Matt (The Cowboys) (21 page)

“Yes, but—”

“So either you arrest those other boys or let Toby go buy that suit he wants so badly.”

The sheriff looked from Toby to Matt before he started toward Toby. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He kicked a chair out of his path, then faced Matt, anger and frustration flickering in his expression. He opened his mouth to speak but never got a chance.

The door to his office burst open and Wilbur Sears entered. “I’m glad to see you’ve arrested that young demon. It’s time we made certain he can’t cause further harm to the young people of this town.”

Chapter Twelve

Matt felt sorry for the sheriff. He was caught between two interpretations of how to do his job. But Matt had no patience with Wilbur Sears. The man was a mean-spirited bigot who hid his small-mindedness under a mantel of self-righteousness.

“All boys fight,” Matt said to Wilbur. “That doesn’t make them demons.”

“Have you seen what he did to Phillip Jackson?”

“Take a look at what Phillip Jackson and his friends did to Toby,” Matt replied.

“He deserved much more. He’s a brute and a bully.”

“When did one boy defending himself against three attackers make him a bully?”

“Those boys didn’t attack him,” Wilbur contradicted, pointing an accusing finger at Toby. “He was the attacker.”

“Did you see the fight?” Matt asked.

“No, but—”

“Then you don’t know who attacked whom.”

“Phillip Jackson says Toby attacked them without provocation.”

“Toby says the boys taunted him, and when he retaliated, they attacked him.”

“And you believe him?” Wilbur asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you’re a gullible fool.”

“What if there are witnesses who say the others started it?” Ellen asked.

Matt had seen Ellen, followed by a few townspeople, enter the office, but he’d been too angry at Wilbur to greet her. He had hoped she wouldn’t learn about this until he got it straight.

“They’re lying,” Wilbur declared. “Phillip Jackson would never attack him. He wouldn’t want to be contaminated.”

“I suggest you take a look at who those witnesses are before you call them liars,” Ellen said. “They happen to be faithful members of your congregation.”

Wilbur pointed an accusatory finger at Ellen. “I wouldn’t have expected you to defend this boy.”

“I wouldn’t have expected you to defend bullies by calling responsible adults liars. Addie Williams, Sarah Tull, and Tom Brayne all agree Phillip and his friends started the trouble.”

“How do you know what they saw?” Wilbur demanded.

“Because Tom told me.” Ellen gestured toward a tall man holding his hat.

“Phillip and his friends provoked the fight,” Tom said. The two women standing next to him nodded their agreement.

“You’ve stepped in a cow pattie this time, Wilbur,” Ellen said.

Matt didn’t know when he’d been so surprised. He never would have guessed Ellen would defend Toby. He couldn’t help but be proud of her. She had backed Wilbur into a corner before he knew what was happening.

“This trouble will make it easier for me to see those kids are put into an orphanage.”

“That’s why I was certain Toby hadn’t caused the trouble,” Ellen said. “He knows what’s at stake, and he promised Matt he wouldn’t do anything to cause trouble.”

“That boy’s a menace. He needs to be locked up.”

“He’s hardly more than a child.”

“I’m not a child,” Toby protested.

Ellen ignored Toby’s interruption. “A child everybody criticizes and discriminates against at every opportunity. It’s you and people like you who’ve taught him to fight.”

“I preach forgiveness, love, and eternal salvation.”

“But you don’t practice it. You don’t love Toby. You won’t even forgive him the circumstances of his birth. We’re taking him straight to Ward Dillon to make sure he has no permanent injury. In the meantime, Matt and I will decide whether to press charges against those boys. We have enough witnesses to make them stick.”

Matt snapped out of his stupor. Ellen had given him an opening he wasn’t about to let slip away. He took Toby by the arm, practically lifted him out of the chair, and headed for the door. He nodded a brief thanks to the three witnesses.

“You can’t let them leave,” Wilbur said to the sheriff. “You’ve got to put that boy in jail.”

“Self-defense isn’t against the law,” the sheriff said. “Until you can prove otherwise, they can take Toby home.”

“I didn’t expect you to come to my defense,” Toby said once they were outside. “I thought you’d be happy if they locked me up.”

“I’m sorry we don’t get along better, Toby, but I’ve suffered from unjust accusations more than once in my life. I refuse to let Wilbur do the same thing to you. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a good deal to say about your behavior this afternoon.”

“Doesn’t sound like you’re glad they let me off.”

“I am, but I’m angry the whole situation happened in the first place.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Are you sure you didn’t do something to cause those boys to start picking on you?”

“I don’t have to do nothing. They hate me.”

“Why? What have you done to them?”

“I don’t think it’s fair to assume Toby did anything,” Matt said.

“He must have done something. The whole town can’t dislike him for no reason.”

Matt’s pleasure in Ellen’s support evaporated. She hadn’t started to like Toby or believe there was any good in him. “If the whole town hated him, nobody would have said the other boys started it.”

“Sarah and Addie wouldn’t have spoken up if Tom hadn’t practically forced them. That kind of feeling doesn’t come from nothing,” she said, directing her statement to Toby.

They were headed to Mrs. Ogden’s house to pick up Tess. Matt wanted to ask Ellen to finish this discussion when they could have some privacy. It bothered him that people along the boardwalk should know any of what went on inside his family. Ellen and Toby, however, didn’t appear to share his concern.

“The boys don’t like me because I’m better-looking than they are,” Toby said. “Their parents don’t like me because their daughters do. I ain’t done more than kiss a couple of them. That’s the God’s honest truth. Matt would kill me if I did something stupid.”

Toby knows the consequences of unwanted babies,” Matt said. “He’s had firsthand experience.”

“I agree he has a right to be angry,” Ellen said, “but I don’t think we should have to bear the consequences.”

“I don’t go out with girls because I’m angry at anybody,” Toby said, looking at Ellen like she was crazy. “I do it ‘cause I like girls.”

“Is that why you started making eyes at Tammy Jackson?”

Toby grinned. “No. I started because I was mad at her ma for making trouble for Matt and Orin.”

“Don’t you ever think, Toby? Do you look ahead and try to see if what you’re doing will cause trouble? Or do you just do what you damn well please because it’s fun?”

The conversation stopped, at least temporarily, when they reached Mrs. Ogden’s house. Inside, Tess’s happy babbling about all the things she and her dolly had done with Mrs. Ogden filled the room. She had to drag Matt to the shed and show him that Mrs. Ogden had a kitten that looked just like Fluffy. She showed Ellen the dress Mrs. Ogden had made for her doll and said she’d promised to have a new dress the next time they came to Bandera. She wanted to know if they could come again tomorrow.

By the time Tess stopped talking, they had reached the livery stable, where Will, Noah, and Orin were waiting for them. Will whistled when he saw Toby’s beat-up face. He had known Toby was in trouble when Matt had appeared, leaving Orin in his care. Matt had said the briefest of words about getting Toby out of jail before disappearing again.

Toby related the details of the fight as he, Orin, and Will saddled their horses. Noah begged until Will offered to let him ride with him for a little way. Tess, who had overcome her fear of horses, begged Ellen to let her accept Orin’s offer to ride double with him.

“Let her,” Matt said before Ellen could refuse. “Orin’s an excellent rider.”

“You’d better agree,” Will said, his grin infectious, “or she’ll never forgive you.”

Ellen agreed, with the stipulation that Orin never allow his horse to move out of a canter, but Matt had the feeling she gave in more because she wanted to talk to him.

“It’s time you stopped defending Toby at every turn,” she said as soon as the riders were far enough ahead that they couldn’t overhear every word. “He won’t learn to be responsible for his actions as long as he knows you’ll back him every time.”

“I defended him because I think he’s right. There is a lot of good in that boy, and no one’s given him the chance to show it.”

“I’ve tried to, but he resents me and the kids.”

“Of course. You threaten him.” She looked so incensed at his accusation, he couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s your presence here, not you personally.”

“How? I’ve done everything I could to make him like me.”

“Toby never had a home. I don’t know anything about his father, but his mother was a dancer. She didn’t want a baby and left him with her parents. It wasn’t acceptable for an Anglo to have a baby with Mexican blood—I think the father was Greek, but I can’t be sure—especially one without a father. When he was trouble, her parents passed him off to somebody else in the family, each relative he stayed with kept him only until they could hand him off again. Finally he was just thrown out.”

Ellen’s anger had subsided considerably. “That sounds a lot like what happened to me.”

“Then you can understand why he’s afraid. He knows you and the kids have brought increased danger to us and he resents it. He’s also afraid I’ll start to like you and the kids more than him.”

“I don’t see how. You fuss over him all the time.”

“He’s only been here a couple of years. That’s not enough to offset his first fourteen years.”

“Matt, you’re a fool if you believe that boy cares about anybody but himself. I’m not saying he doesn’t like you and Orin, but when it comes right down to it, he’s going to look out for himself first.”

“You can’t believe that.”

“Why not? Everybody in Bandera thinks so.”

“According to you, every woman in Bandera thinks you tried to seduce Eddie Lowell and his father.” Her face lost color. “Their believing it doesn’t make it true. Nor does it make me believe it.”

“That was unfair.”

“I don’t think so. They prefer to believe the worst of Toby because he threatens them. That’s exactly why the women fear you. Their defense is to make you socially unacceptable.”

“We’ll never agree on Toby, so I’ll say no more.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything to get in the way of the adoption.”

“If he gets into any more fights, there are going to be more people who believe you’re an unfit parent. They’re already convinced I am.”

“As soon as they see how much you love Noah and Tess, they’ll forget you ever worked in a saloon.”

He was certain they would if he could muzzle Wilbur and Mabel. Western society was forgiving of past transgressions as long as the person appeared to have truly changed.

“Everything may turn out as you foresee—I hope it will—but in the meantime Toby must be forbidden to go into town,” Ellen said.

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Toby needs the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. He also needs his family to support him, no matter what happens.”

“I don’t trust him to control himself if those boys start baiting him again.”

“He’s learned his lesson.”

“Why do you let that boy manipulate you?”

“I’m not being manipulated. I believe in him.”

Ellen’s compressed mouth and angry eyes told him that she wasn’t convinced.

“Do you know that practically every woman I meet tells me how fortunate I am to be married to you?”

That shocked Matt. Women were attracted to him—he wasn’t a fool, he knew he was good-looking—but looks weren’t enough to overcome everything else.

“They tell me you’re handsome, dependable, understanding, kind, considerate, thoughtful. The list goes on. What they don’t know is that you’re a sucker for any kid with a sob story. You took Toby when nobody else could handle him. You took Orin when nobody wanted him. You even took me and the kids so they wouldn’t be put in an orphanage. You’re a sweet, kind, wonderful, adorable fool.”

The tears in Ellen’s eyes stunned him. Could she actually care about him enough to cry, or was she crying out of frustration … or out of fear for herself and the kids? That seemed more likely. Nobody had ever cried over him.

“I’m sorry the people in your life haven’t been better,” he said. “It must be awful to distrust everybody.”

“I don’t distrust everyone. Just men.”

“Not all of us are untrustworthy.”