Could one man-even if he was the sheriff-stop a lynch mob on the prowl?
Patch couldn"t understand a word Merielle said. The woman was completely hysterical. She grabbed Merielle"s hand and pulled her toward the ranch house. "Come inside with me, Merielle. You need a cool drink. I promise you we"ll talk."
"You have to listen to me, Patch," she begged as they stepped onto the porch. "Boyd is going to hang Ethan."
That made no sense at all to Patch. "Just calm down, Merielle."
"I won"t calm down!" She stomped her foot like a six-year-old having a tantrum. "Listen to me! I"m not crazy!"
Nell heard the commotion and came running to the front door along with Leah.
Leah"s eyes widened in fright when she spied the red-faced, shouting woman on the porch. "What"s wrong with her?"
"Leah, would you get a cold drink from the kitchen?" Patch asked as she ushered Merielle across the threshold and on into the parlor. "Nell, please come here and sit on the sofa on the other side of Merielle."
Patch got Merielle settled between herself and Nell. Each of them had an arm around Merielle trying to calm her down. Tears began streaming down Merielle"s perfect face.
"Please listen to me," Merielle begged. "Ethan"s life is in danger."
That got their attention. Leah had returned with a gla.s.s of lemonade and stood listening raptly.
"What"s all this about Ethan being in danger?" Patch asked.
"That"s what I"ve been trying to tell you," Merielle said. "Boyd shot my father, and he"s going to blame Ethan. When he left my house, he was on his way to town to form a lynch party. He wants Ethan hanged before anyone can start asking questions."
Patch stared at Merielle. The Merielle she had first met wouldn"t have understood the danger involved in such a situation, or even acknowledged it. Something was very different about this woman from the Merielle she had known. "You"ve got your memory back!"
"Enough to know it was Boyd who raped me!"
"But Chester-"
"Chester tried to stop him! When my father heard the truth, he reached for a gun to kill Boyd, and Boyd shot him in the back."
Patch shivered. "Oh, my G.o.d! My G.o.d! We have to find Ethan and warn him."
"Isn"t he here?" Merielle asked.
"When he found out that Chester had-oh, Lord, but it wasn"t Chester! I can"t wrap my mind around the fact it was Boyd. Mrs. Felber told us Chester had raped you. Ethan thought you might be needing Frank, so he went hunting for him. He was going to send Frank to you."
"Frank? You know where Frank is?" Merielle asked.
"I know where Ethan went looking for him."
Nell was quicker than Patch to realize the real ramifications of what Merielle had said. Boyd was truly evil. He would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. If he couldn"t manage to hang Ethan, he might shoot Ethan in the back, as he had Jefferson Trahern.
"We"ve got to get word to Ethan now," Nell said. "He won"t realize he"s in danger from Boyd."
"I"ll go on horseback," Patch said, rising from the sofa. "That"ll be the fastest way to reach him."
Merielle jumped up after her. "I"ll go with you."
Patch tried sitting Merielle back down, but the girl wasn"t yielding. "If you just wait here, I"ll send Frank back to you."
"You can"t leave me here!" Merielle cried hysterically. "Don"t you understand? Boyd is coming here with the lynch party! If he finds me here, he"ll know I"m not crazy anymore. And he"ll kill me!"
"We can hide you," Nell said.
"No! No! I"m scared! Please, Patch, take me with you!"
Patch hugged Merielle tight and met Nell"s eyes over her shoulder. "Maybe it"s for the best if I take her with me. There"s no telling how far Boyd will go. He might search the house. If he found her ..."
Nell rose and patted Merielle on the back. "All right, both of you go. But hurry! Leah and I will stall Boyd here as long as we can."
Patch took time enough to strip off her day dress and put on one of Ethan"s shirts, Levi"s, and boots for the hard ride ahead. Then she and Merielle headed for the barn for fresh horses, slamming the door behind them.
Nell opened her arms and a frightened Leah stepped into them.
"Will Ethan be all right, Ma?"
"We"ll do everything we can, Leah, to protect him. He"s managed to survive worse danger for a lot of years. He"s always careful."
"But he won"t be expecting Boyd to try and kill him."
"We"ll just have to pray, Leah, that Patch and Merielle get to Ethan first."
Leah started to cry. "I didn"t know I was going to love Ethan so much, Ma, but I do. I don"t want him to die."
Nell tightened her arms around her daughter. "Shh. Shh. G.o.d willing, you and your brother will have many long years to tease each other to death."
Leah laughed and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Aw, Ma."
Then Leah"s head whipped up at the rumbling sound of galloping horses. "They"re coming!" She raced to the front window and looked out. "They"re here!"
Nell crossed to the window to look for herself. "You stay inside, Leah. I"ll handle this."
Nell was frightened, but she had lived in the West long enough to know that the fact she was a woman gave her a certain immunity to harm. Women were so scarce that those who braved the loneliness and the danger of the West were revered and protected. These men might hang her son without a qualm, but they would hunt down and kill anyone who dared to lay a finger on her.
She patted her hair once and straightened her ap.r.o.n before stepping out onto the front porch. "What can I do for you gentlemen this afternoon?"
"We"re lookin" for Ethan," one of the men said. "Send him on out."
"Ethan isn"t here."
"Hidin" behind his mother"s skirts, more likely," someone muttered from the crowd.
"I"m telling you the truth," Nell said in a calm voice. "Can I offer you gentlemen something cold to drink?"
Boyd could see that Nell"s courtesy made the crowd uncomfortable. If he didn"t do something fast, she would have them all inside drinking lemonade, instead of hunting Ethan down.
"We"re going to have to look in the house for Ethan," Boyd said. "And in the barn."
"Of course," Nell said. "But just a few of you in the house, please." The longer they spent searching the house, the more time it gave Patch and Merielle to find Ethan and Frank.
Boyd picked a few of the rowdier men to search the house, those without wives and family, who would be less finicky about looking under furniture. He joined them. The rest he sent to the barn and area surrounding the house. Boyd was surprised when Careless insisted on staying with him.
"If you find Ethan, I wanta be there to see what he has to say for hisself," Careless insisted.
That was exactly what Boyd didn"t want, but nothing he said could budge the sheriff. "All right," he said at last. "Come on. Let"s get this over with."
The presence of the sheriff lent credibility to the search, but Boyd wasn"t really surprised when they didn"t find Ethan. However, he suspected that Nell Hawk knew where her son was. If Careless hadn"t been along, he would have used force to get the information from her. He wasn"t quite sure what to do now.
Shouts and gunshots from outside brought all those in the house to the porch on the run.
"Did you find him?" Boyd shouted.
The man they dragged out of the chicken coop wasn"t Ethan Hawk.
"Corwin!" Nell cried. "What are you doing here?"
The mob dragged the old man up onto the porch where Boyd was waiting with Careless.
"I wanted to surprise you," Corwin said sheepishly. "I decided to build that roost you"ve been wanting for your hens."
"Swears he don"t have the least idea where Ethan Hawk is," said one of the two cowboys who was holding Corwin hostage.
"You better tell us what you know, old man," Boyd said.
"I wouldn"t tell you the time of day," Corwin retorted. "You"re what you"ve always been, Boyd Stuckey. Nothing."
Boyd drew his pistol and cracked the old man on the head with the b.u.t.t of it. Corwin sagged like a bag of grain in the arms of the men holding him. They let go and he fell to the ground.
"Corwin!" Nell dropped to the ground beside the old man, and put the hem of her ap.r.o.n to his temple to stanch the flow of blood. She looked up at Boyd and found that he was staring back at her defiantly with those golden yellow eyes of his.
"Does it make you feel important to pistol-whip a defenseless man?" she said.
"You"ll be next if I don"t get some information quick," Boyd threatened.
The crowd suddenly hushed.
The next thing Boyd knew, Leah had jumped on his back and was strangling him. He reached up and tumbled her over his shoulder.
"Hey! Leave the kid alone," Careless warned.
"She attacked me first," Boyd retorted. He grabbed both of Leah"s hands in one of his and held her at arm"s length, so she couldn"t kick him. But then he couldn"t reach her mouth to shut her up.
"You two-legged coyote!" she ranted. "You back-shooting coward."
Boyd flushed at the names she was calling him. He started to raise his hand to her when Careless warned, "The girl ain"t guilty of nothin". Leave her alone."
The crowd that had been hushed began to make ugly noises at Boyd"s rough treatment of the girl.
Boyd realized he would be the one at the end of a rope if he didn"t let go of the brat. When he released her hands, she backed off, but only far enough to give her room to kick him hard in the shin before running to the protection of her mother"s arms.
He rubbed his leg but didn"t dare lash out at her as he wished. His face ruddy with rage, Boyd demanded, "Tell us where to find Ethan."
"I don"t know where Ethan is," Nell answered.
"You must have some idea what he planned to do today," Boyd insisted.
"No, I don"t."
The cowboys shifted restlessly. None of them had bargained for this kind of confrontation when they left the saloon.
"Hey!" one of them said. "Leave the lady be!"
"We"ll find Hawk some other time," another shouted.
That was exactly what Boyd did not want. The time to strike was now, before Ethan had a chance to establish an alibi or profess his innocence. He raised his gun to strike at the old man again, and Nell cried, "No! I"ll tell you! Don"t hit him again!"
"Where is he?" Boyd demanded.
Nell knew she had bought the two women as much time as she could. Surely they had enough of a head start to find Ethan and warn him. "Ethan went to find Frank at the Tumbling Troundup."
"If you"re lying," he said, "I"ll be back."
"I"m sorry for you, Boyd," Nell said. "I can"t imagine what any of us ever did to make you hate us so."
Boyd leaned close to Nell and spoke in a guttural voice that was barely loud enough for her to hear. "It"s nothing personal. I"m just doing what I have to do to survive."
When Boyd turned around, he discovered that the lynch mob, which had been so hot for revenge in town, was now colder than a dead snake. Boyd had work to do if he was going to whip them into a frenzy again.
Careless didn"t help matters. "Maybe it would be a good idea if you and me go after Ethan and bring him back to town."
"These men have as much right as anybody to witness a hanging," Boyd said. "You don"t want to rob them of all the fun, do you?"
The drunkest of the bunch yelled, "I ain"t seen a hangin" for nigh on to two years. Don"t aim to miss this one!"
Reminded of how long it was between adventures of this sort, the mob mounted up, revived and refreshed by its gory purpose.
Careless didn"t try any longer to stop the crowd. He rode off at a gallop after them. He hadn"t realized how ruthless Boyd Stuckey was. Maybe he had better rethink his plan to thwart the richest, meanest b.a.s.t.a.r.d in Oak County.
Patch and Merielle were in a race with time. They had to reach the spot where the Tumbling Tcowhands were dipping, branding, and castrating calves before Boyd"s lynch mob caught up to them.
Patch"s greatest fear was that Merielle might slow her down. After an hour on the trail, Patch conceded she had vastly underrated Merielle"s grit and gumption. The young woman had dried her tears, squared her shoulders, and ridden as hard as a horse thief with a prize stallion under him and the law on his tail.
Their horses were blown by the time they spotted a crowd of cowboys squatting down around a branding fire. "Ethan!" Patch shouted. "Ethan!"