by Alden, Dana
Chapter 5
Calvin was more attuned to Miss Amanda than he should have been on such short acquaintance. So, despite her apparent interest in the line of packhorses stretching their necks here and there to reach something to eat, he could tell by her stillness how she strained to hear what he had to say to Smitty. He drew the pack master across the clearing and made a show of holding his gun out, flat on his hand, as though to show it off.
“You know something,” he said to Smitty quietly.
“Not exactly,” said Smitty, taking the gun into his own hands and checking the barrel. “I had a feeling we were being watched, but I wasn’t sure… coulda been Crow or Sioux, not happy we’re in their territory.” He gave a little shrug.
Cal gave a snort that wasn’t quite laughter. Not happy—what an understatement. Even with all the land granted to the whites, they still wanted more. Even if, in this case, it was just to pass through. But as they did so, Smitty’s stock foraged for grass and the men hunted for themselves, and every bit they took was less for the tribes.
Smitty ignored Cal’s outburst. “But they were good enough at laying low.” He handed the gun back and continued. “This is far off the beaten path for a regular robbery. More opportunities coming from the south.” He looked at Cal and then over at Amanda.
She had given up trying to overhear them and was fending off the attentions of Pastor Frank.
“I did wonder about Miss Amanda,” said Cal. “What do you know about her? Is she with that pastor?” He had noted the proprietary behavior of the man earlier, and his hovering concern for Amanda now, though she hadn’t responded in kind. Not either time.
Cal realized his first question was for Smitty, for their investigation of the attack, but the second was for himself. What could he say? A beautiful young woman was bound to attract attention anywhere, but out here… well.
Smitty spared a glance at the young woman and then turned to a mule. He bent at the waist, running his hand down the mule’s front leg until he reached the hoof. He leaned into the animal until it raised its bent leg. Cal leaned in to hear him.
“She’s traveling alone. Don’t know how she made it so far without trouble.”
“How far?”
“Some city in Massachusetts.”
Cal gave a low whistle. He was impressed.
“I found Miss Amanda at Fort Laramie. She had a place on a wagon train heading for Utah on the Oregon Trail. Once there, she was going to head north to Montana Territory. She was hired back East by a fellow to care for his wife who was in the family way. Damn fool should have left her back East.” Smitty glared at the hoof.
“That woman had two babies, too early. They got sick in Nebraska Territory and they stayed at the fort when the rest of the wagon train moved on. Well, the gal and babies died. Miss Amanda didn’t want to continue on with the fellow alone. So I let her come along.”
Cal knew Smitty to be a genuinely kind man, but not one to necessarily seek out strangers to help. The older man had pulled out a knife and was trimming the cracked hoof. Smitty did not look up, but Cal could see by the slightest upturn of the corner of his mouth that Smitty enjoyed making Cal draw the details out of him. Neither man was keen on gossip, but then, neither was it common to find a beautiful, unattached young woman out in the wilds.
Cal gave up. He couldn’t hide his interest, and Smitty had recognized it almost before he did. “Alright, old timer, how’d she end up with you?”
Smitty let the hoof go and stood up. His lip curled. “Pastor Frank brought her over. He heard she was looking for work to get her to Virginia City, to her brother, and that a couple of fellows were planning to help her ‘work’ her way across the mountains. I didn’t get the impression they were going to give her much choice.”
Cal felt an anger rise up inside him.
“Up near Fort Benton, I might have passed her on to that preacher’s family running the Sun River Indian Farm. But round Fort Kearney, I couldn’t think of anyplace she’d be safe long enough to get word to her stepbrother.”
Smitty put the hoof down, and with one hand on his back, straightened up with a groan. “That has got to be one of my least favorite jobs.”
Cal reached over and took the hoof paring knife from Smitty. He walked around the mule’s head to the other side of it. He ran his hand down the other foreleg and pinched the ankle until the animal shifted its weight, and bent its knee to raise the foot for him. As he ran the paring knife around, trimming and leveling the hoof, he found a wave of disgust had come to accompany the anger. This was the problem with the westward rush. So many men, all outside the bounds of civilization, letting their basest instincts take over. He knew a woman like this would be in high demand, even from the decent ones.
He let the mule’s hoof down and handed the knife back to Smitty. The wind was picking up and he looked up to see clouds pushing up from the valley south of them.
“And the preacher?”
Smitty gave a low chuckle. “She doesn’t seem too interested in him.”
Cal liked hearing that, but he still didn’t like what had just happened. “Well, someone sure seems interested in her.”
Smitty was watching him intently. “I have no reason to think Miss Amanda was the object of those desperados. But either way, I don’t think she’d fair well if we ended up on the losing side of a shootout.” He paused a moment and then poked Cal in the middle of the chest. “You’re going to take her.”
“Pardon? Take her where?”
“These fellows might come back. They know we’ll continue on the Bozeman Trail to get over the pass. But you know how to get to town without being seen. Meet us in Bozeman in a few days. I’ll take Miss Amanda on to Virginia City from there.”
Cal inhaled sharply. He did not like this idea. It could ruin everything.
“I need to get to Gallatin City quickly. I can’t take an injured gal through the wilderness.” Even if she’s pretty, ran through his mind.
“She’ll be safer with you, Cal. Her injury’s not so bad. You can move faster than I can with this string of mules. Plus, how will either of us feel if she stays with me and something terrible happens?”
Chapter 6
“You need to go with Calvin, Miss Amanda,” said Mr. Smith—he was not Smitty any longer.
“Go with Cal—Mr. Ayers? No.” Amanda folded her arms across her chest but didn’t elaborate. One thing she’d learned from being on her own was that giving an explanation was the same as giving the other person an opportunity to change her mind.
“Why yes, Miss Amanda.” He turned his crinkled eyes into hers. “You see, this is my pack train and I decide who rides with me.” Scamp stood nearby, goggle-eyed.
“No!” She forgot her own rule. “You promised me to Virginia City if I worked my way. You can’t just leave me!”
“I’m not leaving you. I’m sending you on a safer route.” When Amanda tried to interrupt, Smitty held up his hand and his voice turned sterner. “I allowed you to ride along at a greatly reduced fee because I was concerned for your safety if you stayed in Fort Laramie, or continued on with that emigrant wagon train, or tried to make it to Montana Territory on your own. A pretty young girl with no money. What if it were my daughter out there?”
Amanda wanted to argue but she knew this was true. She had very little money and it was only because she’d been hired to help Geraldine that she’d been able to travel west without family or friends. But when Geraldine and the babies caught the cholera, there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t—or rather wouldn’t—travel farther with Geraldine’s widower.
But how could he think sending her off with some wild Mountain Man was safer? They couldn’t think these bandits were coming back for her? “But—”
“But nothing,” said Smitty. “I was concerned for your safety and I still am. You’ll be safer out in the trees with Cal than trotting down the open trail with me.”
Amanda didn’t know how to respond. The open trail wasn’t a heck of a lot bet
ter than a deer path. Now, Smitty wanted her to go off on an actual deer path. And Calvin Ayers was more of a stranger than Smitty or any of the men in the pack train. She’d known them for a few weeks, at least. Smitty clearly trusted Ayers and Scamp idolized him, but she sure didn’t want to travel into the unknown mountains with some unknown man, with bandits on their trail.
Amanda felt anger and frustration boiling up inside of her. A man had forced her to leave the mill and head west. Another man had forced her to leave the wagon train for this pack mule train. And now these men were forcing her off the trail and out into the wilderness with a… a… mountain man! When could a woman take charge of her own destiny?
Amanda looked at the striking landscape, listened to the rustling aspen leaves and felt the wind against her skin. It didn’t really matter, she thought resignedly, she had nowhere to go but forward. She turned to Smitty again, but before she could speak, Calvin’s voice cut in.
“I didn’t know the men, but they seemed determined. They might return with reinforcements. Now is our chance to spirit you away where they can’t find you.”
So much for suspicions, she thought. There were men out there, bad men, willing to shoot and kill to get at her. This had never been a problem in Lowell. Her thoughts must have shown her fear because he continued. “I’m not keeping you, Miss Amanda. I’ll get you to your brother safely, just by a different route.”
His tone and words were sympathetic, but she still didn’t know this man. Yes, he had a handsome quality under his mountain man trappings and was kind to her when she was injured, but that wasn’t a reason to trust her life in his hands. He was big and strong…and she was alone.
“Mr. Smith…” she was appealing to a man she barely knew. “Why…”
“Miss Amanda.” Mr. Smith took a deep breath but there was no uncertainty in his voice. “It’ll be safer for all if you go with Mr. Ayers.”
“Surely I’ll be safer with four men?” At a look from Scamp, she revised, “Five men?”
Smitty looked at young Scamp, the injured Richard, and the less than useful Pastor Frank. “Not this time.”
And that ended the discussion. How could she insist on choosing her way when she wasn’t even a paying customer? She had no one to back her up. Richard and Dick weren’t paying much attention to her predicament. Scamp seemed envious of her chance to ride off with Mr. Ayers. Only Pastor Frank seemed to dislike the idea of Amanda riding off into the wilderness with a mountain man.
“I fear Miss Amanda is going from the frying pan to the fire.” He looked dolefully at Mr. Ayers. Amanda wasn’t sure if he was concerned about her physical or moral virtue. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he gave a satisfied smile. “I’ll go with you, Miss Amanda.”
Amanda felt a leap of gratitude inside of her, which was quickly squashed by Cal’s quick response.
“Absolutely not.”
His voice was so determined that she knew he was not going to relent. Pastor Frank looked angry, but he didn’t argue.
Amanda felt more scared now than in the gunfight. Then, she’d been a bystander, hunkered down while others fought. Now, she was in the thick of it. How she wished she could escape this madness. She’d like to be delivered to her stepbrother’s doorstep with a snap of her fingers. Or back to the familiarity, and relative safety, of Lowell. Or even to her father’s farm. But there was no policeman walking his beat to whom she could call out, no friendly neighbors to appeal to.
Amanda took a deep breath.
“Let’s go then,” she said and turned toward Pony. She didn’t want to look at this group of men, to let them see how close to tears she was.
“No, Miss,” said Mr. Ayers. “We’ll leave Pony with the pack train. If they’re following and see the tracks veer off, they’ll know where you turned off and where to start to follow. This way, it’ll be a little longer before they realize you’re gone.”
He walked over to the horse and unhitched the ropes holding her two small satchels to the saddle. He nodded to Smitty and Scamp, “See you in Bozeman.”
“Follow me,” he said to Amanda. He led her to his horse. It was a large brown mare with black socks, mane and tail. “My pack horse is at full weight, and I don’t have an extra saddle, anyway. You’ll have to ride Miss Molly with me.”
She looked up at the saddle and the rolled blanket tied to the back of it with three leather straps. What could she say, in the woods at the foothills of a huge mountain range with a stranger who claimed he would protect her? She nodded. She had so many words and emotions boiling and roiling inside of her, but feared if she opened her mouth, they’d burst out in an incoherent mess that wouldn’t help her anyway.
Amanda swiveled her head to Smitty, who gave her an encouraging nod. She looked to Frank, who gave her a discouraging shake of the head, and to Scamp, who smiled like this was all perfectly regular.
Calvin finished tying on her satchels. He mounted the horse and then held his hand down to Amanda. “I’ll pull you up behind me.” She put her foot on his stirrupped foot and gave him her hand. He pulled her straight up and then twisted to drop her behind his back. She grabbed onto his waist. It felt so strange, so intimate. She gripped with one hand while she adjusted her skirts with the other. It might feel intimate, she thought, but it wasn’t. She yanked the material down to cover her right calf.
And with that, she narrated to herself. And so, Amanda Hildreth left the pack train to ride off into a new part of the wilderness on a horse named Miss Molly, with a scruffy mountain man named Calvin Ayers.
Chapter 7
Calvin and Amanda rode along a path barely qualifying for the name. Through the trees and brush, Calvin navigated his horse so subtly that Amanda couldn’t tell he was actually doing anything. Maybe his horse knew the route all by itself? The packhorse, tied by a long rope to the lead horse, walked along behind, its only goal seeming to be to nibble at any edibles it spotted en route.
The afternoon wore on, the sun hot overhead. When they rode in the shade, Amanda was comfortably warm. When they rode in the sun, she was terribly hot. The difference between the shade and the sun, well, it was quite a bit more of a difference than at home.
The heat and the swaying of the horse, combined with the passing of the thrill of their battle, left Amanda exhausted. She kept drifting off, to awaken when the horse stumbled or in some way jarred her. She was barely aware of a rustling to the side of the trail when a blue grouse shot up into the air. Calvin’s horse gave a small sideways hop away from it in a nervous response. Amanda, unprepared, tipped backward and rolled right off the back of the horse.
She landed on her own rump, legs splayed out in front of her. The impact had jarred the wind right out of her.
The horses stopped immediately; Calvin was down off his horse in a bound and right there at her side. “Are you hurt?”
She wasn’t, and she knew that he knew she wasn’t—and it was only his hint of a smile that told her he wanted to laugh. She felt aggravated that he was laughing at her again but appreciated how he was only snickering on the inside.
“No, I don’t think so,” she said primly, as though she’d just turned her ankle on a walk in the park. And then the horse behind her blew a wet breath along her cheek. She gave a wry smile. “Only my pride,” she said. She thought of how Cal had spied her in the woods outside of Smitty’s camp. For a moment, she wondered how many more embarrassing situations she’d have with Cal as witness.
Calvin returned her smile and said, “Your side? Does it hurt?”
“It burns a little, but it’s tolerable,” she said. Amanda couldn’t help but appreciate his concern. And how the skin around his eyes crinkled when he smiled. She tried not to blush.
He stood and held out his hand to help her up. This time, he held out his locked hands so she could step on them to mount the horse. He grabbed her skirts and helped yank them down to make her modest again, then mounted with a high swing of his leg so he didn’t kick her. “Put both of your hands around
my waist.” She did so, and with his left hand across his front, he gripped her right forearm. With his right hand, he directed the horse through the reins and clenched his legs to start moving. This time, secure, Amanda stayed on the horse with greater ease.
They walked through the woods quietly, the horses one behind the other. At one opening in the trees, Cal pointed down the valley to a heard of small pronghorn antelope grazing among the sagebrush and long grass.
“Are women in such short supply then?” Amanda asked.
“What?”
“That we’re kidnapped upon sight? That men lay in wait of emigrant trains looking for women?” She highly doubted this was the case, but what the case was, she just didn’t know.
“No, not usually.”
That triggered an alarm in Amanda. Her arm must have tensed because she felt Cal pat her wrist.
“I shouldn’t joke at a time like this, sorry.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” she said. Amanda wished she could pull back from him, but didn’t want to roll off the horse again. She waited, and realized he wasn’t going to her answer her real question. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
“I’m not certain.” Cal paused. “Are you an heiress in disguise?”
“Oh, hardly that!”
“Other than your brother, what connections do you have out here?”
“Only Samuel, my stepbrother. He owns a mercantile store in Virginia City. I’m going to work for him.”
“Samuel, huh?” Cal paused again, considering. “I know Virginia City fairly well. I can’t say I am acquainted with a Samuel with that kind of store.”
“I’ve heard there are ten thousand people there. Surely you don’t claim to know them all?”
Amanda believed Calvin was trying to help her, but even so, her hackles were up. He was asking questions as though this mess was her fault entirely.
“The city’s grown by leaps and bounds, you’re right. And there’s lots of men coming and going. I could very well have overlooked it.” Cal didn’t seem as if he believed this, but what could Amanda say? If men didn’t go kidnapping women at random, and if Samuel was indeed her only local connection, then it stood to reason she and Samuel did indeed play a role in this mystery.
