He grinned. “That’s the spirit. Besides, if you make it, I win two hundred dollars.”
She sucked in her breath and her eyes filled with surprise and a hint of disappointment. “Is that the only reason you’re taking me?”
He gave her a wink. “Of course it is.”
She scowled then. “Buck Hanner!”
He laughed lightly. “You know better than that. I told you I’ve got it in for Tillis—and I admire your determination. You’re just a kid, but I want to help you. And I have the crazy feeling that you’re going to do okay, Harmony Jones.”
She smiled again. “Thank you.”
Their breakfast was brought then, and the next few minutes were spent eating. Harmony wondered why she cared if he might only be taking her to win a bet. It shouldn’t really matter, but there were so many things she felt about Buck Hanner that she couldn’t quite understand. He was a good friend, yet not in the fatherly way Brian O’Toole had been. Brotherly, perhaps? No. Not that either. She liked him, but she did not desire him the way Dora May Harper desired men. Doing such things still frightened and repulsed her. And yet the thought of Buck Hanner doing those things with some other woman brought an odd burning sensation, almost like jealousy; yet surely it could not be! Why on earth would she be jealous of any woman who might do such hideous things with this man who was simply a casual friend and a guide—a man she had no other interest in? She was sometimes tempted to ask him pointedly if there was a special woman in his life right now, or if he visited the whores often? But a lady could only wonder about such things and never ask.
Breakfast was soon over and Buck insisted on paying for it. After several hugs and much well-wishing from Wanda, who handed them a cloth bag full of fresh biscuits and another full of fresh cinnamon cookies, Harmony was able to leave. They headed north then, toward the supply store, but as they approached it, Buck slowed down and Harmony’s heart began to pound with dread and apprehension.
Men lined both sides of the street along the final several yards to the store, and even from a distance, Harmony and Buck could see that Wade Tillis himself languished on the steps, two of his men casually leaning against the support posts of the porch. The store sat on a cross street, at the very end of and facing the main street down which Buck and Harmony now walked.
Harmony swallowed. “Buck?”
He gently grasped her arm. “Take it easy.” He guided her off the boardwalk and into the middle of the street, facing Wade Tillis, who stood up from his sitting position on the steps of the store, chewing on a thin cigar. “Keep your chin up, Shortcake,” Buck told her quietly. “And keep that determined look in your eyes.”
She took a deep breath. “I’d walk right up to that man even if you weren’t with me!” she declared.
“That’s the stuff. Come on.”
The men who had come to watch the confrontation were quiet, watching, listening, curious. Again Harmony felt their eyes on her, some friendly, some belligerent. Buck walked her closer to the store, stopping just a few yards from Tillis and nodding. “Morning, gentlemen.”
Tillis chewed the cigar, his eyes roving Harmony, again with the look of a hungry wolf. “Sleep well last night, Miss Jones?”
She looked up at Buck and he gave her a wink. “Go ahead. You can answer.”
She turned glaring green eyes back to Tillis. “Very well, thank you.”
He grinned. “I heard you had a visitor. Some no-good told me this morning that he slipped a nasty note under your door.” He shook his head. “That’s a terrible thing to do.” His eyes moved from Harmony to Buck and then back to her. “Of course, maybe you weren’t alone, and you were too busy to see the note. In that case, the note wouldn’t offend you, considering what you were probably up to. Maybe Buck can tell us.”
She could not stop her cheeks from coloring deeply then, or the lump from coming to her throat. Extreme anger always made her want to cry. She jerked her arm out of Buck’s hand.
“I was alone, Mister Wade Tillis!” she spat back. “And I found the note, which you most likely put there yourself! Perhaps you’d like all these men here to know that the note was a threat to my person. I was threatened with violation! And perhaps they’d like to know that a blasting cap accompanied the note. The person who gave it to me apparently expected me to be young and ignorant enough to toy with it and blow away half my hand! That would have slowed me up a bit, wouldn’t it, Mister Tillis! Perhaps long enough for you to take over my claim!”
There was a muttering from the crowd, and Buck grinned as Tillis scowled with anger and humiliation. Harmony didn’t know where she’d gotten her courage, for on the inside she was shaking violently. Her anger seemed to give her the necessary fire, and she picked up the suitcase Buck had set down and marched up to Tillis. “I am going inside. Are you going to show me what a big, brave man you are and stop me in front of all these men?”
His dark eyes narrowed. “You need a man to tone you down a notch, Miss Jones,” he growled quietly. Then he grinned. “Or hasn’t ole Buck been able to do that yet? Maybe he’s not man enough for you.”
She blinked back tears. “You’re despicable, Wade Tillis! And the day any man tries to take me down a notch is the day he dies! Just try me!”
“Harmony!” Buck barked. “Just go on inside.”
She shot him a look, her face filled with humiliation and hurt. Then she marched toward the store.
“Miss Jones!” Tillis called out. “Did ole Buck tell you about all the dangers up there in the mountains? The bears? The wolves? How about the rats that run rampant in the cabin? He tell you about that? You’ll find pack rats warming your feet at night, little lady, if you’ve no man to do it.”
She turned and smiled. “I’d rather have pack rats in my bed than the likes of you!” she sneered.
The whole crowd laughed delightedly and shouted to Wade Tillis that he had let a little girl get the better of him again. Harmony marched up the steps past Tillis’ two men, and Tillis, fists clenched, turned and started after her.
“Tillis!” Buck called out. “Don’t you go another step!”
The man turned slowly, glaring at Buck and pushing his top coat away from his gun. Then he grinned. “You ready to die for your little piece, Hanner? Maybe you’ve already done to her what you tried to do to Mary Beth.”
Buck’s blue eyes turned to ice. “Say that name again, or take one step toward Harmony Jones, and you’re a dead man, Wade Tillis! You know I don’t need much reason to put a bullet between your eyes!”
Harmony stood at the doorway. She set down the carpetbag and suitcase, her heart pounding with fear for Buck. Wade Tillis’ two men stepped down off the porch, taking positions on either side of Tillis, all three of them eying Buck.
Tillis grinned. “You intending to take all three of us?” he asked.
“Maybe so. But whether I can or not doesn’t matter. You’re sure to go first, no matter what else happens. You’ll be dead either way. If you want to die just so your men can shoot me, then go ahead and draw that gun!”
There was a moment of intense quiet, and no one would have known that there were any men around at all, for the only sound was the mountain wind. Wade Tillis swallowed, little beads of sweat on his forehead.
“There will be a better time,” he said, lowering his hands and putting his topcoat back over his gun.
One of his men went for his gun, however, and to Harmony’s surprise, Buck’s gun was out and fired before she even realized what was going on. The man flew backward and sprawled on his back; then Buck waved his gun at Tillis and the second man. The local sheriff came running into the street then.
“What’s going on here!” he demanded.
“It was fair, Sheriff!” a man from the crowd shouted. “Cliff pulled a gun on Buck there, and Buck beat him out, fair and square.”
Harmony breathed deeply for control, putting a shaking hand to her chest, where her heart pounded furiously. For a brief moment she realized Buck could h
ave been killed, for her! Why had he risked his life if he was simply a guide? Her feelings were even more confused, and she realized she’d have been very sad if Buck Hanner had been killed.
“You tell Tillis to stay away from Harmony Jones and her claim!” Buck was telling the sheriff. “All these men here are witnesses that he threatened her. If anything happens to her while she’s alone on her claim, Wade Tillis will be the first man blamed! And we all know what happens to claim jumpers and thieves, men who try to get their hands on someone else’s diggings.”
Some of the men raised fists and agreed, shouting for Wade Tillis to leave. Tillis glared back at Buck, his dark eyes full of hate. “You win…this time,” he growled, “But someday it will be my turn. I’ll beat you out, Buck Hanner, just like I did with Mary Beth!”
“You as much as killed her!” Buck hissed back at him. “And you watch how you play your hand, Wade Tillis, or you’ll be as dead as your friend there!”
“All right, that’s enough!” the sheriff spoke up. “Buck, you go on in there and get things ready for your trip. Tillis, you get back to the Mother Lode and stay out of this. Let the girl be on her way. And I’d better not hear that anything has happened to her up there, because Buck is right. You’ll be the first man we suspect!”
Tillis smiled. “Why, Sheriff, you know I’m always at the Mother Lode. A lot of people can always vouch for my whereabouts. And I’d never hurt a little kid like that. I was just teasing her—thought I could scare her a little.” He looked around, assuming the posture of a good man. “After all, we all know it’s foolish for her to try to go up there alone. It’s dangerous.” He looked back at the sheriff. “I was only looking out for her. Buck here doesn’t seem to care. If he did, he’d never take her there. I was just trying to talk some sense into her, that’s all. But Buck here got all hopped up, and before I knew it, one of my own men got riled and pulled a gun.”
The sheriff sighed. “Sure, Wade. Now get going.”
Wade puffed the cigar, eying Buck again. “It’s you the men should be angry with,” he announced, “taking that poor girl up there to who knows what horrible fate.” While he and his other man left, Harmony still stood at the doorway, watching Buck. Was Tillis right? If Buck really cared, maybe he wouldn’t be doing this. Maybe he really just wanted to win a bet. He met her eyes then with his kind blue ones, and her emotions were torn by panic at the thought of anything happening to him, admiration for the way he’d stood up for her and had risked his life…and a gnawing doubt. Did he really care for her or was this all a game to him. Perhaps he even had some ulterior motive in mind; she would be alone with him in the wild. Sudden, last-minute panic and doubt rushed through her, yet it was subdued as he came closer, reading her green eyes with his hypnotic blue ones, holding her gaze until he was standing very close to her.
“Maybe he’s right. Maybe I shouldn’t take you up there at all.”
“And maybe you’re just determined to take me in order to win a bet—and to get me alone,” Harmony replied, watching his eyes.
His eyes didn’t waver. “Do you really believe that?”
She glanced at the body of the man he’d just shot. Some men were picking it up. Then she looked back at him. “I don’t know what to believe. You just killed a man who tried to stop us.”
“That had nothing to do with you. Wade wouldn’t shoot it out over a half-grown girl and an almost worthless claim. He was just using you as an excuse to get to me. He’d like to see me dead, so he doesn’t have to worry about me anymore. But he knew better than to draw on me. He doesn’t play that fair, but he needs a better excuse than what happened this morning. He was just testing me—and you. He wants you to fail. You going to let that happen?”
She swallowed. “No. But…that man is dead. Doesn’t that bother you?”
He frowned. “Some. Bothers any man who’s got any decency in him. But he drew on me. I had no choice. He made his move and suffered for it.”
She put a hand to her head. “I don’t understand you. You mix me up. Why does Wade Tillis want you dead? Why do you hate him?”
“I’ll tell you sometime. But not right now, Shortcake.” He leaned against the doorjamb. “How about it? You still going?”
She sighed deeply, glancing out at the small crowd that had gathered to see what Harmony Jones would do. She reminded herself why she had come, why she was so determined to make it all work. What difference did men like Wade Tillis or Buck Hanner make? What did they have to do with her promises to herself? She had vowed to claim her piece of land, and she would do so. She had let her feelings interfere lately, obscuring her real purpose for being here: So what if Tillis and Hanner had it in for each other? That had nothing to do with her working her own claim. Buck Hanner simply had to take her there, then leave; and that was that. Half the town had heard Buck and the sheriff warn Tillis to leave her alone, so Tillis didn’t dare harm her now. The showdown, and her announcement of what had happened to her the night before, only verified Wade Tillis’ underhanded schemes. She had shown him up twice. He’d be wise to leave her alone now.
She met Buck’s eyes again. “Yes,” she told him. Her green eyes hardened. “And I meant what I said about no man taking me down a notch—and about preferring rats, not just to Wade Tillis but to any man.”
That handsome, unnerving smile passed over his lips, almost making her angry. He pushed back his hat a little, and a piece of sandy-colored hair fell over his forehead. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “But I’m sorry you think I had anything like that in mind, Shortcake. Kind of hurts, after all I’ve done for you up to now—and after standing up to those men.”
She folded her arms. “You said yourself that was something personal. And as far as all you’ve done for me, you have done for me what you would have done for any person who came along and needed you for a guide.”
He held her eyes. “That isn’t so, and you know it. I’ve gone an extra mile for you, Harmony.” His smile faded, and she looked down.
“Maybe you have, but I can’t help but wonder why.”
He sighed deeply. “If you need to wonder, then you don’t know people very well, and you sure as hell don’t know men. Someday you’re going to learn who to trust, learn that there really are some people you can trust. You’ll get that chip off your shoulder, Shortcake, and quit believing that all you have is yourself. Nobody just has that. I had somebody once, but I lost her. Yet I know it can’t be just Buck Hanner for the rest of my life. Even though at first that’s the way I thought, I don’t want to live the rest of my life that way, and that person wouldn’t want me to go around hating the world and being ornery with everybody I come across just because of what happened. Bad things happen to a lot of folks, Harmony. It’s just the way life is. I’ve got my differences with Wade Tillis, but I don’t hate the rest of the world. You’ve got to learn that too. Apparently someone hurt you deeply, and you’re determined nobody but Harmony Jones will be in your life. But you can’t go on that way.”
“I’ll do what I please!” she snapped as quietly as possible, for others were watching and wondering what they were talking about.
“Yes, you most certainly do that,” he answered, sounding angry. He took her arm and whisked her inside the supply store. “Maybe you should find another guide,” he told her. “There are plenty of others around here who know where O’Toole’s claim was. I’m sure Wade Tillis’ men could show you! You seem to trust me no farther than the next man, so what’s the difference?”
He started to leave, and she grabbed his shirt sleeve. “Wait, Buck!”
He looked at her with angry eyes, and her own eyes filled with tears, immediately softening his heart. “I’m sorry! I’m just…scared. What happened here—it spoiled everything. It was all going so well!”
“Damn it, Harmony, Tillis is just trying to fill you with doubts. Can’t you see that? You’re reacting exactly the way he wants you to.”
Her breath came in short gasps, and she pressed her
lips together to keep from crying. She wiped angrily at unwanted, childish tears. “I trust you, Buck…truly I do!” she finally said, her words broken. “Don’t go away! I don’t want anybody else to take me there, and I want to be friends like before. I just…I’ve never seen a shooting before.”
He sighed deeply. “Harmony, I’ve killed a few renegade Indians. And I killed one other—all in self-defense. I’m not a killer by nature. But I’m not a man to take someone else’s bull, either, and if I have to use a gun, then I use it, that’s all. This isn’t St. Louis, Shortcake. It’s Cripple Creek, Colorado, and there’s not much in the way of law out here. It’s all the sheriff can do to keep up, so a man has to be able to fend for himself. That doesn’t make him a cold-blooded killer. I don’t exactly forget about killing a man in ten minutes. In my sleep, I’ll hear my gun going off and see him falling for quite a few nights, and I could really use this trip and some time alone in the mountains.”
She watched his eyes. Yes. It really did bother him. What a confusing man he was—quiet, yet sometimes talkative; easy to know, yet she wondered if she knew the real Buck Hanner at all. There was that mysterious past he wouldn’t talk about. He was a gentle man who could turn around and shoot a man down, and she didn’t doubt he’d had his share of fist fights…and women. But there had been one—someone special called Mary Beth—so special it hurt too much for him to talk about her. She was almost jealous of the girl, even though she was no longer even alive.
“We’re wasting time,” she told him, forcing a smile for him. “Friends?”
He nodded, saying nothing more. He picked up her carpetbag and suitcase and walked through the store to the back, where Pepper and Indian waited, saddled and ready. Four pack mules stood nearby, loaded with supplies. Buck tied the carpetbag and suitcase onto one of them.
“Mount up,” he told her. “You and I are going to ride around to the front so the men can see us leaving. We might as well rub it in a little.”
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