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Luke’s bluster dropped away from him and he hesitated, the same shy boy his brother dragged to meet her at the train station. He took another step toward her, but he didn’t grab her the way he had at the church.
Kathy helped him by reaching out for his hand. Luke gave her a sheepish, apologetic smile, so she helped him again by taking the last step to close the gap between them. A warm breath came out of his nostrils, and in the silence, they listened to each other breathing.
Voices drifted up from downstairs, and birds twittered outside the window. A breeze blew the lace curtain at the window into the room. A magnetic force brought them together, yet kept them apart. Kathy moved her face another inch toward Luke’s.
Softly, ever so softly, their lips touched, but they didn’t lock the way they had at the church. He didn’t put his arm around her. Kathy wondered if she should press her lips against his mouth harder, to extend the kiss and make it stronger. She’d already been forward enough by stepping up to him when he wouldn’t make the first move.
Just at that moment, a great thundering of running steps sounded on the landing and children’s voices shouted outside the door of the room. “Luke!” the children cried. “Where’s Luke?”
Kathy pulled away. Luke smiled again. “I guess we ought to go down.”
“I guess so,” she agreed.
“We can take this up again when we get home tonight,” he suggested.
“All right,” Kathy replied.
Luke led her by the hand out of the room. The children met them on the landing and surrounded Luke with shouts and questions and more roaring laughter about his brilliant prank at the church. They took no notice of Kathy at all.
Luke couldn’t move a step in the crush of children’s bodies. In the end, he had to shout over them to be heard. “Okay, now all of you go downstairs. I’m hungry and I want to get something to eat.”
They moved ahead of him to the landing, still gushing about everything and anything. Kathy marveled at what a fixture Luke must be in these children’s lives. He acted like everyone’s favorite uncle. He kept hold of Kathy’s hand, and they made their way downstairs to the sitting room, where several long trestle tables groaned with every kind of food imaginable.
Kathy wasn’t sure she should eat in this public place. The people might think she was low. But she never made it to the table. The instant she and Luke entered, strangers rushed at her from all sides, congratulating her and essentially repeating Luke’s thanks for going along with the joke he played on the minister.
Kathy never had a chance to answer them. The moment one person stopped speaking to her or shaking her hand, another took their place and filled her ears with how beautiful she was and how lucky Luke was. They also gave her endless information about themselves and other people and about the Ferguson brothers and everything else Kathy couldn’t remember.
Through the crowd, a face Kathy recognized drifted into view, and Annabel approached her. “How are you doing? You look like a stunned mullet.”
“I don’t know half of what these people are saying,” Kathy murmured. “It’s all coming too fast.”
“Do you want to sit down somewhere?” Annabel asked. “I wouldn’t want you falling over from exhaustion.”
Kathy glanced around the room. “That might be nice.”
“Come into the parlor,” Annabel suggested. “You can hold court in there, and make people come to you instead of standing here all afternoon.”
“Thank you.” Kathy followed Annabel toward the parlor.
As they reached the door, a loud tumult out in the yard and a distant banging noise caught their attention. “Those boys!” Annabel exclaimed.
The two women turned back to the parlor but at that moment, the door flew open and one of the young men who carried Kathy’s trunk burst into the house.
“They’re robbing the stage!” The young man glanced around at the men nearest him. The distance sound of gunfire grew more distinct. “They ambushed the stage coach just after it left the Post Office. They shot the guard, and the driver took off as fast as he could. Come quick! They’re comin’ this way, and the whole deposit from the bank is on that stage!”
Several men stormed out of the door. Kathy and Annabel saw them through the windows. Max strode out onto the front porch, shouting, “Henry, get your shotgun from the wagon! Bernard and Tommy, you have your side arms. You come with me. The coach will be passing right by here on its way to the highway. We’ll set up a roadblock and we’ll ambush them right back when they come around the corner.”
Max turned to his brother. “Luke, I have my rifle in the wagon over there. I have another shotgun in there. Grab ‘em and come with me.”
The men broke in every direction, some to fetch their weapons and others to get into position at the corner where they expected the stagecoach to make its appearance. Kathy, Annabel, and the other women drifted toward the windows to watch. Max and Luke positioned themselves behind a wagon in front of the church with their guns pointed toward the corner, waiting.
