The Fire in Ember - DiAnn Mills [42]
Bob’s suggestion sounded good enough to accept, but — “I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I’ll bring Bert with me in the morning. I’m hoping Bess can take her in. Before I get here, I’ll stop at the Wide O again. Oberlander and I talked today about deputizing a few of his ranch hands, and I’d like to take him up on the offer. I really want him to see that Bert’s no longer staying at the 5T.”
Bob clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Parker would be proud of you. You think before you act.”
Not always. Going to be hard not to see her every day. Harder yet to arrest her if she’s behind something illegal.
CHAPTER 17
Bert listened to Leah’s deep, even breathing. The day had been long and disturbing. Every inch of her loathed the past she could not change. Six months ago, she’d wanted to start fresh, run free with hope for a new future. And yet her prospects of a better tomorrow looked impossible. Fleeing Simon had been so much easier before she met the Timmons family. If she cared so much for these loving people, why had she put them in possible danger? Every one of them held a special spot in her heart — John, Evan, Aaron, Mark, Davis, and Leah. Sweet Leah who had worked with Bert late into many a night in a painstaking effort to teach her how to read. The encouragement gave her confidence. Her reading improved, and the new words opened her mind to an exciting world.
In a precious few weeks’ time, she’d found herself caring for a man and affection for an entire family.
Cattle rustlers roamed the area, and dread filled her that the thieves might be Simon, Clint, and Lester. The lump in her throat rose. Surely Simon would not have talked her brothers into working this far north? And if they were in this area, did they know she was here too?
One thought after another darted in and out of her mind. Maybe the thieves weren’t her brothers after all. Maybe it was Leon, the man who’d tried to hang her. After all, he made his anger clear when Mr. Oberlander fired him.
The marshal from Rocky Falls had done a good job digging for the truth. She trembled still. Bert thought the man could read her mind, as though he knew she was an affliction to anyone who befriended her.
Bert’s hand covered her mouth. She’d nearly moaned aloud. Misery did that to a person, made them hurt inside and out. The time had come to leave the 5T, and she needed to do it now. Maybe someday she’d meet another man as fine as John Timmons, a man who caused music in her heart and her fingers to dance on the strings of a fiddle.
She remembered the other night when she’d been playing the fiddle. Leah began to sing “Shoo Fly Shoo,” when John took the fiddle from her.
“Let Mama sing, and let’s dance,” he’d said.
Shocked at his request, Bert simply stared until John laughed and pulled her to the center of the parlor. “Line up boys, we’re having a party.”
The other boys joined Leah in the singing, but they all took turns swinging Bert and Leah around the floor.
Bert cringed at first, especially when Evan held her a little tighter than she wanted, but it had nothing to do with the dancing.
Shaking the memory aside, she eased from the bed and grabbed her roll of clothes from beneath it. Earlier she’d placed them within easy reach where she could change in the barn and leave Leah’s nightgown for her to find. She’d not take food. Again, she reinforced her belief that stealing made her no better than her brothers. Well, not all of them. Clint and Lester didn’t brag about what they did with Simon. Neither of them would be breaking the law if not for Simon pushing them. When he wanted one of them to do something, he could turn a phrase and make the vilest idea look like the proper thing to do.
She inwardly gasped, for she was no better than Simon. She’d taken twenty dollars of his money in the name of needing it for herself. Still