James leaned forward and looked directly at his sister. “And who was it that made her that way? You brought her here. You take care of her!” He stepped back into his house and slammed the door shut.
“Oh!” Liz gasped and put one hand up against her throat. When she looked at Hettie, she had tears in her eyes. Hettie was taller than Liz and looked down at her with gentle eyes, putting one hand on Liz’s. “Oh, Hettie! I am stunned. I am so sorry. I couldn’t have known he would react like this.”
“Liz,” Hettie whispered. “What do I do now? Must I go home? Will you want your money back?”
“No.” It wasn’t Liz who answered. Liz was becoming a bundle of tears, and they both turned when it was John who answered. He was coming toward them now, holding one hand out, not to his wife, but to Hettie. “You will come stay with us, at least for tonight and we will sort this out. We aren’t about to abandon you here when this is all our fault.”
“Oh, John.” Liz went toward her husband, and he gathered her in his arms. He nodded at Hettie and took Hettie’s hand. He led her back to the carriage, never taking his arm from his wife’s shoulders.
Liz cried the entire way to their house, which was about ten minutes away down a dirt road lined with trees and houses set far back from the road. Hettie felt bad for her. She was wrestling with her own emotions but did not feel like crying. She was aghast at the behavior of the Sheriff. Perhaps Liz did interfere with her brother’s life a little too much, and perhaps he was getting weary of it. But to treat a complete stranger in such a way. What could his excuse possibly be?
James stomped furiously back to his sitting room and threw himself in the big cushioned chair he liked to sit in. He could not believe the nerve of his sister. He put together a string of curse words in his mind and then shook them off.
“I’m sorry, Lord!” He groaned, sitting forward and placing his hands clasped in front of his forehead. “I just don’t see how she could do something like this! It’s not her place! I don’t need another wife! I don’t need more pain and fear! Lord, why would she do this to me?”
His mind filled with his first wife, the memory of her face, her smile, her laughter. She had been gone over three years, and he couldn’t shake the misery. He didn’t believe it had changed his behavior in the other aspects of his life. He still kept law and order in this town, kept out the riff-raff and the scoundrels, the thieves and any hostile Indians that might stray onto their property. There were very few problems with the local Indians. This town had been fortunate enough to escape the anger and frustration some towns were plagued with.
Saloon fights and issues with unruly men with the women in town were the main problems he dealt with. It wasn’t stressful in Elko on a typical day. James counted that as a blessing. The more problems he dealt with, the more his anger came out. As a Sheriff, he couldn’t exactly avoid the problems. So his anger had only grown over the years.
He had killed the man who killed his wife. But it hadn’t stopped the pain. She had been killed for only one reason. She was the Sheriff’s wife. After a long time behind prison bars in Ireland, a migrant had crossed the ocean simply to begin killing people in America, specifically law enforcement and their families. One of his victims was Annie, John’s dear wife. She had only been 24 years old. He was 25 when the tragedy happened. Almost four years later, he could still see her beautiful face, hear her sweet voice and regretted his inability to keep her safe from harm.
He wasn’t going to go through that again. He didn’t care what his sister thought. He didn’t need someone else to care for or to care for him. He was just fine on his own.
He lowered his head to his hands again and fought back tears of sorrow. Liz had opened up that wound all over again. He couldn’t even see the woman he’d met in his mind, couldn’t remember her face. He was blown away by what Liz had done.
“How could she?” He moaned, allowing a few tears to come out before frowning and wiping them angrily away. For the first time in several years, he wanted to go visit the saloon until the early hours of the morning.
But he’d made a vow to himself and to the town, though they didn’t know it, that he would not turn into a raging drunk, stumbling around town pretending to keep the peace while creating the chaos. He was stronger than that.
And he didn’t need a woman on his arm to prove it.