A Bride for Mason by Marianne Spitzer

Author:Marianne Spitzer [Spitzer, Marianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Wyoming

Clay walked in the backdoor and called out to the family.

“Hey, I’m back.”

Grace walked into the kitchen, holding a dusting cloth. “We heard you ride up. Cora and I are cleaning. Your grandpa is in his office.”

“There’s a letter here from the Quincy Hotel addressed to the Hutchison family. I bet it’s a letter from Elizabeth. Just before I left town, the boy who delivers telegrams rushed up waving one for grandpa. He said it was marked urgent, and I rode home as quickly as I could. I should give it to him,” Clay said, handing Grace the letter from the Quincy Hotel.

Hutch looked up when Clay walked into the office. “Heard you say somethin’ to Grace about a telegram.”

“Yes, sir,” Clay answered, handing his grandpa the yellow sheet of paper.

Hutch opened the paper, read it, scowled, and then shook his head. “It’s from a lawyer in Cheyenne. Seems your brother shot Lucinda’s husband. The man’s alive but Wade’s been charged with attempted murder. He needs money to pay the lawyer.”

Hutch thrust the telegram at Clay and continued, “You have enough time to get to the bank and wire the lawyer the money. Ask him to wire back and tell us when the trial is. I want you to go to Cheyenne and be there. Regardless of what Wade’s done, he’s still family. He’s still your brother. I’m not sure I’m well enough to make the trip and hear his sentence. If that man dies, they’ll hang Wade.”

Clay said, “We’ll pray for the man and Wade. As it is, he’ll end up in the territorial prison. I don’t want to see him hang either, but we need to be prepared. I’ve been afraid of something like this after he took Grace. Maybe we should have filed charges then.”

“Maybe,” Hutch conceded, “but he could have been hung for that, too. He deserves whatever punishment comes his way, but I don’t know where I went wrong.”

“You didn’t go wrong, Grandpa. Wade’s been angry for a long time. He told me once when we were boys that he was angry with Ma and Pa for dying and leaving us alone. We had you, but for some reason, Wade felt cheated out of what he thought his life would become. I think losing the bet with me for the ranch, the annulment even though he didn’t care about Elizabeth, and then Lucinda leaving him was too much. Maybe when I go for the trial, I’ll get to see him.”

“I hope so,” Hutch said. “Let him know…just…tell him I love him, and I’m praying for him. It’s hard to stop caring about a child you helped raise.”

Clay nodded and left his grandpa to sit and deal with the guilt he felt for the way Wade had turned out.

Clay shared the information with Grace and Cora and then headed back to town to take care of the business his grandpa requested.

Once finished at the bank, Clay headed for the telegraph office and sent a telegram back to the lawyer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.