Blessing Read online

  Every soul walking along the street tipped a hat and spoke to Elizabeth.

  “Hello, ma’am.”

  “Good afternoon, ma’am.”

  “Nice to see you gracin’ this town, ma’am.”

  “Welcome to Tin Cup, ma’am.”

  “At your service, ma’am.”

  No one paid any attention to Uley, whatsoever.

  It made for slow going. At this rate, they’d be lucky if they walked two blocks before Otto Violet’s office closed at sundown. Aaron wondered how much of a turmoil Uley would create if she stepped out wearing skirts one morning? Skirts…on top of the silhouette he’d seen as she’d alighted from the pack mule.

  It was quite a thing for a gentleman to ponder—if you could call somebody on trial for murder a gentleman. Aaron decided right then and there that he’d like to see Uley Kirkland wearing yellow muslin. Yes, yellow it would be. The color would look just perfect with that red-honey hair of hers.

  Hair he’d only really seen once.

  Hair he’d been dreaming of, he realized.

  Before he and Elizabeth were able to move even a few yards up the street, here came Uley again, tramping out of the supply store, her miner’s boots covered with dirt, her arms full of trowels and buckets and little orange boxes of square-headed nails. She started shoving things into the leather packs on the mule’s back, shifting the weight around, pausing once or twice to eye the load and make sure it wasn’t listing to one side.

  She took up the rope and began working on the diamond hitch, working the hemp around and across and over so that the leather pouches wouldn’t slip sideways. She got up almost underneath that animal and started tying knots. When she did, she glanced up, and before he could look away, she caught him staring at her, as unable to draw his eyes away from hers as a moth was unable to draw its wings from molasses.

  Goodness, he should say something. But what?

  Hey, Uley. You’re doing a fine job of packing that mule.

  Nope. He could do nothing with Elizabeth still beside him. Elizabeth, who was nodding her head every which way, as if she were a queen acknowledging her subjects.

  He placed his hand on Beth’s elbow and did the only thing he knew to do. He met Uley’s gaze again. He grinned. And he winked at her.

  Aaron wasn’t used to winking at women. Just as soon as he did it, he felt himself go red in the face.

  She sure didn’t wink back. She glared out at him from between the mule’s legs, her gray-green eyes pinpointing him. She looked like a wolverine that was just about to attack.

  He figured he’d been crazy to picture her in a dress. With Elizabeth beside him, there did seem to be a big difference between a lady in a dress and a mud-covered young girl who didn’t want anyone to see who she really was.

  Father, came the prayer from his heart. You look upon hearts and not on the outsides. Would that You didn’t know the hatred for Olney that’s in my heart. Even in the middle of my punishment for it, I cannot make it go away.

  Chapter Five

  “I don’t care what I told you earlier, Miss Calderwood.” Otto Violet stared across the desk at both of them, little round spectacles perched precariously on a monstrous nose that looked as if it might pitch them off at any second. He pointed to the dusty red book on his desk. “I cannot find any defense in my law records for you, Mr. Brown. You have committed an actionable offense, and I believe you should be punished for it.”

  “But I’ve given you a retainer,” Elizabeth reminded him.

  “That you have,” he said. “So now I’m giving it back.” He slid the money she’d given him just this morning across the desk at her. “I won’t defend Mr. Brown. You went after our town marshal, sir. That is a case of public hanging, to be certain.” He thumped the book for good measure and sent whorls of dust into the air. “I’ve been thinking of it all day. I don’t like to lose cases. It mars my reputation. Therefore, I will not take this case at all.”

  “But you promised.” Beth hadn’t touched the money on his desk.

  “I don’t want you to worry yourself with this any longer. Come on.” Aaron squeezed her shoulders. “We’ve other lawyers in this town to choose from. I’d rather argue on my own behalf than trust someone with my life who doesn’t trust me.”

  She gathered the money into her reticule, and together they returned to the street. But Violet’s refusal to represent them had been a blow to her. “There are only two others to choose from.” She dabbed at her eyes with a perfectly folded linen handkerchief. “And of the three, Otto Violet is the best.”

  “I wonder,” Aaron said speculatively,” if Harris Olney is passing his own money around in this town.”

  For all intents and purposes, Aaron might have been a different man when he and Elizabeth marched into Seth Wood’s esteemed law office an hour later. He’d had his first bath in three weeks. He’d shaved, too. And he’d splashed himself with bay rum and had put on his very best Sunday suit. He hoped the physical improvements would make him look more defendable.

  He held the door open for Beth as the bell tinkled sharply to announce their arrival. And, strange as it might seem, Seth Wood was sitting at his desk looking as if he’d been waiting for their arrival.

  “Ain’t no use you two coming in here,” he said brusquely. “I ain’t gonna represent you, neither.”

  “You all been meeting and discussing my case?” Aaron growled. “Seems like everybody’s decided not to get involved with this at once.”

  “We’ve decided we won’t be crazy, that’s all.”

  “Has Harris Olney been sniffing around offering to pay you money if you’ll turn me down?”

  “That’s no business of yours, Brown. You know that.”

  “I know what’s fair,” Aaron said. “I’m entitled to a fair trial with a jury of my peers. Doesn’t look like I’m gonna get that.” He pointed a finger right between Seth Wood’s eyes. “My blood will be on your hands, Wood.”

  “Nope,” the lawyer said stiffly. “You’ve brought the blood on yourself.”

  By the end of their meeting with Wood, Aaron was as mad as a bear. “Beth, there’s no use you traipsing around all day at my side. You’re going to wear yourself out and not be any good to anybody tomorrow.”

  “I thought I could help.”

  “Well, I don’t see that your presence is doing anybody any good.” He didn’t mean to be unkind to her. It was just that he was as frustrated as he’d ever been in his life. And he figured that, at this rate, he wouldn’t have a life very long.

  How he hated to see Olney win.

  “Aaron.”

  “I’m takin’ you back to the Pacific Hotel. “You’ve helped me by coming, Beth. If nothing else, you got me free to walk the streets for two last days before I go on to glory. At this point, I’m appreciating every extra minute I get.” He had only one more chance at a lawyer. He wasn’t placing too much hope in that one, either. He figured Harris had made a point to get to all of them before he did.

  He delivered Beth to the hotel and saw her safely to her room. Then he went to visit John Kincaid, the third and last lawyer to set up business in Tin Cup.

  “Now look,” he said to Kincaid when he stomped in the door and saw the man sitting with feet crossed atop his desk, just waiting for him to walk in like all the others. “I don’t like this cat-and-mouse game.”

  “Neither do I,” Kincaid said, swinging his boots to the floor.

  “I guess I just went and got my hopes up,” Aaron went on. “Last week, I thought I was hanging for sure. This week, I start to see possibilities. Next thing I know, those possibilities are slipping away. I’m not a trapped animal, Kincaid. I don’t take kindly to being pounced on and played with.”

  Kincaid rose slowly and went to stare out the front window of his office. “Never was too fond of Harris Olney myself.”

  “You’re saying you’re not gonna take his money to tell me no.”

  “I’m saying I’ll decide the merits of
taking your case on my own, Mr. Brown. Whoever represents you Thursday is going to have a tough go of it. Everyone’s hungry for your hanging. And everyone’s hungry for a hero. Unfortunately, you gave them one when you got tromped on by Uley Kirkland.”

  “Are you saying everybody wants to hang me just for Uley’s sake?”

  “It would seem a proper show of respect for what that kid did.”

  “I suppose I’m in trouble.”

  “You tell me something,” Kincaid said. “You tell me if you were planning on pulling that trigger.”

  “Would it make any difference if I told you that I wasn’t?”

  “It might make a lot of difference. It might make a lot of difference in how I look at you.”

  “Okay, I wasn’t.”

  “You telling the truth?”

  Aaron was at the point of growling again. “I generally tell the truth, Kincaid.”

  “So why were you holding a gun on the marshal’s back, Brown?”

  “Because I didn’t want the marshal to shoot me first.”

  “You’d be willing to tell me the whole story?”

  Aaron hesitated for an instant, thinking of Elizabeth and all the things he wasn’t certain he should say. But he had no other choice now. His plan had backfired on him. And Elizabeth had already proven how much she was willing to risk by making the treacherous journey across the Continental Divide.

  “I’d be willing to tell you the whole story.”

  “I don’t like Olney’s money, either,” John Kincaid admitted now. “Though I find his gold dust a whole lot more tasteful than I find him. Looks like I won’t be bending to bribes.” John Kincaid pulled out a red law book that looked exactly like the ones Otto Violet and Seth Wood had been thumping earlier. “Let’s get down to business. We’ve got thirty-six hours to come up with a way to keep you from swinging high.”

  Just as Uley was clearing the cobalt-blue tin plates from the table that night, a timid rap came at the front door.

  Samuel rose from the table and opened it. There stood Tin Can Laura in the dark, all dressed in red silk, with a huge matching plume on her head and enough kohl on her eyes that Uley almost didn’t recognize her.

  “Hello.” She cast her eyes toward the smooth-swept dirt floor. “Gotta get back to Santa Fe Moll’s. But Storm here’s been tellin’ me he wanted to come to his new place and move in. What with spring coming and all the moles coming out, you’ll be needin’ him to do his duties purty soon. Knew you wouldn’t wanta be seen with me in the broad daylight, so I figured I’d better do this tonight.”

  Uley’s heart lifted when she saw her new friend.

  “Laura. Get in here,” she said. “Have a piece of huckleberry pie. I was just fixing to cut it open.” It suddenly seemed so important to her, treating Laura to sweets, making her feel welcome, letting her know that this was a place she could visit.

  “Nope. Can’t do it. Moll will have my hide when she finds out I left the parlor. But Storm’s been caterwaulin’ something awful. He don’t like being locked up in my room anymore. It bothers the customers, having a cat howling next door.”

  “Here.” Uley took Storm out of Laura’s skirt and pitched him unceremoniously on the bed. Then she grabbed her coat. “If you’re so set on not staying, then I’ll walk you back.”

  “There’s no need of it.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ll do it anyway.”

  “I heard,” Laura said as they marched along through the slush, “that there’s a real lady in town.”

  “Yep. She came in on the supply wagon today.”

  “Everybody over at Ongewach’s is talking about her. They say she’s got eyes like cornflowers and hair like sunbeams and a waist no bigger around than a willow tree.”

  “That’s what they say, all right. Everybody’s talking about her everywhere you go.”

  “Wish somebody would talk about me like that,” Laura said longingly.

  Uley sighed. It was a deep, hollow sigh that reached down to her very soul.

  The Gold Cup Mine, owned by Captain Hall and Carl Hord of the Bald Mountain Mining Company, was the first of the fifty-six mines in the valley to call off operations on Thursday. All the miners wanted to be at the Tin Cup Town Hall, supporting Uley Kirkland as the kid testified against the man who’d tried to murder the marshal.

  Hord announced the Gold Cup’s schedule at 9:20 on Wednesday morning. An hour later, others were announcing the plan, as well. The Spotted Tail would be closed. The Little Fred would be closed. So would the Ontario, the Jimmy Mack and the Anna Parallel.

  “Can’t believe the Bullion King won’t be open tomorrow,” Sam said as they all worked underground on Wednesday trying to get things ready so that they could leave for two days. “Doc Gillette doesn’t even like to come out of his mine when somebody’s dying. Remember when Pete Wiley caught his beard on fire? He had to wait four hours before Doc Gillette would come up out of the Bullion King and treat his burns.”

  “Well,” Charlie Sparks said, “that just goes to show you how thankful everyone in this town is to Uley. This is one important trial around here.”

  “Three cheers for Uley!” someone else joined in. “Hip-hip-hooray!”

  Uley kept her eye on the timber, pegging it into the corner of the rocks with hammer blows so fierce they made the granite shiver. “I don’t like being the entertainment for the rest of this town. I’d just as soon I didn’t have to go down there tomorrow.” That was the understatement of the year. “Wish somebody else could go down there and testify in my place.”

  “There isn’t anyone else can tell the jury what you saw, Uley,” her pa said.

  She went after the pegs even harder. “I know that.”

  On Wednesday afternoon, just when Uley thought all the hoopla was about to die down, Marshal Harris Olney himself came up shaft eleven wagging a lantern out in front of him. “Uley?” he shouted so loud that loose rocks fell off the ledges above them. “Is Uley Kirkland back here?”

  Back here? Back here? Back here? The sound echoed all the way up the shaft.

  “I’m standing right beneath your nose, Marshal. If you holler much louder than that, you’re going to make the whole shaft cave in.”

  “I need you to come outside with me, Uley. You and me, we need to have a talk.”

  “I don’t see as we have anything to talk about.”

  “Oh, but we do.” Olney wrapped his arm around her shoulder and propelled Uley forward. “You saved my life, remember? I’m here to offer you compensation for all your trouble.”

  “And what might that compensation be?”

  “I’ll tell you when we reach daylight, son,” he said.

  Then, at the mouth of shaft eleven, Olney began to lay out his plan.

  “I know you are just as eager to do away with that foul murderer as I am, Uley. I know you have eyewitness testimony against Aaron Brown. I’m here to encourage you not to falter in any of it. I have a hefty reward waiting for you in my office for the day Aaron Brown is hanged.”

  “I don’t need a reward, Marshal,” she said, feeling an odd twinge of guilt when she thought how Aaron’s hanging would absolve her of a problem, too. “I’ll just be glad to know that justice has been done.”

  It was seven o’clock that night, and Uley was finishing up her father’s washing in the tub beside the warm wood stove, when there came a sharp knock at the cabin door. Uley straightened, leaving one last flannel shirt in the water to soak, and poked all the tendrils of hair up beneath her hat.

  Sam opened the door and stuck his head out into the darkness. “Hello?”

  Aaron stood on the rickety porch, his Stetson brim crumpled in his fists. “I’d like to see Uley, if I may.”

  Samuel cocked his head, not quite knowing if he should let the man in or coax him off the porch with his shotgun. “Why on earth would you want to see Uley on the eve of your trial?”

  “If you don’t mind, sir. It’s a matter of great importance. I need some private
time with her, sir.”

  When Aaron said “her,” Samuel’s eyes grew as big around as the twelve-and-a-half-bit pieces everybody used for exchange down at Frenchy’s.

  “Yes,” Aaron said, still wringing his hat. “I know about Uley. Didn’t mean to find out, sir, I can assure you.”

  Uley stood right behind Sam in the doorway.

  Clouds hid the moon and the lacy formations of stars that hung over Tin Cup when the night stayed clear. It was as dark outside as a cast-iron kettle.

  “Please, Uley,” Aaron said. “Come on out. Just for a minute.”

  Uley stepped around her father awkwardly, knowing that he, too, was uncertain how to deal with this. Her entire life, she’d never had a gentleman caller.

  Which was understandable, seeing as how everybody in this town thought she was one herself.

  “Pa,” Uley said finally, saving them all. “No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. If Aaron Brown wants to say something to me, this might very well be his last chance to say it.”

  Sam looked up at the empty night sky, as if he were expecting to find an answer there.

  “It won’t take too long,” Aaron said, jumping on the opportunity. “She’s right. It might be something I’ll never get another chance to say.”

  Uley was uncertain as to how she felt about standing out on a dark stoop with a man who’d pulled a gun on the marshal. But she’d already proven once that she could handle Aaron Brown if he gave her trouble.

  Sam looked at her.

  She looked at Sam.