Sarah wanted to ask who, or what, was Cora’s, but she was entirely too exhausted by the night’s events to care.
The sheriff had one of his deputies fetch a buckboard from the livery, and amidst the dying furor caused by the fire on Main Street, she allowed Joshua to hand her into the wagon after she was assured that Caleb had boarded and been made as comfortable as possible. She wondered at the laughter in the eyes of both the Sheriff and Bat Masterson as she bid them goodnight, almost as much as she wondered why neither Caleb nor Joshua would meet her gaze.
Five minutes later, she decided that she really should have asked about Cora. She shook her head, gave it up, and with the Benedict brothers, entered the whorehouse.
Chapter 18
Joshua wanted to kill Tyrone Maddox. He had no doubt whatsoever that the man was behind the attacks on Sarah.
The clackety-clack of the train wheels against the rails droned on, and since both Sarah and Caleb slept, Joshua was left alone with his thoughts, and all he could think was that he wanted, very badly, to kill Tyrone Maddox.
He didn’t need any more evidence to tell him what this was about. Rich bastard thought he could marry Sarah, then kill her and collect her inheritance?
The miles toward Waco disappeared one at a time, and Joshua sincerely hoped it wouldn’t take long to bring this mystery to a close. He was looking forward to beginning a new life, just him and his brother and Sarah. He had no doubt that before long, she would belong to them completely.
He’d come too close to dying during the war to turn his back on love or happiness once he’d found them. For him, those two words had one definition, and that was Sarah.
Joshua knew Caleb felt pretty much the same way, which was one of the reasons, he reckoned, they had no trouble between them, both loving her.
His gaze landed on his brother, arm bound in a sling, an expression of pain on his face even in sleep. He hadn’t spiked a fever so far, thank God.
It took no effort to see again the events of the day before yesterday. Never far from his thoughts was his memory of shielding Sarah alongside his brother, of hearing the impact of lead against flesh and feeling Caleb jerk. He knew his brother had been shot, and for one terrifying moment, he feared the worst.
Beside him, Sarah stirred. She slept with her head against the window. Gently, Joshua eased her toward him.
She sighed softly and snuggled into him.
“Is Caleb all right?” she asked.
“He’s fine, sweetheart. He’s just sleeping.” Joshua kept his voice low, needing to keep their conversation private. Only a handful of travelers shared the rail car at this point, but Joshua didn’t know any of them, which meant he didn’t trust any them.
“Neither one of us got much sleep last night,” she said softly. “Caleb because of his pain and me...well, just because.”
Joshua grinned at the churlish note in Sarah’s voice. Staying at Cora’s was the smartest move they could have made, safety-wise. The only whorehouse on Skiddy Row housed in a solid building, they’d had a sturdy roof over their heads and beds to sleep in.
Cora herself was easily persuaded to keep their presence a secret. They’d stayed the extra night to give Caleb a little more time to heal before traveling.
Of course, the down side of that particular arrangement had been the sounds of Cora’s girls plying their trade all night.
All night and well into the morning.
It really was well passed time to make amends. One thing his mother had taught her sons was when dealing with a lady, apologize quickly and often.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. We never would have taken you to such a place except under the direst of circumstances. Keeping you safe was our only priority. Being in such an establishment must have been extremely offensive to you.”
“No, not so offensive and I do understand. I knew that the first night, when the sheriff’s deputies dropped us off, and I realized where we were. It’s just…” her voice trailed off, and when he looked down at her, color tinged her cheeks.
“It’s just what, Sarah?”
She looked around, checking, he knew, to make sure no one sat so close they could overhear. Even so, Sarah whispered
“After listening to all that activity, I’m afraid the next time we all lay together, I’ll be afraid to make a single sound. I had no idea how…how bizarre it sounded.”
Joshua strangled on his laughter. He bent close and put his lips next to Sarah’s ear. “I promise to do my damndest to make sure you forget all about that the next time I have you naked and under me.”
When his gaze met hers, he read the passion in her eyes. And when she squirmed in her seat, he knew he’d done his job.
The train slowed for another stop. In the seat right across from him, Caleb stirred. When his brother opened his eyes, then sat up, Joshua gave him his complete attention. Sarah moved to sit beside Caleb. He blessed her presence, for she could get away with fussing over his brother in ways Joshua couldn’t.
Sarah felt his forehead, then nodded. “Good. The doctor said if you could make it through today without a fever, you’d probably be safe from one.”
Caleb grunted, which made Joshua smile. His brother had always been a piss-poor patient.
“I’m sore but fine. How long have I slept?” he asked.
“Couple hours. We’ve a few more to go before we get to Waco.”
Sheriff Hall sent a telegram the day before, so Adam would have been busy pursuing their new lead and would also be ready to meet them at the depot. Joshua just hoped Adam would be able to keep word of their arrival quiet. None of them wanted Maddox to know when they arrived in town.
They needed just a little more time to put everything together.
* * * *
Tyrone Maddox looked over his shoulder, the sense that someone watched him a strong one. Since the night before last, he’d been experiencing the strangest sensations.
Even though it was the middle of the day, he decided what he needed was some whiskey and fresh air.
He poured himself a glass then took it outside to the covered verandah he’d so recently constructed on the front of his house.
He hadn’t heard from Liam, and that couldn’t be good.
Maddox had been almost certain Sarah and those gunslingers would have arrived in Denison by now. Would be dead, by now.
Unless those damned Indians had done Liam’s work for him. He didn’t much like that Indians had been given lands to call their own, however ‘civilized’ the tribes were supposed to be. But if they had solved his problem for him by killing Sarah, he might just change his mind.
Maddox looked into his glass of liquor, swirled it, then knocked it back in one gulp.
Something had gone wrong. He felt it, down deep in his soul.
Then slowly, he realized the strange sensation that had been coursing through him for the last couple of days. He felt…afraid.
Maddox went perfectly still, the realization numbing his senses. Afraid. How long had it been since he’d felt afraid?
It was all Liam’s fault. He’d promised that everything would be taken care of. Obviously, he’d failed. Had to have failed, or Maddox would have heard from him by now.
Was everyone destined to let him down?
Liam had come into his life, a distraction at first, a man so desperately hungry for attention and affection that it had been a simple matter to feed him tidbits and reap huge rewards.
The physical side of their relationship gave Maddox pleasure, of course. He could be lord and master and Liam his willing and eager supplicant, which also fed his need for power and control.
In turn, he’d been generous with the man. He’d given him money and gifts. He knew Liam was in love with him, had known it for some time. Maddox had used that love, of course he had. Why not?
That was the only purpose love held.
A breeze brushed him, ruffled his hair. With that breeze came the scent of rain. Maddox noticed the clouds rolling in fro
m the south, dark creatures that stretched for as far as his eye could see. A storm was coming. While some rain would always be welcome, too much caused flooding. Nothing in life, it seemed, was ever all good. Or all bad.
If Liam had failed, and the woman Tyrone had taken to wife still lived, then he would have to devise an accident for her himself. Not right away, of course. Clearly, moving too soon would point the finger of guilt straight at him and him alone. That was why she was to have been killed en route, just another victim of western lawlessness.
How long could he wait before he laid his hands on that money?
Maddox got to his feet. He had funds available to him, funds he’d deposited for Liam that he would now claw back. Yes, that would help. How much time could he buy himself? A month?
A month should work. City girl, born and bred, what would she know of ranch life, of—Maddox’s mind scrambled—of feral horses captured to strengthen the breeding stock. Yes, that would work and nicely, too. Just like a foolish city girl to wander into a stall holding a wild stallion, determined to pet the pretty horse and getting trampled to death for her trouble.
He got to his feet, his vision clearing, the storm on the horizon now nothing more than a bit of nasty weather to be got through.
He’d wait another day, two at the most, before he took himself into town, the impatient and aggrieved bridegroom, and begin to demand that the law in the form of Adam Kendall find his wife and find her now.
Maddox exhaled deeply, nodded his head once. That was a solid, workable plan.
* * * *
Sarah was expecting another small town like Denison and was pleasantly surprised that, although a frontier town, Waco already showed signs of prosperity and modernity.
True, it lacked streetcars or an omnibus, but from what she could see, the businesses here looked to offer every bit as much variety of goods as the ones back home. Plus, the streets certainly appeared cleaner.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get a really good look at the town of Waco, just what she could spy peeking out from under the blanket that hid her as she rode in a covered buggy.
Captain Adam Kendall had met them at the train depot and hustled them into the buggy, which he’d borrowed from the livery.
Joshua and Captain Kendall rode up front. She and Caleb, who seemed to be flagging, sat in back.
It took nearly an hour to reach their destination, a simple adobe house set down in a field of …something. Sarah tried to figure out what crops were being grown on this farm. She figured it must be a farm because there wasn’t much of a barn, just a kind of lean-to with a tarp covering the entrance.
“Didn’t want to bring you to my place, just in case,” Captain Kendall said.
Joshua helped Sarah down from the carriage. She immediately turned to help Caleb.
“I can manage, damn it.”
“Fine, fall on your face,” she invited sweetly, even as she stepped back, frowning, and watched him very awkwardly get out of the carriage.
Joshua and Captain Kendall both laughed. Caleb just grumbled. Once he had both feet planted on the ground and appeared in control of his body, he gave her what she could only term a sheepish smile.
“Sorry, sweetheart. You probably need to know I don’t weather illness or injury well.”
“I don’t need to know that. I do know that.”
“I’ll feel better when we’re all indoors,” Adam said.
Once they were inside the house, not much more, really, than a large kitchen and sleeping area, Captain Kendall took his hat off and gestured to the man who stood waiting by the stove.
“This is Warren Jessop, a friend of mine. Warren’s a lawyer in Waco.” He waved his hand in introduction as he spoke to Warren. “Caleb and Joshua Benedict and Sarah Maddox.”
“I’ve got coffee and just enough cups to go around,” Warren said. “Why don’t we all get comfortable? Or as comfortable as we can be here?”
Sarah was offered one of the two chairs. She promptly sat and removed her hat. “What do you grow here, Mr. Jessop?”
“Weeds and rocks for the most part. I’ve been thinking lately of selling this place and moving in with a friend. I’m neither a rancher nor a farmer.”
His smile was aimed at Captain Kendall, and Sarah wondered just how friendly the two men were. Before leaving Chicago, she never would have entertained the thought that just entered her head. However, while in hiding at Cora’s, she and her lovers discussed all sorts of different sexual matters, and she’d found herself asking about the taboo subject of men having other men as lovers.
She’d been surprised to learn it wasn’t as unheard of as she’d believed.
Now she looked at Captain Kendall and Warren Jessop and wondered.
“While Warren pours the coffee, why don’t I fill you in on what I know so far?” Captain Kendall asked.
Sarah felt an odd sort of clutching in her belly. She knew her father had been ruled out as a suspect. But now, as she turned her attention to this Texas Ranger, she wondered if the man who sired her was as completely guilt free as she hoped.
“I have two of my deputies on the trail between Waco and the Maddox ranch. Far as I could tell this morning, the man was there. One of them will come here if he moves, and the other will follow him.”
“You suspect him, then?” Sarah asked.
Adam looked first at Caleb and then Joshua. “First, what I know. Tyrone Maddox has been buying up land like mad the last several months, and he’s running low on cash. Second, there’s the fact that Liam Larson tried to kill you. We know Larson, and so does Maddox.”
“Sheriff Hall sent a telegram to Adam with all the pertinent information they had on the man.” Joshua said.
“He said he did it for Jamie,” Sarah recalled. “Did you find Jamie, then?”
Adam looked over at Warren this time. That man nodded, slowly.
“Jamie is Maddox,” Adam said. “James is his middle name, and Jamie is what he’s called in certain circles, by certain…friends.”
Sarah sensed both the Texas Ranger and the lawyer were attempting to avoid upsetting what they’d assumed would be her delicate sensibilities.
She thought of the man she’d married, about his apparent lack of interest in her as a female, his preference for conversation with her father. This time, she looked at those actions in a slightly different light than thinking them a sign of misguided male superiority.
“Were Larson and Maddox lovers? Is that what you’re trying not to tell me?”
She’d obviously taken Adam by surprise. His eyes widened while Caleb and Joshua chuckled.
“Yes,” he confirmed at last. “That’s exactly what I’m trying not to say.”
“I’ve recently come to understand that some men prefer other men. Even before I learned that, I decided that it’s really nobody’s business what goes on between people who love each other.”
“A very…enlightened attitude,” Warren said.
Did she sense relief in his words? It didn’t matter. She focused on Captain Kendall once more. “That still doesn’t explain why the man would want to kill me. It explains other things but not that.”
“Warren?” Adam said.
The lawyer sat forward. “I was able to send an inquiry to an acquaintance of mine, a lawyer in Virginia. You may be aware that once a will has been probated, its contents become a matter of public record, and so it was simple to find the terms of your inheritance, Mrs. Maddox.”
“Sarah, please. I think I detest that last name. I plan to be rid of it very soon.”
Warren smiled. “I can sympathize. All right, Sarah then. I am delighted to tell you, Sarah, that you will soon be an exceptionally wealthy woman. Your maternal grandfather left you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be yours on your twenty-fifth birthday, or on the one-year anniversary of your marriage, whichever came first. But,” here the man paused and seemed to wince, “should you die at any time before that anniversary, then all monies would pass either to
your child, should you have one, or to your husband, should you die childless.”
Sarah felt the shock reverberate through her. No wonder Maddox hadn’t touched her. If his plan had failed, if he’d had to wait for a period of time to pass before finally succeeding, he hadn’t wanted there to be a child to inherit her estate.
“For money. He…he married me so that he could kill me. For money?”
“I’m sorry, Sarah. Yes.”
She turned disbelieving eyes on her lovers. They didn’t even blink, and she narrowed her eyes. “You’re not surprised, not either of you?”
“No,” Caleb said. “It was the only thing that made any sense when you looked at all the facts. It’s what we suspected, but we had no proof.”
“Still don’t, come to that,” Adam said.
“No, but we have motive now, motive, and opportunity, when you place Larson into the mix.”
“Do you think there’s a chance that Maddox will confess if you confront him?” Sarah demanded of the lawman.
Caleb chuckled, and the other men just shook their heads.
“No,” Adam said. “He’d deny any wrongdoing and deny it convincingly. Even if we had some evidence, he has enough friends in high places that he’d weasel his way out. We need an iron-clad case. We need a confession, but we’re going to have to find a way to trick it out of him.”
“Or beat it out of him.” Sarah rose to her feet. “All I need is something to hit that son-of-a-bitch with.”
None of the men were laughing now, she noticed. She nodded her head once to let them know she meant business, then turned on her heel. Before she’d taken two steps, Joshua stopped her by picking her up.
“Let me go.” Sarah felt the anger seething through her. “He married me to kill me. That’s even worse an insult than my father’s having sold me to him in the first place. Goddamn this world we live in when men can just treat women like….like things! Like unimportant things, easily disposed of!”
Love Under Two Gunslingers Page 16