by Maggie James
There was the exultant grin again, but it faded quickly as she warned, “If you mess up and get yourself caught, I’m gonna say you stole my rig, understand? I’m not goin’ to jail on account of helpin’ you, and I’ll swear I don’t know nothin’ about it.”
Tess said, “I want you to know how much I appreciate everything, Lulie. If not for you—”
Lulie gave her a gentle push. “I know, I know. If not for me you’d have been ravished, and you wouldn’t have a chance to get hold of some money and get yourself out of all this. Now get going.”
Shadows were falling as Tess prodded the mule slowly along. The only sign of life was at the saloon. As she passed by, Tess could hear the piano still jangling off-key and loud voices and laughter.
Tumbleweeds rolled along in the late afternoon breeze, bouncing off the backs of the buildings.
A cat foraging in trash hissed and spit as Tess passed by. Dogs barked now and then, and from somewhere in the distance toward the sloping mountains, a coyote howled.
Tess wished she could have done this in the morning, so she would have more time to find Saul’s cabin to hide out, but Lulie said it was too risky. Men came and went all day long in the assay office, and Jake would be discovered in the safe before she had a chance to make tracks. Then, too, it was doubtful she could complete her business without someone intruding.
So it had to be now, with night creeping in, and Tess could only hope and pray she would find the cabin and not get lost. She would have liked to hide at Lulie’s instead, but Lulie said she could not risk it.
At the rear of the assay office, Tess got down from the buckboard and looped the end of the reins around a post so the mule would not wander away. Then she took her purse, almost stooping from the sheer weight of the gun inside, and went to the back door and knocked.
She heard a chair scraping against the floor, footsteps shuffling, and then an annoyed voice asked, “Who’s back there and what the hell do you want?”
Tess cleared her throat. “It’s Miss Partridge. I need to speak with you, please.”
The door jerked open, and Jake scowled down at her. “I told you—you aren’t getting Saul’s money. You’ve got no legal claim.”
“Perhaps not,” she pretended to politely concede as she grasped her purse with both hands. “But I would still like to talk to you, if I may. Maybe we can work something out.”
His eyes narrowed.
Lulie had predicted he would immediately think she meant she would bargain with her body for whatever pittance he might give her.
Opening the door wider, he peered out to make sure no one was around, then beckoned. “Come on in. I’ve got some nice brandy. We can have us a drink and talk all you want to.”
Tess glanced about and spotted the safe. The door was hanging open, and she could see it was, indeed, large enough for a man to be able to survive awhile. Jake’s wife would probably come looking for him in a few hours, anyway.
There was also a large desk and a few chairs scattered about, and, along one wall, a long counter with equipment Tess presumed was used for assaying ore.
She sat down in the chair Jake indicated.
He rummaged and found a clean glass, filled it with brandy, and handed it to her. Then he leaned back against the desk, and she cringed at that predatory look in his eye.
“Now what is it you want to work out, honey?”
She took a sip of the brandy and made a face. It tasted terrible.
Jake laughed. “Anybody that looks like that when they take a drink needs one bad. Drink up. You’ll feel better. But you know there’s no need for you to be nervous. I’m easy to get along with.”
She was stalling but needed to gather her nerve. Lulie had said to just take the gun out of her purse the second he let her in, shove it at his chest, and tell him what to do quick. But Tess couldn’t do it that way. She reasoned she needed to be sitting down when she took the gun out of her purse.
She set the brandy on the desk. “I really don’t want this.”
He crossed one leg over the other. “Suit yourself. Now, are you going to tell me why you’re here?”
“I told you. I am morally entitled to the money for the silver ore Saul left with you the day he was killed.”
“And I told you—I don’t agree with that.”
Her hands went to her purse. “Then who do you think has the right to the money?”
“What money?”
“Why, the money for the silver ore.”
His grin infuriated her. “What silver ore?”
Rage was a tight knot in her throat she had to speak around, for she knew what he was leading up to. Only now it did not matter because she had opened her purse and slipped one hand inside to close about the gun.
“You’re trifling with me, Mr. Harville.”
“Do you have a receipt?”
“You know I don’t.”
“Then how can you prove old Saul even deposited any ore here? I always give a receipt because I sure as hell can’t have some old crazy prospector claiming something I don’t have. I do it to protect myself.”
“I’m sure,” she said tightly, evenly, “that if Saul had a receipt on him when he was killed, it would have been taken.”
“Really?” Jake feigned surprise. “You really think someone would have stolen it off his body? But who would do such a thing? And besides, I’d have a record here of giving him a receipt in the first place—which I don’t.”
“When I was in here yesterday, you did not deny that he had left the ore.”
“I didn’t admit it, either.”
“But you know he did.” She had not intended to get into a debate, but she was scared and needed time to get herself together before making her move.
“Look…” He pushed off from the desk to tower over her. “There’s no need for us to argue. Now, you said you wanted to work something out, so what did you have in mind?”
“I…” She knew she had to do it, had to draw the gun and do exactly what Lulie had told her to—point it at him, demand the money, make him get in the safe, and then hightail it out of there like the devil was breathing on her heels. But all of a sudden she seemed to have turned to stone, heart as heavy as the weighty gun she was grasping with a perspiration-slick hand.
Jake dropped to his knees before her.
Tess gasped and drew back.
He began to run his hands up and down her arms, his eyes dropping hungrily to her bosom. “You know, I’m not a cold-hearted man, Miss Partridge, and I do feel sorry for you. After all, it’s a real tragedy for you to come all the way out here expecting to get married, only to find out your husband-to-be got himself killed, leaving you alone in a strange place with no money, not knowing anybody…”
His thumb flicked the side of her breast as he leaned into her, and she could feel his hot breath on her panicked face.
“We can work something out,” he said thickly. “You be good to me, and I’ll be good to you, and I’ll see to it you get some of that money, enough to get you back home. But maybe when you see how good it is, you’ll want to stay and be my woman…”
He moved to put his arms about her and lowered his mouth to kiss her, but Tess finally came alive.
Yanking the gun out of her purse, she pushed him back and he went sprawling to the floor.
“Get up,” she ordered, rising to her feet.
He scrambled to obey, then backed against the desk, not taking his eyes off the gun she held with both hands. “You…you be careful with that thing. It…it could go off.”
“It won’t if you do as I say,” she said in a nervous rush. “Now get over to that safe and count out ten thousand dollars, because Saul told somebody he thought his ore was worth that much. I’m not stealing it, because by rights it’s mine. Not yours. Not anybody else’s. Now move.”
As she was speaking, Jake continued to focus on the gun, but she was baffled to see how his expression of fear was fading.
“I’ll use it,�
�� she threatened, the gun bobbing up and down in her hand. “I swear I will, and I don’t want to…I don’t want to have to shoot you, but I want what’s mine.”
Quietly, coolly, he declared. “You aren’t going to shoot me.”
“I will. I swear it.”
“No, you won’t.”
He lunged for her, and Tess made to pull the trigger, knew in that instant that she was truly capable of shooting him, then scrambling to gather up what money she could find and make her escape. She would go fast, had the nerve to, and would be well on her way by the time the sound of gunfire brought folks running.
Only she could not pull the trigger.
Because she did not have her finger on it.
In her nervousness, and because the gun was so heavy, Tess had wrapped both hands around the barrel but not one finger to the trigger.
Jake wrested it away, but by then she had found the trigger and pulled, and the gun fired.
The bullet slammed into the floor, but there was no time to try again because Jake snatched the gun away from her and then slapped her—hard.
“Damn you,” he roared, hitting her again. “You tried to rob me…shoot me. I oughta throw you down on that desk and take you like the bitch you are.”
Tess had stumbled to the floor, but only for an instant, as he wrapped cruel fingers in her hair to yank her up.
“You’re lucky I don’t have time to give you what you deserve,” he growled as the frantic pounding on the front door began.
Gunfire around the saloon might not have raised brows, but shooting in the assay office had brought the whole town running.
Jake dragged Tess by her hair out of the back room and all the way to the front to unlock the door.
Worley Branson was the first man to rush in.
“She tried to rob me,” Jake cried, flinging Tess on the floor. “Tried to kill me, too, but I got her gun away.”
Tess tried to get up, but Jake held her down with his foot. “That’s not how it was,” she protested to the dozens of hostile faces suddenly staring down at her. “My fiancé left his silver ore here the day he died, and by rights it’s mine. That’s all I wanted.”
“All she wanted was to rob and kill me,” Jake bellowed. “She should hang for it, too.”
“That’s for the judge to decide.” Worley reached down and grabbed Tess by the nape of her neck and yanked her to her feet, then, twisting her hands behind her back, fastened cuffs about her wrists.
He shoved her out onto the crowded boardwalk.
Someone called out, “Jake’s right. She deserves to hang. She could’ve killed him.”
“That’s right,” Jake agreed. He had tucked the Colt in his belt but pulled it out to show everyone. “See what she had? No decent woman would be carrying a dangerous weapon like this. And I think she’s been lying since she got to town. She was hiding Abe’s murderer in her hotel room, remember? I think they came to town together, hell-bent on robbing folks, and then she heard about Saul and tried to say I had his ore here, which isn’t so.”
“Of course it isn’t,” Worley agreed. “I remember us talking about it and wondering how come he didn’t have any ore with him this time. He was always bringing in just enough to lose at poker.”
A few of the men snickered, and Tess knew she was beaten—until she spotted Lulie watching from the edge of the crowd.
She was her only hope.
“Lulie, you tell them,” she begged. “Tell them what Saul told you. How he’d left silver ore, by his estimate ten thousand dollars’ worth, and how he told you he planned to marry me. You said I’ve got a right to it.”
All eyes turned on Lulie.
Lulie backed away a few steps, looking nervous, but only for a few seconds before recovering to lash out at Tess, “You dare ask me to back up your lies after you stole my mule and buckboard, you shameless hussy?”
A murmur went through the crowd, and a man yelled, “She’s a horse thief. That’s even worse. Hang her.”
“That’s right,” someone else chimed in. “Horse thieves got to hang.”
Tess, her eyes filling with tears, could only stare at Lulie in disbelief, but the woman quickly backed into the throng to disappear from sight.
All around, the shouts were loud and clear. The people wanted Tess executed then and there.
But Worley Branson declared, “There’ll be no lynching. She’ll get a fair trial when the judge comes through. Till then, she goes to jail.”
Grumblings of disappointment went through the crowd. Worley, tightly gripping Tess’s arm, said, “All right, let’s go.”
“But this is wrong,” she argued, casting a final, scathing glare at Jake Harville as she was led away. “I only wanted to take what’s mine, and Lulie lied. She gave me the buckboard and mule, and—”
“Shut up.” Worley slung her in front of him, causing her to stumble and almost fall. “Or I’ll let them vultures have you.”
She was shoved along the street, with people jeering now and then, finally reaching a barn where she was thrown over the back of a horse. Then, with Worley leading and two other men on horseback carrying torches, she was taken, bouncing uncomfortably on her stomach, out of town.
Twenty minutes later, she was yanked down from the horse to find herself staring at a large opening in one of the many rock formations surrounding her. In the glow of torchlight, she could see a crude gate of some sort had been built in front of it.
“I saw your trunk in the back of Lulie’s buckboard,” Worley said as one of his men maneuvered to open the gate. “I’ll have some of your clothes brought out in the morning.”
With a beefy hand on her shoulder, he pushed her toward the hole.
Tess, panic rising, balked. “No, wait. You can’t put me in there. You said I was going to jail.”
The men laughed, and Worley said, “This is the jail in Devil’s Eye. Actually, it’s an old mine shaft, but it serves the purpose. There’s water for drinking and bathing, and lots of shelter in the tunnels. You get fed twice a day.”
He unlocked her handcuffs, and, as she stood rubbing her wrists, advised, “If you scrounge around, you’ll find some old blankets.”
She was shoved inside.
“How…how long will I be here?” she asked, shivering as the dampness of the shaft began to creep into her bones.
“Hard to say. But I wouldn’t be in a big hurry if I was you, ’cause you’re probably going to hang. I’ve never known the judge to let a horse thief go yet, and it won’t matter one whit you’re a woman.”
The gate was closed.
They rode away, and Tess found herself swallowed by darkness.
She stood there a few moments, terror an unseen hand clutching at her throat as she pondered her dilemma. Then, in surrender, she sank to the floor and let the tears come. When there were none left, she wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and thought of all that had happened in the scant three days since her arrival.
She had been stunned by Saul’s death, leaving her indigent and alone.
She had been scared out of her wits by a murderer sneaking into her hotel room.
Two men had almost raped her.
A woman she thought her only friend had turned against her in the worst way. Lulie could have said she had loaned her the wagon and mule without knowing why she wanted it. She did not have to say she had stolen it.
Now she was being held prisoner in a mine shaft. With a heavy heart, she wondered what would happen next.
And suddenly the answer came as a torch appeared to drive away the darkness and a voice chuckled to say, “Well, well, well. Looks like I’ve got company.”
With a wrenching gasp, Tess saw in the fire’s glow that it was Curt Hammond.
Chapter Five
Tess quickly scrambled to her feet and backed against the wall. “Stay away from me!”
He sneered. “I don’t want anything to do with you.”
A sudden gust of wind blew out the flames. He stumble
d forward and bumped into her in the darkness.
She swatted at him with both hands. “Get back, or I’ll—”
“Or you’ll what?” He moved away. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s nobody here except us…and a couple of skeletons I found way in the back when I was exploring one day. But you don’t have to worry about me bothering you—not when you’re the reason I’m here.”
She dared to remind him, “You killed somebody. That’s why you’re here.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said tightly. “And the fact is, you wouldn’t give me the benefit of the doubt, so here I am, waiting to get my neck stretched, thanks to you.”
“It’s your own fault. You shouldn’t have murdered anybody.”
“It wasn’t murder.”
“Well, it makes no difference to me. I have my own problems.” She ran her hands up and down her arms nervously. Her eyes were gradually getting used to the dark, and she strained to see him so she could keep her distance.
“So what did you do?”
She was not about to tell him. “It’s none of your business. Leave me alone.”
“I’ll do just that,” he snapped. “And you can fend for yourself and try to find your own blanket among the scorpions and snakes. I don’t give a damn.”
She heard his boots crunching against the rocky floor of the mine shaft, finally fading away, and for one desperate moment she almost called out for him to come back. She was cold, but she was not about to try to find a blanket after what he had just said. She was also terribly hungry and wondered if he might have food stashed away.
Instead she kept still. After all, if he decided to take revenge, there was no one around to come to her aid. No one cared what happened to her.
Sinking once more to the floor, she wrapped her arms around her legs and drew her knees to her chin.
She wished she could fall asleep so the hours would pass quickly and morning would come, and then she could see her way around. Worley Branson had said she’d be fed, and maybe he would have a change of heart and realize she was telling the truth.