by Lilah Rivers
A long, tense silence passed before Maria turned and glared at Jodi, nodding once before stepping past Clinton and toward the exit. She left Jodi with a knot in her stomach, and it only got tighter as she and Clinton stepped down the hall and to the master bedroom.
Amy smiled from her bed, rolling her eyes. “Sorry to be such a bother… and for nothing.”
Jodi had to silently repeat, Nothing? Does she not know what the midwife told us, or is she just being brave? Maybe I didn’t understand things properly.
As they walked up to the bed, Jodi asked, “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” Amy said with a shrug, “a little tired, but I’m sure this is just par for the course.”
Just being brave, Jodi realized, of course.
Jodi said, “You’re not doing anymore dusting. From now on, you’ll sit like a queen and I’ll be your servant.”
“Fat chance,” Amy retorted.
“And getting fatter all the time,” Jodi pointed out, and both broke out in a little chuckle. “I mean it, Amy. Iknow when you invited me out here that you had my best interests at heart. But from now on, it’s your best interests that matter—you and that little wonder you’re carrying around.”
“Carrying,” Amy echoed. “How can I carry it anywhere if you won’t let me stand up on my own two feet?”
“Amy, you’ve been doing that ever since you were a kid, and I’ve always loved you for it. But now I’m the one who’s going to be stubborn and willful, and you’re the one who’s going to do as she’s told.”
“Is that so?”
“It is,” Jodi announced firmly.
Clinton huffed out a laugh. “Well, things sure are changing around here!” He glanced at Jodi, who looked back at him warmly as he added, “I’ll go get that bowl of soup.”
Clinton stepped out and the two old girlfriends shared a silent moment of sweetness, tinged with a bitter overlay of shadow to tint the sunlight speckled through those lacy, white drapes.
Chapter 29
Scott was keeping an eye on Doyle. The young man was dutiful as ever, but he certainly lacked his previous spark. Scott was sad to have disappointed him, and in more ways than just as regarded the pretty Jodi Hoffman.
Scott knew that no man relished the idea of losing a possible romance—he knew that pain as well as anybody, if not better. But it was even harder to lose that possibility to a friend, a brother, an associate. To be reminded of that loss so often and so clearly can only agitate the pain and threaten the relationship.
And in this case, Scott and Doyle were both friends and associates, making it all that much worse.
The two of them being fairly public figures wouldn’t make it easier, either. The sheriff and his deputy could often be the subjects of gossip, speculation, even derision. That wouldn’t help Doyle do his job, and that certainly wouldn’t benefit any of the citizens of Angeldale.
Additionally, Doyle was man too often occupied with what others thought of him. In this case, Scott knew that could develop into all manner of unreasonable positions, one of which may even be dead-square against Scott and Jodi and whatever future plans they may or may not have.
As the days crept on, the younger man seemed to resolve himself, just as Scott would have assumed and hoped. But he couldn’t help but worry that there were grievances and resentments building up, and that they just might explode.
You never do know.
When the office door opened, Scott turned to see a man he didn’t recognize step in. He took off his hat and glanced around the little office, extending his hand.
“Good day,” the man said, offering a firm handshake. “Name’s Devlin, Giles Devlin.”
“Scott Covey,” Scott returned, “sheriff.”
Giles nodded. “Very good. I was hoping you might be able to help me out, Sheriff… Coffee, is it?”
“Covey. How can I help you, Mr. Devlin?”
“Well, I’m here, visiting from Rhode Island, and I’m looking for the ranch of a couple called Burnett.” Scott’s blood chilled, hairs standing up on the back of his neck. The man, Giles Devlin, went on, “Clinton and Amy Burnett, to be more precise. They live on a ranch, so it’s somewhere outside of town, I imagine.”
Scott was already prepared to jump to some conclusions, but there were other things about the man he could not yet deduce, and he was very much interested in doing that before letting the man encroach upon the Burnett place.
“May I ask what business you have with the Burnetts?”
Giles looked Scott over and shrugged. “To be quite honest, I'm not in the habit of being forced to share the nature of my business with those whom have no business to know, much less ask.”
“In other cases, perhaps,” Scott replied, “but I am the sheriff, and that makes it my business.”
“Why? There’s no criminality involved.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of it.”
Giles rolled his eyes. “Oh, very well. If you must know, Sheriff, I have no business at all with the Burnetts. My business is with a guest of theirs, a young woman called Hoffman, Jodi Hoffman.”
Scott wasn’t at all surprised. But he still felt it was too early to simply deliver the man to them, and them to him.
The man could be a rustler, for all I know, the man behind the odd goings-on here and in the surrounding towns.
“And what business would you have with—?”
“She’s my fiancée,” Giles explained, and this did take Scott a bit by surprise. “I know she’s come here from Rhode Island, and I intend to bring her home.”
“Do you? Against her will?”
Giles huffed. “Of course not! What kind of man do you take me for?”
Scott decided not to answer, knowing a long pause would only coax out the man’s intent, at least as he intended to represent it.
He looked around the office. “You wouldn't have an extra cup of coffee?”
Glancing at the kettle, Scott nodded. He turned, then poured some into a clean tin cup and handed it to Giles.
“Thank you,” he said with a nod as he took the cup and had a sip. He began pacing around the little office. “Well, there’s no happy way to put it, I’m afraid. I made a mistake—I thought I loved another, you see. And, well, a man has to make a choice at some point, one way or the other, doesn’t he?”
Scott did agree, though he didn’t feel compelled to say so. After the lingering quiet, Giles went on, “But once she was gone, things changed quickly. I can’t really explain it, but all I know is that I made the worst mistake of my life, of both our lives. And I have to do whatever I can to get her back.” Seeming to read Scott’s consideration, Giles was quick to add, “Within the confines of the law, of course.”
“Of course.”
Giles took another sip of his coffee and was obviously trying to avoid Scott’s scrutiny. “I didn’t even write or wire that I was coming,” he continued. “I just packed a bag, bought a ticket, and here I am. I wanted to show her how important it is to me, y’see.”
Scott nodded, blinking slowly but saying nothing.
“And, I mean, I know there’s a good chance that she’ll have… reservations,” Giles admitted. “And her friend, I’ve known for years—”
Knowing the right answer, Scott asked, “Clinton Burnett?”
“His wife, actually. She’s late of Providence herself, she and my Jodie grew up together.”
Scott could hardly resist saying, “Your Jodi.”
Giles nodded and took another sip of his coffee. “And this girl, well, she’s not like most women. Do you know the Burnetts?”
“Not very well,” Scott replied, satisfied that he was being truthful without being revealing.
“Well, she’s rebellious, spirited, if you take my meaning.”
Scott was almost ready to pity the man. “You feel you’ll have to convince Mrs. Burnett as much as you may have to convince… your Miss Hoffman.”
“Exactly.”
Scott s
tood there, knowing there was little more information he needed. The man could yet be lying, or have other intentions with Jodi or her friends, the Burnetts. He considered going out alone to bring the news of the man’s arrival, counter to his own strategies. That would ensure Jodi’s safety, and give her time to decide how to handle the matter. It would also give Scott time to discuss the matter of the man’s surprising appearance and even more surprising declaration.
But the man had come a long way, and Scott’s instincts were that he was telling the truth, at least in part. And if the man did mean them harm, Scott knew to leave him in Angeldale unsupervised could be an even worse mistake. And as Scott was keenly interested to survey Jodi’s reaction to his arrival, there would only be one way to do that.
“Well, Mr. Devlin, let’s finish our coffee and I’ll ride you out to the Burnett place.”
Chapter 30
Scott could hardly believe what he was having to do, but there was just no denying it. A red-tailed hawk screeched out above them, the sun beating down with increasing heat and intensity, sweat gathering on the back of his neck.
Giles said, “I want to thank you again for this, Sheriff. I know there are probably other things you could be doing.”
“That can always be said,” Scott retorted, recognizing the deliberate sense of antagonism in his own voice and knowing that would reveal more than he wanted to. His late father’s vicious lessons returned to his memory; showing feelings was a weakness.
A gila monster scurried across the desert floor to take shelter under a rock. Scott knew he, unfortunately, did not have that option.
“You’ve been sheriff of Angeldale long?”
“‘Bout five years.” He rode on without adding anything to the response. After a moment which Scott knew would be read as rudeness, he asked, “What line are you in back in Rhode Island?”
“Sales, with a shop of my own; men’s luxuries and accessories.”
Scott looked the man over, nearly festooned with such luxuries; gold watch on a chain, cuff links. Figures, he thought.
But riding in, Scott had to admit to himself that this was just the type of man he imagined would be by Jodi’s side; a man who could give her the refined surroundings and company she was worthy of. She was far too lovely and sweet to share the life of some hardscrabble lawman. Jodi was a young woman from a place so far removed from New Mexico in so many ways that she might as well have been from a different world. Looking at that well-dressed Giles, shoulders back in his waistcoat; it was as if Scott was looking at that very world, made manifest in human form.
Scott’s instincts would not let him simply overlook the man’s arrival, his request to see Jodi straight away. He knew that a man’s appearance would only reveal so much about the inner workings of the soul. A waistcoat and a top hat didn’t put a man above his baser impulses. Being from a fancy East Coast metropolis such as Providence, Rhode Island did not mean the man was not a savage.
In the actual fact of Scott’s long experience, he’d found the Mexicans and Indians and hard-case settlers, ranchers, cowhands were all a cut above the character of virtually anybody he’d met from a big city, and there had been plenty going in and out of Angeldale since his arrival. They lacked the locals’ sense of humility, their ability to live with nature, to live with the land. This Giles and his ilk could only live on top of the land, in spite of it, forcing their will upon it.
And they treated each other that way, as well, more often than not. Willful and ignorant, a terrible combination to inflict on anything and anyone—that was the specialty of the so-called civilized American.
Scott’s training as a lawman told him that, when all was said and done, a majority of violent crimes were rooted in romantic disagreement. He couldn’t count the number of men he’d seen die in gunfights or bitter brawls over the love of one woman or another.
And other things were tickling Scott’s imagination, his lawman’s creativity turning things over in his mind, searching for the gila monster hiding beneath the rock.
Jodi hadn’t made any mention of the man. This told Scott that she likely had a good reason for not mentioning him; a secret she very much needed to keep secret. Has she stolen from the man? Is guilty of some other crime, one much worse? This man’s no sheriff, he’s got no warrant. But he could yet be a bounty hunter. There’s no law forces him to be forthright with me or anybody.
Or it could be that this man is the jilted lover, that hers was the so-called mistake which this Giles needs to remedy. Perhaps she was suffering and serving him as slave might have to do; or perhaps he treated her cruelly, and she fled as if for her very life.
In that case, he’ll be forcing her to go nowhere.
But another possibility was close behind the last one, and it didn’t include bringing Jodi back to Rhode Island or anywhere. A few bullets would satisfy the man’s simmering sense of rage and betrayal, and I’d have been his virtual instrument, an unwitting accomplice, a dupe.
As the Burnett ranch house came into view, Scott pulled his Colt revolver from his holster and pointed it at Giles from just a few feet away. Giles caught sight of the gun, eyes wide, hands up. “Hey, hey, take it easy, just relax.”
“I was going to say the same thing to you,” Scott replied coolly.
Giles broke out in a nervous chuckle. “Look, pal, what is this? Don’t they pay you to do this job?”
“Pay me—?”
“Unless… oh, don’t tell me you’re not really the sheriff. Stupid, I’m so stupid!”
“Slow it down, mister,” Scott said. “I am the sheriff, and I’m not robbing you. But I am going to ask you to hand your weapons over to me.”
“My weapons?”
“I can see that Derringer in your vest pocket,” Scott pointed out, “and, of course, your Colt there.”
“Oh, yes, well, I… I wasn’t denying that I was armed, but—”
“Let’s have ‘em.”
Giles looked at his own guns, then slowly pulled them out and reached over to hand them to Scott. “Toss ‘em,” Scott ordered with a jut of his head, “over there.”
Giles seemed uncertain of whether or not he should comply. But another glance at Scott seemed to tell the man that he had no choice. He tossed the two guns and they landed with a pair of thuds on the desert ground.
“You can pick ‘em up on the way back,” Scott told him. Giles glanced back at the house, then at Scott. He nodded, and the two men turned to ride toward Burnett place.
Chapter 31
Jodi and Amy were tending to the flower garden in the front of the house, Jodi frequently glancing at Amy and looking her over. “How do you feel?” she asked. “You okay? Wanna go in?”
“Jodi, I’m fine!” A moment later, Amy put her hand on Jodi’s and gave her a little shake. “I appreciate your concern, but this is relaxing for me.” With an amused little chuckle, she added, “At least, it used to be.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Amy, I don’t mean to make things harder for you. That’s the opposite of why I came.”
“I oughtn’t tease,” Amy remarked. “And I couldn’t be happier that you’re here. As for me, all this, my mother often told me she had a difficult time, too, so I’m sure this is just a family thing, probably.”
Jodi wanted to believe that, but her love and fondness for Amy made it increasingly difficult. All she wanted was for Amy to be happy and healthy, but she was afraid that wasn’t going to happen.