Page 54 of Wellspring

BILLY MEIER was swift to offer to escort Judge Morrison to the Lone Star. Cade sagged in his seat as soon as the judge left the building. “Fuck, I don’t know if this is going well or not.”

“We have plenty of witnesses on our side,” Javier said.

“Hearsay and gossip.” Payne scowled. “Reichardt’s right, we don’t have any hard proof. It’s our word against his, just like it’s always been.”

“But a lot more of us against one of him,” Miz Roarke said. “The judge seemed receptive to that. But we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Collier’s testimony should be pretty damning,” Javier said hopefully. “He told Parnell they attacked on Reichardt’s orders.”

But when the JR hand was sworn in, he kept glancing at Reichardt, whose glare was hard enough to cut glass.

“Mr. Collier, you took part in the attack on Wellspring. On whose orders were you acting?” Parnell asked.

“Adam Carter was the one who took us out there.” Collier glanced at Reichardt, then down at his shackled hands.

“Mr. Carter was killed during the attack,” Parnell explained to the judge. “And whose orders was Carter acting on?”

“Sanders’s, I guess.” Collier spoke with a bit more confidence. “He was the foreman, after all.”

“Mr. Collier, you told me earlier you acted on Mr. Reichardt’s orders,” Parnell declared. “Were you lying then, or now?”

“Well, I never heard Mr. Reichardt give no orders,” Collier said. Reichardt smiled, obviously pleased at the answer.

“But Mr. Sanders wouldn’t have the authority to order an attack on Wellspring, would he?” Parnell pressed. “An order like that would have to come from Mr. Reichardt.”

“Mr. Reichardt never talked to us hands himself.” Collier shrugged. “We got our orders from Sanders and Carter. You’d have to ask them where they got them from.” He grinned. “Oh, except how they’re dead.”

“That’s enough sass from you.” The judge frowned. “Do you have anything else to add?”

“If Mr. Reichardt goes free, will I too?” Collier asked hopefully.

“Considering you were caught red-handed trespassing and shooting up Wellspring property, the answer to that is no,” Parnell answered. “Come on, back to jail with you.”

“Marshal Parnell, do you have any other witnesses to call?” the judge asked when Parnell returned.

“One more, Your Honor,” Parnell said. “Otto Ulrich.”

A babble of shocked voices broke out. Cade hadn’t seen the other rancher in the crowd, but he’d apparently arrived at some point, walking up to the witness chair from the back of the church.

“What the hell?” Reichardt snarled, his face red with rage.

“We may have been friends, but I’m not about to hang with you,” Ulrich replied. Reichardt continued to fume as Ulrich related the conversation Cade and Erick had overheard in Austin. He made tracks out of the building as soon as the judge excused him.

“That was my last witness, Your Honor,” Parnell said when the door closed behind Ulrich’s back, “though I do have a written statement from Mr. Heller, who is not well enough yet to make the trip back into town, confirming everything Mr. Webster and Mr. Ulrich have said.”

The judge glanced over Erick’s statement and set it beside him on the desk. “Very well, then. Mr. Reichardt, do you have any evidence you wish to present in your defense?”

Reichardt stood, smiling broadly, though to Cade his casual attitude seemed a bit forced.

Still, Cade supposed he’d gotten so used to having Lutz in his pocket that he didn’t realize Parnell and Judge Morrison were a different class of men.

“Well, Your Honor, unfortunately most of the men I would have called as witnesses are dead, gunned down by Wellspring in an unprovoked attack.”

“Excuse me,” Parnell interrupted, “but most of your men were killed on Wellspring property, by men—and women,” he added with an apologetic smile to Miz Roarke, “who had every right to defend their land against trespassers.”

“What right does Wellspring have to hoard the water other ranches need to survive?” Reichardt countered. “If Mrs. Roarke would stop acting like an emotional female and listen to reason, all this unpleasantness could have been avoided.”

“Mrs. Roarke,” Judge Morrison asked, “would it be possible to ride out and see the spring and creek in question? It’s been a fairly dry summer this year, so I’d be able to see the situation for myself.

Not that using water on land that’s been in your family for generations gives Mr. Reichardt a right to harass your employees, much less attack you outright, but it would help me understand his supposed grievance and give me a chance to speak with your employees who weren’t able to be here today. ”

“This is highly unusual, Your Honor,” Marshal Parnell began.

“One of the benefits of age and position, my boy, is the right to be unusual when it suits me,” the judge replied.

“It won’t hurt anything to delay my judgment by another day or two, and if it makes it a fairer one for everyone involved, then all the better.

Would that be agreeable to you, Mrs. Roarke? ”

“Of course, Your Honor,” Miz Roarke said. “Although I can’t promise how well we’ll eat tonight. Trujillo is our usual cook, and he’s been here in town all day. His assistant is less proficient.”

“Inedible slop,” Payne muttered next to Cade.

“I can ride ahead and get something ready,” Javier offered.

“I’ll go with him,” Cade said, “if the rest of you want to stay and ride back with the judge. If you’re finished with us, Your Honor?”

“Yes, you’re dismissed,” Judge Morrison said.

Cade only stopped himself from bolting from the church by sheer force of will. The moment they were free of the building, he tore the tie from around his neck and opened half the buttons on his shirt. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said to Javier.

They made their way back to the mercantile where they’d left their horses, since Jock was one of the spectators in the crowd.

Cade swung up onto Nahnia’s back and only barely resisted the urge to spur him into a gallop, anything to get away from the oppressive feeling of the trial and the layer of filth that seemed to cling to him after being around Reichardt all day.

Only the knowledge that Javier and his horse couldn’t keep up held him back.

Granted, with the JR decimated and Reichardt in jail, Javier would probably be fine on the ride back, but Chel would never forgive Cade if he rode off and something happened.

They made it back to Wellspring in good time, even at the slower pace set by Javier’s gelding, and everyone clamored around them, demanding to know how the trial had gone.

“Let Cade tell you,” Javier roared. “I’ve got to get dinner going. The judge is coming to talk to Erick and to see the spring for himself.”

And just like that, Cade found himself the center of attention once more.

At least this time it was just his friends staring at him, not a room full of people he only sort of knew and barely trusted.

Before he could do more than take a breath, Erick was there, not touching him, just at his side, and all the tension bled out of him.

“Let’s go somewhere in the shade and I’ll tell you all about it,” Cade said with a cocky grin.

CADE WASN’T sure what the judge gained by riding out to the source of the spring, though he seemed impressed by the orderliness of the Wellspring buildings and the demeanor of its hands.

Not that any of them dared to approach him.

He, Miz Roarke, and Erick ate dinner together in the main house, so Cade didn’t get to hear what Erick told him, though he knew it would only back up his own testimony.

If nothing else, it would let Erick feel that he’d done his part to build the case against Reichardt, and Cade knew how much that meant to him.

He didn’t know how Reichardt could have mentioned anything he might suspect about Wellspring to the judge without everyone knowing about it, but he couldn’t stop the tension from mounting at the base of his skull the longer the judge was there.

They were careful when outsiders were around, but any mistake could cost them all dearly.

He’d taken his dinner plate—meat loaf and mashed potatoes, and Cade was amazed that Javier had managed to throw it together so quickly—and chosen an empty table, looking to put all the pieces together the way he hoped the judge would to determine Reichardt’s guilt, when Burke dropped down into the seat beside him.

“You’re looking awfully glum, Wolf Boy,” Burke said. “Javier said it went well today. So what’s raised your hackles?”

“It’s still our word against his,” Cade said.

“Ulrich confirming their discussion in Austin was a surprise, but Collier’s the only person who could have said outright that Reichardt gave the order, and he claimed it came from Carter by way of Sanders, who are both dead.

Now, granted, who else could have told them to attack us except Reichardt, but that’s not evidence. ”

“None of that,” Burke said. “The judge is in there now with Miz Roarke and Hoss. If anyone is going to convince him of what’s really going on, it’s the two of them, so get rid of that long face. Reichardt’s going to get what’s coming to him, and we’re going to be free of him for good.”

“I never took you for an optimist,” Cade said.

“I’m not. I’m about as pessimistic as they come, but this is one time even I recognize a good thing when I see it,” Burke said.

“So finish this delicious dinner Javi whipped up for us and when the judge is done in there, sneak your man off somewhere to celebrate. Because if it weren’t for the two of you, we wouldn’t have known what was coming to be prepared to fight them off. ”

Payne dropped a plate beside Cade’s and straddled the bench.

“Judge Morrison decided it’s too late to ride back to town.

He’s staying the night, so I’ll be taking Heller’s bed in the bunkhouse.

” Burke started to speak but Payne quelled him with a scowl.

“And if anyone suggests that isn’t my usual bunk in the judge’s hearing, they’ll spend the next month on night duty. ”

“What about Erick?” Cade asked. The only parts of the inside of Miz Roarke’s home he’d seen were the front parlor and the guest room Erick was recuperating in. Surely the judge wouldn’t put Erick out of his bed?

“There’s a daybed in the sewing room. Grace says Heller tried to insist on moving out of the guest room to sleep there, but the judge wouldn’t hear of it. Seemed real impressed with what Heller had to say.”

That didn’t surprise Cade—Erick could talk the birds out of the trees if he put his mind to it. “I hope that’s enough to convince the judge that Reichardt’s guilty.”

“We’ll know tomorrow,” Payne said. “The judge told Grace he was ready to announce his verdict.”

“Already?” Cade said. “I thought it would take… I don’t know… days, at least. Maybe weeks.”

Payne shrugged. “He says he’s heard everything he needs to hear.

And really, what is there to figure out?

” It seemed whatever he’d overheard from Judge Morrison had eased his earlier skepticism.

“Reichardt’s guilty as hell, and everyone knows it.

The only reason he wasn’t strung up years ago is because he paid off Lutz.

Parnell and Morrison are cut from a different cloth entirely.

I don’t know if Parnell will stay, but Eldorado will be a damn sight better for it if he does. ”

Cade tried to imagine a life where he didn’t have to constantly worry about the threat of the JR or some other outfit trying to steal their land or their water or pressure Miz Roarke into something she didn’t want.

A life where going into town didn’t mean watching his back the whole time, his hand on the butt of his pistol or the fletching of an arrow.

Where he could actually get a room at the Lone Star and spend the night with Erick instead of ending up with a bullet in Erick’s back and a wild ride back to Wellspring in the hope of warning his friends before they were all killed.

“I think you might be right about that,” he said. “If he doesn’t stay, maybe we can find someone like him to be the new sheriff in town instead.”

“Hell, with Reichardt gone, maybe you should run for sheriff, Wolfie,” Burke said.

“Oh hell no,” Cade protested. Talk about the last job he’d possibly want….

“Not that he couldn’t do it, but he’d have as much chance of being elected as I would,” Payne snorted. “Logan, now, there’s somebody the townsfolk would get behind.”

Cade thought Erick would make a great sheriff, but his being foreign-born was probably as much of a strike against him as being “colored” or “raised by Indians” to too many townsfolk. “Before we try to solve all Eldorado’s problems, let’s be sure Reichardt gets convicted first.”

“I doubt that will be a problem,” Erick said from behind Cade. Cade jumped up from his seat and made room for Erick on the bench.

“Did the judge say something?” Cade asked.

“Not directly. He would not be so indiscreet,” Erick replied, “but he had read my statement, so he did not seem surprised by what I reiterated at dinner. Indeed he seemed almost to concur with it, as if it confirmed what he already knew, which says to me that he believes Reichardt is guilty.”

“Good,” Payne said. “I want this done. I have a ranch to run and cattle to drive to the railhead in a few weeks. I don’t have time for this bullshit to drag on.

Webster, take Heller for a walk. I need him fit for the saddle before we ride for Abilene.

I can’t have him lazing around here doing nothing. ”

“You are no more eager for me to be fit than I am.” Erick rose to his feet.

“Damn it, with the judge at Miz Roarke’s and Payne in the bunkhouse, there’s nowhere we’ll have any privacy. Unless you need another shower?” Cade asked as they walked away.

“Perhaps we can walk to the creek,” Erick suggested. When Cade grinned, he added, “For nothing more than resting on the swing, I fear, if I am to have the strength to walk back again.”

“It’s a start.” Cade swung their clasped hands between them. “We’ll have you fit for the saddle again before you know it.”