Gabe and Van arrived back at the hot spring before Buck and Rafe. They helped Cornell and his father load up Mr. Redcoat and his two minions into the back of Buck’s rickety old wagon.
Cornell filled them in on the red coat’s plan to blackmail them into handing over the hot spring and the mine. “I think this clears up who was responsible for your cattle dying off and the reservation cancellations.”
Nils said, “I sent Cornell out to the canyon with orders to blast the west side of the canyon. I specified he leave the east side of the canyon undisturbed. I believe my orders were altered in transit. You can bet I’m going to fire that secretary of mine as soon as I get back in town, better yet, I’ll see him tossed behind bars with his cohorts.”
Gabe hoped to find Birdie, assure himself she hadn’t suffered any lasting hurts, but all the women folk had taken to their prospective beds for a rest. Doreen and Mrs. Millican left a plate of chicken salad sandwiches for the men on the table in the kitchen, but the house was silent.
Buck and Rafe rode in with two more to go into the wagon, and after they’d seen to that, all Gabe wanted was food and a tall glass of something cool. After he’d downed two sandwiches, washed up a bit and changed into clean clothes, he found out Cornell had gone to the pool for a dip and decided there was no better time than the present to have a word with the man.
He found Cornell in the pool, belly up and half asleep floating on the top like a big, overgrown lily pad. The sight of Cornell’s white belly, his black, hairy chest, and the serene, self-satisfied expression on his handsome face instantly irritated and ignited Gabe’s ire.
“You’re a chicken-shit bastard, you know it, right, Norquist?”
Cornell didn’t flinch. His lips twitched a bit into a smirk, and he fluttered his hands to stay afloat. “Can’t deny it, I am a chicken-shit-bastard. But…” He opened one blackened and bruised eye. Turning his head slightly to the right to sight in on Gabe, he said, “But, I think you should take a look in the mirror, Gabe. I bet if we examined your behavior for the past twenty-four to thirty-six hours the label chicken-shit-bastard might apply to you as well.”
Gabe didn’t blink, but he flinched. Damn, everybody thought him some kind of bounder. He couldn’t deny the charge. But going on the offensive, he asked, “So, from what I gather, you and Edditha were stopped and brought back here with your father. Where the hell were you going with my fiancée?”
Cornell rose up out of the water, tugged up his sagging drawers, and waded in toward the deck, rivulets of water streaming off his well-muscled chest, arms, and legs. He stopped with his hands on his hips within two feet of Gabe’s nose. “Oh, you want to know? Well, I’d like to know what the hell you were doin’ down here in the middle of the night stretched out on this dock with your hands all over my fiancée?”
Gabe sucked in a big gulp of warm air and nearly choked. He instinctively stepped back to avoid the almost certain blow to his nose.
Cornell wagged his head, chin out and said, “Yeah, that’s right. Edditha and I were walking and talking. I saw you and turned Edditha around before she could see what you two were doing. So, shut the hell up, Gabe. You don’t get to call me a chicken-shit.”
It took a moment or two, but Gabe shot back, asking, “So? What? You decided to steal Edditha from me out of spite? Is that it? Is this payback? Well, I won’t let you play games with Edditha, I won’t allow it.”
Cornell roared with laughter. He scrubbed his head with his shirt. “You really are a fool, Gabe. You don’t know Edditha at all. She suits me better than Birdie. We think alike. Birdie’s mule-headed, she’d end up driving me crazy. She doesn’t even like me.
“I have a high regard for Edditha—she knows a woman’s place. She laughs at my jokes. Birdie never laughed at my jokes. I want Edditha, and by God, I’ll have her, but I don’t need to take her from you. She was never yours, not really. We talked and talked, and laughed. She listened, and I listened. We want the same things,” Cornell said, buttoning his shirt.
“We’re going to travel.” He stepped into his trousers. “See the world. Neither one of us is ready to settle down with a passel of brats, not yet anyway. She’s bored, Gabe. And I think scared of marriage. Her desire to please her mother had overshadowed her own dreams and desires. We talked about our dreams, our desires, Gabe. I’d wager you never asked her what she wanted.”
Gabe snorted and took a step forward. “You’re full of bull—you know that Cornell? What about Birdie, what about her dreams and desires? You ever stop blowing hot air long enough to listen to what she wanted? To really pay attention to her desires, her dreams? No. No, you were just going to ignore her wishes and make her marry you anyway.”
Tucking in his shirt, Cornell shrugged off his accusation. “It’s what my old man wanted. Edditha and I, we’ve that in common, we want to please our parents. They’ve done a lot for us. We want to make them proud.”
“Running off with Edditha will make your old man and Edditha’s mother proud?”
Cornell fastened his belt and shook his head at him. “I don’t know why you’re pissed, Gabe. You should thank me. Edditha won’t charge you with breach-of-promise. You can ride herd on your wildcat, Birdie-Alice, stay right here on this sad piece of dirt and grub out a living to raise a pack of snot-nosed hellions. Happy endings all round.”
Gabe wanted to poke him in the snout, but they both heard Edditha call out, “Cornell,” from the path.
She moved into the open, stopped, hesitated a moment before saying, “Hello, Gabriel. Van told me I’d find Cornell here. We’re all relieved you and Van were able to bring Jo and Birdie back safe and sound.”
Gabe stood lost for words and nodded.
She let him off the hook by addressing Cornell. “Your father’s looking for you, Cornell. I tried to explain things, but I think I made the situation worse. He was patient with me, polite and gracious, but he’s in pain and in no mood to listen to a woman.”
Cornell went to her, took her by the elbow, guiding her back to the path. “He shouldn’t get excited. He took a beating. He’s too old for all of this. Where is he?”
“I left him in the cabin next to ours, the one with the red door.”
“We’ll go talk to him together, try to get him to calm down. Everything’s going to work out fine.”
Cornell started to walk away with her, but Edditha put a hand on his chest to stop him. “I’d like to talk to Gabriel a moment. There are some things I need to say.”
Cornell hesitated, glancing over his shoulder. He sneered and glared at Gabe before he strode off up the path.
Edditha cautiously approached, her eyes searching his face. She extended her hand to him, then folded it to her waist. “Gabriel, I wanted to…”
“Don’t, Edditha, don’t. You don’t have to say a thing. I don’t need any explanations. It’s me. I have some apologizing to do too.”
She drew closer, her hand went to his chest, the light in her eyes begged for his understanding. “We are a silly pair, aren’t we? We both have been doing what everyone expected us to do, but we haven’t been listening to our hearts. I admire you, Gabriel. I…I do love you. I care for you…but I don’t…you don’t…we don’t.”
Her complexion had gone bright pink. She put her head to the side, and her nervous fingers fiddled with his shirt front. Taking pity on her, he said what needed to be said. “You love me, but I don’t inspire passion.”
She fluttered her pretty lashes and peeped up at him, a tentative little smile tugged at her lovely, rosy lips. “I never wanted passion. I really had no idea what it was. It all sounded rather frightening to me the way Mother explained it. But I do want passion, Gabriel. I’ve found it here, at Hoyt’s Hot Spring of all places, but not with you, but with Cornell.
“Gabriel,” she said, her voice soft and sweet, “we are friends. Friends can love one another…I think.”
He touched her cheek. “Friends most assuredly can love each other, and care for each other. I want what will make you happy, Edditha. I want the best for you. I’m not sure Cornell is the best, but if you think he is, then it’s enough for me.”
She patted his chest. “Good, then it’s settled. And you don’t need to punch Cornell in the nose. I was afraid that’s what you’d come down here to do.”
He shook his head, ashamed he couldn’t hide his smile of relief. She flicked his ear, laughed, stood on her toes and planted a kiss on his lips, the first kiss she’d ever willingly given. Taken aback, he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up off her feet for a big hug.