Letters and Love

Chapter Twenty-Two: Noah

"Owen Porter Burns is wanted in connection with a bank robbery in Cheyenne a few months back. A man was killed in the robbery. We knew he'd headed north, but lost his trail. Your letter has been the first we've heard of him."

A chill went down my spine. "Well." I cleared my throat. "I suppose that explains why he seems so amenable to shooting me in the back."

"Have you seen him?"

"Not in person. And I can't even swear it was him who shot at me, but given everything that has happened, I assume it was him," I added, for the sake of being completely honest. "I'm sorry. I don't know more than that."

"No. I suppose it was a long shot that you would be around them, given what you said in your letter."

Inside the barn, I began to remove the harnesses. "The evening I was almost shot was the first time I'd seen Jake Burns. I'd gone to his place to resolve this misunderstanding that has been going around, but his wife threatened to shoot me for trespassing."

"Tell me about Owen Burns."

While I put my horses away, I told the marshal about how the man who was apparently Owen Burns had approached me. It only took a matter of minutes, since the conversation had been brief. Once I was finished, I couldn't tell what the other man was thinking.

"In your letter, you said you'd done nothing to antagonize your neighbors. You're sure about that?"

"It's really stupid," I warned him before I explained just what had happened over the summer. To his credit, Marshal Westler didn't bat an eye. "I could understand if they were disappointed and angry, but they've ruined my reputation. I can hardly go into town anymore."

"I can imagine." Marshal Westler leaned against the barn door. "There's few people who would take kindly to a man taking advantage of a woman, let alone a teenage girl. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would protest such a man being hanged for his crime."

A shiver of alarm went down my spine. "I didn't take advantage of anyone!"

He waved away my protestation. "Your problem is you can't prove it."

It was such an obvious statement that I didn't make a response. I knew there was no proof I could bring forward that would convince anyone. It was my word against that of Miss Burns.

And it had already been made clear that my word was worth mud.

"What kind of reception do you think I would get if I rode out to the Burns' place this evening?"

He wouldn't be that stupid, would he? "I think it highly likely that you would get shot for your trouble," I said honestly. "When I went there, all I wanted was to get an explanation for what they had been saying about me. Mrs. Burns was more than willing to shoot me out of the saddle. If you go there intending to arrest Burns' brother..."

I let my voice trail away. If he didn't come to the same conclusion as I did, then that didn't speak much for his intelligence.

"True," Marshal Westler said, heaving a sigh. "It can never be straightforward, can it?"

Was that a rhetorical question, or did he expect me to answer? I offered my opinion either way.

"I thought there was some misunderstanding that had happened when I first heard about it. You know, someone simply misheard one word and then a mountain was made of a molehill. I was not expecting to have almost all of my neighbors turned against me."

The man grunted. "Well, I'm afraid I can't do anything about that."

"Well, I had to try," I said with a shrug. "Any advice you can give me?"