skunk. He was talking about how you was going to get married whether you liked it or not. I thought I should warn you. You don’t want to go marrying him. He’s meaner than a badger when he’s been drinking. Hurt one of the girls last night, and Billie made him leave. When she told him not to come back he threatened to burn the place down with us all inside.” She shivered. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
Kathleen felt her face drain of color. She had seen an unflattering side of Martin last night, but she’d never imagined him to be less than a gentleman. She forced a smile at her guest. “I can promise you that I wouldn’t marry Martin if he was the last man on earth.” She reached for the girl’s hand. “Thank you for coming here to tell me all this.”
Polly smiled. “I don’t expect I’d want anyone to get saddled with a snake like him. He pretends to be a fancy man, but he’s nothing but riffraff from Kerry Patch.”
“He’s from Kerry Patch?”
“Yep. He grew up rough and mean, despite what he wants folks to think.”
“I see. Would you like a cup of tea?” she asked Polly.
Polly shook her head. “I can’t be staying. I slipped out so’s I could warn you.”
“Thank you, Polly. I’m glad you did. You’ve proven to be a friend.”
A small smile wavered on Polly’s face before she tamped it down. “I couldn’t be a proper friend to a lady like you, but I thank you for saying it.”
”No matter what you believe, I’ll always consider us friends.”
Polly didn’t look back as she slipped out into the snow falling from an iron-gray sky.
Kathleen shut out the swirling mist. She sank into a chair. How could she ever have been so misled by Martin?
Polly’s visit had lowered her opinion of his character. She would have to make her father understand when she explained her decision. She put Martin out of her mind.
When Collin returned, she would leave him in no doubt as to her feelings for him. She was sure that whatever secret he planned to tell her would only add to the excitement of planning their wedding. Perhaps they would marry in early spring. She could sew a wedding dress from the one bolt of satin that was left in the store. And she would invite Nancy and Tom to come. Of course, she would ask Nancy to be her matron of honor.
She nurtured these happy thoughts as she marked off each frigid January day.
Collin would return soon. And when he did, everything would fall into place.
On a clear sunny day in the middle of the month, Collin stepped off the train. He was struck by how quiet the town had become. He hoped that would be changing come spring. The new company would be taking over the mine on Galena Mountain and bringing in money to see if Collin was right about rich gold ore lying just out of reach.
He was impatient to see Kathleen. The gold band he carried in his pocket seemed to grow heavier when he went to the boarding house and freshened up. He couldn’t wait to show her the ring. It had graced the fingers of McAllister women for generations. When his father had taken it from the drawer where it had rested since Collin’s mother died, he had promised to come soon to meet the young woman who’d be assuming ownership of the treasure.
Collin hoped with all his heart that she would like it. There was only one way to find out. As soon as he was presentable from his trip, he would head straight over to see her.
Kathleen’s heart did a flip when she opened the door. Every day she had longed for Collin and hoped for his return.
He stood surveying her with a familiar grin. When he stepped inside and wrapped her in a snug embrace, she felt as though he had never left.
“I’ve missed you,” she admitted when he drew her onto the settee.
“No more than I’ve missed you. I have a lot to tell you.” He clasped her hands and looked earnestly into her eyes.
She swallowed hard hoping he would not say anything that would dampen this long-awaited homecoming.
“My background is not what you think.” He went on to explain his reckless youth and the desperate measures his father had taken to force him to make his own way in the mines of Silverton.
Kathleen was stunned by his background of wealth. “Why didn’t you tell me? I fell in love with you thinking that you had only your savings from the mine.”
“Would I tell a beautiful and industrious young woman that I was banished and threatened with disinheritance? I was ashamed and embarrassed.”
“I believed Martin when he told me you’d grown up in Kerry Patch.”
Collin frowned. “How would he know where I grew up?”
“It turns out he’s the one who grew up there. There have been so many lies; I hardly know what to think anymore.”
Collin felt a stab of alarm. “I’ve never lied to you, Kathleen.”
“That’s true. Yet how do I know you’ll stay the same man I’ve loved now that you’ve regained your inheritance?”
He ran his finger along her face. “I’ve seen what indulgence did to me. I don’t like the person I was and I don’t want to go back there. The man you see now is who you’ll always have.” The sincerity in his gaze melted her fear.
Better a man like Collin, who had learned from his mistakes, than a man like Martin, who was obsessed with acquiring money and power. Indeed, it seemed all that he lived for.
“I’m afraid I might embarrass you. I don’t know how to behave in fine society.”
“And you won’t have to. I don’t plan to change a thing. We’ll live here in Silverton to see if my investment pays off. In time, if you like, we can move back to St. Louis. I’ll take you to see my home and let you decide.”
Now that the initial shock was over, Kathleen felt a burning curiosity about Collin’s past. She plied him with a barrage of questions that he patiently answered. Finally, he held up his hands in protest.
“I think you know enough to answer the question I came here to ask. Kathleen Morris, will you marry me?”
She sucked in a gulp of air. Here was the man she had always loved, who had claimed her heart from the moment they had met. Without hesitation, she answered. “Yes, Collin, I will marry you.”
He grinned broadly and pulled the ring from his pocket. “This has been in my family for years. If you like it, it’s yours when we marry.”
Kathleen stared at the gold band, intricately carved and adorned with a large opal. It was, in truth, the most beautiful ring she had ever seen.
“I love it.”
He picked up her hand and kissed her finger where the ring was destined to rest. “Should we set a date?”
“I was thinking that early March would be nice. It would give me time to make plans and sew a dress. Maybe Nancy and Tom could come down from Ouray.”
Collin laughed. “You’ve given this some thought, have you?”
Kathleen felt the color rise in her cheeks. “No more than you have.”
He turned serious. “That sounds perfect to me. Should I go and speak with your father?”
She shook her head. “Better let me explain what you’ve told me first.”
Collin rose. “Then I’d best leave so you can talk to him. I have some business I need to see to, anyway.” After he kissed her at the door, he paused with his hat in hand. “T
ell me honestly. If I had to be either rich or poor, wouldn’t you rather I be rich?”
Kathleen laughed and shooed him out the door. She listened to him whistling his way down to the street before she went to talk to Papa.
He opened his eyes when she knocked on the door.
“Were you sleeping?”
He stretched his arms. “Seems that’s about all I can do.”
“It won’t be much longer until you’re up on crutches.” She sat in a chair beside the bed and told him about Collin.
“Do you believe him?” he asked.
Kathleen grinned. “You should have seen that ring.”
“What about Martin?”
When she told him what she had learned, he shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe I was so wrong about those two men. I’m glad you had more sense about Martin than I did. I want you to be happy.”
“I am, Papa. I’m very happy.”
“Then you tell Mr. McAllister that I’d be glad to see him.”
Early the next morning, pounding on his door brought Collin instantly awake. His first thought was that there was a fire or other calamity and someone was warning him to get out quickly. He got to his feet and struggled into his pants. He didn’t smell smoke.
The sheriff was standing on the other side of the door. A grim expression drew his bushy eyebrows into a frown. “McAllister, I’m going to have to take you in. I got an eye-witness says you murdered a man last night.”
Collin blinked hard; he must still be dreaming. “Sheriff, I was alone in my new office all evening.”
“Anybody vouch for that?”
Collin thought back. He’d been at the office he’d set up for the new mining corporation and then came back late to the boarding house. “I was alone.”
“You’d better come with me.”
Collin grabbed his coat and followed the sheriff down the hall where other residents were peeking sleepily out of their doors.
Mrs. McGee was waiting downstairs. “He’s a good boy, sheriff. Been no trouble since he’s been here.”
The sheriff didn’t reply as he steered Collin onto the pre-dawn street. As they walked towards the jail, Collin asked, “Who is it I am supposed to have killed?”
“Old Vic. Martin Long says he was walking down the street last night when he heard you and the old man arguing. Heard you threaten to kill him. This morning his body turns up stabbed in an alley.”
Collin’s temper flared. “Maybe you’d better ask Long what he was doing in that alley, because I was never there.”
The sheriff led Collin to the jail house and into a cell. “We’d better clear this up with you first.”
The keys clanked in the lock, and Collin felt as if a rock had settled into his stomach at the certainty that Martin had set him up.
Kathleen hummed merrily and measured out the satin for her wedding dress. She was alone in the store. Business was rare these days, but she didn’t mind.
The bell jingled and Martin strode into the shop.
The sight of him made her burn with anger. Her hands clenched unconsciously around the bolt of fabric as she remembered their last meeting. Yet, she was determined to be civil. She greeted him pleasantly. “We don’t have much in stock. What did you come for?”
“You.” His gaze captured hers with a coldness that made her shiver. “I’ve got a proposition for you.”
Kathleen laid the bolt on the table and came round to face him. “I’ve already made myself clear.”
“You may feel different when you hear what I’ve got to say. On my testimony, your friend, McAllister, is locked up at the jail. I can fix it so that he swings, or goes free. What I decide depends on you.”
Kathleen felt her knees grow weak. Her throat felt like sawdust as she whispered, “What have you done?”
“I heard him threaten to murder old Vic. And now Vic’s dead. But if you were to marry me today, I might not be so sure it was McAllister I heard. If you refuse, I’ll whip up a mob to storm the jail tonight. We’ll hang him before a judge gets within twenty miles of here. A lot of people liked Vic. He was everybody’s drinking partner.” Martin uttered a rude laugh at his appraisal of Vic.
“Vic’s dead?”
“Stone cold.”
“Collin had no reason to do it,” she flared.
“Robbery, perhaps?”
“His family has made a fortune with the railroads. His father has an estate in St. Louis. He doesn’t need the money.”
Martin raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Then it looks as though you would never come to me for my money now.”
“I won’t come to you at all. I’ll march straight to the sheriff and tell him what you’ve said.”
Martin laughed. “You forget that I’m a fine, upstanding citizen. He’d never believe you, especially if I told him you made it up to get McAllister released.”
It was the truth. The sheriff would never take the word of a woman in love above that of a business man like Martin. He would have to keep Collin locked up. And if he did, the mob could come and take him away.
She shuddered. “You’ll have to give me a little time to think it over.”
“I’ll give you until two o’clock. If we aren’t going to the preacher’s house to get married by then, I’m whipping me up a hanging party.” Martin gave her a smug smile and left as abruptly as he’d entered.
Kathleen‘s shock gave way to a fear that made her tremble so violently that she sank onto the floor, limp as a puddle of melted butter. Since she had no intention of marrying Martin she had to think of a way to get Collin to safety until this mistake was sorted out. She pulled up on shaky legs and set out for the jail.
There was no time to get word to his father. She and Collin would have to think of a plan together. If they came up with nothing what would she do? She pushed the worrisome thought from her mind as she scurried along the street.
Collin was sitting with his head in his hands.
The deputy sat at the desk working on paperwork. He glanced up as Kathleen entered.
“I’ve come to see Mr. McAllister,” she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
He thumbed his hand towards the cell and went back to his work. “Help yourself.”
For a wild moment, she thought of going back for Papa’s gun and breaking Collin out of jail. Shocked by her own desperation she decided to leave that plan for a last resort. “Collin,” she said softly.
He looked up. “He’s framed me, Kathleen. I never saw Vic last night.”
“I know. He’s trying to force me to marry him. He says he’ll get a lynch mob together if I don’t.”
Collin’s eyes locked with hers. “Whatever happens, you’re not marrying that snake. I’d rather swing on that rope first.”
Kathleen’s eyes filled with tears. “Do you really think I could let that happen?”
Passion filled his voice. “If you married him to get me free, I’d kill him the next day. Then there’d be no getting me out of here.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
Kathleen wiped at her tears. “Martin assured me the sheriff wouldn’t believe I was being blackmailed.”
“The sheriff’s not here, anyway. He left not long after he brought me in.”
Kathleen shivered, plagued by the vision of an angry mob storming the jail without the sheriff here to help protect Collin.
The morning dragged into afternoon as they tried to think of some way out of the mess.
The deputy brought Collin a tray of food that neither he nor Kathleen wanted to eat.
Kathleen glanced at the clock that sat on the desk. Martin would expect her answer. “I need to get some lunch for Papa,” she said, reluctant to leave Collin. “Maybe he’ll have an idea.”
She nearly collided into the sheriff’s broad chest when she opened the door.
He had two men with him. On
e of them was Martin Long. The other was a young man that Kathleen did not know.
She drew a ragged breath at the sight of Martin, pointed a finger in his face and said shrilly, “I’m telling the sheriff everything whether he believes me or not.”
“I think I’ve spared you the trouble,” said the tall, blond man who was with them.
He doffed his hat. “I’m Clem Jones. I used to run with Martin’s gang before they got into things I didn’t cotton to. I became an honest miner and got me some savings. I aim to marry Polly and take her out of that saloon.”
Kathleen stared at him, unable to make the connection between his words and her difficulty.
The sheriff motioned Martin to a chair. “You might want to stay and hear the explaining that Mr. Long has to do.”
She sank onto the spare chair.
“I’ve got nothing to say to you,” Martin growled.
“Maybe Clem would like to start us off,” the sheriff suggested.
Clem held his hat in his hands and avoided Martin’s dark glare. “Vic had been talking to me. He was real upset ‘bout what he overheard when he walked by an alley late one night. Martin and his men were talking to the bank robber who escaped the law. It turns out that Martin masterminded the robbery and hired the men. He met with them in the mountains right after the robbery and rode off with the half-take the sheriff didn’t get back, leaving the robber who escaped with nothing. Now, this man was demanding that Martin share the take with him.”
Collin was listening with rapt interest. His jaw had dropped open in surprise.
Martin was no gentleman, yet she had never imagined him capable of robbery. And why?
Clem took a breath and continued, “Vic saw Martin shoot the man right there on the spot. Then he laughed and said he’d just saved himself some money. He was going to head up to Ouray and put it in the bank. He saw Vic listening, and Vic got scared. He slipped back into the saloon, but he was worried for his life.” Clem sighed. “Seems he had good reason. I kept quiet at first for the same reason. But Polly told me she’d never speak to me again if I let an innocent man get blamed for Vic’s death.”