The Beloved Woman by Deborah Smith Page B

hisimposing appearance, and dark eyes that one or two gossipers suggested came from an Indian relative somewhere in the illustrious Parnell family tree.
    Judge Parnell had presided over Superior Court for the past four years, and his rulings were as stern as the black suits he wore. Justis studied him idly, seeing, as always, a smiling old lion who ate people alive.
    “You getting into trouble, boy?” Parnell asked jovially.
    “Every second of the day.”
    The judge was a grand politician, and after Sam introduced him to Captain Taylor he went through the crowd, finding new faces and shaking hands with the strangers. A respectful quiet had fallen as soon as he stepped into the store.
    Only one other man in Gold Ridge could inspire that reaction. When Judge Parnell finished his campaigning and halted in front of Justis, studying him with smiling, soulless eyes, they both knew who the other man was.
    “I’ll have the hide and tallow of any rascal who mistreats our peaceful Cherokee brethren during this tragic, tragic time,” the judge said in a solemn voice. He turned to the crowd. “It’s our duty to treat these innocent children of nature with respect. They are doomed by the good and proper onrush of civilization, and though God has given us the right to bring light into their dark country, He does not intend for us to lose our own souls in the process.”
    Several
amens
and
here, heres
demonstrated the crowd’s righteous support.
    Justis silently cursed every pious thief who’d engineered the Cherokee treaty, and wondered how he was going to break this latest news to Katherine.
If
he ever got to talk to her again.
    F OR TWO WEEKS Katherine alternated between periods of dull apathy and unnatural exhilaration. Either shesat by the hotel window for hours, gazing blankly at the activity on the town square, or she paced her room frantically, her mind fired by memories of her family and horrible imaginings about their deaths.
    Justis was waiting in the outside world, him and his vow, I’ll
do anything to have you
. She had twenty dollars left from her travel money, and until that ran out she wouldn’t ask him for anything. Though Rebecca had tried to refuse, Katherine had given her six dollars for room and board over the past two weeks. Katherine sat by her window every night until dawn, clasping her remaining money and staring at the stars as if they hid answers.
    “You can’t go on like this,” Rebecca exclaimed tearfully when she discovered Katherine asleep in a chair one morning. She guided her to the bed and stood beside it, arms akimbo. “Please talk to Justis. He won’t take advantage of your situation.”
    Katherine lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. “But will he give me my land and a share of the Blue Song gold?”
    “He can’t give you the land. I’m sure he would if he thought the state would let you keep it. But no Cherokee can own land here anymore.”
    “My family is buried on that land.”
    “It doesn’t matter to the state, Katherine.”
    “Then I’ll find some way to support myself until I can change the state’s mind. I’ll find employment here.”
    Rebecca gently patted her shoulder. “Justis will give you all the money you need. Just be patient about the rest. He can’t do anything to change it, but he wants to be good to you. He’s bullheaded but not cruel.”
    “I’ll never understand him.”
    “He grew up on the docks down on the coast, an orphan, fighting for every crumb he put in his mouth. His parents were Irish. Irish and Catholic, and they died in afire when Justis was little. Imagine, a little boy all alone, dealing with prejudice and poverty. An outcast. So much about his life has been brutal—even you came to him under brutal circumstances. But there’s honor, and courage, and a simple kind of idealism in him that tries to right all that, even though his methods are sometimes rough.”
    Katherine thought of the anti-Irish protest she’d seen in