Linnet’s daughter Georgina soon lost her shyness when she saw an older woman walking beside twin girls, and Georgina ran ahead to meet them.
“That’s Justin and Oliver’s mother, Esther,” Linnet said with some sadness in her voice as they approached the woman. “Doll’s nearly worn her out with having so many children. The twins are her granddaughters. Their mother, Lissie, died in childbirth.”
Leah was introduced to Esther Stark and the six-year-old twins, and afterward Linnet led Leah to the Macalister store. “It’s grown some in the last few years,” Linnet explained, “and now I do the bookkeeping so Devon has more time off. It’s all worked out quite well,” she said in a dreamy way that seemed private to Leah.
Before the empty fireplace sat an old, thin man, idly whittling on a stick.
“This here the new one?” the man asked.
“Allow me to introduce Doll Stark,” Linnet said. “This is Mrs. Leah Stanford.”
Leah nodded to the man, all the while remembering everything Justin had said about his father.
Doll looked at Leah for a long moment and seemed to sense her dislike of him. “I think I’ll go see to some things,” he said, rising.
When they were alone in the store, surrounded by shelves of merchandise, Linnet spoke, a small frown on her face. “He’s a very lonely man now since Phetna and old Gaylon died.” At the puzzled look on Leah’s face, she explained. “After Devon and I were married, Doll used to sit in here with his friends, Gaylon and Phetna, but when they died, most of the life went out of Doll. Devon has been trying to find someone to sit in here with Doll but no one nowadays seems to have quite such a capacity for inactivity. Perhaps it’s all the travelers passing through here. Everything seems so much faster now.”
Leah could hear all the love in Linnet’s voice and it was the same as hearing another side to the story. Justin despised his father for his laziness while others loved Doll for it.
It was while they were inside the store that they heard a woman’s screams outside.
“That’s Miranda,” Linnet said with a gasp and started running.
Outside, tearing down the main street, was a runaway team of horses pulling a wagon that lurched drunkenly from one side to the other. On the seat, trying her best to hold on, was a pretty young girl with wild, frightened eyes, hair flying about her face.
“Devon!” Linnet screamed as the wild wagon ran past Leah and her. The next moment the two women started running after the wagon, Linnet’s face a mask of terror.
Neither Mac nor Wesley was in the street to see the wagon, but Bud and Cal were. It was amazing that men so big could act so quickly. As if they’d planned their actions together, Bud ran to the back of the wagon while Cal spurted ahead to the front.
Bud jumped on the back of the wagon and agilely made his way to the seat and the frightened girl. With one hand he caught her about the waist while steadying himself with his powerful legs wide apart.
Miranda, with a little scream when Bud first touched her, turned and clung to him, instinctively trusting him with her life.
Meanwhile Cal ran in front of the horses, grabbed the harness, and used his big body to create resistance. For a few seconds he was pulled under, his heels tearing into the dirt, then the horses began to slow and Cal gained control.
Mac and Wesley walked out of the feed store to see Bud standing in the back of the wagon, Miranda clinging to him with all her might, while Cal gathered the loose reins and secured the horses.
“Miranda,” Mac said breathlessly, and in one step was at the foot of the wagon. “Come here, princess.” He held up his arms to her.
Miranda, obviously shaken and still frightened, looked from her father to Bud, who still held her; she closed her eyes and remained where she was.
“What—?” Mac began, but Linnet put her hand on her husband’s arm as Bud walked to the edge of the wagon.
Cal put up his arms for Miranda.
“Two,” was all Miranda whispered before sliding into Cal’s massive arms and snuggling against him.
Everyone around this trio could do little more than stare. Leah wondered if young Miranda was always so forward, and she also wondered why the boys had said people, especially women, were afraid of them. This young lady certainly didn’t seem afraid of them.
“Miranda!” Mac said sharply as she gazed up into Cal’s big brown eyes.
With seeming reluctance Miranda turned to her father.
“Are you all right? You’re not hurt anywhere?” Mac asked, stiff-jawed.
“No,” she said slowly, making no attempt whatsoever to leave Cal’s arms. “I’m quite all right.” When Bud stood beside them she reached out her hand to his.
They were a striking trio, Miranda so small, Bud and Cal so large, the three of them wrapped together, unaware of anyone outside their tight circle.
“Miranda,” Wesley said, laughter in his voice, “may I introduce Bud and Cal Haran.”
“You’re Cal and you’re Bud,” she said softly and was rewarded with a nod from both of them. “Thank you for saving my life.”
Before a word could be said Miranda astonished them all by climbing onto the wagon underpinnings, slipping her arms about Cal’s neck, and kissing him thoroughly. Again Linnet put her hand on her husband’s arm while Miranda moved to Bud and kissed him too.
Moving back, Miranda put her hand on each big shoulder. “Come with me and I’ll fix you something to eat.”
Together they walked away, leaving an astonished group behind them.
“Well, that should kill the romance.” Wesley broke the silence. “As soon as she finds out how much those two eat she’ll run from them.”
“I don’t like it, Linnet!” Mac said explosively. “I don’t like it at all. She’s never acted like that before. How come you raised a daughter that’d act like that about two strangers?”
Quite calmly, Leah thought, Linnet ignored her husband’s temper. “I’m afraid it must run in my family. I believe your daughter has just fallen in love.”
“In love!” Mac snapped at her. “She doesn’t even know them. Sometimes, Linnet, you say the—.”
“Devon,” Linnet said sweetly, “may I remind you that I fell in love with you when I first saw you? Why should your daughter do any differently?”
Mac stiffened. “There’s a lot of difference between me and those two! I was rescuing you and—.” The anger suddenly went out of him. “Which one do you think she’s in love with?” he asked heavily.
With a sigh Linnet looked toward their store. “I hope I’m wrong but it looks as if she wants both of them.”
Before Mac could speak, Wesley slapped him hard on the shoulder. “Congratulations, Mac. Two sons-in-law at once. And believe me, you’ll need all the supplies in your stores to feed them.”
Mac cast Wes a black look. “No daughter of mine—,” he began but stopped with a look of disgust. “Women!” he said between clenched teeth. “Come on, Lynna, let’s see what she’s up to now.”
Glumly Mac escorted his wife toward their store.
Turning, Leah smiled up at Wesley. “I don’t know if that solves something or starts new problems. Bud and Cal certainly did seem to take to Miranda, didn’t they?”
“Are you jealous?” he asked, half-serious, half in jest. “From now on you may not be the only woman in their lives.”
The sunlight on his face, his eyes shadowed by his broad-brimmed hat, made him look especially enticing. Her eyes went to his lips.
“Leah,” Wesley said huskily. “You’re singeing my eyebrows.”
Embarrassed, she looked away.
A crowd of people had gathered when Miranda’s wagon had torn down the street and many people had stayed, chuckling, to watch Miranda reward her saviors, but now they were moving away.
“That’s her!” gasped a heavyset woman, looking straight at Leah.
Leah froze where she was. Never would she forget that woman’s face. When Revis had shot her husband, the woman
’s hatred had gone to Leah’s heart.
“She killed my husband,” the woman said loudly, and the next moment she was advancing on Leah with hands made into claws.
“Murderer!” the woman screamed. “Murderer!”
Leah didn’t move but waited for the woman, almost as if she deserved what she got.
Wesley put himself between Leah and the enraged woman. “Don’t,” he said kindly.
“She killed him!” the woman screeched. “He was all I had in the world. We were gonna build a farm together. Now everythin’s gone because of her.” Still screaming, she began to kick Wesley, hitting him with her fists.
“Get in the wagon, Leah,” Wesley said calmly. “Go! Now!” he commanded when she didn’t move.
Leah tried to keep her chin high, but it wasn’t easy because she could feel the eyes of everyone in town on her. Stiffly she climbed into the wagon, her eyes straight ahead.
After a few moments Wesley sat beside her and without a word to her clucked to the horses to go.
Leah didn’t blame him for not speaking to her. And imagine, she’d just started to think that Sweetbriar might be safe. What little safety there had been was now gone—as were her chances for gaining her husband’s love. No Stanford could love a woman accused of murder.
Chapter 27
With his shoulders hunched and his hands in his pockets, Wesley stood in the Macalister store, listlessly ordering supplies. It was raining hard outside.
“Think it’ll flood?” Doll asked.
“I don’t know,” Wes replied glumly.
“Sure ain’t no sunshine in here,” Doll complained. “What happened to that wife of yours?” Doll looked at Mac. “I ain’t seen her in weeks.”
Mac’s head rose above the counter. “She’s cookin’ for them two bears,” he said with anger. “That is when my daughter ain’t cookin’ for ’em. Wes, I ought to wring your neck for bringin’ them two here. Miranda cried all night last night sayin’ she wanted both of ’em and damned if her mother didn’t act like she thought it was a goddamn fine idea.”
He went to the back of the store for a moment and returned with more goods. “Anythin’ else?”
“You know anything about women?” Wesley blurted.
Doll gave a derisive snort.
After a glare in Doll’s direction, Mac said, “Before I met Lynna I knew lots about women but ever’ year now I know less. You got problems?”
“He’s married, ain’t he?” Doll said. “Then he’s got problems.”
Wesley leaned against the counter, looking at his boot toe. “I used to think I understood women too, but I don’t. I thought that if you had a wife and you were kind to her, didn’t beat her, gave her a good home and pretty dresses, she’d be happy.”
“But yours isn’t happy,” Mac said. “They want love too.”
Wesley stiffened. “She couldn’t have any complaints there. I keep her pretty busy.”
Doll gave a chuckle.
“No,” Mac said, “that ain’t enough for a woman. She wants you to love her. I don’t know how to explain it. You just know when you love her.”
“Oh that.” Wes waved his hand. “I fell in love with Leah a long time ago. She’s got more courage than anybody I ever met.”
“So what’s your problem?” Mac asked.
“You remember a month ago when that woman accused Leah of murdering her husband?”
Mac grimaced. “That’s the day Miranda met those two boys of yours. I ain’t likely to forget it. But I thought you got all that straightened out.”
“I thought so too. I found two people who’d been there when Revis killed the woman’s husband and they heard Revis threatening Leah. So I took the two to the woman but she wouldn’t listen, just kept screaming about Leah. There wasn’t anything I could do about her so I took the two men around town and let them tell everyone in Sweetbriar the truth about Leah.”
With a nod, Mac agreed. “Sounds sensible to me. So what’s wrong with your wife?”
Wesley sat on top of a cracker barrel. “Leah has more courage than anyone,” he repeated. “In Virginia she used to tell me off about every two days and later I was shot and she put her own life in jeopardy to save me, who she kept saying she didn’t like very much. Of course she didn’t mean that. Leah’s crazy about me,” he added quickly. “Nothing ever seemed too much for her, but this woman screaming at her has changed Leah. All she does now is chores and sit at that blasted loom of hers. And the least little thing makes her cry.”
“Is she breedin’?” Mac asked. “Women get funny at that time.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve asked her twenty times what’s wrong and she just cries and says she’ll never be respectable now.”
“I guess you told her about the two men, didn’t you?”
“Sure,” Wes answered. “I even brought them to the house, but Leah said their word didn’t matter because the woman thought Leah’d killed her husband. Everybody in Sweetbriar knew about Revis’s robberies and I told a few women about how Leah joined the gang because I was wounded and they believed me. Nobody in town is against Leah except that one crazy old woman, but Leah just plain won’t believe me. She won’t come to town, won’t see anybody but Kimberly and Bud and Cal.”
There was quiet in the store for a few minutes, only the rain beating down on the roof.
“I never did like those Hayneses,” Doll said quietly.
For a moment Mac looked startled, and it was awhile before he spoke. “You ever think maybe somebody’s payin’ this woman to keep to her story about Leah?”
“Paying her? To lie about Leah? Why?” Wesley was bewildered. “What could anyone gain by making the town think Leah’s a murderess?”
Mac walked out from behind the counter. “I know what you’ve told the townspeople about this Revis and I know you only told ’em because of Leah, but I think you left out a lot.”
Wesley set his jaw. “Maybe you ought to tell me what I didn’t say.”
“Maybe you didn’t hear,” Mac continued, “but about four years ago several of us men went into the woods and cleared out the whole nest of robbers. It was…successful, but Lyttle Tucker and Ottis Waters were killed. It wasn’t long before the nest was filled again, only this time all the women of Sweetbriar marched on us and said they’d leave us if we went after the robbers.” There was anger in Mac’s eyes. “Sometimes the women of this town don’t rightly act like women should.”
“I liked it better when my woman disobeyed me,” Wesley said sullenly. “If I’d wanted somebody who obeyed me I’d have married Kimberly.”
“Linnet don’t even know how to obey,” Mac snapped. “Sometimes I think she stays up nights thinkin’ up ways to do what I don’t want her to do.”
“Leah used to do that but—.”
“’Fore you two get so hot for your women you have to run home to ’em for a little lovin’, why don’t we get back to the Haynes woman and her callin’ Mrs. Wesley a murderer?”
Mac ignored Doll’s first remark. “The Hayneses ain’t been here long and we’ve had some trouble with ’em, with stealin’ and the like. This woman that accused Leah was a Haynes before she married and now that she’s a widow she’s livin’ with ’em.”
He paused. “A few of us men speculated some on how come that den of robbers is always filled and they always seem to have new leaders ever’ few years. Even if you kill the leader, a new one comes back real soon. There ain’t been no robberies since this Revis was killed, but I’m expectin’ any day to hear of one.”
Wesley was cautious. “How do you explain the leaders being replaced?”
“There’s somebody behind all the robberies, somebody that don’t live in the woods that’s plannin’ them all.”
“And who is he?” Wes asked quietly.
“How the hell would I know?” Mac snapped. “You think he’d be free if I knew who he was?”
Doll turned around in his chair to look at Wesley. “Mac,” he said slowly, “t
hat boy knows more’n he’s tellin’.” With that he turned back around.
Mac gave Wesley a hard look. “That true? You in here fishin’ to see what we know?”
Wesley began to get angry. “I’d never heard that the men of Sweetbriar had ever cleared out the robbers.”
“You think we hear about other people’s misery and just sit on our asses doin’ nothin’ about it? Is that the kind of people you think we are? I lost Lyttle Tucker in that fight and he was one of the best friends I ever had.”
Doll came out of his chair. “Goddamn you, Macalister! I thought that once you got some gray hairs you’d calm down. But you ain’t. You’re just as hotheaded now as you always was. I don’t know how that sweet little Lynna puts up with you.”
“She puts up with me just fine!” Mac yelled. “Better’n anybody can put up with you, old man.”
“Stop it!” shouted Linnet from the doorway, rain dripping off her. “I could hear you two shouting outside even in this downpour. Hello, Wesley. I haven’t seen you for weeks.”
Mac, rigid with anger, went behind the counter.
“Hello, Linnet,” Wesley said softly.
“Wesley,” Linnet said pleasantly, “would you please tell me what’s been going on in here?”
“I don’t know if I should…” Wes began.
“Tell her,” Mac snapped. “Cain’t nobody keep a secret from her.”
Briefly Wesley told her about Leah’s refusing to leave the farm, about her unhappiness, and then about what he’d done to clear her name. Then he told of what had led up to the argument.
Linnet thought for a moment. “Do you know something about the robbers?”
Wesley wasn’t going to tell Mac that Bud, Cal, and Abe had been part of the robbers, not when Miranda might marry Bud or Cal. “There is a leader,” he said quietly. “All I know is that he’s called the Dancer.”
“You have no idea who he is?”