Captive Trail (34 page)

His reply was lost as they followed Billie and the others into the hall.

Ned glanced at Sister Marie, who had lingered in the dining room.

“Would you gentlemen like more coffee?” she asked.

Ned held up his cup. “Thank you, Sister. I’ve been hankering for hot coffee all day.”

She smiled and refilled Jud’s cup too, then left the room.

Jud took a sip and looked at Ned over the rim of his cup. “Billie and I talked. She’s ready to go home.”

Ned pressed his lips together and nodded. “I’ll miss her.”

“Yes.” Jud set his cup down. “Look, Ned, I’m sure she has feelings for you, but we need a little time. Time to rejoice and to … well, just to get used to having her with us again.”

“I understand.”

Jud nodded. “That doesn’t mean we expect her to stay with us forever.”

Ned raised his eyebrows. “You wouldn’t object?”

“Not in the least, so long as everything’s done properly. Will you go with the sisters to the fort?”

“I don’t need to. Tree and Brownie and the boys can escort them. Two of the boys are riding ahead to get a wagon from the Steins at the home station.”

“They’re taking the dead man?” Jud asked.

Ned grimaced. “Yes. Sister Natalie said we could bury him here, but I think we’d better take him to Captain Tapley, just to be sure everything’s done properly. He may have family somewhere. I hate to have the little girls see it. We wrapped the body in blankets, and they can take him in the wagon.
Unless the captain will send a detail out for him.”

“I hope he’ll do that.”

Ned sipped his coffee and set the cup down. “Tree and I discussed arranging for some men to come and repair the roof. He’ll ask around. And I need to look the barn over before we go and see what can be done about that.”

Jud nodded. “I thought you might want some private time with Billie before we go.”

“You could both ride to the ranch with me and spend tonight there.”

“That sounds like a good plan. Wouldn’t want to ride much farther than that today.”

“It’s a good, long ride,” Ned said. He could hardly wait to see Billie’s face when she mounted her new horse.

“You have been so good to me.” Billie hugged Sister Adele fiercely. “You are in truth another sister for me.”

“Thank you, dear Billie. That means so much.” Adele pulled away, blinking back tears. “You will write to us?”

“Of course.” Billie smiled. “I will keep learning to write better, and I will tell you all about my family and the Morgan ranch. And you will tell me how the school goes?”

“Yes. I wish you happiness, and we shall all pray for your safe journey.”

“Thank you.” Billie said a briefer good-bye to the other nuns, ending with Sister Natalie. She wasn’t sure whether to offer her hand or an embrace, but the older woman put her arms around Billie.

“My dear, you shall be sadly missed. You have brought much to the mission, and we’ve learned many lessons through having you here.”

Billie ducked her head. “I shall always remember your
kindness and the things you have taught me.”

“May God watch over you and bless you.”

Quinta was next, wanting a hug and a kiss and promises of letters. “I’ll send you a drawing of the new wall we’re going to have built,” she said.

“I will like to see it,” Billie said. “You will be safer with a wall all around the house and barn.”

“We’ll take good care of Fluffy.”

“I know you will,
chica.”
Billie kissed her again and moved away.

Tree and Brownie shook her hand and wished her Godspeed. The Garza boys formed a row of handsome young men with sparkling brown eyes and bright smiles.
“Adios
, Señorita Morgan,” they repeated down the line. She laughed and waved at them as she turned to join Ned and her brother.

They mounted the horses, with Billie wearing her leather Comanche dress and high moccasins. Her few other possessions were tied behind the saddle. She reveled in the smooth trot of the dark Morgan horse Jud had brought for her.

A mile down the road, Jud rode close beside her. “What do you think of him?”

Billie grinned and patted the horse’s withers. “He is wonderful.”

“He can go like that all day,” Jud said. “We’ll stop to rest them and eat something in a couple of hours, though.”

“He rides like the horse they stole from me.” Billie frowned. “I cannot remember her name.”

Jud laughed. “You called her Velvet.”

Billie smiled in delight. “Yes! Yes, I did.”

She rode along savoring that memory and anticipating the reunion with the rest of her family.

They’d traveled less than an hour when they met the stagecoach, coming down from Fort Phantom Hill.

The driver pulled up in astonishment when he saw Ned.

“Bright,” Sam Tunney called from the box. “Where on earth have you been? We found your ranch station abandoned and a note on the barn door that said, ‘Driver didn’t return home last night—gone to look for him. Team in barn if Comanche haven’t been here.’ We thought you’d been ambushed and were lying somewhere without your scalp!”

Ned gritted his teeth and looked over at Billie. “Not quite that bad, Sam, but the Ursuline mission
was
attacked yesterday.”

“You’re joking. Anyone killed?”

“One Comanche, so far as we know, and the buffalo hunter, Isaac Trainer. But the sisters and their students are fine, and we’re fine. Glad we’re out of it.”

Sam eyed Billie and Jud. “Who you got here?”

“This is Miss Morgan and her brother, from down Victoria way. Miss Morgan was staying at the mission.”

“Aha.” Sam nodded knowingly. “Pleased to meet you, miss.” He lifted his hat to her and nodded to Jud. “Mr. Morgan.”

Billie wasn’t sure how to respond, but Ned gave her a reassuring smile.

“Sam and Henry are friends,” he said.

Billie nodded.

Sam looked over at the shotgun rider. “Well, me and Henry are tuckered out, doing the extra miles, but I guess we can make it to the fort. No point in having you take over out here.”

“I appreciate that,” Ned said. “I’m taking these folks back to the ranch. Tree and his boys and Brownie have gone to take the nuns and their students to Fort Chadbourne. They’ll stay there a few days until they’re sure things have calmed down, but we think the band of raiders that attacked them has gone home.”

“Glad to hear that. Well, we’d best move along.” Sam
called to his team and flicked his whip near the wheelers’ flanks. He and Henry lifted their hats, and the stagecoach rolled off westward.

Billie was suddenly weary. Her eagerness to see Ned’s home was overshadowed by the desire to sleep through a full night without listening for hoofbeats or war cries.

They ate breakfast before dawn. Ned wasn’t much of a hand in the kitchen, but Jud and Billie pitched in, and they sat down to eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, coffee, and applesauce. After they finished, Jud picked up his and Billie’s bundles.

“I’ll come get you when I’ve got the horses saddled.” He headed out to the barn.

Ned and Billie sat in silence. The moment Ned dreaded had arrived, and his throat seemed paralyzed.

“Thank you for everything you have done for me,” Billie said softly.

Ned leaned across the table and took her hand. “Billie, I don’t want you to go, but I know you need to. Is it …” He cleared his throat. “Could I maybe ride down to Victoria and see you? After the holidays and the first of the year, maybe?”

Billie blinked at him with an expression of slight confusion.

“In a couple of moons,” Ned said.

“Two moons? Months on calendar?”

“Well … yes.” He chuckled. The nuns had done their work well in the short time they’d had. “If everything’s all right here and they can get another driver for a short while.”

She nodded. “I would like that. Jud said you could come if I wished it.”

“I talked to him a little more last night, and he said whenever you’re ready. Do you want to leave it that you’ll write and tell me when you want me to come?”

“No,” she said.

His heart plummeted. “No?”

“You come. One moon.”

That was better. He laughed and squeezed her hand. “I probably won’t be able to make it that soon. Billie, listen.” She sobered, and Ned said carefully, “Jud told me some things … things you’d told him. About …” He glanced at her and then away. “About your Comanche family.”

She sat very still.

“He was supposed to tell me, wasn’t he?”

For a moment, he thought she would burst into tears. Her face twitched. She pulled in a deep breath. “You know.”

“I do. At least, I think he told me everything. About … well, the baby and everything.”

“You still come?”

“Yes. I want to.”

She nodded, meeting his gaze. “I did not want to marry, but … I loved my baby.”

“Aw, Billie, I’m sure you did.”

A single tear trickled down her cheek. “But Peca … when he want me to marry again, I say no, I will not. Not again, not here, not this man. I cannot love him.”

Ned nodded, his heart aching for her sadness. “Billie,” he whispered, “do you think you could love me?”

She smiled, in spite of the tears glistening in her eyes. “Oh, yes. I love you.”

Ned got up and walked around the table. She put her hands in his, and he drew her into his arms. “Billie, I love you. I want you to have time with your family, but I will come to you. Soon.”

“Two moons,” she said, smiling.

Ned bent his head and kissed her. She responded with a warmth that solidified his hopes. The next two months would
fly. While he drove the stagecoach he would think about how he could bring her back and where they could live. But now, all he could comprehend was Billie, in his arms, wanting a future with him.

B
usiness and weather had delayed Ned. Tree had an unexpected spurt of freighting, and extra drivers were hard to come by. Heavy rains had bogged down both freight teams and stagecoaches. At last, in mid-February, Ned was able to get away for a few weeks, leaving Brownie to drive his mail route with Benito Garza riding shotgun.

For the first couple of days, Ned rode with his head down against the driving rain. At last the clouds broke and the rain stopped. He dismounted and rolled up his waterproof coat. The ranch outside Victoria drew him, and he rode on with a light heart.

Billie’s letters over the past three months had developed from short notes describing her joy at meeting her family and learning the Morgans’ everyday routines into longer, thoughtful missives that moved him to his core. Billie pondered her place in life, her relationship to God, and the proper way to deal with her past. Each letter also included questions about
life at the stagecoach station and the mission, and a touching admission of her eagerness to see Ned again.

He cherished these letters and responded to each with a compilation of all the news he knew she longed to hear: The mission’s chapel roof was repaired, and Sister Adele had drawn plans for the addition they wanted built that summer. The nuns had their cow, and the kittens had grown fat on the milk and were keeping the mice out of Sister Marie’s kitchen. Quinta had come home for three weeks at Christmas, and while she had reverted to wearing overalls and riding breakneck around the ranch with her brothers, she’d also organized the preparation of a huge Christmas dinner. Quinta had happily received her father’s gifts of feminine clothing and Ned’s of tooled leather boots. Benito was courting a girl whose family lived near Phantom Hill. Cat Thompson had taken supper with Ned at the fort and reported the recovery of a captive child—a boy who had spent six months with the Apache.