She also had the pleasure of knowing she had survived every bit of it in perfect order. Okay, so she had a few dozen scratches, but they would heal.
She turned over, thought about getting up, but changed her mind. Trinity had dressed and gone. He probably wanted to check on Ben and the horses. He’d come back soon and they’d have breakfast together.
She enjoyed breakfasting alone with Trinity. Even when they were on the trail and she hated him and felt horrible, there was a kind of magic about being alone with him.
She chuckled to herself. That horrible trip from Arizona would probably become a much-too-often-retold piece of folklore in future Smith households. In all likelihood it would be romanticized until it bore no resemblance to the truth. Already she remembered only the good dungs. All the danger and fear and discomfort were forgotten. Only the excitement and wonder remained.
She hoped, when she approached the end of her days, she would be able to look back on her life in just that way. She knew living with Trinity would mean acknowledging his stubbornness, but she didn’t care about that. As long as no one came out of his past to disturb their happiness, she didn’t care how stubborn he might be.
His guns were gone!
Victoria sat up in the bed, clutching the sheet to her breasts. She hadn’t noticed that at first, but if he was just going to see Ben, why would he need his guns? Her earlier uneasy feeling returned. She tried to tell herself she was just imagining tilings, but it didn’t work.
Something was wrong, and she knew it.
Victoria jumped out of bed, wrapped a robe around her, and opened the door to the hall. No one was in sight. She scampered along the hall until she reached the door to Ben’s room. A drowsy voice invited her to take the first bucking bronco to hell. She went in anyway.
“You’re feeling mighty unfriendly this morning. God, you look awful!” she exclaimed the moment she got a look at Ben. “Are you all right?”
Ben’s neck, shoulders and upper body were practically covered in bandages. His face was swollen and discolored from the numerous thorn wounds.
“I’m perfectly fine,” he mumbled, moving his lips as little as possible. “I enjoyed it so much as soon as I get out of these bandages I’m going to go out and do it again.”
Victoria felt a wave of guilt. Ben had done everything he could to keep her from going to see Judge Blazer, and then he had sacrificed his own body to protect her from her foolishness.
“You shouldn’t have ridden in front just to protect me.”
“Oh yes I should. I might look like hell now, but all this mess will heal. If I’d let you come out of that briar patch looking like this, Trinity would have killed me.”
“You know he wouldn’t.”
“Now you look here,” Ben said, moving so quickly he winced in pain, “there are a few things about Trinity you don’t seem to understand too well, and one of them is how he feels about you. If any man on earth had let you go first into that pincushion from hell, he’d have killed him. Period.”
The ominous words reminded Victoria of her reason for coming to Ben’s room in a near state of undress.
“Trinity’s gone. Do you know where he went?”
“He didn’t say anything, just checked to make sure I was still alive. But if you ask me, he’s gone to fix that Queenie bitch. I’m surprised he didn’t do it before. After yesterday, I’m surprised he waited until today.”
Victoria ran back to her room as fast as she could. Heedless of the pain of her own wounds, she threw off her robe and put on the first clothes she came to, her torn and tattered clothes from yesterday. Dashing into the hall, she nearly ran over Ben who, driven by the fear of Trinity’s restitution if he didn’t stop Victoria, had risen from his bed.
“You can’t go chasing after Trinity. I didn’t say he went to kill Queenie. I just said I thought he had.”
“That’s the same as knowing. You’re both crazy the same way.”
“Well, if that’s appreciation, I sure don’t recognize it.”
“I haven’t got time to be nice,” Victoria said. “I don’t care about Queenie. I care about Trinity. If he kills Queenie, he’ll ruin his life. And mine, too.”
Impervious to astonished stares, Victoria raced through the hotel lobby and down the street until she came to the livery stable. “Did Trinity Smith ride out of here this morning?” she asked a man sitting by the barn door.
“Yes’um.”
“When?”
“About half an hour ago.”
“Did he head up or down the street?”
“Down.”
He had gone in the direction of the Tumbling T.
“Saddle Diablo.”
“That horse don’t like being saddled,” the man mumbled. “He’s likely to maul me if I try.” He made no move to get up.
Victoria knocked the chair out from under him. “Saddle him, or I’ll maul you worse than Diablo.”
The man hauled himself to his feet and, after giving Victoria an injured look, led the way to Diablo’s stall. Victoria put the bridle on Diablo and held his head while the man saddled him.
“He was out yesterday,” the man complained as he adjusted the saddle and tightened the cinch on the fretting stallion. “He’s probably worn to a nubbin.”
“He’s still the fastest horse in Bandera.”
Victoria flung herself into the saddle. Diablo didn’t buck once. He exploded through the livery stable door at a full gallop.
“He is fast,” the man muttered as he righted his chair, settled in, and leaned against the door.
Victoria didn’t need to urge Diablo to his utmost speed. He stretched out his legs and ran for the sheer joy of running. Even though fear for Trinity filled her mind, Victoria marveled at the speed, power and stamina of this remarkable stallion. If he could pass it on to his offspring, he would make Trinity a rich man.
But would Trinity be around to become a rich man?
If he killed Queenie, he’d hang.
She couldn’t let that happen. No matter what Queenie had done, no matter what she might do in the future, nothing was worth Trinity’s life.
And her life as well.
He couldn’t throw everything away, not without talking to her first. He had no right. He had said he loved her, that he wanted to marry her, that he wanted them to live together for the rest of their lives. That meant his life belonged to her as much as it did to him, and she had no intention of letting him squander it.
The ride seemed endless. She wouldn’t let herself consider the possibility that she might arrive too late. She tried to think of what she would say to convince him to leave Queenie alone, but as she drew closer to the ranch, her fear of arriving too late increased. If Trinity had decided to kill Queenie, he would succeed.
She almost sobbed with relief when she rounded a clump of willows and saw Trinity’s buckskin in the distance. He was trotting. She could tell he still hadn’t made up his mind about what he was going to do. When Trinity rode with a purpose, he rode at a gallop. He pulled up when he recognized her.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded when she drew rein at his side.
“What a charming way to greet your fiancee. I hope you improve on it after we’re married.”
“I don’t have time for teasing. Why did you come?”
To stop you from killing Queenie.”
“I’ll kill Ben,” Trinity swore.
“Nobody told me what you were going to do. Nobody had to. I know you, Trinity. After yesterday, there was only one thing you could do. I just didn’t expect you to go after her so soon. I won’t let you do it,” she said when he didn’t answer her. “I know how you feel, but our future together is more important than Queenie.”
“If Queenie has her way, we won’t have any future.”
“Then find another way to stop her.”
“I have.”
Now she understood the trot. He had been thinking, working out the angles. “What is it?”
“What’s the most important thing in the world to Queenie?”
“I don’t know. Money, I guess.”
“Being married to Judge Blazer. Money comes with that, but as Judge Blazer’s wife she’s somebody important. No matter where she goes, people fall over themselves trying to please her. Take away her position and what does she have?”
“Can you take it away?”
“I think so. After she stole my father’s ranch, I think she worked her way through the West fleecing anyone she could.”
“Can you prove it?”
“Not yet, but I have a strong notion that a lot of people still remember Queenie. Anyway, I know enough to put a good scare in her.”
“So you’re going to offer to keep quiet about her past if she’ll swear to leave us alone?”
“That’s about it. Not very much like me, is it?”
She could tell he was unhappy with himself. He may have decided he had to compromise, but he hadn’t learned to like it.
“No. It’s much too sensible. Do you think shell accept it?”
“Queenie hates to lose anything, but she’s got just about everything she wants now. Why take a chance on losing it just for revenge? She’s a young woman. If the Judge divorces her, she faces a long life of disgrace.”
Victoria felt the muscles in her neck and shoulders relax. She didn’t know if Trinity’s idea would work, but it was a chance that they could have their life together without more killing.
As they drew near the Tumbling T, Victoria was surprised to see several horses in the yard. There was also an unusually large number of men gathered around the house.
Something was wrong.
“What happened?” Trinity asked one of the hands as they dismounted.
The Judge’s wife’s dead.”
“What!” Victoria exclaimed.
“When did it happen? How?”
“I don’t know. Ain’t nobody told us nothing.”
Victoria and Trinity hurried up to the house. No one met them at the door. They found everyone garnered in the parlor: the Judge, Kirby, Sheriff Sprague, Doctor Roundtree.
Victoria went straight to Kirby and enfolded the stunned boy in her arms. The grief he had held back in the presence of men found release in Victoria’s touch, and he sobbed out his heartbreak in her arms.
“What happened?” Trinity asked the sheriff.
“Nobody knows. The maid found her like this when she came in to tidy up. No sign of a struggle. No wound I can see.”
“What killed her?” he asked the doctor.
“I don’t know. Could have been heart failure. She seems to have had a seizure or something before she died. See, she knocked over her coffee cup.”
Trinity looked at the dropped cup. He picked up a coffeepot sitting on the table next to Myra’s chair and swirled it around. There was still a little coffee inside.
“Have this checked. I think she was poisoned.”
“That’s absurd,” Sheriff Sprague said. “Who would do that?”
“I don’t know, but test it anyway.”
The doctor handed the pot to a maid and directed her to put the contents into a clean jar. “I’ll have the results by tonight. You think it’s the same poison?”
“You can tell that better than I can. Are they the same symptoms?”
“No. If it’s poison, they’re more consistent with arsenic.”
“But how would rat poison get in the coffee?” the Judge asked.
“I have no idea. Has anyone else been ill recently?”
“I’ve been ill for years,” the Judge said, and began a detailed recital of his symptoms.
“I would like to examine you,” Dr. Roundtree said.
“I have my own doctors in San Antonio and Austin,” Judge Blazer replied, surprised a strange doctor would make such a request.
“Nevertheless, if your wife has been poisoned, you might have been as well.”
“Oh all right. We can use my study, but I can’t give you very long.”
“I’ll only take a few minutes,” the doctor assured them.
“It might be a good idea to tell the men outside what’s happened,” Trinity suggested to the sheriff. “Better than their making up their own version.”
The sheriff nodded agreement and left.
Kirby’s sobs had dwindled into hiccups.
“I should have told the sheriff, but I couldn’t. After all she was my mother.”
“Told him what?” Trinity asked.
“She was poisoning the Judge. I didn’t find out until last night. We had a tremendous fight after I brought Lyman’s body back. I told her I knew she was trying to kill Victoria, that if she didn’t stop, I’d tell me Judge. That’s when she told me what she’d been doing. It wouldn’t do any good, she said. She had already poisoned me Judge, she said. He would die any day now. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I must have looked horrified. Anyway she got even more furious. She started to taunt me about being a coward, saying I didn’t have the guts to do what it took to get ahead in life. How did I think she’d been able to get out of the miserable shack where she was born? I ought to get on my knees in thanks that she hadn’t abandoned me when my father deserted her.
“That’s when she told me about the men she had cheated and killed. It was horrible. It made me sick to my stomach, but that only made her madder. That’s when she told me she killed Jeb. She had Lyman do it. He’d been shadowing Jeb for weeks just waiting for the perfect opportunity.”
“Why was she poisoning the Judge?”
“She hated him. How could she, especially after he’s been so good to me! Sometimes he treated me better than he treated Jeb. Sometimes he treated me better than my own mother did.”
“I’m sure your mother loved you,” Victoria said.
“No, she didn’t. She told me so. She only wanted me because the Judge is leaving everything to me.”
“Not your mother?”
“No, but she would be my guardian until I’m eighteen. She had to kill the Judge before my birthday if she was to control the money.”
“And once the money was safely yours, you knew she might poison you because she would then inherit everything,” Trinity suggested.
Kirby hung his head.
“Good God, Trinity, she wouldn’t do anything like that!” Victoria exclaimed. “Not to her own son.”
“My father was a cattle buyer from Chicago” Kirby explained. “He promised to marry Mother and take her back with him. She hated me because I represented the man who’d deserted her.”
“How was she poisoning the Judge?” Victoria asked.
“She put arsenic in his coffee.”
“But she drank the same coffee,” Victoria said.
“She kept a special tin for him. Said it was better for bis heart. She kept it behind the lard tin and forbade anyone to touch it. I found it last night and threw it out.”
Victoria blanched.
“I put some coffee from that tin in the coffee container yesterday. I’d used all mere was in the container to make some for the Judge and myself.”
All three hurried to the kitchen. The container was empty.
“She drank the Judge’s coffee,” Victoria said, shock and horror reducing her voice to a barely audible thread. “I poisoned her.”
Victoria fainted.
“The Judge will make a full recovery,” Doctor Roundtree told Trinity and Victoria a few days later. “Apparently she had been giving him small doses over a long period of time.”
“How much of this is going to come out?” Trinity inquired. The doctor looked to Victoria.
“Nothing,” Victoria said. “Don’t frown at me. You were ready to make a compromise a few days ago. Well, everyone else is ready now. The Judge doesn’t want a scandal about Jeb or his wife. There’s also Kirby to consider.”
“Don’t try to convince me. Just tell me what you’ve decided to do.”
“I discussed it with the Judge and Kirby,” Victo
ria said, making sure he knew it wasn’t her doing alone, “and they agreed everyone will be told Myra died of heart trouble, probably from shock that one of the Tumbling T hands had attempted to kill me.”
“And that’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“I feel sorry for the judge, but you know, I feel sorriest for Kirby. He has nowhere to go.”
“Not exactly.”
Trinity’s eyebrows went up. “I gather you’ve been busier than I thought.”
“No, I just suggested the obvious.”
“Apparently I’m not clever enough to see the obvious. Enlighten me.”
“Kirby idolizes the Judge. He always has. And the Judge depends heavily on Kirby. He’s said time and time again he doesn’t know what he’d do without him.”
“So you told the Judge to marry Kirby.”
Victoria threw a pillow at Trinity. “I suggested he legally adopt Kirby. Kirby has been a Blazer in name; now hell be one in his heart.” Trinity just stared at her. “They’re both without a family. They’ve lived together for eight years. They’ve grown to be very fond of each other. It only makes sense.”
“You think it’ll work?”
“Don’t you?”
“Yes. It sounds like the perfect solution.”
Victoria landed in his lap to collect her kiss of congratulations. She collected several more for good measure.
“Now what plans do you have for me?” Trinity gleefully asked.
“I suggest you marry me as quickly as you can. The Judge has agreed to officiate, and Uncle Grant will give me away.”
“You little …”
Victoria put her finger to his lips. “Be careful what you say. I’ll remember it forever.”
“… darling,” Trinity finished. “Would this afternoon be soon enough?”
“Perfect. The hotel parlor is just the right size, and the Judge can be here any time after noon.”
“Any more orders?”
“I think Ben ought to be your best man, and you ought to wear black. It makes you look so mysterious.”
“It’s also the death of my freedom.”
Victoria gave him several mock scratches on the face and a very real punch to the middle. “You are a horrible man. You deserve to be married to a managing female.”
Arizona Embrace Page 38