Justice for Elsie by Amelia Smarts

Author:Amelia Smarts [Smarts, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Wyatt rode his horse from the Infinity Ranch to town at a snail’s pace. Like usual, he dreaded his weekly meeting with the marshal. It wasn’t that he felt guilty over keeping Elsie’s cattle rustling a secret from the law. He’d figured out within a day whose side he was on. The Xaviers were at fault for what they did to Elsie’s pa, and her revenge was fully justified in his opinion. Though he went to sleep every night with a clear conscience, he was in the very precarious position of keeping up a ruse with Elsie as well as with the marshal.

Despite Elsie being obviously smitten with Wyatt, she hadn’t made him privy to her theft. Until she did, he couldn’t present her with a way out. He worried that if he confronted her about it, she would deny it and redouble her efforts to hide it from him. To Wyatt’s way of thinking, this would put her in danger, since it would open up the possibility that someone else might discover it before he did. She seemed just on the brink of telling him. Several times he’d seen it in her eyes, her desire come clean, but she’d always caught herself before speaking the words aloud.

“Sit down,” the marshal said, when Wyatt walked into the jailhouse.

He obliged as a prickle of apprehension ran down his spine. The marshal’s demeanor and voice was none too friendly.

“Well? Have you seen anything yet?” the marshal demanded, setting aside his paperwork and pinning him with a glare.

Wyatt shook his head slowly. “Afraid not. She still has me working around the barn and cabin. Any time I ask to go to the range, she refuses.”

The marshal grunted in frustration. “Have you talked to the hands at all? Haven’t they chattered?”

“Nope. They’re careful, and they’re real loyal to Miss Elsie. She treats them like family.”

The marshal’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I’ll speak freely. I expected you to have some information by now. It’s been a month, and I’m no wiser than I was when I first met you. You’re a shoddy deputy if I ever saw one.”

Wyatt scowled at him and clenched his hands into fists. “Maybe that’s because I’m not a deputy. I’m a ranch hand, remember, and I’m doin’ my best at play-acting deputy and getting information I can use.” He wasn’t really offended, but he knew he had to act that way so that all appeared normal.

“Look, Mark Xavier has been in and out of my office every day for a week. He’s as good as guessed that Elsie Fin has something to do with his lost cattle. I don’t get some answers soon, people are gonna start taking the law into their own hands. I’d rather that girl end up in jail than at the end of a vigilante’s rope.”

Wyatt tapped his boot heel against the floor, looking down so that the marshal couldn’t read the concern on his face.

“You’ve got a week, Parker,” the marshal growled. “You better have

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