Jane thought she was prepared for the report from Gideon’s gun, but when it came, she shuddered from head to toe. Rabbit was lifted out of his seat. She slid a hand toward him. With his brother gone, there was no reason not to accept her offer. Apparently he thought so, too. He slipped his hand under her palm and allowed her to give it a squeeze, and then he turned his hand over and took hers in his. Jane had no words. It was as lovely a gesture as there ever was.
Marcie put his gun away and sat at the table for the first time. He set his pocket watch in front of him. “You think he can do it, Mrs. Longstreet?”
“Of course he can.”
“Good to know. I have to say, I’ve had my doubts about this plan all along, but Gideon had it in his head that it had to be done this way. Just desserts, he called it.” He glanced at the stove. “Is the coffee still hot?”
She nodded and started to rise.
“Sit. I don’t mind doin’ for myself, not when there’s no gang to serve.” He got a cup and went to the stove. “Now on the trail, it’s a different matter. Someone gets up to get himself a cup and suddenly you got someone else yellin’, ‘Man-at-the-pot.’ That means you’re obliged to carry the pot and give a fill-up to anyone who wants one.” He returned to his chair and sipped his coffee for temperature before he took a swallow. “This is real good. You have any fancy fluff-duffs?”
Jane frowned.
Rabbit said, “He’s talkin’ about fancy cakes, doughnuts, food like that. Must be the just desserts that got him going one way on that track.”
“Nothing like that,” Jane said evenly. “But I understand there is a pie and cookies in the wagon in the barn.”
“I heard that, too. Guess I’ll be leavin’ them there.” He drank more coffee. “You haven’t asked. That surprises me a little.” When Jane did not respond, he said, “You haven’t asked me how I come to throw in with Gideon.”
“I do not want to know.”
Marcie spoke as if she had not. “Prison.” He slowly traced his scar with a fingernail. “I wouldn’t want to say what I did to get there in front of the boy, but I could take you in the bedroom and show you.”
Jane showed no reaction that she could control. It was not possible to keep blood from draining out of her face.
Marcie glanced at the pocket watch. “One hundred minutes is a long time for some things. Not enough for others. What do you say, Mrs. Longstreet? Would you like to buy some time for your husband?”
Morgan and Finn rode abreast. Gideon led the way. Dix was still the caboose. Morgan rode Condor, the same saddle horse he’d had under him all day. He would have preferred a fresher mount, but Gideon insisted on the gelding. Finn, though, got Sophie when she proved too recalcitrant for Gideon to mount. She was used to someone lighter in her saddle these days, so Morgan suggested Finn, but he already had it in his mind that he would be the one riding her back to Jane. She would fly for him, and she had the heart to do it.
“We can cover the ground faster,” he told Gideon. “Finn can keep up.”
Gideon looked over his shoulder. “Worried that there won’t be enough time?”
There was no point in responding to his brother’s mockery, so Morgan didn’t. He glanced over at Finn. The boy was staying in the saddle, and that was the best that could be said for his seat. The only animal the Collinses owned was the mare that pulled the station buckboard. Finn and Rabbit spent considerably more time behind her than on her. Sophie was taking her lead from Condor, not Finn.
“There’s the graveyard,” Finn said, pointing up ahead. “I guess I know the shape of that cottonwood. It’s about as gnarly as my gran’s hand.” He cupped a hand around his mouth so his loud whisper would be sure to carry ahead to Gideon. “Hey, mister, you know the quickest way to get to the bank, or do you want me to show you?”
Gideon slowed so Finn caught up to him. “I got a way figured out.”
“And I probably got a better one. I’ve been all over this town one time or another on adventures with my brother. You tell me how you want to get there, and I’ll tell you if it’s good.”
Gideon looked over at Morgan. “What do you think?”
“I’m for listening to him. He’s got a stake in this. His brother’s back there.”
“All right,” said Gideon. “Out with it.”
Finn laid out a route that would have them skirting the edge of town and then turning sharp and heading straight through the alley that would bring them to the bank.
“It’s roundabout,” said Gideon.
“It’ll be quick on horseback,” said Finn. “The other way, the best way if you don’t want to be noticed at all is on foot, but I got it in my head that bank robbers want to have their horses close by the bank, not tied up at the graveyard.”
By the time they reached the edge of the cemetery, Gideon had made his decision. “You take the lead, Finn. I’ll be right behind you.”
“I need to be with him,” Morgan said. “He can’t control Sophie.”
“Go ahead. As long as I control you, I don’t figure we have a problem.”
