Nora Roberts - Lawless

“Yes, I imagined it was.”

Liza gave Johnny one last look of sisterly disgust before going to Sarah. “Ma’s tending the store today. She wanted you to have this. It’s a loaf of her cinnamon bread.”

“Oh, how kind of her.” One whiff brought memories of home. “Can you stay?”

Liza gave Sarah the bread and a quick, dimpled smile. “I was hoping I could.”

“Come in, please. I’ll fix us some tea.”

While Sarah busied herself at the stove, Liza looked around the tiny cabin. It was scrubbed clean as a whistle. “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.” Instantly she lifted a hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry. Ma always says I talk too much for my own good.”

“That’s all right.” Sarah got out two tin cups and tried not to wish they were china. “I was taken by surprise myself.”

At ease again, Liza sat at the table. “I didn’t expect to run into Jake Redman out here.”

Sarah brought the knife down into the bread with a thwack. “Neither did I.”

“He said you had trouble.”

Unconsciously Sarah lifted a finger to her lips. They were still warm from his, and they tingled as her arms had from the kick of the Henry. She had trouble, all right. Since she couldn’t explain the kiss to herself, she could hardly explain it to Liza. “Someone set fire to my shed last night.”

“Oh, Sarah, no! Who? Why?”

“I don’t know.” She brought the two cups to the table. “Fortunately, Mr. Redman happened to be riding by this way.”

“Do you think he might have done it?”

Sarah’s brow rose as she considered the possibility. She remembered the way he’d bathed her face and tended her hurts. “No, I’m quite certain he didn’t. I believe Mr. Redman takes a more direct approach.” “I guess you’re right about that. I can’t say he’s started any trouble here in Lone Bluff, but he’s finished some.”

“What do you know about him?”

“I don’t think anyone knows much. He rode into town about six months ago. Of course, everybody’s heard of Jake Redman. Some say he’s killed more than twenty men in gunfights.”

“Killed?” Stunned, Sarah could only stare. “But why?”

“I don’t know if there always is a why. I did hear that some rancher up north hired him on. There’d been trouble… rustling, barn-burning.”

“Hired him on,” Sarah murmured. “To kill.”

“That’s what it comes down to, I suppose. I do know that plenty of people were nervous when he rode in and took a room at Maggie O’Rourke’s.” Liza broke off a corner of the slice of bread Sarah had served her. “But he didn’t seem to be looking for trouble. About two weeks later he found it, anyway.” A hired killer, Sarah thought, her stomach churning.

And she’d kissed him, kissed him in a way no lady kissed a man who wasn’t her husband. “What happened?” “Jim Carlson was in the Bird Cage. That’s one of the saloons in town.”

“Carlson?”

“Yes, he’s Samuel Carlson’s brother. You wouldn’t know it,” Liza continued, pursing her lips. “Jim’s nothing like Samuel. Full of spit, that one. Likes to brag and swagger and bully. Cheats at cards, but nobody had the nerve to call him on it. Until Jake.” Liza drank more tea and listened with half an ear to her brother’s war whoops in the yard. “The way I heard it, there were some words over the card table. Jim was drunk and a little careless with his dealing. Once Jake called him on it, some of the other men joined in. Word is, Jim drew. Everybody figured Jake would put a bullet in him there and then, but he just knocked him down.”

“He didn’t shoot him?” She felt a wave of relief.

Perhaps he wasn’t what people said he was.

“No. At least, the way I heard it, Jake just knocked him silly and gave Jim’s gun to the bartender. Somebody had already hightailed it for the sheriff. By the time he got there, Jake was standing at the bar having himself a drink and Jim was picking himself up off the floor. I think Barker was going to put Jim in a cell for the night until he sobered up. But when he took hold of him, Jim pulled the gun from the sheriffs holster. Instead of getting a bullet in the back, Jake put one in Jim Carlson, then turned around and finished his drink.”

Dead’s dead. “Did he kill him?”

“No, though there’s some in town wished he had. The Carlsons are pretty powerful around here, but there were enough witnesses, the sheriff included, to call it self-defense.”

“I see.” But she didn’t understand the kind of justice that had to be meted out with guns and bullets.

“I’m surprised Jake-Mr. Redman-hasn’t moved on.”

“He must like it around here. What about you?

Doesn’t it scare you to stay out here alone?”

Sarah thought of her first night shivering under the blanket and praying for morning. “A little.”

“After living back east.” Liza gave a sigh. To her, Philadelphia sounded as glamorous and foreign as Paris or London. “All the places you’ve seen, the pretty clothes you must have worn.”

Sarah struggled with a quick pang of homesickness.

“Have you ever been east?”

“No, but I’ve seen pictures.” Liza eyed Sarah’s trunks with longing. “The women wear beautiful clothes.”

“Would you like to see some of mine?”

Liza’s face lit up. “I’d love to.”

For the next twenty minutes Liza oohed and aahed over ruffles and lace. Her reaction caused Sarah to appreciate what she had always taken for granted. Crouched on the cabin floor, they discussed important matters such as ribbons and sashes and the proper tilt of a bonnet while Johnny was kept occupied with a hunk of bread and the puppy.

“Oh, look at this one.” Delighted, Liza rose, sweeping a dress in front of her. “I wish you had a looking glass.”

It was the white muslin with the rosebuds on the skirt. The dress she’d planned to wear for her first dinner with her father. He’d never see it now. She glanced at the trunks. Or any of the other lovely things he’d made certain she had in her life.

“What’s wrong?” With the dress still crushed against her, Liza stepped forward. “You look so sad.”

“I was thinking of my father, of how hard he worked for me.”

Liza’s fascination with the clothes was immediately outweighed by her sympathy. “He loved you. Often when he came in the store he’d talk about you, about what you’d written in one of your letters. I remember how he brought in this picture of you, a drawing in a little frame. He wanted everyone to see how pretty you were. He was so proud of you, Sarah.”

“I miss him.” With a shake of her head, Sarah blinked back tears. “It’s strange, all those years we were separated. Sometimes I could barely remember him. But since I’ve been here I seem to know him better, and miss him more.”

Gently Liza laid a hand on her shoulder. “My pa sure riles me sometimes, but I guess I’d about die if anything happened to him.”

“Well, at least I have this.” She looked around the small cabin. “I feel closer to him here. I like to think about him sitting at that table and writing to me.” After a long breath she managed to smile. “I’m glad I came.”

Liza held out a hand. “So am I.”

Rising, Sarah fluffed out the sleeves of the dress Liza was holding. “Now, let me be your looking glass. You’re taller and curvier than I…” With her lips pursed, she walked in a circle around Liza. “The neckline would flatter you, but I think I’d do away with some of the ruffles in the bodice. A nice pink would be your color. It would show off your hair and eyes.” “Can you imagine me wearing a dress like that?” Closing her eyes, Liza turned in slow circles. “It would have to be at a dance. I’d have my hair curled over my shoulder and wear a velvet ribbon around my throat. Will Metcalf’s eyes would fall right out.” “Who’s Will Metcalf?”