Stands a Calder Man (Calder Saga 2)

“He’ll stand trial. You can be sure of it,” Webb replied.

But she wasn’t.

28

Lightning flashed along the horizon, but Lilli wasn’t fooled by it. It was heat lightning, not the forerunner of rain. The night wind lifting the curtains at the window was warm and dry, but it lessened the stifling temperature of the upstairs bedroom, even if everything would be covered with dust in the morning.

She tunneled a hand under the mass of auburn hair and lifted its weight from her neck as she turned to glance toward the crib where Chase was sleeping. His little nightshirt clung to him, damp with the perspiration on his chubby neck, but he slept soundly, indifferent to the heat.

The warm wind curled around the exposed skin of her neck, cooling it a degree. Lilli had blamed the summer heat for the restlessness that had pushed her out of bed, but the endless heat wasn’t responsible for the thoughts that kept turning around in her head.

Tomorrow was the day of Franz Kreuger’s trial. Three weeks had passed since the shooting, yet she was still apprehensive. No one had mourned Hobie Evans’s passing. Lilli hadn’t liked him any more than the next person, but Kreuger had murdered him—shot him in the back. If he got away with that, there would be no stopping him. He would consider himself above the law, justified to avenge any real or imagined wrong. Sooner or later his target for vengeance would be Webb. He had despised him for too long and the hatred ran too deep.

She had attempted to confide her fears to Webb, but he didn’t truly understand. Kreuger would stand trial and be punished for his crime, Webb had insisted, but despite his assurances she didn’t have much faith in the law, and told him so. It had been one of their typical spirited disagreements. They had argued angrily over it, which now troubled Lilli as much as anything.

With the thought of him uppermost in her mind, her gaze swung to the bed, intermittently illuminated by the flashes of heat lightning through the window where she stood. Even in sleep, his rugged features held their strength, his solid lips lying together in a firm line. Most of the covers were kicked off him. She studied his asymmetrical and thoroughly masculine body, relaxed now. Emotion swelled in her, a deep, abiding love that knew no end.

Silently, she slipped off the cotton nightgown and glided into bed. At the touch of her, Webb automatically gathered her into the crook of his arm, but she leaned onto his chest, her hair falling over her shoulder to brush his cheek. When her lips probed at the stillness of his mouth, he stirred, wakening slowly. As the hunger in her kiss made itself known, he combed his fingers into her hair to press her head down and deepen the kiss.

When he rolled her over onto the mattress, there was a moment when the contact between their lips was broken. “Make love to me, Webb,” Lilli murmured in that space.

Slowly and passionately, they made the union last a long time. Neither seemed able to get enough of the other. Even when it was over and they drifted to sleep in each other’s arms, there was a sense that it hadn’t been enough—that there would never be enough loving.

Dawn came with its fiery range of reds and oranges to herald the rise of a blazing yellow sun. Webb stopped the Model T in front of the Stanton house and let the engine idle. His glance shunted to his wife and son in the passenger seat. He reached out a hand to affectionately rumple the unruly mass of dark hair on his son’s head, but it was Lilli who claimed his attention.

“Are you sure you want to go to the trial?” he asked.

“Yes.” It was a determined answer that warned him she wouldn’t be budged no matter how strongly he felt she shouldn’t attend.

With Chase in her arms, she stepped out of the car and climbed the porch steps to the door. Ruth had heard them drive up and opened the door before Lilli knocked. Chase recognized her and became excited, reaching out his hands to be held by her and laughing. Ruth was a second mother to him, so he never raised much of a fuss when Lilli left him with her.

“He’s already had his breakfast,” Lilli said as she let Ruth take him from her. Little Buck came crawling to the door, and Chase immediately began wiggling in Ruth’s arms to be put down so he could play with her son. “I’m not sure when we’ll be back. It will depend on how long the trial lasts.”

“Please don’t worry about Chase while you’re gone.” Ruth set him on the floor, “I’ll take good care of him.”

Lilli watched her son crawling across the floor, so completely at home. When she lifted her gaze to Ruth, there was a vague tightness in her throat. “I know I don’t have to worry about him when he’s with you, Ruth. You love him as much as I do, I think.” Impulsively, she reached out and squeezed the woman’s hand, then turned quickly to walk back to the car. They had

a long drive ahead of them to the county seat.

Before they entered the courtroom, Doyle Pettit drew the handcuffed Kreuger aside, out of earshot but under the eye of Sheriff Potter, He could see the dark suspicion and mistrust for the trial proceedings in Kreuger’s face and needed to allay them before the man stopped listening to him.

“A lot depends on you doing exactly as I say,” Doyle murmured. Hopefully, Kreuger would never know how much depended on it. “You’re going to have to plead guilty and throw yourself at the mercy of the court.”

“I won’t go to prison.” There was a threatening gleam in his eyes.

“If you do what I say, you won’t.” His palms were sweating. He wasn’t sure if he could convince Kreuger. And he had to, because there was too much to lose. “Have I ever misled you about anything? I’m trying to help you, Kreuger.” The man said nothing and showed signs of listening, however sullenly. “The twelve men on the jury are all drylanders, so they know what you’ve been through. They’ll be sympathetic. Don’t worry about the judge, either. There isn’t any way Calder has gotten to him, so you don’t need to be thinking that. He’s my man.” Thanks to an overdue loan the judge had with his bank, but Doyle didn’t mention that. “Now we’ve got a few minutes. Do you want to run through it again?”

“I am not an ignorant man.” Kreuger straightened, reading an implied insult into the question. “You have already told me several times what it is I should do.”

“All right.” Doyle didn’t go into it again, although he would have felt more confident if they had. Kreuger was so damned unpredictable. He was taking a big chance risking so much on this man, but if he could pull it off, all his own problems were going to be behind him. People were beginning to wonder why the bank wasn’t open every day. When he ran out of excuses, it was all going to collapse unless this scheme succeeded.

People were packed in the courtroom like steers in a cattle car. Lilli and Webb found seats in the second row behind the prosecutor’s table. When they saw Simon Bardolph searching for a place to sit, there was such a gabble of voices that it was useless to call to the physician. Webb stood up and motioned to him that there was a small space next to them. Lilli squeezed closer to Webb so Simon would have room to sit.

“I didn’t know you were coming.” Simon shouldered his way into the space and kept his elbows tucked in close to his sides.

“Lilli insisted on coming.” Disapproval was in Webb’s voice, but he carried the subject no further.

“They’re calling me to testify as to the cause of death.” His mouth twisted wryly. “It’s going to be a five-word answer, A bullet in the back.”