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The crowd shifted to get a better view. Elizabeth didn’t move with them, held up by the disgust in Jimmy’s voice as he talked about poisoning good beef. It was genuine. Elizabeth knew it as surely as she knew she was going to have a raw spot from the darned corset. She bounced on her toes, trying to get Asa’s attention, but the undertaker took advantage of her dawdling and moved in front of her, leaving her with a bird’s eye view of his black wool jacket. She fingered her hat pin, and scouted for a parting in the crowd.
“You saying you didn’t run off any cattle or change any brands either?” Sheriff Mulden asked.
“Or terrify my wife?”
That was Asa’s voice. She’d recognize that low drawl anywhere, and, from the careful way he was shaping his words, he was furious.
She shifted to the right, but the opening she’d been aiming for closed up as Jimmy shouted, “I branded a few cattle, scattered a few cows, but that’s all.”
The precisely spoken “I don’t think so” belonged to Aaron.
“All right. I hassled Miss Coyote, but only until she married up with him. After that, there wasn’t much point.”
Now that, Elizabeth thought, was an interesting way to phrase it. The subtlety was lost on Asa. “Bothering my wife was a huge mistake.”
“We’re already square on that!” Jimmy hollered. The edge of desperation in his voice made her wonder if Asa was advancing on him.
“If we want to nail this,” Cougar jumped in, “I got Clint fetching the railroad man.”
Clint must have ridden like the devil to get here before she did. She wondered if he’d been given the job of watching her again and, as soon as she’d left the ranch, he’d headed for the shortcut she couldn’t take in the buckboard.
“What good will that do?” Sheriff Mulden asked, interrupting her speculation.
“He can verify who told him Rocking C cattle were diseased,” Aaron pointed out.
The crowd shifted, and, for a brief moment, Elizabeth had a glimpse of Jimmy, Aaron, and half of Asa’s face. Aaron was having all he could do to hold Jimmy. Asa was wearing the quirk-of-the-lips smile that boded ill, and Jimmy—well, he just looked desperate.
“I didn’t talk to no railroad man!” Jimmy hollered. “Let go of me, damn you.”
“I think we’ll wait until Mr. MacIntyre’s witness gets here before we do that, son,” Sheriff Mulden said congenially.
Elizabeth bounced on her toes again. She poked the undertaker, but he didn’t move. Since there was no hope of catching Asa’s eye, she settled for shouting, “Ask him why there wasn’t any point in hassling me after I married Asa!”
“Yeah!” someone shouted. She thought it might be Millicent. “Why was marrying up with her so important?”
The person behind her bumped Elizabeth again. She spun around to give him or her a piece of her mind and froze. Brent!
“I can answer that for you,” Brent said to Elizabeth only, yanking her to him so hard, her hat pin went flying out of her hand. “I was paying him good money to drive you into my arms.” He tossed her up and around, slapping his hand over her mouth, cutting off her cry.
She glanced around frantically for help, but her previous hesitation had left her at the back of the crowd. Unless Millicent really did have eyes in the back of her head, no one was going to notice Brent carrying her off, which was what she thought he intended from the way he was backing up.
Her heart pounded in her ribs, leaving a thundering pulse in her ears. She’d been right! Brent was the mastermind behind this. He’d used Jimmy, Aaron, and herself, but the plan and its implementation were all his. She bit down on his fingers just as Jimmy hollered, “Brent Doyle asked me to scare her so she’d look favorably on him. He wanted to speed up the courtship!”
Brent hissed and shook his hand free. He wasn’t as bulky as Asa, but he was lightning quick. Her “why” was smothered before she could get it past her throat. So was her scream as he hauled her back against him, crushing the corset into her waist. It turned out she didn’t need to scream to get the crowd’s attention. As soon as Jimmy yelled, they’d started searching for the new face in this drama. In another one of those biblical moments, the crowd shifted, searched, and then parted when they found their quarry.
For the first time, she had a clear view of Asa’s expression. It wasn’t encouraging. Along with the dismayed realization as to what was going on, there was also a certain amount of accusation. No doubt, to his way of thinking, her being here was tantamount to walking up to Brent and inviting him to take her hostage. She met his accusation with a glare of her own.
