Twin of Ice Read online

  “I came to see your father—,” Kane began but Marc never gave him a chance to finish.

  “Murderer!” Marc screeched and started up the stairs in one leap.

  “Wait a minute!” Kane shouted, but no one paid him the least attention as the three other men jumped him also. All five men went rolling down the stairs and Kane thought that since he was the only one who was sober, he would probably be the only one who was hurt. In spite of the fact that it was four against one, Kane was winning the fight.

  But then one of the women slammed Kane over the head with a heavy brass statue of David preparing to slay the giant.

  The four men unsteadily got to their feet and looked down at the unconscious form of Kane.

  “What do we do now?” one of the women whispered.

  “Hang ’im!” Marc shouted, starting to pick up Kane, but when he made no progress, and none of the others offered to help, he looked up, pleading, “He killed my father.”

  “There ain’t enough whiskey in the world to get me drunk enough to hang a man as rich as he is,” one of the men said. “While he’s out, let’s take him to the jail. Let the sheriff deal with him.”

  There was some argument from Marc, but he was too drunk to put up a great deal of fight, and so the four of them struggled to heave Kane’s big body into the back of a buckboard that had been left standing outside the house. Not one of them seemed to give the body of Jacob another thought as they left him on the floor, the doors of the house wide open.

  * * *

  “Here, drink this,” Edan was saying as he held Kane’s head.

  With a groan, Kane tried to sit up, but the pain in his head made him lean back against the cold stone wall. “What happened?” He looked up to see Edan, Leander and the sheriff hovering over him.

  “It was all a mistake,” Lee said. “I told the sheriff about the paper and why you went to Fenton’s.”

  “He was dead?” Kane asked. “He looked like it from where I stood.” Kane’s head came up sharply, causing him more pain. “The last thing I remember is Marc Fenton and some drunks pullin’ me down the stairs.”

  Edan sat down on the cot where Kane was stretched out. To his right were the bars of the jail. “As far as we can tell, the servants found Jacob Fenton dead about three minutes before you walked into the house. For some reason, they all decided to go get help and so left the body alone and the house open. Then Marc and his friends came in from an all-night spree and saw you standing at the top of the stairs and thought you’d pushed him down. You’re lucky, because Marc wanted to hang you from the front porch.”

  Kane rubbed the knot on the back of his head. “Hangin’ couldn’t hurt more than this does.”

  “You’re free to go, Mr. Taggert,” the sheriff said. “And I suggest that you get out of here before your wife finds out. Women take on so when their husbands are put in jail.”

  “Not Houston,” Kane said. “She’s a lady to the core. She’d be calm if they hanged me.” Even as he said the words, a new thought came to him. How would Houston react if she thought he were a murderer? Hadn’t he heard one time that all the property of murderers was confiscated by the state? Or was it that a person couldn’t inherit from a person he’d killed?

  “How many people know about this?” Kane asked. “The Fenton servants can testify that I’m innocent, but has that fact spread around town yet?”

  “I called Lee the minute I saw young Fenton push you out of the wagon,” the sheriff said, puzzled.

  “Everyone is too concerned with the mine explosion to care much who gets thrown in jail,” Leander said. “All the reporters are at the Little Pamela trying to figure out new ways to describe the bodies,” he added with a grimace.

  “What are you planning?” Edan asked, his eyes narrowed.

  Kane was silent a moment. “Sheriff, you mind if I stay in here overnight? I’d like to play a little practical joke on my wife.”

  “Joke?” the sheriff asked. “Women don’t usually appreciate a joke, no matter how good it is.”

  Kane looked up at Lee and Edan. “Can I count on you two keepin’ quiet for twenty-four hours?”

  Edan stood and, at the look on Lee’s face, he said, “My guess is that he wants to see if Houston will stand by him if he tells her that he’ll probably be convicted as a murderer. Am I right?”

  Kane started studying the dust in a far corner of the room. “Somethin’ like that.”

  Both Lee and the sheriff snorted.

  “I ain’t interferin’ in love,” the sheriff said. “Mr. Taggert, if you wanta set up residence in this jail, be my guest, but the city of Chandler is gonna bill you as if this were the finest hotel in San Francisco.”

  “Fair enough,” Kane answered. “Lee? Edan?”

  Leander merely shrugged. “It’s up to you. I’ve known Houston for most of my life, and I never knew anything at all about her.”

  Edan looked at Kane for a long moment. “When Houston passes this test—and she will—will you give up your obsession of doubting her so we can get back to work? Vanderbilt has probably bought the eastern seaboard by now.”

  Kane drew his breath in sharply. “Well, he can sell it back to us starting tomorrow, as soon as I get out of this place,” he said with a grin.

  When the men were gone, Kane lay down on the cot and went to sleep.

  * * *

  Houston had a three-month-old baby in her lap, trying to get the child to sleep, and a two-year-old and a four-year-old in a bed beside her. They were some of the many children who’d lost their fathers in the last few days. Their mother was beside herself trying to figure out how she was going to support herself and her small children in the years to come. Houston and Blair and other members of The Sisterhood had been campaigning to get the local merchants to try to find jobs for the women, and Houston was one of the volunteers to help in an impromptu child-care center—something new that Blair had seen in Pennsylvania.

  When the sheriff’s deputy came to the little house and asked for her, she had no idea what he wanted.

  “Your husband has been arrested for the murder of Jacob Fenton,” the young man said.

  It took Houston a moment to react, and her first thought was that Kane’s temper had at last gotten the better of him. “When?” she managed to whisper.

  “Sometime this mornin’. I wasn’t there so I don’t know much about it, but ever’body in town knows that he threatened ol’ man Fenton’s life, not that anybody blames him, ’cause we all know that Fenton’s guilty as sin, but it ain’t gonna help Taggert none. They hang you for killin’ a bad man as well as a good one.”

  Houston gave him her iciest look. “I will thank you to not judge and condemn my husband before you hear the facts.” She put the baby into the boy’s arms. “Here, you may take care of the babies while I go see my husband.”

  “I can’t do that, Blair-Houston, I’m on city time. I’m a deputy sheriff.”

  “I had the impression that you believed you were a judge. Check her diaper and see if she needs changing, and if the others wake up, feed them and entertain them until their mother returns in about two hours.”

  “Two hours!” she heard the boy wail as she left the cabin.

  Houston’s carriage was waiting outside for her and she made the trip to the jail in record time. The little stone building was built into a hill at the far edge of town. Most of the prisoners were drunks sleeping off Saturday night, and the real cases were usually taken to Denver to be tried.

  “Good morning, Miss Blair-Houston,” the sheriff said, getting to his feet and hastily putting his paper down.

  “Mrs. Taggert,” she corrected. “I’d like to see my husband immediately.”

  “Why, of course, Mrs. Westfield-Taggert,” he said, removing the keys from a nail in the wall.

  Kane was asleep on the cot and Houston saw the dried blood on the back of his head. She went to him, touched his face as she heard the cell door being locked behind her.

  “K