He rode past a telegraph office and noticed someone was inside working. He thought what a big city this was to have some businesses that were open all night. He drew his horse to a halt and tied it, walking inside. Might as well find out what had happened at the trial. “Say, mister, can you find things out from other cities, before they might hit the papers, I mean?”
“Like what?”
“There’s an outlaw being tried down in St. Louis, name of Jake Harkner. Can you find out if the trial is over, if he’s been sentenced? It should be any day now.”
“I can try, but it’s probably already been in the paper, if the man is famous enough. The name sounds familiar to me.”
“Yeah. He was a bad one.”
The man looked at his pocket watch. “Only one telegraph office is open this time of night in St. Louis. I’ll try them.” The man began tapping out a message, and Lloyd watched the nightlife through the window. Beth was out there somewhere, being shown off by her new husband to his rich friends like she was some kind of trophy. God how it hurt to think of her going home to his bed tonight. “Now we wait,” the telegrapher told him. “It should only take a minute or two.”
Lloyd nodded, walking outside and lighting a cigar. His father had loved to smoke, but he had never cared for it, until now. Now he wanted to do it all, enjoy every aspect of life he had not experienced.
“Here it is,” the man called to him.
His heartbeat quickened. Pa! He didn’t want to care, told himself he didn’t care. He walked back inside, trying to act casual. “Well?”
“Just a minute.” The man finished scribbling. “Jake Harkner sentenced yesterday on charges of robbery, murder, and rape,” he read. “Fifteen years in prison, possible parole in eight.” The man looked up at him, alarmed at the sudden pale look on the boy’s face. “You all right, kid?”
“Yeah. Sure. Where did they send him?”
“Says here he’s gonna be sent to Joliet. Hell, that’s a state prison just a few miles southwest of here.”
Lloyd reached into his pocket and laid a dollar bill on the counter. “Thanks.”
“This is too much, boy.”
“Forget it.” He walked out and untied his horse. Yes, maybe he’d leave Beth alone after all. Who was he compared to a wealthy Chicago druggist who could give her everything? He was just the son of a murdering outlaw. He’d drink away the pain, maybe get the hell out of Chicago tomorrow and go someplace where he could wear those guns. He sure as hell wasn’t going to stay around until his father arrived. What use was it to see him now? It would only be torture for them both. Jake probably didn’t want him to see him rotting in a place like that, and he didn’t want to see his father anyway.
He’d go back West. Maybe he could find the real Lloyd out there in the country where he’d grown up, maybe on some of the trails he used to ride with his father; or maybe on a different trail Jake Harkner had known, the trail of the outlaw. He needed to see that world, to know if there was a part of him that belonged to it as his father had.
His mother would probably move to Illinois now. Miranda Harkner would want to live near wherever her husband was incarcerated. How bitterly ironic that they would be living so near to Beth again, but the old friendships would be over. Nothing was the same now. Nothing.
***
Beth awoke and stretched against satin sheets, then pulled a pillow to her, wishing it was Lloyd. At least for the last few days she had not been so terribly ill, but she was still plagued with waves of nausea, and she could not eat. She told herself she must eat, that she had to start taking care of herself for the sake of the baby. This child was all she would have of Lloyd, a little piece of the love she had shared with the only man who could ever be in her heart.
What must he be thinking by now? She had no news yet of what had happened with his father. Did Lloyd know she was married? Did he hate her? Thank God David had kept his word not to touch her. He slept in an adjoining room, but he had made no attempts to come to her bed. She shivered at the thought of his ever demanding his husbandly rights. She could not let another man touch her. So far Aunt Trudy was still here, and that made her feel safer. Her father had only stayed the first few days, then had to leave. He had said nothing about Lloyd or his father, if he had heard from Lloyd. She knew that he wouldn’t tell her if he had. He was determined to try to make her forget him, but she never would. He would always be with her every time she held her baby.
The door to her room opened. “Good morning, ma’am,” her personal maid said, coming into the room with a tray of food. The old woman came closer, an ever-present smile on her face.