Linda Miller - The Rustler

“Do come in, Mr. Yarbro,” Sarah said. “This is my—nephew. Owen Langstreet.”

“We’ve met,” Mr. Yarbro said, stepping past the boy, who stared up at him in fascination.

“He’s not Wyatt Earp,” Owen said.

“I’m aware of that, Owen,” Sarah replied, gesturing toward the coat tree, with its many brass hooks. “Hang up your hat, Mr. Yarbro.”

Wyatt did as she’d asked.

An awkward silence fell.

“Let’s have a seat in the parlor,” Sarah said, flustered, leading the way.

Owen followed, and so did Wyatt.

“Nice place,” Wyatt said.

“She lives here with her papa,” Owen informed him, gravitating toward Sarah’s piano, which was her most prized possession. “He wears blue pants with yellow stripes on them and thinks I’m a drummer boy.”

“Is that so?” Wyatt asked affably, and when Sarah dared to look back over her shoulder, she saw that he was watching her, not the child.

“Sit down,” Sarah said. “Please. I’ll get some coffee.”

“No need,” Wyatt said, waiting until Sarah sank into her mother’s threadbare slipper chair before taking a seat on the settee. He was leanly built, but the house seemed smaller somehow, with him in it, and warmer.

Much warmer.

Owen perched on the piano stool. “May I spin?” he asked.

Wyatt chuckled.

“Spin all you want,” Sarah said, smiling a wobbly smile.

Owen moved the stool a few more inches from the piano, sat, gripped it with both hands, and used one foot to propel himself into blurry revolutions.

Sarah felt dizzy and had to look away, but her gaze went straight to Wyatt Yarbro, and that made her even dizzier. He’d shaved, and his cologne had a woodsy scent. His white shirt was open at the throat, and it was not only pressed, but starched, too.

Wyatt glanced curiously around the well-appointed, seldom-used room. “Where’s Mr. Langstreet?” he asked.

“He’s been delayed,” Sarah said.

Owen used his foot to stop the piano stool. He looked happily flushed, more like the little boy he was than the miniature man who blithely referred to himself as a “bastard.” “He got a telegram,” Owen said importantly.

“Imagine that,” Wyatt said, though not unkindly.

“In Philadelphia, we have a telephone,” Owen added.

“Don’t hold with telephones myself,” Wyatt replied, mischief sparking in his dark eyes. “I figure if folks have something to say to each other, they ought to write it in a letter or meet up, face-to-face.”

“Papa says someday everybody will have a telephone.”

“Does he, now?” Wyatt asked easily.

As though to speak of the devil was to conjure him, Charles chose that moment to ring the doorbell. Sarah excused herself to answer, and Wyatt stood when she rose from her chair.

He might have been an outlaw, but someone had taught him manners.

Sarah was a little flushed when she opened the front door to Charles.

“Good evening, Sarah,” he said, stepping past her when she hesitated to move out of the way. “I apologize for being late. Business. One can never escape it.”

Doc Venable descended the front stairs, rolling down his shirtsleeves. His hands and forearms still glistened with moisture from the sink upstairs, where he must have washed up for supper.

Sarah made introductions all around, out of deference to the doctor. Wyatt and Charles had already met; Wyatt’s expression thoughtful, Charles’s elegantly aloof.

Charles looked down on Wyatt, Sarah realized, as a ruffian, and she felt a swift sting of fury. Her cheeks throbbed with it.

Supper seemed interminable. Sarah was afraid, every moment, that her father would appear, oddly dressed and confounded.

“I thought you said you couldn’t cook,” Wyatt teased, helping himself to another piece of fried chicken and then adding gravy to his mashed potatoes. “Tastes fine to me.”

“Thank you,” Sarah said, inordinately pleased and not a little embarrassed. By some miracle, she’d managed not to burn the chicken, and the mashed potatoes were thicker than the gravy, as they were supposed to be.

Charles maintained a chilly silence; he clearly resented Wyatt’s presence, tossing a disdainful glance his way every now and then. Finally, he took a sip from his water goblet and condescended to remark, “Very nice.”

“Is Aunt Sarah your sister, Papa?” Owen asked.

“Eat your supper,” Charles told him.

“Is she?”

“No,” Charles snapped.

“Then she must be Mother’s sister. They don’t look anything alike.”

Sarah stiffened in her chair. Wyatt saw the motion, and stared diplomatically down at his plate.

“In Sarah’s case,” Charles said, plainly irritated and red at the jawline, “the title of ‘aunt’ is honorary. She’s—a family friend.”

“Oh,” Owen said, looking dejected. He laid his fork down. He’d been sawing away at a drumstick for the last twenty minutes; Sarah had wanted to tell him it was all right to eat chicken with his fingers, but refrained. “I was thinking maybe I could visit her at Christmas, but if she’s not really my aunt—”

“You may visit me whenever you want,” Sarah told him, aware that she was overstepping, and not caring. When she got Charles alone, she’d have a word with him about this “bastard” business, and leaving a ten-year-old boy at boarding school over the holidays.

Owen’s face brightened, causing his freckles to stand out. “Really?”

“Enough,” Charles said coldly. “Philadelphia is a long way from Stone Creek. Have you forgotten that we just spent a week on a train?”

Owen subsided as suddenly as if he’d been slapped.

Doc Venable cleared his throat and turned the conversation in a new direction. “I understand you’re keeping the peace around town while your brother is away, Mr. Yarbro,” he said.

Wyatt shifted in his chair, oddly uncomfortable with the remark. “Yes, sir,” he said. “And I’d appreciate it if you called me Wyatt.” His gaze moved to Sarah. “You, too, Miss Tamlin.”

Sarah blushed.

“My, but we are a friendly bunch, aren’t we?” Charles asked drily. His nostrils were slightly flared, and the skin around his mouth looked tight.

“I reckon most of us are, anyhow,” Wyatt said quietly.

“Can I call you Wyatt, too?” Owen wanted to know.

“Sure,” Wyatt said. “Long as I don’t have to call you ‘Mr. Langstreet.’”

Charles reddened.

Owen giggled with delight. “Nobody calls me ‘Mr. Langstreet,’” he said. “I’m only ten.”

Wyatt’s lips twitched. “You could have fooled me,” he replied. “Like I said this afternoon, I’d have said you were forty if you were a day. Just a mite short for your age.”

Charles favored Sarah with a pained look. Again, she wondered why he’d brought Owen to Stone Creek, when he seemed, at least at the moment, barely able to tolerate the child’s presence.

“You ever seen a man as short as Owen here, Doc?” Wyatt asked, well aware that he’d gotten under Charles’s skin and clearly enjoying the fact.

“Can’t say as I have,” Doc said, regarding Owen thoughtfully.

Owen beamed.

“Is everyone ready for dessert?” Sarah asked brightly.

She served strawberry preserves on shortbread, and poured coffee for the adults. Earlier, she’d longed for the evening to end. Now, she realized that Charles was the only unwelcome guest. Doc, Wyatt and Owen had lifted her spirits with their banter.

Charles was the first to lay his table napkin aside, push back his chair, and stand. “I’ve got a meeting tomorrow in Flagstaff,” he said. “It came up unexpectedly. Sarah, I wonder if I might speak to you in private.”

Sarah felt a prickle of dread, but she welcomed the chance to talk to him about Owen, out of the boy’s earshot. “Certainly,” she said. “I’ll walk you to the door.”