Bella's Vineyard (13 page)

“Not that I’ve
ever known you sleepwalk before.”

Vance drew
nearer to the porch.

“Mind you,” May
continued. “You’d think all these rocks under a person’s feet would wake them
up.”

“Wake who up?”
Vance raised an eyebrow.

“May thought she
saw me sleepwalking last night,” Bella explained.

“Really?”

“I don’t have to
get my shotgun, do I, Marshal?” asked May. She was grinning but her eyes were
steely. “You’re gonna make an honest woman of my little girl without a rifle in
your back, aren’t you?”

“I most
certainly am, Miss Tucker.”

“That’s okay
then. But,” she turned to Bella. “There’s to be no more … sleepwalking … till
we get you down that aisle, do you hear? I’ll get Shen or one of the boys to
sit out on the porch all night if I have to.”

“Like I said,”
Vance said to Bella as they walked to the buggy, “the sooner we get married the
better.”

“But,” murmured
Bella, “it’s a long way to Milton and we’ll be alone.”

May called out
from the porch, “Vance! Bella! Shen said he had to go into Milton. Wait on him
a while. You can give him a lift. In fact now I think on it, I got things to do
down there. I’ll come along myself.”

“It was a nice
idea while it lasted,” said Vance, helping Bella up onto the front seat of the
buggy. “But they won’t always be around.”

“We will until
you put a ring on that girl’s finger,” said May, slapping him firmly on the
shoulder and climbing into the back of the buggy.

“Miss Tucker, do
you have Indian blood in you? Because I’ve never known a white woman who could
creep up on someone like that before.” Vance climbed into his own seat. Bella
placed her hand on his thigh.

“No, my family
were German stock. But I’ve learned a lot from watching you over the past
week.” May removed Bella’s hand from Vance’s leg. “That’s enough of that.
Shen’s an old man and set in his ways.”

“You don’t need
your rifle now, Miss Tucker,” said Vance, looking back at the gun May held in
her hand.

“I’m taking it
to get a new firing pin. So you’re safe. At least until we get to Milton.”

Milton was
bustling when they arrived there. More settlers had arrived, and were filling
up the saloon. Families and children filled the streets. “I ought to send a
telegram to my father again,” said Vance as he guided the buggy into a space
outside the hardware store. “These people will be needing homes, and he might
be able to help out.”

“It was good of
him to offer to help us restock the vineyard,” said May, as she clambered out
of the back.

“He likes the
idea of wine-growing,” said Vance. “It appeals to his more cultured side.” He
looked to Bella. “He’s also hoping you’ll save me from this awful life of crime
I lead.”

“I don’t want to
change you one bit,” said Bella. “Shen, do you think you’ll hear something
today?”

Shen was at
Bella’s side, ready to help her down. “I hope so, Miss Bella. The lawyer said
he would try to rush things through.”

“Good luck,” she
said, when she was safely on the ground. “If you have any problems, we’ll be
over at the church, seeing the preacher.”

“I would not
want to disturb you when you have such important business to take care of,” he
said, smiling kindly. “I will wait until you are finished.”

“Very well.
We’ll see you both in a little while.”

Bella and Vance
waved to May and Shen and headed for the church.

Half an hour
later, they were coming back out again and shaking hands with the preacher,
when they saw Griffiths standing at the end of the Milton main road. He was
about two hundred yards away from them.

“Marshal
Eagleson,” said Griffiths. He swayed on his feet. “Marshal! You come here and
fight like a man.”

Others on the
street had stopped to watch him. Bella saw Shen in the background, and was
perplexed when he turned and ran in the opposite direction. Was he abandoning
them to their fate?

“Bella, go back
inside with the preacher,” said Vance.

“Vance…”

“Please,
darling. Do as I say. What do you want Mister Griffiths?”

“I want to
finish what others couldn’t. Tom has run away, and Bill is dead. The others who
work for me, they’ve got weak. They’re more scared of you than they are of me.
They think you’re some kind of ghost.” Griffiths spat on the ground. “They’ve
created a mythology about you. The Indian marshal who disappears into the
darkness. ”

“Bella, for
God’s sake, go inside.”

“I’m not leaving
you.”

“I’m going to
kill you, Marshal,” Griffiths said. His hand was on his gun belt, but he had
not yet drawn. He was too far away from them to be any real threat. “This is my
town, and I don’t want you in it. Your or that little Indian loving trollop.”

Bella heard
Vance’s sharp intake of breath and saw his hand snap towards his own gun. “No,”
she whispered urgently. “What he says means nothing, Vance. It’s about him and
the sort of man he is. It’s not about me.”

“She’s right,
marshal,” said the preacher, who was standing on Vance’s other side. “Don’t
commit a mortal sin over something you know isn’t true.”

“I’m the marshal
here,” said Vance in a low voice. “It’s my job to uphold the law, and he’s
breaking it by threatening me and another citizen of this town.”

“You can justify
that to yourself all you want, Vance,” said the preacher. “But we’ll all know
it’s because of what he’s just said about Bella. Besides, I know you’re a good
shot, but you’d never hit him from here.”

“I’ll get a
little closer then,” said Vance.

“No,” said
Bella. “He might kill you.”

Griffiths was
moving closer still. In a short time he would be within firing distance.

“Mister
Griffiths,” said Bella. “Let’s talk about this. About the vineyard.”

“Bella, no,”
Vance hissed.

“You were right,
you know. My brother misled you, and he shouldn’t have. Perhaps we can talk
about it. Of course, I can’t let you have it as part of the bet, but you were
going to make me an offer.”

“Bella, what are
you doing?”

“I’m saving your
life.”

“Darling, he’s
not going to kill me.”

“You’re too
late. I don’t want it. With the damage from the fire, it’ll cost me too much
more to make it viable. It’s damaged goods. Much like you, Miss Tennyson.”

“That’s Mrs
Eagleson to you,” said Vance. “And if you say one more insulting thing about my
wife, I will kill you.”

“You’re not
married yet,” said Griffiths.

“Yes they are,”
said the preacher. His brow was awash with sweat. “I just performed the
ceremony myself, with my wife and daughter as witnesses. Marshal, I urge you to
rethink. I understand you feel the need to protect your wife’s honour, but
don’t let your marriage start like this. You can take him, you know you can.
Even if he wasn’t as drunk as a skunk. In which case it’s little more than
murder.”

“If he doesn’t
kill me, I’m going to kill him,” said Griffiths. “I will show people who’s
really in charge in this town.”

“I don’t think
so, Griffiths.”

Bella looked around
to see where the new voice came from. It was Ike Peterson. He had several of
his men with him. She looked to the other side of the street and saw Mr Grant
and his men. There must have been about twenty of them in all. Whilst Griffiths
had been talking, they had moved in closer. Her heart swelled when she saw Shen
standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr Peterson.

“Keep out of
this, Ike,” said Griffiths. “If you know what’s good for you.”

“It’s not about
what’s good for me, Griffiths. It’s about what’s good for Milton. And we’ve
decided you’re not. The marshal on the other hand, is. There’s less killing
goes on around here, apart from the poor English boy, and there’s less
dishonesty in the officers of the law. Milton is starting to turn into the sort
of place people want to settle, have families. We kinda like that. It’ll bring
business and prosperity to the town and we’ll all benefit. But you, Griffiths,
you’re staining the place with your presence.”

“I have Milton’s
best interests at heart,” said Griffiths.

“No, you don’t.
You might have, when you first started out here, but the only person you’re
interested in now is yourself. We want you to leave.”

“I will, but not
before I kill that half-breed.”

“You shoot the
marshal,” said Mr Grant, on the other side of the street, “and five seconds
later you’ll have nineteen, maybe twenty bullets making holes in you. Go on,
Griffiths. Do it, so we can use you as an example to any other upstart who
wants to come here thinking he can run the town and make us pay for water
rights.”

“That’s what
this is about,” said Griffiths. “You don’t care about the marshal, you only
want your cattle to graze. Well, fair enough. We’ll do a deal.”

“No deal,” said
Peterson. “You seem to have missed a major point. We like the marshal and we
like his little bride there. They’re good people and better for this town than
you’ve ever been.”

Vance’s hand had
relaxed on his gun, and he took hold of Bella’s hand. Pride welled up inside
her.

Griffiths looked
at his own gun, and then at all the guns pointing at him. Even from a distance,
Bella could feel turmoil emanating from him. He definitely wanted Vance dead,
but his own survival instinct was stronger.

But for how
long, she wondered. How long before he turned up again?

“Okay, I’ll
leave,” said Griffiths. “I’ve got new interests up country now. Milton is
finished for me. Especially now it embraces half-breeds and their ...” He
uttered a word that made the bystanders gasp.

“Let it go,”
whispered Bella, feeling Vance’s hand tense in hers. “Darling, please let it
go. They’re all on our side. Do you see?”

“Yes, I see,”
said Vance, his voice sounding thick with emotion. He put his arm around Bella
and kissed her.

Griffiths
dropped his hand to his side, and the tension visibly loosened. The other men
dropped their own guns, putting them back in their holsters. Griffiths
half-turned, as if to leave, then spun around, with his gun raised and pointed
at Vance and Bella. There was a loud retort, but Griffiths was dead before he
fired the shot.

Vance and Bella
walked from the church to where his body lay dead on the ground. Others crowded
around to see the scene.

“It’s a good job
one of us still had our gun out,” said May, coming out of a side road with her
rifle aloft. She joined the small group at the centre of the larger circle.
“That’s for Andrew and Bill,” she said, looking down at Griffiths’ body. “They
might have been a bad lot, but they were family. Are you gonna arrest me,
Marshal?”

“No, Miss
Tucker. You might have just shot a man, but you did it to save our lives.
Besides, you’re family.” Vance looked around the other citizens for
confirmation.

“That’s right,”
said Ike Peterson. “She’s one of us. There’s so many folk out on the street to
day, all with their guns out, it’s hard to tell who fired the shot that killed
him. Don’t you agree, Grant?”

Mr Grant nodded.
“Yep.”

Ike Peterson
turned to Shen and shook his hand. “Thanks for coming to fetch us, Shen. You
need any help bringing that good lady of yours over from China you give me a
holler. My brother works in the state department. Now, we’d best leave these
young people to start their married life. Go on, marshal. The deputies can sort
this out. Mind you, I got a bone to pick with you both about missing out on a
party.”

“We’ll have a
wedding party soon,” Bella promised.

“Glad to hear
it. Now, go home the two of you and be happy.”

Bella stood on
the porch, watching the sun set in the west. If she squinted, she could just
about miss out the burned part of the vineyard. Vance came out and stood behind
her, putting his arms around her waist. She leaned back against his chest.

“No need for
sleepwalking tonight,” he whispered in her ear and laughed softly.

“Pity, I rather
enjoyed it.”

“Yes, me too.
You’re very active when you’re asleep.”

“Hmm, I’m not
sure what to say about you, taking advantage of a sleeping woman.” He kissed
her neck, and she felt the flames of the night before ignite again.

“Is May
alright?” asked Bella. “She seemed a bit down this evening. I wonder if she’s
upset that we got married without her being there.”

“She just lost
her brother, and then killed a man, darling. She would be inhuman if it didn’t
get to her on some level. She’s a strong woman. She’ll work her way through
it.”

“With our help.”

“Yes. With our
help. She’s gone to bed now.”