house, Eli knew that, as hard as it was, staying for a couple of days was the only choice he had. As bad as things were between him and his mother, as pitiful as Abe’s condition was, there was one other matter that he simply couldn’t ignore.
I have to find the answer to the mystery of Caleb’s murder!
Chapter Five
“I SHOULD HAVE just shot that bastard where his brains are—between his legs!”
Hallie turned in the wagon seat to look at Pearl. The older woman’s face was drawn into a tight mask of anger and regret. She looked tired. They had been on the rough road for the last two days, bumping and jostling their way to the north and west. All around them stands of elm and oak trees dotted a hilly landscape overgrown with tall grass.
Every mile seems to be as trying as pulling teeth,
she thought. They’d planned to travel only at night in order to avoid the orange sun that blazed above them, but the fear of being followed gnawed at their nerves, and they had kept moving.
“You did what you had to do,” Hallie said simply.
“I know, I know.” Pearl nodded, her hair loosened and flowing in the scant breeze afforded to them. “I swear I didn’t go there with the intention of shootin’ him, but that worthless son of a bitch wasn’t gonna just let us walk out of there with Mary without a fight. No sir, he wouldn’t have! He woulda killed us both.”
“Do you think he’s dead? Do you think you killed him?”
Pearl was silent for a moment. The only sound came from the clopping of the horse’s hooves against the dirt road. Hallie could tell that her friend had given the matter a great deal of thought.
“I can’t say for certain,” she finally said. “I only shot him in the leg, but he was all alone out there. He might not have been able to make it to town and a doctor in time to stop all the bleedin’. Whether he was dead or not, we didn’t have a choice but to leave Whiskey Bend.”
“I suppose not.”
In many ways, leaving Whiskey Bend was something that Hallie had been prepared to do for quite some time. It hadn’t begun that way. She’d arrived in town two years earlier after a long journey from Ohio. Deciding to travel alone, she’d incurred the wrath of her overprotective parents, a minister and his wife, but she had been determined to escape the stifling atmosphere in which she had been raised. She was trained as a teacher, and she’d headed west full of excitement, confidence, and hope in her quest to find a better life.
At first, her initial months in Whiskey Bend had been all that she hoped: she settled into a healthy work life at the one-room schoolhouse, had become involved in the community and church, and had no shortage of new friends. But the fact that she had been both unmarried and attractive had brought unwanted attention. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in finding a husband; on the contrary, it was something that she deeply desired. The problem was that she had yet to find the right man. Thankfully, most of the men whose advances she had politely turned down had taken her at her word, tipped their hats, and moved on.
But not Zachary Wall
.
Even when she rejected him, telling him as firmly as she could that she was
not
interested, Zachary pursued her relentlessly. It hadn’t mattered to him that he was already married or that two of his children were Hallie’s students. His interest only seemed to grow with every no. Every time she came into contact with him, whether it was in the mercantile or even in church, she cringed, waiting for an inappropriate look or word. In the end, when he seemed to realize that she would
never
take him to her bed, he turned vicious, spreading rumors around town that accused her of drinking, immoral sexual conduct, and being generally unfit to have charge of the townspeople’s children. Slowly Hallie began to hear whispers when she entered a room.
Finally, it all came to a head. One night, he came to her boardinghouse room,
I have to find the answer to the mystery of Caleb’s murder!
Chapter Five
“I SHOULD HAVE just shot that bastard where his brains are—between his legs!”
Hallie turned in the wagon seat to look at Pearl. The older woman’s face was drawn into a tight mask of anger and regret. She looked tired. They had been on the rough road for the last two days, bumping and jostling their way to the north and west. All around them stands of elm and oak trees dotted a hilly landscape overgrown with tall grass.
Every mile seems to be as trying as pulling teeth,
she thought. They’d planned to travel only at night in order to avoid the orange sun that blazed above them, but the fear of being followed gnawed at their nerves, and they had kept moving.
“You did what you had to do,” Hallie said simply.
“I know, I know.” Pearl nodded, her hair loosened and flowing in the scant breeze afforded to them. “I swear I didn’t go there with the intention of shootin’ him, but that worthless son of a bitch wasn’t gonna just let us walk out of there with Mary without a fight. No sir, he wouldn’t have! He woulda killed us both.”
“Do you think he’s dead? Do you think you killed him?”
Pearl was silent for a moment. The only sound came from the clopping of the horse’s hooves against the dirt road. Hallie could tell that her friend had given the matter a great deal of thought.
“I can’t say for certain,” she finally said. “I only shot him in the leg, but he was all alone out there. He might not have been able to make it to town and a doctor in time to stop all the bleedin’. Whether he was dead or not, we didn’t have a choice but to leave Whiskey Bend.”
“I suppose not.”
In many ways, leaving Whiskey Bend was something that Hallie had been prepared to do for quite some time. It hadn’t begun that way. She’d arrived in town two years earlier after a long journey from Ohio. Deciding to travel alone, she’d incurred the wrath of her overprotective parents, a minister and his wife, but she had been determined to escape the stifling atmosphere in which she had been raised. She was trained as a teacher, and she’d headed west full of excitement, confidence, and hope in her quest to find a better life.
At first, her initial months in Whiskey Bend had been all that she hoped: she settled into a healthy work life at the one-room schoolhouse, had become involved in the community and church, and had no shortage of new friends. But the fact that she had been both unmarried and attractive had brought unwanted attention. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in finding a husband; on the contrary, it was something that she deeply desired. The problem was that she had yet to find the right man. Thankfully, most of the men whose advances she had politely turned down had taken her at her word, tipped their hats, and moved on.
But not Zachary Wall
.
Even when she rejected him, telling him as firmly as she could that she was
not
interested, Zachary pursued her relentlessly. It hadn’t mattered to him that he was already married or that two of his children were Hallie’s students. His interest only seemed to grow with every no. Every time she came into contact with him, whether it was in the mercantile or even in church, she cringed, waiting for an inappropriate look or word. In the end, when he seemed to realize that she would
never
take him to her bed, he turned vicious, spreading rumors around town that accused her of drinking, immoral sexual conduct, and being generally unfit to have charge of the townspeople’s children. Slowly Hallie began to hear whispers when she entered a room.
Finally, it all came to a head. One night, he came to her boardinghouse room,
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