CHAPTER NINE
Two three-minute brown eggs in porcelain cups, hot buttered toast, marmalade, and a silver coffeepot with matching cream and sugar servers lay on the tray that Nora placed on Kate Kerrigan’s lap. The maid fluffed up the pillow that she’d placed behind her mistress’s back and said, “How is the shoulder, Mrs. Kerrigan?”
“It hurts. I’ve had no sleep.” Her voice was cross and drowsy. “It’s still dark, Nora. What time is it?”
“Five-thirty, ma’am. Your son Trace and Mr. Cobb are waiting outside the door. They say they were told to wake you before sunup.”
“That was before I hurt my shoulder.”
Nora gently pushed away the silk of Kate’s nightdress, exposing a normally milk-white skin that was covered in black, blue, and sulfur-yellow bruises. “It’s doesn’t look good at all, ma’am. I’m sure it’s very painful.”
“Yes it is, and I can hardly move it.” Kate tried and winced. “No, I can’t move it at all.”
“Then you must rest the shoulder for a while.”
“I may have no alternative.”
Her voice slightly accusing, the maid said, “Mr. Cobb said you plan on riding today. I gave him a piece of my mind.”
Kate shook her head. “I can’t ride, Nora, not today. I need a few days to heal.”
Nora took up a spoon and tapped the top of one of the eggs. When the shell was good and broken, she opened the egg and then added a dash of salt and pepper to the yellow yolk. Handing the spoon to Kate, she said, “You must eat now, ma’am, if you want to keep up your strength and heal quickly. That horrible Blade Koenig person can wait.”
“You know I’m going after him?”
“Everybody knows. Jazmine is so beside herself with worry she burned six slices of toast this morning.”
“There are men who want my ranch, Nora, men who say a woman has no right to be a rancher. I won’t show weakness. What the Koenigs did cannot go unavenged. Blade Koenig and his son will still be lording it on their ranch in a week or so and by then I’ll be ready. Besides, what is the saying, something about revenge and a cold dish?”
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” Nora said.
“Yes, that is it,” Kate said. Her emerald green eyes flashed. “But I’ll heat up the cold dish I serve to the Koenigs with hot lead.”
“Oh, Mrs. Kerrigan, you sound so fierce. You make me feel quite afraid.”
Kate smiled. “That’s what comes of my being around Frank Cobb for so many years. Well, let me just say that the Koenigs will very soon rue the day they violated my home.” She winced as she moved her shoulder and was rewarded with a spike of pain. “Pour me some coffee and then take the tray away, Nora.”
“But you’ve hardly eaten anything,” the maid said.
“I know. Maybe I’ll do better at lunch. On your way out please send in my son and Mr. Cobb.”
“I don’t want those two hellions upsetting you,” Nora said.
“They won’t, because I’m already upset.”
Frank entered the room first and heard Kate’s statement. “Kate, I know you’re upset, but what Dunk Jefferson says makes sense. In fact, it’s the only thing he’s ever said that makes sense.”
“No, I won’t even consider it, Frank,” Kate said. “This is my fight, not his.”
Trace said, “But, Ma, it could be weeks before—”
“Before what?” A frown gathered between Kate’s eyebrows.
“Before . . . well, before you can ride with that injured shoulder.”
“Trace, don’t tell me what I can’t do,” Kate said. “I can do anything I want when I set my mind to it. I’ll be well enough to ride in a few days.”
Like a man making his way across a floor strewn with thumbtacks, Frank stepped warily. “Kate, Jefferson has a badge and the authority to arrest Blade Koenig and his son and bring them in for trial.”
“The KK fights its own battles, Frank. I was the one manhandled by Seth Koenig, not Jefferson. If, and it’s a big if, the Koenigs agreed to stand trial for murder and attempted rape Blade Koenig could buy the judge and jury and a whole town if need be. He and his son would return to the Hellfire free men, laughing up their sleeves at the law and at me.” Kate frowned again. “Frank, don’t you dare tell me I’m wrong, because if you do, I’ll know you’re lying.”
“But damn it all, Kate—”
“No cussing in my home, Frank. Every time Our Lady hears you use foul language she sheds a tear.” Kate laid her cup and saucer on the table beside her, moving stiffly, favoring the shoulder. “You’re the one who said Jefferson isn’t playing cards with a full deck, and we don’t really know if he is a marshal.”
“Dunk Jefferson is nuts all right,” Frank said. “But me, Trace, and half a dozen of our toughest hands will be with him. We’ll make sure justice is done.”
“Justice will be done when the murderers Blade and Seth Koenig are dangling from a noose,” Kate said. “I will settle for nothing less. Now you and Trace and those tough hands of yours will stand down for a few days until I’m fit to ride.” To hammer home her point, she added, “My mind is made up. Don’t try to change it, because you won’t succeed.”
Kate read disappointment in the faces of her son and segundo, one she loved and the other she cared deeply about. “This is very personal with me. The Koenigs slaughtered people, one of them just a boy, who’d sought refuge in my home. They injured old Mose and then tried to ravage me and members of my household staff. Now there’s an orphaned baby being taken care of by my maids and those cries you hear are the infant calling out for revenge, or so I fancy. This will not stand. My home was attacked, invaded, and I will return the favor with bullets and a rope.”
Kate’s glossy mane of red hair had fallen over her shoulders, and under the thin stuff of her nightgown her breasts rose firm and aggressive. She looked feminine and combative, like a figurehead at the bow of a man-o’-war, and Frank Cobb fell in love with her all over again.
“Kate, you win. I’ll send the men out to cut hay. When you’re feeling better we’ll ride for the Hellfire.”
Trace gave the big segundo a sidelong glance, but, like Frank, there was no argument left in him. Sometimes his mother was an elemental force, a woman to be reckoned with, and it was a bad mistake to stand in her way.