He'd hoped it would take her a while to come to that, but should have known she'd figure it out pretty quickly. "We'd have to go anyway. It's either kill your father or go, and if I didn't kill him over this I'm not going to."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and began telling Paul and Marie the story. When she got to where they were all in the library in Chicago, she stopped.

Without urging, Cord told of returning from town with Frank, getting Frank to agree to send Riley, and then realizing the note had to be a forgery. He told of his talk with Rob over the whiskey bottle and of the decision to ride to Denver. The ride itself he glossed over in a sentence.

In Chicago it had been easy to find a cab driver to help for enough money. In fact the man entered into the spirit of things and advised Cord to enter the house from the back.

He said the windows and doors the servants used might not be secured, and sure enough, there had been an unlocked window off the kitchen. Cord had expected Anne to be confined in a bedroom, attic, or bas.e.m.e.nt, but heard voices in the library as he stole through the house.

He stopped there, giving Anne a nod that told her to finish the story, which she did in a few sentences.

Marie was no longer looking withdrawn and angry. Paul was plainly indignant on their behalf. "And you think now they'll try to have you arrested? They won't be able to make charges stick."

Cord drawled, "Don't have to. Probably wouldn't be too safe in prison waiting for trial if Mrs. Wainwright and Wells put me there."

Paul sat frowning. "What were the papers the judge didn't want you to have?"

Cord shrugged. "Never looked at them. I only took them because he seemed so fond of them. They're still in my coat."

"Do you mind if I look at them?"

After Cord fetched the papers, Paul read them all before looking up. "Small wonder he was frightened. You aren't going to have to worry about arrest or anything else from these people. If you want to, you can have the lot of them in prison for the rest of their natural lives."

Anne uncurled and sat on the edge of her chair. "Explain please."

"Gladly. First, there's a letter from Mrs. Wainwright's lawyer, a Bruce Abbott. It sets forth exactly what she directed him to do and advises her of exactly how it's illegal and what the consequences would be if they were caught."

"She'll say she never saw the letter."

"Yes, but he'll have to testify to the truth to save himself. Then they have all the doc.u.ments - to have you committed, to have the marriage annulled. The most d.a.m.ning thing is they signed these doc.u.ments. There has to be a court hearing, Anne, and there wasn't, and the judge signed these papers already. Your father signed an annulment pet.i.tion as your guardian, but there hadn't been a hearing appointing him yet."

"Can't they just say there was a court hearing?"

"No. There are too many people involved - court clerks, secretaries. These papers are pretty clear evidence that they were conspiring. And if your mother, your brother, or Abbott would tell the truth - they kidnapped you, and what they were going to do to you.... There isn't a judge or jury in the country that wouldn't want to hang them and end up throwing the book at them."

Paul looked from one to the other. "My suggestion is that you allow me to put these in my safe and that tomorrow morning we send some telegrams. If they were worried about Ephraim, it would be good for them to hear from another lawyer, and we might as well let them know as soon as possible that you know what these papers represent and what you can do with them."

Cord exchanged a long look with Anne. Then he turned to Paul, "We aren't going back to Chicago for a trial, so it isn't a matter of getting them jailed. Can you use those papers to get any charges against me dropped?"

Paul nodded grimly. "You bet I can."

Standing then and stretching, Cord said to Marie, "I know you don't want us here.

We'll see about a hotel tomorrow and take a train home as soon as we can."

She gave him a genuine smile. "If I had a gun, I'd have shot you that first day, but it seems the servants are accepting you're the son of an old friend of Paul's. I'd like you to stay a while - really."

She surprised him, but even after all the years he knew her well enough to see she meant it.

Before they went to bed, Anne insisted on visiting Keeper once more, holding the sugar in the horse's unwilling mouth until it dissolved. As they left the barn Cord looked back and saw the horse's haggard, drooping outline in the moonlight. Tomorrow he would have to find a way to visit the barn by himself - with a gun.

CHAPTER 42.

CORD ROSE AT THE FIRST SIGN of light the next morning, slipping noiselessly from Anne's side. Sometimes he was glad Anne slept more soundly than he and awakened more slowly. He padded softly out of the room, rifle dangling from his right hand again.

There was already activity in the barn, nickers and banging as Burt fed eager horses.

Standing in a shadow, Cord watched Burt dump a measure of grain into the feeder of the fancy carriage horse Paul had driven him to the train station with. As the barn quieted, Cord stepped out of the darkness, startling the old man slightly, but then Burt grinned. "If you brought the rifle for your horse, you're too late. Should have done it yesterday."

It made no sense. The horse was bad off, but not enough so to die overnight by himself.

"Don't believe me? Come on and see."

The two men walked down to the far end of the barn, but before they came to the last stall Cord could see Keeper's gaunt shape. The big gelding was busy licking the last grains of oats from the feedbox.

Burt was as pleased as a doctor showing off a miracle cure. "Looked in on him first thing this morning, and everything in the stall was gone - hay, grain, water - he was starting on the bedding. I hung an extra water pail in there. Needs as much as he can get I figure."

Cord walked closer, leaning over the open upper half of the door. The big horse spotted him and left the feedbox to come over and give him a hard nudge in the shoulder.

"Looking for sugar, I expect."

"I'm not the one in the family that carries sugar." Cord gave the gelding an affectionate rub behind the ears.

"Never thought much of it myself. Never thought much of talking to a horse like it was human either. That lady of yours might have changed my mind. That true what she said yesterday about her being in trouble?"

"Yeah, it's true."

"I owe you an apology then. I guess that lady's worth riding down a whole bunch of horses."

Cord looked into the seamed old face and nodded. "Yeah, she is." His gaze returned to the horse. "I feel like the people in the Bible must have when Lazarus got up and walked off, but I don't know why I'm surprised. She's done it before."

Burt chuckled and started to return to his work. "She must be pretty handy to have around."

The house was beginning to stir as he headed back for the bedroom. Sounds of servants chattering and laughing came from the kitchen. He was leaning the rifle back against the wall when Anne's voice came. "I didn't hear a shot."

Sitting on the edge of the bed looking down at her, he took her hands in his. "That's because there wasn't one. d.a.m.n horse is chowing down everything he can get his mouth around. Only problem will be if he goes into another decline because I didn't have any sugar for him. What are you going to do the first time it doesn't work?"

"Feel terrible and cry."

Whatever he might have said next was lost when he felt a distinct flutter against the back of one of his hands where they rested against her stomach. He started a little. "Is that it?"

"No, that's not 'it'. That's our son or our daughter."

He freed his hands then and spread one right across her belly, centered where the movement had been. Intent and still, he was rewarded by another little series of flutters.

"He stopped."

"She stopped. You can't expect her to exercise to exhaustion just to entertain you."

"Made up your mind this is a girl?"

"No. I don't want to call my own baby 'it' is all, so one day I think he and the next day I think she, and that way I'll be right half the time. Today is a she day."

For the most part, they had avoided the subject of how either of them felt about the coming child these last weeks. He pulled her to a sitting position now, holding her tight against him, one hand still spread across her stomach. "I knew it would be hard, but I didn't expect it to be this bad."

"They already had it planned. It had nothing to do with the baby really."

"Maybe not, but it's still going to be hard. Paul's probably right about them backing down on the criminal charges, but your father's not going to give up. We're still going to have to leave."

"I know. But if we're not fugitives, at least we'll have time to pack and take things we want. Maybe it will be easier without both our families at us all the time. Do you realize that our friends haven't said anything except they're happy for us - it's our relatives that have caused all the trouble?"

It was true. As word of Anne's condition spread through Mason, Cord had had his hand shaken more times in the last weeks than ever before in his life. Anne was fussed over by people as diverse as Helene LeClerc and Virginia Stone. In the middle of her father's store, Rachel Ross had publicly defied her husband by hugging Anne.

There were also a lot of dirty looks and low-voiced scathing remarks, of course, but the people making them seemed unimportant, just the usual haters. She was right about that - their friends were happy for them, and the rest didn't matter.

"Annie, on the train, there was too much time to think. Mostly I was scared out of my mind what they'd do to you if I couldn't stop them, but there was something else too. I felt like they were stealing more than just you - something else that mattered. It surprised me.

It - she - isn't hardly thickening your waist much yet, but I already feel something - possessive, protective - I don't know."

Her hands cupped his face, thumbs caressing his cheekbones. "I love you, Mr.

Bennett."

"Good thing. Hate to be the only one afflicted."

Several kisses later, she at last asked him. "What's wrong with your family?"

"Ah, well, my family think they're going to have to raise our daughter themselves.

Frank and Eph aren't getting any younger. They'd probably rather not."

"What! That's absurd. Where are we going to be?"

"I imagine there are several theories."

"Like what?"

"Once you get big and fat and not so much fun, or once the baby comes and disturbs my sleep, I'll stop being merely occasionally mean to you and turn into a real b.a.s.t.a.r.d, and you'll leave me, and your family won't let you keep my child, so...."

"I should have shot them when I had the chance."

"Mm. According to that note, your family must have had the same notion. And then, of course, if you're stubborn and don't let me drive you out, I could just get so fed up I'd throw you and the offspring out in that snowdrift you mentioned once. Have about the same effect."

"Ephraim must be a dreadful lawyer if he insists on clinging to insane notions in the face of so much evidence." Then she questioned one thing particularly. "How are you going to feel when I'm big and fat and not so much fun?"

"Don't suppose I'd like it much permanently, but I think you'll look kind of cuddly when you waddle."

"I will not waddle!"

"All women waddle at the end."

"You rat." She belied her words by snuggling against him, kissing his neck. "Do you suppose they'll admit they're wrong before she's eighteen?"

"Wouldn't bet on it."

"Maybe life will be easier far away from them all."

It d.a.m.n well wouldn't, and Cord knew it, but he didn't say so.

After breakfast Cord and Paul left for the telegraph office, and Anne spent some time with Marie. In spite of widely disparate views of almost everything, Anne found she liked the other woman.

Marie told Anne she could hardly believe she was the same Anne Wells who had once pulled Priscilla Carson off her.

Anne said, "It's a coincidence of sorts, but I don't see why you find it that amazing."

"From the story of how you got married, I don't see how Cord could have arranged it, but somehow I bet he did."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"For weeks after that business in school all he talked about was you. That good, brave, kind, pretty Wells girl. I finally got so jealous I told him I didn't ever want to hear your name again, and so he stopped talking about it, but that doesn't mean he stopped thinking about it." Marie studied Anne with furrowed brows. "It's just too much to be a coincidence."

This tidbit from long ago delighted Anne. "Well, I always rather liked him after that too, you know. I never believed half the things people said about him."

THAT NIGHT, ALONE IN THEIR bedroom, Paul and Marie discussed their visitors as they prepared for bed.

Paul said, "Darling, I have to tell you, all the stories, all the letters, I thought your brother was a cross between Lucifer and one of those renegade Indians the government is always after, but I like him. I really like him. You should hear some of his stories about Anne. He calls her the Tigress and makes it sound as if Atilla the Hun should be afraid of her, and then it's clear he feels sorry for the rest of the world because she's his. I haven't laughed so hard in years. Do you know that if the baby's a girl she hopes it looks like you?"

Marie looked at Paul's kind face with affection. She felt little pa.s.sion for this gentle man who had rescued her from a life she was desperate to leave, but she had come to love him dearly in other ways.

"No, she didn't tell me that, but she told me she wants a boy to look like Cord. She thinks he's beautiful! " Just saying this started Marie laughing again. "I think she probably believes he can walk on water. I couldn't even picture in my mind a woman that would suit him. I didn't believe there was such a thing, and today I realized he's probably been in love with her since they were ten years old." She explained about Priscilla Carson.

Paul grinned at her. "Evidently Frank and Ephraim don't even think he likes her. They think he puts up with her because she's handy. He's so humorous about it I thought I'd fall out of the carriage."

"You know this is the way he was years ago. Not the last years before I left, but when we were young. Relaxed, easy. Too quiet for most people maybe, but fun to be around."

"You really need to get off by yourselves and talk, sweetheart. It's long past due."

Marie looked away. "He probably hasn't changed his mind. It will just open all the old wounds."

"I can't force you, but I think you're wrong. You should try."