'Oh, you were thinking all right. You were thinking all about how Quick could have killed Mary Rose. Isn't that true?' Harrison nodded. He was fast beginning to feel like an idiot. 'Listen up, City Boy. There's only one rule to live by out here. Someone's always going to be faster. Always. As long as you remember that, and believe it, you'll stay alive.' He shoved his finger in Harrison 's chest. 'Got that?'
Harrison nodded. Cole let out an expletive. 'We didn't kill any of them.'
'I wish we had,' Harrison admitted. 'I guess I'll round them up and lock them up in the empty store.'
'It won't do any good. They'll only get out. Let the sheriff deal with them.'
'You don't have a sheriff, remember?'
Cole shrugged. 'Do what you want then. You were so angry, you didn't get Quick to confess. He isn't going to now. Get ready. Here comes Mary Rose. She looks as mad as a hornet.'
Harrison didn't want to turn around and look. Mary Rose reached Douglas first.
'Will you get the horses. We're going home. Now.'
'Are you mad about something, Mary Rose?'
'You just shot up the town, Douglas.'
'I didn't shoot anyone. They did. Harrison started it.'
'I'm not in the mood for excuses. You were as much a part of it as they were.'
'Why aren't you in the mood? Anything else happen?'
'Eleanor just called Mrs. Morrison a fat cow. That's what else. Let's go.'
Cole had turned away so his sister wouldn't see his smile. Calling Mrs. Morrison a fat cow was a real mean thing to do. He couldn't help but appreciate the guts it must have taken for Eleanor to stand up to a woman who weighed four times more than she did. It was also a stupid thing to do, but Cole didn't want to dwell on that fact.
Travis wasn't smiling. He was horrified Eleanor had insulted Catherine's mother.
'I'll admit she's a hefty-sized woman, but I wouldn't call her a cow,' he told Mary Rose.
'Mary Rose, come here. I need more money. I've found something I want to buy.'
Eleanor shouted the order from the walkway in front of the store. Mary Rose ignored her. She walked with Douglas to get the horses.
Cole explained Harrison 's plan to Travis and told him to tell Douglas when their sister wasn't within earshot.
Harrison got inside the carriage. He'd given up on the idea of rounding up the wounded men. His only hope was that they all bled to death.
The three brothers left with their sister a few minutes later. Eleanor finally realized she'd been abandoned and ran over to the buggy.
Harrison didn't help her get inside.
'Have you ever seen such rudeness in all your life?' she muttered. 'How dare Mary Rose leave without me. I am her guest, I'll have you remember.'
Harrison gritted his teeth and didn't say a word until they were halfway home. Then he pulled the carriage over to the edge of the road.
'You aren't a guest. You're a charity case.'
She tried to slap him. He grabbed hold of her hand and then let go. 'Or at least you were a charity case.'
'How dare you talk to me like that.'
'Get out, Eleanor.'
She let out a gasp. Her hand flew to her throat. 'What did you say?'
'You heard me. Get out.'
'No.'
'Fine. I'll throw you out.'
'You cannot be serious.'
He reached for her arm. She let out a stone-shattering scream.
Then she got out of the carriage. 'You've lost your senses. When I tell Mary Rose…'
He didn't let her finish her threat. 'I don't think you'll make it back, so I don't have to worry about that, do I?'
'You can't treat me this way.' She burst into tears and threw her hands over her face.
'Mary Rose's brothers will cheer me. I'm making their job easier for them. They were going to give you the boot tomorrow.'
Eleanor was quite remarkable. She stopped weeping in mid sob. 'What do you mean?'
'They're going to make you leave.'
'Mary Rose won't let them.'
'Everyone voted,' he said. He didn't feel at all bad that he was upsetting her. It was time someone shook her up. She'd been acting like a spoiled little princess with a thorn in her backside long enough. The young woman needed to learn the consequences of her actions.
'Adam would vote to let me stay,' she cried out.
'He would if he could,' Harrison agreed. 'But he's head of the household, so he always abstains. Cole, Travis, and Douglas voted against you. I would have, but I'm not a member of the family, so they wouldn't let me vote. In the Clayborne household, majority rules, Eleanor. You've been given every chance. Mary Rose was going to help you pack tonight. I've just saved her the chore.'
'I won't leave.'
'If you should happen to find your way back to the ranch, one of the brothers will haul you back to town and dump you there.'
Harrison wasn't showing any mercy. He was a bit ashamed when he realized how much he was enjoying himself.
Eleanor became hysterical. Harrison picked up the reins and started for the ranch again.
Her screams followed him along the trail. He started whistling in an attempt to block out the noise. It suddenly dawned on him that the screaming wasn't receding. It was getting closer. He turned and saw her running toward him. Eleanor could move when she wanted to. Odd, she couldn't find the strength to come downstairs in the morning to eat with the family, but she could run up a mountain just as fast as the horses were trotting along.
She was shouting colorful obscenities at him. Harrison turned back to the road and increased the pace. According to the plan, Cole would be waiting just around the next bend. He was probably watching Eleanor now, making certain she didn't injure herself or get into trouble.
Cole would eventually become Eleanor's savior. He would make her promise to behave herself and then bring her home.
The rest of the trip was blissfully peaceful for Harrison. He forgot about Eleanor's behavior and concentrated on his own. He was having trouble accepting the fact that he had deliberately provoked a gunfight. He hadn't been acting like a civilized man. No doubt about it, the longer he stayed at the ranch, the more barbaric he became.
His thoughts turned to the confrontation ahead of him. Now that all the brothers were home, he would talk to them tonight. He dreaded the duty, and he thought perhaps his own feelings about the brothers had been yet another reason for his procrastination. They were all good, decent men. Damn, he almost wished they weren't.
Harrison refused to think about Mary Rose's reaction to the fact that he'd been acting under false pretenses from the moment they'd met.
He started down the hill, spotted the ranch in the distance, and suddenly felt as though he were coming home. Three of the four brothers were sitting on the porch. Adam was working inside the corral, riding a black horse Harrison hadn't seen before. The animal was trying to buck his rider off his back. Adam wasn't having any trouble staying on, which was a remarkable feat, given the fact that the brother was riding bareback. He looked as though he were glued to the wild animal's back. Adam's movements were fluid and graceful. It wasn't as easy as it appeared to be though. Adam had taken his shirt off, and Harrison could see the sweat from his strenuous exertion glistening on his shoulders.
Harrison waved to him as he passed him and continued on to the barn. Travis shouted to him. He pointed to a bottle he held up in one hand. Harrison nodded. He took the buggy into the barn, unhitched the horses and put
