“I never said you were pathetic,” she replied, but like most men she’d known he was nearly pathetic and certainly easy to manipulate—every man but Daniel Shaye.
Alvin Simon was a young man with a bright future, which meant that he had money and he had the means and the smarts to make more. That made him a good choice for Belinda. But if she could not convince Daniel Shaye and his sons to kill Jeb Collier for her, then Jeb was certainly going to kill Alvin Simon, Belinda’s golden goose.
“But you’re not a gunman. That’s what it will take to kill Jeb,” she finished.
“Gunmen like these Shaye men you keep talking about?” Simon asked. “I read about these men back East, Belinda. They are all killers…back shooters. How could you associate yourself with such…ruffians? First Jeb Collier and then Matthew Shaye?” He grabbed her arms. “You’re so much better than that, my darling.”
She allowed him to draw her into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder. “You’re the only one who thinks so, Alvin.”
“I don’t think so, I know so,” he said. “I’ll protect you, dearest. I promise.”
“I know you mean to,” she said, but she knew that if she didn’t do something, Alvin Simon and his money would be lost to her.
“That’s not possible,” Marion said when the sheriff finished his story. “Mr. Shaye must be wrong.”
“Marion,” Cotton said, “she gets her way all the time.”
“That’s because we love her,” Marion said, “not because she manipulates us.”
“Are you sure, Marion?” he asked. “Are you sure it isn’t Little Matt that you love?”
“Well, of course I love him.” She hugged the little boy close to her breast, kissing his forehead.
“What if it is true?” Cotton asked. “Then what?”
“You mean, that some desperados are on their way here and one of them thinks he’s this child’s father?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you’re the law…you’ll tell them to leave town.”
“Don’t be naive, Marion,” he said. “You’ve been a lawman’s wife long enough to know it doesn’t work that way. It’s more than likely I’d have to make them leave.”
“Could you?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I really haven’t had to deal with anything like this since taking this job. Drunken cowboys, yes. Gunmen, no.”
“But…you have deputies.”
“Two young deputies,” he said. “They’re not equipped for this.”
Marion began to pace, bouncing the baby as she did.
“I can’t believe this,” she said. “If he’s right…we can’t let them take the baby, Riley. And if she’s been using us, we should put her out.”
“And keep the baby?” he asked. “Her baby?”
“Her baby?” She stopped pacing and faced him. “She never feeds him, I do. She never picks him up when he cries, I do.” Her anger was sudden and fierce.
“Marion,” he asked, “how long have you been this angry?”
“All right,” she said, “all right, so I know she’s using us. I see the way she wraps you around her little finger. But I love Little Matt.” She hugged the baby tightly. “I was willing to put up with her to keep him here.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She looked away.
“I didn’t think you’d believe me,” she said. “She’s so young, so pretty…I see that way you look at her.”
“Marion!” he said. “I never—”
“I know you never have, Riley,” she said, “but sometimes I think…you want to.”
“Marion,” he said, putting his hand on her arm, “I love you.”
“And I love you, Riley,” she said. “What do we do?”
“Well, we’ll let the Shayes make up their minds,” he said. “If they decide that this baby is part of their family, they’ll do whatever they can to protect him.”
“You mean, they’ll fight this Jeb Collier and his men? And kill them?”
“Yes.”
“And then what?” she asked. “Will they want to take Belinda and the baby with them?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think I could convince them to leave the baby with us. After all, they’re three men living without a woman.”
“But Belinda—”
“Belinda can’t control Dan Shaye,” Cotton said. “He sees right through her.”
“But how do we get Belinda to leave him here if we put her out?” she asked.
“If what you say is true about her, then she won’t want to take him with her. Or if she’s the kind of girl Shaye thinks she is, maybe she’ll sell the baby to us.”
“
“I don’t know,” he said. He stroked Little Matt’s chubby cheek with one finger. He had to admit he loved the child too. He also had to admit—to himself, but never to his wife—that he had, in the past, entertained the thought of being with Belinda. If she would leave, then that temptation would be removed forever.
“I think we’ll have to wait and see what happens when Jeb Collier and his men get here, Marion.”
“But if Dan Shaye and his sons won’t face them, you’ll have to,” she said.
“It’s my job.”
“You could be killed.”
“Maybe.”
“I love this child, Riley,” she said, “but I don’t want to trade him for you.”
He was thinking she wouldn’t have to. If Jeb Collier killed him, he and his gang would probably take the child—and Belinda—away with them.
He didn’t tell her that, though.
30
That night when Dan Shaye turned in he made sure Thomas and James did as well. He didn’t want to take the chance of any more trouble with drunken ranch hands.
At breakfast they talked about what they would do if they were to decide that Little Matt was, indeed, Matthew’s son.
“We could take both of them back with us to the ranch,” James said.
Shaye and Thomas didn’t comment.
“Are we goin’ back to the ranch, Pa?”
“Well, we have to go back,” Shaye said. “Even if we decide not to live there, we’d have to sell it.”
“Without a ranch,” Thomas said, “What would we do with a woman and a child?”
“It might not be up to us,” Shaye said. “What if Belinda doesn’t want to leave here?”
“But now that the sheriff knows she’s not who she pretends to be, would they let her stay with them?” James asked.
“I don’t know,” Shaye said. “That would have to be between them. All we have to do right now is decide if the boy is Matthew’s or not. The rest will come after that.”
Thomas pushed his plate away.
“What if what she says about this gang is true?” he asked. “What if all she wants is for us to get rid of them? And the rest is a lie?”
“I get the feeling this girl has lied a lot,” Shaye said. “Maybe the gang is a lie too. Today I’ll send some telegrams to find out.”
James finished his coffee and set his cup down.
“If we’re all done,” Shaye said, pushing his chair back, “we can go and do that right now.”
