“That’s fine. I’m sure you can nip this in the bud. I like Hannah and Gerty, both, and it would be a shame to have them at each other’s throats.”
For breakfast I had six eggs, four sizzling strips of bacon, toast smothered in jam, and enough coffee to drown a moose. I took my time. As I was draining my last cup, several cowboys came in, spoke in soft tones to the pair already there, and all five hurried out.
So Hank and his friends were already missed.
I paid and strolled about town, smiling and doffing my hat to the ladies. In the afternoon I played billiards. I kept an eye to the west, but the cowboys did not return.
It was pushing six o’clock, and I had just sat down in the restaurant to have my supper, when a commotion drew me and everyone else outside.
The five cowboys were back, four of them with bodies wrapped in blankets over the backs of their horses. They had not dismounted.
“Who did it?” I heard a townsman ask.
“How did it happen, George?” asked another.
The cowpoke he had addressed was grinding his teeth in anger. “Who do you reckon is to blame?” he snapped. “Who else but those stinking, no-good, cattle-rustling trash, the Butchers!”
“Do you have proof?” a woman wanted to know.
George pointed at a body. “What more proof do you need? Mrs. Tanner sent Hank and these others to hunt for missing cows on the Dark Sister. The Butchers live there, don’t they?”
“What about Injuns?” someone suggested.
“Would Injuns have covered the bodies with rocks? Would Injuns have left the scalps?”
George had an answer for everything, and I could see he was convincing most of the crowd. I had not counted on this. It could be a lynch party would form, and they would ride out to the Butcher place and decorate the woods with human fruit. In which case I would not be paid.
Raising my arms, I moved out into the street. “Brothers! Sisters! I beg you, judge not! We must not be rash.”
“Stay out of this, Parson,” George said.
“That’s no way to talk to a man of the Lord,” a woman objected, and received support from others.
I put my hand on George’s boot. “I understand your anger, brother. I understand your grief.”
He balled his fists, but did not strike me. “Then you won’t hold it against us if we ride to the LT, gather up the rest of the hands, and do to the Butchers what should have been done months ago.”
“Now, now,” I said. “By all means, take the bodies to the ranch. But there will be no vigilante justice. Not while I am here.”
“This doesn’t concern you,” George said.
“ ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ ” I quoted. “I have a right to speak on the Lord’s behalf to save you from perdition.”
“Oh, hell,” George said.
The other cowboys grumbled, but I was having an effect. I pressed on. “Advise Mr. and Mrs. Tanner that I will be out to the LT tomorrow at noon to conduct services. I expect everyone on the ranch to attend.”
I pumped the hand of each cowboy in a show of brotherliness. As they rode off, Calista’s shoulder brushed mine.
“That was a good thing you just did. Hanging the Butchers would be wrong.”
“Someone should ride out and warn them.” Even as I said it, I was plotting ahead. Luck had placed a fine opportunity in my lap.
“I would go, but I have no one to look after things,” Calista said.
Neither could I. Not and be back in time for the funeral at the LT. I mentioned as much.
“I know a boy I can hire to ride out.”
That settled, I ate supper. The restaurant filled, and all anyone talked about was the murders. Whiskey Flats had not seen this much excitement since the town was founded.
I was in good spirits. Another twenty-four hours and I could start doing what I was being paid to do. I went for a walk and put on quite a show; I had a pleasant greeting for everyone I met. The townsfolk were right friendly. It occurred to me that I could start up a church if I was of a mind to and live out the rest of my days in ease and peace. I wouldn’t ever get rich, but I wouldn’t die of lead poisoning, either, a not-so-rare fate for Regulators.
Yes, sir, I was feeling downright capital, as those gents from London say, when I returned to my room. I planned to turn in early and head out to the LT in the morning. But I wasn’t counting on finding someone perched in the chair by the window.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Daisy Butcher said. “Calista let me in.
“You’ve heard about the four cowboys who were shot?”
Daisy nodded and rose, careful now to let herself be glimpsed from below. “Calista told me. But I will swear on the Bible, if you want, that me and mine had nothing to do with it.”
“Everyone else thinks otherwise.”
“It’s not right, them accusing us of something we didn’t do,” Daisy said sadly. “They’d blame us for flies and measles and gout if they could.”
I was about to take her in my arms and console her when I noticed my bedroll and saddlebags poking from under the end of the bed. Yet I distinctly recalled sliding them all the way under. Despite the lingering heat of the day, a chill seized me. “How long have you been waiting?”
“No more than fifteen minutes.” The top of her head came only as high as my chin, and she had to tilt her head back to look me in the eyes. “Ma sent me with a message. Me and Tyrel and Clell.”
Disappointed, I asked, “Where are they?”
“Over behind the livery. The man who owns it is our friend. It was him who warned us when we rode in that we were in danger of being strung up on sight.”
My fingers tingling, I sat on the edge of the bed. “What is so important your ma couldn’t wait?”
“It’s about the meeting with the Tanners. She wants it to be the day after tomorrow at one in the afternoon, right here in town.” Daisy bit her lower lip in thought. “But I reckon that can’t be now, can it?”
“I doubt Gertrude would accept the invite.” I went to the window and peered toward the livery but could not spot her brothers. “The best thing for you to do is ride like the wind and warn your loved ones they might be gurgling at the end of ropes if they let down their guard.”
“The townsfolk wouldn’t!” Daisy declared. “Not without a trial!”
I went into my preacher act. “Hate makes folks do crazy things. Look at Cain and Abel. Brother slew brother out of pure mean hate. And that pharaoh who hated Moses on account of the plagues of frogs and bugs.”
“But we’re innocent!”
“I believe you, my dear. But most folks here believe differently. To say nothing of the LT cowhands.”
Daisy began to pace. “This is terrible. We should make ourselves scarce. Pack our effects and skedaddle someplace where we will be accepted for who we are and not judged to be trash just because we don’t live like everyone else or have much money.”
I didn’t want the thousand dollars slipping through my fingers, so I said, “No need to go to that extreme. I’m on your side. So is Calista. Give us a few days to calm everyone down.”
“Oh, Reverend,” Daisy gushed, and threw her arms around my neck in gratitude.
My skin grew warm and prickly. I held her loosely, afraid to pull her close for fear of how my body would react. “ ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, ’ ” I mumbled.
Daisy kissed me. Not a chaste kiss, either, but the kind of kiss a woman gives a man when she has a certain kind of hunger deep inside her.
Damn me for being human. Double damn me for not having any more willpower than any other man.
“I’ll take your advice,” Daisy said huskily in due course. “Ty and Clell and me will sneak off and tell Ma to wait until we hear from you.”
It was dark enough that they should be able to slip out of Whiskey Flats undetected, but I insisted on going ahead and having her follow me, signaling when it was safe with a wave of my hand. In that way we made it down the hall and down the stairs and out the back door. Once we reached the street, I had her walk on the inside, her
