Part 5 (1/2)
But most disturbing of all, she wanted him to notice her. Not the way other men noticed her. She wasn't interested in showing him how well she could rope or ride or perform any of the dozens of other skills she had worked so laboriously to master. If not that, what? She found herself tugging at her s.h.i.+rt, unsatisfied with its fit. She even felt dissatisfied with her pants. She would have to see about getting some more. These were old and worn.
She wondered what he thought of her looks and found herself pulling the brim of her hat lower. She hadn't really looked at herself in the mirror for months, maybe years, but she knew that sun and wind had turned her skin unbecomingly brown.
He probably didn't think of her as a woman at all.
She began to fidget. She was tired of standing about doing nothing. She wasn't used to it. She wasn't used to being ignored either. She wasn't used to being upset, and she wasn't used to feeling inferior. She wasn't used to worrying about what somebody else thought about her, and she wasn't used to worrying about what she looked like.
”I've got to be going,” she said. ”You're just wasting your time.”
He turned in her direction, his gaze gradually focusing on her. ”Do you dislike truth on principle, or do you dislike it because it doesn't fit your prejudices?”
”What do you mean?” she asked, stung by his accusation.
”You don't care about anything except seeing my brother hang. Not what happened that night, why Troy was here, or if there might be another explanation for what was found.”
”I do care,” she protested, knowing her protests were useless. He would believe what he wanted. ”And what makes you so certain your brother didn't kill Troy? You can't say he never killed anybody.”
”Hen wouldn't have gotten into a fight if he'd meant to shoot your cousin.”
”But he'd threatened to kill him.”
”I know, but everybody will tell you Hen never shot anybody who wasn't trying to steal our cows or hurt someone in our family.”
Fern opened her mouth to contradict him, then realized that the only instances she had ever heard about were exactly as he said.
”You have no evidence,” she said Madison's confidence did not waver. ”I know Hen didn't kill your cousin. So I asked myself who might want to kill Troy and have Hen hang for the murder? It would have been easy to arrange. George says everybody knows Dave Bunch pa.s.ses by here on his way home. Somebody wanted him to hear the shot and see a horse that looked like Hen's.”
”You're making this up,” Fern said, beginning to feel a terrible pressure inside her. It made her furious to think Hen might escape punishment for a cold-blooded murder.
”n.o.body could see inside that cabin, not to shoot a man in the heart with a single shot. You could empty two guns in there without hitting anybody. On top of that, the body was stiff. According to Dave Bunch, he went straight to town for Marshal Hickok as soon as he knew Troy was dead. That would mean they got back here in about an hour. If Troy had been killed by the shot Dave heard, the body would still have been warm. That means Troy was killed earlier, probably somewhere else, and then brought here. The shot Dave heard was fired into the air.”
”That's preposterous,” Fern protested. ”You've twisted everything so it will look the way you want it to.”
”No, I'm just looking at the facts. You and everyone else a.s.sumed my brother killed your cousin and you just slapped him in jail. If anyone had bothered to look before half the town trampled this area under dozens of hooves and footprints, I bet you would have found a clear set of prints for a fourth horse, the horse ridden by the killer.”
”n.o.body's going to believe a word of this,” Fern said, confident that the men she knew would believe Dave Bunch over Madison Randolph. ”They'll know you're lying.”
But Madison pressed on.
”Somebody was already looking for a way to kill Troy when he and Hen had that fight. That was simply the opportunity he needed. Who else had Troy been fighting with? Who disagreed with him, distrusted him?”
Her father.
He and Troy had had dozens of arguments, many of them witnessed by half the town. Worst of all, her father had fired Troy about a month before the Randolph herd reached town. Troy had gotten a job with Sam Belton selling farmland to homesteaders, but he had let everybody know he had a score to settle with his uncle. If people started to listen to Madison, suspicion would turn to her father. And he didn't have any witness to his whereabouts all that night and part of the next day.
”You're just trying to throw up a smoke screen,” Fern said, ”to confuse people so they won't know what to believe.”
”Who are you trying to protect?” Madison demanded. Fern tried to appear confident, but she couldn't. Her father was all she had in the world. She knew he hadn't killed Troy, but if Madison started telling people about his theories, they would begin to remember that her father hadn't been very interested in trying to find Troy's killer. She had to stall Madison until she could warn her father.
''I'm not trying to protect anybody,” Fern insisted. ”And I'm certainly not afraid of anything you say.”
”I can see it in your eyes,” Madison replied. ”You're so afraid your teeth are chattering.”
”I'm not afraid,” she shot back. ”I never have been.”
”Then why are you so afraid to admit you're a female?”
Fern stared at him, flabbergasted. She didn't even move when Madison advanced on her, not stopping until he was only inches from her.
”You've got a body that men must pant after. You tease us by parading about in pants, but your clothing also forces us to keep our distance.”
Fern stepped back; Madison stepped forward.
”Are you too ignorant to know you drive men crazy, or do you dress like that because you like to see us with our tongues hanging out?”
Fern's mouth opened, but no sound came out.
”I don't know what kind of woman you'd make, but you make a d.a.m.ned sorry man.”
The attack was so sudden, the words so unexpected, that Fern found herself unprepared for the impact. It went straight through the armor of years, penetrated the hard veneer she showed to the world, and exploded the dark veil she had kept drawn over a secret so painful she'd locked it away even from herself. And now she sensed it there, waiting, obscure still, but frightening.
”You know you're more dangerous in pants than a dress.” He stalked her as she retreated before him. ”You can go where other women can't, cause havoc other women never dreamed of.”
I don't . . . I never”
”But there's a problem,” Madison said.
He was so close she could feel his breath on her skin. She held her ground, determined she wouldn't run away. She didn't want to admit he frightened her, but he was so close he was practically touching her. It made her limbs go weak.
”I'll bet no man has ever held you in his arms and kissed you.”
I don't want anybody to kiss me,” Fern protested. I wouldn't let”
”For all your teasing and tempting, the other women are way ahead of you. They know what it's like to feel a man's embrace.”
She felt his arms go around her. She fought against the tightening band, but she was powerless to keep it from closing around her.
”They know what it's like to feel the pressure of a man's body against their own, to feel his touch on their skin.”
The circle closed around her until it crushed her against him. The shock of such intimate contact aroused the deeply buried memories, black and frightening recollections that blurred Madison's face.
”They know what it's like to be kissed.”
Madison's lips took Fern's in a gentle, lingering kiss. A small part of her was aware of his gentleness, of the willing response of her body, but the terror in her mind blocked out everything else. Fighting with all her strength, Fern tore loose from Madison's embrace. With a m.u.f.fled sob, she pulled herself onto her horse and galloped off, her eyes so filled with tears she couldn't see where she was going.
Chapter Five.