Rob's reaction was to be expected, but Anne did not understand why her words seemed to affect Martha and Ephraim so. Perhaps she sounded boastful? It was hard not to be proud of a skill that had been denied her all her life. A look at Cord rea.s.sured her.

There was nothing but amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes.

With lunch finished, Ephraim ordered pie and expressed surprise Cord wasn't interested.

"If you'd ever tasted what Annie cooks, you wouldn't want Dora's pie either."

Rob actually looked at Cord as he said nastily, "I suppose you keep her around for her cooking."

Cord said, "Sure, just like you're going to marry somebody for her cooking."

Anne explained to him. "Rob isn't going to marry for cooking or any other reason except that my father told him to marry Nancy Lee Weinert."

"You mean he picked George Detrick for you, and Nancy Lee Weinert for Rob?

Seems like to be consistent he should have either picked Ross Christian for you or Widow Truckee for Rob."

Anne almost spit coffee on the table with sudden laughter. Ross Christian was, like Nancy Lee, young, very good looking, self-centered, and not very bright. Widow Truckee was a very good approximation of George Detrick, fiftyish, fat, dirty-looking, and unpleasant.

Rob ignored the humor in the comment. "That's ridiculous. Nancy Lee is a beautiful girl from a good family and will be an excellent wife, and you know George Detrick would have been a decent husband. Maybe he isn't the knight in shining armor you had your heart set on, but you should have treated Richard Tyler better if that's what you wanted. Mr. Detrick is well situated, respectable, and, and...." He searched for Detrick's other virtues.

Cord finished for him. "And white, Annie. He's white."

She made a face. "I don't care if you could scrub him up and he'd put new fallen snow to shame and his toenails grow gold. He's repulsive and disgusting, and I'd rather not talk about him over food."

Rob attacked again. "At least he would have married you. Sitting out there and pretending you're married just to get even with Father you're just hurting yourself. What if he gets you with child for G.o.d's sake?"

Anne said sweetly, "I'd count myself lucky. Ephraim, do you ever give family members legal advice?"

Ephraim nodded. "Now and then."

"Then tell me. That day in the yard we were certainly battered and b.l.o.o.d.y, but we repeated every word of the marriage vows after Reverend Pratt in front of eight witnesses, and as soon as Cord was well enough we came to town and got a marriage certificate. Reverend Pratt signed it, Cord and I signed it, and Mr. Benton and Mr. White, who were there that day and were witnesses, signed it. We saw it entered in the church records, and it's entered in the county records at the courthouse. Are we married, or do we need to go see the preacher in Grenerton tomorrow to make an honest woman of me?"

Cord muttered, "Every word except 'obey.'"

Anne wrinkled her nose at him in mock annoyance. "I think you're developing a fixation on that, you know."

Ephraim seemed to be having trouble with an answer but finally cleared his throat and said, "I guess I'd say you're as married as anybody."

Rob leaned across the table toward her. "You can't mean it. You signed something with that animal? Are you out of your mind? Don't you realize n.o.body meant it? You could have walked away?"

"I meant it, and that's all that counts. Make up your mind, Rob, you can't be furious because I'm a shameless hussy living in sin, and furious because I'm a respectable married woman too. Pick a mad."

Rob got up and walked out.

Cord said, "Guess we're buying him lunch after all."

Anne laughed in agreement, and then added, "And I got out of the five-minute lecture."

Before anyone could say more, Noah Reynolds walked up to the table and dropped into the chair Rob had vacated.

Cord said, "If you've come for a free lunch, Noah, you're too late."

"No, I've eaten. I heard you were in town and decided to talk to you two. You know there's a lot of ugly talk going around?"

"Heard some."

Anne asked, "Like what?"

Cord answered with his best drawl. "Some folks think I keep you locked in the root cellar most of the time. Some think I keep you tied to the bed. I kind of like the bed theory better - warmer."

Aghast, she looked back and forth between the two men. "How can anybody think such a stupid thing? I'm sitting right here aren't I? What's wrong with them?"

Noah said, "Sometimes if a woman's scared enough of a man, she'll kind of go along with him and not ask for help or try to get away. It happens."

She spit words at him. "Do I look scared to you? You know better than that."

"Sure, I know better, but these folks in town don't, and they keep kicking it around. If you don't do something to quiet some of the talk you're going to have a mob in your yard again one of these days. You don't want that, do you?"

"The next mob in our yard is going to get shot at. I know how now, you know. What are you suggesting we do to quiet the talk, move to another country?"

Noah sighed. "Now, Anne, nothing that drastic. Why don't you try coming to church again? Let people see enough of you to know that you're fine and n.o.body's forcing you to do anything."

"Because I don't care to spend my Sundays in church listening to Reverend Yellow-Belly Pratt telling people how to be good Christians, that's why! If I sat in that church and listened to him for five minutes I'd probably be running up to the pulpit and socking him right in his sniveling nose."

Spoiling for a fight now, Anne turned her glare on Cord. "And how is it that you know about this talk and I haven't heard a word?"

Cord was studying an empty plate with great care, but answered readily enough, "I walked into the feed store a few weeks ago when old Charlie Haggerty was going on about it. Didn't see me till too late."

"And I suppose you spoke right up and straightened him out."

"a.s.suming he'd believe me, have a heart, Annie. Poor old man probably thinks about it for an hour every night before he gets up the courage to climb into bed with that prune of a wife of his."

Anne lost the fight to stay offended. The corners of her mouth started twitching upward.

Noah tried again. "Will you think about it, please? You don't need more trouble."

Anne said, "All right, we'll think about it."

Cord stood up and began counting money on the table. Anne said goodbye to Martha and Ephraim and followed him out to the horses.

Through the window Ephraim watched Cord and Anne get on their horses and start down the street knee to knee and felt a sharp stab of regret. Oh, little brother, how did things ever come to this pa.s.s between us? The sheriff's rueful words drew Ephraim's attention back inside.

"That woman's changed a lot in the last months, although I guess you don't get tempered steel out of the fire unless what goes in is steel first." Noah ran his fingers through his thinning gray hair and grinned.

Ephraim asked, "How much of the story of how they got married do you know, Noah?"

"I guess I know about all of it. At least Anne said she told me everything. Her father sent me out there to bring her back. Said he'd go himself but he was afraid of running into more Bennetts, even though Cord deserved killing. Of course, when I got there, Cord was alive, and Anne wouldn't come back."

"Well, we don't know what really happened, and it seems like high time we found out."

Surprise showed on Noah's face. "You mean they never told you?"

"The first time Frank and I went out there we made a lot of a.s.sumptions, which it seems were all wrong. Anne was furious, and I suppose she's never really forgiven us, and you know Cord. He's never going to explain anything."

"I guess I never thought about it. He said she ran you out of the house, but when I thought it over, I figured he was pulling my leg. I mean, a woman running Frank...."

Eph cut him off. "Noah, n.o.body's a better judge of women than Frank, and G.o.d knows he's had too much gun experience, even forgetting those years in the war. It was Frank who decided to go and go fast. He said she wasn't bluffing, from the look of her she really wanted to let go with the rifle right there in the house. He figures she's a little crazy from what happened."

"She was a little crazy when I first got there, but small wonder. She looks fine to me now. It's a bit of a story, but I'll tell you if you've got the time."

Ephraim pulled out his watch. "No, I don't today. I'm going to be late for an appointment as it is. Could we talk you into Sunday dinner at our house? This is probably a story Frank needs to hear too."

Noah agreed to join the Bennetts for Sunday dinner readily enough, and when the next day Leona Wells stopped Ephraim on the street, asking about Anne, Ephraim invited Leona to the house Sunday also. He even extended the invitation to Rob, knowing Leona wouldn't come without an escort. Maybe hearing what Noah had to say would be good for Anne's mother and brother too.

Ephraim knew Martha would have no trouble setting an extra place for the sheriff on Sunday. For years all the Bennetts had gathered at their house after church. There had been a time when Cord showed up pretty regularly too, in spite of the family difficulties.

That had ended a couple of years ago when Luke and Pete, like Frank before them, had come home from an eastern college early and refused to return. The problem was that the boys began to do everything they could think of to provoke a fight with their uncle.

Like c.o.c.ky youngsters everywhere, they were sure of their own invincibility, sure if they had the chance, they could vanquish the family legend.

Ephraim had tried everything he could think of to dissuade Pete without success, and he knew Frank had tried just as hard with both boys with an equal lack of success. Unable to control their sons, Ephraim and Frank had tried to talk to Cord. That talk had been successful, since Cord turned and walked away after the first two sentences. He hadn't been to a family gathering since.

Conversation was casual and general through dinner. As the women began to clear the dishes, Rob and Leona Wells arrived, and Frank sent his younger children off to visit friends.

Rob lost no time making his feelings known. "My father told us exactly what happened. There's no need for this."

Ephraim felt some sympathy for Leona Wells, but wondered if inviting her had been a mistake when it meant Rob's angry presence. Then again, Frank was just as much against hearing what Noah would say, but for different reasons.

"It's bad enough having a good idea what happened without hearing the details. I'd rather not know," he said when Ephraim first told him about his invitation to the sheriff.

But Frank was at the table now, smoking one of his thin black cigars and looking unhappy.

Judith and Martha were also there, as were Luke and Pete, grinning and curious.

Ephraim caught Noah's eye and nodded, letting him know it was time to start the story he'd come to tell.

Noah didn't just start in, though. He looked around the table and said, "I've got to tell you this isn't a story ladies can hear. I think the women folk ought to wait in the other room."

Martha was having none of that. "Noah, Cord is like one of my own sons. I'd take it as a personal favor if you'd just tell your story. It would be easier than making Ephraim repeat it later, and if some of what you have to say is too terrible I have the sense to leave the room when you get to it. I expect the same is true of Judith and Leona."

Looking around at the grim-faced women, Noah nodded a reluctant consent. Then he told how Edward came to him and what he found at the ranch and most of what Anne told him when refusing to go home.

At first he was interrupted frequently by Rob, shouting explosively, "I don't believe it!"

Just as Ephraim had had enough of the interruptions and was ready to tell Rob to keep quiet or leave, Frank took care of it for him.

"I'm having some real trouble believing it myself," he said. "Suppose the two us just keep our mouths shut anyway and listen."

Frank's look made it clear that if Rob didn't keep his mouth shut he wasn't going to be around much longer to object to anything.

When Noah finished the story of what Anne had told him, he said, "Now that's just what she said, of course, but I've got to tell you being a lawman means being officially nosey, and so as soon as I had the time I did some asking around. Anne's right about Pratt being lily-livered, I couldn't get anything out of him, and White clammed up on me too, but Mike Benton is tearing himself to pieces with guilt over having been there and not at least riding off like Brown did. He talked to me, and what he said tracked with Anne's story right down the line."

Ephraim had already accepted they were hearing the truth. Frank was still having trouble with it.

"We saw him only a day later. He was in bed - we figured he'd had some ribs stove in - but he didn't look hurt that bad."

"If you saw him all tucked under blankets he wouldn't look too bad," Noah said. "His face looked about like he'd been in a bad fight. They didn't waste much time on his face. I got to admit to you, Frank, I stopped on the way home from there and was sick by the road. I've never seen a man beaten like that and still alive. It's hard to believe all that got broke was his ribs - they didn't miss an inch of him." Noah made a gesture right over his whole body.

"Anne said it was the kicking after he was down, but it was all over, even down his legs and feet. Doc Craig says it was weeks before he decided he wasn't dying slow, he was getting better. But, you see, I thought he was with you then. It never occurred to me Anne was still out there alone with him. When the two of them showed up in town together you could have knocked me over with a feather. I just wouldn't have figured a woman like that would have anything to do with him once he got better. Surprises me even more they seem to get along pretty good. The way she sa.s.ses him he don't scare her any."

After thanking Martha for the dinner, Noah took himself off. Luke and Pete followed Noah out, leaving Rob and Leona and the four older Bennetts sitting in silence around the kitchen table.

Ephraim looked at his wife and said, "Do you want to say you told us so?"

Martha just shook her head.

Grateful that Martha wasn't going to rub it in, Ephraim admitted, "I knew from what we heard in the cafe the other day how wrong we were. Anne didn't understand what she was really telling us, but he did. How did we ever let it come to this, Frank? We took the haters' word for it, and we should have known better."

Frank buried his head in his hands and groaned, "Maybe. Martha, is there any whiskey around? I sure could use a drink."

Martha went to a cupboard and brought back a bottle of whiskey and one of sherry and poured drinks for everyone.

Leona Wells looked very much the way her daughter would in twenty years, but showed none of the spirit so evident in Anne in the Bennetts' recent encounters with her.

Now, looking pathetically unhappy, Leona sipped her sherry and shuddered.

Still trying to find some ground for disbelief, she voiced a tremulous objection. "My daughter was raised better than that. She wouldn't walk in that man's house. Why would she walk in that man's house?"

Ephraim had listened to every word of the story carefully, not inhibited by disbelief.

"Mrs. Wells, tell me, exactly how much had she had to eat, say in the week before she got to Cord's?"

Leona didn't have to answer in words. The look on her face was answer enough.

Rob eventually got his mother calmed down enough to take her home, making it clear he still didn't believe a word of it. They left four quiet and thoughtful people behind.

"So what are we going to do?" Frank said, voicing what was on all their minds.

"There's nothing we can do," Ephraim said. "You know if we went out there and tried to apologize he'd just turn his back and walk away. Buying Martha and me lunch the other day was a peace offering of a sort. We'd better leave it."

So they decided to leave it because they didn't know what else to do.