As quickly as the people of Atherton fired up, they calmed down. Pritchard’s peaceful surrender deflated their ire, and the logic of staying in town until daylight, with reb raiders potentially on the loose, was irrefutable. Reluctantly, and in an orderly fashion, they shuffled off to do as Shipley commanded.

“This ain’t over between you and me,” Pritchard said to Shipley, as he was escorted past the hotel toward the jail. Dovie and Idelle followed.

“It most certainly isn’t,” Shipley said as Pritchard was led away.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dovie and Idelle trailed behind the marshals as they escorted Pritchard to the jail, but the lawmen refused to allow them to enter. When she pounded on the door, Marshal Stacy told Dovie to take it up with Mayor Shipley. She marched back across the town square to the Atherton Arms with Idelle holding her hand and struggling to keep up.

Dovie stormed through the hotel lobby, ignoring the bustle of townspeople and marshals stationed inside, until she found a friendly face. It was Mrs. Nettles, one of Atherton’s only two schoolteachers. Dovie left Idelle seated in the lobby, in Mrs. Nettleses’s care, and went directly to Shipley’s office.

She opened the door without knocking and found Shipley seated at his desk with Sheriff Foster standing over him. A bottle of whiskey and two glasses were on the desk.

“I want to see my son,” Dovie Pritchard said.

“I thought you were too high and mighty to enter my hotel,” Shipley said, sipping whiskey and ignoring her question.

“Don’t play games with me,” she said.

Shipley made a dismissive gesture to the sheriff. Sheriff Foster scowled, downed his drink, but tipped his hat and walked out. He closed the door behind him.

“Marshal Stacy wouldn’t let me see Samuel at the jail. He said you had to authorize it.”

“That’s true,” Shipley said.

“Then authorize it. I want to see my son.”

Shipley set down his drink and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands across his sizable belly. “I’d like to help you, Mrs. Pritchard, but I can’t. Your son’s a dangerous criminal. A murderer, in fact. He’s going to be hanged in the morning for his crimes.”

“Hanged?” Dovie gasped. “You can’t mean that?”

“I do indeed,” Shipley said smugly. “That’s what we do with murderers here in Atherton.”

“But you said Samuel would get a fair trial! There’re witnesses who heard you say it!”