The Wildest Heart

“Bragg’s an American citizen, ain’t he? An’ bushwhacking’s bushwhacking. If the judge says we can’t try Cord here, the Rurales will be glad to give him their kind of justice over there. We’ll be real glad to extradite him, you bet!”

“Thank you, marshal!” Mark said firmly, and gave my fingers a warning kind of pressure before I could speak. “Rowena, I’m sorry you had to be faced with such terrible news, but I knew you would want to hear it.”

“Of course I did! But oh, Mark!”

“I’m sure you’ll need a little time to recover from the shock. I’ll take you back to the hotel, and then—” he looked significantly at the marshal. “I might just have some further information to give you, Marshal Hayes. Nothing I am certain of just yet, but after I have talked to some people and clarified some questions in my mind. You won’t let the news get out yet? I’d rather talk to my uncle first in case he thinks I’ve gone behind his back by not confiding in him first.”

“Sure, sure Mr. Shannon! I understand! Glad to see you in here anytime.”

Mark hadn’t wanted me to say anything to the marshal yet, although my shock and anger were so great I would have blurted it all out, Lucas Cord’s presence in this very town; the way his brother had approached me. But Mark was right, of course. This was something we should discuss together before we made up our minds as to what must be done.

We went outside, Mark’s firm hand holding my arm, I still carrying hatboxes. I remember that we paused on the wooden sidewalk, to allow our eyes time to get used to the glare that reflected off the dirt-packed street. And then it happened.

I saw Todd come out of the saloon, towering head and shoulders above the two men with him. He was laughing, his head thrown back.

I saw a flash and a puff of smoke from somewhere high up, across the street, and then the explosion of sound, reverberating in my ears. There was a crimson splotch of color on Todd’s white shirtfront; widening under my horrified eyes, as very slowly he seemed to crumple and then fall.

Everything had gone very still, all motion suspended for an instant, and then everything was sound and confusion. Running feet and shouts, the marshal, running lightly and fast for a man his age, going past us. Mark’s quiet “Oh my God!” and his fingers tightening around my arm.

And then I had pulled away from him, dropping the hatboxes so that they went scattering over the sidewalk, and I was running—running.

I could not see past the crowd of men who stood closely packed together, their shocked exclamations drowning out Marshal Hayes’s shouted questions.

“Please!” I begged, “please let me through!”

I would have pushed and shoved if I had to, but my distraught face and manner made them give way for me.

I heard the murmuring and the muttering of voices all about me and I did not hear what was said. I had eyes, at that moment, only for Todd, whom I had fought and hated and been drawn to unwillingly. God, how still he lay, how unlike him it was, he who had always been so vital, so forceful that one could never be unaware of his presence.

A gray-haired man in a black frock coat was on his knees beside Todd. I heard him grumbling, “Will you keep the crowd back, for God’s sake! Go get whoever did it, and leave me with my patient!”

Somehow, I pushed my way forward and the two cattlemen who had been with Todd moved aside to give me room.

I looked down at him, and his usually ruddy face was alarmingly pale; his eyes were closed. Someone had cut aside his jacket and shirt and the doctor’s fingers were busy, probing into a bloody, terrible wound that made me collapse to my knees beside him.

“Todd!” I said. “Todd Shannon—don’t you dare die!”

I thought I saw a muscle by his mouth twitch, miraculously and his eyelids moved slightly.

“Not… yet! Marry you… first…”

He spoke with difficulty, the words hardly more than a whisper, but I could feel the color rush back to my cheeks.

“Shut up, Shannon!” the doctor said with the familiarity of long-standing acquaintance. He cocked a bushy gray eyebrow at me.

“Better tell him yes, miss, or I won’t answer for the consequences! Stubbornest, toughest, orneriest bastard in the world in case you didn’t know it!”

With a trace of his old, bullying manner, Todd whispered, “Gonna… marry me! Always knew it… too. Didn’t… you?”

“Oh, damn you. Shannon! I suppose I’ll have to now!”

I could almost swear he gave a satisfied grin before his eyes closed again. And then, looking up, my eyes met Mark’s. The sun was in his face, and I saw the strange and unfamiliar look of anger and frustration in his expression.

He came forward.

“Doctor?”

“He’ll live! Bullet just missed the heart though. Deflected by a rib. He’s gonna have to lie low.”