"Eager to turn it all over to me, eh?"
"I shall resent it to my dying day," she said sweetly, "but then, you
are better than von Heusen."
"Such a compliment!" he teased, bowing low as he opened the door to the
lawyer's office.
Tess started to reply, but instead smiled at the tall, lean man behind
the desk.
"Mr. Barrymore, how are you?" she inquired, walking forward, reaching
out her hand. The man rose instantly to his feet. He reached out for
Tess's hand, but his eyes were on Jamie. Jamie winced inwardly,
realizing this man had been in the saloon the other night when he had
met von Heusen's boys.
Tess didn't see the recognition in his eyes.
"Mr. Barrymore, this is Lieutenant Slater. Lieutenant, Mr. Barrymore,
who has helped my family for years."
Mr. Barrymore was still staring at Jamie. "Mr. Barrymore!" Tess said
more sharply.
"Oh, my dear, my dear, I am so glad to see you! Of course, you know that
Joe left everything in your name" -- "That's why I'm here," Tess said.
"Of course, of course" -- "No, you don't understand. I want to turn over
half my holdings to Lieutenant Slater."
"Half your holdings?"
"Half."
At last, Mr. Barrymore looked at Tess. The pen he held in his hands
nearly snapped as he stared at her.
"Half?"
"Half."
He cleared his throat and stared at Jamie.
"That will make you a very rich young man."
"I intend to pay the lady, but the money is going to be due to her in
payments over the next few years. Can we draw up a schedule?" Jamie
said.
Tess stared at him then.
"You're going to pay me?"
"Of course. You didn't think I was just going to whisk away your
property." "Yes, but" -- "Tess," he said softly.
"You're--I mean, the land is worth it."
He thought she was going to leap to her feet and scream. She managed not
to.
She leaned over the desk and smiled at Mr. Barrymore.
"Make sure he pays the premium price then, will you?"
"Well, yes," Mr. Barrymore said nervously. He looked at amie, then he
looked at Tess, then he cleared his throat.
"You're sure this is what you want, Tess?"
"And Mister--er--Lieutenant Slater, would you, uh, like ~,to explain how
you want these payments to be made?" . Certainly," Jamie said. He
rattled off sums and amounts, and Mr. Barrymore began to write quickly.
"And When we're done with this," Jamie said, "I need to make and Miss.
Stuart is go' rag to do so, too. In the case deaths, the property is to
be equally divided in between my two brothers, Cole Slater and and in
case of their deaths, to their heirs."
smiled at Tess reassuringly.
"Oh, yeah, and Mr. I want you to make sure you talk about this. I the
whole town to know that there's just no way, no at all, the Stuart
spread is ever going to be up for sale.
understand me?" stayed silent for a long moment, then he be" You got it,
Lieutenant Slater. Damn, but it! Oh, excuse me, Tess.
I plumb forgot you were there!" amusing," Tess said with a stiff smile.
"They'll know, all right, they'll know ... " Mr. Barrymore was writing
quickly.
"I must hand it to you, Lieutenant, you do seem to know what you're
doing with property and the law. Though it ain't surprising, not one
bit. You sure do know what you're doing with those Colts of yours. Why,
in all my life, I've never seen anything like the shootin' you did in
the saloon the other night" -- "Shooting?" Tess interrupted, sitting
straight. "Oh, my, yes, you should have seen him! Some of those
hooligans of Mr. yon Heusen's come in and they were giving Hardy a bad
time, but the Lieutenant here, he stood right up to them." Mr. Barrymore
slapped his hand hard on his desk and hooted with laughter.
"It was a joy to these weary eyes, Tess, it was! Didn't you tell Miss.
Stuart about it, Lieutenant? Hell--heck, boy, if it had been me, I'd
have told the whole damned--darned--world about it!"
"I didn't seem to have the chance, Mr. Barrymore. When I got home, a few
more of Mr. yon Heusen's boys were at the ranch.
And someone needed to tell those fellows that it wasn't a good thing to
play with matches."
"You shot yon Heusen's men in the saloon?" Tess asked, staring at him.
"Sure," Mr. Barrymore said cheerfully.
"Why, you would have heard about it if you'd gone into the paper, Tess.
The lieutenant was sitting with Ed Clancy and Dec?" Tess stood and
stared at Jamie.
"I think I'll take a little walk over to the Wiltshire Sun right now.
I'm sure, Lieutenant Slater, that you know exactly how you want
everything worded. Then Mr. Barrymore can draw up the papers and I will
come back and sign them. Excuse me, will you?"
Jamie and Mr. Barrymore both stood quickly, but Tess was already at the
door.
She stormed out, feeling her face red, wondering if she should be
furious with the man or if she should run back and kiss him. She wasn't
going to do 167 either--she was going to see Ed and find out exactly
what had happened.
She walked into the Wiltshire Sun office as if she were a battleship.
Harry, the printer, looked up from his plates.
Edward, at work at his desk, also looked up. The naked joy in his eyes
as he saw her made her first questions flee. He leaped up to hug her,
nearly breaking ~ery bone in her body.
"I knew you were all right, Tess, because I saw Slater.
But, girl, it does an old body good to see you!"
" Thank you, Edward, thank you!" she told him.
Harry, toothless and shy, was standing behind him.
"And you, too, Harry, come here. Let me give you a big, sloppy kiss
right on that jaw of yours!"
He flushed a bright red from his throat to his white, tufted hair, but
he accepted a kiss and hugged her tightly in return.
"We just kept doing the paper, Miss. Tess. Even when they tried to tell
us that you weren't coming back, we just kept the Sun going out on
schedule.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we had a W~tltshire Sun out on the
street!"
"And I'm so grateful and so proud of both of you I" Tess assured him.
Edward cleared his throat.
"Well, I didn't exactly have the news of the nation going out," he
admitted.
"Ah, hell, I didn't really have the balls to print too much. Von Heusen
was breathing down my neck, and I" -- "You kept it going," Tess said.
"And I'm grateful." She gloves and headed for her desk.
"Am I in time a story for the Tuesday edition?"
"Yes, yes, Miss. Stuart! I'll clean out the presses, I'll" -- "I've just
got one story," Tess assured him.
"But it's an one. I want it on the front page." smiled at Edward and
inserted paper into the new typewriter she had insisted they buy. She
closed her pausing for a moment, smelling the ink on Harry's Then she
smiled and started to type. She described the small wagon train, then
she described the attack. She described the attackers, who had looked
like white men painted up to look like Comanche. She wrote about being
saved by the cavalry, then she wrote about Chief Running River and how
he had sworn his people had not had anything to do with the attack. Then
she wrote that she knew she was an eyewitness. and a survivor. She ended
the piece with a bold accusation.
"Certain tyrants in this town will stoop to any means to bring about
their chosen results. This town has been mercilessly se'tzed upon. We've
seen our friends and neighbors disappear. Some say it was the war, but
the war has ended, and all good men are trying to repair broken fences
and lend a helping hand. In this town, however, we have been met by