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"Move that gun away from me. You don't know enough about firearms. That fool thing'll go off before you know it."
"Perhaps that would be best," Melanie said, her voice finally quavering. "Terrance, all along you've been the one doing those terrible things to Shane. How could you? Don't you know that you could go to jail if he chose to bring charges against you?"
"Melanie, I don't know what you're talking about," Terrance said, giving her a glance over his shoulder. "You didn't see me tonight. You're mistaken. I've been here all night. You should be proud of me. I'm stone sober!"
"Terrance, tonight I would rather have caught you drunk than here in bed fully clothed, lying through your teeth," Melanie said, easing the pistol away from him. She lay it aside and sank down into a chair. "Terrance, the more you lie to me, the more disillusioned I get about you."
She raised her eyes and glared at him as he lit a kerosene lamp at his bedside.
"Terrance, can't you smell yourself?" Melanie snapped. "You reek of smoke. You know why. I know why. It's no use lying about it."
Terrance's eyes wavered. "All right, so I was there tonight," he finally admitted. "I did start the fire. I had to! I'm damn sick of waiting for Shane to get his fill and leave! God! You'd think he'd have given up long ago. But don't put the full blame on me. If Shane decides to press charges, I won't take the full rap alone. Someone else was in on it."
"Terrance, what are you saying?" Melanie gasped. "Who are you talking about? Don't tell me that you and Josh"
Terrance interrupted. "No," he said, fidgeting with his mustache. "It wasn't Josh. He didn't have the guts to help me." He cleared his throat nervously and gave Melanie a half glance. "It was Trapper Dan. The man Shane hates with a vengeance."
Melanie blanched, finding this all almost too hard to comprehend. Then she rose quickly to her feet and stood over Terrance, her hands on her hips. "How could you?" she stormed. "How could you be in cohoots with such a vile man? And why was he willing to help you? How on earth did you ever get acquainted with him?"
"I met him in a saloon."
"And?"
"We got to talking."
"And?"
"The trapper was eager to make some extra money. So I agreed to pay him if he'd help me rid the area of Shane Brennan."
"Did you tell him of Shane's acquaintance with him?"
"Yeah."
"So?"
"This made him more than eager to see Shane leave the area. Shane is also a threat to him!"
"Oh, Terrance," Melanie cried, clenching her hands into tight fists. "Shane is no threat to anyone! Why can't you see that?"
"He is a threat to everything I had planned for
my future," Terrance said. "To our future, Melanie. Everything has changed since his arrival. Everything."
"Things can't always go the way you want," Melanie said, looking down at Terrance, hearing in his voice the small boy she could remember from so long ago.
A part of her was softening toward him. Another part still almost wanted to kill him! "You can't control other people's lives, other people's destinies, as if you were God," she said. "You have to learn to bend, to share. If you weren't so blind, you'd see that you are the only reason for the confusion these past weeksnot Shane!"
"So what do you plan to do about all of this?" Terrance asked, raking his fingers through his hair again. "Are you going to tell Shane? Are you going to turn me in to the authorities?
"Nonot just yet, anyhow," Melanie said, sighing deeply.
"Then what?" Terrance asked.
"You're going to take me tonight and show me where the trapper lives," Melanie said, frowning down at Terrance. "Then I shall go and see what I can do about him mys
elfbut after tomorrow. I've something else planned for tomorrow."
"Oh? And what's so important about tomorrow?" Terrance asked. "But, of course, it has to do with Shane, doesn't it? Doesn't everything you do anymore?"
