The Wildest Heart (7 page)

“One of the
vaqueros
survived long enough to tell what had happened. He said that Alejandro Kordes and some of his
comancheros
had taken part in the attack. Perhaps he didn't know that his sister had been left behind. The house had begun to burn and she ran outside, carrying her child. An Indian arrow killed them both.”

“Oh, no!”

“The old
vaquero
said that before he became unconscious he saw Alejandro Kordes run forward, shouting like a madman. He said he wept as he knelt by his sister's body.”

“And then? What of Elena? Was she killed too?”

Corinne shook her head, her small face unusually grim.

“That is what really started the feud. Just before Uncle Todd left, he'd had some kind of disagreement with her. He never liked Indians, you see, and he hadn't wanted Elena there at all. A few days after he left, she had run away without a word. Later, he blamed her. He said she had called her people down on the ranch, as her revenge.”

“But my father?”

“You must understand, Rowena, that Uncle Todd was like a wild animal, crazed with grief and hatred. He would have gone after the Indians and his brother-in-law alone, if your father had not stopped him. And then, to make matters worse, a few days later, Elena came back. It—it appeared—” Corinne lowered her voice conspiratorially, giving me rather an embarrassed look. “It appeared that she was—well, expecting a child. They always hushed their voices when they started talking about that part of the story, and I was ordered out of the room, but my mama told me later, when I was old enough, that Elena had been in love with Uncle Todd, and that the child she was expecting was his.”

“Oh, God. What did he do when she turned up?”

“He almost killed her, that's what! He would have, if Uncle Guy had not dragged him off, after he started beating her. She lost her child, and it was Uncle Guy, your father, who nursed her back to health. But as soon as she was well enough, she ran away again, back to her people.”

“That couldn't have been the end of it. How did the feud you were talking about begin?”

Corinne sighed.

“Oh, Rowena, that was the worst part of it! It wasn't long before Elena had run off that the rumors began filtering back. She married Alejandro Kordes, of all people! Don't you see how it must have looked to Uncle Todd? He felt it proved that Elena and Alejandro had been in league all the time!”

There was more to the story, of course, but Corinne had been too young at the time to remember too many details. I was to hear it told again later, in all its facets, some of it related in my father's meticulously kept journals and some of it from the protagonists themselves. But I am going too fast—for many things were to happen before I was to know the whole of the truth.

First of all, I was to meet the strange and rather enigmatic Mr. Elmer Bragg, the ex-Pinkerton man to whom my father had referred in his last letter to me. It was my father's legal adviser, Judge Fleming, who reminded me to seek him out.

“He is—well, a rather
rough
man, who puts on a show of illiteracy, although he's self-educated, one of those men who are referred to in the west as ‘frontier lawyers.' He was an excellent detective, though, and I know that my friend Allan Pinkerton was sorry to lose him when he insisted upon retirement. You know the saying—‘Old soldiers never die'? Mr. Bragg is a living example of it. He has officially retired, but he is not the kind of man who likes to remain idle. He takes on cases from time to time. Your father and he were friends, and I have the impression that he is in Boston at this moment for the particular purpose of meeting you.”

“He hasn't attempted to meet me.”

Judge Fleming nodded in a self-satisfied manner.

“Of course not. That is not Elmer Bragg's way. He knows of your father's letter to you, and I think he is waiting for you to contact him.” He gave me a rather apologetic smile. “I've warned you, my dear, that Elmer Bragg is a rather eccentric man. This is typical of his way of going about things. I suppose he thinks that if you need his help or advice you will make some effort to seek him out.”

In the end, I did exactly this—partly because my father had advised me to do so, and partly because I was intrigued by Judge Fleming's rather evasive comments about this Mr. Elmer Bragg.

I had decided to remain in Boston for a while until certain legal technicalities had been settled, so I had time on my hands. Besides, I wasn't anxious to travel to New Mexico until I knew more about what I would have to face. It occurred to me that this mysterious Mr. Bragg, being a Westerner himself, would be just the person to give me the advice I needed. And I was right in this assumption, for our very first meeting proved informative.

“You're a sensible, self-possessed young lady, I see,” Mr. Bragg complimented me in his gruff, rather grumbling manner. His eyes, shrewd under bushy, grizzled brows, swept over me quickly, and then he gave an almost imperceptible, satisfied nod. “Yes,” he continued, as if there had been no pause in his speech, “I must say that you're a pleasant surprise! Didn't know what I'd have to deal with, if you'll excuse my blunt manner of speech. After all, even Guy knew nothing very much about you, except that the old earl, his father, was determined to bring you up according to his notions. And you're a highly educated young lady, too, I understand. That would have made your pa happy, for he set great store on education. What makes me happy is that you seem sensible as well as being pretty. Unusual combination in a female!”

I didn't know whether I should laugh or be angry with his abrupt manner, but I managed to retain enough composure to return Mr. Bragg's curious stare with a long, measuring look of my own. Then he began to smile, tugging at his large, untidy moustache.

“Huh! You don't say much either, do you? Sizing me up, I guess, and that's a good sign too. You're going to be meeting a lot of new people who are strangers to you, and if you don't mind a bit of advice from an old man, you'll do best to carry on as you're doing right now. Watch, listen, and say as little as possible.”

He paused for an instant and then shot at me, “Do you have a mind of your own, Lady Rowena?” If his sudden question had been designed to take me on guard, it did not succeed in doing so.

“Certainly I've a mind of my own, Mr. Bragg! I should hardly be here if I did not. But I do realize that there is a lot I'm going to have to learn before I travel to New Mexico, and that is why I've come to you. My father wrote of you, and I understand from Judge Fleming that you are one of the few persons who is eminently qualified to advise me.”

He chuckled at that. “So the judge recommended me, did he? Well, it's true that I know more about Guy and Guy's way of thinking than most others, including his partner, Todd Shannon. And so you think I might be able to give you some useful advice, eh?” He tugged at his moustache again, eyeing me thoughtfully. “That could be. Yes, it might be real interesting to see how you get on, at that. Did you have a business proposition in mind, then, Lady Rowena? You willing to hire my services?”

“If you are willing, of course,” I said smoothly, and could not resist adding, “You might even find it a challenge, don't you think? Or is your retirement permanent?”

He snorted at that. “Permanent? Permanent hell, if you'll pardon me for using the expression. And that old fox Fleming knows it too. No doubt he told you that when he advised you to see me. Retired, huh!” He grunted again. “Your father sent for me just before he died. That's what took me so long gettin' up here. And I've been keeping tabs on everything that's been going on down there, as a kind of mental exercise, you might say. You'd be surprised at how much I know. For instance, did you know that Todd Shannon tried to contest your pa's will? The part where he left you a half-share in the SD?”

I intercepted the sharp, sly look he gave me and nodded in assent.

“Yes. Judge Fleming informed me of it. But surely—”

“Ah!” Elmer Bragg waved his hand impatiently as if to brush aside what I had been about to say. “That's what I meant earlier, when I said I knew more than some people realize. Shannon knew he didn't have a chance. It was more a gesture of—well, let's say he was registering a public, formal protest! He'd always taken it for granted that Guy would leave him the whole ranch, free and clear. And then, almost out of the blue, you turn up. What does he know about you, eh? A titled young Englishwoman, brought up as a fine lady. And what did Guy really know about you, except that you were his daughter? Believe me, if Todd had known when you were to arrive he'd have had his lawyer-nephew, young Mark, meet you right here in Boston with a very generous cash offer in return for your rights to the ranch. And no doubt he'd have instructed Mark to persuade you not to go down to New Mexico at all. It's rough, rugged country there. Lots of violence, very little law except for the jungle kind. Survival of the strongest and the sneakiest. You understand?”

I couldn't help frowning, but his words had made me thoughtful, and I said slowly, “You mean that Todd Shannon resents my inheriting a share in the ranch? But why just that? Surely, as vast as I understand it is, the ranch is the least valuable of all the joint interests my father held with him. What about their shares in that silver mine? And the railroad shares? Does he feel that I have no right to any of those either?”

“You've hit the nail right on the head!” Mr. Bragg exclaimed. “No, Todd Shannon's not a petty, greedy man by any means, although he can hate hard. He's an Irishman, big on family ties. He doesn't grudge you the money, even though the cattle business is booming right now and he's making money hand over fist, enough so they're calling him a cattle baron. No, the point is that he feels the SD is his. You take my meaning? Your pa put in the money to get it started, it's true, but Shannon built the SD into an empire with his fists and his guts and his guns. It's a symbol to him now, the symbol of the first piece of land he ever owned in his life, the symbol of his power. And in some ways, the SD is like a memorial to his wife. His first wife. Only woman he ever really loved. You've heard the story?”

Slowly I nodded, already puzzled by the complexity of Todd Shannon's character. What kind of man was he really? My father had thought enough of him to become his partner. Corinne had told me that he had always frightened her a little, with his loud voice and the force of his personality. Judge Fleming had spoken of him with admiration, as a strong, stubborn man who had refused to admit defeat. Patently, he was a man capable of deep love, and capable of hating just as hard. A man who seemed to be haunted by tragedy. Corinne had told me that Todd Shannon had married again after my father had left for England to marry my mother. She was the widow of a schoolteacher who had been murdered by Indians, a woman with a young daughter, whom he had adopted as his own child. But this second wife too had died, in childbirth, and Todd Shannon had never married again.

“He's a big, handsome man,” Corinne had told me. “A blond giant of an Irishman, the kind no woman can resist. But there's something hard about him too. My mother used to say he was the kind of man who is only capable of loving once in his life.”

For all my self-confidence, I found myself wondering how such a man would react to my sudden arrival on the scene. No doubt he would resent me, and, in a way, I could hardly blame him for it.

I had been aware, while I was thinking all this, of Mr. Bragg's eyes upon me as he sat in silence chewing on the end of his cigar.

I caught his eye, and spoke aloud. “But, knowing all this, why did my father insist on leaving me his share in the ranch? He was a rich man without it, and certainly I don't need more money than I find myself with now. He must have had a reason.”

“So you've asked yourself that too?” Elmer Bragg's shrewd eyes seemed to twinkle approvingly at me for a moment. “Well, I did too. I asked Guy about it. ‘Why leave her trouble?' I said. ‘Why insist she has to live in New Mexico for a whole year before she can inherit the ranch free and clear, in any case?'”

“So he did have a reason?”

“Your pa was a thinking man. After he came back from England, he was never quite the same again. And towards the end, he lived like a recluse. Reading. Writing in his journals. Yes, he had a reason for giving you a half-interest in the ranch. A challenge, he called it. ‘I think, Elmer—no, I feel that my daughter will grow up to be the kind of woman my mother was. Strong. Compassionate. I'm hoping, once she understands everything, that she'll be the one to end this senseless feud.' I'm an ex-lawman, Lady Rowena, and I've a good memory. Many's the time I've had to depend upon it. That, and my instincts. Some instinct tells me you're going to do what your pa wanted. You've already made up your mind to go to New Mexico, haven't you?”

I could not help smiling at his air of assurance.

“It's my turn to compliment you, Mr. Bragg. You're a very discerning man. My father has left me enough money to satisfy all my material needs, but I think I've inherited some of his curiosity about people. Perhaps what I really need is a challenge of some kind. Yes, I think I will go to New Mexico, if only to discover what kind of man this Todd Shannon really is.”

“So it's Todd Shannon who's the challenge, Lady Rowena?” He saw my look and waved his hand impatiently. “Oh, come! Best get used to my rough manners and blunt speech. I'm going to help you, remember? Before you meet Todd Shannon, you have to understand him better. Tell me—” he paused to relight his cigar, “how much do you know of the rest of the story? I mean, what happened while your father was away in England, and after that.”

“That ridiculous feud started up again,” I said quickly, wondering what he was getting at.

“Ridiculous, you call it?” Elmer Bragg's voice had hardened. “It's hardly that, I'm afraid. If you're determined to go to New Mexico, it's something you'll have to live with. Every moment of every day. Todd Shannon is a man who has hated a long time, and that hate has eaten into him. While your father lived, he prevented really bad trouble, because he had earned the respect of the Kordes clan too. But now he's gone you'll be the one caught in the middle, Lady Rowena. You, a little English gal who knows nothing of our Western ways. Gently brought up, too, from the look of you and your clothes. Maybe you're intrigued by all the stories you've been hearing, but that's not enough. Do you know what you'll be getting into?”

“Mr. Bragg!” He had finally succeeded in making me angry, and I could not help letting some of my annoyance show. “I may not know exactly what I'm getting into, as you put it, but that is exactly why I have come to you. And, although I may not look it, the life I have led before I came here has not exactly been sheltered.” In a more controlled voice, I continued, “I was brought up in India, and we had our troubles there too. Not only from the wild hill tribes, but from the elements as well. And I have had the opportunity to study people, too. Perhaps there is more of my father in me than you think, Mr. Bragg, and you might as well learn that I can be stubborn!”

To my surprise, he had begun to chuckle, and pull at his moustache again. “So you have a temper as well! Good, good. I was beginning to wonder if you were all cool composure. But you know what, Lady Rowena? I think you'll do. Yep! I think that maybe Todd Shannon will find he's met his match in you!” His chuckle became a laugh. “By God, I'd like to see his face when he meets up with you and realizes he has no milk-and-water English miss to contend with, but a fighter! And you are that, aren't you?”

It would be some time before I would meet Todd Shannon, and then under circumstances that were hardly conducive to his thinking of me as an adversary worthy of his notice. But in the meantime, I had made two friends in America, Corinne Davidson and Elmer Bragg, for our strange association had grown into a grudging kind of friendship by the time we parted again, he to go his way on some mysterious errand he would tell me nothing about, and I on my way to New Mexico to claim the rest of my inheritance.

Neither Corinne nor her aunt, Mrs. Shannon, approved of my determination to travel alone and unchaperoned.

“I do wish you would wait until my son gets here,” Katherine Shannon said in her quiet voice. “Mark would know what to do. And I'm sure my brother-in-law would never approve of my having let you travel alone, through that awful, Indian-infested country!”

“But I'm quite determined to do so,” I said gently but firmly. “Please, Mrs. Shannon, I beg you not to worry yourself on my account. I'm quite used to traveling by myself, and I'm sure that there will be other people traveling with me, so that I will never be totally alone.”

Corinne, however, was more outspoken than her aunt, and especially when she discovered how I meant to travel. “Rowena, I think you're out of your mind!” she said frankly, when I told her of my plan. “You're rich enough to travel in style, which is what I should do if I were you. I really cannot imagine why you should want to disguise yourself in those perfectly horrible, ugly clothes! And besides,” she added, “my Uncle Todd despises plain women! I've heard him say so a dozen times at least. Oh, and I was so hoping that you would be the one woman to give him a set-down! He's such an arrogant, overbearing man—exactly the type you cannot abide. I've often thought that he imagines women were put on earth purely to serve men. To be their playthings. I remember how sorry I used to feel for Flo. She's his stepdaughter, you know. But of, course, that was before I knew her!”

Corinne wrinkled up her nose, diverted, for the moment, from her purpose. “I was prepared to like her when Uncle Todd packed her back here to school, you know. I'd hear them all whisper about the terrible scandal, and I really did feel sorry for her, knowing how stern Uncle Todd can be. We used to ask her out to tea, and Aunt Katherine would have her spend weekends with her.”

“And—” I prompted, more to get Corinne's mind off my plans than from any real curiosity.

“And I discovered what she was like!” Corinne's pretty face became flushed with emotion. “You can't imagine what a snob she is! And a flirt. I swear, all she could think about was men, and all she could talk about was how rich Uncle Todd is, and how she had her own horses to ride, and all the men in the territory were mad for her. I could almost feel sorry for that poor young Indian boy who was almost hanged because of her. And then she met Derek Jeffords, who is much older than she is, and because he's so rich, even Uncle Todd approved. Or maybe he was just anxious to get her married off. Anyhow, she married poor Mr. Jeffords, and she led him a dance from the very beginning. That was when we all started feeling sorry for Mr. Jeffords instead. She never loved him. I don't think she's loved anyone but herself, ever! She went after Mark too, for a while, and then, all of a sudden, she decided she was going back to New Mexico, to visit her pa, she said. I don't know what she told Uncle Todd, but he let her stay. So you'll have her to contend with too. And Flo doesn't like competition!”