Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,150

passed away this morning. I thought you should know right away."

Henrietta! Her faithful friend! Lettie's whole body suddenly ached with sorrow.

"She died in her sleep, as far as we can tell. I don't think she suffered. I thought, with her husband off with that posse, well, maybe you'd like to handle the funeral arrangements."

Lettie forced herself to stay calm. "Yes. Thank you for thinking of me."

"Poor Will," Ty muttered.

"Yes. Poor Will," Lettie repeated softly. "This will just about kill him." She closed her eyes and prayed for strength. "Hitch the buggy, Ty. We're going into town."

People stared and followed as Luke and the rest of the posse rode into town, heading for the new hall the ranchers had built for local cattlemen's meetings. They were peppered with questions, most of them from Herbert Grass, a new reporter for the Billings Extra. Someone sent for the sheriff, and Luke announced that no questions would be answered until he and the others had a private meeting with Sheriff Tracy. Grass was welcome to come inside, but no one from outside the vigilante group would be allowed. They could read about what happened in the paper tomorrow.

Luke was anxious to get the meeting over with and find Lettie, who he knew would be at Will and Henny's place. On his way back with the rest of the posse, he had stopped at home first, only to discover Henny Doolan had died. Ty told him he and Bob Franks had taken Lettie and Robbie and the girls into town for the funeral, but that they had all come back home afterward without Lettie because she wanted to stay behind and get the house in order for Will.

Poor Lettie didn't even know yet that Will was dead, too. He ached at the thought that Lettie had had to bury her best friend alone. How ironic that he in turn had buried Will alone, yet how fitting that Will and Henny had each died without knowing what had happened to the other. Now they were surely together again, and Henny was free of pain. But what about Lettie's pain? What had her best friend's death done to her? He feared she would slip even farther away from him now.

He rode up to the cattlemen's hall and dismounted, then noticed Nial Bentley had been running with the rest of the crowd and had hurried inside the building. Good! So Nial was in town. He probably thought he was safe as long as he was in a crowd or in the meeting with all the other cattlemen. He'd find out differently! Once this meeting was over, he was going to have more than a talk with the Englishman! He was still hurting over Will's death, and seeing Nial only added to his wrath. Before he left the ranch to ride into town, Ty had told him about the incident in the parlor with Nial and Lettie. The bastard had no right trying to sneak into Lettie's life, no right coming around every time Luke was away. He was proud of what Ty had done, but there was still unfinished business between himself and Nial Bentley.

He tied his horse, and he and the rest of the vigilantes filed into the building along with Sheriff Tracy and the reporter. Joe Parker closed and latched the door behind them to keep out the general public. They all sat down, facing the sheriff, and Herbert Grass hastily turned to a clean sheet on his tablet and began scribbling as Tracy asked for a full report.

Luke rose, glancing over at Nial Bentley with an icy glare. He reveled in the way Bentley looked away from him, his face reddening. The bastard! He'd probably try to hurry out with the others once the meeting was over, but he wasn't going to get away with it! He turned to face the sheriff and spoke up. "We found them, shot it out with them." He removed his hat and wiped sweat from his brow. He hadn't even stopped to clean up at the ranch before coming on into town. When he'd heard about Henny, he'd just wanted to get there quickly and get this over with so he could go to Lettie.

"No prisoners?" Tracy asked, eyebrows arched warily.

"They're all dead," Luke answered, "except one that got away. There were three left alive." They had all agreed not to tell about the fourth man that Tex had shot in the head. "We hanged two of them."

The reporter