The Five Dollar Mail (Book 1: The Green & Book 2: Lynch's Boys)

78: Of Ladies and Tigers

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Fiona by Laura Hollingsworth. All graphics by me. 

Sorry this is late, y'all. I usually post in the late afternoon, but yesterday, my kid came home with what I am pretty sure is the flu, and I was so worried about that I forgot everything else.

-gina

Fiona got to her feet, reluctantly letting go of Lily and Bender's hands. She felt panic rising, and forced it away. Her face was burning under the collective gaze of half the town.

"Miss Lewis-Smythe," Judge McDaniel want on, pushing a Bible forward on the table before him. "Please come up here and swear in."

Fiona looked over Rob Yarl to see that he was, not surprisingly, staring right at her. He was trembling, his eyes those of a trapped animal. Her hatred of him was as palpable as the walls holding the roof up. She broke his gaze and unsteadily walked towards the Judge, her mind racing.

All this could be for nothing, the voice in her head chattered hysterically. You're going to let him off and he's going to sit up there and lie...he's going to damn Storm to a horrible death...maybe get the other men killed in the process...

She concentrated on keeping her face calm, her breathing steady. The Bible on the judge's table sat before her like a chopping block waiting for her own head. In spite of herself, she looked straight at Storm.

I don't care what else happens...she heard the memory of her own whispered voice rustling through her thoughts like the sound of falling leaves. Don't let him die. She remembered tears burning her face, wetting the black hair tangled across the pillows. I don't care if everything else falls down just don't take him yet.... His hand had been terrifyingly limp and unresponsive in hers, his skin burning. The stillness had been more even more frightening than when he was talking off his head, weakly struggling against pain and fever-madness as he tried and failed to swim back out of his delirium. She'd brushed his sweat-damp eyelids with her lips, murmuring promises and oaths till the darkness became streaked with grey morning light and she was sure he was still breathing. Nothing else matters to me...

She put her hand on the worn, leather-covered book before her, her ears registering the judge's voice. "...nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

She'd had the dream again last night. The dream where the rope was creaking and tightening and the crowd was jeering and he gazed at her until the light went out of his beautiful eyes and they turned into empty black glass. She drew in a shuddering breath, glad she'd lost her breakfast to nerves earlier. Rob Yarl might walk out of here a free man after condemning Storm.

"Yes," she said, nodding to the judge.

And he might not. Any chance, no matter how small, is better than nothing...

"Alright, then, Miss," Judge McDaniel went on. "Tell us what happened with Mr. Yarl."

Nothing else matters to me...

Fiona held her gaze on Rob Yarl. She didn't want to look at Storm, didn't want to see him react to what she was about to say. I'm sorry, Storm...but this is going to hurt...

"It was a bit of a blur..." Fiona said. "But looking back, now that I have had time to consider it all...I am certain that Mr. Yarl didn't mean...it was an accident, Your Honor. There was no assault."

There was an audible gasp of shock from the assembled crowd. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Storm flinch as if he'd been slapped, saw Blackie's hand fly up to grasp his charge's shoulder, keeping him seated.

He thinks he's been betrayed.

Storm raised his manacled hands, rubbing his brow with the heels of his thumbs the way he did when he was angry and trying to calm himself. It doesn't matter what he thinks. It doesn't even matter if he hates me. Blackie was whispering something into his ear. She turned so she couldn't see them. Nothing else matters.

"Alright, order!" Judge McDaniel warned. "Y'all need to control yourselves, this is a courtroom, not a sideshow. I said be quiet!" The room fell silent again under his heavy-browed scowl. "Three quarters of the folks in this room have no business here. I am only going to tolerate so much before I start throwing people out. Are we clear on that?" He turned his eyes back to Fiona, his tone softening. "Ma'am, did you say there was no assault?"

She felt herself shrink from him, fearful he would somehow know what she had done, she who was committing perjury, framing a man with her hand on a judge's Bible. She hesitated, then nodded.

"Yes. Mr. Yarl didn't mean to hurt me." She opened her mouth, drawing in a fortifying breath. "I know what it looked like...but it was an accident. Mr. Hanson there..." she looked over at Jesse. "and Mr. Yarl had been having words...things got heated..." no point lying when I don't have to... but I can show things in an entirely different light. "I stepped into it trying to calm them both down. It was simply an unfortunate accident. Clearly, anyone could see I was not badly hurt. He waved his hand and accidental struck me. That's all that happened. He doesn't deserve to get punished for that."

The McDaniel narrowed his eyes. He was irritated, and not bothering to hide it."Do you have anything else?"

"No sir, not at the moment."

Storm's lawyer, Mr. Pendleton, was staring at her in open-mouthed disbelief. He looked livid. She tried to ignore him.

"Mr. Hanson, can you stand up, sir?" McDaniel said. Though it was phrased as a request, there was no mistaking it as a command.

Jesse got to his feet, drawing himself up to his full height and holding his hat before him by the brim. He looked nervous.

McDaniel gestured for Jesse to come forward. "What do you have to say about this, young man?"

Jesse glanced at Yarl, then looked to Fiona, unsure of himself. "Rob Yarl didn't mean to hit Miss Fiona," he said, bearing the look of a man who was having his toenails pulled out one by one. "It's true. We was scuffling...she..she got in the way."

Now the judge wore an expression of undisguised disgust on his face. "Mr. Yarl, I would ask if you have anything to say in your defense, but it would appear that the prosecution's already done that for you. Do you have anything to add?"

Yarl got to his feet. He was sweating heavily. "Yessir. I just want to say, I ain't the kind of man puts his hands on women. I got beat up in the street for that, after it all happened, by a buncha men who wadn't even there to see it...I ain't gonna stand here in a church and say I ain't never been in a fight. And I ain't gonna say that me and Hanson wadn't fixin' to mix it up. But ain't no way I would ever hit a girl, Judge. I said I was sorry to her and I am. I ain't no coward that hits women."

McDaniel scowled unhappily at the two men. "So, y'all were acting like jackasses in the street and the lady got hurt as a result of all that?"

Fiona cringed, exchanging a look with Jesse. She saw with dismay that a bright blush began reddening his cheeks. Oh, Jesse, I am so sorry.

Jesse was nodding, an almost painful grimace on his face.

"What was that, Mr. Hanson?" McDaniel barked.

"Yessir. I reckon so."

"Hmph." McDaniel glanced at Sheriff Holt. "You ought to have locked both these two young idiots up for disturbing the peace." His eyes shot back over to Rob Yarl. "Much as I would like to see you incarcerated for acting the fool in public, Mr. Yarl...looks like we have no case if the lady isn't going to press charges."

Rob Yarl deflated where he stood, the huge weight of his apprehension lifted off his shoulders. He looked at Fiona and the two of them stared at each other a long, tense moment. She narrowed her eyes at him, and gave him a barely perceptible nod. She'd had him by the throat and let him go. Now she'd see if she ended up regretting it.

Maybe you wouldn't hit a woman, Mr. Yarl. Let's see if you'll pass up the opportunity to utterly destroy one.

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