Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold (6 page)

The sheriff sighed, thinking that perhaps it was just as well the man was dead. He had often feared worse trouble than this.

Suddenly Noah sat up straight, carefully scanning the road and range ahead. Some movement and trace of dust alerted his always watchful sixth sense. A strong conviction came on him that riders coming this way were avoiding passing him on the road, something he would have investigated if he weren’t due back in court again this afternoon. The judge didn’t come through Mason often enough to wait half a day on an absent sheriff. Noah cursed the restrictions of the buggy instead of a saddle horse, but he knew Anne Wells had never been on a horse, and the purpose of his trip was to bring her home. If he weren’t so short of time, he might stop at the main Bennett Ranch and talk to Frank, but as things were he’d best head straight to Cord’s.

As Noah drove into the ranch yard, he looked around in surprise. It had been many years since he had been on this part of the Bennett Ranch, and talk in town about how poorly Cord lived had made him forget how sturdy and attractive these old buildings really were. They all had fresh paint, the yard and corrals were in good repair, and the stock visible was in good shape. One man did not keep a place looking like this by lazing around.

A dog hiding behind the barn barked shrilly at him. Noah slowed, drew his gun, and began to approach the house with care as he noticed the front door standing open. Moving quietly across the porch, he glanced in the door and stopped in his tracks at the sight that greeted him. The man wrapped in blankets on the floor was only recognizable by the raven black hair. A woman who had to be Anne Wells huddled on the floor beside the man’s body, arms cradling her knees, rocking back and forth. Close now, Noah could hear a soft keening rising and falling in a mindless cadence.

Holstering his gun, he managed to utter an incredulous, questioning, “Anne?”

His single word caused a flurry of motion. Anne scrambled after the rifle on the floor, reached it and turned in a crouch. Her bruised face was contorted in a terrible grimace, and she was aiming straight at his middle from a distance of only a few feet. Noah took two steps back, holding his hands out at his sides, waist high and palms up, and began using his most soothing tone.

“Now, Anne, you know I’m not going to hurt you. It’s only me, Noah Reynolds, and I’ve come to take you home.”

Noah had been sheriff of Mason a long time. He expected her to recognize him, hoped his soft tone would calm her, but didn’t expect her reaction. She dropped the rifle and threw herself in his arms whimpering, “Help me. Please help.”

He held her in a fatherly hug and patted her back, hoping a bit of comfort might restore her senses. When her sobbing let up, he tried to guide her through the door, saying, “Come on, now, I’ve got a buggy right outside and we’ll have you home in no time,” but she pulled loose and got down on her knees beside Cord.

“No. You don’t understand. I’m never going home. I need help getting him back to the bedroom. If you’ll help me, we could even get him into the bed. He’s all broken up inside and he’s made it worse. Please help me get the bed back together and then carry him for me. If you’ll keep his body straight, I can support his head and shoulders.”

Noah picked up both the rifle and the nearby pistol, checked and saw they were empty, and looked back at Anne. “We’ll stop at Frank’s and send him back here to see what can be done. If he’s still alive, he’ll hang for doing this to you anyway.”

In spite of the blackened eyes and swollen face, Noah could see fury sweep over her. “You’ll hang him over my dead body. He’s the only one who didn’t hurt me.”

Remembering his musings on the trip out here, Noah knew that his suspicions had all been right. Something was very wrong, and the only way he was going to find out was to get Anne calmed down and telling her story. “All right, show me what you need.”

Noah lifted the mattress back on the bed, and waited while Anne remade the bed, then followed her back to where Cord lay. She slid her arms under Cord’s shoulders, and looked up at Noah. “Please?”

With a sigh, Noah started to lift the long body.

“Try not to let him sag. Don’t bend him.” There was so much concern in her voice, Noah gentled his touch and tried to follow her instructions, and together they carried the unconscious man to the bedroom. Noah started when she pulled the blanket off Cord, embarrassed until he took in the injuries and all other thoughts fled.

“Good Lord, is he really alive like that?”

“He was, if he didn’t kill himself this morning.”

She made Noah hold Cord while she washed his reopened wounds then carefully straightened his senseless body, fussing over tilting his head just so over a towel and replacing clean cloths under his hips and upper thighs.

At this Noah’s embarrassment returned. “See here, Anne, this isn’t right. You can’t be doing this sort of thing.”

She didn’t even glance up. “This is the fourth day I’ve been doing this sort of thing. I stopped worrying about my sensibilities in the first five minutes.”

Noah watched her tuck the sheet and blankets around the battered body with tender care, and then followed her to the kitchen, where she turned and said, “I’m sorry for the hysterics. It’s been a terrible few days, and just when I thought everything was all right, it went all wrong again, and it was too much for a while. Sit down. I’ll make us some coffee, and you can tell me why you’re here.”

The sheriff watched her bustling around the kitchen, obviously familiar with everything, and told her how he had come to be there.

With the pot heating on the stove, Anne sat down across from him and said, “Noah, my father lied to you. He’s probably realized there were guns in the house and if he came after me himself I might shoot him. The only way I’ll ever go home is if you drag me back in handcuffs, and if you do that, I’ll run away again the first chance I get. Now, am I under arrest?”

“Of course not, but you can’t stay here with that man. You know that.”

“I’m staying here until someone else comes to take care of him. I’d appreciate it if you’d tell the doctor to come as soon as he can. I’ve never nursed anybody before, and for all I know, I’m making everything worse. And his brothers, would you tell his brothers?”

“I’ll tell Frank and Ephraim, and I’ll send the doctor out, but you’ve got to come with me.”

“No.”

Their eyes met, and Noah was the first to look away. He sighed again. “I think you’d better tell me the whole story.”

She did. She told him every bit of it, starting with why she was there.

* * *

Chapter 6

NOAH DID NOT HAVE TIME
to stop at Frank Bennett’s on the way back to town, or to see Ephraim Bennett when he got back, but he did, as promised, stop at Dr. Craig’s. The doctor was out, but Mrs. Craig said she would have her husband go look at Cord first thing in the morning, and also agreed to get word to Ephraim. Satisfied, Noah headed for the courtroom. The defendant in this trial had more money than sense and had hired a Denver lawyer to represent him, so Noah didn’t count on seeing Ephraim at the courthouse.

As it happened, Mrs. Craig kept her promise to tell Ephraim by having the doctor stop at the Bennett house on the way out to the ranch in the morning. Ephraim had already left to meet a client, so the doctor gave the message to Ephraim’s wife, Martha. But by the time Martha caught up with her husband, he had been cornered by Mrs. Carson, who was good friends with Mrs. Peabody, who had been talking to Reverend Pratt’s wife, and Ephraim was heading home almost at a dead run anyway. The story Mrs. Carson had so enjoyed telling Ephraim was how his half-brother had ravished poor Anne Wells and been killed for it.

Ephraim was the oldest of the Bennett brothers and the biggest. He stood several inches over six feet, and had light blond hair and pale blue eyes. Ephraim was usually a slow, gentle, bear-like man, but there was nothing slow or gentle looking about him when Martha found him. The news that Cord was alive did not improve his temper.

“Good,” he grated, “Frank and I can kill the son of a bitch ourselves.”

ANNE KNEW MASON WAS FORTUNATE
to have a doctor such as Daniel Craig. An Easterner born and bred, Craig had put in ten hard years working in the slums of New York City before realizing he could not endure much more struggling against such a tide of human misery. Craig had told Anne that in Mason he found a practice where he felt he was doing some good. His slight build, boyish face, and curly light brown hair helped convince the female half of Mason he was as reliable as old Doc Andrews in no time at all. Anne suspected it didn’t hurt that his wife spared no effort to endear herself to the town.

She had hoped Craig’s visit would reassure her. It did not. Cord was having periods of lucidity again, and the bleeding had stopped in the night. The doctor listened carefully to what had happened and what Anne had done. He assured her she had done nothing harmful and had indeed helped. Then he told her as gently as possible that sometimes the human body could cling very tenaciously to life, and that at such times people simply took a long time to die.

“There’s nothing you can do? He’s just going to die?”

Anne had made sure Dr. Craig realized Cord was not the villain of this tragedy. There was sympathy in the doctor’s attitude, but he answered frankly. “I’m not saying I know he’s going to die. Every doctor has seen his share of miracles. He wouldn’t be alive right now if he weren’t stronger than most of us, but you’ve asked me my opinion, and I don’t think his chances are very good.”

She had reached the same conclusion herself days ago, but since then hope had taken hold, and now she felt despair. “Will you stop by and see him again?”

“I thought Ephraim and Frank would be here to take him off your hands soon. I stopped at Eph’s this morning myself to make sure the family knew.”

The thought of help made her try to smile, but that only made her face hurt. “Well, would you plan on coming, and if he’s moved or….” She could not say the word, “Someone will get word to you.”

“Of course, if I’m out this way for any reason, I’ll stop by, and if not, I’ll make a point of coming back out in a couple of days. How’s that?”

It would have to do. Anne curled up in the rocker again to watch, fighting the fog of misery threatening to envelop her. If only he hadn’t made that incredible struggle to the doorway. If he hadn’t, they would both be dead, and she knew it.

The barking of the dog she had begun to think of as Foxface woke her sometime later. Anne looked out the front window, hoping to see Frank and Ephraim Bennett, and sure enough there were the two big blond men tying their horses to the porch railing.

Opening the front door, she began to greet them, “I’m so glad to see you, we…,” but both men brushed by her as if she didn’t exist, heading for the bedroom with long, angry strides. Indignant, Anne chased after them.

Frank was considered the handsome Bennett. Where Ephraim’s hair was a pale blond, Frank’s was bright gold. Frank was built long and lean, like Cord, and was about the same height, but his open countenance, even features, and laughing deep blue eyes drew people to him instantly. Anne had heard that before he married and settled down, Frank had been quite a ladies’ man. She had also heard about his quick temper and was glad he was so angry on Cord’s behalf, but she didn’t like being ignored.

Cord had been asleep when the doctor arrived and waked only to pass out during the examination. The sound of his brothers’ angry approach brought him awake again. As they charged into the bedroom, Anne tried once more to get their attention, “He really isn’t well enough to talk to you much yet….”

Frank turned on her and snarled, “I don’t need any excuses from a woman stupid enough to sit out here and nurse the son of a bitch who did that to her face. You just shut up and wait outside. This is a family matter.”

By the time he had finished talking, his voice had risen to just short of a yell in the small room, and he didn’t lower it as he turned on Cord. “You bastard, you son of a bitch, I keep thinking you can’t get any worse, and you keep proving me wrong.” Frank’s voice lowered to a harsh growl. “Eph thinks we ought to finish you off ourselves and at least take care of the family’s own mess right here and now, and maybe he’s right, and I suppose you’re just going to lay there and pull that goddamn silence crap on us again.”

It was obvious to Anne by now that the Bennetts had not come to help and that Frank was just warming up. Things were not going to get better. She left the bedroom as ordered, then went and got the rifle she had talked Noah Reynolds into reloading. Keeping the rifle hidden behind her, she slipped back into the bedroom. Ephraim and Frank were either too busy abusing their half-brother to notice or didn’t think she was worthy of notice.

Remembering Cord’s instructions of the day before, she put her back to the wall in a corner away from the door. Once in position, she raised the rifle. Frank halted in mid-word, and both he and Ephraim turned full attention on her.

“Get out.” She wasn’t shouting. She said it in quite a conversational tone.

“Now look, Miss Wells, nobody meant to….”

“Get out.” She said it more forcefully this time. “I probably couldn’t hit you at any distance, but in this room, I’m quite sure I can blow a large, nasty hole right in your belly, and if you don’t turn around and get out of this house in the next few seconds that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve had enough of you and your kind to last me a lifetime. Get out!”