As it turned out, none of his precautions were the least bit necessary.
She took their breath away. The sight of her dressed so primly in her Sunday best stunned them speechless. They stared and they gaped. Elvin stopped playing the piano; the fiddlers dropped their bows, and like everyone else in the saloon, they too stared up in openmouthed stupefaction at the woman on the stage.
She was a nervous wreck. Some adventures were better left unpursued, she thought frantically. She had to be crazy to be doing this. Adam was right. It was foolishness.
She turned to leave and saw him standing there on stage with her, with his rifle up and ready to fire and an expression on his face that would have made the fainthearted shriek.
He wasn’t going to let any harm come to her. Her smile widened as she turned back to her audience. Her knees were knocking, her stomach was flipping, and her throat was closing, but all she could think about was that Adam was protecting her.
Was it any wonder why she loved this man?
Something smelled vile. It was the sinful stench of whiskey surrounding her. She looked from side to side and saw all the empty bottles littering the tables and the floor.
Her audience was drunk, shame on them, and she was suddenly too disgusted to be nervous.
The crowd was finally getting over their initial surprise. Some of the men smiled at her; others frowned. She wasn’t at all what they had expected, but before any of them could get riled up about Steeple’s trickery in substituting one woman for another, Genevieve began to sing.
From that moment on, she held them in the palm of her hand. Adam wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Within minutes, she had turned drunken louts into simpering crybabies.
She chose to sing one of her church songs, “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” The lyrics aptly fit the audience. Her voice was so rich and vibrant it caressed the crowd and soothed the beast within them. One by one the men began to listen to the words and bow their heads. Several pushed their glasses of whiskey aside. Others took out their handkerchiefs and wiped the tears from their eyes.
By the time the song ended, everyone was weeping. Adam moved back into the shadows and lowered his rifle. He wanted to laugh, so bizarre did he find their reaction, but he didn’t dare for fear the sound would break the collective mood in the saloon. He knew why she had chosen the song, of course. She wanted to shame the men, and from the way their shoulders were shaking and their heads were bobbing, it was apparent she had succeeded.
The second song was called “My Sainted Mother, Your Hopes for Me” and struck an even greater emotional chord with the crowd. By the time she was finished with the third verse, one man was bawling so loudly his friends had to hush him.
Steeple went into a panic as soon as he noticed no one was buying or drinking his high-priced liquor. He moved forward to get Genevieve’s attention, and when she glanced over at him, he started seesawing his arm back and forth and snapping his fingers to let her know he wanted her to pick up the beat.
Adam did laugh then. He simply couldn’t contain his amusement any longer. Genevieve smiled at Steeple and then proceeded to sing yet another song about death and redemption and sinners who finally saw the light and changed their sorry ways. Adam suspected she was making up the lyrics as she went along, because none of the words rhymed, but he seemed to be the only one who noticed.
Steeple was tearing his hair out in despair over the amount of money he was losing because she wasn’t cooperating. He was doing the two-step on the side of the stage in yet another attempt to get her to sing something a bit more snappy.
She ignored him and continued to work the crowd into a frenzy of regret. One man called out in a weepy shout to please sing that pretty song about his mama once again. Steeple frantically shook his head at Genevieve, but she simply couldn’t refuse the request and launched into the heart-wrenching song one more time.
When she finished, they clapped and they wept, and Harry Steeple burst into tears.
Her throat was getting parched, and she decided to sing one last song and then take her leave. She poured her heart and her soul into the sweet, uplifting spiritual. It had always been a favorite of her father’s, and her audience responded to the melody and the lyrics in much the same way he had. They stomped their feet and clapped their hands to the beat.
She was just reaching the high note in the last verse when she happened to notice the doors of the saloon open. Three men squeezed their way inside.
One of them was Ezekiel Jones.
She froze. She stopped singing so abruptly it was as though her voice had been cut off in mid-note by a blade. She jerked back, her gaze locked on Ezekiel, and she went completely rigid. She was staring into the glowing eyes of the devil himself, but she couldn’t turn away, couldn’t move, for what seemed an eternity. Fear immobilized her. Her hands balled into fists at her sides, and she could only stand there and watch as Ezekiel slowly threaded his way through the crowd. She kept telling herself to run, run, and finally the frantic thought penetrated her stupor and she turned to Adam and started to run to him, but just as suddenly she stopped.
He saw the panic in her eyes, took a step toward her, and at the same time swung his rifle up and scanned the audience looking for the threat.
She shook her head. No, she couldn’t go to him. She wouldn’t put him in such jeopardy. The jackals were closing in on her, and he would try to protect her. She couldn’t risk Adam getting hurt, and she knew without a doubt that Ezekiel was capable of killing him.
Shuddering heavily, she turned toward Steeple and ran. Her hat flew down to the stage behind her. Steeple tried to grab her as she passed him, but she was too quick and he was too surprised by her abrupt departure.
Her satchel was on the chair next to the storage closet. She scooped it up in her arms as she raced by. She went out the back door into the alley, turned one way and then the other as she tried to remember which direction to take to the livery stable.
Adam was tearing the door open when she made up her mind and ran. He shouted her name and knew she heard him because she hesitated before she turned and disappeared around the corner. She was headed for the main street, and he was pretty certain she was going to the livery stable to get her horse and leave town.
He started to go after her, but just as he was about to reach the mouth of the alley, he heard the telltale squeak of the saloon’s back door, and he quickly moved into the shadows behind a stack of crates.
Someone in that crowd had terrified her, and he was determined to find out who and why. He wasn’t concerned that Genevieve would get away from him, because even if she did leave town, she would be easy to track in the moonlight.
His patience was quickly rewarded. Three of the homeliest and meanest-looking men he’d ever laid eyes on came strutting past. Two of them were big and bulky, and it soon became apparent that they took their orders from the shorter, heavier man dressed like a statesman at a funeral who trailed behind them.
Adam guessed the thugs were in the dandy’s employ. When the man stopped at the entrance of the alley to strike a match to a cigar, the other two also stopped to wait for him.
“Do you want me to chase her down for you, Reverend?” the tallest of the three asked.
“No need to rush,” the reverend answered in an accent that was as thick as southern maple syrup.
“The bitch won’t be getting away from me this time,” he crooned. “I’ve got her now, praise the Lord. I told you, Herman, that God would show me the way. Didn’t I?”
“Yes, Reverend, you told me,” Herman agreed.
He moved into the moonlight, and Adam got a good look at Herman’s face. His forehead bulged out over his brows, his nose was crooked, no doubt from being broken a time or two, and there were scars on his cheeks that Adam thought were the result of a few knife fights. He looked exactly like what he was, a thug, and so did his companion.
“What do you want Lewis and me to do if she
refuses to go back with you?” Herman asked.
Before the reverend could answer the question, Lewis stepped forward. “Will you want us to hurt her?” he asked eagerly.
“I expect so,” the reverend crooned.
He motioned for his two companions to get out of his way and then walked into the street. “Come along, boys. God helps those who help themselves.”
Adam had heard enough. He quietly followed the three men past the saloon and the hotel, but then he turned and took a shortcut between the buildings and shortened the distance to the livery stable by more than half.
He slipped inside without making a sound and bolted the doors behind him. He heard Genevieve before he saw her. She was whimpering low in her throat as she tried to swing the saddle up on her mare.
“Going somewhere?” he drawled out.
She jumped a foot and let out a loud yelp. She whirled around and found him standing right behind her inside the stall.
She felt as if her heart were going to explode. “You scared me.”
“You were already scared.”
He gently pushed her out of his way and took over the task of saddling her mare. He worked quickly and quietly. She picked up her bedroll and cradled it in her arms while she waited for him to demand an explanation.
He didn’t say a word. He turned to her when he was finished, saw the bedroll, and suggested she leave it behind.
“Good God, no,” she cried out.
He didn’t have time to get into an argument with her. “Then tie it up behind the saddle.”
He went into the adjacent stall and quickly saddled his stallion. She followed him and stood by his side, with her bedroll still in her arms.
“You can’t go with me,” she told him in no uncertain terms.
“Sure I can,” he replied. There was a hard edge in his voice, indicating to her that he planned to be stubborn about it.
“Please listen to me. You can’t go with me now. You could get hurt.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t want you to come with me.”
“Too bad.”
“Adam, please. I’m begging you. Walk away now.”
“No,” he snapped. “We’re staying together. I’m kind of anxious to get going. I just can’t wait to get you alone for a few minutes so you can tell me again how you don’t have any problems at all. Isn’t that what you told me, Genevieve?”
She bowed her head. “I know you’re angry with me.”
“No, I’m not angry,” he replied. “I’ve gone way past anger.”
She started to say something more to him, but he put his hand up in a signal to be silent. Someone was pushing hard on the outer doors. Genevieve was turning toward the sound when Adam reached out and grabbed her. He wasn’t gentle as he shoved her behind him and pushed her into the corner of the stall. He grabbed his rifle, cocked it, and then waited.
The doors crashed open, and Herman came running into the stable. Lewis was right behind him. The two men spread out to the opposite sides of the barn and squinted into the shadows.
Ezekiel Jones sauntered inside.
“My, my, it’s dark in here. Where are you hiding, girl? I know you’re in here. Maybe I ought to light the lantern and have a little look-see. I always liked to play hide-and-seek when I was a lad.”
Adam could feel Genevieve trembling. She was also trying to get around him, but he made it impossible by squeezing her further into the corner. He was determined to protect her, even if she didn’t want him to, and when she begged him in a whisper to save himself, he shook his head. He didn’t dare turn to her, for it was imperative that he keep track of Ezekiel’s two companions, who were slowly and methodically checking each stall as they made their way down the aisle.
They were getting closer. Ezekiel waited near the door. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he called out in a singsong voice.
“Are you scared, girl? You ought to be scared. No one crosses Ezekiel Jones without suffering God’s wrath.”
“We need some light in here,” Lewis called.
Ezekiel struck a match. The sizzling powder sounded like an explosion in the sudden silence. He lit a lantern and left it swaying back and forth on its hook, and then turned and shut the barn doors behind him.
“I wouldn’t want any company coming inside to bother us,” he drawled out. “And I wouldn’t want you to get past me again, Miss Genevieve. There aren’t any windows here to climb out, are there?”
Herman had steadily crept forward into the stall next to them and suddenly popped up. He was eye to eye with Genevieve. She didn’t have time to shout a warning, but one wasn’t necessary. Adam saw him at the same instant she did. He proved to be much quicker than the other man too. He used the butt of his rifle and struck him hard on the side of his head. Herman looked stupefied, and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped down hard to the floor.
The noise brought Lewis running. He stopped short as soon as he saw the rifle pointed at him.
Ezekiel took his time strolling down the aisle to stand beside his hired gunman. His expression hardened when he spotted Adam, but just as quickly as his scowl appeared, it was replaced by a smile.
“Who are you, mister?”
“No one you need to know,” Adam answered.
“I’ve got business with the woman you’ve got behind your back, but I don’t have any quarrel with you. If you’ll hand her over to me, you can leave, and no harm will come to you.”
“I’m not going anywhere, and you’re not getting near her.”
“I’ll make it worth your while.”
“No.”
There was pure hatred in Ezekiel’s gaze as he stared at Adam. His voice lost its gentlemanly tone when he next spoke. “You’re harboring a criminal and a sinner. She pulled you into her web of deceit, didn’t she?”
Genevieve edged her way to Adam’s side. “You’re the criminal, not me,” she cried out.
He pointed a finger at her. “Jezebel,” he shouted.
“Just who the hell are you?” Adam demanded. “And what do you want with Genevieve?”
Ezekiel puffed up like a rooster. He held the lapel of his jacket with one hand and stood poised as though he were having his portrait done.
“I am the Reverend Ezekiel Jones,” he announced importantly. “And she has something that belongs to me.”
“I don’t have anything that belongs to you.”
“God will smite you for lying, girl.”
“How dare you call yourself a preacher. You’re nothing but a petty thief.”
“My dear, there isn’t anything remotely petty about me.”
He looked at Adam again, feigned an expression of remorse, and said, “Like the sainted Paul, I too was a sinner before I was shown the light. I want my money back,” he added in a snarl.
“I don’t have your money,” she cried out.
Lewis took a step forward. Adam fired into the ground in front of him. Dust flew up into his face, and he jumped back and very nearly knocked Ezekiel off his feet.
The reverend shoved him aside. “She took over four thousand dollars from me.”
“No,” she insisted. “I didn’t take any of your money.”
“She’s lying,” Ezekiel roared.
“Adam, you believe me, don’t you?”
“You heard the lady. If she says she didn’t take it, then she didn’t. Now get out of here before I lose my patience and put a bullet in your pompous backside.”
Ezekiel stood his ground. “Can’t you see how she’s blinded you to the truth? She’s a jezebel, I tell you, and she’ll take you to hell with her if you don’t listen to me.”
“Why don’t we bring in the law and let the sheriff decide who’s telling the truth,” Adam suggested.
“No,” Ezekiel blurted out. “There isn’t any need to involve the law.”
“Is that so?” Adam said.
“My checkered past still haunts me,” Ezekiel confessed. He
was trying hard to look contrite and failing miserably. “Otherwise, I’d run to get the sheriff. As God is my witness, I would.”
“Get out of here,” Adam ordered.
Ezekiel turned away. “This isn’t over,” he hissed.
Lewis tried to go to his friend, who was still unconscious on the floor in the next stall, but Adam wouldn’t let him.
“Leave him be and get out,” he ordered.
Ezekiel opened the barn door. “I’ll get you, girl,” he bellowed. “I know where you’re headed, and I’m telling you now, you’re never going to get there. Judgment Day is at hand.”
And then he disappeared into the darkness. Lewis chased after him.
Genevieve fell back against the wall in exhaustion and relief.
Adam wouldn’t let her relax. “We have to get out of here before they figure out how easy it would be to ambush us. Hurry, Genevieve. Ah, hell, now what are you doing?”
She had thrown herself into his arms and burst into tears. “Thank you for believing me.”
He allowed himself a moment to hold her. He squeezed her tight, bent down, and kissed her forehead. Then he pulled away.
“Let’s go, sweetheart.”
She wiped the tears away from her face with the back of her hands and stood there smiling up at him with a dazed look in her eyes.
“Now what?” he asked gruffly.
“You called me sweetheart.”
“Yes, I did,” he said. “Now move it.”
He tried to lift her up into the saddle. She backed away. “My bedroll,” she explained.
She turned around and picked it up from the corner of the stall where she’d dropped it, but Adam was quicker. He grabbed one end and swung the bedroll up behind the saddle.
Then he froze and watched in disbelief as a hundred-dollar bill slowly floated down from the bedroll to the floor. It landed between his feet.