Page 48 of Belle Fourche Legacy

Alice immediately turned, as did her father. “What’s the matter?”

Kent might have been surly, but he never yelled. Color stained his cheeks as he strode toward them. “My pa is coming up the road. He’s got Blake with him. There is no good reason my pa would come over here.”

Pa leaned against his cane. “Perhaps he’s heard that we’ve planted some alfalfa and now he wants to talk, knowing that he’d be the first neighbor we’d offer if we have extra, and we will.”

Kent shook his head, then glanced over his shoulder. “He won’t care about your plants. He won’t have changed his mind. Alice, you should go inside the house. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

While his words warmed her heart, she wasn’t going to run away from Louis Douglas, especially on her own land. Pa patted her arm. “You’ll be safer in the house.”

“I’m tired of running every time he breathes. Let him breathe fire. I won’t run anymore.”

Kent made it to her side and turned to face behind as Blake rode up with Louis at his side. The deputy nodded instead of offering a greeting, a sure sign something wasn’t right.

“Bodey,” Blake stalled for a moment by dismounting. Louis followed suit. “I was at the Douglas ranch this morning, talking to Louis. He finally decided to file the report of a crime.”

Alice’s heart leaped. She’d been wrong. All this time, she’d been sure he would never team up with them so they could get the water samples. Since they’d found no evidence of locoweed anywhere on their property, but the sheep were still ill, she’d personally narrowed the culprit down to the water.

“That’s fine.”

Blake shook his head and Louis narrowed his eyes and took a menacing step forward. Blake reached out, stopping him. “He doesn’t feel the problem is the water. He thinks it’s you, Alice.”

Her knees went weak, and she leaned into Kent for support. “Me? How could he think it was me?”

“He saw you from his office window, messing around in his fence. He saw you climb a tree, but you came in contact with his bull. Is that correct?” Blake cut his glance to Kent and narrowed his eyes, silently telling him to keep silent on this matter.

“I . . . was inside the fence, but I didn’t know there were any animals in it. I wouldn’t have gone in there if I’d known the bull was there.”

“So, you admit you did venture over onto their property with the intent to hide?” Blake crossed his arms and stared at her.

“It wasn’t like that, Blake.” Kent stepped forward, blocking her in.

“Kent, I’m going to ask you to step aside and keep your mouth shut right now. This is my job and I have to do it.” He shifted, muttering over his shoulder, “No matter how much I don’t like it.”

Louis cackled. “Like it or not, she’s guilty. She killed one of my cows and made about twenty more sick. I want to see justice. If I don’t see it, I might just take it.”

“You will hold yourself and your tongue, Mr. Douglas, or I’ll send you back home and do this myself,” Blake barked, silencing the older man.

Tears gathered in her eyes, and Alice blinked them away. She would not cry and let Louis know how much his accusations hurt.

Blake pulled a mangled piece of hay from his saddlebag and held it up. “Kent, is this locoweed?”

Kent gripped her hand tightly. “Yes. Where did you find it?”

Louis pushed forward and pounded his finger into Kent’s chest. “I found it on the ground, right outside by the trough in the pasture where she was. She brought it over to my ranch. She’s the one who started all of this sickness. You were the fool who believed her when she said she wanted a truce between the families. There will never be a truce. Not when they do this.” He gripped the weed in his hand and shook it at her.

“I’ve never seen that before. You have hay in your very own barn. How can you say that came from me?” She held tight to Kent’s hand, worried he would let go of her. He couldn’t believe his father’s accusations. They were ludicrous. She’d helped look for the weeds and even planted a field of her own to avoid them. Why would she spread them?

“I would never do such a thing.”

“Wouldn’t you?” Louis narrowed his eyes. “You want so badly to see my ranch fail. You want to see us leave the valley so you can have it all to yourself. That will never happen. Not as long as Douglas’ blood runs through Armstrong’s veins. He’ll have sturdy boys and the land will go to them. Your trickery may have cost me Kent, but never the land.”

The tears she’d meant to hold back came in earnest as Kent released her hand. “No.” Silence had been her haven for her entire childhood. She’d let Kent and Armstrong say what they would when she was a child because she was too young and slight to fight back. But not now. Not with their father.

“I haven’t done a single thing you’ve accused of me. Except riding into your field because I wanted to see for myself if Kent had returned.”

His chin jutted out and his lips tugged back into a smile. “See, deputy. She admits to going in my pasture. Whether or not she planted that weed, that’s trespassing. I want her arrested.”

“Why can’t you be more like your sons?” She thrust herself forward, out from behind Kent and her father and toe-to-toe with her accuser.

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