Cotton thought about it for a moment, then pushed his chair back.
“I’m going to have to ask Belinda about this.”
“I know you will,” Shaye said, “but I’m asking you to put it off for a day.”
“Why’s that?”
“Give me and my boys time to settle our business with her,” Shaye said. “After we meet with her tomorrow, you can confront her, but if you do it now she might not let my sons meet the boy.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“Think about it, Sheriff,” Shaye said. “Do you really know the girl?”
Cotton hesitated, then said, “I thought I did.”
29
All four men left the sheriff’s office together, but the Shayes stopped just outside and watched the sheriff walk off toward his house.
“Do you think he’ll confront her now?” James asked.
“I hope not,” Shaye said. “I hope he’ll wait until tomorrow.”
“And if he doesn’t?” Thomas asked. “How can we leave without bein’ dead sure if that kid is Matthew’s?”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever be sure, Thomas,” Shaye said.
“But Pa, if there’s even the smallest chance that he’s part of our family…” James said.
“I know, James,” Shaye said, putting his hand on his youngest son’s shoulder, “I know. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Sheriff Cotton was halfway to his house before he made his decision. There was no harm in waiting one more day and giving Dan Shaye and his sons time to make up their minds about Little Matt.
When he reached the house, he found Marion still holding the baby and Belinda nowhere in evidence.
“What brings you back here so soon?” Marion asked.
“Just wanted to check and see if everyone was all right,” Cotton said. “Where’s Belinda?”
“She went out,” Marion said, “right after you left.”
“Did she say anything to you?”
“No,” Marion said, rubbing the baby’s back. “She just said she had to go out. I assumed she had some thinking to do.”
“I think we all have some thinking to do,” Cotton said.
“What do you mean?”
“I have something to tell you,” Cotton said, “but we can’t act on it right away.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Sit down,” he said, “and I’ll tell you…”
When Belinda left the Cotton house, she hurried into town, hoping that she wouldn’t run into either the sheriff or Dan Shaye. She made her way all the way to the south end of town and when she came to that Y junction in the street she went to the right. Before she reached the livery, she came to a hardware store and entered. The man behind the counter was busy with a customer, so she moved to one side and waited for the customer to finish his business and leave. Hurriedly, she ran to the door and flipped the OPEN side to the CLOSED side and locked the door.
“Belinda—”
The man came from behind the counter and they fell into an embrace, followed by a deep kiss.
“You’re not supposed to come here during the day,” Alvin Simon scolded her.
Simon was in his late twenties and had opened his hardware story only a year before. He and Belinda had met when he first came to town, flirted for a while, and then had become lovers six months ago. But they were determined to keep it a secret from the rest of the town—especially from Riley Cotton and his wife. To that end they rarely, if ever, met during the day, so Simon was surprised to see Belinda in his shop.
“I had to come,” she said. “I just finished talking with Daniel Shaye.”
“And? Has he accepted Little Matt as his grandson?”
“No, not yet,” she said. She moved away from him and clasped her hands together. “He wants his sons to meet me and Matt first.”
“So when will that happen?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Did you tell him about Jeb Collier and his gang?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He never heard of Jeb.”
“I told you,” Simon said. “Nobody has. He’s not such a scary man.” He walked over to her and took her hands. “I told you I can protect you if he shows up.”
She pushed his hands away and said, “No, you can’t. He’d kill you without a second thought.”
“If I’m such a pathetic man,” he complained, “why do you love me?”
“I never said you were pathetic,” she replied, but like most men she’d known he was nearly pathetic and certainly easy to manipulate—every man but Daniel Shaye.
Alvin Simon was a young man with a bright future, which meant that he had money and he had the means and the smarts to make more. That made him a good choice for Belinda. But if she could not convince Daniel Shaye and his sons to kill Jeb Collier for her, then Jeb was certainly going to kill Alvin Simon, Belinda’s golden goose.
“But you’re not a gunman. That’s what it will take to kill Jeb,” she finished.
“Gunmen like these Shaye men you keep talking about?” Simon asked. “I read about these men back East, Belinda. They are all killers…back shooters. How could you associate yourself with such…ruffians? First Jeb Collier and then Matthew Shaye?” He grabbed her arms. “You’re so much better than that, my darling.”
She allowed him to draw her into his arms and laid her head on his shoulder. “You’re the only one who thinks so, Alvin.”
“I don’t think so, I know so,” he said. “I’ll protect you, dearest. I promise.”
“I know you mean to,” she said, but she knew that if she didn’t do something, Alvin Simon and his money would be lost to her.
“That’s not possible,” Marion said when the sheriff finished his story. “Mr. Shaye must be wrong.”
“Marion,” Cotton said, “she gets her way all the time.”
“That’s because we love her,” Marion said, “not because she manipulates us.”
“Are you sure, Marion?” he asked. “Are you sure it isn’t Little Matt that you love?”
“Well, of course I love him.” She hugged the little boy close to her breast, kissing his forehead.
“What if it is true?” Cotton asked. “Then what?”
“You mean, that some desperados are on their way here and one of them thinks he’s this child’s father?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you’re the law…you’ll tell them to leave town.”
“Don’t be naïve, Marion,” he said. “You’ve been a lawman’s wife long enough to know it doesn’t work that way. It’s more than likely I’d have to make them leave.”
“Could you?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I really haven’t had to deal with anything like this since taking this job. Drunken cowboys, yes. Gunmen, no.”
“But…you have deputies.”
“Two young deputies,” he said. “They’re not equipped for this.”
Marion began to pace, bouncing the baby as she did.
“I can’t believe this,” she said. “If he’s right…we can’t let them take the baby, Riley. And if she’s been using us, we should put her out.”
“And keep the baby?” he asked. “Her baby?”
“Her baby?” She stopped pacing and faced him. “She never feeds him, I do. She never picks him up when he cries, I do.” Her anger was sudden and fierce.
“Marion,” he asked, “how long have you been this angry?”
“All right,” she said, “all right, so I know she’s using us. I see the way she wraps you around her little finger. But I love Little Matt.” She hugged the baby tightly. “I was willing to put up with her to keep him here.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She looked away.