Chapter 17 #2
“Mmm. Would it shock you to learn that Mr. Warren Alexander claims to have shot the sheriff? He said he did it defending you. He said the man looked to be ready to attack you. Do you remember that?”
Dorothy tried to recall. Everything was so strange; the whole memory seemed to have bits cut out of it.
She couldn’t explain it. She could remember hitting the sheriff on the head and the next thing, she was on the floor.
How she’d gotten there or what happened before was all a blur.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.
I was standing right by the sheriff. It could have looked like I was in trouble.
He probably wasn’t happy with me since I had just hit him. ”
“You said that Sheriff Rafferty told everyone he was being blackmailed. Any idea what that was about?” Marshal Todd asked.
Dorothy shrugged. “Probably gambling or betting on the horses. Quite a few men in town were wrapped up in that. Mrs. Rafferty doesn’t like that sort of thing. It might be a case of the sheriff wanting to keep it from his wife.”
“Ah, right,” Marshal Todd said. He made more notes.
Silence slid into the room, and Dorothy looked out of the window again. It was a nice office in the back of the town hall. The view was lovely. It looked down into a bit of the valley, and as the sun began to rise, it bathed everything in gold.
Marshal Todd shifted in his seat and finally looked up at her. “I would really like to thank you for your candor, Miss Davis. You have been most helpful. Your account of events matches very closely to the other witnesses, and I believe that we can close out this case without further inquiry.”
“Well, thank heavens for that,” she sighed. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if the marshal decided her testimony wasn’t credible. Would that have meant she would be interrogated even longer? Or get locked up? Anyway. It didn’t matter, since he thankfully believed her very true story.
He nodded. “Thanks to Mr. Whelan and his compatriots, Brett’s gang of thugs have been apprehended. They will be facing trial and will be brought to justice for their crimes.”
“I suppose that’s how it should be, right?” Dorothy asked, not entirely certain and probably showing that in her expression.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, they’re so young. One can’t help but wish they had chosen another path in life.”
“There’s still time. I understand that Mrs. McGregor is looking into helping them.”
Dorothy’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “You … You didn’t call my aunt that to her face, did you?”
“Yes, why?” He looked utterly bewildered.
“No reason,” Dorothy said. Her aunt hadn’t answered to that name in a very long while. “Speaking of Sadie. How did she get you to come up here so fast? I thought she was in New York.”
“It seems she has a friend in our field office. She sent a telegram a day or so ago, asking for assistance with a nuisance. It was apparently phrased in such an urgent way that we were sent,” he said.
Dorothy nodded. That sounded like Sadie. She and Mac were so alike. They both did whatever they thought was right and to heck with everyone else and their opinions.
Marshal Todd rose and extended a hand to her over the table. Dorothy got to her feet too.
“It’s been a pleasure,’” Marshal Todd said, shaking her hand.
Dorothy nodded. “Likewise. Thank you for listening.”
As she departed, she prayed that he really had heard what she said.
Warren was waiting for Dorothy just outside the town hall. He was pacing up and down until he saw her, and then ran over.
“I thought you were in trouble,” he said, enveloping her in his arms.
Dorothy leaned her head against his chest, wrapped her arms around him, and held him tight. She just stood there, letting his warmth and love fill her. It was enough to revive her flagging spirit.
“I’m fine,” she eventually explained. “Marshal Todd takes his work as seriously as you do. We went through the events a number of times, and he wrote down just about everything I said. At least that was how it seemed. It took so long.”
“No kidding,” Warren said, stepping back and looking down into her eyes. “I was so worried about you,” he said quietly, before cupping her face and kissing her tenderly.
Dorothy could have lingered in the kiss forever, feeling like she was floating on air, but eventually she had to come back to reality. She laced her fingers through Warren’s and walked with him back toward the hotel.
“Your aunt Sadie is waiting for you,” he told her, his thumb stroking lightly over the back of her hand. “She wants to leave for New York as soon as possible. Mac is doing well, the messages say, but I’m not sure.”
“We have to go and see him,” Dorothy said.
He nodded. “Let’s go pack.”
It took them some time to pack, but as soon as they were ready, Sadie had them in a coach.
When they reached the station, the train was waiting for them. Dorothy, Michael, Sadie, and Warren sat together and dozed all the way to Grand Central Station. A coach met them there and took them right to Mac, who was recovering in his apartment.
When she saw that Mac was alive, a lingering tightness in Dorothy’s stomach finally released. She collapsed onto a chair beside his bed and cried into his sheets.
“Good heavens,” he said uncomfortably, patting her head. “Anyone would think I was dead.”
“Well, you scared me,” she chided.
He laughed and then groaned in pain. “Don’t make me laugh, please.
The bullet might have just lodged in my shoulder, but it still hurts.
They had to cut it out of me, you know?” He reached for a little glass vial next to the bed and waved it.
She squinted at it and shuddered as she realized it held a crumpled lump of metal.
“We’re all just glad you’re okay,” Sadie said. “Now get some rest.”
Sadie ushered them out of Mac’s room and into the sitting room, where there were sandwiches and coffee. All of them descended on the food like locusts and soon the plate was empty.
“What happened to Devlin?” Michael asked as they sat back on Mac’s very nice couches and sipped their coffee. “One moment, he was there at the hotel, and the next, he and Foster and Barnes were gone.”
“They caught the first coach out of there,” Sadie said, sounding disgusted. “Didn’t even come to New York to pay their respects to Mac, who is the one who pays their salaries and keeps a roof over their heads! Weak-minded fools.”
“Do you think Devlin is in on it?” Dorothy asked. “He was pushing for Mac to sign over his rights as much as anyone.”
“True,” Sadie said. “I spoke to the marshals about it, and Warren talked them through his understanding of the evidence of embezzlement. They’re going to get their financial investigations department on it, or something like that.
They mentioned some agency they work with.
Anyway, they’ll be looking into it. For now, Mac will be plenty safe.
The lawmen will be watching him and the firm very, very closely. ”
Dorothy was so thankful. The thought of Mac having to look over his shoulder all the time was not one she was ever happy with. Now all that remained was to find out when Warren was heading back to Unity. That was something she’d been refusing to think of just yet.
Although, it seemed that Sadie wasn’t quite done yet. She had one last request.
As Warren and Michael made preparations to head back to Texas and meet up with their friends along the way, Sadie took Dorothy aside.
“You two make a lovely couple,” she said, nodding at Warren, who was frowning at the contents of one of his bags.
Dorothy shrugged. “I agree, but not that anything will come of it, what with me living in New York and him in Texas.”
“Yes, about that,” Sadie said, putting an arm around Dorothy’s shoulders. “How would you like to be Mac’s eyes and ears on the ground in Texas?”
“What? But I’m Mac’s assistant,” she protested.
“Yes, but you’re also the only person he trusts to do this.
He needs to know what’s happening in Unity as much as anywhere else.
He knows you’ll never lie to him and that you only have his and the firm’s best interests at heart,” Sadie said.
She smiled. “There’s also the matter of the young gentleman over there.
I think he would really love you to take the position. ”
Much as the idea appealed, Dorothy couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d be abandoning her godfather. “But what about the office? Who will be on Mac’s side and watch out for him?”
Sadie smiled. “I will.”
“You?” Dorothy asked skeptically.
Sadie nodded. “The old goat grows on you like a barnacle. He’s certainly grown on me over the course of a lifetime.
” She sighed. “Dorothy, please go. You can’t stay here watching over us.
I won’t let you. You need to go and live your life.
Warren is a wonderful man who is brave, smart, and handsome.
He has helped to build a good town and a solid business, and all you have to do is get on a train with him.
It’s not difficult. Just do it. Warren wants you to go with him.
He even asked me if I thought you would ever consider visiting Texas, as he discreetly put it.
It wouldn’t be unusual for you to go west with a man you first met by mail.
You two corresponded for so long that you can practically call yourself a mail order bride! ”
Dorothy’s heart soared. More than anything she wanted to go with Warren. No matter what happened, she wanted to be with him. Having her aunt’s blessing just made it better.
“Okay,” she said, grinning. “I’ll go.”
A week later
Warren was a bundle of nerves. They were leaving the hotel and if he was going to ask Dorothy, now was the time. He couldn’t put it off anymore.
Standing on the terrace as a light dusting of snow began to fall around them, he watched her breath cloud in front of her and smiled. Wrapped up in a coat and hat, she looked lovely with little bits of snow dusting her scarf and eyelashes.