Sundown, p.26
Sundown, page 26
“Not exactly.”
Emma blew a strand of hair from her face. “I saw people heading up Main Street toward the saloon. I thought you’d be celebrating.”
“You’re the one who deserves to celebrate. You telegrammed all those sheriffs and uncovered Silas Thornton’s background and Preacher Taylor’s. You handed me the case gift-wrapped with a tidy bow.”
“Don’t try to deny it. You were wonderful. Preacher Taylor never had a chance.”
“I came to invite you to celebrate Travis’ acquittal.”
Emma set down her pencil. “Is that why you came by?”
The air was heavy with anticipation and unspoken words. His heart pounded with the weight of his decision to stay in Sundown, but his life would be empty without the woman he could now admit had stolen his heart.
Wyatt fought the words he wanted to say, something that he hadn’t struggled with in court. “Come have a drink with me.”
“I have work to do if I’m going to get a special edition out by tomorrow.”
“It doesn’t have to be out tomorrow.”
Emma’s eyes narrowed with a flash of anger. “This is my life. Don’t tell me how to run it.”
The tension in the room crackled between them like the thunder in the storm outside. Wyatt didn’t want to leave or let Emma go. “Is that why you spent so much time to uncover the truth, for a story in your newspaper?”
Emma’s face reddened. “You think I stayed up all night and spent the past two weeks working to uncover the truth just for my newspaper?”
“Isn’t it?”
“I did it for an innocent man, and I did it for you.” Her usual rough exterior softened. Her eyes moistened.
“I’ll help. Just tell me what to do.”
Emma shook her head. “Just go. Everyone will expect you.”
“Emma Sullivan, you’re the most exasperating woman I’ve ever met.”
She managed to smile. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
With his frustration mounting, Wyatt pointed to the door. “If I walk out that door, I’ll… I’ll…”
Emma cocked her head and grinned “You’ll what?”
“I’ll… I’ll come back tomorrow and try again to convince you how much you mean to me.” A crack of thunder rattled the windows.
“Your future is in Sacramento with Sadie.”
“She knows I’m staying in Sundown.”
“You told her?”
“She knew before I even had the chance to explain.”
“How would you explain your decision?” A hint of a smile swept across Emma’s face.
Wyatt opened his mouth to speak, to explain himself, to admit all the mistakes he’d made in the past two weeks, but the words stuck in his throat. “All I can do is tell you how I feel.”
She laid down her pencil and gave him her full attention.
Wyatt paused a moment to gather his scattered thoughts. It struck him as rather peculiar that a lawyer and a newswoman, both were used to groping for words when they spoke of matters of the heart with all the skill of people trying to catch smoke with their bare hands. Wyatt knew full well he could not allow his feelings to languish in the shadows any longer. For in mysteries of love, silence was still a riddle, but he was resolved to speak what he felt. “I know we've only known each other for two weeks, but I've fallen in love with you.”
Emma's eyes moistened.
“I know,” he whispered, his voice barely audible. “I know you don’t trust me because you don’t trust men. I’ll own up to my blunders, but don’t punish me for the mistakes of men from your past.”
He searched her face for the look she gave him during the shootout between Jeb and the sheriff when she thought he might have been shot. But Emma changed her feelings about him as often as most people changed their socks.
Wyatt closed his eyes and saw the woman in the weathered hat and dusty clothes when he stepped off the train. He pictured the blue dress she wore to the dance. He could almost feel her soft curves when he held her close as they danced. He felt her soft lips when they kissed.
Wyatt opened his eyes and searched for any sign of hope. All he saw was uncertainty and disillusionment. He stepped back, a chasm of misunderstanding widened between them.
Emma bit her lip but didn’t speak. She seemed to be searching for the right words to say. “I don’t know what to say.”
Wyatt’s frustration grew. “I need a whiskey.” He reached for the doorknob.
“Wait!” Emma hurried from behind her desk. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him; a lingering moment that spoke everything she wanted to say.
The kiss ended, and she gazed into Wyatt’s eyes. “That first day we met, I felt something I thought I’d never feel again. At the dance, I envisioned us having a future. Then Sadie showed up, and I thought I’d lost any chance I might have imagined for us. The trial ended so abruptly I didn’t know what to think. I thought you’d catch the next train to Sacramento.”
“My future is here in Sundown, with you, if you’ll have me.”
Emma laughed. “I hope you know what you’re getting into.”
“Let’s have one drink, then come back and work out your paper. We can get it out by tomorrow.”
“Promise?”
Rain began to spatter on the window. Wyatt glanced at the storm. “We’d better go now.”
Emma grabbed her coat.
When Wyatt opened the door, the striped cat he saw outside her house the night of the dance dashed in and jumped onto Emma’s desk. He began to dry his damp coat with his tongue.
Wyatt chuckled. “Stray cat, huh?”
A sheepish grin crept across Emma’s face as she petted the cat. “I named him Wyatt when I thought you were returning to Sacramento. Now, that could get confusing. I think I’ll name him… Eddie.”
CHAPTER 36
With Emma’s coat shielding their heads from the rain, they dashed down the muddy street and made it to the Purple Stage as the hard rain finally fell. With music and laughter coming from the saloon, they hurried inside, and Emma shook the water from her coat.
They were greeted by silence, then a murmur of laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Wyatt glanced at Emma, who shrugged.
Travis led them to the long mirror behind the bar and pointed. They both had printers’ ink on their faces in matching patterns.
Travis clapped his brother on the back. “If you wanted to keep your romance a secret, you’re not doing a very good job. It’s written all over your face.”
Ellie joined them. “There’s an empty table in the corner.”
Wyatt almost didn’t recognize her. The school-teacher still wore her glasses but had taken pins out of her bun, and her soft brown hair curled onto her shoulders.
Wyatt squeezed Emma’s hand. “Save me a chair.” Frank Colfield was seated at the bar. Wyatt sat beside him. “How’s Jeb?”
Frank took a swallow of his whiskey. “He’s going to be good enough to leave the doc’s office and settle into a jail cell.”
“Seemed like it was a fair fight.”
“Not when the other man is the sheriff. Jeb’s going to need a good lawyer.”
Wyatt chuckled.
“What’s so funny.” Frank finished his drink and slid it toward Gabe, who topped off the glass.
“I’m staying in Sundown, going to open my own practice.”
Frank laughed. “I bet you didn’t imagine your first client might be Jeb. I’ll give him the good news.”
Wyatt climbed off the stool. “Give him my best.”
Frank held up his whiskey glass. “I surely will.”
Wyatt walked to the back of the saloon and sat next to Emma with their backs to the corner. Travis and Ellie were seated across from them. Travis held up four fingers and shouted. “Bartender, four whiskeys.”
Deputy Stone came in carrying Travis’s guitar. She pulled her harmonica from her pocket. “Come on, Travis, let’s give everyone a real show.”
They walked to the piano. Travis stood while Stone sat on the piano bench with the harmonica. They joined together to play a lively version of “Oh, Suzanna.” When they finished, the saloon applauded, and several customers shouted for more.
“This is one I learned in a prisoner of war camp in Louisiana.” Travis strummed a few chords, then began to sing a soulful version of Shenandoah.
At the table, Ellie dabbed his eyes as Travis sang the song and came to the verse, “Farewell my dearest, I’m bound to leave you.”
When the song ended, Stone went to the bar, and Travis carried the guitar to the table, where Ellie continued to dab her eye. Travis glared at Wyatt. “What did you say to make her cry?”
“It wasn’t him.” Ellie placed her hand in Travis’s. As the two lovers held hands, Wyatt took Emma’s hand. He had so much left to say to her.
Emma nodded across the saloon. “Your boss is summoning you.”
Sam Hampton waved Wyatt to a table near the front door.
“I’ll just be a minute.” Wyatt squeezed her hand, then stood and excused himself. He weaved his way through the crowded saloon and sat beside his boss.
Hampton, a few drinks into the evening, shook his hand. “You did right good today, Son. The crowning moment was when you cited scripture.”
“I knew Preacher Taylor couldn’t resist.”
Sam Hampton gestured across the saloon where Clint sat with his jacket laid on the top of the piano. Sadie was standing beside him with a drink in one hand and twirling her blonde hair with the other.
Wyatt couldn’t help but smile. Sadie seemed to be recovering nicely from the disappointment of the end of their engagement.
Hampton pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit it with a match. He blew out of puff of smoke. “There’s a train leaving for Sacramento in the morning. Sadie and I will be on it. Why don’t you take a few days to sort things out.”
“I don’t need a few days to figure things out. I’m not returning to Sacramento. I’m going to open a practice here in Sundown and help Emma with her newspaper, if she’ll have me.”
Hampton glanced toward Emma and chuckled. “She’ll have you.”
Across the room, Sadie was laughing at something Clint had said as he played the piano.
Her father puffed on his cigar. “Sadie always liked lawyers.”
Was he implying that Sadie was more experienced with men than she’d led Wyatt to believe?
One of Sadie’s hands was resting on Clint’s shoulder.
Wyatt shook his head. “One day, I hope to understand women as well as I know the law.”
Hampton laughed. “The charm of a woman is their mystery; it is a riddle that man cannot solve, yet he is fascinated by it. Nathaniel Hawthorne.”
The old man leaned forward and lowered his voice. “If this gets back to Sacramento, I’ll sue you for slander. Before I married Sadie’s mother, I met a saloon singer in San Francisco, Claire Nightengale, The Silver Songbird. She was the toast of the Barbary Coast, and I fell madly in love with her. I pictured the two of us running off together.”
“So, what happened?”
Hampton watched the smoke curl from his cigar. “I returned to Sacramento, and she found a job with a riverboat casino on the Mississippi. Last I heard, she was in the lead in a Broadway play.” His voice trailed off.
Hampton took a long puff. “I married Sadie’s mother and met the right people. My law firm grew, and I became wealthy, with a certain amount of fame in the world of California politics.” He gestured with the cigar. “You see, son, Claire and I both became successful.”
Wyatt gazed across the room and caught a glimpse of Emma watching his conversation with Hampton like she could hear every word.
“Is that how one measures success, Mr. Hampton, by wealth and fame?” Wyatt braced himself for a literary quote.
Instead, Hampton laughed and crushed out his cigar. “In the twilight of my life, I measure success differently than when I was your age.”
Hampton checked his gold watch. He stood and shook Wyatt’s hand again. “I shall return to my room while I still can and pack. Good luck, my boy.”
When Hampton left, Wyatt noticed Deputy Stone sipping a beer at the next table, staring at her glass.
A young man, the telegraph operator Willie Thompson, approached and stood beside her table like he was trying to figure what to say. With a shy expression, he cleared his throat. “May I join you?”
Stone looked him over like she’d never seen him before. “It’s a free country.”
He sat and flashed a shy smile. For a moment, neither spoke. The deputy stared at Tommy Garcia seated at the bar and talking to a saloon girl. She gave Willie the once over, then wrinkled her brow. “Are you old enough to even be in a saloon?”
The young man sat up proudly. “I’m nineteen!”
“Me too!”
Willie smiled. “Would you like to dance? I’m not a good dancer, but I’m trying to learn.”
“Me too!” She slid her chair closer to the telegraph operator.
Wyatt chuckled. He was going to enjoy this town. He returned to the table in the corner with Travis, Ellie and Emma, who were talking about arranging for Caleb to travel to Sundown.
Grace Parker came over carrying a bouquet of wildflowers. With a wistful smile, she set the vase in the middle of the table and kissed Travis on the cheek. “Congratulations, Travis.”
She winked at Wyatt. “You too.” She walked off and headed for the bar, where Shorty bought her a drink.
When Clint Hackett began to play a slow waltz on the piano, Travis took Ellie’s hand. “May I have this dance?”
“Our first.” She and Travis began to glide around the floor.
Emma nodded toward the doors of the saloon. “Your future just walked out the door.”
“I’m holding my future in the palm of my hand.”
“Why would you give up a promising career in California’s state capitol with a leading law firm and the boss’s daughter who adores you?”
“I can give up all those things. I can’t give up on you.”
Emma’s soft blue eyes twinkled, and a smile swept across her face. She picked a daisy out of the vase. She looked at Wyatt and picked a petal off the flower. “He loves me.” She picked off another. “He loves me not.”
Wyatt remembered Emma doing the same thing that first day before she rode away in her buckboard. He didn’t understand what she was doing then, but now the game young girls sometimes play with young boys all made sense. The rough and tumble image she cultivated faded with each pluck of petals.
Emma reached the last petal and plucked it from the stem. “He loves me.”
Wyatt took Emma’s hand in his.
She squeezed his hand, then kissed him on the lips.
Travis and Ellie returned to the table and gave them a round of applause.
Emma blushed and wiped a smear of printer’s ink from Wyatt’s cheek. “I hope you like cats.”
“Cats!” Travis pulled the chair out for Ellie. When they sat, he slapped the table with his palm. “Where’s our whiskey?”
Gabe delivered a bottle of whiskey and four glasses, then hurried back to the bar.
Travis was three sheets to the wind but poured the whiskey and set a glass in front of each of them.
Travis raised his glass and offered a toast. “To the ladies: may your virtues never be as numerous as your charms, for then we gentlemen would have too little to pursue.”
Wyatt chuckled. Sam Hampton couldn’t have done any better.
Ellie blushed and gave Travis a playful slap. “I’m still a schoolteacher.”
The four took a sip of whiskey and set down their glasses.
Clint Hackett began to play the lively Buffalo Gals Won’t you Come Out Tonight. Everyone clapped and sang along to the music, and Travis joined in on the guitar.
Wyatt looked up and Amos, Ruby and Miles came in. No one paid them any attention. Amos set Miles on an empty bar stool and took Ruby in his arms, and they began to dance.
Willie Thompson was dancing with Deputy Stone, who was gazing at him like a thirsty traveler eyeing a cool spring. She stepped on his toe, but he didn’t seem to notice. No one was paying attention to the McCrea brothers and the women in their lives.
“Emma told us you’re staying in Sundown,” Ellie said.
Wyatt squeezed Emma’s hand. “I am.”
Ellie clutched the familiar locket around her neck. “Can I show them?”
Travis gazed around the crowded saloon. No one seemed to be paying attention to their table. He gave a quick nod to Ellie. “Go ahead. If I can’t put my faith in my own brother and his intended, then who in tarnation can a body rely on?”
Emma raised an eyebrow toward Wyatt. “Intended?”
Ellie reached for her locket.
Wyatt and Emma exchanged an anxious glance.
Suspense hung heavy in the air.
Ellie pressed the sides of the locket, and something bright and flashy fell into her hand.
She closed her fingers over the object, checked over her shoulder, and slipped it into Wyatt’s hand.
Wyatt let out a sound that rivaled a gasp from Emma. The air between Wyatt and Travis was thick with the heavy, sticky stuff of years gone by, years filled with a truth Travis had long denied. Wyatt's heart was thumping like a runaway mule, and breathing had turned into a mighty chore. There, in his palm, lay a gold Confederate coin, a relic of a truth long buried, which stirred up a tempest of anger and betrayal.
Wyatt ran a finger over the cool metal surface. The gold coin showed Lady Liberty seated and holding a shield in her left hand and a liberty pole in her right. The words Confederate States of America encircled the top half of the coin, and the date 1862 was stamped on the bottom.
He flipped the coin over. On the other side was a shield with the letters CSA. At the bottom of the coin was 20 D, twenty dollars and the letters N. O.
Wyatt couldn’t ignore the years of lies and denials. Trying to control his anger, Wyatt gave the coin to Emma who inspected it with awe. Her face revealed feelings the two of them shared, that the revelation of the secret long denied required them to unravel the mysteries of the past and the origin of the coin.
