“What’s he talking about?” Gideon asked Jane.
“I am sure I do not know. Finn, what are you talking about?”
He shrugged again. “Well, I don’t really know either. Seems like no one wants to tell me, but I heard Mrs. Sterling sayin’ somethin’ about it to my gran.”
Jane pointed to herself. “Saying something about me?”
“I thought it was about you.” He dug into his potato shell with a fork. “I could be wrong.”
Gideon pouched a mouthful of egg and potato and ham in one cheek and spoke around it. “You’re pregnant?”
“If I were, I would hardly tell you, but as it happens, I am not. Finn is correct in that he is wrong. Whatever he heard, he’s mistaken the meaning.”
Gideon swallowed, nodded. “Damn shame. That’d get Morgan’s attention. His wife and his child. I don’t know that I’d even have to hold a gun on him.” He took another bite. “Damn shame.”
Jane sat down. She supposed she did it without any awkwardness, but in her mind, she had a vision of reeling toward the chair and collapsing in it as her knees folded.
She was pregnant. The enormity of the miracle made her want to shout and weep and, oddly enough, fling herself at Finn Collins. She had not known, not even suspected. The possibility that she would bear Morgan’s child had become so remote to her that it had all but ceased to exist, and now she was confronting it for the first time in the presence of a man who wanted her husband dead.
Jane considered the clues to her condition that she had assigned some other cause: fatigue, little appetite, distraction, moods that made her weep, an improved appetite recently, and a belly that had a slight, but definite, convex curve. There had been a lapse in her courses, but that had happened before and pregnancy was never at the root of it. And there had been some spotting. The truth was, with so many things to occupy her mind of late, she had not given it much thought.
She wondered if Morgan had. It seemed he noticed everything about her. Had he noticed this?
Gideon picked up a whiskey bottle at his elbow and reached behind him for a cup. He passed both to Finn. “Here, give this to her. Seems like things are catching up. She’s as white as bitterroot.”
Finn dutifully slid the bottle and cup to Jane.
She stared at it for a long moment before she pulled the cork from the bottle and poured a generous finger. She placed the cup against her lips before she permitted herself a small, secretive smile. Then she sipped.
It was Marcie who spotted Morgan and Jake riding along the fence line. They were darker silhouettes than the blue-black sky. He poked his head in the kitchen door, made his announcement, and ducked outside again. At Gideon’s direction he went to the smokehouse.
“You stand over there,” Gideon told Dix. “Behind her. Not too close, but keep your hand ready and steady.”
“You want me to shoot her?”
“Not now, for God’s sake. But maybe, yeah. We talked about this.”
“I know, but she made supper for us.”
“She didn’t make it for us. She made it for them. Morgan and the help. We stole it.”
“Well, yeah, but…” Dix found himself on the receiving end of Gideon’s dark glare and took his place behind Jane. But not too close.
Gideon waited partially out of sight at one end of the china cupboard.
And waited.
Jane knew how long she could expect Morgan to take from the time he reached the barn until he walked up to the house. She didn’t know if Jake would come with him right off. Sometimes the hands came in a little later, giving Morgan and her time to be alone before they showed for supper. If Jake went to the bunkhouse first, he’d be confronting Avery on his own. Jane suspected Avery would employ the same tactics as Gideon. Jake would be just about helpless if one of his brothers was put in harm’s way.
Jane’s lips barely moved as she ticked off the minutes in her mind. Finn and Rabbit sat preternaturally still. She thought of the knife in her pocket and the child in her belly and wondered if she would be able to act, and if she should.
Her head lifted as the door opened and Morgan came through alone. He had a beautiful, welcoming smile for her, and she held on to it in her mind’s eye as it faded away. He was taking in everything at a glance and understood the consequences of acting even before the slight shake of her head warned him to do nothing.
His hands went up, not down. “Gideon. Is that you sheltering on the lee side of the china cupboard? I’m shutting the door now.” He backed up to the door and pulled it closed. The wind died immediately and the house was quiet. “You’re really too big to hide there. Do you remember when you could fit in one of these cupboards?”
Gideon stepped out. His gun was drawn.
Morgan’s eyes stayed on his brother, not his brother’s gun. “If you’re going to shoot me, I’d be obliged if we could go outside. It’s not a thing for women and children to see.”
