Joelle's Secret Read Online Free Page A

can’t do that, can he?”
    “I don’t think so, Joelle. I’ll have a talk with him.”
    “He won’t listen to you.”
    For a moment Campbell sat there and then nodded. “You’re right, but I think he’ll listen to Judge Robertson. I’ll go talk to him about this. Tell me everything now, and then the judge and I will have a talk with Burl.”
    * * *
    “I DON’T THINK THIS is going to do much good, Preacher.”
    Judge Harlan Robertson was in his middle fifties. He was a short man and somewhat overweight. His hair was an iron-gray, and he had a pair of sharp gray eyes. He had been at his home when the minister had come by and explained the situation. Now as the two bumped on the wagon seat along the rough road that led to Joelle’s home, the judge shook his head. “He’s the legal guardian of the girl. No getting around that.”
    “There’s some getting around his forcing her to marry him, I hope.”
    “He can’t force her to do anything. This is a free country.”
    “I wish you’d seen her, Judge. She’s scared to death. She told me that Harper said he would have her in his bed with or without marriage.”
    “That can get a man hanged in this country.”
    “How are you going to prove it? It’ll be her word against his.”
    “I guess you’re right.” The judge stirred in his seat as they approached the house. “We’ll have to make it pretty strong, Brother Campbell. Burl’s a tough nut.”
    “Make it strong as you can, Judge. I’m worried about that girl.”
    Campbell pulled the buggy in front of the house and tied the horse to the hitching rail. The two men started toward the door. Campbell knocked, and almost at once Burl Harper came out. He stared at the two men silently, but there was a smoldering anger in his eyes. “What do you two want?”
    “We’re going to talk to you, Harper,” Judge Robertson said, his voice soft but with a hint of steel underneath. “We can do it here, or I can have the sheriff bring you in. It’s your choice.”
    “I ain’t done nothing. You can’t arrest me.”
    “I guess it’ll have to be the sheriff then. Come on, Preacher.”
    “Wait a minute,” Harper said. He knew the judge was a hard man, and having stood before him more than once on charges of drunkenness, he said, “Come on in, but I don’t know what you want with me.”
    The men went inside, and Harper turned and stood in the middle of the floor. “What is it?” he grunted in his surly voice.
    “We’re here about Joelle,” Campbell said. “She came to me with some complaints about the way you’ve spoken to her and the way you acted.”
    “I haven’t touched that girl. She never could tell the truth.”
    “That’s not so,” Campbell said. “She’s a good girl.”
    “What’d she say about me?”
    Harlan Robertson said, “You told her she was going to have to marry you.”
    “She needs to get married. A man and a young woman can’t live here alone. You know that.”
    “She’s not going to marry you,” Campbell said firmly. “You can rest on that.”
    “You ain’t her kin, Preacher. None of your business.”
    “Some of my business though. If you force that girl, I’ll see you hanged for it.” Robertson’s voice was almost pleasant, but there was a steely glint in his eyes. “I’ve hanged men for rape before.”
    “I ain’t touched that girl.”
    “But you’ve threatened to. She told us that much.”
    The judge did most of the talking. He never took his eyes off Burl Harper’s face, and finally he said, “I’ve told you what’s going to happen. If you want to dangle on the end of a rope, you just try me on this. You touch that girl, I’ll see you hanged, Harper.”
    The two men left, and Burl watched them with a baleful light in his eyes. He left the house and went to the stable where Joelle was grooming Blackie. “So you had to go spill everything to that preacher.”
    Joelle turned to face him at once. “Yes, I did, and he said he was going to bring the