Blessing Page 18

  The moment bound them together.

  Aaron’s gaze strayed to meet Uley’s, seeing everything in her that no one else in Tin Cup could see. As he shook the fifteenth hand in a row, right there in the middle of the street, a thought crashed down on him like a boulder that might have come bounding down off Gold Hill.

  Father, I can’t help what’s happening in my heart about this girl. I’m falling in love with her and I know it. Is this what You have wrought for me?

  As Uley stood in the street beside him, knowing without a doubt that he needed her there, she felt like somebody had grabbed her innards with a fist and twisted them. The thought came just as unbidden as a snowstorm on a spring day.

  I used to feel sad for Elizabeth Calderwood, knowing she loved a man who was going to hang. I didn’t know I’d be thinking about myself. I didn’t know I’d be loving that exact same man.

  Neither of them spoke. Neither of them knew that the revelation had claimed the other’s soul.

  Around them, the crowd teemed in the street. Inside them, their hearts were filled with certainty and longing. Between them, the hours…the moments…ticked away.

  Judge J. M. Murphy pounded the cup on the podium at precisely nine the following morning. “I hereby call to order this court in the town of Tin Cup, county of Gunnison, state of Colorado, on this day, Friday, May eighteenth, to cast a verdict in the trial of Gunnison County versus Aaron Talephas Brown, who is accused of pulling a gun on Marshal Harris Olney.”

  Aaron felt like Murphy might never stop talking. He’d never heard such a long-winded introduction in all of his life. As if this trial needed an introduction at all. The jury from Pitkin had arrived in late last night, champing at the bit—Aaron was sure—to find him guilty. Mawherter had allowed them all to stay at the Grand Central for free—his revenge against Elizabeth, Aaron had decided, for making her place at the Pacific Hotel.

  Everybody in town had been counting the hours, watching for supply wagons, waiting for Dawson Hayes.

  This trial needed no introduction at all. He wished Murphy would just get on with it. I’m innocent, Lord, but there can be no making them see it now. I’m praying for my own pride and I know it. He’d done everything he knew how to do, and now, he figured, it was time to go on to glory.

  As the attorneys prepared to make their final arguments, John Kincaid shuffled through his notes. He leaned over to Aaron, pulled his cheroot from between his teeth and grinned. “Smile, man,” he said. “You’re sittin’ in that chair lookin’ as glum as if the world’s just ended.”

  “Hasn’t it?”

  “No,” Kincaid said with certainty. “It has not. You see, I’ve been preparing for precisely this occasion. I figured a long time ago that Hayes wouldn’t make it in. So I’ve got another plan instead.”

  “What is it?”

  “Not tellin’ you just yet. You’ll know soon enough. I’m gonna call a surprise witness or two. You just keep your mouth shut and nod at everything I say. I intend to win this trial for both of us, Aaron Brown.”

  Aaron sat back in his seat, hope once more bursting into flame in his heart. Just what, he wondered, did Kincaid have up his sleeve?

  As Aaron leaned back in the chair, he caught sight of Uley. She sat against the far wall, facing him, her face pinched and still. He managed to muster a smile for her. Then he turned away. Now that he knew where she was waiting, he wouldn’t look at her again. He couldn’t. She was the one part of Tin Cup that beckoned him toward life. I suppose I made a foolish decision, coming here, he thought. Even so, I suppose I’d do it again. Because doin’ what I did, I did right. Guess I just did the right thing, only I did it wrong.

  Seth Wood rose and approached the bench. “The prosecution rests its case, Judge Murphy. In light of the evidence already presented, I do not feel it necessary to call any more witnesses at this time.”

  “That’s fine,” Murphy said, with only a hint of his former zealousness. He, too, had come to respect Aaron Brown over the past three weeks. He’d been sure, when he made the decision to adjourn the trial for three weeks, that left to his own devices, the criminal would publicly prosecute himself. But that hadn’t happened at all. And, the way people came and went up in the gold camps, Murphy almost felt that he was hanging one of his own now. “Kincaid? You got something for us? Or are we gonna end this thing?”

  John Kincaid raised himself from the chair with both hands and strode purposefully toward the front of the town hall. He approached the bench, standing close to the potbellied wood stove, which sat idle this time of year, and whispered something in Murphy’s ear.

  Murphy’s countenance changed somewhat. “What?” He leaned in closer. “Again.”

  Kincaid spoke further, while whispers of interest spread throughout the courtroom.

  Murphy thwacked the cup against wood.

  Kincaid pivoted to face the onlookers.

  Murphy scowled at everyone, letting his expression quiet them, because he knew his words wouldn’t.

  Kincaid waited for silence, then began. “Your Honor, the defense would like to call two witnesses this morning. The first is a witness we would like to return to the stand. Mrs. Elizabeth Calderwood.”

  Spectators mumbled surprised pleasantries and stepped out of the way so that Beth could gather her skirts and proceed to the podium.

  “Good mornin’, Miss Elizabeth…”

  “Lookin’ mighty fine, Miss Elizabeth…”

  Beth ascended the steps and placed her hand once more upon the Bible. When she’d been sworn in again, Kincaid directed her to her seat.

  Aaron squirmed in his chair. Beth had told him nothing of this. He had no idea what surprises his sister and his lawyer might be about to deliver.

  “Mrs. Calderwood,” Kincaid said, “I suppose, of everyone in this lovely town, you are the closest of all to your brother, the defendant, Mr. Aaron Talephas Brown.”

  “I don’t know,” she said quietly, her bell-like voice singing out as every man in the place leaned forward to catch her words. “When I first testified, I would have told you that was certainly true. Now, to be honest, I am not sure of the answer anymore.”

  Kincaid smiled confidently. They had obviously rehearsed this show. “And…why is that?”

  “Because Aaron has started to care for some woman very deeply while we’ve been here in Tin Cup.”

  “He has?” Kincaid said, glancing only once in Aaron’s direction. “What makes you say that?”

  “Because he’s been askin’ me some pretty hard questions about womenfolk, Mr. Kincaid.”

  Good grief, Aaron thought. What was Beth fixin’ to tell everybody?

  “Give me an example,” Kincaid said, prodding her. “What sort of questions did he ask?”

  “He wanted to know what it means when a woman says she likes you to kiss her one minute and says she’s afraid of that kiss the next.”

  “Why do you suppose he asked you these things, Mrs. Calderwood?”

  “He said he asked me because I was a woman…because he figured I knew the answers to such things.”

  “What did you tell your brother when he asked these questions?”

  “I told him it meant that woman felt something for him in her heart.”

  “Why do you think this, this woman…was afraid for your brother to kiss her?”

  “Often, when a girl starts caring for a fellow, it scares her a bit. That’s what I told Aaron.”

  It was everything Aaron could do to remain in his seat. What did this portion of his life have to do with his innocence or guilt? He began to fear that, in some unfathomable, impossible way, he’d given Uley’s identity away.

  He dared not cast a glance in her direction. She’d never forgive him, if this was what his loving had done to her. He’d never forgive himself, either. If it came out like this, he’d have soiled her in the miners’ eyes forever.

  The next question came, and Aaron went stock-still. “Did you ask your brother if you could meet this w
oman, Mrs. Calderwood?”

  “I did.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “He said, ‘You don’t need to meet her. Nothing can come of it.’”

  “What do you suppose he meant by that?”

  When Seth Wood sprang from his seat, Aaron found himself joyous to see the prosecuting attorney object at last. “Your Honor,” Wood said tightly, striding toward the front of the room and raising an arm to indicate intense ire. “I’m sure all of us here find this very interesting. But I fail to see what evidence of Aaron Brown’s love life has to do with whether or not we hang this man tomorrow. I’ve seen lesser men who were loved much more.”

  Me, too, Wood, Aaron wanted to shout. Let’s get Kincaid away from all this.

  “Your Honor,” Kincaid said slowly, as if he were speaking to a roomful of schoolchildren, “you will see in a moment that this line of questioning is entirely relevant. It has everything to do with the person I’m going to call to the stand next.”

  This time, Aaron cast his gaze across at Uley. Had she confessed? Was she in on this, too? What could she gain by revealing herself to them now? She’d already testified against him. If he’d known it would come to this, he might just have let them hang him three weeks ago. But when he saw her expression, he knew she felt trapped, too. He shook his head briefly, desperate to communicate to her that he had no part in this. Then he turned his eyes downward, staring at the boot-scuffed pine floor as if it held the key to every confusing question his lawyer had raised in his mind.

  Kincaid was prodding his sister further. “Mrs. Calderwood, I’ll ask you the question again. What do you suppose your brother meant by telling you that you could not meet the woman he was beginning to care for?”

  “I found it…odd. We’ve always been very close. In Fort Collins, before we both came to this point in our lives, he would never have hesitated to bring a girl home for me to meet. With the exception of one or two instances—” Elizabeth said meaningfully “—he has always trusted my judgment.”

  “What reason can you think of, then? Why doesn’t Aaron want you to meet this woman?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Could it be because the woman has a tainted reputation, Mrs. Calderwood? Could it be because your brother has fallen for someone that it might not be proper for you to meet?”

  “I…I don’t think he would…”

  “Just answer my question, please.”

  Elizabeth was finding this very difficult. But she knew she owed it to Aaron to tell the truth. “Perhaps, Mr. Kincaid,” she said, keeping her eyes on the attorney, willing to risk any embarrassment so long as it would save her brother’s life. “Perhaps that is why. It is all I can think of.”

  “Thank you very much for the information, Mrs. Calderwood. You may come down from the stand.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  John Kincaid’s question resounded in Uley’s mind.

  Could it be because the woman has a tainted reputation, Mrs. Calderwood? Could it be because your brother has fallen for someone it might not be proper for you to meet?

  Why didn’t he just ask, “Could it be because your brother has fallen for a gal who’s fooling the whole town? Could it be that your brother has fallen for Uley Kirkland, the very member of this community who sprang into the darkness and stopped your brother’s wayward actions in the first place?”

  She felt stuck again, stuck and perhaps ready to be skewered. Perhaps she should tell Sam. Perhaps she should let her father know that she’d only followed her heart’s bidding, that she and Aaron had only found each other because of that one rowdy night when she’d jumped out at him and her hat had come tumbling off. But then, she realized, her pa would see that she’d been fooling him, too. He’d realize that all this time she’d been getting to know Aaron, she’d been getting to know him as a member of the opposite gender. Will there ever come a time, she wondered, when I can make my decisions based on who I am, instead of who I am not?

  Has Aaron told them? Has he broken his promise? After her revelation in the middle of the street yesterday, after her realization that she truly loved this man, she didn’t dare glance across the room at him. Should I not have trusted him? Surely it hasn’t come to this. But, perhaps, it has.

  She’d never in her life felt so confused…so ashamed…so frightened….

  Kincaid dismissed Elizabeth from the stand.

  Uley sat with her hands clenched together on her knees, fully expecting him to call her name.

  The defense attorney waited until the room quieted again to call his next witness. He smiled slightly before beginning. Here came the coup de grace, the witness to ensure his victory.

  “I call to the stand…”

  Uley made ready to get up.

  “…to speak next on behalf of Mr. Aaron Talephas Brown….”

  Uley laid one hand on Sam’s knee, as if to placate him before the unthinkable happened.

  “…Miss Mabel Cornelius.”

  Mabel Cornelius?

  Uley didn’t even know a Mabel Cornelius.

  Up the aisle, from just outside the front door, where she’d been waiting to hear her name called, came Wishbone Mabel.

  The judge swore her in, and then the defense attorney said, “Miss Cornelius, will you take the stand, please?”

  Mabel gathered her skirts and mounted the steps, smiling prettily at the men in the room—most of whom were her customers—before settling herself upon the stand like a queen upon a throne.

  Judge Murphy pounded his cup again, informing them loudly that they were in a court of law where a man’s life hung in the balance and they had best keep their mouths shut.

  It took several minutes for the din to fade.

  Uley stared at Mabel.

  Laura had said she’d seen Aaron at Ongewach’s. Perhaps he’d gone for a tumble with a hurdy-gurdy girl and Laura hadn’t the heart to tell her.

  “Now, Miss Cornelius,” Kincaid began, “I thank you very much for coming forward so this town could put an end to this nonsense. I don’t think I need to tell you that I am about to ask you several difficult questions.”

  “Honey, I can answer difficult questions.” Mabel smoothed the bodice of the very appropriate, very demure dress she was wearing. “I’ll answer everything.”

  When Kincaid began his examination, the place got so quiet Uley could hear a fly buzzing outside the door.

  “When did you meet the defendant, Mr. Aaron Brown?”

  “About a month ago,” Mabel said. “Aaron came into Santa Fe Moll’s place and paid for my services the night before he first got thrown in jail.”

  “You say his given name as if you’re familiar with it.”

  “I’m familiar, all right. He’s been comin’ up to see me since his sister posted bail for ’im. And I’ve been goin’ down to see him, too.”

  He’s been seeing Wishbone Mabel, Uley thought, and she believed it, no matter how badly she didn’t want to, no matter how impossible it sounded. That time he touched my hair and kissed me, he was probably comparin’ me to that…that…soiled dove….

  “You’ve been goin’ down to see him?”

  “I’ve been meetin’ him at Aunt Kate’s sometimes, early in the mornin’. That’s the only time I could get away from Moll’s place to go see the man I care about.”

  “Do you love him, Mabel?”

  “Yes,” the girl said quietly, her eyes riveted on Kincaid’s, thinking about the money she was going to earn for her trouble. “I do.”

  “Does he feel the same for you?”

  The fly outside the door buzzed by again. “Yes. I believe he does.”

  “During your times together, has Aaron Brown ever let you into his confidence about his personal matters?”

  “Yes. That first night, before he got pitched in jail, he told me all his reasons for coming to Tin Cup.”

  Uley wanted to cry out. All the times she’d thought she knew him, all the times she’d measured his gaze upon her own
and felt her soul answering, she’d been wrong.

  “He told you he’d come to town to shoot the marshal?”

  “No. If he’d told me that, I’d have talked to the marshal myself.”

  “What did he tell you that night, Mabel?”

  Her eyes finally wavered from Kincaid’s. She took in the whole room with one glance before she said it. “He told me he’d come to Tin Cup to take Harris Olney back to Fort Collins with ’im. Told me he figured that’s the only way fair justice could be done.”

  Harris Olney leapt from his seat and lunged toward the podium. “This is the most ridiculous fabrication I’ve ever heard. You shut up. Hell, Mabel, I’m one of your best customers, and everybody knows it. You shouldn’t be sayin’ this stuff about me.”

  “Sit down, Olney,” Murphy hollered. “If you tell another witness to shut up, I’ll have you thrown out on your rump. You’ve already finished your talkin’. I don’t want to hear any more.”

  Kincaid continued. “Why do you think the defendant told you about his plans, Miss Cornelius? Was he afraid to talk about it? Has he been afraid to talk about it since then?”

  “Not a bit,” she said. “He weren’t afraid to talk to me. He asked me for advice, you know. We’re real close. He talks about it all the time. He says he never intended to shoot anybody. He just felt real strong about bringing Harris Olney to justice back in Fort Collins. He told me the story over and over again, just like he told it to Elizabeth.”

  Uley found herself now in a trap of a different sort, a trap clamped upon her very being. These very words, a double-edged sword. Words which would free Aaron, but would also mean that he was not the sort of man who she’d thought him to be. Inside her, she wrestled with every possibility Mabel Cornelius’s testimony set before her.

  Now that she loved Aaron, what could she wish for?

  Do I trust him? Do I really trust him the way he said he wants me to?