Chapter 15
Kid was breathing heavily as he trudged up the stairs toward his daughter's room. Heyes had been gone for two days and the rift between he and the girl was only getting wider. He'd put this off long enough; they needed to talk.
The sight of the empty room and neatly made bed gave him a start.
"Catherine?" he called out, fear creeping into his voice.
No answer. Curry headed back downstairs and out the front door. Clay was standing near the corral closing the gate.
"Where's Wilde?" he demanded, taking the other man by surprise.
"Out in the barn I think, doing some more repairs on the harness."
Curry slowly made his way to the barn. His leg had been hurting more than usual lately, probably a result of the longer days that he'd been spending in the saddle and walking around the horses since Catherine had arrived. As he came to the corner or the barn, he caught sight of two figures huddled against the wall on the far side. From the warm glow of the moonlight he could distinguish Catherine and Jeremiah locked in a passionate embrace. Kid stopped in his tracks and stared at the two young lovers.
"Catherine!" he shouted angrily. "Get back to the house."
The two broke apart instantly and turned their surprised faces in the direction of the voice. "Pa?" She gasped in surprise.
"Now, Catherine. I'd like a word with Mr. Wilde." Kid stood with his legs apart and his hands at his side, reminiscent of earlier days. The cane he'd been holding in his right hand had been tossed to the ground.
"Pa, what are you doing? We were just…kissing."
"I said go to the house, Catherine," he repeated, his voice had a steely calm to it that frightened her.
"It'll be fine, sweetheart, I'll see you in the morning," Wilde whispered gently to the girl as she walked slowly toward her father.
With one last glance back at Jeremiah, she began to run toward the house.
After waiting until his daughter was out of sight, Curry began to walk slowly toward the young man, letting his weight fall painfully on his right leg without a limp or the cane for support.
"Wilde, I want you off this property tonight. Go pack you things and I'll have Clay settle up the wages I owe you." Curry's gaze bore into the younger man as he spoke.
"Well, Mr. Curry, I don't think I can do that. See, Catherine and I, we're planning to be married." The younger man said the words with a smile bordering on a sneer.
"The hell you are! You barely know each other. You're nothing but a two bit hustler and I'll prove it." Curry's eyes blazed with anger now.
"Oh, come now, Mr. Curry, or can I call you 'Kid'," Wilde taunted. "You know how girls fall for a man who's a little 'dangerous', isn't that how it was with you and her mother? Of course, you never actually married her, you left after you took what you –"
Before Wilde knew what was happening, Curry's gun was in his hand and the barrel was pressed against his throat.
'Well now, maybe this will get interesting after all,' Wilde thought, as the adrenalin pumped through his veins. He had to admit, he was more than a little impressed by the move.
Curry leaned close and gave the younger man a look that would have caused most men to cower. "If you ever say anything like that to me again, I—will—kill you. Now get out of here. You don't work for me anymore. If I see you on my land again I'll shoot you on sight." The gun and the tone of voice sent the message that the promise would be carried out.
Wilde drew in a breath, as he calculated his next move. "How are you going to explain this to your lovely daughter? Shooting her fiancé in cold blood?" he suddenly regretted the remark when he felt the cold barrel of the gun press harder against his throat and heard the unmistakable click as Curry cocked the weapon.
The younger man let out a relieved breath when he saw Catherine reappear at the barn door.
"Now, Mr. Curry, please don't kill me," he said in a louder, meeker voice.
"Pa!" Catherine shouted from behind her father. "What are you doing? How dare you threaten Jeremiah?"
"Catherine, go back to the house." Curry said, without turning around or removing the gun from its place lodged against Wilde's neck.
"No, if you send him away then I'll go with him. I love him." She ran around and stood beside the younger man.
"You are not leaving this house," Curry proclaimed, barely holding his fury in check.
"What are you going to do? Shoot me too?" the girl fired back indignantly.
Jeremiah could hardly contain a smile. 'This is working out even better than I could have hoped,' he thought smugly.
Kid slowly lowered his gun, as though just now realizing it was pointed at Wilde.
"Why don't we just talk about this when we've all calmed down," Jeremiah suggested calmly, as he pulled Catherine close.
"There's nothing to talk about, you're leaving," Curry stated flatly.
"Pa, you can't turn him out in the dark, where will he go?"
Kid looked into his daughter's tear stained face and then back at the young man next to her.
"Alright, he can stay until morning, but you get back to the house—now."
The girl turned, and with once last scathing look at her father, stomped off toward the ranch house.
"First light, Wilde," Curry growled, then picked up his cane and followed his daughter, leaning heavily on the wooden support.
Catherine was waiting for her father when he entered the house.
"I'm not my mother, you know," she said coldly.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"That's how you met her wasn't it? Working on her parent's farm?"
"Your mother has nothing to do with this," Kid fumed.
"Oh doesn't she? Isn't that what you are afraid of?
"I'm afraid that boy isn't the knight in shining armor that you think he is."
"You think he's like you, but he's not," her look challenged him to argue. When he didn't, she continued. "He's not an outlaw, and he's not going to leave me."
The words cut deeply, but Kid tried not to show it. "We'll see," was all he said as he turned and limped slowly toward one of the large chairs by the fireplace.
Catherine glared at her father for a minute before turning and running up the stairs to her room.
Kid sat alone in the living room, unable to sleep but unable to set his mind on anything productive either. Finally, feeling closed in and frustrated, he walked out onto the porch and looked across the darkness of their property. There was a half moon in the sky, giving just enough light to make out the silhouettes of the trees. 'When had things gone so wrong?' Drained from the events of the evening, he leaned back against the doorpost and closed his eyes.
The sound of movement and of horse's hooves near the barn caught his attention. Instinctively, he stepped off the porch and slowly made his way to the barn, keeping himself hidden as much as possible in the shadows. He was thankful that he still had his gun strapped on. Both he and Heyes usually removed their gun belts when they came into the house, especially with Catherine visiting.
Kid watched from cover of the house, as a horse and rider left the barn. 'What is he doing now? He could have left earlier this evening if he'd wanted to go.'
With a glance up toward his daughter's room, and hoping that she was safely in bed, he made his decision and hurried into the barn to saddle his horse. Following Wilde wouldn't be difficult, keeping the younger man from spotting him would. Curry kept his distance, but took care not to lose him. Wilde was headed toward the ridge on the edge of their property, once he reached it, he could lose himself in the trees and cliffs. The younger man rode purposefully, as if he knew exactly where he was going, but wasn't in a hurry. When they reached the ridge, Curry circled around to try and watch Wilde from a distance. Straining to see through the trees, he could just make out the light of a campfire. Figuring that for Wilde's destination, he headed for a vantage point above the campsite.
Securing his horse to a tree, Curry crept to the edge of the ridge and looked down. Two men—one of them Wilde—stood next to a campfire talking. Four horses stood quietly, a make-shift corral a slight distance away. 'I bet those are Denton's stolen horses…Wilde's probably telling his partner to get ready to move out soon.'
Not wanting the men to know they had been discovered, Curry returned to his horse. 'I'll tell Catherine I've reconsidered and Jeremiah can stay a while, then I'll ride to town and bring the sheriff out to this campsite.' Set on the plan, he rode back to his ranch.
Alone in her room and unable to sleep, Catherine sat by her window looking out into the moonlit night. She'd had such high hopes for her visit—getting to know her father had been her strongest desire for the last nine months. She wasn't sure what had gone wrong, or why her father had been so angry. He hadn't seemed that way in New Mexico, they had gotten along well while he was recovering from the gunshot wound. The injury he received saving her life—he'd been her hero then. Now…he seemed distant, angry, not at all the man she'd thought he was.
Jeremiah had been such a wonderful surprise, and her heart warmed just thinking about him. She couldn't understand how her father could dislike him so. He'd asked her to marry him. She had told him that things were moving too fast, but he been so persistent. She'd found herself saying yes before she knew it. After all, how often does someone like Jeremiah Wilde come along? If she said no, he'd find another girl and she'd lose him forever.
Movement by the side corral caught her eye and she strained to see what it was. As the figure moved closer she recognized her father riding toward the house. 'Now what on earth was he doing out in the middle of the night?' she wondered.
Finally drowsy, she dropped onto her bed and closed her eyes; visions of being Mrs. Jeremiah Wilde floating through her dreams.
Early the next morning, Kid dressed and made a pot of coffee. He planned to walk over to Clay's as soon as he'd had a cup of coffee. Wilde was staying with Clay in the cabin the man had built on the edge of the property. He hoped that if he told Wilde that he could stay, it would delay any plans to move the horses until after the sheriff arrived.
He was about to pour his cup of coffee when a knock sounded on the front door. Surprised at the intrusion so early in the morning, he hurried to the door wondering if someone was in trouble. 'Maybe it's Clay here to tell me Wilde didn't come back last night,' he thought uneasily as he reached the door.
Kid opened the door to a sight which made his blood run cold.
"What can I do for you Sheriff Caldwell?" Curry asked, looking past the sheriff to Denton and his two ranch hands that he had tangled with in the saloon two weeks before.
"Mr. Curry, I was hoping you could explain how Mr. Denton's stolen horses ended up in your corral?" Caldwell asked formally.
"How his what?" Curry pushed past the sheriff to step onto the porch and look into the corral. Sure enough, it held four new horses. 'Damn that kid, he brought 'em back here last night.' He looked back to see Clay and Jeremiah walking toward the house with one of Caldwell deputies.
"Do you think I put 'em there?" Curry challenged.
"This is your property Mr. Curry, and you are in possession of stolen horses." Caldwell stated the obvious.
"Unless you have an explanation, I'm afraid I'm—"
"There isn't any explanation that can change what's right in front of your eyes!" Denton exclaimed. "Arrest this man immediately or I'll wire the Federal Marshall and tell him you're obstructing justice."
"You'll have to come into town with me and sort this out," Caldwell instructed.
"Those horses weren't there yesterday," Clay exclaimed as they reached the house.
"He must have brought them in last night after we went to sleep," Wilde said to Clay.
Kid stared at Jeremiah. "You did this," he accused. "Don't think this is over Wilde."
"I don't know what you're talking about Mr. Curry?" Jeremiah said, feigning confusion.
Denton and his men removed their horses while Clay went to the barn to Kid's horse ready.
"Can I get my gun? Or am I under arrest?" Kid asked, his voice steady and revealing no emotion.
"Bill, get Mr. Curry's gun," Caldwell instructed one of his deputies. "And hold on to it while we ride into town."
"Since you're in possession of stolen property, I'm going to have to put you under arrest and take you in, until this gets straightened out."
Kid glared at the man.
"You understand, the only evidence I have in this case points to you and Mr. Heyes. Where is your partner, Mr. Curry?"
"Headed out yesterday for Cheyenne, he'll be back tomorrow."
"Let's go Curry," Caldwell said, taking Kid's arm and leading him away from the house.
The pain in Kid's leg, which he'd barely noticed the night before, began to return as he felt sharp stabs with every step he took toward his horse.
"We'll talk about this in my office," Caldwell said quietly.
"What's going on?" Catherine called from inside the house, the arrival of the men and the loud voices had awoken her.
Jeremiah seemed to be instantly at her side on the porch. "Sheriff Caldwell is arresting your father for stealing Mr. Denton's horses," he told her quickly.
"What? No, I don't believe it, he wouldn't!" The girl looked desperately from Jeremiah to her father.
"We just have to go into town and sort some things out miss," Caldwell said calmly.
"He's guilty, the proof is right here," Denton accused loudly, as he and his men headed up toward the main road.
"Everything will be fine, Catherine," Curry told her as he mounted his horse.
"Clay, take care of the place until I get back," he instructed the older man.
Catherine could only stare after them as they rode out.
"No," she said again when they were out of sight. "I don't believe it."
Jeremiah stood on the porch with his arm around Catherine, who had watched the departure of her father and Sheriff Caldwell with a look of fear and shock.
"I know how you must feel, sweetheart, you really thought he'd changed didn't you?"
"What?" she stared at him in disbelief.
"You wanted to believe he'd reformed, it's only natural."
Catherine blinked and looked at Jeremiah again. "Are you saying you believe he stole those horses?"
"Catherine, I saw him go out last night."
"No, he couldn't have…he wouldn't have," she thought back to the early morning hour when she had seen him riding toward the barn. 'He had been out…'
"Catherine, everything be alright, I'll help you through it. Then once we're married, we'll run the ranch together."
"What are you talking about?"
"Didn't they tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"I heard them talking about it late one night after you'd gone to bed. They wanted you to inherit the ranch if anything happened to them. They said they'd already had the papers drawn up."
Catherine continued to stare at Jeremiah in shock.
"No, I still don't believe he stole those horses."
"Catherine, I told you, I saw him bring them in," Jeremiah said more forcefully.
Catherine dropped her eyes to the ground.
"There must be another…explanation," she said finally.
"I'm sorry, Catherine. I'd been suspecting that they were up to something, I think that's the real reason he wanted me off the ranch."
Catherine bit her lip and looked toward the mountains. 'No, this just can't be,' she thought desperately. 'This isn't how it was supposed to happen.' At last, unable to hold back the tears any longer she turned to Jeremiah and buried her head in his shoulder
"Trust me, I'll take care of everything," Wilde said, wrapping his arms protectively around her. Looking out over the expanse of the property, a victorious smile spread across his face.