Katherine kept them waiting, for longer than the agreed upon few minutes. Val sat in a chair in the lobby, picking up a newspaper
and flipping thru it. Scott stood at the window, holding the curtain aside, watching the activity on the street.
"You know what I think?" Scott said.
"What do you think?" Val asked, not looking up from his newspaper.
"I think that Katherine has a reason for showing up here for a so-called two day visit. That's what I think."
Val lowered his newspaper.
"I also think that she knows more than she's letting on. Maybe the banker Beets told her that I came to see him," Scott went on.
"Well, where do you think Charlie gets this kidnapping idea from?" Val asked.
"I don't know," Scott said, with a sigh.
"I'd say that she's doin' it for attention, or to get out of going anywhere with her aunt, but she was scared. There was no
pretending to it," Val said.
"No. She really believes it," Scott agreed.
Val refolded the newspaper and laid it on the table beside his chair. "There's a noticeable change in that little girl," he said.
Scott turned to look at Val, wondering what his friend meant.
"She's still a spunky little thing," Val went on. "But, she's-well, she's more settled, I guess is the word. Compliant. Respectful."
Scott nodded in response and Val added, "You've done a good job with her, Scott. She thinks you hung the moon."
"I don't know about that," Scott said.
"Well, I do," Val asserted.
Scott met his gaze and nodded in acceptance. "Well, I think she's real special, too."
"So, what's the problem?" Val asked. "You love her. She loves you. The aunt's not a proper caretaker. What's stopping
you?"
"The money," Scott said.
Val wrinkled his forehead in puzzlement. "How so?"
"I'd sign away any connection to it, but I don't think Katherine will be so willing to let it go."
"How much money are we talking about here?" Val asked.
When Scott told him the sum of the inheritance, Val's eyebrows rose.
"Good Lord," he said. "I had no idea it was that much."
"Yeah."
Finally, when Katherine came down the stairs, she was dressed in a shiny blue satin dress, low in the neckline, with
lace around the wrists.
"Gentlemen," she said.
Val, who'd gotten to his feet as Katherine approached, said, "I've asked Ted if we can use the back room, in order to have
some privacy."
"The conversation requires privacy, does it?" she asked, lifting a well-plucked brow.
"I think it does," Val said easily.
Val led the way to the back room, Katherine following, and Scott at the end.
Once there, Val gestured to a chair. "Sit down if you like, Mrs. Burch."
Katherine nodded, and seated herself, smoothing her dress.
"What's this about?" she asked, sounding impatient.
Scott looked at Val, thinking he would let Val take the lead in the conversation.
"Charlotte came to my office early this morning," Val said. "She seems to feel that she's in some sort of danger."
"That's ridiculous. What sort of danger?" Katherine demanded.
"In danger of being kidnapped," Val said, and waited.
"Kidnapped?" Katherine repeated, looking properly shocked.
"Yes, ma'm."
"Well, my goodness, that's the most foolish thing I've ever heard. Charlotte is very well protected and supervised when she is with me-"
Katherine paused, and let her words sink in. "Or, since her worry has occurred here, it's someone from this area that she
fears?"
Well, she'd done that nice and neatly, Scott thought darkly. Managed to shift the blame onto his family. And Charlie, well-protected when
with her aunt? That was the most blatant falsehood he'd ever heard.
He would have spoken up, denying her last remarks, but Val said calmly, "Well, Mrs. Burch, when I first met Charlotte, she'd
been taken off a train, after having hopped it in Stockton and riding it here. So, I'm not so certain I'd agree with the
well-supervised part."
Val had well and truly made an enemy. Scott knew that from the way that Katherine's controlled façade faded, and her eyes
became icy. She quickly managed to remask her composure, but the iciness stayed in her eyes.
"All children go thru stages in their life, Sheriff," she said, managing to sound as though she was preaching. "Perhaps, like Scott here,
you don't yourself have any personal experience in raising children? Or do you? Have children, Sheriff?"
"No, ma'm, I do not. I do know the law, however, and it's never a good thing when a child can make it that far without being
detected, and reported missing," Val said.
Katherine's cheeks flamed in color. Anger, Scott knew, not embarrassment.
"Let's move on to this kidnapping nonsense," she said, in a clipped tone.
"Charlie says she heard a man's voice in the hotel hallway last night. She says she's heard it before. She seems-truly
frightened," Val said.
"I wouldn't know anything about a man's voice in the hallway," Katherine said, in irritation. "My goodness, there's any
number of hotel guests up and down the hallways at night, I expect."
"Yes, ma'm. With this particular voice, though, she says you were speaking with the gentleman in question."
"That's nonsense," Katherine waved a hand in dismissal. "Perhaps Charlotte was having a dream of some sort."
"She feels it's real," Scott said. He couldn't keep silent any longer.
Katherine turned her icy eyes onto Scott. "Goodness, Scott, haven't you learned yet, that a child can 'feel' things,
without them being true?"
Scott felt his anger grow so strong that he walked the few feet to the window, to give himself a few moments to
cool down.
"Not to mention the fact that Charlotte is-well," Katherine hesitated, as if reluctant to finish her sentence, "Well, she likes
to stretch the truth, for lack of a better way to say it."
Scott turned to face her, his own eyes cold. "Charlie wouldn't lie. Not about something important like this."
"Well, what exactly are you saying, gentlemen?" Katherine asked. "That there's a vile man, waiting to kidnap Charlotte? And
that I'm somehow negligent in my duties, that she feels that way?"
"We wanted to speak to you about it," Val said. "Let you know her concerns. And ours."
"Well, now you've done that," Katherine said, and stood, with all the bearing of a queen, dismissing her servants. Her eyes
focused on Scott. "I think, really, that it would be best if I didn't accompany you back out to the ranch, Scott. I'll await the stage
on its next return."
"Fine," Scott said.
"And, I also think, with this recent development, that Charlotte should return to Stockton with me."
Scott couldn't help the shocked look he sent her. "Today?" he asked.
"Yes. Today. If there's a stage leaving today."
"No," Scott heard himself saying in a flat, curt voice. "She's been promised that she could stay. So she'll stay."
Katherine and Scott faced off, so to speak, while Val stood quiet.
"You have no right," Katherine said.
There was no answer to that, so Scott made none. He just held her gaze with his own. Silent. Commanding.
Katherine turned to Val. "I am, as you are aware, Sheriff, the legal guardian of the child. I need no one's permission
to have her accompany me. I am the one who gives the permission."
"Ma'm," Val began.
"She's been promised," Scott maintained. "A promise should be kept."
"Well, I don't feel that this particular promise is one that should be kept," Katherine said.
"And I don't believe that your feelings are what's important right now," Scott said severely.
Katherine stood up, her back ramrod straight. "I will be at the hotel. When I find the time of departure of the
next stage today, I'll expect you to know it as well. And I'll expect Charlotte there, ready to travel with me.
And dressed appropriately. Like a young lady. Not some-derelict ranch hand."
And, with that, Katherine swept out of the room her skirts rustling, with only the sound that satin can make.
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