Claire let go of Red’s hand and stepped forward. “Iris.” Claire’s voice was tight. “It’s Claire Wilder. Do you remember me?”
Red figured it was a good idea for Claire to try to reach Iris. They were both mothers and didn’t mothers understand each other?
“You took Beth away from me,” Iris gazed down at Jenny, then raised her face to Claire with a look of distress. “You stole my grandbaby away from me.”
The bridge creaked and shuddered as Iris rocked Jenny back and forth.
Red’s knees went soft. He’d almost lost Jenny at Rock Creek, now she was in danger again—and just out of reach.
“Iris.” Claire’s voice was weak. “Please, don’t do this.”
Iris shook her head and stepped closer to the edge. “Stay back.”
Red’s heart pounded. Iris was like a pain-crazed horse. Pete couldn’t reason with her and she didn’t trust Claire. He could understand her pain some, after almost losing Claire and Jenny himself. She’d lost both her sons—and was trying to make some sense of Dell’s death when there wasn’t any sense to be made. But he didn’t know how to get through to her.
Lord, tell me what to do.
He had to do something. Red took a deep breath. The answer wasn’t going to come from the blue sky.Lord, make it the right thing, I’m begging you.
He sent a look to Claire, squeezed her hand... then dropped it.He took one slow step onto the bridge. “Iris,” he said. Softly. Carefully. Like he would to a spooked horse. “Dell was a good man.”
Iris nodded and her shoulders drooped. Jenny’s whimpers resumed.
Red didn’t move any closer. “He was my friend. Remember?” He could see her eyes focus on him now. Good. “You had me over for dinner once. You made pork chops and mashed potatoes.” It was the summer before he met Claire, and Dell had just started at Sunnyslope. “Best meal I had all month.”
Iris looked down at Jenny. “I remember.”
Red nodded. “Dell was happy with Beth, wasn’t he?”
Iris swayed back and forth.
Red took another careful step forward. “He wanted to do right by his wife, and his baby—be a good husband and father.” Red swallowed the lump coming up in his throat. “I know how he felt. A man would do anything to take care of his family. To be worthy of them.”
Behind him, Red heard a soft intake of breath from Claire.
He met Iris’s anguished eyes. “He just went about it the wrong way.” Red had gone about it the wrong way himself, running off to Libby. Thinking that twenty dollars a day would make him a good husband, instead of sharing his past and his heart with his wife.
Iris seemed to deflate a little, her shoulders sagging and her grip on Jenny slackening. Red took another step. He’d covered half the distance between the edge of the bridge and Iris.
“You were his friend,” Iris said, as if just now remembering Red. “And you went to jail, instead of him.”
Now wasn’t the time for Red to do any finger-pointing. “I didn’t want him to miss his wedding day.” He made his mouth curve into a small smile.
“If you were his friend, why didn’t you stop him?” Iris asked, her voice filled with anguish.
Red swallowed hard. He should have stopped him. That was the awful truth.
He was just as much at fault as anybody.
That night before Dell died, Red had gone to check on a horse at Sunnyslope. Bucky was there, and he told him Dell wanted to talk to him. Red met up with Dell at the Slippery Otter, thinking maybe Dell was going to make things right between them. Instead, Dell asked Red to help him raft a load of sheds down the Yellowstone.
“How stupid do you think I am?” Red had asked.
Dell had argued, his voice rising and a few of the regulars at the Otter looking over at them. “They’re just sitting in the park rotting. It’s not like it hurts anybody.”
Red had walked out of the Otter and washed his hands of Dell.
Jenny sputtered a cry. Red looked over his shoulder at Claire. Her gaze was pinned on Iris, her hands gripped together in anguish. He had to get the woman back to safety, and his daughter back in Claire’s arms.
