“You must stay here the next three months,” Abbie ordered Georgeanne. “You don’t want to be having your first child out there in near wilderness with no good doctors close by. Here in Denver you can get the best of care, and another woman who loves you will be with you to comfort you. That’s so important. I know your mother died tragically when you were very young. I also lost my mother at a young age. That is hard, and so is having babies with no woman to help.”
Georgeanne’s eyes suddenly teared. “You said ‘another woman who loves you.’ Does that mean …? Are you saying you love me?”
Abbie was touched by the hunger in Georgeanne’s eyes. “Of course! I love anyone who my children or grandchildren love. You are my granddaughter now by marriage, and you are carrying my great-grandchild. Why wouldn’t I love you?”
“I guess I thought it would take time, considering the kind of man my father is, and what he did to Zeke.”
“You’ll find no woman who has more love to give than my mother,” Jeremy told her. “No tears now. We’re glad you came here, but we’re all very curious as to why you’re here at this particular time.” He looked at Zeke. “You having problems of some kind? Has Georgeanne’s father found out about the marriage?”
Zeke got up from his chair. “Yes,” he answered. He walked to the fireplace. “But that isn’t why we’re here. I did write Mother to warn them there could be trouble. I told her to let you know right away and you’d send out a marshal. You haven’t heard from her?”
“Nothing. Things are all right, as far as I know.”
“Good,” Zeke nodded. He went on to explain about the incident with Temple. “I’m not worried about Carson Temple anymore,” he finished. “I am a little worried about Georgeanne having a baby out there, and I brought her here so she’d be close to a doctor. But there’s one other reason we’re here, and it’s the main reason I no longer worry about her father’s power and money. With your help, Uncle Jeremy, Georgeanne and I will have more money than Temple ever dreamed of. I’ll be able to buy him out if I want to.”
Abbie, Jeremy and Mary stared at him in surprise. “What?” Jeremy asked.
Zeke grinned. “It’s called gold, Uncle Jeremy, and there’s a vein of it on the side of the mountain that is part of my property. Thanks to Georgeanne’s training in geology and her work for a mining company, she helped me find the mother lode. I was dynamiting stumps to clear my land, when lo and behold, one of them—near a creek—turned out to have a little sparkle on the roots, flakes of gold washed down from someplace higher up. Georgie and I hacked and shoveled and dynamited our way into the mountain, and, by God, she found a vein that’s assayed out to be almost pure.”
“Dear Lord!” Abbie whispered.
“Damn!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Zeke, that’s the best news I’ve heard in years!” He looked to his mother. “Just think of it! Gold in the Monroe family! Gold! My God, what would father have thought of this!”
Abbie was speechless. Never in his wildest dreams would Zeke Monroe have thought he’d have a son as rich as Jeremy, a grandson who was a lawyer in Denver, another grandson who just might turn out to be among the richest men in Colorado! What a glorious satisfaction this would have been for Zeke Monroe.
“Our only problem,” Zeke was saying, “is that after Georgie’s father found out about the marriage, he cut off her trust fund. We were going to use that money to buy the proper mining equipment, hire men who know what they’re doing. It’s one thing finding the gold, something else getting it out of the mountain.”
“Say no more,” Jeremy told him. “Did you really doubt I would back you? How could I go wrong, if the vein is as rich as you say it is?”
“It is. I brought verification from an assayer, should you want to see it.” He dug into his pants pocket and took out a nugget, holding it out. “Go ahead and bite into it if you want. That’s no pyrite.”
Jeremy took the nugget, grinning. He studied it closely, rolling it between his fingers. “I’ll be damned.” He handed it to Abbie, while Mary stood watching with her hand over her mouth, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
“We’ll all be rich,” Zeke told them. “It’s a legitimate claim. I intend to build my folks a real nice place, the kind of house Mother never dreamed she could have. And I’ll build a beautiful home for Georgie and my family, maybe right here in Denver. She deserves to live better than I’ve been able to manage so far.”
“Zeke, I would not have minded if things didn’t change.”
“I know that.” Zeke walked behind Georgeanne, putting his hands on her shoulders. “You put up with a big change in your way of life to be married to me, Georgie, and you never once complained. You’ve got grit, like my grandma.” He smiled at Abbie, seeing the tears in her eyes. “Georgie is the kind of woman who belongs in this family,” he told her. “I told you she was nothing like her father. Now you can all see I was right. If Georgie hadn’t come along, I’d still be alone out there. And I sure as hell never would have known that gold was in my mountain!”
“Congratulations, nephew!” Jeremy said. “We’ll go into town tomorrow and find a mining contractor. I’ll set you up with whatever you need. From the looks of that nugget, I’d risk everything I owned if that was what it took.”
Zeke walked over to Abbie. “Can you believe it, Grandma?”
Abbie studied the nugget she still held, stunned by the news. “No,” she said quietly. “This is surely a godsend.” She looked up at him, handing back the nugget. “Make good use of it, Zeke. Never let it change you.”
He shook his head. “It won’t.” His gaze went to Georgeanne. “Your father doesn’t know it, but what he did turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. It made me leave home to find a life for myself, led me to that land, the gold. Your father has made us rich, Georgie. And won’t that be a hard pill for him to swallow!”
He snickered, and Georgeanne smiled through her tears. “I’ve found my gold right here, Zeke, with your family. I don’t need the other kind.”
A great warmth filled Abbie’s heart. Her grandson was already a rich man. Someone was indeed watching over this family … someone …
Twenty
“Well, who would have thought?” Abbie said to herself. Abigail Trent Monroe, attending a governor’s ball in Denver, Colorado. Here it was eighteen ninety-six, fifty-one years since that fifteen-year-old orphaned girl married a half-breed scout and went off with him to live among the Cheyenne. Seventeen years since that most precious man of her life died. It was the children who had kept her going after that, and Swift Arrow.
Now, because of her work for the City of Denver, she was somewhat renowned, and thus had been invited, along with Joshua and LeeAnn, as well as Jeremy and Mary, to the governor’s mansion for a party honoring her. If Zeke was watching her now, he must be smiling at how far his family had come! Because they were her grandchildren, and were successful themselves, Zeke and Hawk were also in attendance.
Georgeanne looked ravishing, a young woman who knew how to fit in with a crowd like this. Since giving birth fifteen months ago to a fine, healthy son, she had regained her shape, and her brown eyes sparkled with love and pride as she walked around the room on Zeke’s arm. Her husband was a rich man now, and he’d dressed for the part tonight, although money had not changed him. He clung to his first love, ranching, and he owned a good deal of prime ranch land east of Denver. Now he talked of nothing but building a home for his mother, while Abbie looked forward to going back to the old ranch soon, to living in the old cabin once Margaret and Morgan moved out. She was not getting any younger, and she did not intend to die in a place like Denver. She wanted to go home.
She held her chin proudly, aware that Zeke and Hawk were by far the most handsome men at the gathering, so handsome that many of the women stole glances at them and the unwed ones even made a point of talking to Hawk. It irked Abbie that many of these people were biased against Indians, but if an Indian man was educated, well dressed a
nd was making a lot of money, they would then ignore their prejudices. At twenty-three Hawk was fast establishing himself as a good attorney, having already won the first few cases assigned to him by Webster, Dillon and Jacoby, the law firm with whom his uncle had helped him find employment. His superiors were very impressed with his work. Eventually, Hawk intended to work for the government, handling cases involving Indian affairs. For now, he wanted to learn all he could as an apprentice at one of Denver’s finest firms.
Abbie’s grandsons each took an arm and escorted her to Governor Albert McIntire, who beamed, taking her hand in both of his and squeezing it lightly. “Mrs. Monroe! One of Colorado’s founding women. I am honored to finally meet you. I am aware of the work you have done to bring Denver’s citizens together in the effort to help those who are destitute, and I thank you for it. I know there are many who feel such work is not necessary, but crime in the streets is growing, and it is only through helping to find jobs and homes for these people, and through getting orphans off the streets, that we can hope to have a law-abiding city which is clean and safe. I do thank you for your hard work—and for having the courage to speak out.”
“Thank you, Governor McIntire,” Abbie replied with a gentle smile, recalling that at one time a man like this had ordered Colonel John Chivington and his Colorado Volunteers to clean all Indians out of Colorado, an order that led to the horrifying slaughter of hundreds of Cheyenne women and children at a place called Sand Creek. She could not blame that on this governor. The days of the proud, warring Cheyenne were over. None were left in Colorado, only their descendants like Zeke and Hawk, even Jeremy, men who had proved themselves just as adept and honorable as any of the white men who’d come here to get rich.
Abbie felt out of place in the fancy evening dress Jeremy and Mary had insisted she wear. Mary had had her seamstress make the gown, a mauve silk with a bell skirt gathered in accordion pleats at the back. The gown fit Abbie’s still-slender frame tightly, its bodice coming to a point in front and making her appear even smaller than she really was. White lace revers accented the bodice in wide splashes and the dress was cut low, nearly off the shoulders. Zeke had presented her with a gold necklace that held a diamond pendant, and Jeremy had given her diamond earrings. Her hair, mostly gray now, was swept up into fancy curls and decorated with a diamond comb, a gift from Mary.
Abbie smiled as people stared, wondering if she really was shrinking as her grandsons teasingly claimed, for they all towered over her. She was sixty-six now, could hardly believe it herself. God had blessed her with relatively good health in her ageing years, although she had her aches and pains. When the orchestra struck up a waltz, Zeke and Georgeanne danced, Georgeanne looking elegant and happy. Jeremy danced with Mary, who seemed equally happy and quite beautiful in her ivory lace dress, as she was led around the ballroom of the governor’s mansion.
The governor himself asked Abbie to dance with him, and she accepted. It felt strange to be socializing with people who understood nothing about her true feelings, what she had been through in her life. She looked up into the governor’s face as he talked about city doings, but she hardly heard him. She was wishing he were taller, darker; wishing he were someone else.
From the side of a banquet table laden with spiked punch and fancy finger foods, Hawk watched his grandmother, proud of her. He was also happy for his cousin Zeke’s new wealth, and he realized what a long way he himself had come from the young Indian boy who helped his father with ranching chores on a reservation in Montana. He felt a tug at his heart when he thought of Wolf’s Blood. According to the last letter they’d received, Sweet Bird had given birth to another child just two months ago, a little girl named Laughing Turtle, her Christian name Sarah. He grinned at the thought that his father’s arthritis apparently had not kept him from enjoying his young wife.
“Hawk? Is it really you?”
The words, spoken by a woman, interrupted Hawk’s thoughts. He turned to see a lovely young lady standing at his left, her honey blond hair, swept to one side of her head and falling in a cascade of curls over one bare shoulder. Her blue eyes were alight with joy … and something else. He didn’t know her name, but she did look familiar. “If you’re looking for Hawk Monroe, yes, that’s me. I’m sorry, but I don’t—”
“Arianne! Arianne Wilder, only it’s Arianne Ralston now.” Her smile faded a little. “I am married to Dr. Edward Ralston.”
Hawk blinked in surprise. The Arianne he remembered had been a skinny, nosey young girl who had more often than not made him mad when she came around his home on the reservation. In fact, he remembered being mean to her the last time he’d seen her, sending her off practically in tears.
“Arianne!” He could not help noticing her beauty, how her bosom filled out her low-cut gown. “I can’t believe it, after all these years! What’s it—”
“Nine. Nine years.” Arianne drank in every inch of him, knowing it was wrong to allow the thoughts that raged through her mind at this moment. Hawk! He was a hundred times better looking now than he’d been back at the reservation, and he still wore his hair long, except it was neatly pulled back and tied with a strip of leather. The suit he wore was black silk and obviously expensive, perfectly cut for his muscular frame. His dark eyes flashed with pleasure at seeing her again, and Arianne experienced a sinful tingle when his gaze fell to her bosom for a moment before meeting her eyes again.
“I thought it was you all along, but I was afraid to come up and ask,” she told him. “When the governor introduced you as Hawk Monroe, of course, I knew. But he introduced you as Attorney Hawk Monroe! Is it true? You really did go to school and become a lawyer?”
He beamed proudly. “Harvard—top of my class.”
“Oh, Hawk, that’s wonderful!”
Their gazes held for a silent, awkward moment, thoughts rushing through their minds, questions, desires neither would have expected. Arianne felt almost weak, remembering the youthful passion she’d held for this man.
“How on earth did you end up here in Denver?” he was asking. “And at a governor’s ball? You said you’re married. Your husband is a doctor?”
“Yes. Edward Ralston. In fact he was just called away. Someone had an emergency. He told me to stay and he’d come back for me. We’re here as guests of Dr. Henry Mead—he’s the personal physician of Governor McIntire. Edward will be taking over when Mead retires, so he has to get to know the governor. I met Edward in Illinois when my brother sent me back there to a finishing school. He was a little worried about me being on the reservation after all the trouble with the Sioux at Standing Rock.” Her smile faded. “Did you have any relatives involved at Wounded Knee?”
He nodded, sobering. “My great-uncle, Swift Arrow. He was married to my grandmother at the time, but she was here in Denver when it took place. A lot of things have happened to everybody in my family since I saw you last.”
“I remember your grandmother and her husband. What about your father? Do you ever see him?”
He looked around, taking her arm then and leading her out onto a veranda. “Don’t ask that in public. We try not to mention him to others. He’s essentially been forgotten about, and we want to leave it that way. Yes, I’ve seen him, once, but I don’t want to say where.”
“I understand. I always felt so sorry for what happened, Hawk. That last day I came to see you, I truly just wanted to be your friend, maybe comfort you somehow. I hurt so much for you.”
He nodded. “I know. I was angry and hurt myself. The last thing I wanted was some white girl coming around bothering me.” He smiled sadly then. “I’m sorry for the way I sent you off.”
She turned to look across a railing at the gaslights of the city below. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” My God, he’s still so beautiful, she thought. Now that she was married, knew about men … Oh, this was so wrong, what she was picturing, her wondering what it would be like to be the wife of such a man! God, forgive me. She faced him again, trying to be casual, wishing she
had her shawl with her so she could cover her breasts. “So, have you taken a wife, Hawk? A handsome young attorney who is making good money must attract young women like honey draws bees. I saw how some of the unattached young ladies in there watched you.”
Hawk grinned. “I haven’t had time for women. I put all my time into studying law and practicing it. Besides, there aren’t any Indian women in Denver, and that’s the only …” Damn, she’s beautiful! In all these years he’d resisted white women, but this one was special, a sweet friend from the past, a white woman who knew all about Indians and how they lived and thought, one who had actually lived on a reservation for several years. But she was married to someone else now. He saw her face fall a little when he spoke of only marrying an Indian woman, but why should it matter to her? She had a husband. “Well, anyway, there’s no woman in my life.”
“That’s too bad. Every man needs …” She stopped, hoping the dim gaslights helped hide her blush. “I mean, you’re getting older now, and you must want a family someday.” Why was she saying these things! How terribly bold!
“It will happen when the time is right. That’s what my grandmother always says. She’s been living here in Denver with my uncle. Iris and I lived with him for the last several years, until Iris got married five years ago.”
“She did! Who did she marry?”
“A Mexican man, Raphael Hidalgo. He’s quite a successful builder here in Denver. They have two sons, Miguel and Julio, and another child on the way.”
“Oh, I’m glad for her! I would love to see her. You must give me her address. Edward and I have been here for six months, and in all this time I never knew you and Iris were right here in Denver. When Edward said we were invited tonight, and that it was a special ball to honor Abigail Monroe, I hoped it was for the Abigail I knew and that maybe, just maybe, you would be here. I’m so glad to see you again, and I can’t wait to visit with Iris. I haven’t made many women friends yet. It’s hard to just go out and try to join the social circles.”
Eagle’s Song Page 26
