Horse With No Name

by Alexandra Amor

  "Well," Cranna said, looking thrilled and excited. "Now there's a story for a dinner party."

  Thirty-three

  The fire in the stove was roaring, and Julia was sure that the dry inhabitants of the room must be roasting. But she and James Hunter were very grateful for the warmth. Julia was still shivering and her dress was fairly steaming.

  They were in the parlor above the general store, and Betty had gone to get a dry dress from Julia's house. Julia sat on a wooden chair from the kitchen, a towel wrapped over her hair, and another over her shoulders. Her boots were off and her feet had made a wet spot on the hardwood floor.

  Christopher Mitchell was digging around in his wardrobe, finding another suit for James Hunter to wear. James was standing awkwardly beside the stove, soaked as well, his hair flattened against his skull, his newly altered suit looking like a burlap sack. He cradled his injured arm in the opposite hand. It had not been helped by the rough handling by Anker and the dunk in the lake. His face was drained of color but at least his lips weren't blue any longer.

  "This way, Mr. Hunter." Christopher emerged from the hallway and led Hunter back to the master bedroom to change. As he returned to Julia, they heard noises in the shop below and then footsteps coming up the stairs. Betty came onto the stairway landing, carrying a dress and an old pair of boots in her arms. Up the stairway behind her came Merrick and Walt.

  "These were the only shoes I could find," Betty said, setting them down beside Julia.

  "They're fine. Thank you, Betty," Julia smiled at her friend.

  Hunter came into the room at that moment, dry and dressed in a suit that was at least two sizes too large for him.

  "Well, now that I've got you both here," Merrick looked from Julia to Hunter, "would you mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

  "Not yet," Betty admonished him. "Julia is going to get into some dry clothes first." She took Julia's arm and led her out of the room.

  Anker was safely locked up in Merrick's jail cell.

  "He's soaking wet too, of course," Merrick said, "but I put the fire on. He'll dry out."

  Hunter refused to sit. He paced up and down at one end of the room.

  When Julia returned from getting changed into dry clothes, Merrick's eyes followed her to where she sat. When she was settled, on the love seat this time, she felt his gaze and looked up at him. His expression was hard and she sensed impatience from him. If he had been angry the night before at Finnegan's about her interfering, he must be fuming now.

  He pulled his gaze away and looked at Betty. "May I talk to Miss Thom and Mr. Hunter now?"

  Betty made a small movement with her head. "Please do, Jack. I'm going to get the kettle from the kitchen."

  Julia and Hunter looked at one another. Julia had no idea where to begin. Neither, it seemed, did Hunter. They looked away from one another. The room was silent.

  Merrick looked, once again, back and forth between the two of them. "Well then, how about you clear something up for me, Mr. Hunter? Why don't you tell me why Gerard Anker had you in a rowboat with your hands tied?"

  Hunter stopped pacing and met Merrick's eyes. Julia could see him thinking. She wondered where he would begin. He surprised her by starting at the most dangerous place. "Because I'm a woman," he said.

  If Merrick, Walt and Christopher were shocked by this they hid it well. Walt, as usual, remained almost impassive. Christopher stood up out of his chair, "Let me help Betty with the tea."

  Merrick took a breath and leaned back in his chair slightly. Julia could tell he was reflexively going to tilt the chair back, as he always did with the wooden chairs at his office and the livery. The front legs of the chair started to lift. Julia leaned over and tapped him on one knee. The legs dropped to the floor again. "Is that so?" he said.

  Hunter gave Merrick the shorter version of his explanation about growing up feeling like he was in the wrong body. Julia watched the constable's face and saw that he was working hard not to look shocked. And mostly succeeding.

  When Hunter finished, Merrick sat thoughtfully for a few minutes. Finally he said, "That doesn't explain about Anker though. Why was he trying to drown you?"

  Hunter, unburdened now and without anything more to defend against, sat down. He looked at Julia, almost as though he was seeking her permission. Then he turned back to Merrick. "He was attracted to me."

  Merrick nodded slightly. "Go on."

  "He was attracted to me and it bothered him. He couldn't understand what was going on." Hunter waggled his head a bit, searching for a way to explain. "I think that his body, or some part of him, was responding to the fact that I am in a female body. But of course, Anker didn't know that. All he saw was a man who fixed his watches and clocks, and someone to whom he was attracted."

  "Did he," Merrick searched for a word, "...proposition you?"

  Hunter shook his head, emphatically. "No. Nothing like that. It was just this weird, unspoken feeling between us. I'd often see him looking at me on poker nights. Watching me. And fighting with himself."

  The kettle had boiled and the tea was steeped. Betty poured a cup for everyone and passed them around, creating a moment of distraction. Hunter accepted his tea cup and drank thirstily. Julia smiled, watching Merrick and Walt with their big paws wrapped around Betty's china tea cups.

  Merrick hadn't stopped thinking. As soon as everyone was seated with tea and a biscuit he addressed Hunter again. "Was it Anker who beat you up in the shop?

  Hunter began to shrug and Julia leapt in. "Yes."

  Merrick raised his eyebrows at her. "Why do you say that?"

  "The glove. I figured it out this morning. That's why I went to James' shop at noon." Suddenly, Julia's eyes grew wide and she looked around for somewhere to put her tea cup. "Oh my God!" She started to stand up out of her seat. "The school children."

  "Sit down," Betty said, patting her friend's arm, "Millie Jones is over there, keeping an eye on them. And no doubt torturing...I mean, regaling them with tales of her summer in Paris."

  "Thank goodness." Julia sat back down.

  "You were saying?" Merrick took a sip of tea.

  "Right. Yes." Julia gathered herself together. "Remember I found that glove in the shop?"

  Merrick nodded.

  "I finally realized it was Anker's. When we saw him and Mrs. Anker at the hotel last night, I noticed he was wearing a brand new pair of gloves. It didn't register at the time but something was bothering me last night while I slept and then again this morning at school. I finally put the pieces together when one of the students was fiddling with his gloves while talking to me."

  "Anker had new gloves because he'd lost one at Hunter's shop."

  Julia nodded.

  "And the fire and the rabbit." It wasn't really a question. Merrick was thinking out loud, but Julia answered anyway.

  "I suspect he is responsible for those, too. The fire to try to get rid of Mr. Hunter and the rabbit to get me to stop trying to find out who beat Hunter up."

  Hunter nodded, adding, "He told me today when he was driving us to the lake that he set the fire. He asked me why I hadn't made plans to leave town after the fire. That was his intention. That was why he burned my house down. To get me to leave."

  "Good heavens," Betty whispered, mostly to herself.

  "Why did he take you out in the boat?" Merrick asked.

  "He didn't say, but I suspect he was going to shoot me and push me overboard."

  Julia could see Merrick thinking some more. She enjoying watching him think. He turned his head toward her, feeling her gaze. He looked a little startled when he saw that she'd been watching him, but he recovered quickly. "How long have you known about Mr. Hunter's...situation?"

  Betty answered for Julia, "Since the fire."

  Merrick nodded, thinking again, and then looked at Hunter. "You told them then?"

  Hunter set his tea cup down and jammed his hands into his coat pockets. "I told Mrs. Mitchell. But Miss Thom already knew."

/>   Merrick raised his eyebrows at her. "How?"

  Julia waffled for a moment.

  "Come on," Merrick said. "Out with it."

  "I may have taken a sneak peek at Dr. Parker's patient files." Julia cringed a bit when she said this, knowing Merrick wouldn't like it.

  He didn't. His expression froze and Julia felt like the whole room got quiet, holding its breath.

  Walt made a small chuckling noise. "Go easy on her," he said under his breath.

  Merrick took a deep breath in through his nose and held it for a few seconds. Julia wondered if he was counting to ten. He blew the breath out and leaned forward, picking up his teacup and taking a sip. With an unnatural sense of calm he said, "Please. Tell us about that."

  Julia wasn't sure if she would rather Merrick had been yelling. This quiet approach was almost more unnerving. She tried to explain herself. "I happened to be in Dr. Parker's office the other day."

  "Happened to be?" Merrick asked.

  She continued, unabashed, "And it just so happened that his filing cabinet was in there, too."

  "Where it belongs?" There was irony in Merrick's voice.

  Julia ignored him. "I had been thinking about Mr. Hunter for days, of course," she looked up at the small person who looked like a child in Christopher's suit, "and was wanting to understand him better. The idea being that if I knew more about who he was, I might be able to figure out who would want to hurt him."

  Hunter, who throughout the conversation in Betty and Christopher's sitting room had looked decidedly uncomfortable, now looked slightly more relaxed. He met Julia's eyes and nodded at her, encouraging her to continue.

  "And I remembered that when we'd taken Mr. Hunter to see Dr. Parker after I found him in his shop, there was an exchange between doctor and patient that struck me as a bit odd." She looked over at Hunter. "When the doctor began to take your shirt and vest off so he could see your wounds and tend to your arm, you began to panic."

  Hunter nodded, remembering.

  "I had been thinking about that and it had occurred to me to wonder if you didn't want Merrick and I to see you without your shirt on." She looked back to Merrick. "So I might have taken the opportunity while I was in the office to look for Mr. Hunter's patient file." Julia stopped and waited for Merrick to explode.

  The constable seemed to be absorbing this information, though his face still did not betray whatever emotions he was feeling. The room was quiet again for a few moments.

  Merrick was about to speak again when Betty startled everyone by leaping into the ring. "It wasn't entirely Julia's fault. I helped her. I kept a lookout for the doctor while we were in there."

  A huge grin broke out on Walt's face. "Mrs. Mitchell," he said, "we hardly knew ye."

  At the same time, Julia shook her head at her friend and then turned to Merrick. "She was not there. I was on my own."

  Betty objected, and Julia argued with her. Merrick's eyes bounced back and forth between the two women while they corrected one another.

  "All right, all right," Merrick finally said, holding up one hand. "Let's just agree that Mrs. Mitchell may or may not have given you some aid..."

  "I did too help," Betty muttered, unwilling to be left out of the adventure.

  Merrick continued, "...but why don't you share what really matters. What did you find when you committed the crime," his eyes drilled into Julia's as he emphasized this word, "of breaking into Dr. Parker's files?"

  "Nothing," Julia said.

  "Nothing?"

  "Correct." Julia nodded and straightened her back a bit.

  Merrick waited her out.

  Julia glanced over at Mr. Hunter and then continued. "What I found was that there was no file in Dr. Parker's office for James Hunter."

  Merrick, who had leaned forward in his chair, leaned back again and Julia could see the wheels turning in his head. When he spoke, his voice had lost some of its ice. "And that struck you as odd."

  "It did."

  "Was that when you knew that Mr. Hunter was ...um, well..." The sentence dangled.

  "A woman," Hunter said, smiling at Merrick, letting him off the hook.

  "Er, yes. Thank you. A woman."

  "No," Julia said. "I had no idea then. But it puzzled me and I did wonder why there was no file. It occurred to me that one reason Parker might hide it was that there was something in it he didn't want anyone to know."

  Merrick looked at Hunter. "Dr. Parker was protecting you from thieves and busybodies, like Miss Thom, was he?"

  "Well...," Hunter said, not wanting to betray his rescuer, "I did visit Dr. Parker when I first moved to town because I had, er, some female troubles. I told him of my particular...situation. And I asked him then to keep my file somewhere safe. Just in case."

  Merrick raised his eyebrows at Julia and shook his head slightly with amazement and chagrin. "Just in case, indeed."

  In the course of the next hour, Merrick continued to question Julia and Hunter. He wanted to be sure he understood the sequence of events that led up to finding the two of them, plus Anker, Cranna and Sully, sitting on the beach looking drained but relieved, and all except Sully, soaking wet.

  When they'd gotten to shore, Cranna had chased Anker, who was inexplicably running down the beach, away from town. He wouldn't have made it very far at all because soon the shoreline disappeared and unless he wanted to swim to freedom he would have found himself at a dead end. Cranna walked him back and the sodden group had made their way through town to Merrick's office. Betty had rushed in almost immediately, having heard what was happening, and insisted they move the meeting to her sitting room so that Julia and Hunter could get out of their sodden clothes.

  Throughout the questions that followed in the Mitchell's upstairs sitting room, Merrick was both calm and professional, but he was also cool toward Julia. He only looked at her when he had to, and she keenly felt his simmering anger.

  Unlike the month before when she and Merrick, with Walt's help, had worked together to understand why one of Julia's students had broken into the Mitchell's store, this time Merrick seemed unwilling to accept or understand Julia's help in finding Hunter's assailant.

  The last of his questions asked, Merrick stood. He shook Christopher's hand, and then, after a slight hesitation, also Hunter's.

  "I'll need you to stay in town, Mr. Hunter," Merrick said, "until Thursday when the Judge gets here. But then you're free to go."

  Hunter nodded.

  Merrick and Walt both nodded to Christopher and Betty. As he walked past her toward the staircase, Merrick refused to meet Julia's eyes.

  Thirty-four

  The walls were bare and the clockmaker's shop had an abandoned feeling about it. It was uncharacteristically silent, without any ticking or pendulums swinging. Julia could still smell the faint metallic scent of the clocks and their gears. She imagined that would linger for some time, or until a new shopkeeper took possession.

  She found Hunter packing a crate in the rear of the shop.

  "You're leaving us, Mr. Hunter?"

  The clockmaker looked up from the workbench and smiled at Julia, though he looked weary.

  "I think it's best, Miss Thom. I'll go somewhere where I can disappear a little more easily."

  The traveling judge had come and gone. Gerard Anker was convicted of arson and grievous bodily harm and had been sent to the penitentiary in New Westminster. James Hunter was free to leave.

  Julia didn't try to talk him out of this decision. Despite the acceptance Hunter had found with her and the Mitchells, and with Merrick and Walt, Julia was not naive enough to expect that everyone in Horse and the surrounding area would understand or accept who Hunter was. And, in such a small place, there was no way the secret would be kept for long.

  "Where will you go?"

  Hunter placed some loose gears in a small cardboard box and fitted the lid on top. "I think I'll try Kelowna. It's a growing place, and might suit me well. If that doesn't work I expect I'll go back to the coas
t. Or perhaps east."

  Julia looked around her. The shelves in the workroom had been stripped of their clocks and watches, and looked naked in the bright light that was coming through the wide window.

  "Tell me this," Hunter said, "for my own edification. Was it only Dr. Parker's file that gave me away?"

  Julia thought about this for a moment. "It was a combination of things, really. Your reluctance to let anyone get close to you. Your small hands." Julia hesitated and then continued. "And I found a box of china under your bed the other day when Betty and I were tidying up your house. I didn't think much of it at the time, but later I wondered what a man was doing with such a delicate china pattern."

  "You snooped," Hunter teased Julia.

  "I did. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have.” Julia blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed.

  "My mother insisted I take that china when I left home. I told her I wouldn't use it but she wouldn't listen." He sighed and picked a few large clock pieces off the table, adding them to the crate in front of him. "I can't do anything about my hands, I suppose. You see, in the future I'd like to make sure I don't give myself away."

  "You didn't give yourself away this time, James. It was bad luck that Gerard Anker had some sort of sixth sense going on. And that he felt he needed to act out about it."

  "I expect there are many people in the world like Gerard Anker."

  Julia nodded slightly. "Unfortunately that might be true. But all you can do is your best."

  "Do you think that if you hadn't seen me panic when Dr. Parker tried to take off my shirt, and if you hadn't seen the china, you would have known?"

  Though he was trying to cover it, there was desperation in Hunter's eyes. Julia's heart ached for the terrible position he was in. He had a choice to live as a woman and betray his true self. Or live as a man and risk exposure and perhaps more violence.

  She considered how to answer. "The truth is, James, that we can't predict the future. Who knows what might have happened if I hadn't noticed those things? But events collided the way they did. And here we are."