4
She had sat at the
kitchen table rehearsing what she would say to him. How easy it was
when it was words spoken only to herself, only in her mind.
Be honest with me, Mike. Whatever you’ve done, tell me,
and I’ll stand by you. I know you couldn’t have killed that young
girl, so tell me your side of things, Mike. Let me hear the honest
truth from you.
Then she saw him
coming up the walk, the girls hurling themselves at him so he’d
pick them up in his strong callused hands and strong muscular arms
and carry them inside.
The three of them
came bursting through the door, the girls laughing because he was
tickling them. He set them down and Tess said, “He said I was five
years old, Daddy.”
“Who said?” Griff
said, tickling her again.
“The sheriff.”
“The sheriff?” Griff
said, fluffing her blond hair. “Was he trying to arrest you?”
Tess nodded to her
mother. “He came here to see Mommy.”
Griff’s face
tightened. “Dodds came here?”
His wife said,
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Not long after you
walked overtown.”
“What did he
want?”
She scooched the
girls outdoors.
“How come we have to
go outside, Mommy?” Tess said.
“Because it’s summer
and that’s where little girls are supposed to be. Outside.”
She closed the door
and turned around. Griff was pouring himself a cup of coffee from
the pot on the stove. No matter how hot it got, Griff always liked
steaming coffee.
He went over and sat
at the kitchen table. “What did he say?”
She decided against
any sort of coyness or hesitation. “He said you were in
trouble.”
“He say what
kind?”
“There was a bank
robbery. A young girl was killed.”
He stared at her a
long time. “You believe that?”
“I’m not sure. Not
about the girl, I mean. I know you well enough to know you could
never hurt a child.”
“How about the
bank?”
She came over and sat
down across from him at the table. The oilcloth smelled pleasant.
“He said it was right after the wagon works closed. I remember what
you were like in those days. Desperate. You thought we might lose
the house and everything.”
“What if I told you
that I did help rob that bank?”
“I’d do my best to
understand.”
“What if I told you
that the girl dying was a pure accident?”
“I’d believe that,
too.”
“Dodds tell you that
the girl’s father is here?”
“Yes. He says the man
means to kill you.”
He met her gaze. He
looked sad and tense. “Can’t say I blame him, can you?”
“It was an
accident.”
“What if it was
Eloise or Tess? Would you be so forgiving just because it was an
accident?”
“I reckon not.”
“Dodds going to come
and arrest me?”
“He wants you to turn
yourself in.”
“How do you feel
about that?”
“I wish you
would.”
“It’d mean
prison.”
“I’ve thought about
that, Mike.”
“Not all women want
to wait for their men.”
She touched his
coarse strong hand. “I love you, Mike. You made a mistake but that
doesn’t take away any of my feelings for you.”
“I don’t think I
could tolerate prison. I’m too old. Too used to my freedom.”
“What’s the
alternative?”
“Let this man Ryan
try something. Then Dodds will have to run him in.”
“Won’t Dodds turn on
you then?”
“He doesn’t have any
evidence. He just has the word of this ex-Pinkerton man who was
through here a while back.”
She put her head down
and said a quick prayer for guidance. Then she raised her head and
smiled at him. “The girls and I’ll come see you. Every week if
they’ll let us.”
“It’d be a terrible
life for you.”
“We’d get by.”
He stared out the
back window at the barn where his buggies were. She could tell he
was thinking about them. Next to the girls and herself, the buggies
were his abiding pride. He picked up his steaming coffee and blew
on the hot liquid and said, “Let me think about it a little
while.”
She touched his hand
again. “I love you, Mike. And so do the girls. Just remember
that.”
His eyes left the
window and turned back to her. “I don’t know what the hell I ever
did to deserve you, but I sure am a lucky man.” She laughed and
there were tears in her laugh. “You expect me to disagree with
that?”
Then he laughed, too,
and went back to staring out the window at the buggies.