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Beware the Old Lion
Who Jealously Guards His Pride

In 1911 Arizona, as Sheriff Paco Alaniz investigates the murder of Don Santiago Castillo de Leon, he must deal with the priest who seems to be more than a confessor to the distraught widow, a runaway teenager who’s promised as the tenth bride to the leader of renegade Mormon polygamists, an ex-Mormon gambler who wants to save his sister and the woman he loves from the husband they both share, and a vicious mountain lion threatening inhabitants of the Territory.

Excerpt: Chapter Two

Prosper took a sip of milk—the strongest beverage allowed at his tables—to wet his throat for the speech he was about to make.  Then he stood and called for silence.  For a long moment he studied the fifty-seven faces turned toward him in rapt devotion.  He was pleased with his beautiful family.  His nine wives were loyal to him.  His eight wives besides Maida had given him a total of forty-seven children.  Three would bear again by the end of summer.  He trusted that each of his children would carry on the commandment to multiply and fill the earth, as he had done so well—and would continue to do.
“I know you’re wondering why I’ve gathered all of you here to celebrate our evening meal tonight.”
Each member of the audience nodded and murmured agreement in a hushed tone before they fell silent again.
“Something important has happened to me.  I must share my glorious news with all of you.  God has recently given me a revelation.  The Lord has told me that the time has come for me to enlarge my family again.”
They all knew Prosper’s revelation had nothing to do with the babies that would be born soon.  Maida closed her eyes against the pain of the news she was about to hear.  Though she’d heard this announcement eight times before, it was still no easier to hear again.
“The Lord has told me I must take another wife.”

The force of further rejection by her husband cut another piece out of Maida’s fragile heart as he spoke the words she always dreaded hearing.
“In order to fulfill this divine commandment, I sought the counsel of my fellow elders.”
She knew what was coming.  Only one girl in the village was the perfect age for her husband’s peccadillo.  She risked a quick glance down the table at her son, but Seth seemed unaware of the news that was to come.  Maida prayed to God that Seth would have the strength to survive the loss of hope he was about to experience.
“As it happens, Elder Reeves has recently had a revelation himself,” said Prosper.
Maida saw Seth’s face darken.  She forced herself to breathe slowly to keep from standing up and attacking her husband with every ounce of the hatred she’d stored up against him for almost two decades.
“The Lord has told Elder Reeves that his eldest daughter, Verna, is in need of a husband.”
And quickly, Maida thought wryly, for she remembered that the young woman was soon to have another birthday.
Seth’s expression changed abruptly from devotion to anger toward his father as he quietly listened to Prosper outline the terrible plan.
“All of you know that it is my tradition to honor my first wife by joining with each of my wives on her sixteenth birthday.”  Prosper almost smiled as he glanced down at Maida.
She forced herself not to expose her true feelings as she listened to her husband relate their story—it could not be called a love story—once again.
“That was exactly the age of my first wife when we were joined for eternity in celestial marriage in the Temple in Salt Lake City.”  He directed a grudging nod in Maida’s direction.  “Of course, that was before we were cast out by the evil ones who have taken over that holy place in these dark days.”  Prosper couldn’t pass up an opportunity to do a little preaching for the cause, even to his own flock.  “The time is fast approaching for the next sacred ceremony to take place.  Young Sister Reeves will celebrate her birthday on Wednesday of next week.  On that day at four o’clock in the afternoon, Elder Harold Reeves will join Verna to me in holy matrimony.”
The family group’s applause was the signal for Harold and Verna, along with Verna’s mother, Elsie, to walk from Elsie’s cabin to the dining hall to join Prosper’s family gathering.  By the time everyone was quiet again, Verna stood shyly between Prosper and Harold at the head table, in full view of the entire Hanson clan.  From his place halfway down the same table, Seth smoldered silently as he watched the tragic play unfold before him.
“On Saturday all of my sons will begin to build your cabin, Verna,” Prosper said to his newest fiancée.  “Will you like that, my dear?”
Verna could only nod her head.  She didn’t like this new arrangement any more than Seth did.  Seth’s face darkened with bridled anger as he learned he would help to build the cabin in which his own father would take as his latest young bride the woman that Seth loved.  But the young people had no choice.  The elders hadn’t asked Verna for her opinion of the match, as they sometimes did.  Though her mother had long ago told Verna that she’d have final approval of the man she would marry, her father had made the decision without asking his daughter if she wanted to marry Prosper Hanson.
“Of course you’ll like it,” Prosper answered aloud for her.  He spoke as if to a child, rather than an adult woman who would be his next—and tenth—helpmate.  “Our house will be small at first, only one large room.  But I’ll enlarge it as our family grows,” he promised.
Verna’s stomach turned at the thought of this old man doing what she’d once seen her father do to her mother when she’d intruded into her mother’s bedroom at an inopportune moment.  Only yesterday Elsie had told Verna how babies are made, but the parental commentary lacked certain details that Elsie promised her daughter that her new husband would explain more fully, a prospect that did not tempt Verna at all.
Verna cringed at the thought of Prosper Hanson doing any of those things to her.  The daughter remembered feeling that Elsie didn’t enjoy what Harold Reeves did to her either.  But once a woman was joined to her husband, she had no choice but to comply with his every demand.  It was a woman’s sacred duty—or so Elsie had said.  Verna had noticed unshed tears in Elsie’s eyes as the mother explained to her daughter what her wifely duty would be.
Verna stole a glance at Seth.  Growing anger had begun to overshadow his youthful beauty, but the sight of Seth still did not fail to excite Verna.  When she’d first stumbled upon the scene of her parents’ conjoining, she’d imagined herself doing the same thing with Seth.  That picture pleased her, while the promise of physically uniting with Prosper only sickened her.
In her place at the far table, Willa imagined the same scene being played out between her husband and this young girl.  Willa had just turned sixteen on the day Prosper Hanson first raped her—as surely as any criminal would have done.  Her father had plotted with Prosper to force her into the marriage, though she’d never wanted Prosper.  Not once in their fifteen years together had Prosper ever asked her if she desired the physical attentions he often forced upon her.  He showed her no love in any other way.  As far as she was concerned, Prosper was an evil old man from whom she was determined to escape, even if she had to kill him to do it.
Willa glanced around at her seven children and tried to imagine which ones would understand her desperation and which she’d have to force into leaving with her.  She was sure most of the younger ones would comply, but Eric and Jonas were far too devoted to their father to leave him.  Those two would probably make trouble.  She must proceed carefully so they’d have no hint of what was about to happen, with Jacob’s help—and God’s.  For what must have been the thousandth time that day, Willa closed her eyes to say another quick prayer on behalf of the plan she’d been hatching in her mind for many long months.
Maida had no choice but to listen to Prosper talk to his newest bride-to-be.  The usually animated Verna was subdued this evening.  She’d only learned of the plan a few minutes after her father arrived at Elsie’s cabin for supper.  Verna had suspected Prosper’s interest in her when he visited her and her mother last week.  He’d brought a gift of an apple pie Maida had baked.  But Elsie always assured Verna that she would be asked—and that she’d have the freedom to say ‘No.’
“He didn’t ask,” Verna suddenly said in a low voice as her betrothed spoke to her father.
Prosper and Harold faced the girl together.  “I beg your pardon, Verna?” said Prosper.
She glared at her father with unexpected anger.  “You didn’t . . . ” she began, then lost her nerve.  Her cheeks flushed in a mixture of anger and shame as she looked around at the family she’d soon be joining.  “You . . . uh . . . ”  She took in a cold breath of air.  The mountain temperature lowered quickly after sunset, and the large hall was poorly heated.  Candles and lanterns set along the tables made the many faces before her glow with an eery light.  Suddenly Verna could hold back her tears no longer.  She tried to run away, but her mother grabbed her and made her stay.
“Stand up proudly!” Elsie hissed in a voice only her daughter could understand.  “Be happy that the Lord is using you in this way.”
“They didn’t ask me,” Verna blubbered.  Only her mother could discern the muffled words, because only Elsie knew the promise she’d made to her daughter long ago.
“You must accept the will of God.”  Though Elsie’s voice was low, the tone was one that Verna knew she could never successfully argue against.
Verna raised her head proudly.  She realized the truth of her mother’s words.  Verna did owe her obedience to God’s will, and God didn’t ask little girls what their wishes were.  Verna had only one more question.  She wasn’t afraid to ask this one aloud.  “Is it God’s will?”
This time the entire assembly heard her words.  Several of the women who belonged to Prosper Hanson looked to each other for an answer.  Willa knew it was God’s will that she would one day be free.  Maida sincerely believed it was God’s will that she live in this hell so she’d one day reach a higher level of Heaven.  Seth only wished that one day God’s will would mean that he would be free to love a woman openly as he loved Verna.  Seth saw that his father had more blessings on this earth than any man was entitled to, but the old man still wasn’t satisfied.  Prosper wouldn’t even let his eldest son have the one woman he’d wanted for as long as he’d understood the joyous and holy union of love.
Elder Harold Reeves’s heart was lightened because he knew this was truly God’s will.  He’d worried for months over his daughter’s growing interest in Seth Hanson.  Harold only wanted to keep Verna out of the clutches of that ungodly young man.  Everyone in the settlement knew the boy would turn out as bad as his mother had.  Her return to her husband in the Lord seventeen years ago hadn’t signaled her return to the Way of the Saints.  Harold knew Maida shared poisonous worldly literature with his daughter.  In spite of all his righteous efforts, Prosper had failed to turn his first wife and his eldest son back to the Way of the Lord, but perhaps Prosper could keep Harold’s daughter from straying from it.
The only person who had the courage to speak his conviction aloud was Prosper.  “It is God’s will, my dear Verna.  Your question proves that you’ll be as devoted a wife to me as any of my nine other loyal, loving spiritual wives.  I’m delighted that you allow the Lord to guide your path to righteousness beside me.  You will do me honor when we stand together before your father and our Lord in eight days.  I can hardly wait for that moment to come.”
Prosper quivered in anticipation as he bent over to give his betrothed a loving kiss.  Verna tensed in loathing and tightened her lips as the old man slobbered around her mouth in an act that he considered romantic.  She held her breath until he finished kissing her.  She looked out over the crowd to see if anyone noticed her expression of disloyalty.  Even if they had, they were all too afraid of Prosper to tell him that his newest bride didn’t feel the same sort of craving for his body that he obviously felt for hers.