Page 160 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

Returning to her room, she brushed out the tangles from her hair then washed and dressed. Back in the kitchen, she put the skillet on the stove to heat and set the bacon to fry. Meanwhile, she mixed batter for pancakes, and put water on to heat for coffee.

“Go and get dressed, please girls,” she called, and poured the pancake batter into the pre heated pan.

“Oh look, Ma, its Uncle Ned! He must have come back with Pa!” Grace yelled excitedly.

Verity froze; she didn’t take in the ‘uncle’ part of Grace’s news at all. She focussed entirely on the ‘Ma.’ It was the first time that either of the twins had called her Ma and tears flooded her eyes. Mercy wandered in and smiled sweetly at her. Impulsively, Verity hugged the girl to her.

“I love you!” she told the child.

Grace ran over and flung her arms about them.

“Both of you,” Verity added dropping a kiss on each child’s head.

“We love you too, Ma!” Mercy responded.

“We do,” Grace agreed, so naturally that Verity had to hold back tears of joy.

“Scoot now and get yourselves washed and dressed, Pa’s here for his breakfast,” she told them, mopping her eyes and smiling.

“And Uncle Ned!” Grace reminded her. The girls scampered away to their room.

Verity heard two deep voices approach. She hoped the atmosphere between her and Jake wouldn’t be awkward, or strained in front of his brother. The screen door banged.

“Verity, this here is my brother, Ned. He’d like a word with you.”

She turned around; a polite and welcoming smile pasted on her face. Her smile faded as she stared incredulously at the two Jakes who stood before her.

“Come, sit over here and let me explain something to you, ma’am,” one of the Jakes said. Bemused, Verity did as he suggested, plonking herself down onto a chair. The ache in her backside instantly reminded her of her husband’s promise that she would feel his chastisement for a few days to come; she wriggled uncomfortably on her seat.

“It’s real nice to meet my new sister-in-law. I’m Ned, Jake’s brother, an’ sheriff of St Elmo. I used to be a Texas Ranger until I heard that my twin, Jake, had settled here in Colorado, on the family ranch, helping our Pa to run things. I decided I’d had enough of Texas, and the lowdown rotten scum I was expected to catch. I came home to Colorado, but I was never one for ranching. When Pa up and died, I took my share of the ranch in cash, bought me a house in town and got married. I accepted the job of sheriff. It seems the old sheriff had enough of law enforcement an’ wanted to retire, which suited me.”

Ned paused and Verity nodded to show she understood his tale so far. She had a pretty good idea where this was leading and cast a quick glance at Jake, who she saw was watching her closely.

Both men had the same chiselled faces, presently set in firm lines. On closer inspection, it struck her there were certain differences between the two brothers. Their eye color for instance. Jake’s eyes were an intense golden brown, whereas Ned’s were of a more tawney. His hair was much darker too, while his face looked leaner, verging on thin. She decided she’d know them apart because the timbre of Jake’s voice was slightly deeper than his twin brothers.

“Two years back, a Ranger came here to warn me that a man I’d put in the penitentiary for several violent crimes, had been released. Seemed the no-good sonofabitch held a grudge against me and was threatening to come after me and mine. Eventually he arrived here in town, but apart from gambling and drinking he did nothing I could arrest him for.” He paused and Verity glanced over at Jake, this time he met her eyes square on and held out his hand to her. She gave hers over gladly. Gently he squeezed her fingers. They stayed that way with their hands knotted, resting across the table.

“Thing is, this man, Billy Tucker, didn’t know I had a twin. He must have seen Jake in town one day an’ mistook him for me. Sonofabitch followed my brother back here an’ waited until Jake left the house range before he snuck in and attacked and murdered poor Megan.” Ned paused, this time to hold the bridge of his nose. It was obvious he felt a deep sorrow at Megan’s unfair demise.

Jake placed his free hand on his brother’s shoulder and squeezed.

“It’s not your fault, Ned. I told you that,” he said huskily.

Ned nodded. There was a period of silence, broken only by the comforting tick of the mantle clock.

After a while Ned resumed his tale. “I put two an’ two together and hunted for the no-good murdering scum. I tracked the cur, but he led me a merry old dance. Finally, he circled back to St. Elmo. I followed him but he snuck off again an’ I lost him in the dark. Then one night, I heard cries and came across him raping a saloon dancer in a dead-end side street. I pulled him off the woman but he got away. I chased him around the town until he ambushed me an’ pulled a knife. I acted fast and managed to stab him first. See, it was me you saw kill Tucker, not Jake. Though Lord knows, I wouldn’t have blamed him one bit if he’d taken the law into his own hands after losing his wife that way.”

Verity held her husband’s gaze. “I saw Ned kill him, but I thought it was you, Jake. After I got to know you, I knew that if you’d murdered a man, it must have been for a darn good reason. I thought the man you’d killed must have been the same man who murdered Megan and I could forgive you that… I’m sorry I didn’t believe you at first, Jake.”

“Well, you were right on one score, the man deserved to die. Except it wasn’t Jake what done for him, it was me. I had to leave the following day to take Tucker’s body back to Texas. See, Millie, my wife, decided to travel with me. I had promised her a couple of nights in a hotel to make up for us not being able to take a honeymoon when we were wed. When we arrived in Abilene, we discovered that Tucker was already wanted for violent rape so it appears that as soon as he was released, he was up to no good again. There you have the truth of it, Mrs. Calhoun. I’ve been out of town for quite some while. Millie and I, we’re mighty sorry we missed your wedding.”

“Please, call me Verity, Ned, we are family after all. Thank you for coming to explain all this.”

She rose and crossed to Jake. Placing her arms about his neck, she leant in to kiss his cheek and whispered another apology in his ear.

He patted her bottom gently. “We’ll discuss everything later.”

Verity gathered his words meant he wasn’t done with her yet.

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