Sophie's Daughters Trilogy

by Mary Connealy

  “Not a sister, Mandy girl.” Luther looked sideways at Buff. “Not a girl cousin.”

  Buff shook his head.

  “Tell me what’s going on right now!” Mandy was ready to explode from the tension.

  Luther rubbed one big rough hand over his face, still doggedly hanging on to the letter. “It was his wife.”

  Mandy shook her head and almost smiled. What he said made no sense. “I’m his wife.”

  Mandy saw Luther swallow so hard his whole beard quivered. “Sidney was—girl, he was married already.”

  “B–but she’s dead?” Mandy heard her voice, but it sounded like it was a long distance away. “Sidney is a widower? When did his wife die?”

  “Near as we can figure, a few hours before he married you.”

  “A few hours?” Mandy shook her head, thinking that she must be addled.

  Luther held her gaze.

  She’d known Luther all her life and he’d never been one to joke around. So why was he doing it now?

  “B–but he’d been sparking me since he came to Mosqueros. He proposed to me. He couldn’t have—”

  The cabin door swung open and a very beleaguered Sidney stepped inside, his gold pan hanging dejectedly from his fingertips. “Is dinner ready?” His eyes focused on Luther and Buff, and his eyes widened in recognition. He narrowed his eyes and turned to Mandy and scowled. “We’ve got company from Mosqueros? Already?”

  Mandy’s eyes went to the letter she still shared with Luther. With sudden strength she jerked it out of her old friend’s hand.

  Twenty – nine

  Fort Union wasn’t like Alex expected. It had no stockade surrounding it. No intimidating row of logs standing shoulder-to-shoulder, sharpened to points on top.

  Instead, the fort looked, in the moonlight, like a frontier village with broad streets meeting at squared-off intersections. The line of buildings visible were adobe. They looked well-built and well cared for.

  There were no apparent bristling weapons, no alert guards. It was a quiet village. Even this late at night, it seemed that there should be some activity.

  Clay led the way into this placid military outpost and went up to a man strolling along the front of a row of buildings. “We want to see the officer in charge.”

  Alex thought of the battles, the death, the danger, the blood. And here he stood in the midst of almost complete peace. A coyote howled in the dark night. A breeze blew quietly as the heat of the day eased until it was nearly too cold, as the desert was apt to do. His stomach twisted as he wondered if he’d end up dying in this peaceful place.

  He’d lost the best part of himself in service to his country. But that lost part, the caretaker, the healer, had recently been resurrected. Alex almost regretted that. If they’d have locked him up and shot him at dawn before he met Beth, a part of him would have welcomed it. The end of his living nightmare. But now he had so much to lose.

  But resurrecting himself included his faith. If he entered into eternity, he’d spend it with God.

  God, forgive me if I don’t welcome that closeness to You. I so wanted to have a life here with Beth. Thank You, though, for giving me a chance to heal my relationship with You.

  The sentry straightened and saluted Clay. “The colonel ain’t here, sir. Rode all the way back East to meet face-to-face with President Arthur.” The sentry made that announcement wide-eyed, as if stunned by knowing his commander could speak to someone so lofty.

  Alex had to admit that this dusty outpost seemed a world away from the president of the United States.

  “The lieutenant handles things while the colonel is away, sir.”

  Beth swung down off her horse.

  Alex hesitated, as if once he touched this military ground his fate would be sealed. Reluctantly, he dismounted, too.

  Beth came to his side and clutched his hand. Her strength propped him up again, like always.

  Sophie went to stand by her husband.

  The guard’s respectful reaction to Clay made Alex aware of his father-in-law’s military bearing and former rank.

  “No need saluting me, son. I took off the uniform years ago.” Despite his words, Clay fell into the authority without trying and made it known he was an officer to be obeyed. “We’ll see the lieutenant then.” Clay slipped his gloves off as he spoke and touched the brim of his Stetson in a casual salute.

  The man shook his head frantically. “Lieutenant Deuel’s gone to his quarters for the night. I can’t wake him.” Alex saw fear in the soldier’s wide-eyed refusal to get his commanding officer.

  “Where are the sentries?” Clay asked. “Does the whole fort just go to sleep at night? Are things that secure?”

  “I’ve seen no danger in the year I’ve been posted here,” the young soldier said. “We don’t even have many men stationed here anymore. We’re always hearing rumors that they’ll close the fort up and move us somewhere else. I guess I’m the closest we’ve got to a night watch. I take a shift then hand it off to someone else. It’s pretty peaceful.”

  Sophie came up and smiled at the young guard.

  The man forgot Clay and looked first at Sophie, then Beth. From his fascinated reaction, Alex wondered how long it had been since the young man had seen a pretty woman.

  “Go get the lieutenant,” Clay ordered. Alex suspected Clay didn’t mean to start giving orders to a soldier. He just couldn’t quite control himself.

  The young soldier tore his eyes away from Sophie. “The l–lieutenant, he won’t see no one now ‘til mornin’, sir.”

  “We don’t want to put this off.” Despite his assurance that he wasn’t an officer, Clay made that sound like another direct order.

  The guard was sunburned and looked about fifteen years old. Alex wondered if he’d looked that young when he’d first joined the cavalry. Now the barely grown boy shook his head, looking genuinely sorry. “Lieutenant Deuel don’t do nothin’ he don’t hafta do. He won’t come out for you. Not even to see to a prisoner.” The young man gave a significant look at Slaughter then went back to fixing his fearful eyes on Clay, as if he expected to be court-martialed for disobeying. “In fact, were I you, I’d ride right on out of here and come back when you hear the colonel’s returned.”

  Clay sighed. “We’re not going to ride into the hills and wait for the colonel.”

  The sentry came right up to Clay and whispered. Alex leaned in to catch the words. “Lieutenant Deuel’s got a—a streak of— of—” The young man looked over his shoulder as if he might be observed. “Sometimes he’s of a mind to make rulings just because someone bothered him. They don’t make a whole lotta sense.”

  The man glanced around again and stood straight and spoke loud. “He’s a fine man, the lieutenant.”

  Furrowing his forehead, Alex tried to figure out what the soldier was talking about. He’d said two almost exactly opposite things. Then Alex noticed another soldier just rounding the end of the building row. So what this soldier whispered when he was alone was different from what he’d say for all the world to hear. Apprehension tightened Alex’s gut. What kind of fort was this? And what kind of decision could he hope for from this temporarily in-charge officer, Lieutenant Deuel?

  “Have you got a place we can sleep for the night? And a place to lock this varmint up?” Clay jerked his head at the bounty hunter. He either didn’t catch the undercurrent of the soldier’s words or, more likely because Clay didn’t miss much, he thought he could handle what lay ahead.

  “The prisoner is named Cletus Slaughter. He shot me and my daughter. He claims he’s a bounty hunter and attacked us all because he was after my son here.” Clay jabbed his thumb at Alex.

  A place warmed in Alex’s heart that he hadn’t known was cold. When he’d broken with his father, even though Alex still believed he’d done the right thing, the hurt had gone deep and never healed. Now, to have Clay McClellen call him his son … Alex was shocked at the urge to cry.

  Alex wasn’t sure what had caused this stra
nge compulsion toward tears, but he desperately wanted it to stop.

  The sentry shook his head. “Yes, sir. I’ll have him locked up, sir. But seriously, you should just ride out. Go to Santa Fe and turn this guy in. Or go to Santa Fe and hide. I mean … uh … wait until the colonel comes back.”

  “We’re staying,” Clay glared at the man.

  The nervous soldier nodded and hollered.

  Three more recruits came out of a nearby building with the leisurely movements of men who had never been in battle and didn’t fear that one might be starting up.

  Alex envied them.

  “Lock this prisoner up.”

  Two of the newcomers lowered Cletus from his horse and untied him.

  Slaughter grabbed immediately for the kerchief that had kept him mercifully silent. “I’m not the one who should be arrested here.” Slaughter’s eyes were bloodshot and the corners of his mouth were foaming white. He looked for all the world as if he had rabies. “I’m a bounty hunter and I’ve worked with the colonel a lotta times over the years, bringing in the cowards that desert the army.” Slaughter jabbed a finger straight at Alex’s chest. “That man is wanted. Arrest him.”

  The sentry looked between Slaughter, Alex, and Clay. “Your son, you said?”

  Clay nodded. “And we’re here to straighten this out. We rode in, didn’t we? And we had that would-be bounty hunter tied down. We’ll answer all these questions when we talk to the lieutenant.”

  The soldier swallowed visibly, even in the dim moonlight, at the mention of the lieutenant.

  “If you want me locked up, I’ll go quietly.” Alex stepped forward. He needed to take his punishment right from the first.

  “Nope, I’ll trust you folks. You rode in and you didn’t hafta.” The sentry ordered Slaughter taken away, still fuming and raving. The other soldier took the horses to bed down for the night.

  “Do you folks need to see a doctor? If you’ve been shot, maybe you oughta have him look at you.” The sentry gave the sling on Clay’s arm a long look. “The doc’ll get outa bed in the night for you.” An obvious commentary on the lieutenant refusing to work after hours.

  Clay looked at Beth, then Alex. Both shook their heads. “I think we’re good. We’ve been doctored up enough. A place to sleep sounds good, though. I don’t suppose there’s a meal to be had here?”

  “I think I can find some stew left from supper, still simmering. The cook makes enough to last a couple’a days usually and it tastes like slop from the first day to the last. It’s filling though, keeps the front of your belly from rubbin’ against the back. I’ll bring some over.” The guard pointed to another man approaching them. “He can show you to your quarters.”

  As they were guided to a long slender building, Clay asked, “Isn’t this a barracks? Our womenfolk aren’t going to bunk down with a bunch of soldiers.”

  The man escorting them shook his head rapidly. “Oh no, sir. We’d never do that. We have plenty of empty beds. No need to share. We’ve been a warehouse for supplies for all the Western forts and a place to watch over the Santa Fe Trail. But the trail don’t need no watchin’ over since the trains went through. And that goes for supplies, too. They’re all sent by train these days. And there’s no warrin’. It’s plumb peaceful. Since the Indians lost the last war, they’ve all gone to the reservation. We barely even think of fighting.”

  “The Red River War,” Alex said quietly. The Indians had indeed gone to the reservation. But not without a lot of killing first.

  “Yep, I didn’t sign on here until that was ended. Now they’ve cut back on the number of soldiers housed here at Fort Union until we’re almost empty.”

  “All right, soldier. Sounds fine.” Clay reached for the door, but the escort beat him to it. Alex noted the obedient tone of all the enlisted men to Clay.

  The line of buildings had a porch stretching the length of them.

  “Your food ought to be here shortly.” The soldier grimaced and Alex wondered just how bad the food was going to be. “You can eat together in this room, and I’ll unlock the door to the next room so you can have private sleeping quarters. Both are cleaned and set up for visitors. We never have many, though.”

  The soldier’s glum claims of a boring military life sounded blissful to Alex. Why couldn’t he have been the company doctor of this place?

  They entered the long thin building and there was a main room, with doors leading off to the side.

  “This room used to be set up for visiting officers so there’s an actual bedroom. Same next door,” the young recruit told them.

  “Thanks.” Clay pulled his Stetson off.

  Alex hadn’t heard so much as a word of complaint from Clay or Beth all through this long ride to the fort, but they had to be hurting. Clay had lost a lot of blood and had a bullet wound that was a long way from healed. Beth’s injury hadn’t been as serious, but she’d taken a hard blow to the head and she had to be suffering from it after these long days in the saddle. Alex thought he saw lines of fatigue and pain on Clay’s face, but maybe it was just lines burned by living in Texas. He had a few of those himself.

  The soldier lit two lanterns that sat near the door then left just as the other soldier came in with a pot of stew and some tin plates and forks. “I scared up some biscuits, too.”

  “Obliged.” Clay took the food.

  Sophie relieved him of it and had the table set and the stew on by the time the young soldier had said good night.

  The stew was rank; a brown paste that showed no sign of beef or vegetables. The biscuits had the appeal of chewing on a piece of adobe that’d been drying in the sun for a hundred years.

  Alex choked down enough food to stave off starvation, fearing for his teeth the whole time.

  The four of them ate silently, too hungry and tired for talk. At last, the meal could be called to a halt, leaving them longing for the days on the trail when they’d lived on hard tack and beef jerky.

  Alex stood to escort his wife next door. He rested his hand on Beth’s back to guide her. “You need some rest.”

  “Hold up.” Clay’s voice stopped them cold.

  It occurred to Alex that he was obeying Clay’s orders, just like everyone else.

  “Beth, you oughta stay with your ma and me.”

  Alex turned, surprised. “No.” Alex squared off against Clay. “Why don’t you want her to stay with me?”

  “Pa!” Beth protested and wrapped two arms tight around Alex’s waist. She clung to him now, when so recently she’d been holding him up. She really did care about him. She was truly his wife in every sense of the word.

  Alex didn’t want her upset. She was walking wounded, too. But after he faced the charges against him tomorrow, he might never have his wife in his arms again. He wasn’t giving her up tonight. His chest tightened until he could barely breathe. He was surprised how hurt he was by Clay’s effort to separate him from Beth. “Not an hour ago you called me your son.”

  Clay held Alex’s eyes. What passed between them was beyond words, but Alex saw it all. Clay’s gratitude for saving Sally’s life, the respect Alex held for Clay’s strength of will, the fear Clay held for his daughter, the regret for all Alex would put Beth through in the near future. It wasn’t even the future. He’d already begun slowly, surely, breaking her heart.

  Sophie’s hand came up and rested on Clay’s. “Let it go. Let them be together for the night.”

  Clay looked down at his wife’s hand then back up at his daughter, also hanging on to a man—but not him anymore. Clay shook his head. “Fine. I’m sorry. I just—” He shook his head again, harder. “You’re going to hurt my girl. I’d do anything to stop one of my daughters from suffering a moment’s sadness. And every minute you’re together, the hurt’s just going to get deeper. I think you should—make your break from each other now. Get on with it.”

  Alex knew Clay was right.

  “You’re wrong, Pa. It doesn’t work that way.” Beth let go of Alex and stepped tow
ard her father. For a terrible, grief-stricken moment, Alex was afraid she was leaving him, even though he knew she probably should.

  “No, he’s not.” Alex felt his hands slip from around Beth as she stepped toward her parents. “No matter what punishment they hand out tomorrow, you’re going to have to leave me behind here. They’ll lock me up for sure.”

  Beth turned to him and placed both hands on his chest. “He’s wrong because it’s already too late. If they take you away from me, I’m going to be as sad as I know how to be. One more night won’t make it any worse.”

  Alex looked into those strong, wise, beautiful blue eyes, and though he found strength there as always, he didn’t find the strength to let her go. He kissed her, right in front of her parents. “Come on then.”

  Sophie took one of the lanterns and, still holding on to Clay, left the room without looking back.

  The other lantern lit Alex’s way as he pulled Beth outside and into the next room. It was clean and had the same front living area as the room where they’d eaten. They passed through it into the officer’s bedroom on the north.

  Once the door was closed and Alex had her with him, he could breathe again. How was he going to manage when they locked him away? With grim amusement he knew it wouldn’t be for long. The firing squad would limit his time for suffering.

  “You’re sure you don’t want to go with them, Beth honey? I’m sorry. I want you with me, but that’s not fair to you.”

  “I’m staying, Alex. And I’m exhausted. I just want to lie down.” Beth’s blue eyes met his in the dimly lit room. The lantern flickered and it seemed to Alex that the light went deep into Beth, until her soul was visible. Her beautiful, gracious soul.

  When they lay next to each other, Beth’s head resting on Alex’s shoulder, he couldn’t hold back the words, though he felt like laying them on Beth only added to her burden. “I love you, Beth.”

  “I love you, too, Alex.” She nestled closer.