“So this is all my fault?”
Grady closed his eyes at her outrage. “No,” he admitted, feeling about as low as a man could get. “I accept full responsibility.”
The silence stretched between them until Caroline slowly released a deep breath and asked, “Where’s Savannah?”
“I don’t know. I expected her to pick up the phone.” Clearly so had Maggie, who continued to weep noisily in the background.
“Is she all right?” Caroline asked.
“She was this morning.” And not afraid to set him down a peg or two, although he knew he’d asked for it.
Maggie’s cries subsided into soft muffled sounds.
“What are you doing home?” he asked Caroline. She should be at the post office, but then, he wasn’t one to talk, seeing as he should be out on the range with Wiley. Or working in the barn with Laredo Smith.
“Maggie wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I took the day off.”
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s feeling better—or she was,” Caroline said pointedly.
“I’d like to talk to her if you’d let me, so I can apologize.” He wasn’t sure he knew how to talk to a five-year-old, but he didn’t want her cringing in terror every time she was out at the ranch. She was a sweet little girl and Savannah was deeply attached to her.
“I don’t know if she’ll talk to you.”
“Ask her, will you?” His hand tightened around the receiver while he waited. In the background he could hear Caroline reasoning with the child. He was somewhat amused when he heard her compare him to the beast in Beauty and the Beast. He made a lot of loud noises and sounded mean, Caroline said, but deep down he was really a prince who’d been put under a spell.
Caroline returned to the phone a couple of minutes later. “I’m sorry, Grady, but I can’t convince her to give you a second chance.”
“I can’t say I blame her,” Grady said with a sigh. “I was pretty rough when I answered.”
“She called to tell Savannah she had a tummy ache.”
“My kind of sympathy wasn’t what she was looking for, was it.”
The sound of Caroline’s half chuckle did more to lift his spirits than anything had that day.
“I guess you could say that,” she said softly.
“I have been a beast, haven’t I.”
“You could say that, too.”
“Since she won’t let me talk to her, will you tell Maggie I’m sorry? I promise I won’t shout at her again.” He didn’t know if it would do any good, but it was the best he could manage. The next time Maggie visited the ranch, he’d try to square things with her.
“I’ll let Savannah know you phoned,” he said, reaching for a pen. If he didn’t write it down, he’d forget, and he didn’t think Caroline would be willing to forgive him that on top of everything else.
They exchanged goodbyes and he replaced the receiver.
With an effort he glanced down at the ledger and reached for the calculator, determined to make good use of his time. He couldn’t laze in bed until noon like his worthless brother.
***
Laredo assumed he’d find Savannah in the rose garden, but she was nowhere in sight. Nor was she in the house. He’d done everything short of knocking on her bedroom door.
Grady had disappeared, as well, but that was more a blessing than a matter of concern.
Unsure where to search next, Laredo headed back to the barn. It was one of the last places he expected to find Savannah. A niggling sense of fear refused to leave him. She’d looked pale that morning, and although he hadn’t been eager to clash with Grady so soon after their last confrontation, he wasn’t about to let him harass Savannah.
The barn door creaked as he pushed it open. Light spilled into the interior and Savannah spun around. Her eyes instantly widened with guilt.
Laredo had no idea what she’d been doing, but clearly it was something she didn’t want anyone knowing.
“Savannah?”
“Hi.” Her smile was a bit sheepish.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Nothing. I was—”
“Savannah,” he said, and held out his arms, needing to reassure her. She didn’t hesitate, not so much as a second. He brought her into his embrace and hugged her. “Don’t ever play poker, sweetheart. Your expression’s a dead giveaway.”
Her arms circled his waist and she pressed her face to his shoulder. “I’m so sorry about what happened last night,” she said.
This was the first chance they’d had to discuss the incident, but Laredo preferred to drop the entire thing. He’d been at fault, too, eager to put her brother in his place for embarrassing Savannah. And he’d been angry after his chat with Hennessey, knowing Grady had instigated the sheriff’s questioning.
“Let’s put it behind us, okay?”
He felt her deep sigh. “Is that what you want?” she asked in a solemn voice.
“Yeah.”
“I’m willing to forget it—except for one thing.” She tilted her head back and gazed at him with wide adoring eyes.
“What’s that?” Laredo didn’t know what he’d done to deserve having such a beautiful woman look at him that way.
“I could put the...incident behind me if Grady hadn’t cheated me out of my sweetheart dance.”
“Not all of it.”
“I begrudge every second he stole from me.”
Laredo kissed the top of her head and reached behind him to take hold of her hands. “Don’t you hear the music?” he asked.
“Music?” Her eyes narrowed as if she was straining to hear before she realized what he was doing. She smiled then, and it was all he could do not to cover her mouth with his.
“I believe there is music in here,” she said, her face alight with happiness.
“There must be.”
Laredo danced her about the barn floor, making turns so wide that her skirt flared straight out as they whirled around. Savannah threw back her head and laughed with such pure joy Laredo was soon smiling himself.
They whirled faster and faster until they were both winded and ready to collapse with laughter. Savannah pressed her hand to her throat as she drew in a deep breath.
“Okay, confess,” he said once he’d caught his own breath. He leaned against the wall and watched as the amusement left her.
“Confess?”
“What were you up to earlier?”
He watched as she shifted her feet a couple of times before she lowered her head. “You’ll be angry with me.”
Laredo didn’t think that was possible. “Why?”
“I was about to break the promise I made you. I—I’m sorry....”
Then it dawned on him. She’d been gathering equipment to sneak away to that damned ghost town. He exhaled sharply, grateful he’d found her when he had. He was disappointed, too. He’d expected Savannah to be a woman of her word.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, with such genuine regret that he couldn’t help forgiving her. “Richard and I were talking about Bitter End this morning, and I felt this urge to go there again. Now. Today. I have to, Laredo. Because of the roses.” She glanced down at her feet. “And I didn’t want Richard to know. Or Grady. I wasn’t sure where you were...and I’ve got to leave quickly.” She raised her head to look at him. “Can you come with me?” she asked, her expressive eyes filled with hope. “It won’t take much time. I’ll leave Grady a note and explain.”
Grady might owe him a favor, but Laredo didn’t feel ready to collect it quite this soon. Then he changed his mind.
“All right,” he said, “we’ll do it.”
She clapped her hands, then forgetting herself, leaped forward and kissed him on the mouth. “I’ll pack up a lunch and afterward
we can have a picnic.”
He hadn’t the heart to disappoint her, but his idea of how he wanted to spend the day wasn’t sitting in some field full of bluebonnets, lingering over sandwiches. Not even with Savannah... He thought of all the chores that awaited him. Chores Grady counted on him to do.
“How long will we be?”
“Not too long,” she promised. “All I want to do is walk around and see if there are any other roses. We won’t stay.”
He nodded.
“There’s a lovely spot a few miles down the road where the river bends. We can have lunch there.” She wasn’t about to drop this picnic idea of hers, and really, he supposed, it was a small thing to ask.
With their plans set, Laredo loaded the shovels and other tools into the back of the pickup. As he did, an uneasiness settled over him. Apparently what Grady had told him about the place had made a stronger impact than he’d realized. His uneasiness grew into dread and refused to leave him.
They weren’t even off the ranch yet, and already he was convinced they shouldn’t go.
Eight
The truck pitched and heaved, first left and then right, as they neared Bitter End. Savannah hung on as best she could, but her shoulders continued to slam against Laredo’s, jarring them both. Thankfully they were able to follow the tire tracks from her last visit, otherwise she wasn’t sure she could have located it a second time.
“I can’t believe you found this place on your own,” Laredo said, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.
“It wasn’t easy—took me weeks of searching.”
More than once she’d been tempted to forsake the idea, but the thought of finding old roses had spurred her onward. Her patience had been richly rewarded. Not only had she discovered the White Lady Banks, her most valuable find to date, but on that same day she’d come across Laredo.
The truck pitched sharply and Laredo cursed under his breath.
“We’re pretty close now,” she assured him. His face was tense with concentration, and although he drove cautiously, he couldn’t avoid jolting the truck on the rough ground. There was barely even a track.
Savannah was grateful Laredo had agreed to escort her back to the ghost town, but what she looked forward to even more was their picnic. They were rarely alone. This stolen time was bound to be special.
Laredo eased the truck to a stop when they could go no farther.
“It’s only a short walk from here,” she promised.
The trek was difficult, through brush and dense cedars, and they were both breathless before the town came into view.
“So this is Bitter End,” Laredo muttered as he climbed over rocks to a limestone ledge that overlooked the town. He offered Savannah his hand.
She took it and stepped up. From the outskirts Bitter End resembled any other ghost town. A row of forsaken buildings lined the main street, four or five on each side, in various states of disrepair, various stages of dying. Paintless shutters hung crookedly by empty windows. The stillness and lack of sound gave it an eerie unreal feeling. Wind-tossed tumbleweeds had wedged in the corners and along the boardwalk. A quick inspection didn’t reveal any visible plant life, but there had to be some roses. The ones in the cemetery had survived. Others would’ve, too.
The largest building in town was the church, which sat on a hill at the far end of town, next to the cemetery. Time had left it remarkably untouched. It’d remained white and unblemished except for the charred steeple, which had apparently been struck by lightning. At the other end of town was a corral.
They clambered down a rocky embankment into the town itself. Then it happened just as it had on her first visit. The feeling of sadness and pain. Whatever possessed Bitter End wasn’t ghosts or spirits, of that she was fairly certain, but a sorrow so strong even the years hadn’t dimmed it.
She looked at Laredo, who faced the town squarely, feet slightly apart, ready, it seemed, for anything. He stood there silently, as if he was listening and yet heard nothing.
“Do you feel it?” she whispered. Normal tones didn’t seem right. On her previous visit she hadn’t murmured a word. She’d been in and out of the town within ten minutes. Just long enough to dig up the roses and replace them with a bush from her own garden.
“Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?” Laredo asked. He, too, spoke in a whisper, unwilling to disturb whatever it was that awaited them.
Savannah slipped her arm through his. “I’m positive.”
“Then let’s get it over with and get the hell out.”
“There aren’t any ghosts here,” she told him, still in a whisper.
“Whatever you say.” He smiled for the first time since their arrival.
“It won’t take long to look for more roses,” she said. The presence of another person—someone she trusted—made the town seem a little less frightening.
If Laredo wasn’t in such an all-fired hurry to leave, it might have been fun to explore the interior of some of the buildings. But then again, Savannah had the distinct impression they were trespassing as it was.
“Where do you want to start?” Laredo asked as they neared the main street.
“Anyplace is fine. I was in the cemetery earlier.” She motioned toward the church and the graveyard behind it. They walked side by side, holding hands. His warm grasp lent her reassurance.
The farther they went into town, the stronger the sense of sorrow became. With each step down the narrow street, the feeling grew darker. During her last visit she’d hurried through Bitter End as quickly as possible on her way to the cemetery, trying to shake off the sense of misery and unease.
She’d actually enjoyed visiting the graveyard. The sensation hadn’t been nearly as powerful there, and she’d been fascinated by the headstones. Most of the names and dates on the simple markers were no longer legible, but that hadn’t stopped her from picturing the kind of life the people of Bitter End had lived. It would have been a harsh existence, battling hunger, disease and the elements.
Savannah recalled the stories she’d read about the frontier days when Texas had been wild and unforgiving. Stories she would one day read to her own children.
Her own children.
The thought caught her unprepared. All these years Savannah had assumed she’d never marry. Since meeting Laredo she’d begun to believe that all things were possible for her. A husband and a family of her own. Despite the eeriness of the place, Savannah’s heart gladdened.
After a few minutes exploring the town’s streets, Savannah realized that the trip had been a waste of time and energy. Whatever flowers, roses or otherwise, once bloomed in Bitter End had long since died. Nothing grew inside the town. Nothing. Everything was dead, including the land itself.
The lone tree, an oak with gnarled limbs, was hollow and lifeless. It stood in silent testimony to a time and place long forgotten.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit bizarre that there’s nothing alive here? Not even a weed?” Laredo commented.
She nodded. The only plants that had survived one-hundred-plus years were the roses she’d discovered at the cemetery. “I want to go back,” she said.
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Laredo murmured.
“I mean, to the cemetery,” she said.
He hesitated. “Are you sure that’s wise?”
“I don’t know, but I’m curious about the grave site where I found the roses.” It didn’t add up in Savannah’s mind. If those roses had survived, then it made sense that other plants would have, too.
“In my humble opinion,” Laredo said, his words barely audible, “we shouldn’t tempt fate. Let’s leave while the leaving’s good. All right?”
His hand gripped Savannah’s with such force that her fingers throbbed. He wasn’t intentionally hurting her, she knew, but reacting to t
he tension inside him.
“All right,” she agreed. “We’ll go. I’ll look some other time.”
“No.” The force behind the single word brought her up short.
“I don’t want you coming back here,” he said with an urgency that baffled her. “Not for anything. Understand? This place gives me the creeps.”
Despite her love for him, she couldn’t make that kind of promise. “No. Someday there might be a very good reason for me to return.”
Clearly, he wanted to argue the point, but right then, leaving appeared to be a higher priority. Frequently looking over his shoulder, Laredo led her back toward the faint path that would take them to the truck.
As they walked, the sensation gradually lifted from her shoulders. Savannah could feel it slipping away. Like a silk scarf dragged across a palm, the sensation faded until it was completely gone.
Once they reached the pickup, Laredo helped Savannah inside, then climbed in himself. He couldn’t seem to start the engine fast enough. His anxiety, even greater than her own, was contagious.
Savannah didn’t want to know what had created the feeling that pervaded Bitter End. There was nothing good in that town and maybe there never had been.
***
Life was filled with mysteries, Laredo told himself. The answers weren’t always meant to be known. That was the way he felt about this ghost town. Grady hadn’t said much about it, only that it wasn’t a safe place for Savannah. Her brother couldn’t trust her not to return on her own, so he’d put aside his dislike and distrust of Laredo and sought his help.
For the first time Laredo appreciated Grady’s fears. He didn’t know what the hell had happened in that town. But he didn’t need to know. As far as he was concerned, Bitter End could continue as it had for more than a hundred years without interruption from him.
He leaned against the tree trunk and watched Savannah unpack the picnic basket. He still wasn’t keen on lazing away the afternoon under a flowering pecan, but his objection to the wasted time felt much less urgent now.
The spot she’d chosen for their picnic was as lovely as she’d promised. The river flowed swiftly nearby, the clean sound of water a sharp contrast to what he’d experienced a short time before.
Heart of Texas Series Volume 1: Lonesome CowboyTexas Two-StepCaroline's Child Page 13
