Asa’s resigned, “Aw, hell!” came on the heels of Aaron’s shocked, “Elizabeth!”
She ignored Asa and focused on Aaron. “Don’t you dare reprimand me for my language when you come into my house and pick a fight with a helpless man.”
“Helpless, my ass!” Asa growled.
Aaron stared at her, then looked at the blood on the hand he’d just pulled from his face. “Have you looked at me? This isn’t soup on my face.”
She refused to be swayed. “No matter how good an accounting Asa managed to give of himself, the fact remains that you knew he was injured and you picked a fight.”
Aaron wiped the blood on his pants, looked at Asa, and glanced over to Cougar who was all but doubled up with mirth. “You can’t believe I started this.”
“I most certainly do,” she snapped. “Asa is too intelligent a man to overlook the disadvantage his injuries present.”
Asa leaned his shoulder against the banister. She noted how gingerly he did it, and worried as he groaned and said, “I tried to keep it peaceable.”
“I’m sure you did.” She glared at Aaron. “I’m well aware of how hotheaded Aaron can be.”
“I didn’t provoke a damned thing and you know it!” Aaron growled at Asa, looking like he wanted to start up all over again.
The expression Asa turned on her was as eloquent as his see-what-I-mean shrug.
“If you didn’t start this fight, Aaron, how did it begin?” She shifted the vase more comfortably on the banister as she waited for his answer.
Aaron wiped his sleeve over his face. “I came over here as soon as I got your note. And, as soon as I stepped over the threshold, your husband,” he sneered the word, “started flinging wild accusations at me. Accusing me of shooting him and sinking the Rocking C.”
“I notice you didn’t deny it,” Asa piped up.
“Who the hell had time?” Aaron protested. “No sooner had you stopped throwing lies when you started throwing punches.”
Elizabeth turned on Asa. “Is that true?”
“Well…”
“I didn’t ask for prevarication. I asked if it were true.”
“Sorta.” Asa pushed a bit away from the wall, held his ribs and groaned.
Since she knew, if he were really hurt, he wouldn’t utter a sound, she ignored the blatant ploy to distract her attention. “You promised me you’d keep things civilized unless you were provoked,” she reminded him.
“Uh-huh.”
The glance he cast Aaron was full of frustrated anger. Her suspicions leapt to the fore. “Were you provoked?”
He shifted his weight and groaned louder.
“You’re wasting your time,” she informed him at his theatrics. “I’m not going to be distracted.” She tapped the vase gently on the banister. “Were you provoked?”
To her surprise, Aaron leapt to Asa’s rescue, making her instantly suspicious. “Now that I think back on it, I might have said a few things out of line.”
“That is true, ma’am,” Cougar spoke up.
She stared at them. All three wore identical expressions of sincerity. All three were suddenly united in a common goal where, just a few minutes ago, they’d been ready to bring her house down around her. What didn’t they want her to know?
“I don’t believe any of you,” she informed them.
All three had the gall to look shocked.
Something was definitely up, she decided. About the only thing that would cause Asa to do an about face was if he was protecting her. She looked at Aaron. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
She leaned her elbows on the banister and said, “You know, Aaron, the last time I saw that muscle twitching in your cheek and an expression that innocent on your face, you’d just told the teacher I was the one who’d put the frog in her lunch box.”
Aaron paused from wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth. “That was a long time ago, Elly.”
“Just goes to show that some things never change.”
“Miss Panetta liked you. I knew she’d go easy on you.”
“I’m sure, in your mind, that made it all right.”
“You only had to do a little writing. Me, she would have taken out to the shed.”
“And rightly so, since it was the fourth time you’d played that prank.”
“I didn’t like her.”
She sighed. “And you thought, if you could drive her away, we’d find someone you’d like better.”
“Yeah.”
“You always did think you knew best for everyone, but, for your information, Aaron, I liked Miss Panetta and didn’t want her to leave.”
“That’s probably why she stuck around so long.”
Elizabeth smiled. After all these years, he was still frustrated at not having his plan work out. “That and the fact she married up with the blacksmith.”
Cougar’s low laugh filtered into the room. “He wasn’t any more successful at preventing that than he was her teaching.”
Asa looked at Aaron. “Seems you have a habit of sticking your nose where it’s not wanted.”
“People don’t always know what’s good for them.”
“And you do?” Elizabeth asked.