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Sheriff Mulden stepped forward. He was an aging bear of a man who was shy with every woman except the Widow Foster. With her, he fought like a dog protecting the last bone on Earth. He tipped his hat. “Miss Coyote.”
“Mrs. MacIntyre,” she and Asa corrected in unison.
The poor sheriff flushed to the white of his hairline. “I’m right sorry for the mistake, Mrs. MacIntyre.”
“It’s perfectly natural, Sheriff Mulden. Mr. MacIntyre and I haven’t been married all that long.” She had to think of the scandalous things she’d done to her husband last night to create the proper maidenly blush.
“Yes, well, that’s part of the problem. Mr. Ballard is an upstanding member of the community. Mr. MacIntyre, who casts a mighty long shadow himself, is making accusations against Mr. Ballard, which are, quite frankly, hard to believe.”
“What sort of accusations?”
“Mr. MacIntyre is accusing Mr. Ballard of running the Rocking C into the ground.”
Damn. She turned to Aaron. “How did Asa come to these conclusions?”
“I assure you, I have no idea.”
She stared into his blue eyes and wanted to believe him. For all the years he’d been her only friend, for all the childhood dreams she’d attached to him, she wanted to believe what he said, but there was the twitch in his eyelid as he met her gaze. He was lying.
“I don’t understand.”
Aaron patted her hand while Asa glared daggers. “There’s no reason you should.”
Elizabeth thanked Aaron politely for his concern, then wiggled her way back into the fray with a simple, “But it appears I must if we want to resolve this unfortunate situation.”
“Yeah,” someone said from the crowd. A quick glance told her it was the undertaker, looking to get his own back for her poking him with the pin. She sighed. There were days when it didn’t pay to get out of bed.
“Let’s hear Miss Coyote’s side of this.”
“That’s Mrs. MacIntyre,” Asa corrected over her head, ignoring the undertaker. Sheriff Mulden showed no such inclination.
“Now, John,” the Sheriff counseled, “don’t go taking sides. Right now, we’ve just got us a misunderstanding.”
“There’s no misunderstanding,” Asa said, his low drawl carrying. “For the last couple of years, Aaron Ballard has been doing his level best to drive the Rocking C into the ground so he can pick up the pieces.”
Asa shifted his weight, and Elizabeth saw he had his guns unstrapped. Good God, was this a charade or wasn’t it?
“What are you saying?” she gasped, leaning against Aaron with what she hoped was proper, ladylike distress. She needed to stall until she figured this out, and playing stupid was the one gambit wide open to a lady.
“I’m saying that when a man starts taking advantage of women, rustling cattle, and poisoning wells, someone has to belly up to the bar and call a halt.”
Aaron stopped patting her hand halfway through Asa’s statement. He looked around, and donned the superiority he wore like a cloak. Elizabeth had seen him do it all his life when he wanted to gain the upper hand. It was a very impressive maneuver in a man of his stature. She was so caught up in her admiration that she almost toppled when Aaron took a step to the right.
Aaron caught her, supported her while she found her balance, and then returned to the argument. “And this is what you’re doing?” he questioned Asa. He took another step to the right, motioned to the audience surrounding them and continued, “Out here in the street? In front of the whole town? ‘Bellying up to the bar’?”
Asa showed no sign he shared Aaron’s distaste for such lack of propriety. He merely smiled, leaned back against the doorjamb, hooked one foot over the other and nodded. “Would appear so.”
Aaron turned to Elizabeth. “I’m sorry you have to suffer this public humiliation, Elizabeth.”
“She wouldn’t be suffering anything,” Asa drawled, “if she’d kept her keister where I put it.”
The crowd gasped at his disrespect. Elizabeth frowned. Did the man think to send her flouncing off in a huff? If so, he had another think coming. “Why are you doing this in the middle of town?”
“That snake in the grass you’re cozying up to is dead set on having the Rocking C. While you and everyone else in this town might think he’s a lily-white character, I know him for what he is.” He ended the statement with a wave to her right. Cozying up to? Aaron was sidestepping faster than she was breathing. She followed the motion and had to swallow a gasp when she saw Jimmy, not three feet from Aaron.
“And that would be?” Aaron asked Asa with a superior smile.
Asa’s smile reflected the same arrogant superiority. “Why, a back-stabbing, ruthless, yellow-bellied S.O.B, of course.”
“There’s no need for name-calling.” Sheriff Mulden interjected.
If he’d hoped to head off this confrontation, Elizabeth could have told him to save his breath. When Asa got a bee in his bonnet, there was no stopping him.
