“I do today.”
Matt took another Colt from the gun safe, checked for bullets and handed the pistol to Tobias.
The minister jammed it in his waistband. “I believe in turning the other cheek, but not when women and children are in danger.”
“Same here,” Dan said.
“Here’s what I expect.” Matt spoke more for Tobias’s sake than Dan’s. His partner knew what to expect. “They’ll order us to throw down our weapons. I’ll comply, but not completely. They won’t expect the coach gun and the second Colt, and they won’t know if you’re armed. Handle the moment as you see fit.”
The men locked eyes. Tobias deepened his voice. “I’ll do whatever has to be done.”
Matt had had the same thought in Virginia. That night he’d been willing to kill. Today he was willing to die for the people he loved. The difference struck him full force, and he recalled Pearl talking about God’s love for him. Matt had thought a lot about dying for a good cause, but until now he hadn’t thought about Someone dying for him. Somehow in his angry outbursts at the Almighty, he’d overlooked the fact that Christ had suffered far more than Matt had, more than Amos McGuckin and anyone else. Matt didn’t understand why God had made that choice, but today he understood the cost.
It was hard to stay angry with a God who’d make such a sacrifice. Matt couldn’t explain the mess in Virginia or why Sarah and Pearl had been taken today, but he knew God wasn’t to blame. Human beings had committed those ugly acts.
His anger at God eased, but the guilt remained. He still had to stop the Golden Order. Feeling both the threat of death and a lightness of soul, he led the way out the door. Charlie had arrived with the horses, so the men climbed into the saddles and headed for Grass Valley.
For almost an hour the carriage bumped down a twisting road. Pearl worked feverishly to loosen her hands, but the rope tightened with every effort. Sarah had nestled so far into her side that Pearl’s ribs hurt. The little girl had stopped crying, but only after endless assurances that her daddy would be coming for them.
The long ride had given Pearl time to piece the morning together. As she’d feared, the delivery boy had revealed their plans to leave on the morning train. She and her father would have escaped if Sarah hadn’t run away from school and shown up at the train station. Pearl didn’t know exactly what the G.O. had planned, but they wanted her father and they wanted Matt. She and Sarah were the bait to draw them out. She suspected they had been planning to kidnap Sarah at school but had lucked out when she showed up at the train station.
She’d didn’t know how many men were riding with the carriage. She could hear the thud of hooves but no voices. The wheels rattled and spun, changing speeds as they climbed and coasted along the hills.
When the carriage lurched off the road, Sarah cried out, “Where are they taking us?”
“I don’t know, sweetie.”
As the jostling intensified, she heard the rush of a rain-filled stream. The wind blew against the windows, shaking the carriage as it swayed to a halt. When the driver jumped down, Pearl prepared to be dragged into the open. Instead he walked away, leaving her alone with Sarah in the middle of nowhere. Pearl hadn’t tried to remove the mask during the ride. If she saw the faces of her captors, they’d kill her. Now, though, they’d left her alone. If she could see, she could escape.
“Sarah, I’m going to try to get this mask off. That means I have to wiggle around.”
“I want mine off, too.”
“See if you can drag your head against the seat.”
As Pearl rubbed her own head against the leather to get traction, the cotton scraped her face. The sensation brought horrible memories of Franklin Dean’s buggy, but she didn’t stop. She twisted until her skin felt raw, then she tried to chew through the fabric. Nothing worked. The drawstring held the mask tight.
“Mine’s off!” Sarah cried.
Thank you, Lord.
“What should I do?” the child asked.
“Don’t look out the window, sweetheart. We don’t want them to know you can see.”
“The windows have curtains,” Sara said. “It’s dark.”
“The dark won’t hurt us.” Pearl had to get her own mask off. If Sarah could reach the drawstring holding it tight, maybe she could bite through it. “Do you see a string on my mask?”
“No.”
Pearl turned around. “Look in the back.”
“There’s a big knot.”
“See if you can undo it with your teeth.”
Sarah scooted closer and Pearl bent low. The girl gnawed at the string, but the knot only tightened. Pearl gulped stale air. Close to suffocating, she sat back. “We’ll try later.”
“Now what do we do?”
“You stay low and out of sight.” Pearl felt nauseous from the lack of air. “Whatever you do, don’t open that curtain. I don’t want them to see you.”
“Okay.”’
“Let’s see if I can untie your hands. We’ll sit back-to-back.” Pearl did her best to loosen the rope around the child’s wrists, but her own fingers were numb from lack of blood.
Sarah moaned. “My fingers hurt.”
“I know, sweetheart.”
“And I’m scared.”
“Me, too.” Pearl searched her mind for encouragement. “Your father’s coming for us, and so is mine.” She blinked and thought of another rider who’d be coming to their rescue, a man on a white horse, a man whose Name was Faithful and True. “Jesus is coming, too. He’ll be with us.”
Sarah looked quizzical. “Is he like Prince Charming?”
In spite of her fear, Pearl smiled. “In a way, sweetie. But he’s more…much more. Now let’s work on these ropes.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Matt and Tobias said next to nothing as they rode into Grass Valley. Autumn had turned the grass to gold and the cottonwoods into yellow torches. The sky couldn’t have been more blue, nor could the clouds have been any whiter. A handful of evergreens dotted the meadow, rounding out a spectrum of color. It was a beautiful day. A perfect day except for the danger to Sarah and Pearl.
When they rounded a bend, Matt saw the cottonwood where Jed Jones had died at the hands of the Golden Order. As he’d expected, the leaders of the organization had congregated beneath the tall branches. Dressed in dusters, derbies and white masks, they resembled a macabre gathering of the dead. Four of the riders stood in a row. A fifth was holding a bare-backed roan. A rope that ended in a noose hung from a thick branch. They’d come to hold court, and they’d come to sentence Matt and Tobias to death.
To the right of the proceedings and several yards away, he saw a carriage with drawn curtains. He figured it held Pearl and Sarah. He wanted to call out to them, but he couldn’t. The less the G.O. thought about the females, the safer they’d be. Matt had fought a lot of battles in his life, but never had so much been at stake. The lives of his daughter and the woman he loved hung on the next five minutes. So did Tobias’s next breath…and his own.
Matt would do his best to protect them all, but he couldn’t guarantee the outcome of today’s encounter. He no longer blamed God for the awful things that sometimes happened, but he hoped that his peace of mind wouldn’t be tested with the loss of someone he loved. No matter how he felt, the time had come to trust Tobias’s watchman.
“Wait here,” he said to the older man.
Loose and tall in the saddle, Matt rode halfway down the hill before the riders noticed him and pointed their guns. “Good morning, gentlemen!” he shouted. “Let the females go and we’ll call it a day.” He had no illusion they’d agree.
“Deputy Wiley!” The voice belonged to Chester Gates. “We’re principled men. We have no intention of harming your daughter or Miss Oliver. By the same token, we do not tolerate traitors. I’m proposing a trade.”
Matt had suspected as much. “What do you want?”
“An eye for an eye,” the man replied. “If you and the reverend surrender, we�
�ll let your daughters go.”
“Give us a minute to talk,” Matt called back.
“Not a chance.” Gates’s horse shifted under his weight. “The reverend comes down now, or we sacrifice his daughter to the cause of justice.”
“You’re bluffing,” Matt shouted.
“Hardly.”
The man next to Gates lifted his chin. Through the eye holes in the mask, the sun reflected off a pair of spectacles. Matt recognized Jasper. Judging by the size and shape of the others, Martin and Moreland were next to him. Gibson Armond had donned a duster and mask and was holding the horse to be used in the hanging.
Matt stalled. “You’re asking a man to die. Five minutes is nothing.”
“Who said anything about dying?” Gates said in a smooth tone. “We’ll have a trial right here. If the reverend’s innocent of deception, he’ll understand. If he’s guilty, he’ll hang.”
“And me?” Matt asked sarcastically.
“You know too much.” Gates smirked. “I’m quite sure you’ll trade your life for your daughter’s.”
Matt wanted to kill this man. He wanted to kill them all, but they had him outnumbered and outgunned. The longer he kept Gates talking, the better his chance of surviving. “How do I know you won’t hurt Pearl?”
“You have my word.”
“That means nothing.”
Gates ignored the insult, but Jasper turned to the man Matt assumed to be Howard Moreland. “Fetch Miss Oliver.”
“No!” Tobias shouted.
If the old man hadn’t ridden past Matt, Matt would have offered himself in Pearl’s place. Wisely Tobias stopped halfway to the hanging tree. “Release our daughters.”
“Just one,” Gates said to Tobias. “You pick.”
“Send out the child.”
Matt had never known a deeper gratitude. Tobias loved Pearl beyond measure, yet he’d put Sarah first. Matt would never forget his sacrifice.
One of the riders, probably Moreland, went to the carriage. He opened the door, said something Matt couldn’t hear and reached into the interior. Sarah screamed. Matt’s fingers itched to pull the trigger, but then where would they be? If he acted on instinct alone, they’d all die. He had no choice but to trust the watchman, so he waited.
To his relief, Moreland pulled Sarah out of the coach and waved her away with his gun. She saw Matt and ran in his direction. “Daddy!”
“No, darlin’! Run away.”
Whimpering, she stopped in midstep.
“Go on,” he said firmly. “I’ll find you.”
Please, Lord. Don’t let that be a lie. Sarah ran up the hill. If the worst happened, Dan would find her, but then what? If Matt died today, who’d love his little girl? He had to live and so did Pearl. So did Tobias because they were meant to be a family.
Gates called out, “Throw down your weapons, Reverend.”
Tobias raised his hands. “I’m armed with the sword of the Lord. It’s sharp enough to separate bone from marrow, truth from lies. You men are Pharisees! You’re—”
“Get off your horse!” Gates shouted.
Tobias slid out of the saddle. Still quoting Scripture, he walked toward the hanging tree with his hands high. “The Lord is my shepherd! I shall not want! The Lord—”
“Shut up!” Jasper shouted.
“I’m a dead man,” Tobias replied. “I’ve got something to say and you’re all going to listen.”
He started shouting the Lord’s prayer. The familiar words made one of the riders, probably Martin, back pedal his horse. Disgusted, Moreland grabbed Tobias by the collar. “Shut up, old man!”
Gates turned to Moreland. “You shut up! I give the orders!”
“Then give them!” he shouted. “We’re wasting time.”
“I promised this man a trial.”
“He’s guilty,” Jasper declared.
With Tobias still shouting, Moreland dragged him to the hanging tree. The man holding the roan shoved him belly down on the horse and attempted to tie his hands. If they got the noose around Tobias’s neck, he’d die.
Matt put his hands in the air. “You want me, too. Let the reverend and his daughter go, and I’ll come peacefully.”
If Gates accepted Matt’s surrender, he’d regain the authority he’d lost to Jasper and Moreland. The banker signaled the men by raising his hand. “The deputy wants to do some negotiating.”
Tobias went still, and the men stopped wrestling with him. Gates looked at Matt. “Throw down your guns, Deputy.”
Matt dragged his left arm down, pinched the Colt Navy from the holster and dropped it to the ground. It landed with a thud, useless and out of reach.
“Throw down the other one,” Gates ordered.
Matt slid the Derringer from his boot and dropped it next to the six-shooter. He still had the coach gun under his duster and the Peacemaker in his waistband, but weapons alone wouldn’t win this fight.
“Come down here,” Gates ordered.
The masked men cocked their pistols and took aim. With his arms in the air, nothing stood between Matt and death except God’s grace…the grace he didn’t deserve, the grace he’d scorned because of his own arrogance. Without God’s mercy, he’d die at the end of a rope. Sarah would be an orphan. Pearl would escape with her life, but she’d be at the mercy of men like Jasper Kling.
In a silent breath, Matt cried out for mercy for them all. With mercy, he knew, came justice. Forgive me, Lord, for murdering an innocent man. Forgive my pride and my arrogance.
With his hands up and his eyes on the men in masks, he saw an ironic truth. He was just like these men. He’d taken justice into his own hands, not only in Virginia but in his own life. For the murder of Amos McGuckin, he’d sentenced himself to a life of good deeds. Where had it gotten him? Nowhere… Unless God intervened, today he’d die. Matt had done his best. Now he needed help.
It’s up to You, Lord. I’m willing to die, but I’d rather not.
Peace washed him clean. His thoughts cleared and he knew what he had to do. The outcome of this day belonged to the Lord, but Matt had two guns, eight bullets and something to say. With his hands high, he called out to the men who intended to kill him. “Don’t do this, gentlemen. You’ll regret it. I know, because I’ve been in your shoes.”
“Shut up!” Jasper shouted.
“You need to hear this,” Matt declared. “Back in the war, I was part of a lynching. We murdered an innocent man. That’s what you’re doing now.”
Jasper spat on the ground. “We’re administering justice!”
“No, you’re not.”
Gates steadied his revolver. “Shut up, Wiley!”
“Not yet,” Matt said in a steady voice. “You’ve hurt a lot of people, both guilty and innocent. You’ve destroyed property and peace of mind. And for what?” He looked at Howard Moreland, then turned to Martin. “To punish a fool for stealing horses? Jed Jones deserved to go to jail, but it wasn’t your call.”
Matt turned to Gates. “You love money, don’t you? You have a wife and a lovely daughter, but it’s not enough. You wanted to destroy Scottie Fife, because he bought land you wanted.”
“Shut up, Wiley,” Gates ordered.
“Not yet.” He looked at Gibson Armond. “I don’t know why you’re here, Mr. Armond. You’ve been robbed, I know. But kidnapping a woman and a child? Threatening a minister? You must have lost your mind. Someone’s going to know what happened, and you’re going to go to jail.”
The freighter looked shaken, but he didn’t speak.
Last Matt turned to Jasper. “I know why you’re here. You’ve got a secret and it’s ugly.”
“You’re lying!” he shouted.
Matt laughed out loud. “Obviously not. You just denied a secret I haven’t even told.”
Jasper yanked off the mask. “Don’t you dare—”
“Dare what?” Matt raised his voice. “Tell your good friends that you’re a regular at the hog ranch? That you pay women like the ones you won’t
let in your store?”
“He’s lying!”
Matt spoke to the others in a loud voice. “Kind of hard to imagine, isn’t it? Mr. Kling got caught red-handed.” Someone snickered.
Jasper sputtered a protest, but the men knew Matt had told the truth. He’d told the truth on all of them, even himself. The truth had set him free. He was a mere man, a failed man…a man redeemed by love. Before he did what he had to do, he needed to ask one last question, the same question he’d asked himself. He looked each man in the eye. “You’re proud men. You’re willing to kill for what you believe in.”
“That’s right,” Moreland shouted.
“Killing is easy. It doesn’t cost you a thing.” Matt looked straight at Jasper. “I want to know what you’re willing to die for.”
“Nothing!”
“Then you’re a coward,” Matt shouted.
Goaded by the taunt, Jasper raised his pistol. As he fired, his horse sidestepped and the bullet went over Matt’s head. Matt grabbed the coach gun from under his duster and took aim at Jasper. With a prayer for mercy for them all, he shot the man dead.
As if he’d cut the head off a snake, the other four fell back with their hands in the air. Jasper lay dead in the grass, his chest still and his blood soaking into the earth.
With the coach gun in one hand, Matt pulled his colt with the other and aimed it at Gates. “Get that mask off your face.”
When Gates did as he ordered, Matt put the coach gun away. “Now hit your knees!”
Gates hit the ground, but his eyes gleamed with the bitterness of a man who regretted his capture but not his acts.
A strange thought ran through Matt’s head. He could kill these men and no one would blame him. They’d threatened his daughter and they’d kidnapped Pearl. They’d intended to hang a minister, and they’d have gladly shot a lawman to hide their crimes. They deserved to die, but Matt had no desire for vengeance. The man who’d lynched Amos McGuckin was dead and gone. No more blood would spill today, but he wouldn’t let down his guard. He cocked the Colt and aimed it at Troy Martin. “Do you want to die, too?”
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