Chapter 18

Jonas stormed into the diner. He had one six-shooter holstered on his hip, another in his left hand, and a Winchester Yellow Boy rifle in his right. Tina hadn’t realized just how scared she was until her brother walked in and made her feel safe.

He looked disheveled, but the anger in his eyes drove out her annoyance at his courtship. She remembered Jonas had ridden the outlaw trail for years before he’d found God in the middle of a Civil War battlefield.

Melissa was right behind him, her shining brown curls loose around her shoulders. It had been neatly twisted into a bun when she’d left.

Paul brought up the rear with his gun drawn.

Tina realized she’d started thinking of her as Missy until she’d caught the woman kissing her brother. It had been Melissa ever since.

Tina was going to have to get over that.

“Paul said Sledge Murphy will be here any minute.” Jonas took charge and began rapping out orders like a general. “I’m going to roust Porter and make him help us. He’s been in visiting Lana more than anyone. If she has anywhere she’d run, Porter has a better chance of knowing about it than anyone. I’ll go get him.” Jonas turned to Paul. “I want your help.”

Tina saw Paul stand up straighter and nod.

“Ruthy, I’m putting you in charge. I know you can fire a gun.” Jonas handed her the pistol he had in his hand. “This is Paul’s. I got it out of Dare’s house.”

“Did you search the house for any sign that Lana might be hiding there?” Tina thought of the houses scattered around town. Lana could be lying in wait in one of them.

“Sure. I was careful, and I know what I’m doing. And Dare has good locks on his house now. Lana couldn’t get in with a skeleton key like she did before.” There was a sudden softening in Jonas’s tone as he turned to Melissa. “I’ve got a lot to live for, so I’m going to be very careful.”

He slid one arm around Melissa’s waist and gave her a quick kiss. Then he got back to business. He rested his rifle on its butt, tilted against the table, then drew his Colt and checked the load. He holstered it and then made sure the Yellow Boy was loaded.

Looking up, Jonas said, “You women stay inside. Paul, let’s go.” He charged out just as suddenly as he’d come in. Paul slammed the kitchen door as he followed Jonas on the search for Lana.

A silence hung over the room for a moment. Then Melissa, her hands clenched together in front of her rather nervously, said, “He seems awfully comfortable with firearms for a man of the cloth.”

Tina squashed the urge to tell Melissa a few hair-raising stories. “Make sure the back door is locked, Glynna.”

Ruthy was already set by the front door, clearly up to the challenge of this fight. Tina considered herself a strong woman, but perhaps not in the Western sense of the word. Letting Ruthy guard the door was just good sense. Ruthy was getting round with a baby, though. Tina found a chair so her friend could sit while she stood guard—sat guard? Tina wasn’t sure what to call it.

Ruthy took the chair without complaint. “Thank you. I seem to wear out mighty fast these days.” She’d taken a long morning nap, but Tina thought she looked like she could use another.

The tension in the room was thick.

“Janny, why don’t you show Mrs. Yates your studies?” Glynna suggested, giving Janny a wink and nodding her head toward the stairs. Getting Mrs. Yates upstairs and out of the way seemed like a good idea.

Janny took Mrs. Yates by the hand. “Tell me about one of your tea parties, ma’am.”

After they left, Tina said, “I’m going to put something on for supper.” She saw Missy following after her toward the kitchen and braced herself to have a talk with the girl. But Missy got busy mixing up biscuits, and the only talk concerned where to find flour and bowls and such. Tina cut up the venison that wasn’t fit for steaks, seared the meat in a big Dutch oven, then covered it with water.

“Don’t you think you should fry that longer?” Glynna asked from where she stood guard by the back door.

“Don’t be giving me cooking advice, Glynna.” Tina smiled at her to take the sting out of the words.

Glynna shrugged. “I just hate raw food. It can make you sick, you know.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise.” Tina set the meat to simmering to get tender for stew. She threw in onions and potatoes and left it toward the back of the stove, where it would gently steam the afternoon away without boiling dry.

“How are the biscuits?” Tina asked Missy.

“They’re coming along fine. I’m a dab-hand at most baking. My ma and I had to do for ourselves. I didn’t grow up in the Yateses’ household, you know.”

“Thank you for helping.” Tina tried to be gracious. She wasn’t sure how well she covered her resentment, but she knew it wasn’t fair, so she suppressed it to the best of her ability and hoped Melissa wasn’t the sensitive type.

The biscuits were mixed up in no time, and then without asking, Melissa set to making a batch of bread. Tina was impressed and wondered if she could lure the unsuspecting woman into helping at the diner full-time. An extra pair of hands would give Tina more time to picket the saloon.

Maybe Mrs. Yates could sign on as a waitress too, make herself useful. There wasn’t much she could mess up about serving meals, short of pouring boiling hot coffee on the men’s laps.

Finally, as the afternoon stretched toward evening, Jonas and Paul came back. Ruthy jumped out of her chair by the front door or she might’ve gotten smacked.

“Porter’s gone and his horse, too. I’m sure those are his tracks along with Lana’s leading out of the back of the jailhouse. He probably helped with the escape. They’ve been planning it, I reckon, waiting for a chance when everyone was distracted.”

“How can you tell it was planned?” Tina asked.

“We found where another horse was tied outside of town. Looked like it had been there a long time. I only followed them a short while, but they were heading straight west at a gallop. We can’t be sure they won’t circle back, but I think for now we can hope they’re making a run for it.”

“Aren’t we going to chase after them?” Glynna looked fierce for such a delicate woman.

“No, at least not until we get more men. We’ll wait for everyone to get back from Luke’s.” Jonas gave Glynna a rather weak smile. “Would it be so bad to just let them get away?”

Gasping, Glynna said, “She tried to kill Dare three times.”

“I know,” Jonas said, sounding a little sheepish, “but she seems to have calmed down lately. And we haven’t had much luck figuring out what to do with her. I think we should just let her go. She’s already out of Vince’s jurisdiction. He doesn’t have a badge that lets him do much sheriffing that far outside of town. We can sure go after them, but we might be gone for days, maybe weeks.”

Jonas gave Melissa a look of longing, clearly not interested in being away from her, not even for one day. “We could get the Texas Rangers after them, yet by the time we rustle up a Ranger, Porter and Lana will be out of Texas. After that it’s the U.S. marshals’ job, and I don’t know how to go about finding a marshal. Ride to Fort Worth, I ’spect, or maybe send a wire to someone—not sure who.”

Tina felt a whisper of relief to think Lana and her madness might be someone else’s problem. “Maybe, since her lunacy was mostly aimed at Dare, she might not be too much trouble once she gets away from him.” Tina looked at Glynna. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” Glynna flung her arms wide. “I don’t want Dare on her trail for days, either. But what if she comes back? I’d have to be convinced she left the area.”

“I could track her,” Ruthy said, looking fierce. “I can out-track anyone in these parts, and that includes my husband. I wouldn’t even hesitate except my belly’s slowing me down some.”

“As it is,” Jonas said, “we have no choice but to wait. When Vince and the others get back, we can decide then what to do next. I could go after Porter and Lana myself, but I don’t like leaving you all here unguarded.”

“Well, if they really are running for the hills, it gives them more time to get clean away.” Tina wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. “I’ve got to finish supper. We can all eat together here at the diner.”

She headed back for the kitchen, wondering if being turned loose in the Texas wilderness with that low-down Mitch Porter might be the perfect punishment for Lana’s crimes.

Just as Tina stepped up to the stove to thicken the broth around the meat, hooves pounded outside. She leaned to peek out the kitchen window, afraid Lana had come back. It was Vince—leading a line of horses into the clearing at the edge of town.