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Buck kicked back in the chair outside the jail and watched the daily business of the town flow up and down the street with a lazy eye. It was another oppressively hot day with hardly a breeze blowing to stir the baked dust, but he was sitting in the shade and had forgone his long underwear for the day so he was relatively comfortable at his post. Not that there was anything to be on watch for, really, since Four Corners had been so quiet lately.

Not that he was complaining, no sirree. A little excitement now and then wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Buck much preferred to earn his pay sitting at the jail or riding patrol than by dodging bullets or chasing outlaws. He smiled to himself, thinking of the talk he’d had a few days past with Matthew Dillon about how lawmen should save all the lead that was thrown at them and make a nice little side business from it. They’d had quite a laugh about how maybe doctors were doing just that, digging the bullets out of folks just so they could resell them. Nathan hadn’t thought it was funny, but then Nathan didn’t find much humor in life on a good day and he definitely hadn’t had one of those in a while. At least he hadn’t shot off his mouth in front of their Kansas visitors…but then maybe that had had less to do with Jackson learning to hold himself in and more to do with the surprise of finding out who the visitor actually was and why he’d stopped in Four Corners on his way to Albuquerque. Not that the rest of the Seven hadn’t been a bit surprised by him as well.

Buck had to laugh at that memory. Dillon was a big rawboned young man, easily two of JD, and he looked like a dime-novel illustration of a range cowboy; it had been funny to see him so in awe of Standish and Dunne, who looked so much less like they belonged in the West than he did. In spite of the obvious hero worship, though, the boy was steady and possessed a quiet sense of humor that Buck knew from experience would stand him in better stead as a lawman than the fastest gun to be had - although he’d need that too if he was going to stick around a place like Dodge above the ground and not under it. Buck had also been tickled at the way Ezra had puffed up with pride like a strutty little rooster when it came time to show off his bride-to-be to Dillon and his traveling companion, a doctor who also hailed from the wilds of Kansas. The two of them had only been in town a few hours before their stage had been ready to leave again, but it had been a pleasant visit all around. Ezra had told him after they’d left that Juliet knew of Matthew Dillon as a U.S. Marshal, which tickled Buck even more to know that his measure of the aspiring lawman’s character had been right on the money.

That had been two days ago, though, and now Buck was looking for something else to amuse himself with. He shifted on the creaky wooden chair and watched the townsfolk come and go with bored eyes. Josiah and Miss Julie were up at the village, Chris was out riding patrol and Vin was…well, he knew Vin was around somewhere. Ezra had gone into the saloon after lunch and not come back out yet and so far as Buck knew JD was in there with him. And Nathan had come out of his clinic a little while ago and gone into the dry goods store, which Buck knew must mean he was ordering more supplies. He didn’t envy the healer that encounter, seeing as how Mrs. Potter was still holding a grudge over what had happened those couple months back while Ezra was off in Eagle Bend. Not that Buck blamed her, though, not a bit.

Sure enough, a few moments later Nathan came out of the store looking tired and a little sour. Buck could understand that, but he still didn’t feel much sympathy for the healer on that score either. He debated waving the man over and trying to lighten his mood but almost immediately came to the conclusion that he’d much rather go back inside and sift through the wanted posters over a fresh cup of coffee, so he merely nodded at Nathan before disappearing back into the jail.

Nathan barely noticed the nod and only responded to it in kind instinctually, having other things on his mind. Mrs. Potter was allowing him in her store again, which was a relief, but she was also making it very plain that he wasn’t forgiven and so were Cedric and Cecily, much to his dismay. The twins were usually very friendly, and their innocent disdain hurt more than their mother’s more studied animosity did.

The clatter of a wagon pulling to a halt nearby distracted him from his thoughts and he looked up to see a weathered, mule-drawn vehicle with a dark-skinned old man holding the reins and a young woman with a child on her lap sitting next to him. The healer approached them curiously. “Howdy folks,” he said. “You new to Four Corners or just passin’ through?”

“Ah’m just passin’, young man, but Janey and mah little Emmy heah are new as dey can be,” the old man told him, deep brown eyes twinkling. “Moses Abel, at yoah service.”

Nathan took the offered hand. “Nathan Jackson, I’m one of the peacekeepers here.”

The twinkling eyes took on a narrower, speculative look. “Heard tell ‘bout you up in Eagle Bend, ah’d guess. You a healah, right?”

“Do my best.” Nathan had the sudden sinking feeling that his healing skills might not be all the old man had heard about, but he pushed it aside. “What brings you all to Four Corners?”

“A job,” Janey said, swinging down off of the wagon seat before Nathan could move to help her and then lifting her daughter down as well. “Do you known where ah might find Juliet Moore? She said to come on down this week and she’d have it all set up.”

Suspicion flared. “She hired you to work for her?” Nathan asked, grimacing. A vision of Rosa May came to mind, and some of what he was still feeling about that unintentionally colored his tone as he asked, “You here to be their ‘housekeeper’?”

To Nathan’s surprise the young woman drew herself up stiffly and glared at him. “Ah’m takin’ her place at the hotel you folks got here, they needed a cook,” she all but spat. “Should ah ask you if you’re only allowed to play lawman when they don’t need you as a field hand?”

The old man chuckled dryly but without much humor, and Nathan was still at a loss for words when the little girl squealed suddenly and darted past him. “Well look who’s here!” a familiar Southern voice exclaimed, and the healer turned just in time to see Ezra swing the delighted little girl up into his arms. The gambler came right up to them and tipped his hat to Janey, ignoring Nathan. “Miss Janey, my apologies for not bein’ out here to greet you; we received Sheriff James’ telegram late this mornin’, so you were expected. And this must be Mr. Abel, a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir – I’d offer my hand, but they are both rather full at present. I understand there was some unpleasantness in Eagle Bend which precipitated your departure?”

“Miz Murphy found out we was plannin’ on leavin’,” the young woman told him, relaxing her stiff stance somewhat. “Juliet,” she hesitated just slightly over using the absent woman’s first name, “said she’d have everything ready for us and just to come, so Moses helped me and Emmy with the wagon and here we are. She ain’t here?”

“Juliet goes out to the Seminole village each week with Reverend Sanchez to assist the children there with their education,” Ezra told her. “They left quite early this mornin’. She will be most distressed that she was not here to greet you, but I will be more than happy to help you get settled in her absence. I do hope the boardin’ house will be acceptable for the time being?”

Janey smiled. “Should be just fine. Ah’ve got enough…”

“Not necessary,” Ezra told her, shifting Emmeline onto his hip and offering the surprised young black woman his arm. “Your first week’s board has already been taken care of; apparently where my lovely wife-to-be hails from it is accepted business practice to offset the cost of relocation if a newly-recruited employee is required to move any appreciable distance. But if you like, once we have your things unloaded I can take you to the bank and you may deposit your excess funds there for safekeeping.”

Her eyes widened. Nathan wondered if she’d understood even half of the gambler’s fancy words, and he was prepared to step in when she answered, “Ain’t never had money in no bank…”

“ ‘Bout time you did, girl,” the old man said, obviously pleased. “Why don’ you go check dat room, Janey, and ah’ll wait with dis heah wagon ‘till you gets back. Don’t want no one foolin’ with dese ornery ol’ mules.”

“We shall return post haste, Mr. Abel,” Ezra told him with a polite nod. “And then I shall round up an associate or two of mine to assist with the contents of the wagon.”

Nathan just stood staring after them as they headed for the boarding house, wondering what Josiah would have to say about this incident…and if he could stand to hear it. A throat clearing dragged his attention back to the wagon. “Help an ol’ man down heah, boy,” Moses told him. “Dese ol’ bones’d right like to touch ground dat ain’t movin’ for a spell.” The healer hurried to do as he was asked, and once the old man was off the wagon seat he looked up at the younger man with another speculative brown gaze. “You gets treated all right by dese folks?”

“Yes sir,” Nathan answered quickly. “Miss Janey and her little one should be just fine here.”

“I ‘spect they should, with dat Mistah Standish lookin’ out for ‘em,” Moses said, much to Nathan’s surprise. “Janey knowed him a bit, and de sheriff he done tol’ me dat he’s a good man.” He cocked an eyebrow at Nathan. “Teachin’ Injun chilluns to read, huh?” When the younger man nodded he shook his head. “Well if dat don’ beat all. Teachin’ ‘em de Good Book?”

It was Nathan’s turn to shake his head. “Teachin’ them to read and write, don’t know as they’ve ever took a Bible up there to do it.”

“Well if dat don’ beat all,” the old man said again. “Oughts to teach ‘em de Good Book, though, ‘stead of lettin’ ‘em run around all heathen.”

Nathan almost choked on that but Moses didn’t appear to notice. The younger man recovered himself quickly. “Well, Mr. Abel, it was a pleasure to meet you but I’d best be gettin’ back to the clinic…”

Moses slanted a wise look up at him. “You didn’ look like no man in a hurry to me jus’ a minute ago, boy. Now why don’ you jus’ stick around a bit, ah guess Mistah Standish don’ need to be lookin’ for someone to help unload dis heah wagon when you’s already right heah available.”

“Guess I could do that,” Nathan agreed, trying not to sigh. It was hot, he was out of sorts…but it really didn’t make sense for him to go back up to the clinic and do make-work when there was something that needed doing right here. But if he’d only come up with a quicker excuse…mentally, Nathan smacked himself in the back of the head even for thinking it. He wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing from anyone else, so he couldn’t afford to let himself get by with it either. But still… “You want me to go fetch you somethin’ cold to drink, Mr. Abel? Just take me a minute…”

The old man nodded. “Now dat’s right thoughtful of you,” he said. “Go on, ah’ll be waitin’ right heah.” Nathan hurried off in the direction of the saloon, and Moses chuckled to himself. “Think you’s right slick dere, huh boy? May be ah’ll jus’ be tellin Mistah Standish dat you can unload dis heah wagon all by yoah own self, we’ll see who gots mo’ cunnin’ roun’ heah, dat we will.”

Ezra headed out on patrol after the wagon was unloaded, riding part of the way beside the slow-moving mules as Moses began making his way back to his small homestead. The gambler and Nathan had both tried to convince the old man to stay in town for the night, Nathan had even offered him a place to sleep in the clinic, but Moses had been adamant that he wanted to be getting home and both younger men had realized there was no arguing with him. That Ezra’s actual patrol route was originally to have been in a completely different direction wasn’t something either of them saw fit to share with the old man, though. Nathan had tracked down Chris and JD and told them both about the change and then had gone back up to his clinic.

The healer spent most of the rest of his afternoon doing make-work and thinking about what Moses had said earlier with regards to teaching the Indian children up at the village, and it had put that particular situation into a different light for him. Nathan might be stubborn, but when he knew he was wrong his conscience wouldn’t let him avoid admitting it for long. So when he saw Josiah and Juliet ride back into town he came down from the clinic and put himself in a place to intercept them before they reached the livery. “How’d it go today?” he asked, pacing himself alongside of Job’s lazy gait.

Josiah raised an eyebrow at him. “It was a very good day, brother,” he rumbled, just a touch suspiciously. “Was there somethin’ you needed?”

Nathan nodded. “Thought I’d let Miss Julie know that Miss Janey and little Emmeline got into town a few hours ago, they’re settlin’ in over at the boarding house.”

Juliet blinked down at him, rubbing her eyes, and Nathan realized that she must have just woken up as they entered town. “Thank you for tellin’ me, Mr. Jackson,” she said. “Ah wasn’t expectin’ them today, are the two of them all right?”

“Yeah, they’re just fine,” he reassured her. “Just had to leave a mite earlier than they expected.”

She bit her lip, looking up at Josiah. “It just had to have been that horrid woman, she must have found out they were leaving. Ah had hoped…”

“They’re here now, Little Sister,” Josiah reassured her. “And Sheriff James wouldn’t have let things get out of hand.”

“Nope,” Nathan agreed. “He’s a good man, don’t stand for nonsense like that in his town.” Juliet nodded, rubbing her eyes again, and he was struck by how young she looked. “And Miss Julie, I just wanted to say…I just realized today that I ain’t never told you what a good thing I think it is you’re doin’ up at the village, the way you’re respectin’ their ways and all while you’re teachin’ those kids to read.”

Indigo eyes blinked at him again, startled. “Thank you, Mr. Jackson,” she replied slowly. “I was taught that multicultural education is all well and good but it shouldn’t be used to eradicate native culture.”

Nathan made a face; she was talking just like Ezra, he thought, using words no one else understood. “Multi what?”

“Multicultural education,” Josiah repeated for him with a chuckle. “It means teaching the young about cultures other than their own in order to promote acceptance through understanding. But apparently some educators also abuse the process to impart their own ideas of cultural superiority.”

Nathan rolled his eyes; now Josiah was doing it. And he could tell by the twinkle in those pale blue eyes that it was intentional, too. He stopped himself from commenting on that, though. “Can’t say it’s a bad idea if it makes folks accept each other for who they are,” he said instead. “I’m guessin’ Grey Owl thinks it’s all right too.”

“He does,” Josiah said placidly. A slightly worried expression suddenly appeared on his face. “Good evening to you, Ezra,” he called out.

Nathan looked past the large horse and saw the gambler approaching them rapidly, and he didn’t look happy. “Is there a problem, gentlemen?” Ezra asked tightly.

“Nope, Brother Nathan was just telling us about Janey and Emmeline,” Josiah replied. “How are they settlin’ in?”

“Very nicely,” Ezra answered him, tearing his suspicious gaze away from the healer. His face cleared when he held out his hands to help his fiancée down from Pharisee’s broad back, though, and he smiled when she returned his careful hug. “Was it a pleasant journey, darlin’?”

“It’s too bad you couldn’t have come with us,” she told him, smiling through a genteelly-covered yawn that made him chuckle. “But I know you needed to watch for your friend’s stage, and I’m glad you were here to greet Janey and little Emmeline. I’m certain they were glad to see a familiar face.”

“The sheriff’s telegram came after you’d left this mornin’,” he explained, taking the bundle of books and papers that Josiah handed down to him and offering Juliet his free arm. “Thank you, Josiah. Will you be visitin’ the saloon later this evenin’?”

“Think I’ll probably stop in for a bit after I’ve got Pharisee settled,” the preacher told him. Josiah dismounted himself as the young couple walked off toward the dry goods store, then caught up the reins and tugged Pharisee into the stable. Nathan trailed them in. “Somethin’ else you need, Brother?”

“Nope.” The healer leaned against the side of the box as Josiah began settling his horse for the night. “Just wanted to…well, wanted to say I was sorry, Josiah.”

The older man lifted an eyebrow. “Sorry? For what?”

Nathan snorted softly and shook his head. “For spittin’ out water and chewin’ on loco weed, that’s what.”

Josiah stared at him for a minute, and then he grinned broadly. “Now this story I’ve just got to hear.”

Janey settled in at the hotel so smoothly it was as though she’d always been there, which was a good thing since business was booming in the face of the oppressive heat – no one wanted to stoke up the fire in their own kitchen while the sun was still riding high if they could help it, and the hotel dining room was full to capacity almost every day. The young black woman had confided to Juliet that every time Mrs. Abbott came into the kitchen and didn’t yell she felt like she was ‘right up in Heaven’. Emmeline was happy too, able to come and go from the hotel kitchen as she pleased without fear of being chased away and allowed to eat right alongside her mother and Juliet and Mrs. Abbott when they took their own meals.

Juliet’s brother Jesse arrived in town two days later, driving his wife in a small surrey-type wagon pulled by two well-bred paint horses with Charlie riding alongside on Zombie. Mrs. McLaughlin’s appearance caused quite a stir amongst the townsfolk; as tall as her husband and dressed in the height of fashion, enough so even to put Mary Travis to shame, she had smooth skin the color of milk-filled tea and beautifully exotic features crowned by pinned and curled masses of luxuriant black hair. She didn’t speak much or loudly, but her large dark eyes and shy smile reflected a disposition as gentle as a child’s and it seemed at times that her rapport with her enamored husband transcended words.

Ezra, after observing them together, was certain it did – and in a much more direct sense than he thought most everyone else in town was equipped to recognize. He wasn’t about to ask about it, though, knowing that he probably wouldn’t like what Jesse would tell him. And he had other things weighing more on his mind at present anyway, like the wedding that would be occurring in less than a week and the fact that his best man hadn’t arrived yet.

He’d been waiting since Monday, watching every stage that came in, and he was waiting impatiently when Saturday’s last stage finally pulled up in front of the hotel in a cloud of hot dust and a clatter of pebbles. The first person to get out was, to his infinite relief, the one he’d been waiting for, a handsome man in his late thirties with dark wavy hair who immediately turned around to help two young ladies out of the vehicle and shooed them toward the hotel. Then he looked around and smiled broadly when he spotted the nervous gambler. “Ezra, you look like a man who’s either about to get married or about to get shot!”

Ezra grinned and stuck out his hand, but didn’t resist when the older man used it to pull him into a bearhug. “Benjamin, it’s good to see you.”

“Not half as good as it is to see you.” Ben Maverick pulled back and looked his friend over with an assessing blue gaze. “Still ain’t got no sense when it comes to dressin’ yourself, I see,” he teased, brushing dust off the sleeve of Ezra’s coat. “And it looks like you’ve done swapped colors on me—or is this the color of the lucky lady’s eyes?” He laughed out loud when the gambler blushed. “Hot damn, I guess you are in love!”

“With the most wonderful woman on earth,” was Ezra’s reply. “Aren’t the boys with you?”

As if on cue, first one small head and then another appeared at the carriage door. “Pappy? Can we get out now?” At their father’s nod both boys, one a miniature edition of Ben Maverick and the other older and taller with fairer coloring, bounded out to stand at his side. The younger boy cocked his head. “Uncle Ezra?”

Ezra’s face lit up. “Wasn’t certain you’d remember me, Bret,” he drawled, and then dropped to one knee and held out his arms; after a bare second’s hesitation, the two boys rushed him and all but bowled him over. Ezra didn’t seem to mind. “You’ve both grown so much!” He pushed them back and took a good look at them. “I believe some refreshment would be in order after your journey, would it not? If you boys would just run around to the back of the hotel and knock on the kitchen door, I believe tellin’ the woman who answers that I sent you should produce favorable results.”

The boys looked to their father for permission, and at his nod tore off around the side of the hotel. Ezra stood up and dusted himself off, straightening his hat that the enthusiastic greeting had knocked askew. “Lord, how the two of them have grown.”

“Don’t I know it – eatin’ me out of house and home already,” Ben snorted. He smiled down at his shorter friend. “Everyone back home sends their best wishes, got a trunk full of weddin’ presents for you that they kept loadin’ me up with when they found out you were gettin’ married.” He shook his head. “Just don’t eat the red preserves, old Widow Jensen made ‘em.”

The gambler made a face that betrayed past experience with old Widow Jensen’s cooking. “Beets again?”

“She never gives up,” was the older man’s reply. His smile slipped a little. “And speakin’ of people who don’t give up…Maude tried to pass through ‘bout a year ago. Didn’t want to pass something like that along to you in a letter. Things didn’t go so well.”

Ezra sighed. “Who’d she get?”

“Nobody.” Ben didn’t quite smile. “Didn’t go so well for her, was what I meant. We ran her out.” The gambler stared at him, and the older man shook his head. “Word gets around, my friend; ‘bout a year ago, word got around about your saloon. You’ve got a lot of friends down our way, lot of people who remember you with a smile and not a frown, and let me tell you that woman’s reception once they figured out who she was kind of took her by surprise.”

Ezra just shook his head. “I’ve been afraid somethin’ like that might eventually happen here as well,” he said. “A few of my compatriots were none too pleased with her either over that situation, but she is oblivious, as usual.”

Ben lowered his voice. “Ezra, I’m not sure ‘oblivious’ quite covers it anymore; Maude is gettin’ damn careless these past few years—or damn desperate, somethin’ like that. You wrote me about what happened three years ago at Fort Laramie. Were they really goin’ to hang that boy?”

“Yes.” Green eyes hardened at the memory. “And he was just a boy, no older than our Sheriff Dunne—he wasn’t even a fool, just inexperienced in the ways of the world. I was lucky that Judge Travis could see it as well, else that crooked excuse for a lawyer she’d included in her scheme would have happily sent the boy to the gallows for the crime of bein’ young and innocent.” He sighed. “I tried to confront her with it the next time we encountered one another…”

“…You mean the next time she wanted you for a con,” his friend corrected.

Ezra smiled, just a little bitterly. “That too. She accused me of bein’ weak and sentimental and then upbraided me for involvin’ myself in the situation—said mah ‘interference’ had cost her dearly as the good judge had passed the particulars of the case around the circuit and thereby prevented her from usin’ the con again.”

Ben cocked his head. “You tell him to do that?”

“I advised him that it might be wise,” the gambler said with a little twinkle in his eye. “Of course, I didn’t see fit to share that part of the story with Mother; somehow I don’t believe she would be as appreciative as the judge was.”

“Nope, probably not.” Ben patted his friend’s shoulder sympathetically. “Well, you know what they say; you can pick your friends, but you’re stuck with your relatives.”

“Truer words were never spoken—even if they did come from you,” Ezra replied. “You realize that the boys will grow up believin’ all these pearls of wisdom are yours, do you not?”

“Of course!” Ben beamed at him. “If I’m lucky they’ll spend the rest of their lives quotin’ me—they’re startin’ to already. Fifty years from now everyone else will probably believe I came up with all that stuff too.”

“Ah yes, immortality at the price of a few borrowed words; it’s a clever plan, I must say.”

At that point the boys came racing back out of the alley with huge grins on their faces, the older boy carrying a laden napkin. “Uncle Ezra, she had cookies! She gave us some for you and Pappy, too!”

“Did you remember your manners, boys?” their father asked sternly.

“She said we were perfect little Southern gentlemen,” Bret said solemnly. “We helped her bring in wood for the stove.”

“And I carried out the ash bucket and dumped it for her,” Bart added. He gave his adopted uncle a thoughtful look. “If I were just a little bigger I could marry her.”

Ezra held back a grin. “If you were just a little bigger and said that to me, I believe I would have to call you out,” he said with mock seriousness. “As it stands, I believe you shall have to be content with havin’ the lady for your aunt.”

That made both boys very happy, and they immediately darted back around the side of the hotel. Their father rolled his eyes. “Ten to one they’ll both just stand outside the screen starin’ at her.”

“Perhaps I should join them, then,” Ezra chuckled. “Protect my interests from young Bart and get some more cookies as well since the boys took our share with them.”

“Oh, I can see the writin’ on the wall,” Ben mourned, playfully patting the flat front of Ezra’s silk embroidered waistcoat. “Hope for your sake she can let the seams in this out, you’re gonna fatten up in no time.”

“Heaven forbid.” Ezra slapped his hand away. “She’d never allow it; Juliet says too much ‘sign of success’ is unhealthy and shortens a person’s life.” Then he winked. “And she can’t sew to save her life, which saves me the agony of havin’ to wear garments not up to my exactin’ standards.”

“Oh heaven forbid, we couldn’t have that.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Sometimes I just don’t know how a peacock like you survives out here in the wild frontier, Ezra, I really don’t – or at least I wouldn’t if I didn’t know you so damn well.” He slapped the smaller man on the shoulder. “Come on, help me with that monster of a trunk and then let’s go meet this velvet-eyed woman my son wants to take away from you. Don’t know what I’m gonna do with that boy, I’m already seein’ a shotgun wedding in his future and he ain’t even old enough to shave yet.”

Ezra tugged up his end of the heavy trunk with a grunt and a grin. “Well, our Mr. Wilmington seems to have escaped that fate so far, perhaps he might have some advice –I doubt it would be advice fit for Bart’s tender ears, but you might be amused by it. I’ll have to introduce the two of you at supper.”

“I expect to be introduced to everyone.” A more serious note crept into the older man’s face and voice. “No more problems since your last letter, I hope?”

Ezra glanced across the street, seeing Nathan standing on his landing and looking down at them, squinting against the sun to see better, and he shook his head. “No, no more problems. Just…annoyances.”

Ben Maverick was a genial man with a pleasant, deceptively open face that never once betrayed that evening just how much he actually knew about the six men who worked with his friend to protect the small dusty town they had settled in. And how much he knew was a lot, Ezra wrote him regularly and told him everything. Well, almost everything; Ben could tell there was something going on with the McLaughlin family that he didn’t know about, but then two government agents showed up and one of them was the wife-to-be’s uncle so he decided there was probably a good reason Ezra hadn’t said anything and let it go. Gordon and West seemed like good men to him, and they both liked Ezra – and friends in high places couldn’t be a bad thing in Ben’s eyes.

Of course, friends in low places couldn’t either. The next day Ben made his way around the dusty town Ezra had seen fit to settle in and met everyone he could. He wasn’t hiding the fact that he was checking things out, and when Chris said something to him about it in the saloon that afternoon Ben wasn’t embarrassed to talk about it either. “He’s practically my little brother, if he’s plannin’ to stay here I aim to make sure he’s makin’ a good choice,” he told the lawman, unoffended. “Not that I mistrust his judgment, mind you, but sometimes a man sees what he wants to see.”

Chris sat back in his chair, toying with his whiskey. He and Maverick and Jim West had the saloon mostly to themselves at the moment, which was why he’d chosen that particular time to ask some questions he wasn’t sure the Mississippian would answer for a crowd. The gambler was off on patrol and Gordon had gone with him, Buck, JD and Charlie had gotten roped into helping Josiah at the church, and Vin had gone hunting – which Chris knew meant the tracker was checking his bolt-holes on the off chance that a bounty hunter showed up in town. Chris sometimes went with him to do that, but today he’d had questions he wanted to ask. Ezra had introduced Ben Maverick as a good friend, but Maverick’s boys called the gambler ‘Uncle’ just like they were blood related. “So you met him in Mississippi, where you all are from?”

“He showed up on my doorstep in the middle of a hot afternoon,” Ben answered. He’d been wondering when one of these boys Ezra rode with would start asking questions; it was what he would have done. “Kind of funny how things go the way they do. Was toward the end of the War, he had my brother Bertram’s watch and some of his other stuff, said he’d happened on a man dyin’ after some battle who’d asked him to deliver them – guess the fella had promised Bert he’d get ‘em back home to me, let me know what’d happened. Ez handed them over and told me what he knew, then turned around and took two steps and fell flat on his face.” He shook his head, remembering. “Damned swamp fever. I took him in, told everyone he was my brother come back else the Army would have dragged him off to the camps and he would’ve died for sure. He came too damned close as it was. And by the time he was back on his feet the boys were sure he was their uncle and half the neighbors were too, so I just let it be.”

“Happens that way sometimes,” West said with a nod, pouring himself another drink. It had happened a lot during the War – no one wanted to see a boy go to the camps if they could help it, and many Southern families were larger at war’s end than they had been before its beginning in spite of sons and brothers lost to the Union’s bullets. “So I’m guessing you know about his mother.”

“I’ve had the misfortune.” Ben shrugged and took another sip of his own whiskey. “Still no word on where she is?”

“Nope. And I don’t like it.”

“You’d like it less if she was here.”

Chris snorted. “I don’t like it that she’s anywhere – but I’d feel a lot better about this wedding if I knew where ‘anywhere’ was right about now.”

“Not all surprises are good ones,” Ben agreed. He sighed and stretched his legs out under the table. “I don’t think it’s likely, but it is possible she’s tangled up in something right now and can’t get herself out of it to come down here. Once I found out what family Ez is marryin’ into I was surprised Maude wasn’t hangin’ around here already pantin’ after the McLaughlin money.”

It was West’s turn to snort. “Jesse would cut her to pieces – maybe even literally if she was stupid enough to mess with his family. If she knows who he is, she’ll stay clear of him.”

Ben just shook his head, thinking of Maude’s foray into Jasper, of the things his friend had written in his letters…and the things he’d left out. “She would if she was smart,” he told them. “But lately Maude Standish ain’t smart…just dangerous.”

The next day, Tuesday, was a busy day all over town. Chris doubled up his men on their patrols, just in case, and drafted Gordon and West and Charlie Corielle to help out too. Ezra insisted on taking patrol, so Chris made him go out in the morning and then after lunch they all kept him busy moving most of his personal effects from his room above the saloon over to the new house. Juliet had been busy for a time in the new house too until Mrs. Potter had caught up with her; by order of half the women in town, she wasn’t supposed to be working at all on the day before her wedding. Ezra came by the store to ‘rescue’ his fiancée that evening for an early supper, then kissed her goodnight at the door before heading over to the saloon where his friends and half the other men in town were waiting for him. He was hoping that after a handful of toasts the alcohol would help him find the sleep he could already tell would be eluding him this night.

The party went on pretty late, but Ben was still up before dawn and had ended up making a little patrol of his own around the quiet, empty streets of Four Corners. To tell the truth, he’d been unable to sleep. Wedding nerves, that’s what it was, the very ones Ezra was avoiding at the moment thanks to Gordon’s knockout drops from the night before. His friend was still sound asleep at Josiah’s, so Maverick was taking the opportunity to work himself into a state of complete calm by walking around the still-sleeping town; he knew that Ezra would need him to be his anchoring force today.

He had walked the length of two streets when a noise drew his attention. He followed the sound down an alley behind the dry goods store, then followed a heavenly smell over to the kitchen door that was standing partially open. Peeking inside, he smiled. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be doin’ any more work, Miss Juliet?”

Juliet jumped. “Mr. Maverick? Whatevah are you doin’ out there?”

“Just takin’ a walk, saw the kitchen door open and thought I’d see what was goin’ on.” He leaned against the door frame and tipped back his hat. “And apparently somethin’s goin’ on.”

She blushed and rubbed at red eyes. “I just wanted to…to contribute something. They won’t let me help, with anything.” She picked up one of the small cakes she’d been working over and brought it to him. “I thought these might be nice, but I knew I’d have to get up early to make them or Mrs. Potter would stop me.”

Ben took the offered confection and looked at it in astonishment. It was a little iced cake decorated with tiny flowers and curling ribbon made from softly colored sugar icing. He raised an eyebrow. “Miss Juliet, this is darn near too pretty to eat.”

“Go ahead, there are plenty. As a mattah of fact…” Hopeful indigo eyes turned up to him, so sad he caught his breath. “If you’d like a cup of tea, ah’d…ah wouldn’t mind some company.”

Ben swept off his hat with a bow. “I’d be honored,” he told her. Now that he’d gotten a closer look, he wouldn’t have left anyway unless it was to go get the girl’s brother; those eyes weren’t red from slaving over the stove, she’d been crying. He examined the little cake more closely once he was sitting down, comparing it to the others on the full tray right in front of him on the table. “This is just amazing, Miss Juliet, they’re all like tiny little works of art. This is quite a talent you’ve got.”

“That was why I wanted to make the wedding cake, actually.” Juliet finished getting his tea, then sighed and sat down rather heavily in the chair opposite him. “I used to make extra money for school by doing fancy cakes for people and I’d always dreamed of doing my own, I knew exactly how I wanted it to look…”

“And then they wouldn’t let you help,” he finished sympathetically and received a wordless nod in answer. It was the little sniff she tried to drown in her own tea that galvanized him into action; one of the things Ben Maverick prided himself on was his ability to come up with a solution to almost any problem, and he considered letting this gentle little woman sit in the kitchen holding back tears on her wedding day to be a definite problem. His quick mind raced over the situation and almost immediately came up with an answer. He put down his cup decisively. “Miss Juliet, do you have time to bake another cake?”

Her eyes widened. “The oven is still hot enough, I suppose I could. But they won’t let me…”

“They won’t let you make your wedding cake,” he told her pointedly. “It’s supposed to be bad luck, I know. But there is no such superstition about the groom’s cake.” She looked a question at him. “I’m not really surprised no one thought of it, it’s kind of an old fashioned custom, but I think under the circumstances it would be just about right. Now what can I do to help you?”

Juliet’s face lit up, all the enthusiasm that had been missing from it before flooding back in. “You just sit right there,” she ordered, standing up. “I’ll put on more water for tea…”

Two cups of tea later and more little cakes than were really good for him, Ben was watching the two small layers of Ezra’s cake cool while Juliet beat hard icing in a heavy bowl and explained to him how she was going to roll it out to make a smooth covering for the cake. The young woman was as happy as he wanted to see her now, but although she was completely caught up in what she was doing Ben had kept a watchful ear on the back stairs, waiting for Mrs. Potter to come down. He didn’t think the storekeeper would be a problem once she knew what was going on, but he needed to make sure she found out what was going on before she reacted to the kitchen full of illicit wedding cooking and undid everything he’d just accomplished. So when he heard Mrs. Potter coming, long before Juliet did, Ben got up to head her off before she had time to say anything. “Mrs. Potter, just the person I wanted to see,” he greeted her genially – and managed to put himself between her and Juliet at the same time. “I wonder if I might have a word with you, just take a moment. I just have a small question I wanted to ask you, about the wedding.”

Gloria went with him, unwillingly but constrained by politeness from breaking away and going back into the kitchen. Manners didn’t stop her from frowning at him, though. “Mr. Maverick…”

“I snagged one of these for you, here you go,” he interrupted, holding out a petit four to her. “I doubt they’ll last long once everyone sees them.”

“I…” She took the little cake with an even deeper frown that went past Ben toward the kitchen. “I told Juliet she wasn’t to…”

“Oh yes, my question – I’ll be quick, I know you want to get in there and watch her do the cake; when I saw these little ones I halfway wondered if she made them with a magic wand.” He gestured at the petit four to refocus her attention. “My question was this, Mrs. Potter, and please forgive me for pokin’ my nose in…but did any of you, even once, ask that little girl what she wanted for this wedding?”

Gloria’s eyes flew up to his in shock. “What do you mean? It’s her…” Maverick cupped his hand under hers, lifting the cake up to eye level so she had a good view of a tiny spray of forget-me-nots. “Oh. Oh dear.”

“She told me she used to do fancy cakes for people to make money,” Ben informed her gently. “Said she’d known just how she wanted to do her own for a long time.” He cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t suppose any of you asked her why she wanted to make the cake, did you?”

“No.” Gloria heaved a sigh, shaking her head. “We just told her it was bad luck and she finally stopped asking.” She raised an eyebrow of her own. “So exactly what sort of cake is it you’ve got her baking right now, may I ask? There’s already a stack cake for the wedding.”

“She’s makin’ the groom’s cake,” Ben told her, and smiled at her look of surprise. “I know, I know – last groom’s cake I saw was before the War. But old fashioned or not, makin’ it will make her happy and I think a bride should be happy on her wedding day, don’t you? Not just done cryin’ and tryin’ not to start again like she was when I found her.”

“Oh dear,” Gloria repeated. “I just didn’t think. Everyone wanted to help…”

“Miss Juliet did too.” It wasn’t an accusation. Ben offered her his arm. “Now, I don’t know about you but I want to see how she does it, and if you don’t mind she said I could sit in the kitchen while she worked. Care to join me?”

Gloria looked at him for a moment, then smiled back and took the offered arm. “I’d be delighted, Mr. Maverick. It’s going to be quite the busy day, I believe having a nice relaxing sit-down before it starts would be just the thing.”

Ben left the Potters’ once the cake was mostly done and wandered over to the hotel and up to his room to wake his sons and bring them down for breakfast. He didn’t want any breakfast himself after all the cake he’d already eaten, so he drank black coffee while the boys ate and watched townsfolk and guests alike trickle in as the morning progressed. The wedding itself wouldn’t happen until noon, but he knew that the half-empty dining room was mostly due to people anticipating the feast they’d have after the ceremony. Josiah brought Ezra in before long, leaving him for Ben to wake up the rest of the way with more coffee while the preacher went about his own preparations for the wedding. And once both breakfast and waking up had been leisurely accomplished, the two men saw the boys cleaned up and left to help the working girls set up tables in the churchyard while they met up with Chris and Vin at the saloon, had one final, nerve-settling drink, and then set about getting Ezra ready for his bride.

Ezra’s room above the saloon looked barren and odd without the big feather bed the gambler loved so much; the bed, and most all of his other possessions except for the clothes he’d be wearing to his wedding and a few necessary toiletries, had been taken over to the house the day before. The mirror was still there, though, atop its clean but battered dresser, and the window was rapidly becoming curtained with shadows as the sun ascended over the rooftop’s peak.

Ben slapped Ezra’s hands away for the third time and glared down at the smaller man. “Ez, you leave that damned tie alone or I’m gonna strangle you with it! Vin, Chris, help me out here.” Grinning, the two men obligingly pinned the nervous Southerner’s arms down to his sides while the silk scarf was retied one more time. “Dammit, you’d think you’ve never done this before, Ezra!”

“It has been twelve years,” was the nervous reply. Ezra looked out the window and then around the bare room; his arms twitched, and he suddenly became aware of the restraining hands. “Kindly unhand me, gentlemen!”

“Naw, you’ll just go fer your tie again,” Vin drawled, tightening his grip slightly. “Ez, you act like you’re afraid she won’t show up or somethin’.”

Wide green eyes flickered up to his and then looked just as quickly away. Chris cuffed him lightly with his free hand. “You idiot; do we have to remind you this is the same woman who defended your sorry ass to two vicious little bitches who had a knife at her throat? Now don’t make me have to explain to her why I felt like I had to hit her husband before the wedding, okay?”

“Her husband would hit you back,” Ezra informed him, then flexed his arms again and amended, “Or at least kick you – and then you’d have to be explainin’ to Mrs. Travis why you were walkin’ funny at my weddin’ and couldn’t dance.” His green eyes twinkled. “But ah suppose that would give you an excuse for not bein’ able to dance, wouldn’t it?”

Chris scowled down at him. “I can dance, you little Southern shit. And I’ll prove it to you this afternoon. It’s Vin that can’t dance.”

The tracker rolled his eyes. “Oh no, he already roped you, Cowboy; I’m not steppin’ into that one just because you did.” He winked at Ezra. “Got a bet with Mrs. Travis, huh Ez?”

“Mrs. Travis is far too much a lady to gamble,” Ezra told him, and grinned. “But she may have happened to mention in my hearin’ that she had no hopes Mr. Larabee here would deign to dance with her durin’ today’s festivities.”

“And then Buck bet with him that she was right,” Ben added. He finished with the scarf and stepped back to look at it, and the other two men let go their hold on the gambler. “Perfect, if I do say so myself – now keep your hands off it so it stays that way. And I think that little woman of yours may have somethin’ here, Ez,” he observed, nodding thoughtfully. “This does look a sight better than that stiff collar you’re supposed to be wearin’ would have.”

Ezra snorted. “When Juliet saw the collar she looked at me like ah’d lost my mind and asked why ah’d want to put on such a ridiculous lookin’ thing,” he said. “There was no way ah was goin’ to wear it after that.”

Chris muttered something about a peacock under his breath. Vin made a show of looking behind the gambler, then shook his head. “Nope, no peacock feathers back here. She must’ve plucked ‘em all. I’m sure they’ll grow back, though; they always do.”

“Mistah Tannah, keep that wit up and ah’ll make sure you don’t get any cake,” Ezra threatened. He lifted one hand toward his throat, then stopped himself when the other three men glared at him. “Ah suppose we should be gettin’ to the church, no doubt Josiah is waitin’ for us.”

“Might be best to get in there before the throng descends,” Ben agreed. He threw an arm around his friend’s shoulders and started moving him toward the door. “Just think, in less than an hour you’ll be married to the best cook in the territory, Ez.”

“Ah’ll be married to much more than that,” the gambler replied, letting the supporting arm guide him without resistance. He was feeling a little dazed and he knew Ben knew it; even after the past few months of preparation the situation still seemed somehow…unreal. Especially since there’d been no sign of Maude in all that time.

He only hoped there’d be no sign of her for just less than an hour more.

The last stragglers had entered the church; it was time. Artemus took his leave of his partner at the doors of the church and crossed the street, little puffs of dust kicking up in his wake. He was rather surprised that Juliet hadn’t met him halfway, but surmised that Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Travis had probably prevented her from leaving until he came for her. He rolled his eyes. Traditions. Ben had told him about that morning’s encounter in Mrs. Potter’s kitchen, and the agent was still kicking himself for not seeing the problem and dealing with it earlier – thank goodness he wasn’t so thoughtless at work, for the country’s sake. Artemus tugged at his lapels and pushed open the door of the dry goods store, a hot slice of high noon sunlight following him inside. “Well, Juliet, are you…” And then he froze there, one hand still on the door, trying to take in what he was seeing. “Oh my lord,” he whispered.

Ezra was fidgeting again, and Josiah was determinedly ignoring Chris’ repeated gestures urging him to smack the smaller man upside the head to make him stop; in truth, the preacher was almost as nervous as the gambler, he was just hiding it better. He was about to send Vin to see what was keeping the rest of the wedding party when Bart and Bret pushed open the church doors and Gordon walked in with Juliet on his arm.

A breathless silence fell over all assembled, and Mary, Gloria and Meg beamed at each other as they slipped in behind her; after much fruitless searching for just the right pattern they had finally ended up using a picture from one of Billy’s fairy tale books. That particular volume had been a gift from the boy’s grandfather and was graced with delicately colored illustrations by a prominent European artist; one particular plate showed Snow White on her wedding day, and the obvious similarities between the fabled runaway princess and their little Juliet had inspired the three women. The gown they had created thanks to Meg’s skill with a needle was beautiful and fanciful and yet simple enough not to be ridiculous in the rustic environment of Four Corners – the plain white dress underneath the floating cloud of sheer illusion and lace could be dyed to a more serviceable color after the wedding. A dainty white lace mantilla, a gift from Inez, crowned Juliet’s unbound ebony tresses instead of a veil; the softly colored light from Josiah’s makeshift stained-glass window caught on the small gems sewn here and there in the lace headcovering, creating a soft, transient sparkle that was nothing short of magical.

Josiah recovered himself first, and he beamed at the openmouthed gambler. “Well, son,” he said very softly. “For three years I’ve been hearing folks say that someday you’d get what was coming to you; looks like today’s the day.”

Ezra barely heard him, so transfixed was he by the vision Gordon was leading toward them, but he recovered himself enough to take Juliet’s hand – the hand wearing his ring – when the agent offered it to him. The formal passing over of the bride wasn’t traditional or even common, but Gordon had decided it was a necessary gesture; there were still some in Four Corners who doubted the wisdom of he and Jesse ‘allowing’ Juliet to marry the gambler, and making a show of giving away the bride would settle them. The agent stepped back once Ezra had drawn his small bride up beside him, graciously ushering Meg into her bridesmaid’s place opposite Ben before retiring to the pew his partner was sitting in. If he was actually swiping away something when he rubbed at his eyes as he sat down, West graciously pretended he hadn’t seen what it was.

Josiah cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. He’d thought long and hard on what words to use, and had finally settled on a ceremony somewhere between one he’d once heard his father intone under a revival tent and the plainly beautiful words of a wedding he’d been privileged to attend in a meeting house of the Society of Friends. “Brother’s and sisters,” he rumbled. “Today we come together to witness the fulfillment of a sacred trust as old as the hallowed Garden of Eden, the joining of man and woman in the holy bond of matrimony. These two of our Lord’s children come before us, their friends and family, to pledge to each other their love and fidelity and their commitment to live for the rest of their lives as husband and wife.” He fixed a hard eye on the assembled. “If there are any here who say that this joining should not occur, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

He gave it a minute, but no one said anything – not that anyone probably would have dared once Chris turned around in his seat with a look on his face just short of a glare. Had Mary elbowed the gunslinger for that? Josiah was pretty sure she had, and it was difficult for him to keep the grin off his face as he continued. “In the presence of our Lord God and these witnesses, then, I ask you, Ezra Standish, if you intend to cleave to this woman as flesh of your own flesh and blood of your own blood as commanded in the Holy Bible, forsaking all others in your duty to be her loving and faithful husband?”

Ezra was still staring at Juliet; Josiah had to wonder if he’d even registered the words or if he was just responding to the sound of the question being directed at him – or if Ben had surreptitiously nudged him from behind. “With all mah heart,” the gambler said softly.

The big preacher smiled. “Juliet, I ask you, do you pledge yourself to commit to this man as our Lord’s gift of a helpmate to him, forsaking all others in your duty to be a loving and faithful wife for as long as you both shall live?”

Juliet wasn’t looking at him either, but she blushed prettily as she smiled at Ezra. “Ah do.”

Josiah let the grin through this time, reaching down to enfold the two smaller, still-clasped hands in his own larger ones. “Then by the grace of our Lord and in the presence of these witnesses, I now declare you man and wife. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder!”

Ben didn’t have to nudge Ezra this time; the gambler swept his new bride into his arms and kissed her soundly while the quiet church erupted into stamping and cheers…which faded into awed gasps and murmured invocations of deity when an errant ray of sun crept through one of the shards of colored glass overhead and haloed the young couple in heavenly blue light. Josiah’s smile widened. He’d seen it happen a few times during the past week at about this time of day and had hoped the conditions would be right for it to happen during the ceremony – it might only be a bounce of refracted light, but it looked like a sign from Above and most people would see it as God’s own blessing on the marriage. And, he thought to himself, it might very well be exactly that. He didn’t understand why Juliet’s brother Jesse had just winked at him, though…

Ezra broke off kissing his wife just before it would have become indecent, smiled down into her eyes and then offered her his arm. “Shall we, ma cherie?”

She returned the smile, something of the already fading blue light lingering in her eyes in much the same way it still glittered in the tiny winking gems decorating her headcovering. “We shall, mon cher amour.”

People were beginning to stand up now, and as the young couple walked slowly down the aisle together with Ben and Meg arm in arm behind them and Josiah trailing along after that the townsfolk of Four Corners pressed in from both sides to offer their best wishes, conveyed by handshakes for Ezra and affectionate kisses for Juliet. Bart and Bret had briefly abandoned their positions as doorkeepers to claim hugs and kisses of their own, but before they could return to their posts the church doors flew open, sending at least a dozen people into high alert and causing eight guns to be drawn and aimed with frightening speed. Ezra wasn’t wearing his, but he was just as quick to wrap a protective arm around his startled wife; he scowled at the person standing in the doorway. “Ah see you decided to make an entrance, Mother,” he said disgustedly. “Howevah, I don’t believe this was the wisest time or place for it.”

Maude stalked in, ignoring the guns still pointed at her, and looked down at the wide-eyed woman standing between herself and her son for one assessing moment before dismissing her and focusing her attention instead on the man standing behind her. “I came here as quickly as I could to stop you makin’ this dreadful mistake, Ezra, but it appears I am too late…again.” That caused more than one gasp, and Ezra stiffened. “But luckily this time your…attachment is mainly sentimental as no one of consequence has witnessed it. I’ve had enough of your flagrant disobedience, Ezra; you’re comin’ with me right now and no more nonsense!”

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Josiah started to laugh; Ezra joined him, much to Maude’s indignation. “Ezra, how old are you again?” the preacher chuckled. “I could have sworn you were old enough to be out of short pants, son.”

“At thirty-two ah should be,” was the amused reply. “Howevah, it appears my dear mother has a different opinion of the mattah.” He tightened his arm around Juliet in a reassuring squeeze. “Mother, ah believe you have yet to meet mah wife, Juliet; Juliet, mah at the moment rather mannerless mother, Maude Standish—ah assure you, darlin’, she is usually quite charmin’.”

Juliet immediately extended one small hand. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs. Standish,” she said sweetly.

Maude looked down at the offered hand and then up a little farther into the wide indigo eyes that were sincere if more than a little apprehensive; her expression became contemptuous. “Ezra, you cannot be serious about this; I refuse to believe you have become this lost to all reason…”

“All right, that’s enough.” Ben didn’t raise his voice but his tone said he meant business. He moved past Ezra and looked down at Juliet. “Mrs. Standish, your brother and I will take care of this.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then turned back to Maude and grabbed the woman’s arm; Jesse already had the other one. “And now, Miss Maude, I believe that we have business to attend to outside.”

“There’s nothing to worry about, Juliet,” Jesse reassured his sister, and then he and Ben led Maude out of the church. Jesse frowned when he took note of the loaded table outside, and at his urging they steered the conwoman over to it. “Girls,” he addressed Molly and Becky. “Did this woman come anywhere near this food, did she even come near the table?”

Both working girls looked at Maude and shook their heads. “She looked at it awful hard before she went bustin’ in there, though,” Becky qualified.

Maude couldn’t hold back a little gasp as Jesse’s grip on her arm became bruising. “Thank you, girls,” he said, and then the two men dragged Maude off again. Once they were well away from the church they stopped, and the conwoman found herself backed against an unyielding wooden wall. JD came hurrying up after them, and Jesse smiled tightly at him. “Making sure we don’t break the law, Sheriff?”

JD grinned back. “Nope, making sure you have plenty of backup – wouldn’t put it past her to try to come back later and say you did something you didn’t.”

“Good thinkin’,” Ben approved. He glared down at Maude. “Now I’d ask you just what the hell you thought you were up to, but I’m pretty sure I already know.”

The conwoman scowled up at him. “I don’t believe we are acquainted, sir.”

Ben snorted. “You only wish – I’m just about positive you remember us runnin’ you out of Jasper, since you ain’t been back.”

“And you and I haven’t been introduced yet,” Jesse told her before she could answer. “But rest assured I know all about you. Judge Calloway doesn’t have a very high opinion of you, by the way.”

Maude paled a little but didn’t back down. “He’s not here.”

“No, but he wanted to be,” Jesse said. “And since you brought it up by saying no one of consequence witnessed Ezra and my sister’s marriage…” He smiled, not nicely. “Well, I think I’m someone of consequence. So is Maverick here, and Sheriff Dunne, not to mention all the other lawmen who were present, the bank manager, several prominent local business owners and all the other good people of Four Corners.”

“And I can just imagine not a one of them’s too impressed that you dismissed them out of hand the way you just did,” Ben smirked at her. “You really need to think about quittin’ the business, Maude, you’ve lost your touch and then some.”

She tried to yank her arm out of his grasp again. “If that ungrateful boy of mine would just put his God-given talents to work to help me…”

“He’s not a con, Maude.” Ben shook his head. “You still just don’t get it, do you? Ezra’s not like you, you can’t make him be like you. He’s a good man, and he uses his ‘God-given talents’ to do good things – that’s why the good Lord has let him keep them all this time. You, on the other hand…”

“That was stupid of you, to come into the church like that,” Jesse said, shaking his head as well. “We made sure the whole town knew about you, of course, but there were probably a few of them who didn’t really believe it.” He smiled at her again. “You took care of that. I don’t think you’re going to be too welcome in Four Corners or Eagle Bend any time soon.”

“She’s not welcome here now,” JD chimed in, looking serious and not at all like he’d been just standing there enjoying the show – which he had. “Ma’am, I don’t want you in my town, and if there wasn’t a wedding going on right now I’d have some of the boys take you out. I’m not gonna do that to them, though, since it’s one of our own that’s just got married, so you can just cool your heels at the hotel until the party’s over and then we’ll see you on your way.” He took Jesse’s place. “Go on back to your sister, Mr. McLaughlin, and let her know everything’s okay.”

“Can do, Sheriff.” Jesse’s smile grew dimples at the look on the conwoman’s face when she recognized his name. “See, I told you I was someone of consequence. I’d say it was a pleasure meeting you…but it wasn’t.” He leaned forward, something suddenly dangerous and frighteningly unnatural sparkling in his eyes. “You don’t want to mess with me, Maude Standish, and I’ll warn you just this once not to ever try it again. Ever. Do we understand each other? Because money isn’t the only power I’ve got and I don’t like you.”

If Maude could have pushed herself backwards through the wall, she probably would have. But just as suddenly the unnatural sparkle was gone and Jesse was tipping his hat to the other two men and heading back to the church, leaving a shaken and somewhat subdued conwoman in his wake. Ben shook her arm slightly as he pulled her away from the wall. “You gonna stay where we put you, Maude?” He wasn’t sure what it was Jesse had done, but whatever it was he wished he had some of it too; a little chill worked its way up his spine at that thought and he hurriedly set it aside. “Come on now, then, I want to get back to the party. There’s a sittin’ room in the hotel has a nice view of things, you can watch everyone from there.”

Maude didn’t say a word or put up any more fight as JD and Ben took her up to the hotel’s upstairs sitting room and locked her in, nor did she get out one of the picks she had concealed about her person to effect her own emancipation. She had miscalculated, badly it seemed, and she needed to think over the situation before doing anything else. She was already pushing what she’d seen in Jesse McLaughlin’s eyes out of her mind, noting to herself only that she needed to account for him carefully in whatever future plans she might make. The man was beyond wealthy, by all accounts. Maude made a face. If she only hadn’t reacted so precipitously to the news that Ezra was getting married…but it was too late to repair that damage now. She could watch, the Mississippian she only vaguely remembered had said, and perhaps that wasn’t a bad idea; she could observe the goings on in the street below and perhaps learn something that would be of use to her later. Pulling the room’s most comfortable chair over to the window, Maude settled herself in it and arranged the curtains so that she could not be seen by anyone, gritting her teeth in irritation when she saw Ezra come out with that little chit of a girl he’d attached himself to on his arm, surrounded by riffraff. She pushed her anger down, knowing it would come up again as she watched but also knowing this was information she had to have. She wasn’t going to make any more mistakes.

After Maude’s removal the crowd had surrounded Ezra and Juliet again – protectively, this time – and swept them outside into the churchyard. Juliet was whisked away from her husband’s side by Mrs. Potter and Meg, Buck trotting after them with his hand on his gun. Ezra had to smile when he heard Chris inform the ladies’ man that no he could not shoot to kill if Maude popped back up. “Ah’m not sure ah agree with that prohibition,” the gambler told Vin.

“There’s worse fates than death,” the tracker responded with a shrug, his blue eyes tracking Jesse as the limping man came back into the party and loudly reassured everyone that the problem had been taken care of before heading off after his sister. Oh yep, there were worse fates, all right - and Vin thought being on Jesse McLaughlin’s bad side was probably one of them. Pissing off Chris and the rest of them hadn’t been too bright of Maude either, but then Vin had never been convinced that the woman was as smart as some other people seemed to think she was. “And ain’t it bad luck to hold a funeral and a weddin’ at the same time?”

Ezra snorted. “Ah’d say it depends on who’s funeral it is, actually.” Ben appeared then from the direction of the hotel and came straight to Ezra’s side. “Well?” the gambler asked him.

“Deep subject,” the older man answered with a grin. He slapped his smaller friend on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, that brother-in-law of yours put the fear into her and then Sheriff Dunne and I locked her up in the hotel’s sittin’ room for the duration – she’ll stay there,” he reassured Ezra quickly. “Ain’t nowhere for her to go without someone seein’ her and raisin’ the alarm. And Jesse checked when we brought her out, she didn’t get nowhere near the tables before she came bustin’ into the church.”

“Thank goodness for small favors,” Ezra replied. He patted his jacket, grimacing when he remembered he’d left his flask behind with his guns. “I suppose we should go investigate the tables ourselves, I find I am in need of a libation.”

“Can’t blame you for that.” Ben pulled out his own flask and handed it over as they moved back toward the feast that was still being spread out by Mrs. Abbott and the girls. The stack cake dominated the main table, there having been so many layers brought that they’d been forced to make two stacks and consequently had a huge cake as wide as a serving tray. But the little cake that sat close beside it drew almost equal astonishment; small and round and only two layers high, cascades of flowers festooned the top and dripped down the linen-smooth sides to scatter stray blossoms across the wider bottom layer, which was ornamented at its edge with a beribboned garland. Ben nudged Ezra with his elbow. “I saw her makin’ that one,” he said with a grin. “That’s the groom’s cake, you lucky dog. She told me she used to decorate cakes for people to help pay for her schoolin’, although with a talent like she’s got I don’t know what she needed school for in the first place.”

Ezra smiled and shook his head. “Would you believe me if I told you she’d been led to believe by countless people that her skill in the kitchen was rather pedestrian?”

“I’d believe you, I just wouldn’t believe them,” was the slightly snorted reply. “World is fillin’ up with idiots, if you ask me.”

“Apparently,” Ezra said. He moved quickly to flick away a finger that was about to poke at a dainty sugar rose. “Mistah Tanner, you will keep your appendages away from mah cake!”

The tracker blushed. “I just wanted to see how she did it…”

“You mean you wanted to see if it would come off so you could taste it…”

“Boys!” Mrs. Abbott swept up to them scolding. “Vin Tanner, you stay away from that. If you want to eat a flower there are some petit fours at the other end of the table you can investigate to your heart’s content.” Vin grinned widely and darted away, and she shook her head. “That boy, I swear. And he never gains an ounce.”

She swept off again, and Ezra with Ben sticking close to his side made the rounds of the happy townsfolk until his little wife was returned to him by her brother. “All right, cherie?” he asked, putting his arm around her slender shoulders.

Juliet smiled up at him. “Ah’m all right, Ezra; Mrs. Potter just wanted to tell me something before…tonight.”

Jesse was trying not very successfully not to laugh, and Ezra knew why; he and Jesse had already had a talk of their own about ‘modern’ women and what they knew about marital relations. “Very thoughtful of her,” he chuckled. “And now perhaps we should get started on the other weddin’ formalities so ah can have that glorious cake mah lovely wife made just for me.”

“You are not going to eat that whole cake by yourself,” Ben informed him. “The first piece is yours, then you have to share – at least with your best man. And your brother-in-law,” he added, nodding at Jesse.

“Nice save, Ben,” Jesse commended with a wink as he steered them back toward the tables, gesturing to Chris across the crowd to come join them. “I’m holding you to that, you know.”

Other people saw where the gunslinger was going and started to move in that direction as well, and once everyone had gathered around Chris held up a hand for quiet. “All right, now that our little…interruption’s been settled, let’s get on with things. Ben?”

Punch was being passed throughout the crowd, and once most everyone had some Maverick started his toast. “I only met Ezra’s beautiful bride a few days ago,” he began. “But I’d heard about her, from his letters, and I must admit I had a hard time believing any woman could be all that I was reading. But once I came here and saw for myself…well, he didn’t exaggerate, not one little bit. Ezra found the perfect woman, a wonderfully generous, industrious, kind woman who I believe loves him as much as he loves her.” He held up his cup. “To the bride.”

The townsfolk echoed him enthusiastically, and Juliet hid her blush against Ezra’s waistcoat. The gambler tightened his hold on her reassuringly while raising his own cup with his free hand. “All true, cherie,” he whispered.

Chris heard and smiled at them before picking up where Ben had left off. “In the interest of keeping this short, the boys and I decided that I would speak for all of the lawmen of Four Corners,” he told the crowd, making a face when Buck cheered that on. “I’ve known Ezra for three years now, and I’m proud to ride beside him any day of the week. He makes a fine lawman, a fine friend, and I know he’ll make a fine husband to his new wife. Best of luck to you, Ezra!”

More toasts followed, from Jesse, Gordon and West, and a few of the other men in town; it wasn’t proper for women to raise a toast of their own in mixed company, but they joined in the cheering all the same. Toasting was followed by the cutting of the wedding cake – the stack cake first, which had to be done by Juliet for superstition’s sake to prevent the marriage being barren. Ezra’s groom’s cake was cut next, and then the tables were pretty much descended on by the townsfolk and remained a focal point even after the fiddler had started playing and most of the younger people, including the bride and groom, had left off eating in favor of dancing.

Nathan watched the dancers with a frown, but his displeasure was directed at himself. There had been good times, he remembered, good times he had tried his best to forget because to remember was to admit that his master had not been the consistently cruel, rapacious bastard the War had painted him as—and to admit that would have been unthinkable.

He had run away from the plantation the night his master died, as had many of the others; the overseer and his men had been conspicuous by their absence that night—something else Nathan had tried not to think about. Maybe it was time to start thinking again, time to start being honest with himself…and with his friends.

His frown giving way to a small smile, the tall healer made his way to the fiddler and murmured a request; the old man’s eyebrows went up in surprise, but when Nathan nodded and looked pointedly toward Ezra he answered with a smile and nod of his own and stuck the fiddle back under his chin.

When the opening bars of music darted out among the waiting dancers Ezra jerked like he’d been shot; he wasn’t the only one. But when his surprised green eyes fell on Nathan standing beside the musician, shock was superseded by understanding…and grateful acceptance. He gravely saluted the relieved black man and then turned back to his wondering partner.

Nathan saw words exchanged between the two, and saw Juliet dart up on tiptoe to kiss her husband’s cheek before moving purposefully in his direction; he abruptly found himself looking down—quite a ways down – into a pair of wide indigo eyes. “Mistah Jackson,” she said, extending a dainty hand that shook only slightly. “Ah believe you are the only man present who hasn’t danced with me.”

The healer reached automatically for the small hand, then shot a look in Ezra’s direction; the gambler grinned and nodded, then made his way to the sidelines and made a very respectful bow to a very startled Janey as he invited her to share the dance with him. Soon nearly everybody was dancing to the rallying song of a cause long since lost, and the last ghost of the Confederacy was laid to rest in Four Corners.

From behind the curtained window of the hotel sitting room, Maude watched the festivities with a mixture of anger and contempt. “That disrespectful, ungrateful, disappointin’ boy,” she seethed, seeing her son swap partners with Nathan Jackson and then swing his small new wife up into the air with a brilliant smile that she well remembered from another face, another time. She was positive now he hadn’t married the girl for her brother’s money, much as she’d hoped it might have been so. “After all ah’ve done to insure that he wouldn’t become a weak, sentimental fool, the disgraceful child still turned out just like his father…”

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