“You should have waited until Jesse got back.”
“But I couldn’t. I’d just done murder, Tess. You know what that means?”
She crossed her arms and sent him a withering stare. “In for a penny, in for a pound, I always say.”
“But she was just laying there, bleeding. His wife. I just sat there thinkin’, what if it had been different. What if that had been you, hon?”
“Then I hope whoever had gone to the trouble of snuffing me out would have the sense to wait around for the right victim to come along.”
Darnell, his rusty-haired good looks marred by his hangdog expression, ceded the point. “Well, I didn’t.”
“And now you won’t even listen to reason. We can go get that land, Darnell. Good land. You said yourself he ain’t got no relatives, ’cept his brother, who’s going to jail, too. You’re his partner, and you won that land together. You got as much right to the place as anybody. More. Your name’s on the deed. Just because you flipped some fool coin, that doesn’t mean anything.”
“But I murdered his wife, Tess.”
“Stop saying that!” Tess paced back and forth, her long legs crossing the room with few steps, and looked back up at her husband periodically in annoyance. “Worrying about that is making you sick, weak. Jitter and I spent the night in that hotel, so there couldn’t be any problems. Buck up!”
“It ain’t so easy,” he snapped back.
She stopped her pacing and turned on him, her fists planted firmly on her hips. “Well, it ain’t so easy for me, either, sitting here and watching a golden opportunity pass us by. I didn’t marry you so’s I could be poorer than I ever was, you know. I thought you were somebody that was going places.”
“It’s just been a bad year, that’s all,” he said, his tone full of resentment.
“Well, it’s not gonna get any better with you sittin’ around on your duff all day, too afraid to go and get what should have been yours in the first place.”
“You can’t expect me to just waltz into Chariton to see my old friend hang, Tess.”
“You were happy enough to waltz in when you were aimin’ on murdering him.” The truth finally shut Darnell up, and Tess took advantage of the moment to ram her argument home. She walked over to him, sidling up real close, and meekly took his hands. “Oh, Darnell,” she said, her voice pleasingly appeasing, “I just want what’s best for both of us. You know how I want a family.”
Darnell scuffed one foot against Tess’s immaculate kitchen floor. “Aw, I know.”
“But I can’t see us having a family out here,” she said, staring at him with those blue eyes of hers. She could make them go all gooey when she wanted to.
Times like these, Jitter could understand clearly how Darnell could have been hoodwinked into marrying a woman who had nothing but contempt for him. He had to give Tess credit for being the slyest thing he’d come across this side of a sidewinder. And she was a hell of a lot prettier.
“If we wait to make our claim, the land will be sold,” she insisted gently.
“There’s other land.”
“Not land that should have been yours to begin with.”
“It’s a bad idea, goin’ back there.”
The two of them stood toe-to-toe, almost nose-to-nose. Darnell had the advantage in height. But when Tess’s eyes started misting up, that slight edge was overshadowed.
She took a step back and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “I guess you just don’t want me to be happy,” she said in a wounded tone.
Darnell released a raw sigh. “Aw, hon. Of course I do. Didn’t I marry you? Didn’t I add on this nice kitchen for you? Nothin’s more important in the world to me than you.”
“That was months ago,” she said, squeezing another teardrop out. This one she allowed to fall dramatically down her pale cheek. Jitter could almost feel its warm progress down her soft skin. “You sure don’t act like you love me anymore, Darnell.”
That little tear was Darnell’s undoing. He stepped forward and gathered his wife into his arms and kissed the blond hair at the crown of her head. As the two embraced, Jitter felt his breath hitch in his throat, and his gut wrenched so uncomfortably that he had to look away. But not for long.
“I do, you know I do,” Darnell said soothingly. “I just don’t want to risk too much at once.”
She sniffed, all the while running a long-nailed hand up and down Darnell’s back. Jitter shivered.
“But we gotta take risks sometime,” she said, “if we’re gonna get ahead. Don’t you think so, Darnell?”
He hesitated—or maybe he was just a little bit distracted by that hand skimming his spine. Finally, he caved in. “I guess you’re right.”
She hugged him more tightly. “Oh, I’m not even sure I want to go, anyway,” she said. “I don’t have a nice thing to wear — we’ll never fit into polite society with me lookin’ like an old shoe.”
Now that Darnell was licked, he was all smiles. “Sweetheart, I’m gonna sell everything left here that could raise money, and before we go back east, we’ll stop in Little Bend and buy you the nicest dress there.”
She beamed up at him. “Oh, Darnell, you’re so good to me!”
Darnell bent down and kissed her on the lips, long and hard. The two remained in an embrace until Tess pulled back, flashing her husband a delectable smile.
Finally, Darnell glanced around, remembering that someone else was in the room. “You okay, Jitter? You look all pale and clammy.”
Jitter shook his head. He didn’t care how mean she was. He would have done anything to trade places with Darnell at that moment. Good thing he could still call to mind scraps of his Bible learning. Thou shalt not... shalt not...
From the top of a long grassy hill, Sam looked down at a rough log building. A sign out front, above the door, announced it to be a store — but it couldn’t be much of one, given its size and its location. Yet the place was bound to have something that would make the next few days a little more bearable. He was beginning to feel as worn out and empty as his hostage looked. And with any luck, he could be in and out before the proprietor even took notice of him.
With any luck... That was a good one! When was the last time he’d felt lucky? Moments before making the acquaintance of Millicent Lively, that was when.
He sneaked a glance at her now, trying to detect whether her expression was at all smug. She was getting what she wanted, after all. But no, her face was perfectly serene, devoid of any outward show of triumph. She stood, her thin shoulders straight, her head erect, looking directly down at the little building. Her yellow dress was dust-covered and raggedy, yet he hadn’t been completely successful in disguising it; bright patches still showed through.
“I guess I’ll tie you up back here,” he said.
She turned on him, her eyes round. “Tie me up? Why?”
“So you won’t gallop away when I’m gone.”
“But I want to go with you!”
He rolled his eyes. He should have expected her to be difficult on this point. “You know I can’t let you do that.”
“Why not?”
“Look—it’s just a little trading post. You won’t be missing out on much.” He shot her a keen glance. “Unless you were