Deborah Camp (4 page)

“Don’t concern yourself with that, Mr. Polk. I’m glad to see that you are well again.” She offered her hand and he grasped it gently for a second before letting go. When he motioned for her to be seated, she sat in the chair that had been vacant and the two men returned to theirs. “I certainly hope you can sort all of this out, Mr. Polk. I am relying on your expertise.” She felt a quiver of worry when he exchanged a speaking glance with his law partner. Jennie looked from one to the other and knew she was in for more frustration.

“I appreciate your vote of confidence, Mrs. Hastings, but my partner actually has more experience in matters such as yours. I am placing you in his most capable hands.”

“Wh-what?” She felt her cheeks grow warm. From the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw a smirk cross Zach Warner’s face. “But I have hired you, Mr. Polk.”

“But I would not give you adequate representation, Mrs. Hastings. Believe me, there is no better attorney in the divorce court than Zachary Warner. He has handled hundreds of these cases.”

“Hundreds?” She turned to give Zach a look of disbelief. He shrugged, but didn’t dispute the grandiose assertion. “But my problem is not simply a divorce, Mr. Polk. I am here to claim my son’s inheritance. That land my husband purchased should be mine. It was paid for from my dowry money.”

“It was his money by marriage and you consented that he travel here to purchase an acreage with it,” Mr. Polk said with a gentle smile. “I understand this is an unusual case, but all the more reason why Zach should take the lead. If there is a loophole to be found, he will find it.”

“And if not?” Jennie asked, although she knew she wouldn’t like the answer.

“We can only do what the law allows, Mrs. Hastings,” Adam said with a shrug.

The room fell silent. Jennie could hear Bertha Polk’s sing-song telling of the ride of Paul Revere in the adjoining office. For a few moments, Jennie felt ill. Her stomach clenched and she felt beads of perspiration dot her forehead. Fighting back the weakness trying to conquer her, Jennie squared her shoulders and swallowed hard.

“I want to have a meeting with the woman Charles married. I want to speak to her in person.”

Adam patted the air in a placating gesture. “Yes, of course, but we shouldn’t rock that boat until we have both oars in the water.”

Jennie scowled at him. “I have no idea what that means, but I
will
meet the woman and talk to her about this tragic misunderstanding. Surely, if she cared enough for Charles to marry him then she will also be concerned about his son and his son’s future.”

Adam looked to Zach, flinging out a hand as if he wanted his partner to throw him a lifeline. Zach heaved a sigh.

“I went by Luna’s place yesterday, but she wasn’t home. I was told she is visiting relatives and won’t be back until … later. I will contact her first, Mrs. Hastings, and explain the case to her. Then, if I think it would do any good whatsoever, I will arrange a meeting between the two of you.”

“If you think it would do any good!” Jennie inhaled deeply and told herself not to raise her voice. She felt as if she had wrapped herself tightly, but the bindings were beginning to unravel. What she needed was a good cry, but that was out of question in front of Oliver. She had to remain in control for her son’s sake. She exhaled slowly and balled her hands in her lap. “This woman married
my
husband and she has control of
my
future. Don’t you think it wouldn’t behoove both of us to talk about it?”

“Look here, Mrs. Hastings,” Zach said. “Luna can be – contrary. You don’t want to barge in and make demands or you will just be stirring a hornet’s nest. Let me talk to her and see how she reacts. If she doesn’t fly into a spitting rage and tell me to go shake hands with the devil, then I will suggest a meeting.”

“I’m not planning on making demands, so what has she got to be contrary about?” Jennie asked. “She is holding all the cards, as I see it. And you two gentlemen almost seem to be afraid of her!”

“I’m not afraid of Luna,” Zach drawled. “I’m being reasonable and keeping a cool head, which is what I’m asking you to do, as well. Let me handle this my way and we should have some kind of resolution by the end of the week. I know you can’t remain in limbo here, Mrs. Hastings. You and your son deserve a swift answer so that you can either claim the land or go back to Missouri.”

“We aren’t going back there,” Jennie said, casting him a cool glare. “We have taken a room at the Philpot Boarding House and I will be looking for work in Guthrie.”

“What?” both men exclaimed in unison, although Adam Polk’s voice was an octave higher than Zach Warner’s.

“That’s right.” She retrieved her gloves and slipped them on, smoothing the soft lace over the back of her hands and between her fingers. “I still intend to take residence on the land Charles purchased. However, in the meantime, I can’t spend every dollar I have while I wait for Polk and Warner to untie all the knots left by my hus — Charles. I do want you to make quick work of this, Mr. Warner, but I’m not going anywhere.” She turned slightly in the chair so that she could bestow a knowing smile on him. “So, don’t get any ideas about sending me packing so that you can put this business behind you and get on with your next dissolution of marriage. You’re stuck with me.”

You’re stuck with me.

Those words buzzed in Zach’s head as he rode Mercy slowly along the streets of Guthrie. He didn’t mind one bit being stuck with Jennie Caldwell Hastings. Any man in his right mind would be glad to be in her company. She was a beauty; smart and spirited. What Charles Hastings was thinking when he petitioned to be shed of her was anybody’s guess.

What bothered Zach most was that Jennie Hastings obviously thought that he saw her as a thorn in his side. Usually, people he worked for were happy with the outcome he wrangled for them in court. Most of them came to Guthrie as a last resort. They were trapped in a bad marriage and were desperate to escape from it. Some of them were teary-eyed at having to call it quits, but the vast majority were dancing jigs and buying him drinks when the gavel ended their ordeal.

Divorced. In Guthrie, that was a beautiful pronouncement and it was the reason Zach had left Kentucky to seek his fortune in Indian Territory. At present, he was one of about ninety lawyers in Guthrie, a town that barely existed until the Land Run of 1889. Overnight it had grown to ten thousand people.

Jennie Hastings wasn’t going to be happy with the outcome of this case, Zach thought as he rocked back and forth in the saddle. She would not be in a dancing mood or want to buy him a shot of whiskey. He didn’t think there was much chance that anyone could charm, shame, or berate Luna Lee into relinquishing her hold on the ranch she’d inherited.

Zach slowed Mercy to a walk as they drew near the fancy house with tall, white pillars supporting a red-tiled portico roof. It was a stately residence for a recently retired judge and his new wife. Silas had married Luna a month ago, soon after Luna had discovered through Adam that she was a widow. The town was still buzzing about it. Luna had certainly done well for herself. The fact that she was thirty years her husband’s junior also hadn’t gone unnoticed by town gossips.

For a woman who had come to Guthrie with nothing, she’d done well for herself. Working as a laundress and then as a hostess in a hotel restaurant, Luna had managed to marry up, not once, but twice. Zach hadn’t spoken to her since she had returned from her honeymoon with Judge Bishop. Folks around town said she was acting uppity and spending money like she was growing it in her garden.

The judge was a wealthy man, mainly because he and his former wife had been frugal. They had both liked to have money more than they liked to spend it. Edith Bishop had taken ill shortly after Zach moved to Guthrie and had died that winter. The heartbroken judge retired and went to visit his married son in Dodge City. Folks said he would stay there and never return. He and his wife had moved from Kansas to the Territory a few years before the Land Run and the judge had worked in the circuit court.

To most everyone’s surprise, he did return to Guthrie, but he shut himself away in the small house he had shared with Edith. A few widow women dropped by to invite him to church or to bring him a pie or some other enticement, but he kept to himself. Then one night he went into town for a good meal and he met Luna.

They had become “friends.” He was lonely and she had been abandoned by her husband. Anybody paying any attention could tell that the judge was smitten, but he had possessed too much integrity to openly court a married woman.

Mercy stopped in front of the house, but Zach didn’t make a move to dismount. He studied the house, his thoughts tripping back to when he had met Luna last fall. She had flirted with him, saying she might need a divorce attorney because her husband had deserted her. He met up with her again a few weeks later at a dance on the outskirts of Guthrie. That night he had imbibed a bit too much and was leaving when Luna materialized from the darkness. She wound her arms around him, touched him in an intimate manner, and then pulled him with her into a barn on the property. In one of the horse stalls, she unbuttoned his trousers and pleasured him. It had all happened so fast and, on his part, been totally unexpected that he hadn’t known what to feel about it or about her.

Even now, remembering those hot, heavy-breathing minutes in the horse stall with her made him squirm inside. He had been with his share of forward women, but he had anticipated their caresses and kisses. Luna had come at him like a sidewinder. He hadn’t seen her coming.

With a heavy sigh, he dismounted and tied the reins to a hitching pole. As he approached the house, the front door swung open and a woman dressed in a black dress and a white apron smiled at him. On closer inspection, he saw that he knew her. He had been her attorney when she had divorced an abusive husband.

“Good afternoon, sir. What can I do for you?”

“It’s Inez Rainwater, isn’t it?”

She nodded, smiling shyly.

“It’s good to see you again. Are you doing okay? No trouble with your ex-husband?”

“No, sir. Thanks for asking. I’m doing fine.”

“That’s good to hear. Could you tell Lu–Mrs. Bishop that I’d like a quick word?”

“She expecting you, sir?”

“No, but I believe she will see me.”

“Come in, please.” She stepped back to allow him to enter the foyer. “Wait here, please.” She motioned to chairs and a settee backed against one wall.

“Thank you.” He didn’t sit, but moved around the foyer to study a large oil painting of the Grand Canyon and another of a pastoral scene featuring waving wheat and a herd of bison. A porcelain urn, a good four feet high, sat on a short round table in the center of the foyer. Ivy, roses, and some other flower he couldn’t name spilled out of it. He removed his dark brown Stetson and ran a hand through his hair.

The tap of shoes sounded and grew louder, but they were not the footfalls of a woman. Judge Silas Bishop swung around a corner and beamed at Zach. He held out his hand in a hearty greeting.

“Look who the cat dragged in,” the judge said, his bass voice booming from his barrel-shaped chest as it had on the bench. “Good to see you, Warner. What brings you to our humble abode?”

“Hello, Judge.” Zach shook his hand. “Nice house. Very nice”

“Luna picked it out. Theodore Wilson, the banker, built it, but his wife died just before it was finished and he didn’t have the heart to move into it without her. She had been sickly her whole life, poor thing.”

Zach nodded, recalling the sad story. “I don’t mean to bother you, Judge. I was hoping to speak to your wife. I have some news about her former husband.”

The judge’s bushy, white brows met as he peered at Zach through his thick glasses. “Good news or bad news?”

“I don’t rightly know. It all depends on —.”

“Were you here yesterday?”

“Yes. I spoke to your gardener and he said that Luna was visiting relatives.”

“That’s right.” The judge beamed and hooked his thumbs in his vest pockets as he rocked back on his heels. “She never meets a stranger. I love that about her! She is busy all the time. Going here and there, visiting friends, checking on relatives. I’m a happy man, Warner.” He clapped a hand onto Zach’s shoulder. “When are you going to settle down with a good woman?”

“I’m happy for you, Judge, but marriage isn’t something I have a hankering for.”

“You haven’t met the right woman. Once I got to know Luna, I realized that she had become the light of my life. I was a broken man after Edith went to her Great Reward.” A shadow passed over his features. “Did you know my first wife?”

“I didn’t have the honor, sir. She had taken ill when I first moved to Guthrie.”

“She was nothing like Luna. Edith was quiet and shy of strangers, but we had a good life together. She was a dutiful wife and mother. We both loved to read and Edith wrote poetry. She had a way with words. We had a nice, comfortable routine. When she passed, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I hadn’t been alone since the day I was born!”

Zach nodded, thinking of his own parents who had married in their teen years and were still together. Even though they had never been happy with each other, they had stuck it out rather than be alone. “It must have been lonely for you, sir.”

The judge seemed lost in dark thoughts, but then he shook his head and a smile crept up his face again. “Luna is full of spirit and my life is brimming.” He let out a bark of laugher and ran his hands up and down the front of his shirt. “I feel young again!” He leaned closer to Zach and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial rasp. “She’s a wildcat in bed and I can barely —.” His gaze lifted from Zach’s face to focus on someone behind him. Straightening, the judge extended a hand toward the staircase. “Here comes my bride!”

Zach turned to see Luna descending the stairs. He was glad for the interruption because he didn’t wish to hear about the judge’s adventures between the sheets.

“My, my, as I live and breathe! Zach Warner has come a calling. Did you bring me a wedding present?”