Hailee noticed both his fists were still clenched.
The Johnson parlor room fell into a silent domain for a full seven minutes, but she wasn’t about to be the first one to break that silence, choosing instead to occupy her father's chair and watch Tobias twitch his fingers every once in a while as she sipped at her cold tea.
At long last, he folded his arms in front of his chest and let out another long breath of air. “You won’t allow me to beat the man senseless – and believe me, I want him alive to pay for his sins; yet there's another part of me screaming out to plant the man in the ground the first chance I get.”
Hailee made her way over to the window and laid a calming hand on his back.
“I want him out of here. We all do. But we both know you have no intention of killing him, and that isn’t anything you should even joke about. I don’t know how you plan to take care of this, Tobias, but I can feel my hair curl every time the thought occurs to me that if you weren’t around to take care of it –,” he turned around to pull her close.
“Shhh, don’t even let that idea begin to drift into your head. I’m here and I won’t let him near you again. He’s not allowed past the kitchen these days, but if he’s feeling gutsy enough to have spoken to you in such a vulgar manner, he just might mosey right on into the dining room when some of the other men are eating and challenge either me or Richard to toss him out. I’m pretty sure he knows the situation could get sticky if he pulled a stunt like that in front of everyone else, so -“
This time it was Hailee who cut off Tobias in mid-sentence.
“I know,” she mumbled. “You’ll be bringing meals to me here in the parlor, right? I’ve been kicked out of not only my barn and kitchen, but now it looks like my own dining room is off limits.”
“You’re pretty quick,” he teased.
“I’m not amused, Tobias. I’m living in a nightmare; don’t you see how insane this is getting?” she mumbled.
He turned his face toward hers and nodded, acknowledging that he’d not only heard her, but fully agreed. “One day we’ll be able to look back on all this mess and it will finally make sense. I promise.”
Because Tobias sensed her shoulders tense and saw the questioning look in her eyes, he gave his best attempt at changing the subject.
“I just realized that I still haven’t gotten around to asking if you liked them,” he found himself blurting out of nowhere.
“Excuse me?”
He chuckled at the obvious look of confusion on Hailee’s lips as she struggled for an answer, back-tracking in her mind to what on earth he could be talking about.
“When I was standing at the window,” he explained with a tug of his thumb, “I started thinking about the envelope I left for you. Have you tried on the necklace yet?”
“No, I was hoping you would attach it around my neck the first time I wore it.”
“You know, the fact occurred to me that I left afraid to touch you, but with me being home again and Richard allowing me upstairs to talk in private with you...it almost feels like we might’ve missed a couple of steps. Are you comfortable with that?”
“I suppose so; most girls meet their beaus sort of the same way we did, don't they? Maybe you missed out on having to ask my father the big question, but then again,” she thought about it, “you haven't even asked me any big questions.”
The pair stood toe-to-toe for a moment before she began relating the way she’d held the chain in her fingers, how the sunlight flickered off the golden metal, and the way she’d closed her eyes and imagined that he was there to attach it to her neck. She also confessed to the man standing in front of her that she’d read and reread the letter dozens of times.
“I think I have it memorized; I slept with it under my pillow.” The blue-eyed girl glanced upward until her eyes found his. “Have you ever written anything else for me?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Can’t remember if I have or haven’t.”
She clicked her tongue against her front teeth and gave him a playful smack on his chest.
“You have! What have you been hiding from me?”
He shook his head and gave her a gentle scoot back to her chair.
“Ah, you know I’m not fancy with words, Hailee. I never even planned to show any of it to you or anything like that.”
Feeling she'd embarrassed the budding wordsmith, she decided to leave it alone for the time being.
“Well, alright. But this conversation isn’t over, mister,” she teased.
He took his place in the chair next to hers, the one usually occupied by Bruce. Placing both hands behind his neck and looking at the lodge pole ceiling, Tobias looked uncomfortable as he chose his words, taking almost too much time forming his thoughts.
When the girl began to shuffle her feet, he cleared his throat and allowed his words to float on out.
“I understand this is the single most awkward thing you will probably ever have to go through in your life, but you should know the sheriff and his deputy came by earlier and reminded me of the important role we play in allowing Duffy to trip himself up.” Before Hailee raised any questions, he interjected with, “The sheriff now has information that will send Duffy to the end of Main Street in Canon City for a very long time, but he needs to allow Duffy to expose himself.”
Her face now full of concern instead of the playful look she’d been wearing only moments ago, the young woman felt an audible gasp creep from her lips.
“Are you saying he’s going to prison?”
”I can’t tell you anything else – I wasn’t even supposed to say that much to you. And no,” he assured her, “nobody else but Richard knows about this new development. Hailee, you are not to talk to him about it, either. You never heard any of this.”
She could see the firm look in his eyes and understood that it was not a suggestion or a request.
“It doesn’t make sense. I know you say it will one day, and I trust you, Tobias, I really do. But this will never make sense to me.”
“Don’t lose trust in me, Hailee. I need you to stay as strong as you can until this whole mess is taken care of.”
“Mess. That’s what it is alright.” She fell silent for a few seconds before asking in a clear voice, “Tobias, if I promise to accept the fact that you and Richard and the doctor and the even the sheriff,” she paused for breath, “didn’t think it would be in my best interest to see my daddy, would you please at least tell me where you buried the man so I can visit him sometimes? And why can’t we just have a remembering service in his honor at the church? Can’t we at least do that much for him?”
Tobias pulled a hand across his face.
“I know you’re right. Bruce deserves that much,” he said in between a long exhale of breath. “It’s just that I’ve never had to deal with anything like this, Hailee. I’ve never had anyone else to take care of, never had to make these kinds of decisions before. I don’t mind confessing I have no idea what I’m even doing half the time. Let's plan some kind of good-bye service tomorrow.”
She nodded in an apologetic way. “You know, I feel bad now. I’ve been so busy feeling sorry for myself and been so buried in my own sorrow, I guess I never even stopped to consider how this must have affected you. And the others. You were actually there when – it – happened. It must have been just awful.”
“And I wish Duffy would just straighten out, too,” Hailee said in her innocence. “How could a man allow so much hatred to creep into his heart, Tobias? It almost makes me feel like he hates me personally or something, the way he looks at me and the way he talks to me now.”
Tobias shook his head.
“I don’t think it’s so much a hatred for you or for your family as it is a sheer hatred for his own self, Hailee. All I know for sure is that man has not looked happy for a mighty long time.”
Chapter 26
As one hand held a steady match at the top of his oil lantern, the other hand adjusted the wick. The room filled with shadows an
d Duffy turned the glow down just a tad. He was in a mood.
Dang Tobias and the dog that dragged him in!
With a firm kick, he shoved his boots into a corner of the room; if he even heard the thud one of them made, he paid no mind to whatever it knocked into.
Scooting the old brown chair across the dirty wooden floor and closer to the fireplace, the legs left a trail to mark their journey a few feet away.
Crackling warm reflections against his face, the man with the tightened jaw held his hands up against the heat, turning them at regular intervals and mumbling something about getting even with the man he'd grown to hate more every day.
Duffy allowed his eyes to glance around the one-room bunking quarters; they had grown dirty over the past couple of months. Only three days had passed since he'd begun to open a window and at least air the place out some, but when he allowed himself to think matters over, he remembered all the resentment he’d harbored for Bruce and the thought of keeping such a small house tidy didn’t seem to matter much after that. The window slid back down against the sill and that was that.
“This isn’t my house,” he reassured himself out in the open. “Not this one, anyhow,” he grinned with satisfaction. “Now, the big house? One day I’ll be living in the big house!”
It had been near to a couple of weeks now since he’d seen the girl, and it wasn’t sitting well with him; he would have to figure out a way to flush her out of there.
“'Course,” he rolled his eyes, “she'll go and tattle to her boyfriend and stir up the gravy with him.”
Duffy reached down to his feet and picked up a pine cone, rubbed his fingers absent-mindedly across the thorny sections and tossed it into the flames, watching as it caught up in the burning mass and sputtered in a dark orange glow. His head snapped up and he let out a soft chuckle, as if an idea had just popped into his head.
“He thinks he can keep her hid in that house, but that won’t last forever. She’s bound to come on out of there sooner or later,” he said to nobody. “Another week goes by and she’s gonna be chomping at the bit to get to that horse of hers. And when she does,” he chuckled, “I’ll be there. Waiting.”
P
Doc Amerley's office occupied only two people that evening: himself and the sheriff.
“The thing is, I remember when folks considered him a rather nice fella; didn't need to worry about him ever causing a disturbance back then.”
The sheriff nodded his agreement.
“I'll tell ya the truth, Doc. I'm not planning on taking any pleasure in the next few days; the law-abiding man part of me knows what has to be done, and then there's the other part of me that's still trying to deny the whole thing. I've turned that saddle over and over a dozen or more times and Tobias is right,” he blew out a concerned breath. “That cinch strap didn't snap on its own.”
“And the saddle belongs to Tobias himself,” the doctor added. “He used it just the day before with not one problem. Obviously that saddle had been tampered with sometime between going to sleep and waking up; the question remains: how to prove Duffy's hand did the doing.”
“Howard was the first man awake that morning. He admitted before the entire group of men he had been the one who saddled up not only his own horse, but also Bruce and Tobias' horses. Somehow he must have slapped the wrong saddle on the wrong horse, it's the only explanation we can come up with.”
The sheriff ran a hand through his thinning head of hair, scratched the top of his head and replaced his hat before glancing over to the doctor.
“Why do you reckon Howard would do this to Tobias? Why would the man attempt to stage his accidental demise? You know about any problems between those two?”
Doc Amerley shut one eye, tilted his head at the sheriff and lowered his head a tad.
“We've been over this. Neither one of us have ever heard a bad word on Tobias; especially after getting an earful of what Richard reported the other hands told him...don't sound to me like Duffy's been in good sorts for a while now. Who's to say what's going on inside that head of his?”
Shaking his head, the lawman's forehead bunched up some.
“But to straight out just plan on killing a man? Seems like a fella would at least have the smarts to make sure he was doing in the right man!”
“Seems like,” Doctor Amerley nodded. “Bruce sure wound up on the wrong end of the plan, though, didn't he? I'll tell you what. I'll never be able to shake the image of my good friend all banged up and bleeding. Do you have any idea what all it did to my insides when I had to remove that branch out from his leg? 'Bout tore me up, is what it did. And that little girl up on that hill,” he hiked a thumb in the general direction of the Red Bone, “she sure didn't deserve any of this! Not a lick of it.”
The men shared a deepening silence in the room while they each processed their own thoughts; more than just the law had become involved here. Emotions ran strong with this one.
Chapter 27
The tips of her fingers tapped on the window sill and her teeth gnawed on her bottom lip; Hailee’s eyes were trained on the pen just outside of the barn. When Epoenah shook her muzzle inside the feeding bag and flipped it up and over her head, the girl at the window laughed out loud. It might have been the first laugh she’d had in several days and by the look on her face – it sure felt good.
Maybe the best part of the show was watching Tobias; she’d seen him reach several times for the feed bag, most likely, she guessed, to retie it around her mare’s neck. Each time the man attempted to release the bag, which had half-way fallen off anyway, the mare swished her head as if she knew her actions were being observed by her owner.
Finally caught in her line of fire, he found himself being smacked by her burlap-covered muzzle. Just when his fingers released the bag on one side of the burlap, the bag teetered in a downward swing and he grabbed the other side just in time to be in full contact with the mare’s muzzle. Down to the ground, right to his knees he stumbled.
The expression on his face not only kept her laughter rolling, but it also increased her want – need – to be back out in that pen herself.
Just to make sure nobody witnessed what happened, his head snapped around, urging her to knock against the window pane.
When his eyes found where the noise was coming from, he held both of his hands out in front of his body and shrugged his shoulders as if to say it couldn’t have been his fault. Once he’d managed to regain some composure, Tobias waved at the love of his life and bowed in a gesture that the equestrian performance had ended, and much to the relief of both females, he did manage to retrieve the burlap prize, handing a measure of freedom back to the mare.
Hailee remained at the parlor room window and watched him peer into what was left of the contents of the burlap bag; when he glanced up to see that the girl had not budged, he held the bag upside-down and shook it to indicate the Epoenah had been a good girl and had eaten all her feed for the morning.
Although Hailee had never before known any reason to be jealous of anyone, she couldn’t deny the feeling of being cooped-up for so long was beginning to develop in that direction.
“Three weeks is long enough,” she muttered without realizing that she’d spoken out loud.
Several minutes dragged on. The constant, irritating ticking of her father’s wind-up mantle clock grated on her nerves; it was too loud in such a silent room. Finally, Hailee turned on one foot and marched over to another window to open it up and air the house out a while. It was just as she’d pushed it open a couple inches that she noticed the trail of dust over the hill leading toward the entrance gates of the ranch.
“Yes!” Hailee cheered. “Someone else to look at other than my own reflection in the window!”
Instinct had the young woman smoothing down her dress and hair in one swift motion while she squinted to see who it could be.
As the buckboard wagon drew nearer, the squinted eyes traded places with a wide grin.
“Mr. Hood,” she a
ffirmed.
Before she could even give a second thought to her orders of staying inside the house, her feet had already carried her out of the parlor, past the front porch, and clean to the team of horses pulling the wagon – and to the man who seemed pleased to see her.
Tom held a hand up and waved.
“Well, Hailee, that is a fine way to greet a fella such as myself; you must have been waiting at the window for me,” he teased.
‘If he only knew,’ she thought.
“There’s nothing wrong with Susan, is there?”
“Oh, no, not at all. In fact, she’s part of the reason I’m here. You see, she wanted me to ask if you were ready to get those sheep and get going on your spinning lessons. We thought it might help get your mind off things,” he added in a solemn tone. “Hailee, we sure are sorry to have heard about your Pa. He’s one of the finest men I’ve ever met and that’s a fact.”
For a few minute there, she’d almost forgotten all about that.
Forcing the emotions bunching up in her throat to go away, Hailee made herself nod in appreciation, trying to find words to fill the awkward silence.
As if right on cue, Richard’s voice sounded from the kitchen door.
“Well, Tom! How about a slice of cake and some coffee? Got ‘em both fresh ‘n piping hot in here!”
Never one to pass up a dessert invitation, Tom tied the team to a post and made his way up the pathway toward the kitchen, passing by Duffy and the spring house on the way.
Hailee had been so excited to breathe in mountain air, she allowed her guard to let down and paid no attention to the fact that he had been taking in her every movement since she stepped out of the house. Until, that is, she heard the scratchy voice calling out her name.
“Hailee,” he smirked. “It’s been a while.”
She felt her stomach turn a bit just at the sight of his face, the way he bent over the wheel barrow.
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