The three Slater brothers were seated in velvet-upholstered chairs around a handsome wood table drinking whiskey from crystal glasses at the judge's invitation. Cole was intense, straddled across his chair, leaning on the back, his eyes silver and his features taut as he spoke. Malachi leaned back, listening to his brother, more at ease. Jamie was, for all appearances, completely casual and negligent, accepting his drink with ease. He wore a broad- brimmed Mexican hat, chaps and boots, and looked every bit the rancher. Only the way his eyes narrowed now and then told Malachi that his younger brother was every bit as wary this night as he and Cole.
Two friends of Jamie's from Texas were playing lookout while the brothers spoke with Judge Sherman Woods. Cole, seated to Malachi's left, was earnestly explaining what had happened at the beginning of the war, how his wife had been killed, how the ranch had been burned and how, sick with grief, he had joined up with the bushwhackers for vengeance.
'But I never gunned down a man in cold blood in my life, judge,' Cole said simply. 'Never. I always fought fair. I wasn't with Quantrill more than a few months, then I went regular cavalry. I was assigned as a scout. I took my orders directly from Lee. I was in Kansas, and I did kill Henry Fitz, but it was fair. Any man who was there could tell you that.'
Judge Woods lit up a cigar and sat back. Malachi liked the man. He hadn't panicked when the masked bushwhackers had seized the train, and he had barely blinked when the Slaters had reseized it from the robbers at gunpoint, sending them on their way into the night. He was a tall thin man with a neatly trimmed mustache and iron-gray hair. He wore a stovepipe hat and a brocade vest and a handsome black frock coat and fancy shoes, but he seemed to be listening to Cole. He looked from one brother to the other. 'What about you?' he asked Jamie.
Jamie smiled with innocent ease. 'Judge, this is the first time I've been in Kansas since 1856. I was damned stunned to hear that I was a wanted man. And amazed that any fool could think that my brother was a murderer.''
The judge arched one brow. He turned to Malachi. 'And what about you, captain?''
Malachi shrugged. 'I wasn't in Kansas. I spent most of the end of the war in Kentucky, then in Missouri. I would have come to Kansas, though, if I had thought that Cole might need me. Fitz was a murderer. He killed my sister-in-law. He killed lots of other people. And it seems to me, sir, that if we're really going to call a truce to this war, we have to prosecute all the murderers, the Yank murderers, too. Now Hayden Fitz is holding an innocent woman. God alone knows what he could want with her, and so help me, I can't understand what law he is using to get away with this legally.'
The judge lifted his hands. 'You do realize that what you're doing right now is illegal?'
'Yes, it is,' Cole admitted.
'But we did stop those other fellows from robbing you blind,' Malachi reminded him.
'Of course. All right, I've listened to your story. And God knows, gentlemen, I, for one, am anxious to see an end to the hostilities! I'm afraid we won't live to see it, but I'm a father of four, and I keep praying that maybe the next gen-eration will see something good come to this land. You had best slip off this train and disappear into the night, the same way that you came. I give you my word of honor that I will look into this situation immediately. If you're patient, I'll see that your wife is freed, Cole Slater. But I suggest that the three of you remain out of sight for the time being. Understood? And, oh—stay away from Fitz. We don't want him finding you.'
Malachi looked at Cole, and Cole looked at Jamie. They all shrugged. They
They shook hands with the judge. Outside the club car, Jamie waved to his friends, and they jumped from where they were standing on the engine platform and the mail car. The five men hurried quietly for their waiting horses, then galloped away into the darkness of the night.
A half mile from the train, they left Jamie's friends, Cole and Malachi voicing their thanks earnestly. The two men had served with Jamie during the war. 'Don't mind helping a Slater,' said the older of the two. 'Jamie pulled me out of a crater in December of '64. I owe him my life.'
'Thanks just the same,' Jamie said, tilting his hat. Malachi and Cole echoed the words.
Then the brothers were alone together, riding through the night.
Malachi flashed Jamie a smile. 'Well, I admit, it seemed like a reckless plan to begin with, but it went fairly well.'
'Nothing really gained,' Jamie murmured.
'Nothing lost,' Cole said, sighing. Malachi saw his brother's frown in the moonlight. 'And we're close enough. If Fitz does threaten Kristin…'
'Then we are close, and we just get a little more reckless,' Malachi said. He urged the bay along a little faster.
'Hey!' Jamie called out to him. 'What's your hurry now? We're not being pursued.'
Malachi reined in. 'I…Shannon is supposed to be coming in tonight.'
Jamie started to laugh. 'That hellcat in a whorehouse? You're right. Let's hurry.'
Cole grinned. 'It will be good to see her,' he said softly. 'I've missed Miss McCahy.'
Malachi hesitated, then he muttered. 'Mrs. Slater.'
'What?' Both brothers queried him.
'Mrs. Slater,' he repeated. He looked from Jamie to Cole. They stared at him in amazement.
'They were going to hang me,' Malachi explained lamely. 'I—er, we kind of had to do it.'
'She married a Reb?' Jamie demanded.
'She married—you?' Cole said.
'I told you, they were going to hang me if we didn't. Damn it, quit staring at me like that!' He swore. He urged the bay forward. 'It's a long, long story and I'm not in the mood for it tonight.'
'Cole, come on now, hurry!' Jamie laughed. 'I am anxious to hear this! The hellcat married to my brother! Mrs. Sweet-little-hellcat Slater, holed up in a whorehouse! I can't wait.'
Malachi ignored his brother and urged his horse faster. He wanted to see Shannon. His heart was pounding; his body was aching. They would have to take some time. She would need to see and hug and hold Cole, and she would laugh and maybe cry and then hug Jamie fiercely, too. But then they would be alone.
And he was realizing more and more that he had come to live for the moments when they could be alone.
She was his wife…
And he was very anxious to lie down beside her that night. He had no idea until they rode into the yard in the darkness of the night that he would be denied that simple pleasure.
Shannon breathed a sigh of relief as they reached town. No one thought to molest two women riding in a buckboard, and when Iris reined in just to the right of Hayden Fitz's massive dwelling, with its barred windows and guards, they were still left entirely alone. The man before the door raised a hand to Iris, and a grin broke out on his features.
'Why, Miss Andre. Nice to see you.'
'Herb Tanner,' Iris told Shannon with a sniff. She reached in back of her for the basket of food they had packed. 'I think that you should sit tight—'
'Who's that you got with you?' the man called out.
'Never mind,' Iris said beneath her breath. 'You keep quiet. Let me do the talking.' Iris looked at her and shook her head mournfully. 'A beautiful young blue-eyed blonde. You could be in trouble just by being here. I wish I had a sheet to put over your head. Keep your mouth shut, you hear?'
'I'll be silent as a mouse,' Shannon promised.
She crawled out of the buckboard behind Iris and followed the older woman toward the house. Herb Tanner was holding a repeating rifle, but he seemed to consider his guard duty a bit of a joke. He set the gun down to sweep his hat off to Iris.
'Hello, Herb,' Iris said sweetly.
'Hello, Iris!' Herb said happily. 'The boss man is engaged this evening, if you come to see him.' He spoke to Iris, but he looked over her shoulder to Shannon, offering her a broken-toothed and lascivious grin.
'Well, Herb, I really came for curiosity's sake.'
Herb's grin widened. 'You curious about me, Iris?'
