by Lydia Olson
“Maybe Ryan saw him?” Eloise cried.
Quickly, she covered her mouth, eyes wide. Lawson leaned back slightly, so that he could see into the alley with just one eye, enough to be sure Ryan hadn’t heard her yell his name. Ryan was sitting on his horse, head back, staring at the ceiling. Lawson whipped his head back forward and continued.
“You’re riding home with the McKinnon boy tonight?” he asked her.
“I’d like to stay and wait for Wilson, but I don’t think he’ll be showing his face around here any time soon,” she said. “So, yes, I’m going home with Ryan.”
“Word among the travelers is a group of bandits have made their way through the surrounding towns and will be approaching Cayenne from the east any day now,” he said. “Are you sure you wanna go that way at this time, knowing the bandits are making their way back for fresh meat?”
“No, because you’ve just given me a reason not to!” exclaimed Eloise.
She shook Lawson’s hand vigorously, dashed into the stables, and threw her hands in the air.
“There’re bandits on the road, Ryan,” she said. “I’m staying with Miss Maudie tonight.”
Chapter Sixteen
Eloise lay in bed, thinking about what she would say to Deputy Wilkens in the morning.
She couldn’t think of a way around admitting that she saw Wilson, or that she had been with Wilson in the alley before she heard the gunshots. She knew Ryan would expect her to tell the truth, and that he would know if she lied. She couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t tell the deputy the truth himself.
Gentle snores broke the silence, indicating Miss Maudie had finally fallen asleep. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she knew he was okay, Eloise careful snuck through the halls to where she remembered Wilson’s room being.
It was a shot in the dark, but Deputy Wilkens was still looking for Wilson down the street, with no idea Maudie had seen him loop back around, so she hoped he would be here.
“Wilson?” she whispered as the door creaked open.
The room appeared to be empty. Eloise walked carefully into the room to look for clues, keeping as quiet as a mouse. The bed was made, and everything appeared to be in order.
Just as she was about to turn around and leave, she heard a low groan from behind the dressing screen. Eloise ran to the screen, spotted Wilson crumpled up on the floor, and dropped to her knees beside him.
“Ellie,” he said, forcing a smile. “I’m glad to see you’re all right.”
“I am, but look at you,” she said.
Wilson’s hair was damp with blood, and his formal adornments were nowhere to be seen. Eloise carefully lifted him away from the wall to check the severity of his head injury and found that it looked worse than it was. Still, she worried where it had come from.
“Someone hit me from behind,” he explained. “They took my hat, coat, and vest, and ran off. It took me a moment to orient myself, but when I came to, I heard the sheriff’s voice and knew it was best I go straight to my room. If he saw me like this, he would probably find some way to blame me.”
“Then that wasn’t you... in the street?” Eloise asked. “It wasn’t you running away?”
“In the street?” Wilson repeated. “How do you mean?”
“I thought I saw –” she muttered, furrowing her brow. “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear the gunshots.”
“Gunfire is commonplace here,” he pointed out. “I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but I thought of you when I first heard it. That’s why I was pleased to see you’re all right.”
“Wilson, you don’t understand,” said Eloise. “Someone shot the sheriff in the alley, and they were seen running away wearing your clothes. The deputy’s looking for you under suspicion of murder. He means to hang you in the murder of the sheriff.”
“Because I was seen running away from gunfire?” he scoffed. “That’s absurd. Do you know many people who would choose not to run away from gunfire?”
“And you mean to tell me you haven’t noticed your gun’s not in its holster?” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
“I hadn’t thought...”
Wilson lowered his hand to his waist, and his face sunk as he realized that his clothing wasn’t the only thing the thief had taken. Dread filled his eyes, but he was too weak from his injury to react. Eloise rose to her feet and looked around the room for a clean cloth.
“Here,” she said, coming back to his side. “Let me help you with your head.”
“Thank you.” Wilson groaned as Eloise touched his head with the dampened cloth.
“You need to tell Deputy Wilkens about this,” she said.
“I’m not gonna tell that bumbling idiot anything,” Wilson retorted. “Might as well just walk into the jail and lock myself up on my own at that point.”
“Look at you – these injuries don’t look like the injuries of a man who could shoot someone and then run all the way down the road. There would’ve been a trail of blood,” she said. “So many people saw someone running away in the same clothes you say got stolen, and you couldn’t run like that with an injury this bad. He would have to believe that it wasn’t you.”
“The sheriff’s had it out for me since I got here – and I don’t trust his idiot of a deputy to be any better,” Wilson told her. “Can’t you see that they want me to be guilty? If not for this, as soon as they’ve got me in their clutches, they’ll find a way to keep me there.”
“Listen to me – there’s a man, Lawson, and he’s gonna help us prove you’re innocent,” Eloise explained. “But you have to show the deputy that you’ve been injured, because there’s no way you could get injured from behind in a fight with the sheriff and then turn around fast enough to shoot him three times.”
“They’ll weave a story,” said Wilson. “Ellie, I know you’ve grown up here, and you want to love everything about it. But after being outside of this place, I know how lawless it is, and how much better the outside world can be. There’s actually some shred of dignity anywhere else you go.
“Coming back here with the town the way it is now, I see them in a way you couldn’t – and I don’t blame you for that. The people here are so different than out there. Most everyone is cruel and out for a fight. That being said, if I tell the deputy anything, I know I’ll end up in jail – or worse.”
Eloise huffed and folded her arms. She wanted to get offended and yell at him for insulting her home, but it was hard to be mad at him in the state he was in now.
He must’ve been in a lot of pain. Wilson’s wound looked significantly less severe after being cleaned up, but she knew he would still need a lot of rest before he would be able to exert himself.
“Can I ask you about something?” Eloise ventured.
“Sure, what is it?” Wilson groaned as he sat up straight.
“I heard there hasn’t been a whole lot of success digging for gold in California anymore... and Miss Maudie told me there was a large shipment of gold stolen from a stagecoach on the Santa Fe Trail the same day as you got into town,” Eloise began.
Before she got around to the question, Wilson interrupted her with low laughter.
“That’s where everyone thinks I got my fortune?” he said. “To tell the truth, I didn’t find much gold, and I didn’t find it digging in the earth like everyone else. As you say, the fountain of gold dried up many years ago. But there was still gold there, and I knew where to dig for it.”
“But you didn’t... steal it, did you?” Eloise worried.
“No, I didn’t steal it,” Wilson assured her, rolling his eyes. “I won it. And when I won it, I turned it to cash and used that cash to win more. It’s the same thing I done to get out of Cayenne the first time.”
“And what about... the land deeds you won off the sheriff...?” she pressed.
Wilson was quiet. He didn’t change position, give her a look, or offer any sign that he knew what she was talking about, which worried Eloise more.
�
��I need to know,” she said. “Why did you take those land deeds from the sheriff?”
“I’m not trying to kick people off their land, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” he told her. “I promise.”
“Well, all right,” she said. “I’ll believe you. I guess all we can do now is try to figure out what to do when the deputy comes knocking.”
“Yes, you said you had someone willing to help me – tell me more about him?” Wilson said.
“Oh, Lawson!” She beamed. “He’s one of Maudie’s sources of gossip, and he doesn’t believe you did it, either. He said it was too strange that the sheriff’s horse was untied, but I didn’t ever see him in the stables, and I walked right past them with you only a moment before. He thought someone else must’ve untied his horse to frame you, but –”
“No, the sheriff was there,” Wilson cut in. “He must’ve come from the same direction we did, because he was fumbling to light it when I walked back passed the stables, and I had to be careful not to make a sound so he didn’t notice me. Then, I got to the back of the hotel, and tried to wait him out.
“I was watching the sheriff untie his horse when someone hit me over the head. While they were taking my things, I heard him yell, ‘Who’s there?’ but I knew what would happen if I replied, so I fled instead. If what you’re saying is true, he must’ve died only moments later.”
“Do you think it was by the same man who attacked you?” Eloise asked.
“I see no other explanation,” Wilson agreed. “Probably someone looking to get rich selling my things, but got caught stealing by the sheriff and couldn’t let him put a stop to it.”
“Lawson thought they must’ve snuck back around and rejoined the crowd,” Eloise said. “But now it seems they fled in your clothing.”
“Even more reason for me to avoid the deputy,” Wilson rationalized. “Whoever did this wasn’t near the saloon to be questioned, and nobody else saw anything, except what little Ryan could’ve heard.”
“No, Ryan was sitting on a porch nearby after he saw me go back to the saloon alone and hid in the alley when he heard the shots,” she said.
“He hid in the alley, closer to the gunfire?” Wilson laughed. “How like him.”
“He can be such a strange one sometimes, but I wouldn’t change him for the world,” she said.
“You just wouldn’t marry him?” Wilson said.
“Right,” she confirmed. “I wouldn’t have changed Edison for the world, either, but that doesn’t mean I would’ve wanted to marry him. It would feel too wrong to marry my brother – same with Ryan!”
Wilson laughed, readjusted his position, and groaned again. Eloise wrapped her arm around him and helped him move, a look of concern in her eyes.
“You sure you’re all right?” she said.
“I’ll be fine,” he assured her. “I just need some place to lay my head where I’m not being hunted.”
“Well, with the new information you’ve given me, I’m sure Lawson will be able to piece the rest of the story together and figure out what really happened back there,” Eloise told him. “He’s quite an interesting fellow. I would’ve never thought anything of him if he hadn’t come to me first, but once he did, it was amazing to watch how easily he found what he was looking for.”
“Are you sure he believes I’m innocent, and he’s not just telling you that?” said Wilson. “He might be using you to get to me.”
“No, I believe him,” she said. “He was there listening that first night we met in the saloon, and he came to warn me you were a suspect the moment he found out. He said something strange to me, he said, ‘Where I come from, it’s innocent until proven guilty.’ If that’s the different way of thinking you talk about outside Cayenne, I don’t think you’ll have to go as far as you think to find it.”
“In that case,” Wilson said, “and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but perhaps I should go into hiding until Lawson finds something to help us sort this out.”
“You putting your life in the hands of someone else?” Eloise said, exaggerating a look of shock. “How unlike you!”
“I know, how unlike me – but I don’t seem to have any other options right now, do I?”
“Just teasing.” She smiled and nudged him gently. “Now, I think you were right about one thing, and that’s that Deputy Wilkens is a bit dim. I’d say he won’t be coming to check your room until morning. So, I think you could get some rest here for the night; I’ll buy you some time with the deputy in the morning, and then you can sneak to my daddy for help.”
Eloise helped Wilson to his bed and sat beside him on the edge of it. She felt a strange feeling, somewhere between impropriety and comfort, sitting like this with him. Although she was in a man’s bed, she felt like she was doing nothing more than sitting beside her best friend, who would never do anything to hurt or disrespect her.
“Even after all that’s happened,” she said, “I still want to thank you for this night. It was truly amazing.”
“With all that’s happened, I’m glad it started the way it did,” he told her.
“Well, I better get back before Maudie wakes and finds me missing,” said Eloise. “What great fun it would be explaining that to her, right after you’ve been accused of murder.”
“Yes, and I wouldn’t want you to be accused of anything improper, either,” he added.
Eloise wished she could stay with him like this, if not forever, just to be sure he would still be there when she woke.
As she felt his gentle touch against her arm, it frightened her to think anyone would take him from her on false accusations, but she had to believe it was a possibility. Even if she hadn’t told him all there was to know about the threat against her family yet, she knew the world to be just as frightening and cruel to her as it had been to him of late.
Wilson sighed and wrapped his arms around Eloise one last time. Fearing that if he kissed her again now, it would feel too much like goodbye, Eloise refused to look him in the eye. She leaned her head against his shoulder and rested there a moment longer. Finally, she built up the courage to push him away and rose to her feet. Biting her lip, she headed for the door.
“Oh, and you haven’t got a horse, have you?” Eloise asked, pausing just before she exited.
“Not one that I could use anymore, I presume – but I’ve run the distance to your father’s land more than a few times before,” he admitted.
“The entire distance?” Eloise said, jaw dropped. “That must’ve taken you most of the day!”
“Oh, yes,” Wilson agreed, nodding vigorously. “But I usually traveled at night.”
“That’s quite the risk to take in this town, traveling on foot at night,” she said. “Lawson tells me there are bandits headed back into town from that direction, even now. In your current condition, and your situation, I don’t think that’s a worthy risk to take.”
“I don’t see another option,” he told her. “That’s the only way to travel in this town, when you’re in hiding without a horse.”
“You’re not really without one,” she said. “In the morning, I’ll send Deputy Wilkens sniffing in the wrong direction and come back for you. We’ll ride together, on my horse.”
“I’ll leave it up to you, then,” Wilson replied. “Let’s just hope and pray I’m still a free man by then.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I told you, the man I saw running away from the alley was not the same man I was dancing with at the masquerade,” Eloise insisted.