Thurston House

by Danielle Steel

  “I’ll be gone by then.” And no one would be grieved, least of all John. He was glad that he had fired him. He had never realized how much he drank until recently.

  “Where are you going by the way?”

  “Down to Texas, I think. I’ve got a friend who owns a ranch, and some oil wells down there. I thought that might be a nice change from these rotten mines.” He glanced over his shoulder at the mine where he had worked for more than three years, and then back at John.

  “You taking your kids?” Richfield shrugged, and John glared at him. “Just make sure you’re out of here on time.” He had no kindly feelings toward him. It was obvious how much Dan hated John’s future wife, and John didn’t want him around anymore. It was high time he left, and he put him out of his mind as he walked back to his office to go through the papers on his desk. He still had plenty of his own work to do.

  And so did Sabrina at the Thurston mines until almost seven that night, and then in a panic, she looked at her watch. She had promised John that she would ride over and have dinner with him. It was odd to her sometimes how she had a whole other life now. There was someone waiting for her at the end of each day, she had someone to tell her troubles to, share her victories with, be kind to her when she was tired, rub her neck, kiss her face, and she was happy to share the tales of his day with him. She wondered now why she had resisted the idea for so long. She had never even thought of getting married one day, and she had particularly avoided John because she thought he was after her mines. But she had no more fears about that now. The suggestion he had made sounded perfect to her. He would run her mines for her, but the mines would still belong to her. He no longer even suggested a merger to her, he knew how strongly she felt, and perhaps in time it would make sense to her, but if not, it was no longer important to him. She meant much, much more to him, and she knew it.

  And as she swung into her saddle now, her thoughts were filled with him. She rode quickly through the night, taking all the fastest trails she knew so well. She sailed past her own house and into the night, and it took her almost no time at all to reach the Harte mines, and just as she passed the main shaft, her horse threw a shoe.

  “Damn!” She was already late enough, and as he limped along she had to dismount. She thought of leaving him tied to a tree, but you never knew who would come by, and she felt safer walking him the rest of the way to John’s and tying him up there. He could always drive her home in his fancy motorcar, or lend her a horse. She liked riding along with him. She liked everything about the life they had already begun to share.

  “Need a ride?” Sabrina almost jumped out of her skin as she heard a voice from behind a tree, and an instant later Dan Richfield appeared, slightly drunk, and leering at her. “Or would you like me to carry your horse for you?” It was a smart-aleck remark and she had no inclination to respond, but she didn’t want to start something with him now. She knew he was leaving in a day or two, and she had successfully avoided him until then. There was no point starting something now.

  “Hello, Dan.”

  “Don’t give me that polite shit, you whore.” At least he wasn’t pretending to have changed his views about her. She eyed him now, and then pulled at the horse’s bit and moved on, but he followed her. She noticed that he had no horse, and no car. He had probably been sitting there, drinking behind a tree.

  “Why don’t you just go on, Dan? We have nothing to say to each other now.” It was remarkable to think that she had known him all her life. It was incredible that he had turned out to be so rotten and disloyal. She was glad that her father hadn’t lived to see that, and she thought of it now as she turned to him. She wanted to keep him in sight. She wouldn’t have wanted to turn her back to him.

  “You just cost me another job, didn’t you, you little bitch?”

  “I didn’t cost you anything.” She wasn’t the young girl she had once been, and her voice was hard, as it often was with the men at her mines. She had learned that lesson long ago, when so many of them had walked out on her. She never treated them like her friends now. They were miners who worked for her, nothing more. She paid them well, and kept up her end of responsibility toward them. But there was a hard edge to her now whenever she had to deal with them. A hard edge that belied the softness in her soul. But only John knew that side of her. And Dan never had. He had only known her as a child. And she was a woman now. It was the woman who turned and looked scornfully at him. “You’ve cost yourself everything you’ve ever lost. And if you don’t stay off the booze now, you’ll lose it all again.”

  “Bullshit. That has nothing to do with why Harte’s throwing me out of here. And you know that as well as I do.” He tripped, which startled her horse, and they both lurched at the same time. Sabrina pulled sharply on the horse’s bit and Dan righted himself and doggedly continued to follow her. She was approaching the first of the cabins now, but no one seemed to notice them and she still had a long way to go to reach John’s house. She was wishing that he would materialize and get rid of Dan, but no one did, and Dan went on, following breathlessly. “He’s throwing me out of here because of you.”

  “I know nothing about that.” She looked straight ahead and he grabbed her arm and almost pulled her down.

  “Like hell you don’t. I know you’ve been whoring around with him, and that Indian whore of his … I can just imagine what it’s like … the three of you.…” She looked horrified at his words and her jaw dropped. Privately she was still very young.

  “How dare you say such a thing! What a disgusting …” But he only laughed and went on.

  “What’s he giving you for a wedding present, whore? Spring Moon?”

  “Stop calling me that!” Her voice quavered as it rose. “And don’t speak of him like that. You’re damn lucky he hired you at all after I threw you out.” Her eyes were blazing at him now and he seemed pleased. He had waited three years for this.

  “You didn’t throw me out. I quit. Or did you forget? About three hundred men and I walked out on you.”

  “They may have, but as I recall, you acted like a damn fool.” She didn’t have to remind him how, and he looked anything but remorseful as he looked at her. “Why don’t you just take yourself off now? There’s no point in all this, Dan.” She didn’t want to discuss any of it with him. It was just painful to recall and he was upsetting her, but he was determined not to leave.

  “Why? You scared?” He seemed to like the idea and he took a step closer to her, and blocked her path, blowing whiskey fumes in her face as she almost reeled from him.

  “I have no reason to be afraid of you.” She was determined to sound calm, but they were in a particularly dark part of the path on the way to John’s house, and there was no one around and she felt suddenly very ill at ease. It was one of the rare times she hadn’t brought her gun with her. She’d been in a hurry when she’d left and forgotten it in her desk.

  “Why not? How come you ain’t scared, little whore? Or is this what you like?” He grabbed at his belt as though to pull it off, and off to her right, Sabrina heard a faint rustling in the trees. She wondered if it was an animal, and she felt her horse stir at her side, but she never took her eyes from Dan’s.

  “You don’t impress me, Dan. And if you don’t stand aside, I’m going to walk right through you.” And then she smiled. She had taken a shot at him once before, and she knew he would remember it, even if she didn’t have the pistol with her now. He couldn’t know that. She slid her hand into the pocket of her skirt as though it were there, in her hand, and she watched his eyes travel to her skirt.

  “You don’t scare me. You ain’t got the guts to shoot me from this close up, do you, little girl? Hell no!” He laughed and pulled at her arm, ripping it from the pocket of her skirt, and he saw that she had nothing there, and with that he pushed her back and pinned her against a tree. His face was close to hers, and his body was suddenly grinding against her skirt and she could feel her heart pound in her ears, as she attempted to jerk
a knee into his groin but he anticipated her, and grabbed her by her shirt as he flung her to the ground, and a moment later he was on top of her, pulling at her shirt, and tearing at her breasts with one hand, as the other pulled up her skirt. But as she screamed, he silenced her with a slap so hard across her face that blood ran down her cheek and she looked at him with wild eyes as she felt his hand at her crotch, as she tried to roll away from him and he pinned her down again. “I should have done this years ago, little whore. You’ve screwed me out of everything I could have ever had, and now I’m going to screw you.… I worked for that bastard father of yours for years, ever since I was a child, and what do I get for it … you, you little bitch, doing everything I wanted to do.” He was half crying as he tore her skirt in half and revealed the pantaloons Hannah had made, as Sabrina scrambled through the dirt and cried out again, but there was no one close enough to hear her, and he wrestled her to the ground again. It was incredible that on the edge of the compound surrounding the Harte mines, she was about to be raped by a drunken lunatic and there was no one to help her.

  He had torn her blouse and her corset off by then, and her firm young breasts were icy cold in the breeze, her nipples rigid with fear as he tore at them, and she struggled to her knees again, and this time he grabbed her by the hair as he had once before, and forced her face into the dirt as he tore her pantaloons in half, leaving an opening more than wide enough for him, as he began to tear at his belt again and then suddenly he stopped as though he weren’t sure that was what he wanted to do. He stared at Sabrina unseeingly, dropped his hand from her hair, and then from his belt as he still stared at her, and she looked at him unbelievingly, unable to understand what had happened to him, as he pitched slowly toward the ground, where he fell face first, and then with a gasp, Sabrina saw the reason he had lost interest in her so quickly. There was a long evil-looking knife with a ferocious-looking blade sticking out of his back, the ivory handle delicately carved, and behind him stood Spring Moon, silently looking down at her.

  “Oh!…” She covered her breasts with her hands, and struggled to her feet. He was dead. Sabrina knew it from the way he looked, and she stood in front of the Indian girl she had watched for so many years, half naked, in torn clothes, one shoe off, one shoe on, her face streaked with tears, the blood from her face dripping onto her bare breast, and Spring Moon beckoned to her. She didn’t come too close, and she never touched the trembling girl. There were sobs caught in Sabrina’s throat and she couldn’t speak, she was making frightened gurgling sounds, and Spring Moon picked Sabrina’s skirt up out of the dirt, and handed it to her to wrap around herself, and then she gently took the horse’s rein and beckoned again.

  “Come. It is cold here. I will take you to John.” Sabrina stumbled behind her, wondering what would happen to Dan where he lay, what they would do. She couldn’t even begin to think about what had almost happened to her, or of what Spring Moon had done, or the good fortune that had put her on the same path, or had kept her from leaving for another week. Sabrina realized now that it was she that she must have heard behind the tree, not an animal. The only animal had been Dan, and she shuddered from head to foot, as Spring Moon stopped in a dark place and turned to Sabrina again. “I will go to John Harte and bring him here. You stay.” She pointed to her, but Sabrina began to shiver harder than before and began to choke on her own tears.

  “Don’t leave me here … I can’t … Don’t … please …” Her eyes were young and wild as the Indian woman watched, and then with a long gentle hand, she reached out to her.

  “He is there.” She pointed to a house only a few yards away, but she didn’t want to risk leading her past any of the men. She wanted to bring John here, to her, and then she herself would disappear. Spring Moon was above all things discreet. “We will hear you now, if anyone comes to you. You are safe.” Her face was so gentle, her voice so soft, as Sabrina stared at her. She wanted to be held in the smooth brown arms, to be cradled and rocked. She could easily see the comfort John had found there for so many years, and then she remembered the things Dan Richfield had said and wondered if anyone else thought that. She began to cry again. She was no longer a woman now, only a frightened child, and she didn’t want John to see her like this. She sank to the ground on her knees, with the skirt pulled over her as she sobbed, and Spring Moon knelt beside her. “You are safe now. You will always be safe with him.” They were powerful words and Sabrina looked up at her. She knew it was true, but it reminded her of all that Spring Moon was giving up, and she seemed to be leaving him so peacefully. “You must always be very kind to him.” Sabrina looked at her with enormous eyes as she nodded her head through her tears.

  “I will. I promise you.” And then her voice broke and she could barely speak. It had been the most difficult evening of her life, except perhaps the night that her father died. “I will be good to him.… I’m sorry … you have to go.…”

  Spring Moon held up a hand. “It is time for me. I was never his wife. Only his friend. You will be a wife to him. He needs you very much, little one.” It was the same thing John called her. “You will be a good wife to him. I go to call him now.” And before Sabrina could stop her, she disappeared, and a moment later, she started at the sound of running feet. There were half a dozen of them, and then a shout. “Stop, dammit! Stop, all of you!” She recognized John’s voice, some garbled words, and then “Where?… All right, the rest of you go back … oh my God …” And then the pounding of feet again, and then suddenly he was standing there, looking down at her, as she shivered, and knelt huddled beneath her skirt. He had a blanket in his hands, which Spring Moon had given to him before leading the men away. She had told them where Dan Richfield lay with the knife in his back, and they had gone to look for him. “Oh my God …” John’s voice was gentle in the night air, and she lowered her eyes, she could not look at him.…

  “No … no … please … don’t …” She wanted to tell him not to look at her, but she couldn’t say the words. She could only sob and cling to his legs, and suddenly the horror of what had almost happened came down on her with its full force. The tears washed the blood from her cheek, and he wrapped her in the blanket as if she were a very small child and swung her up in his arms, cooing softly to her as he had to his little girl long, long, long ago, and he walked her into his house and set her down on the leather couch in the living room. He looked at the damage to her face then, and the look in her eyes, and if Spring Moon hadn’t already done it for him, he knew he would have killed Dan Richfield. But Spring Moon had told him quickly and bluntly that the girl hadn’t been raped, not yet, and he was grateful for that. But had her knife missed its mark or taken a moment longer to pierce his flesh … he shuddered at the thought, and knelt on the floor beside where she lay.

  “Little one, how could I let this happen to you? You’ll never go anywhere alone again. I promise you that. I’m going to send a bodyguard everywhere with you. I’ll be your bodyguard … this will never happen again.…” But the main reason that it never would was that Dan Richfield was dead. The knife had gone right through his heart and he had died instantly. Spring Moon had an extraordinary hand with a knife, as he knew full well.

  “If it hadn’t been for her …” Sabrina began to catch her breath as she took a sip of the whiskey-laced tea he was forcing her to drink, and she tried not to think of how she looked. She was still hiding beneath the blanket he had brought out to her, and Spring Moon had gone to retrieve her clothes and brought them to John before disappearing again. And he was looking at her now as though he had almost lost what he cherished most. What if Dan had killed her, the thought was more than he could bear, and there were tears in his eyes as he turned to her again. “I’ll never let anything happen to you. Never. Do you understand that? I’ll never let you out of my sight.…” She stretched a trembling hand out to him and took his hand.

  “It wasn’t your fault, it was mine.” She was regaining her composure now, but she would have been unable to s
tand up, her knees were still shaking so hard. “It was an old fight he had with me. It could have happened anywhere. It’s a wonder he didn’t come to find me at the mine long ago. He hated my guts, that was all … and you know yourself, this almost happened before. I was lucky it didn’t happen then, and luckier still that Spring Moon happened along tonight.” And then she looked at John. She knew that some of his men had come to the door to speak to him a short while before. “Is he dead?”

  John nodded his head. “He is. The knife went through his heart.”

  “Will anything happen to her?” Sabrina knew it could. Spring Moon had been defending her, but she was an Indian girl and the law could take a dim view of it, but John had already thought of it before Sabrina did.

  “She’ll be on the train to South Dakota tonight. And his body will be found tomorrow … he wasn’t well liked …” John sounded convincing to her and she knew he wouldn’t be questioned by the law. They would take his word for it, and the knife would have disappeared. “You have nothing to worry about.” He sounded stronger and quieter than she had ever heard him before, and she had never felt as protected in her life. “And neither does she You’re both safe, and he deserved exactly what he got. I’m only sorry I trusted him once.”

  “So did I.” A thousand memories flashed through her mind at once, followed by the hideous image of him tearing her clothes off her back, and a sob caught in her throat again as she squeezed her eyes shut, but John came to her again and held her tightly in his arms.

  “I’m going to take you home now.” He left the blanket wrapped around her, and carried her gently out to his car, and then he drove her home, and carried her upstairs to her bedroom. Hannah was waiting for her, her lips pursed, and her eyes wide as she saw them come in.

  “What happened to her?” She was like a worried mother hen. “She’s all right.” He told her about Dan then, and she was horrified.