“Whoever saves her will be the talk of the territory,” Hinkle went on. “I intend for that to be us. She is my ticket to better things. To being appointed a federal marshal.”
“What are you on about?”
“I don’t intend to be a county sheriff forever. This badge is a stepping-stone, like everything else in life.” Hinkle came over and clapped Seamus on the shoulder. “I tell you that if we save the schoolmarm, we can rise as high as our ambition takes us.”
“We?”
“Don’t you have a hankering to move up in the world? Wouldn’t you like to be a federal marshal, too? The schoolmarm has done me the biggest favor anyone ever did, and she doesn’t even realize it.”
“What if she is with Frost because she wants to be with him?” Seamus casually asked.
“Don’t be ridiculous. She is being forced. We have the word of the justice of the peace. Besides”—Sheriff Hinkle grinned—“you wouldn’t want to spoil my chance at the federal job, would you?” He paused. “Now, what is it you wanted to tell me?”
Seamus thought of how Ernestine Prescott had helped cut the shawl into strips and done some of the binding while Frost covered him. He thought of how she had pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, how she had been seeing Jeeter Frost behind the town’s back, as it were, and now the entire town was worried about her welfare and her virtue when she was as safe as could be and had probably lost her virtue some time ago.
“Well?” Sheriff Hinkle prodded.
“I can’t rightly recollect,” Seamus lied. “Maybe it will come to me later.”
“In that case, fetch your horse and whatever supplies you think you will need. The posse heads out in half an hour.”
“Do you still want me to lead it?”
“Why wouldn’t I? That is, if you are up to it.”
“I want to set eyes on the schoolmarm again more than anything,” Seamus said. So he could slap her and thank her for her part in his humiliation.
“I am sending Jack Coombs with you,” Sheriff Hinkle said.
“That old coot? What for?”
“He is the best tracker in these parts,” Hinkle said. “Maybe the best tracker alive. Once the sun is up, call on his talents. It would not surprise me if you are back here tomorrow night with Frost in handcuffs and the schoolmarm singing your praises.”
The posse proved to be the usual mix of citizens, notable among them Lawrence Fisch, the son of the president of The First Bank of Dodge City, who also happened to be the president of seven other banks built in towns along the railroad’s right-of-way. Others included store clerks, a blacksmith’s apprentice, Texas cowboys who had arrived in Dodge two days ago with a herd, a butcher, a gambler, and the last person in the world Seamus expected to join a posse. Gigging his mount over, Seamus said as much.
Frank Lafferty was scribbling on a pad by the light from a nearby window. “The schoolmarm has been kidnapped and you wonder why I want to go along? This will make headlines across the country.”
“So you are not in this for her, you are in this for you.” That was more like the Lafferty Seamus knew and disliked.
“Don’t get me wrong. I hope we find her alive and well.”
“But it will be better for your career if she is violated and dead,” Seamus said. “I think I will talk to the sheriff and have him refuse you permission to go along.”
“He can’t,” Lafferty said smugly. “Haven’t you ever heard of the First Amendment? I have a right to be on this posse, more right than anyone else.”
“You are a human coyote. Real coyotes feed on animal carcasses. You feed on the carcasses of people, like you did the Blights and Paunch Stevens. All so you can puff yourself up and fill your poke.”
“Why, Undersheriff Glickman, how perceptive of you,” Lafferty said. “Imagine, someone wanting to make money. Or wanting to further their career. I suppose you have no desire to do either?”
“I hope we catch up to Jeeter Frost and he puts a slug in your head,” Seamus said.
“Spoken like a true lawman.”
Seamus reined to the front of the posse and swung his arm to signal they should move out. As they passed the Comique he gave a wistful sigh. He could be eating a thick steak smothered in onions and drinking fine wine. Instead, he was venturing off across the prairie after a vicious killer and a wayward schoolmarm. If he wasn’t real careful, it could be that Lafferty would get to feed off another death: his own.
They rode in silence for over an hour.
Jeeter Frost held to a trot until he was sure no one was after them. Then he slowed to a walk. It was folly to exhaust their mounts until there was a definite reason to do so.
Not one word from Ernestine the whole time. She was acting strange, Jeeter concluded. Ordinarily, he liked quiet. He had been alone for so long that quiet was a natural condition. But now that he had someone, her silence ate at him like the sting of rancid vinegar. He took it for as long as he could. Finally, shifting in the saddle, he blunted asked, “Are you still mad at me?”
“Over what?” Ernestine asked.
The suggestion that he might have given her more than a single cause to be mad astounded him. “About me slugging that deputy. What else could it be?”
“Well, there is your bossy disposition,” Ernestine said. She never had liked being told what to do. She had a mind of her own and was perfectly willing to exercise it.
“But we had to light a shuck!” Jeeter protested. “If we had hung around Dodge, I would be behind bars by now.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not,” Ernestine said. “I am not so certain your attack on the deputy was warranted.”
“It sure as hell was,” Jeeter said.
Ernestine’s already ramrod-straight back became straighter. “I will thank you not to take that tone with me. Nor use that kind of language. Honestly. We have only just been married, and here you are, displaying some disturbing tendencies.”
Jeeter felt a funk coming on. “You knew who I am and what I have done when you agreed to be mine.”
“I agreed to be your wife, not your property,” Ernestine clarified “As for the other, you led me to believe that if we wed, you would put that life behind you and start anew.”
“And I will,” Jeeter said, “just as soon as we reach somewhere safe.”
Ernestine glanced at his darkling profile. “Why not turn over the new leaf here and now? Forsake the old ways? Unbuckle your Colt and put it in your saddlebags.”
“Why don’t I dig my own grave while I am at it?” Jeeter rejoined. “Or didn’t you hear the part about somewhere safe?”
“You can be terribly facetious at times, do you know that?”
Jeeter had no idea what the word meant, but it did not sound like something he wanted to be called. “I do what I have to in order to survive.”
“You bring that up a lot. But I am talking about your attitude toward me,” Ernestine said. “You have taken to treating me as if I am ten years old.”
“That’s just silly,” Jeeter said. “Who better than me knows you are a growed woman?”
“Grown,” Ernestine amended. “And the answer is no one. You are my first and you will be my last. My heart is yours for as long as you want it, and when you do not want it anymore, I will not give it to anyone else.”
Jeeter relaxed a little. “You still care for me, then?”
“Now who is being silly?” Ernestine retorted. “Or do you consider me so fickle as to let a little thing like pistol-whipping that deputy come between us?”
“A man never knows with women.”
“You will find me as constant as the sun and the moon in my affection for you,” Ernestine said. “But always remember. Unlike some women, whose brains are ruled by their bodies, I am the opposite. My body is ruled by my brain and will continue to be so for as long as I endure.”