"We'll see."

In the end Cord and Anne stayed four days with the Howletts. Marie was totally frustrated by her efforts to take Anne shopping. Anne always ricocheted off in some other direction before they made it to the dressmaker's or the milliner's.

The first time it was a men's shop, where she happily purchased yards of an elegant black suiting material for another suit for Cord and enough material for several white and cream colored shirts. She made no mention of the fact that her own family, in the business, wouldn't even sell her such goods. Marie exchanged a knowing look with Cord, thinking of what their sister Hannah would say about him dressed either in black or white.

The second shopping trip halted when Anne spied a small bookshop. What astounded Marie was that her brother didn't just put up with this, he partic.i.p.ated. The two of them looked over every book on the shelves before purchasing two neither had read before.

Cord was only against "more poetry stuff."

Anne objected, "Shakespeare is poetry, and you read that."

"That's not that romantic foolishness like the rest of what you've got."

She turned around, held out one hand, and said: "'Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night....'"

It should have had him so embarra.s.sed he'd be walking out of the shop. Instead he looked her right in the eye and replied, "You, woman, are 'Past hope, past cure, past help!'"

Marie had done almost no reading since her marriage, but Ephraim, Frank, and Hannah had drummed the cla.s.sics into her as well as her brother, and she recognized both quotes from Romeo and Juliet readily enough. She also understood now what Paul was talking about. She laughed so hard her stomach hurt.

On the last day, she went for a walk alone with Cord. After a considerable amount of meaningless small talk, they came to the heart of it.

Cord said, "I was wrong. If you're happy, that's all that matters."

Marie was surprised by his admission. "I didn't think you'd really changed your mind."

"Guess I did years ago. Having Anne made it even clearer. If pretending would keep her safe, I'd do it in a minute."

"But not for yourself? If you had the face, the skin, and could, wouldn't you rather change things for yourself, get out of that h.e.l.l?"

He broke off a twig from a winter-barren tree, and chewed it thoughtfully. "I never thought of our life as h.e.l.l. It seemed good to me, and I never understood why you wanted something different so much."

"How can you say that? The letters I've been getting for years, the way Frank and Ephraim talk when I see them - why do you think I never came back even for a visit?

After I got over feeling angry at you, even if I'd believed you wouldn't still be angry, they made it sound so awful, going on and on about how bad you were - bitter, withdrawn, mean."

"They'd probably write those same letters again today. We got kind of crossways. It's a little better now, but there are still some things they can't see."

"How can they still think those things? I feel like a fool for believing them myself.

Anybody can see it's not true."

"You know how it is. You make up your mind about something, and then you stop seeing anything that doesn't fit the way you already think things are. Did the same thing myself for a long time - with Anne."

"Maybe it's time to tell them they're wrong."

"Pretty hard thing to tell. What do I do, sit them down and tell them I'm not really a mad dog killer, not really the meanest son of a b.i.t.c.h alive, that I'm smart enough to care about my wife? They're grown men. They'd better figure it out for themselves."

"What if they don't?"

"Guess they won't have a chance now anyway. We're going to have to leave Colorado. Paul may have taken care of the law, but Wells isn't going to give up. His next move may be a bullet in the back from a rooftop, and Anne's as likely a target as I am. I should do something about him, but I can't see explaining to this baby someday that I killed his grandfather."

"He must be crazy."

"Maybe. Anne says it's not just even he's one of the haters. It's that she defied him and got away with it. He can't stand losing. Probably it's some of each."

"Where will you go?"

He shrugged. "Haven't even started talking about it yet."

They walked slowly back towards the house, but Marie stopped and threw her arms around him in a hard hug. "I am so glad to be friends with you again. No matter how much I told myself it didn't matter, it did. The heartache was always there."

He hugged her back equally as hard.

Before they got back to the house she said, "I suppose you aren't going to tell me how you managed to end up married to the Wells girl after all this time?"

Cord actually smiled at her, taking Marie back to that long ago simpler time of childhood when smiles hadn't been rare, then he said, "Just got lucky."

Marie shook her head. Only her brother could almost get killed and consider himself lucky.

On the morning of the fifth day Cord and Anne started for home in a cozy, covered buggy that Paul swore he never used. Still gaunt and looking hard-used but with a resolute gleam in his eyes, Keeper headed out at a ground covering trot. They took three days to get home because of the horse's condition, and the only incident was that in order to get a room the second night Cord had to pull a gun on the hotel owner. But that was all right. There was no sheriff, and the night pa.s.sed peacefully.

CHAPTER 43.

THE CLOSER THEY GOT TO home, the more anxious Anne became about what they would find. She knew that when Cord had left more than a week earlier, he had told Frank to sell off all the stock. How many of the animals would be gone already?

As the buildings came into sight, her heart lifted. Daisy and Rose were grazing behind the barn. Fortune flagged his tail and bucked his way across his own pasture at the sight of the buggy. Foxface only gave a few barks before recognizing Keeper and coming running to escort them the last of the way to the house.

"It doesn't look like Frank sold anything yet, does it?" Anne said as Cord pulled up in front of the house.

"Nope. He wasn't too happy about the whole thing. Probably put it off." He gave her a sympathetic look. "We're going to have to sell them ourselves, you know."

"I know, but we'll try harder to find decent buyers than he would." Anne was already wondering about the chances of convincing Cord to stay, at least until spring. After all there was all that hay in the barns they'd worked so hard to put up. And surely they could stay home and guard against her father for a few months, couldn't they? Luke and Pete would be happy enough to bring anything they needed from town.

As Cord lifted her down from the buggy, Riley came out of the house, then stood there as if turned into another post on the porch as she walked up to him and threw her arms around him in a big hug.

"How are you, Riley?" she asked. "Cord says you were hurt, and here you are, taking care of things for us. Are you all right now?"

"I never been hurt so bad I couldn't milk a couple of cows and feed some pigs and chickens," the old man said indignantly.

Then he turned to Cord. "Frank's been half crazy, boy. He needs to know you're back."

"You can tell him," Cord said. "'Preciate you staying here and taking care of things."

"It's Frank you owe the thanks," Riley said stiffly. "I'll be on my way now."

Anne looked at Cord and saw his slight shrug. "You go lay down. I'll help him saddle up."

"I can saddle my own d.a.m.n horse!" Riley groused.

Anne went inside chuckling to herself. Babysitting milk cows, pigs, and chickens had sure made the old man grumpy.

AFTER HEARING WHAT RILEY HAD to say, Frank Bennett felt something close to despair. He poured himself a double shot of whiskey, turned his desk chair around so that it faced the window and stared out into the yard, seeing nothing.

When Judith came up behind him and pressed a kiss on the top of his head an hour later, she pulled him away from his own dark thoughts. He turned back around and put the empty gla.s.s on the desk.

"What's wrong?" Judith asked.

"My brother is what's wrong," Frank said. "It was stupid of me to ever think things could be better, but I did, and that's when he turned his d.a.m.n back and walked away. So now it's been long enough to get used to that idea, and he's back. Riley says he drove up to the house bold as bra.s.s with Anne beside him. Drove up in some covered buggy Riley's never seen with Cord's saddle horse looking half dead but pulling it. There are fresh scars on Anne's wrists - rope burns he says. Riley's seen enough rope burns in his life, he should know. He always stuck up for him, you know, through all the rest of it. He looks like an old man tonight. A beaten old man."

Something uncertain flickered across Judith's face for a second, but all she said was, "So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. My brother told Riley to tell me to leave them alone for a couple of days. They're tired he says. d.a.m.n him. d.a.m.n him to h.e.l.l a thousand times."

"There's not much we can do anyway, is there?"

"No, not except to tell him we don't ever want to lay eyes on him again."

"That won't help her, and the baby...."

"He'll let her go once there's a baby spoiling his fun. We'll end up with the baby anyway. You know that."

Frank saw the uncertain look on his wife's face again, but furious as he was at Cord and much as he loved his wife, he didn't want to listen to her irrational fears. The truth was bad enough. He got up. "I can't stay here and let it eat at me. I'm going to ride in and talk to Eph. At least it will be a misery shared."

"If you'll take the buggy, I think I'd like to come too."

In the end Luke and Pete rode along, unusually quiet and subdued.

Hearing what little Frank had to tell, Ephraim was frustratingly pragmatic. "All right, Frank. Let's a.s.sume the worst. She left. He got mad and went after her. We all know she'd put up one h.e.l.l of a fight if she didn't want to come back, so he forced her, tied her up, dragged her back, and she's got scars to show for it. Now, what can we do about it?"

"Not much, but I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen or that it's all right. It won't make a d.a.m.n bit of difference what we say or how we feel, but I guess I'm going to have to tell him just how ashamed he makes me."

"You want to go running out there like we did last year?"

Frank grimaced. "No."

"What do you believe, Frank? What do we all believe?" Ephraim looked around the table.

Martha answered first, calm and sure. "I don't think he'd hurt her. I'm going to have to see proof that he did."

Martha's att.i.tude might be no surprise, but Judith's was. "I agree with Martha. He wouldn't hurt her."

Frank was astounded. "And when did you come to that? For G.o.d's sakes, Jude, you've always thought...." He couldn't finish.

Judith was firm. "I came to it this summer. He wouldn't hurt her. I know he wouldn't."

Frank knew Luke and Pete had spent a lot of time in Cord's company this summer and fall. Now he saw the full extent of the change in their att.i.tude towards their uncle.

Luke said, "Pa, I've got to tell you, all the things you've ever said about him - he's not like you say. He's actually easier going than Uncle Eph. All those times Pete and I tried to start a fight - we realized this summer the only way we'd have ever got him to fight was to jump him, and even then he might have walked away. He's just not...."

Frank interrupted, "That's not telling me what you think about this."

Pete said, "Yes, it is really. What Luke's trying to say is not only that we don't think he'd hurt her like that this time, but that it's not in his nature to hurt her - ever."

Ephraim said, "I guess you and I are the doubters for sure, Frank. I think he's capable of it, but I sure as h.e.l.l don't want to believe it, and I guess I'm not going to until I hear her say it or something. I'm not jumping the gun like last year again. I mean it seemed what we thought had to be true then too, didn't it? There wasn't any other explanation. Only there was."

Frank admitted, "I don't want to believe it either. I don't want to believe it so much I can't even decide what I do believe, but now what do we do? Hire Pinkertons?"

"I know patience isn't your forte, Frank, but I say we wait the couple of days and then go talk to them, and we don't go charging in name-calling like last time."

Ephraim was right. Frank wasn't a patient man, and this didn't sit too well with him at all. When the boys decided to sh.o.r.e sagging spirits with a visit to their old saloon haunts, he was tempted to go with them, but in the end he stayed at the house and chased his own thoughts in painful circles all night.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Frank could tell he wasn't the only one who hadn't slept well. n.o.body had much to say. The knock on the door offered a welcome diversion until Frank saw who walked in.

Noah Reynolds introduced the stocky, middle-aged man with him. "This here is Marshal Jessup. He's a federal marshal, and he's got a warrant for Cord. We know Cord ain't been out at the ranch lately. You know where he is?"

Without stopping to think, Frank said, "No, he left more than a week ago. Gave us the impression he didn't plan on coming back. You know Anne left him."

"Yeah. Everybody in town knows that. Left for Chicago on the train with her folks.

That's what this warrant's for. Breaking and entering, a.s.sault, kidnapping. He took Anne out of her aunt's house in Chicago, broke into the house, beat up some judge while he was at it. It's bad, Frank, real bad. If there's any way you can help get him in custody without people getting killed it would be a blessing. They'll get him in the end. You know that."

No matter his private opinion of anything Cord had done, Frank wasn't giving his brother up to the law. "We don't know where he is. Sit down and have some coffee while you're here, Noah. What else do you know?"

Noah didn't even consult the marshal, just lowered himself heavily into a chair.

"That's all I know, and I'm having a lot of trouble with it, I don't mind telling you. Seen a lot of them two this past summer, and I can't believe she left him to start with, and I can't believe he did what they're saying to finish with."

"She did leave him. I saw her note."

"Well, I just plain have trouble with it. I'd have bet you couldn't drag her away with a team of horses."

Luke lifted tired eyes from his empty breakfast plate. "Pa? Last night when Pete and I were talking around, we heard some things. Strange things. Anybody interested?"

Knowing Luke would not give away his lie, Frank nodded.

"Wells' shop hasn't been open since the day Anne disappeared. Mr. and Mrs. Wells went to Chicago with her, but Rob's in town. They say he was drunk for days. n.o.body saw him except when he went out for another bottle, and after that he still didn't leave the house. Mrs. Wells came back on the train two days ago by herself, and she and Rob were in Miles' store buying groceries. He looked like h.e.l.l but he was sober, and she looked like an old lady, like she could hardly walk without leaning on him. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk to Mrs. Wells. She'd know what really happened, wouldn't she?"

Marshal Jessup's voice was soft and pleasant, but no-nonsense. "I'm not here to investigate, just to make an arrest. There's a warrant, you understand."

Ephraim was already on his feet. "Yes, we do understand, but you can't arrest him if n.o.body knows where he is now, can you? I think I'd like to talk to Mrs. Wells."