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.”“Then let’s do that.And we’ll tell him a story to make it look as though Amos died some other way.”“How?”“What kind of description did the woman at the hotel give?”“She just said it was a man.That’s all she could make out in the dark.”“Then I’ll say a man tried to force his way inside our house.” She ran from the den and Lily followed.“What are you doing?”Catherine took a hammer from the pantry and struck the knob on the back door.Lily stopped her.“You’ll wake your children.”Catherine glanced at the ceiling.“We’ll say a man was breaking in and he had a gun.He shot Amos and then he ran away.I only caught a glimpse of him.Who’s to know?”Lily took Catherine by the shoulders and turned her to face her.“And you could live with that lie?”Catherine let the hand holding the hammer drop to her side.“For my children’s sake—yes.”Lily leaned back against a counter, weary and confused.She didn’t have a problem with lying to protect Catherine’s children.But there was another problem that kept her from agreeing.An insurmountable one.“I won’t lie to the sheriff,” she told Catherine.The other woman’s lip was swollen and scabbed.Lily’s heart went out to her.Amos Douglas didn’t deserve protecting.But his children did.“What, then?” Catherine asked, hopelessness in her eyes now.“Let’s tell him the truth.All of it.And let’s trust him to protect your children.”“He’s a lawman, Lily.”Lily nodded.“But he’s a good man.I trust him.”“All right.I don’t have a choice, do I? I’m putting the future of my children in his hands.”Lily nodded.“I’ll go get him.”She walked the dark street, nearly numb after the shocking events of the night, wishing she could turn back the clock and fix things.Wishing there was some other way.His house was dark when she reached it.She turned the bell knob, pounded a few times and waited.She heard movement inside, saw a light behind the curtain on the glass, and then Nate opened the door.“Lily? What’re you doing out this time of night?”He was bare-chested and barefoot, but he’d strapped on his holster over his trousers.“Something has happened.I need your help.”“What is it?”Just like Catherine had with her, Lily preferred to show him before saying anything.“Come with me.”“Let me get my boots and a shirt.”A few minutes later they were hurrying along Main Street in the dark of night.“Where are we goin’?”“To the Douglas house.Many times over the past few years, Catherine Douglas has come to me for help.She’s often been beaten pretty badly.”“That son of a bitch,” Nate replied.“You’re not getting an argument from me on that one.”“Is she hurt badly?”“No.Well, he hit her earlier this evening, and she came to me then, but she’s all right.It’s not her I’m taking you to see.Well, not entirely.”They reached the house, and Lily led him through the back door to where Catherine waited in the kitchen.Catherine led Nate into the small room where the body of her husband lay.Nate looked at him, then at the two women.Finally he stepped forward and touched Amos’s neck, then raised the blanket to look at the wounds.He turned back to the women.“What happened here?”“It didn’t happen here,” Catherine explained.She went on to tell him the story of how Amos had arrived home and wouldn’t allow her to go for help.“Then I got Lily and she filled in the rest, so we figured out what happened.”“He started both fires,” Nate said.“The livery and the one tonight.”“That would be my guess, too,” Lily replied.“Do you know why?”“He was obsessed with getting his hands on Lily’s property,” Catherine said.“He spoke very strangely about her, and he had papers from the assayers about her real estate.”“Burning your property was sure to put you in debt to him eventually,” he said to Lily.“Sheriff Harding, I’m pleading with you as a mother,” Catherine said.“Please keep this knowledge from the townspeople and the authorities.”“What?”“I don’t want my children to know what their father did.I don’t want them to grow up with everyone looking down on them because of him.John will be going to university in a year or so.I can’t let his father’s actions keep him from being accepted.Amos will not be hurting anyone anymore.What difference will it make that no one knows, as long as he’s dead?”Catherine explained the story she wanted to tell.Nate met Lily’s eyes.She remembered the talks they’d had, the side of him he’d revealed to her in private.“I asked you once if you always saw everything in black-and-white,” she said.“Right or wrong.You told me you were a lawman and that you got paid to sort out the difference.”“That hasn’t changed.”“Well, I’m asking you to change it right now.I’m asking you to be satisfied in knowing the man is dead and won’t cause any more harm.”Lily sensed Nate’s apprehension.The man who’d stared death in the face a hundred times, the man who’d captured and killed wanted men for money, looked as though he was afraid of what she was asking of him.Had the request come from anyone else, she knew he’d never even consider it.But she also knew she held an edge.“You’re holdin’ an unfair advantage, Lily,” he said finally.“All’s fair in love and war, isn’t that what they say?”“This isn’t war.”“No, it isn’t.”His jaw muscles bunched.He looked from her to Catherine.“From this moment forward, we will never speak another word regarding this except the story of how the man came to your door to rob you, Mrs.Douglas.The three of us—well, four actually—carry this to our graves.He’s just already there.”Catherine stepped forward and flung herself into Nate’s arms.She cried openly against his shirtfront.“Thank you, thank you.Lily said you were a man we could trust [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]