“I’ll get you out of here. I promise you that. But first, I must fetch the doctor. You’re wounded.”
“I can ride.”
Sully shook his head. “How long have you been lying in that filthy cellar?”
“All night. I couldn’t make it to my horse, and there were soldiers everywhere, and then I saw Alma’s light on, and came here.”
Alma,Sully thought.That’s her name.“Well, I’m glad you did and glad Alma was kind enough to take you in.”
“I’ll always help a Weatherspoon, sir,” Alma said. “Besides, I hate them bluebellies. My pa and all three of my brothers got kilt in the war.”
“Pity,” Sully said flatly. “Now, Carter, you do as I say and just keep hiding where you are. I need to fetch the doctor. He can clean the wound and give you some medicine to make sure you don’t get an infection. Once we hightail it out of here, there’s no telling when we’ll be able to stop running again.”
“You mean,” Carter said, a huge smile spreading across his dirty face, “you’re coming with me?”
Sully smiled back at him. “Of course. Like you said, we’re more like brothers than cousins. And brothers stick together through thick and thin, right?”
“You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that… brother.”
“You lay still. I’m going to fetch the doctor. Alma, you stay with him. Close the door and cover it with those crates again. I’ll be back shortly.”
As Sully strode up the street, everything in him tightened with purpose. Now was the time, he thought, that his every move, his every word, mattered. Only by performing perfectly could he save the day.
And that was the difference between him and other men. When the pressure was on, when stakes were high, he never lost his head, never weakened, never failed.
“Mr. Weatherspoon,” Isaac Pew said, blocking his path.
The interruption aggravated Sully. He couldn’t afford it. But at the same time, Pew was wealthy enough that Sully couldn’t just ignore him, either.
“Good morning, Mr. Pew. My condolences on the passing of your wife. She was a good?—”
“Yes, yes,” Pew said impatiently, brushing the air with one gloved hand. “Where is the sheriff?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Well, I’ll tell you where heshouldbe. He should be here. This is his office, isn’t it? And it’s past nine. He should be here, in his office, doing his job.”
“Yes, sir,” Sully said, and he had the sudden urge to shove the crazy old man aside, to shove him to the ground, in fact, and stomp him a few times for good measure.
But that would not do, of course. Pew held enormous wealth, and besides, in this new Texas, one must be careful. Very careful.
So it was with an apologetic tone that Sully said, “I don’t mean to rush by you, sir, but I’m on urgent business.”
“As am I,” Pew declared, his eyes wild with impatience and madness. “I need to see Sheriff Rickert. If he isn’t here in ten minutes, I’ll have his badge. You just see if I don’t!”
“Yes, sir,” Sully said pleasantly. “Good luck, sir.”
And he was just walking around Pew when the old man said something that stopped Sully in his tracks.
“I’ll see that Will Bentley hang! You just see if I don’t!”
Sully’s muscles went rigid. Instantly, fury burned bright within him. “Did you say… Will Bentley?”
“That’s right. Do you know him?”
Did Sully know him? Oh yes, he knew him. And if there was one man in the world he longed to destroy, it was Will Bentley, the man who had humiliated him and then, later, in a place far from home, witnessed Sully’s secret shame, the secret shame that could destroy everything Sully had worked so hard to achieve.
But crafty as he was, Sully had already recovered to a degree, enough to hide his true emotions and face Pew with his mask of good-natured innocence still intact. “I’ve heard the name.”
