“Go and get some more wood for the fire.”
“Jeb—”
“Git!”
Muttering, Ben got up and went out into the woods to look for wood.
“We could hit another bank on the way, Jeb,” Clark Wilson said. “I know of one—”
“Clark, you picked out two sweet banks for us and we hit ’em,” Jeb said. “We got enough money to outfit ourselves and head for Texas, and that’s what we’re gonna do now.”
“This bank I’m thinkin’ of is on the way.”
“In Texas?”
“Yeah.”
Jeb shook his head.
“Ain’t gonna hit no Texas banks until we’re done in Pearl River Junction,” he said. “Once we’re done, we’ll hit that bank and light out for Mexico.” They had already hit one bank in Arizona and one in New Mexico. Wilson had chosen the banks, but it was Jeb’s planning that enabled them to pull those jobs off successfully—without killing or injuring anyone.
“We gonna be takin’ the woman and child with us?” Wilson asked.
“I don’t know that, Clark,” Jeb said.
Dave Roberts sat across the fire from them, but did not take part in the conversation. Wilson and Jeb Collier had been friends—or partners—for a lot longer than Roberts had known either one of them. He didn’t feel he had anything to add to their discussion.
“I got to find out if this kid is mine before I decide somethin’ like that,” Jeb added.
“Well…he’s the right age,” Wilson said.
“I’ll know,” Jeb said. “As soon as I look at the boy, I’ll know if he’s mine or not.”
Wilson looked across the fire at Roberts, who just shrugged.
“Okay, then,” Wilson said. “You’re the boss.”
“Pearl River Junction,” Jeb said. “We head there tomorrow.”
17
Shaye and his sons left the café and stopped just outside the door.
“What now, Pa?” James asked.
“Let’s split up and walk around the town,” Shaye said. “If we’re going to be here for a few days, I want to know what’s going on.”
Shaye split the town in three parts and they each went their separate ways. There was a saloon a few doors down from the café, small and quiet at the moment. They agreed to meet there in two hours. After that they’d check back with the sheriff.
Shaye kept the middle part of town—where most of the businesses were—for himself and sent James north and Thomas south.
It was nearing five o’clock, the time when many of the merchants would be closing their stores, and Shaye was surprised to find that many of them were still full of customers. The word “bustling” wasn’t strong enough to describe the feeling he got walking around Pearl River Junction.
Shaye had been the lawman in many towns, but none of them had ever had the feeling of energy this one had. It made him wonder what it would be like to wear a badge here and have an office that looked like Sheriff Cotton’s.
On the trail to Pearl River Junction from Winchester with his boys, the subject of wearing a badge again had not come up. This was actually the first time in months Shaye felt like he missed it.
James walked north as far as he could go. The last building he came to was a schoolhouse. It was empty now, but it was the building itself that interested him. It was obviously new and it was the largest schoolhouse he’d ever seen. He walked up to it, around it, then stepped in to peer through a window. He was surprised to see someone inside. A pretty young woman was shuffling papers at the desk, stuffing them into a leather case. It looked as if she was preparing to leave. James decided to walk around to the front of the building and wait for her. It was the classic curse of every young man: Just a brief glimpse of her blonde hair and smooth skin and he was smitten.
Thomas walked south and eventually found himself at the fork in the road they had come to earlier when they first rode into town. Going right would take him to the livery where they’d left their horses, so he decided to go left. He thought it was strange that, given the name of the town, there was no river, and this was the only junction he had seen since arriving.
He kept walking and came to a collection of small houses. A few of them were aged, but most of them seemed new. He didn’t recall having ever been in a town that was in this stage of growth. Even growing up in Epitaph, Texas, it seemed as if the town had reached a certain stage of growth and stalled. No one in Epitaph had seemed to even care. As for Winchester, that town seemed very happy with the way it was.
Pearl River Junction was a different story. He could feel that people liked it here and could see and smell the growth. He found himself wondering what it would be like to wear a badge in such a town.
Unlike his father, Thomas had often thought about wearing a badge again. Now the urge seemed to swell inside of him. Whatever happened with Belinda Davis, whether her baby turned out to be Matthew’s or not, Thomas decided that he would not return to Wyoming with his father and brother. He was going to move on from here, not go back.
As Elizabeth Newland came out the front door of the schoolhouse, she saw a man loitering there.
“Can I help you?” she asked. He didn’t look old enough to be the father of one of the students. He looked barely old enough to be out of school himself, but then she knew the same was true of herself. He was probably her age—or even a year or so older. “All the children have gone home.”
“Oh, I’m not a parent,” James Shaye said. “I’m, uh, a stranger in town. I was just…taking a walk and I saw the schoolhouse. It’s…the biggest I’ve ever seen.”
“Yes,” she said, coming down the steps. She was clutching her leather case to her breast. It was filled to bursting with papers. “We’re very proud of it.”
As she approached him, coming down the walkway, James moved to intercept her.
“Are you going home?” he asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“May I help you?” he asked.
“I really don’t need—”
“I could carry those for you,” he said. “Maybe you can tell me a little bit about the town?”
She hesitated, but the young man looked harmless enough. And he was not unattractive.
“Very well,” she said, surrendering her burden to him. “I have to walk this way.”
He fell in next to her as she led him back toward town.
“I actually live all the way on the other end of town,” she told him apologetically.
“I don’t mind the walk.”
“I’m Elizabeth,” she said. “What’s your name?”
“I’m James,” he said, “James Shaye…”
As James started walking with Elizabeth, he turned his head and saw the sheriff in the backyard of a small house. He was with a young woman and a small boy.
“Is that the sheriff?” he asked Elizabeth.
“Yes, it is,” she said. “He lives there with his wife.”
“Is that his daughter?”
“No, that’s a girl who he and his wife took in to live with them,” she said. “Her name is Belinda.”
“And the child?”
“Her son,” Elizabeth said, then lowered her voice. “She had him out of wedlock. It’s something of a scandalous situation.”
“Really?” he asked. “Her having the baby? Or living with the sheriff and his wife?”
“Well…both, actually.”
“How long has she lived in town?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ve only been here myself for a year, and she was living here when I arrived. I came from back East to teach here.”
James filed away the information about the sheriff and Belinda Davis and turned his attention back to the pretty schoolteacher.
“So where back East did you come from?” he asked her as they continued on.