In Your Arms (Montana Romance) (26 page)

“Is that what this is?
A family reunion?” Wilkins growled. His hair was messed and his eyes red-rimmed as though he had been trying to sleep.

Lily turned from her brother to Wilkins.
“We’ve caught the thieves,” she said without a hint of triumph.

“You what?”
Wilkins crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her.

“We caught the thieves,” she repeated.
“They attempted to rob the West’s general store. I…Christian and I were upstairs and heard them.”

A sly grin pulled at the corners of Wilkins’s mouth.
Lily nearly choked in disgust.

“Christian shot them,” she rushed on.

Wilkins dropped his smarmy grin. Seeks For Her rushed to the bars of his cell.

“Are they alive?” he asked.
“Do they need medical attention?”

A fragment of hope caught in Lily’s chest.
Her brother was a doctor. He could help Bo and Jed. He was willing to help the men who were responsible for his imprisonment.

“
They are alive. Christian is waiting for Lieutenant Wilkins to bring them to the jail.” She would have time to feel proud of her brother later.

Wilkins lunged for his coat, slowing at the last minute.
“How do I know this isn’t some trick for you to spring him from jail?”

Lily huffed.
“I’ll come back to the store with you. You can lock the jail behind us.”

“Cuff my hands to the bars,” Seeks For Her added, thrusting his fists out.
“That way you know I can’t break free.”

Wilkins
narrowed his eyes as though he was considering it. He took in Lily’s stoic expression, then cursed.

“It’s not worth my time,” he said.
“Come on.”

Lily led him back out into the cold and across Main Street to the store.
By the time they got there, Christian had managed to get Bo and Jed down the stairs. They lay on the floor in the storeroom, Jed still sobbing and Bo half passed out. If Wilkins had any idea who the two were to Cold Springs, he didn’t let on. Between him and Christian they managed to carry the two across the street and lock them in the jail cell. Seeks For Her went to work right away assessing their wounds.

“I need medical equipment,” he said, ripping the leg of Jed’s trousers as Jed wailed.
“Gauze, something to sterilize the wound. This one looks like he’s just been grazed, but if it’s more than that he should be operated on to remove the bullets.”

“Right,” Wilkins scoffed.
“Like any man in his right mind would let you operate on them.”

“Operate!
Operate!” Jed howled.

“Michael’s got a few medical things for s
ale at the store,” Christian said. “Thomas, if you come back with me, could you find what you need?”

“Yes.”
Seeks For Her nodded.

“Are you out of your mind?” Wilkins said as Christian moved to open the door of the cell.

“Get out of my way,” Christian challenged him.

“I’m not letting a criminal out of jail
.”

“He’s not a criminal,” Lily insisted.
“The true culprits have been captured. They’ve confessed.”

“I haven’t heard any confession,” Wilkins said.

“We did it!” Jed cried. “Bo and I, we did it. We been robbing places since Christmas! Now let the Injun out so he can save my life!”

“Coercion,” Wilkins countered.
“You’d say anything if you thought it could save your ass.”

“Ask Bo!” Jed insisted.

Wilkins crossed his arms and grinned. “I will when he wakes up.”

“If he wakes up,” Seeks For Her said.
“With two wounds, he’s lost a lot of blood.”

Christian cursed under his breath.
“I’ll fetch Dr. Greene.” He started to the door, turning to Lily as he opened it. “Will you be all right until I get back?”

She nodded.
“Hurry.”

He sent her one final look that contained so much, his determination to do what was right, his regret that things had gone so wrong.
When he shut the door behind him, she squeezed her eyes shut.

When she opened them a new kind of energy filled her.

“Bo and Jed are the thieves,” she told Wilkins in no uncertain terms. “They were talking while searching for the store’s cashbox, long before they came upstairs and found us. I heard them refer clear as day to the other robberies. You have a confession and a witness.”

“So?” Wilkins grumbled.

“So it means that you have no charges against my brother.” It felt good to say it. “Now or later, you will have to let him go.”

“What if I choose later?” he said.

“Then everyone in town will know just how much of a bigot you are,” she told him. “They will know that you have nothing to do with law and order, that you are nothing more than a tyrant in a uniform.”

Wilkins snorted.
“I’ll take my chances.”

“Yes,” she said, walking to the side of the cell.
“Fools often do.”

If only her words didn’t apply so sharply to herself.

Seeks For Her glanced up from what work he could do on Jed’s legs without supplies and met Lily’s eyes. “I knew you would be strong,” he said.

“I’ve had to be,” she answered.
He only knew the beginning of it. Once the sun rose, she would have to be stronger than ever.

Chapter Twenty-One

Within an hour, Christian returned with Dr. Greene. The supercilious man took one look at the scene and heaped scorn on everyone there, from Seeks For Her and his insistence on helping with the treatment to Jed and his continual crying over the situation to Christian and Lily for carrying on with each other outside of every decent boundary of propriety. Kent Porter arrived as dawn was creeping over the edge of the horizon, baffled at everything that had happened in his absence.

Worst of all, Samuel Kuhn showed up minutes after Kent.

“What in God’s name is all this!” he demanded.

“They caught the thieves!” Kent bubbled with excitement.
“What’d you bring?”

He tried to take the basket that smelled of breakfast from Samuel.
Samuel glared at him and thrust the basket at Wilkins.

“Is that
what’s really going on?” he asked Wilkins directly.

Scowling, eyes still bloodshot from lack of sleep, Wilkins said, “Could be.
That one keeps confessing every chance he gets, but the other one’s just coming to.”

“Why is Dr. Greene here?”

“Both of these men have been shot,” Dr. Greene grumbled.

“They were trying to rob the general store,” Christian added.

Lily hung back as much as she could to let the men argue it out. Her head ached with stress and lack of sleep, but even more so with the knowledge of what the new day held in store.

That trauma began as soon as Samuel laid eyes on her.

“What is she doing here?”

“She was with Mr. Christian Avery when the thieves were apprehended,” Wilkins reported with a grin.
“Seems they were having a little tryst at the store when they were interrupted.”

“Is this true?” Samuel demanded.

Lily glanced to Christian, the weight of the world pressing down on her shoulders.

Christian sighed, wiped a hand over his face, and said, “Yes.”

At least he had the good sense to keep it to that much.

Samuel came close to quivering with delight.
“At last!” He beamed with more joy than he had at the prospect of the men who had robbed him being captured. “For months I have been telling the town council that they made a damn fool mistake in hiring the likes of her! For months I’ve been trying to make them see the error of their ways.”

“Now just a minute there,” Christian interrupted.
His face was wan and pale with exhaustion and the truth was too powerful even for him to change.

“The town council will hear about this today, now!” Samuel ignored him.
“At last, we’ll be rid of you and your foolhardy, progressive ways for good!” He turned to Wilkins. “Are these men really the thieves who robbed my store and my house?”

Wilkins hesitated.
He rubbed his temples, studying Jed and Bo as they lay on two beds in the jail cell as Dr. Greene and Seeks For Her stitched them up. His expression hardened on Seeks For Her, then melted in a puff of acceptance.

“Yeah, I think they are,” he admitted.

“Good!” Samuel barked. “Lock them up and throw away the key!”

He turned on his heel and marched out of the jail, sparing one last venomous look for Lily.

Lily rose from the chair where she sat watching her brother. “I should go too,” she told Christian, resting a hand on his arm.

Christian, took her hand and pulled her into a brief embrace.
He kissed her forehead.

“It’s going to be all right,” he said, the confidence in his voice undermined by weariness.

She nodded, still not willing to lie by agreeing with him outright. She squeezed his hand then turned to fetch her coat. Seeks For Her watched her—watched the exchange between her and Christian—with thoughtful eyes. He tried to smile when she looked at him one final time before leaving.

Cold Springs was hazy with
early morning light as she crossed Main Street to the general store. She let herself in and dragged herself back to the storeroom. Spots of blood stained the floorboards and the jewelry counter was a mess of shattered glass. She knew how it felt.

“Lily?
Is that you?”

Michael’s call from the top of the stairs to the apartment would have shocked her out of her wits, if she’d had any left.

“Yes, it’s me,” she replied.

Michael charged down the stairs to meet her.
“Thank God you’re all right! What happened here?”

“Christian caught the thieves last night,” she related the story too exhausted for emotion.
“Jed Archer and Bo Turner. They were attempting to rob the store. We heard them and…and Christian caught them.”

“And the blood?”

Lily shook her head, pressing her hands to her eyes. “Christian shot them in the legs so they wouldn’t get away. They’re over at the jail now.”

“Thank God Christian was here!”
Michael closed the distance between him and Lily, placing a hand on the small of her back and leading her up to the apartment’s kitchen. “Are you all right? You look terrible. Would you like me to make you some coffee?”

She nodded for the coffee, but promptly burst into tears about the rest of it.

“My life is over, Mr. West.” All of the agony she had kept trapped inside spilled out as she sat at the kitchen table. “Everyone will know for certain that Christian and I were together. There’s no denying it. Samuel Kuhn is already sharpening his knives. I’ll be fired and then I’ll have nothing.” She rested her head against the wall and burst into sobs.

“There, there.”
Michael did his best to comfort her while fixing coffee. “If Samuel is on the warpath, pardon the expression, he’ll call the town council. I’m on the town council, so is Hal Prescott and Mark Andrews, and they both think very highly of you.”

She shook her head.
“They shouldn’t. Not after this.”

Michael
sighed as he set the coffee pot on the stove to brew. “You are not the first young person to lose herself to love. It’s the best way to lose oneself, in my opinion.”

“You don’t understand, Mr. West.”

“I insist you call me Michael.”

“You don’t understand,” she repeated.
“When a man is caught in scandal, his friends laugh and society frowns but throws up its hands and says ‘boys will be boys.’ When a woman is caught in the same position, it ruins her. She is forever of low character and morals, love or no love. When a white man commits a crime, robs his neighbors, a thousand excuses are floated about and people doubt whether it could be them, in spite of a confession. When a person of color steps so much as a toenail out of line, the good citizens of the town rain hellfire and brimstone down on them. My life will be ruined by this.”

Michael didn’t answer.
He leaned against the counter, his arms crossed, a frown behind his glasses. After a long silence, he said, “It’s unjust.”

“But it’s the way of the world,” Lily finished his thought.
She stood. “If you will excuse me, Michael, I must wash and change to face the firing squad. I will enjoy some of your fine coffee once I am finished.”

“It’s not that fine,” he said, half distracted as he stared at the floorboards on the other side of the room.
“Charlie says I can’t make coffee to save a sinking ship.”

His casual reference to Charlie brought a faint smile to Lily’s lips.
Now there were two people in love. Unlike her and Christian, she doubted Michael and Charlie had ever done anything to bring the town’s wrath down on them, or even on each other.

Her mood steadied out to resolve as she cleaned herself up for the day.
The blood-soaked carpet in the hallway had been removed by the time she came out of the bathroom and Michael was downstairs in the storeroom. She dressed in her finest dress and fixed her hair in a simple style. Michael had been right about the coffee. It was terrible. She could only manage a few fortifying gulps before putting her coat on and trudging out into the cold.

Her steps were heavy as she made her way up to the school.
She wanted to at least see her students one last time, to explain to them how sorry she was and how much she loved each of them and would miss them all. She wasn’t even afforded that luxury.

When she reached her classroom, Mr. Prescott was waiting at the door, Alicia Kuhn with him.
Alicia wore a bitter grin of triumph and tilted her chin up when Lily approached them.

“Miss Singer.”
Even Mr. Prescott’s greeting was a sure sign of the devastation her impulsiveness had wrought.

“Good morning, Mr. Prescott, Mrs. Kuhn.”
She held her back straight, kept her chin up, and steeled herself for doom.

“I suppose you know why we are here.”

“I do.”

“You filthy little slut!” Alicia spat.
“How could you disgrace yourself when the responsibility for the moral education of—”

“That is enough, Mrs. Kuhn!”
Mr. Prescott cut her off.

Alicia pressed her lips shut, but the sentiment remained in her eyes.

“Mrs. Kuhn will be taking over your class for the time being. If you would come with me.”

He stepped away from the door and the righteous Alicia Kuhn and beckoned for Lily to follow him.
Lily took a deep breath, meeting Alicia’s sneer with pride. She loved her students. She had fought hard for their best interest. It was more than Alicia would ever be able to say.

She turned to go, following Mr. Prescott down the hall to his office.
One tiny speck of light cracked through the interminable gloom. She had been the best teacher she could be. What she would be now was anyone’s guess.

“For the last time, if you do not let this man go, I will have you prosecuted for wrongful imprisonment!”

Christian paced the length of the jail, worked up, worn out, and ready to march back to the store to find Michael’s revolver.
There were a few more people that needed shooting, as far as he was concerned, starting with Lieutenant Wilkins.

“I’m not letting the Injun go until you can prove to me that he hasn’t done anything,” Wilkins said, glaring at Thomas.

Dr. Greene had come and gone. Jed and Bo had been cleaned and stitched up as much as they were going to be. Jed had fallen asleep on one of the cots an hour ago and was snoring, while Bo had come to and sat on the other bed, face pinched with pain and surliness at being caught. Thomas, on the other hand, had returned to his spot on the floor and sat with his legs crossed, hands resting on his knees, as though observing a friendly baseball game. Christian peeked at him out of the corner of his eyes. If he could sit patiently and listen to the drivel he’d had to deal with since sun-up, Lily’s brother was a better man than him.

“The law doesn’t work like that,” Christian argued on.
“Innocent until proven guilty, or hadn’t you heard?”

“The law only applies to civilized folk.”

Christian stopped his pacing and gaped at the man. “He’s a doctor. Look at how he’s dressed, how he talks. You saw him treating Jed and Bo. What part of civilized doesn’t apply here?”

He was spared the agony of continuing to argue his point with a brick wall
as Kent threw open the jail door. Flurries curled in with him.

“Here’s what Lewis got,” he said, handing Christian a slip of telegraph paper.
“He says it’s from the chief of the Office of Indian Affairs for Montana himself.”

Christian sn
atched the paper and read it. ‘
If no proof of crime exists, suspect must be released.’

“Ha!”
He handed the telegraph to Wilkins. “Kent, where are your keys?”

“Right over here, Mr. Avery.”

Before Kent could cross the room to fetch the keys to the cell, the jail door opened again, admitting Michael this time.

“Here’s the report of the damage to the store,” Michael said, handing
Christian another paper. “Charlie is not happy about the blood stains upstairs,” he added with an ominous tone.

“We’ll add vandalism to the charges against these two once we have a trial.”

The prospect of more charges to heap on Jed and Bo had Christian grinning from ear to ear. He had half a mind to charge them with disturbing the peace, public indecency, and inciting a riot while he was at it.

“Christian,” Michael continued.
He touched Christian’s arm to pull him aside. “Lily returned to the store less than an hour after leaving for school. She’s been suspended pending a hearing to discuss…you know what.”

Christian’s brow rose.
“They didn’t fire her outright?”

“
They
can’t,” Michael said. “The town council has to vote on it. I expect there will be a meeting called soon.”

A new spark of hope joined the excitement already brewing in Christian’s gut.
As Kent opened the cell door to let Thomas out he said, “Then there’s still a chance we can talk sense into the council.”