Texas Blue (32 page)

He turned his back, closed his eyes, and wished that they could go back to the cottonwoods, where there was no world but the trees. Her lie had taken that memory from him. He hadn’t held his Em, he’d held Emily McMurray.

When he opened his eyes, he was looking down the barrel of a gun.

“Don’t make any fast moves, mister,” a voice with an Irish favoring whispered. “I don’t want to have to fire this thing. It might bring back the other men.”

Lewt stood perfectly still. Even in the poor light he recognized the two cooks he’d seen in the kitchen of Three Forks. The tall one held a rifle so old he doubted it would fire, but he didn’t want to test it. Part of him wanted to yell at the cook to just shoot him. It might be better than letting Em kill him a slice at a time with her looks.

“You was one of the men who took Anna, weren’t you?” The shorter cook moved forward. “Sarah J, I think we’ve found the right camp.”

Lewt doubted if there were many campfires around this part of the country, but if these two could find them it wouldn’t be long before Toledo’s men came riding in. “What are you doing here?” Surely the old witch hadn’t sent the cooks to kill the men who took Duncan.

“When you left, all hell broke loose. Toledo sent everyone but us out to track you down. Then she went into a rage like I never seen in my life. She kept yelling, ‘I got to get her back. I got to get her back.’ It took me and Sarah J a while to figure out that she didn’t care nothing about the ranger, it was the girl she thought she had to have back.”

Em moved up, and to Lewt’s surprise the woman lowered her gun, as if seeing a woman by his side somehow made Lewt not so frightening.

“We have coffee,” Em said, as if she hadn’t noticed the rifle. “You’re welcome to some and the fire.”

It crossed Lewt’s mind that since Em hated him, she might not think it all that unusual for these women to threaten to kill him. With his luck, over coffee they’d form a lynch mob.

When the ladies sat down as if they were at a tea party, Em began, “Duncan told Lewt the girl, Anna, was mistreated by your boss. It’s my understanding that he didn’t take her against her will.”

“That’s no lie,” Rachel whispered. “I’ve seen dogs treated better than that child. We even asked him, if he lived long enough and tried to escape, to take her with him.”

Em continued, “Why would this old woman want her if she only beats her and locks her away?”

Both women shook their heads, but Rachel spoke for them both. “We don’t know, miss. We decided to take our chances and leave when all the trouble started. We hitched our two mules to our wagon, stole all the food and money we could find lying around, and headed here. A few hours ago we got to the river and found Toledo’s guards camped about three miles downriver.”

Sarah J smiled and interrupted. “Rachel offered them some of the fresh bread we brought and told them Toledo, in her rage, had fired us. For a few coins they helped us cross the river. Then we followed the water’s edge, hoping to find a road or a camp that would let us travel with them or at least point us in the right direction.”

“Are Toledo’s men coming after us?” Lewt asked from where he stood in the shadows.

All three women looked up at him as if he were bothering them.

“Not tonight,” Rachel predicted. “They sent a rider back to Three Forks to ask Toledo what they should do. She’s got them all afraid to think for themselves. From what I gathered, they don’t think you’ve crossed yet, but they don’t have enough men to patrol the river. The old witch’s orders were for them to catch you before you crossed. They’ll have to get new orders before they come this way, and that will take another day.”

Sarah J giggled, interrupting again. “After learning we were fired, I think they’re worried about their jobs. We didn’t tell them, but from what we heard the old woman screaming, she plans to go to hell and back to get that girl. The guards are all hired hands with no love or loyalty to Toledo. They may not see a profit in that.”

“And,” Rachel said, with a nod toward her sister, “that Ramon is right behind her. He wants what he considers soon to be his.” She shook her head at Lewt, looking very much like a schoolteacher talking to a wayward student. “Why did you leave that man alive? If I’d just had a few more minutes before they found him, he would have been leaking blood.”

Lewt was starting to believe the story about the cooks being murderers.

Duncan, Sumner, and Wyatt returned. After the surprise of guests at their campfire, they asked a dozen questions. The two little ladies seemed pleased to be the center of attention.

As the fire aged, Anna woke and stepped into the light. She looked very much the frightened child, but Duncan and the ladies had talked of her being older than she appeared. The cooks seemed to think that maybe she’d been beaten so many times she was simple in the mind.

She let the two cooks hug her and make a fuss over her being free, but when she settled down to eat more stew, she sat next to Duncan.

Lewt studied them. Duncan was protective of her and kind, but not like a lover or even a friend. More like a father, even though they were not that many years different in age. Anna was good at playing a child. Lewt had seen women do it in saloons now and then. One girl swore she was just sixteen until she was well into her thirties.

As the others talked of what to do, Lewt watched Em, or Emily, and wondered if she’d ever sit within touching distance of him again.

Finally, when everyone had turned in except Wyatt, who took the first watch, Lewt lay on his bedroll knowing that he’d not sleep. Despite all the arguing, he wanted Em near, but she’d spread her blanket on the other side of the fire.

After an hour of staring at the stars, Lewt got up and took over the watch. If he couldn’t sleep, he might as well let Wyatt.

He walked the edges of the camp with a rifle in his hand. The fire was low, and the place looked peaceful. The two cooks were sleeping in their wagon. Wyatt and Sumner used their saddles as pillows and slept facing out, away from the fire, so they’d see anything coming in a blink. Duncan and the girl were near the trees, their bedrolls almost touching. Em slept alone, close to the dying embers.

After a while, Lewt walked over and sat on a log a foot from her bedroll. Without giving it much thought, he reached down and closed his fingers around her hand.

She didn’t open her eyes, but he felt her hand close around his and he thought he saw a slight smile on her sleeping face.

It was enough to make him believe in possibilities.

He decided that what they’d had beneath the cottonwoods was real, and if it was real, maybe they could build on that and forgive each other the beginning.

A
T DAWN DUNCAN HAD EVERYONE UP AND READY TO travel. He’d talked possibilities over with the group and come up with only one logical answer. They’d all have to stay together until Austin. The wagon would double the amount of time it would take, but the cooks couldn’t ride a horse, even if they had an extra few, and he couldn’t leave them behind. If Toledo’s men crossed the border, they’d have little trouble tracking the wagon and the women would be killed.

Duncan frowned, thinking that for a man who always traveled light, he was collecting far too much baggage. The men could all take care of themselves, but Duncan couldn’t forget that they were in this mess because of him. Anna was always in his shadow, looking for him to protect her. Emily might be a fine horsewoman and a great shot, but she would be no match for the cutthroats who worked for Toledo. The two cooks didn’t even seem to know what direction to go.

Wyatt offered to ride ahead and get help, but if trouble came it would be soon and Duncan might need his friend’s gun. The hardened ranger didn’t seem to know how to talk to any of the women, so he stayed out of their way as much as possible.

To make matters worse, if things could get worse, Lewt and Emily weren’t speaking to each other. Sumner thought the two murdering cooks should be tied up until he could find out more about them. Em refused to ride in the wagon, where she’d be safer if they were attacked, and Wyatt looked at him now and then as if he thought Duncan had completely lost his mind.

So, with his band in tow, Duncan set out to Austin, hoping to get there as fast as possible. Within an hour it became obvious that if they wanted to keep the mules on the road, someone who knew how to drive a wagon was going to have to relieve the cooks.

Duncan tried not to swear as he climbed on the bench beside the cooks and took the first shift as their driver. His hope that they might not talk evaporated in seconds.

“Well, Ranger, tell us, will it go worse for us now that we’re not only murderers, but thieves as well?” Sarah J looked thoughtful. “I told Sister not to take the money we found in Toledo’s desk, but she thought we might need it.”

“And,” Rachel interrupted as usual, “once we started taking things, each got easier, and before long we were loading up the wagon while Toledo was busy planning how to kill you and everyone who helped you.”

Sarah J agreed. “It’s a slippery slope to becoming a criminal. Murder, stealing, lying. Once you start, there doesn’t seem a place to stop. First we took the bread, and then, of course, we had to take the butter and jam, and then I thought of the pans we’d need to make more and Rachel remembered the bowls and spoons.”

Duncan had no idea what to advise them. These two were a lawyer’s nightmare. He had a feeling that if he talked to them long, other crimes might pop up along with recipes. “Mind telling me who you ladies think you killed? You know, the first crime you committed that sent you on the run?”

Sarah J glanced at her sister. “Our husbands,” she finally said. “We fed them mushrooms in the gravy.”

Duncan smiled. “Ladies, that’s not murder, that was an accident. I’m sure you didn’t know they were poison.”

Both shook their heads slowly as if easing into a new lie.

“You did know they were poison?” he tried again.

They both nodded.

He didn’t ask more, but he decided he’d probably turn down any dinner invitations.

Rachel looked like she might cry. “They rode off after supper and we never saw them again.”

Duncan had to ask, “You found no bodies?”

“No, but we know they’re out there. Both complained about not feeling well, and after they left, we fed the rest of the meal to the dog. He died before morning.”

“We killed them,” Rachel whispered, “dog and all.”

The day passed. When Duncan drove, he tried not to talk too much to the cooks. Lewt, however, seemed to enjoy visiting with the women when he took his turn driving the wagon. The gambler liked people, all kinds of people, or at least he pretended to.

Duncan preferred traveling with Sumner. He caught up on all that had happened at the ranch. The old man never gossiped, but he did relay facts when one of the McMurrays asked. By the end of the day, Duncan felt sorry for Lewt. The gambler was a good man, honest as anyone in his profession can be. He didn’t deserve the trick his cousins had played.

Duncan wasn’t sure, and he couldn’t tell by the way they acted, but he guessed Lewt had feelings for Emily. Em, on the other hand, had never liked any man who wasn’t related to her, and most of the time she wasn’t too fond of relatives either. When she was little he thought of her as the silent one because she didn’t talk enough for anyone to notice her. Once she started talking, it was mostly to pester him. They were opposites in almost every way, except one. They both loved horses and riding free across Whispering Mountain.

By midafternoon clouds began to form to the west. The choices were to camp out in the open or try to make a run for a mission almost ten miles away.

They ran, with the cooks’ screams carrying on the wind. The road was well traveled by now, but Duncan knew that five minutes after the rain started, it would be a river of mud. If they didn’t make the mission, the wagon would be stuck.

He laughed. Even if Toledo heard the screams she’d have to be flying to catch them, and once they were in the mission, she’d never find them. The missions of Texas had long been a place where rangers could rest or vanish for a time if they needed to.

They reached the mission door just as the downpour hit. Duncan pulled the wagon as close as he could to the chapel and helped the cooks in, then went back to carry Anna through the rain. As always, she didn’t say a word, but clung to him.

When he set her down inside the thick walls of the mission, her eyes were huge, not so much with fright, but with wonder.

“It’s all right,” he whispered, pushing the hair out of her eyes. She was back to looking very much like a child again. “The priest likes rangers. He’ll put us up for the night and make sure the gates are locked. There are nuns here too. They work with the school. You’ ll be safe among them.”

Anna nodded slightly, but he wasn’t sure she believed him. She stayed right beside him as they were served soup and hot tea. He watched her closely as she seemed to study every detail around her.