Bounty on a Baron

Chapter Three

Decker had to awaken the liveryman to get his horse taken care of, and then he had to rouse the desk clerk at the hotel in order to get a room. He had just removed his boots and shirt when there was a knock at his door. He answered it, his gun in hand.

It was Viola. Her dark hair fell loosely about her pale shoulders, and she had changed into a dress with a very revealing neckline. He had a tantalizing view of the creamy cleft between her breasts.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, what kind of way is that to greet a lady?” she asked.

“I wasn’t expecting you. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

“Oh, I’m not disappointed.”

“Then can I come in?”

“I, uh—what for?” Decker asked.

“Rigger told me…that you chose me,” she said, looking puzzled. “Isn’t that true?”

“Well, it…it’s true and it’s not,” Decker said, annoyed that he was stammering. He was not exactly a ladies’ man, although he knew what to do with a lady when he wanted her.

“I’m confused.”

“Don’t be,” Decker said, “and don’t be offended, but I’m really not looking for any company tonight.”

“Oh, I see,” she said. “You tell a lady to get lost but you don’t want her to be offended.”

“There’s no reason for you to be offended,” Decker said. “You’re very lovely, but—”

“Don’t you like girls?”

“I like girls just fine,” Decker snapped. “I just don’t want to take anything from Joe Rigger right now.”

She frowned. “I thought you were friends.”

“Not exactly.”

“Now I am confused,” she said, “but not offended.”

“That’s good.”

“How long will you be in town?”

“Probably not very long.”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s a pity. Well, good night, then.”

“Good night.”

After she had gone he sat on the bed and wondered if he hadn’t made a mistake sending her away, then decided that he hadn’t, and went to sleep.

He had a dream, and in the dream he was twenty-one and was accused of killing a woman.

He had been hired by the woman’s husband to do odd jobs around their ranch. The woman was older than he by about ten years, but she was a very handsome female. Although it wasn’t easy, Decker had managed to decline her advances.

Unfortunately, she did not take his rejection kindly and told her husband he tried to rape her. Decker and the man had a huge fight, during which Decker knocked the man down in front of his wife. Doubly embarrassed, the man fired Decker and never paid him the money he owed him for the work he’d already done. That was fine with Decker, though. He just wanted to get away from both of them.

He dreamt he was leaving town on foot when the posse rode up and arrested him for raping and killing her.

The husband had told them that Decker did it. Then in his dream Decker saw himself in court, where a judge eagerly convicted him.

The sheriff of the town believed Decker to be innocent, but Decker was convicted and sentenced to hang.

In the dream Decker could feel the noose around his neck, and he could smell his own fear…

Suddenly he awoke, still smelling that old fear. He rose and went to the pitcher and basin on the dresser and washed away the stench of his fear.

He remembered what had happened while he was waiting for the trapdoor to be sprung from beneath him.

He had actually gotten as far as the gallows, and the hangman had put the noose over his neck. Decker had given himself up for dead, had known that within seconds he would be executed for a crime he’d never committed. It had only been at the last moment that Mike Farrell, the sheriff, brought the real killer in and made him confess.

The killer was the husband.

Decker was not the first one that the woman had thrown herself at. That, combined with the fact that Decker had knocked him down, made the man angry enough to attack his own wife. In his fury he had killed her by accident, then, frightened, he had blamed Decker.

Nobody apologized. In fact, when Decker had walked down from the gallows nobody was even there anymore. They’d gone home disappointed that they weren’t going to see a hanging.

Sheriff Mike Farrell resigned and left town after that, and Decker rode with him for a short time. Farrell tried to get Decker to take up being a lawman, but Decker had other ideas.

He became a bounty hunter. His reasoning was that he wanted to be able to get to the ones who were going to be hanged and satisfy himself that they were guilty before he handed them over to the law. He didn’t want what happened to him to happen to any other innocent man—ever.

The noose that he carried was a reminder of what had almost happened to him and why he took up bounty hunting. Every once in a while he lost sight of his reason, but the noose never failed to bring it back to him.

He dried his face and chest, wiping the towel under his arms, where the smell of fear persisted.

He returned to the bed then, wishing he had a bottle of whiskey in the room with him.

Actually, he was wishing he had Viola in the room with him. She would have kept him from thinking of his past, and might have kept him from dreaming about it.

The knock on the door in the morning woke him. As he opened his eyes he couldn’t even remember falling asleep. Cautiously he opened the door to find Viola standing in the hall.

“Good morning,” he said.

She sniffed and said, “You smell terrible.”

“I had a bad night,” he muttered. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this return engagement?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. Joe sent me over to invite you to breakfast.”

“When and where?”

“His room, half an hour.”

“Tell him I’ll be there.”

“Do everybody a favor,” she said.

“What?”

“Take a bath first.”