“Don’t do that to Scott,” he said. “You aren’t helping him by hiding him. He’s a young man, a good boy. He doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life avoiding the very part of the world that means the most to him.”
With no leader, the gang didn’t know what to do. They circled up, leaning forward on their horses to hear the verdict. Only then did Joel realize how tight his fists were. He stretched his fingers as the group broke their knot and a designated chief spoke up.
“You promise he’ll get a fair trial?”
“As much as it’s in my power.” And he meant it.
“That’s not saying much.”
Behind him the hinges squawked and Fred stepped outside. “Gentlemen, I appreciate this show for my son, but the deputy is right. I can’t let you take him. We’re going to see him through this, and when it’s over, we’ll know we done the right thing.”
And that seemed to be the last word.
Sensing that their rescue had no purpose if even Fred refused to turn Scott loose, the masked men peeled away a few at a time and blended into the forest. All but one stubborn little figure, who waited behind the brush pile.
Calbert Huckabee came out to the porch. “Seems like that Bald Knobber looks very familiar at this homestead—lot like a little girl I had borned and raised here.”
And she was still there, even after hearing his story. Joel dug his toe into the porch. “Reckon I should go see what she wants?”
“Reckon so.” Calbert patted him on the shoulder and returned inside.
Chapter 40
At first, Betsy had been rooting for the Bald Knobbers to free Scott. The threat of a trial terrified her, but Joel was right. If Scott ran, the charges would never be lifted. His name would always bear the smudge of suspicion. She wouldn’t wish that on her enemy, yet that was what Joel lived under. And he wasn’t her enemy—not at all—but the man she loved.
To be banished from home. To leave behind a bad reputation and unanswered questions. Betsy’s heart ached for Joel. When she first met him that night at Mrs. Sanders’s house, he’d acted bitter, cold, and now she knew the reason. How else had that ordeal injured him?
Joel stood beneath the cover of her parents’ porch as the other riders vanished back into the woods. How hurt he must have been. How outraged that his precious character had been shredded with no hearing, no evidence, none of the process of justice that he cared so much for. And because of Betsy and her stories about a flirtatious deputy, his character had been attacked again. Now all of Pine Gap knew. An innocent man was living in the shadows of guilt, and it was because of her.
Tears streamed down her face. Suddenly the heavy fabric of her mask was suffocating. She tugged the front away from her face, bringing it tight against the back of her neck. Everyone else was headed the other way, back through the woods, but she couldn’t get to Joel fast enough. He had to know how sorry she was, how she wanted to make it up to him. She slid off her horse and stumbled forward, losing sight of him. The harsh twine around the base of the mask was rough against her fingers. In her hurry she must’ve tied it into double-triple knots, and now it seemed impossible to undo. She bumped into a tree, ricocheting deeper into the forest where she’d spent her youth.
Grunting in frustration, she stopped at a new sound—boots rustling through dry leaves. Her arms were grasped, warm hands on both shoulders stopping her scrabbling at the mask. She cried out as the twine was snapped and the burlap trap was removed.
Cold air stung the tear tracks on her cheeks. Betsy lifted her hand to sweep the hair out of her face, but Joel was there first, his fingers sure as they pushed back the locks that had escaped from her braid. The sorrow on his face, the uncertainty, wrung her heart—as if his life depended on her reaction. She grasped his leather vest, sliding her fingers into the front pocket to hold on and share his warmth.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
His eyes darted over her face, beseeching. “She’d plotted the whole thing. Thought I’d marry her, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t have a wife who would lie to me. I couldn’t marry someone I didn’t trust.”
Betsy’s grip on his vest tightened at his words. What did that mean for her? Was all hope gone for them?
But this wasn’t about her. Joel was hurting. “I know the man you are. I shouldn’t have given it a second thought. But to think what she did to you, and here she is, trying to ruin your life even further. . . .” Her head dropped. “I’m sorry for what you went through, and that I stirred it all up again. There has to be a way to fix this.”
Joel drew in a deep breath and covered her hand with his own. “I thought she’d ruined my life, but if that hadn’t happened, I would’ve never met you. I’m where I need to be.”