Epilogue #2
Dixon Evers was the only casualty of the robbery, although it looked for a while as though Marcellus Cooley might succumb to infection.
Doc Kent eventually pronounced him fit enough to hang.
It was not the part he played in the thwarted robbery, or even the attempted rape, that drew the death sentence from Judge Darlington.
It was the cattle rustling. Cobb Bridger tracked down a branding inspector at the Rawlins station who remembered Marcie bringing in some cattle with an unregistered brand.
The closest markings the inspector could find belonged to the Morning Star ranch, but the bars at the top and bottom meant the iron was not a match.
He did not have time to investigate his suspicions, but he did not allow Marcie to sell the cattle at his station.
The inspector proved to be a good witness at trial.
Marcie would not turn on Avery or Gideon, so there was nothing to connect them to the cattle thieving except common sense.
Judge Darlington liked the idea of hanging Avery Butterfield for the company he kept, but ruled with the law instead.
Avery was fined five hundred dollars for being offensive in the eyes of the court and thrown in jail until he figured out a way to pay it.
Gideon had another charge that separated him from his men.
He had confessed to killing Zetta Lee Welling, and he had made this admission in front of Morgan and Jane Longstreet as well as the two young deputies who had been sworn in earlier that day.
The sheriff in Fremont County cleared the way for Gideon to be tried in Bitter Springs.
No one thought that jurisdiction should stand in the way of jurisprudence.
Judge Darlington gave considerable weight to the statements made by Marshal Cobb Bridger’s deputies.
He heard testimony from the Longstreets first and certainly found them credible, but he made no secret of the fact that he, like everyone else crowded into the room that day, was looking forward to what the young lawmen had to say.
Rabbit presented the facts gravely and gave a good accounting of the events and Gideon Welling’s declaration of guilt.
When Finn took the witness chair, he eased into it slowly and carefully, reminding them he had been shot, although his wound was considerably healed by then.
He related Gideon’s confession and how it had come about, and no one, not even his grandmother, doubted his veracity.
He also managed to insert the story of how he had pissed on Marcie’s leg and told him it was raining.
Gideon Welling hanged the following day.
* * *
Jane slipped her hand into Morgan’s and pulled him toward the porch swing. “Come. They’re gone. I cannot hear them any longer.” She turned her head a little and listened. “No, not even Rabbit or Finn.”
Morgan sat and gave Jane’s hand a tug. She followed him onto the swing and drew her legs up. “Are you pleased with yourself?” he asked.
“Can’t you tell?”
“You look pleased, but then you glow all the time now.”
Chuckling, she drew his hand to her belly. It had a curve that he could palm with his hand. “I am very pleased with myself.” She gave him a little poke in his side. “And with you. You were a good host, and I think you might have actually enjoyed yourself.”
“I am not admitting to that.”
“Mrs. Sterling noticed it.”
“She’s not always right.”
“True. She was right about my pregnancy, though, and she will always be able to claim it. When I looked around at our guests today, I don’t think there was anyone here who did not know before I did, including you, and they still take some perverse delight in telling me that.
The women, that is. The men don’t dare.”
“No, they wouldn’t. You have a reputation.”
“I know,” she said, leaning her shoulder into him. “Sometimes it is difficult to know whether to laugh or to be dismayed.”
“As long as you know you did right.”
She nodded. Sometimes she wondered if she could have done anything differently, but she never thought she had done wrong. “I was very careful not to be seen with a knife in my hand today. That’s why I asked Jenny Phillips to cut the pies and Mrs. Sterling to slice all the cakes.”
“I noticed, but I doubt anyone else did.”
She patted his thigh. “You are still a terrible liar. You do much better omitting facts than offering ones that you know to be false.”
“I thought you didn’t like that.”
“Well, I don’t, but I suppose it is better than an outright lie.”
“All right.”
“All right? Just like that?”
“Yes.” He started to gently move the swing. “Just like that.”
Jane lifted Morgan’s arm and ducked under it so that it covered her shoulders like a shawl.
“Are you cold? Should we go in?”
“What I am is replete,” she said. “I do not want to move.”
Morgan had no objection to that. In time, he felt her head grow heavier and knew she had fallen asleep. He bent, pressed his lips to her hair, and then laid his cheek against it. She did not stir, and he thought that was as it should be. She had earned this rest, as had he.
The quiet in her settled in his heart. In these moments, the peace that had eluded him all of his life became what she was, his companion. He walked with his past at his side now. He walked with her.
With Jane, all things were possible.