Desert Sunrise

by Raine Cantrell

  Finally Geronimo broke the silence. “If you come to us with your truth as your father did before you, we listen and believe what you say. If you come to us with lies so cunning that we believe them true, there will be no trust for you again.”

  “And a wise man is needed to tell the truth from the lies.”

  Nodding, then smiling, Geronimo agreed with Delaney.

  “Ross could not be the fool and believe that you would meekly follow me back like sheep.”

  “It is what they believe of us, that we are like women and sheep. Others have gone before us to do this. They learn to farm the land and go hungry when the rains do not come or the crops are beaten to the ground by the soldiers’ horses. They set our enemies to spy on us. They send us to land that is too cold for our people and for us to farm.

  “We need men like Howard, who kept his word with us and treated us like brothers.”

  Delaney wished right along with Geronimo that General Howard had been left in charge. He had dealt fairly with the Apache. Cochise knew he had respected them. Howard had gained the Chiricahua band title to their homeland, which caused dissatisfaction with the Warm Springs bands when their request was disallowed.

  “We have always wanted peace to live our ways. When he who was before Naiche left this world, it was his wish that we keep our word.”

  Again Delaney could only nod in agreement. He knew that Geronimo could not say Cochise’s name for fear of calling his ghost. But he remembered how Cochise’s son, Taza, had been raised to lead, only to die when he toured Washington, and Naiche had taken leadership with Geronimo at his side.

  His thought drew him back in time to remember that Skinya, one of Cochise’s leading warriors, refused Taza as leader, refused the peace, and with his brother Pionsenay went on the warpath, killing the station keeper at Sulphur Springs and two other white men.

  “Yes, I see you remember how all were thought to be as a few.”

  “The cry went out,” Delaney said softly, “to slay all the Chiricahua. But when Naiche shot he who caused this, you fled—”

  “Only to go to Warm Springs to our friends on the Alamosa. Clum did not wish to see me live. Every deed he placed on me. Soon all pindahs spoke the same of me. They want my death. I will not belong to the soldiers. Taza trusted them, and they poisoned him. They took away our homeland.

  “Can I forget the heated irons that Clum put on me? Or that he gave me a bed of straw like an animal to sleep? He lied then, too. They sent word that Ponce was raiding far from where he was held prisoner. How can this be? One man in two places? This was a time when I believed my life lost.”

  “The smallpox was with us,” Perico added, taking up the talk. “Many died. The soldiers did not want Clum to make order for us. When they took him away as agent, there was no one to trust. When they lied about your father and we spoke up for him, they chased us.”

  “When Hart came, he set me free,” Geronimo said. “The smallpox spread. The yellow fever came. There was no food and no clothing for the people. All we asked is that we could go back to our lands. This was refused. I will not go back to San Carlos. They asked my word and promised that all would change. They would give us food. They gave us nothing.”

  Delaney closed his eyes for a moment before he glanced around the circle again. There were nods of assent. He knew and could not mention the death of Geronimo’s nephew after a scolding from Geronimo that made the decision for them to leave the reservation.

  “You must tell me all that you want. I will bring the words to General Wilcox. I will see that either Jeffords or McIntosh come again with his offer.”

  They spoke long into the night, and in the morning Delaney left them with a warning from Perico.

  “The man called Brodie searches for gold. If you wish to bring peace, kill him. He goes too near the place.”

  “This I have already sworn to do, Perico. He has killed my father and my mother. He dishonored my name. His death will be at my hand.”

  “When your heart is troubled, come to us. Go now and may we live to see each other again.”

  Three Netdahee warriors rode with him as far as the San Bernardino Valley, and there they left Delaney to continue his journey back to Tombstone.

  Since he was riding up from the southwest, Delaney knew a sudden longing to see Faith before he made his report to Ross. The major wasn’t going to be pleased with what he had to tell him, but one way or another he’d give up that journal.

  As he rode those solitary hours, he reflected on all that he had learned of Brodie’s activities, from dealing in prime cattle brought up from Mexico after being stolen in Texas, with the blame laid on Geronimo’s head or another renegade band, to his attempts to find what he believed to be a hidden gold mine in the Dragoons.

  Once Delaney allowed his thoughts to dwell on Brodie, other memories of the past surfaced. He knew where Brodie had first gotten the idea that a gold mine was located in the mountains, and it was Delaney’s fault. He couldn’t blame Elise for telling Brodie about the mine, after Delaney’s pride had caused him to boast of knowing a secret place. He had been nineteen the first time he met Elise in Tucson. Love had hit him like a lightning bolt after she smiled at him. He knew he wanted to marry her before he ever held her in his arms to dance. And needing to impress her, he realized later he had made the mistake of telling her the little he did about the secret place that the stone he wore came from.

  “A place of riches,” he murmured aloud now, using the same words he had told her. For him it was just such a place. But Elise believed he had been talking about gold. She haunted him, teased him, and withheld kisses, but he was too blind to understand how greed for wealth drove her.

  Delaney remembered thinking she was too young to marry. He took his first job with the railroad and was gone over a year. Adam Brodie’s family had settled in the area, and he began courting Elise. Until Delaney came back. Elise had sworn to him that he was the one she loved, the only man she would marry as soon as he had enough money to give them a good start.

  Fool that he was, he believed her. He would take any work that paid well, sending every penny he could spare to Elise. But within that year he heard rumors that forced him home again. Elise silenced his questions with kisses that drove the boy he was crazy, and let the man he was now reflect upon the calculated motives that drove her. He had left her after a bitter fight when she insisted he go after the gold mine hidden in the Dragoons. He had been too afraid of losing her to tell her the truth. There was no gold, there never had been any. The place was sacred to the Apache, who took bits of precious skystone for their own ceremonial uses. The Indians abhorred the taking of gold and silver from the earth.

  He had to stop himself from remembering more and set about making a cold camp, but it seemed that once the grave had been opened on the past, it would not close.

  On the sigh of the wind he heard the whisper of Elise’s sultry voice calling him, begging him to do what she asked so that they could marry. He seemed removed from himself as he felt again the guilt when they first became lovers and his need to make enough money to satisfy her.

  Lies and betrayal. She had married Adam and taken every penny of the money she had been saving for their home to use for a trip to San Francisco.

  With his hand cradling his head, Delaney stared up at the night sky and watched the stars appear. For every bitter memory that he recalled of Elise, he found that Faith’s image came to dispel them. He slept with the whisper of her name on his lips and woke with a driving need to see her and hold her.

  It was late afternoon the next day that Delaney rode near the north-flowing San Pedro River. Cottonwoods and willows dotted the broad meadows and hawks glided overhead. The faint smoke from a campfire wafted on the breeze, and Delaney followed it toward the riverbank.

  “I’m friendly and coming in,” he called out.

  Keith ran out from the clearing where the wagons were, whooping and hollering, Pris and Joey
close behind him.

  Delaney caught up the little ones before him feeling warmed by their welcome. Keith walked at his horse’s side into their camp. From a ways down the bank the sound of an ax biting wood could be heard, but before he could ask, Keith said their father was cutting trees for their cabin.

  Delaney came out of the saddle first, then lifted Pris, who covered his bearded cheeks with kisses and gave him an extra tight hug before she let him release her.

  “I have a secret to tell,” Joey whispered in his ear when Delaney held him in his arms. Still holding the boy, Delaney walked away, the strong sense of homecoming needing only Faith to complete it.

  “So what’s this secret, scout?”

  “You promise not to tell anyone, not even Faith?”

  “I promise, Joey. There’s nothing wrong, is there?”

  “I don’t know. Yesterday I was trying to track a deer like you showed me, Del. I was doing real good, too. But I got this funny feeling, and all the trees seemed to go around and around. Just like that night,” he added, searching Delaney’s features with his hand. Pressing his fingers over Delaney’s mouth, Joey spoke in a hushed voice. “I had to sit down and … and for a few seconds I thought I saw the trees. Not real clear. And it went away. But I hoped that maybe all the good medicine worked and I would be able to see again.”

  “Joey,” Delaney murmured, hugging him close, blinking to keep the tears from his eyes. “You only have to want to see, want it with all your heart.”

  “I’m scared, Del. Scared it might not happen no matter how much I want it to.”

  Cradling Joey’s head against his shoulder, Delaney tried to find the words he needed, and he saw Faith coming up the path from the river. “Love,” he whispered, walking toward her. And the words came easy. “Just love the world as you once saw it, Joey. Remember only the good things, the pretty things. Like a smile that would rival a desert sunrise, or eyes of blue so beautiful there are no words to describe them.”

  He shifted Joey’s weight to one side and opened his arm to hold Faith close, burying his face against her hair and closing his eyes to savor the scent of her.

  “You were talking about Faith, weren’t you, Del?” Joey asked, lifting his head and smiling. “She missed you,” he confided, then added, “I did, too.” Tilting his head to one side, he asked, “Are you gonna kiss her?”

  “Think I should, scout?” But he was already lowering Joey to stand on his own when Faith took the decision from him.

  She cradled his cheeks and drew his mouth down to hers, putting every bit of love, every moment of longing into her kiss. Faith willed him in her heart and mind to believe in her, to believe in the love she had for him.

  Hearing the words no longer seemed important. She had the look in his eyes as she came toward him to cherish now. Delaney had whispered the word love, and that is what she saw in his gaze: love, untarnished by the past, glittering with a promise of the future.

  With reluctance their lips parted before passion’s need was unleashed. Delaney rested his forehead against hers, mingling his breath with hers, touching the tip of his nose to meet Faith’s.

  For a moment they were alone in the world, and Faith used one fingertip to trace the smile of incredible tenderness on his lips. She felt the loneliness that dwelled deep inside him yield and give way to the powerful emotion that bonded them.

  “I love you,” she whispered, breathing the words against the softened line of his mouth, whispering the same with her eyes.

  And he drank that love and her kiss like a fertile rain spreading its balm on a parched desert land, for Faith was all that gave life to him.

  Reality intruded with Joey’s whispered warning that his father was coming, and Delaney eased his lips from hers but kept her cradled to his side with one arm around her waist.

  Resentment flared in Becket’s eyes when he saw that Delaney had returned, but it disappeared when he looked at his daughter held at Delaney’s side. Faith’s joy glowed in her eyes, and he knew no matter what objection he could voice against Delaney, she was beyond listening to him.

  “You back to stay?” he asked Delaney.

  “No. I stopped here first before I find Ross.” Faith tensed, and he pressed his hand in warning for her to be silent. “I wanted to make sure all of you were settled and without trouble.”

  “That’s all?” Becket shot back, setting his ax against a tree and coming toward them. “Keith, take Pris and Joey downstream. What I’ve got to say isn’t for them or you to hear.”

  “Pa—”

  “Hush up, Faith,” Robert warned, waiting until Keith obeyed him before he spoke. “Carmichael, I’m building a home for my family here. I can’t say I like you, but if you figure on coming around here for my daughter, you’d best speak up now and plainly set my mind to rest. If you don’t, I’m warning you, I’ll raise my gun and run you off.”

  “No! Pa, I won’t let you—”

  “He’s right, Faith,” Delaney said, cutting her off. With his grip on her waist he propelled her in front of him and gazed down at her. “I want to marry you, Faith, but there’s something I must do before—”

  “Brodie?” she whispered, clutching hold of the skystone she had worn since Seanilzay brought it to her.

  He gazed back to where Becket stood waiting. “Is that plain enough for you? If I come back, I want your daughter for my wife. If she’ll have me,” he added, looking again at Faith.

  “Yes,” she answered but had to close her eyes to hide the fear that suddenly gripped her. She felt Delaney’s hand cover hers, and the heat of the stone build against her palm. His lips brushed her mouth, and she opened her eyes. “Is there nothing I can say that will change your mind?”

  “Brodie violates a trust that I was given. I can’t let him live, Faith. I can’t let the deaths of my parents go unpunished. For me there is no choice.”

  “Then go with my love,” she whispered, releasing the stone and, with her step back, asking him to release her. She slid the rawhide thong over her head. “I want you to wear this. Seanilzay told me there is a promise you must remember and someday tell me. But I want to add one of my own.”

  She took off his hat and dropped it. Holding the rawhide wide with both hands, she lifted it over his head, then settled the stone beneath his shirt. Her fingertips lingered to touch his warm skin and caress the pulse beating in the hollow of his throat.

  Faith lifted her face and gazed into his eyes. “If love can deny nothing to love, I promise to deny you nothing. If love lives by love, as I believe, then I need you to live to love me, for I know that we already are one in heart and spirit.”

  Chapter 21

  Ross didn’t have the journal.

  Delaney heard the major’s words ringing in his ears. He pinned Ross with an icy stare, then looked away toward the grimed window of the same room where they had met before. Coolly he contemplated killing Ross. He thought of the encampment of additional soldiers he had passed on his way into Tombstone and knew his chances were less than slim to leave here if he killed the major.

  Ross hid his disappointment that Delaney said nothing. He had gloated over his own cleverness in using Carmichael to find out where Geronimo and Juh were hiding. But he wanted more. He wanted Delaney broken for forcing the woman he loved into a marriage that could only end with the death of her husband. Ross knew he had no compunctions about killing a man, but he drew the line at killing his cousin, Adam Brodie. He could barely contain his need to share this with Elise. One small payback for what Delaney had done to her. But he had to stop thinking about Elise and finish with Carmichael.

  “You understand that the only thing I needed from you, Carmichael, was the location of where Geronimo and Juh were hiding. By tonight I’ll have that information. There are detachments of soldiers coming from Lowell and Huachuca to join the force I’ve already assembled.” Ross knew he had captured Delaney’s attention, for he turned around to face him. Topp
ing off the glass of whiskey on the table, Ross gestured with the bottle to the empty glass as if asking Delaney if he wanted a drink.

  “I’d sooner drink with a rattler, Major. Come to think of it, there ain’t all that much difference between you.”

  Ross shrugged it off. “Suit yourself. Within the week I’ll have that renegade band back where they belong on San Carlos.”

  “And a promotion to boot?” Delaney asked, savoring his own knowledge that Ross would have nothing.

  “I would expect there to be one. But I must admit that you’ve accepted the news about the journal rather calmly. Not at all what I—”

  “Thought about it, did you?” Delaney interrupted. “Well, you gloat about your plans and your promotion, Major. You’re gonna come up as empty as me.” He headed for the door, smiling because Ross was choking on the whiskey he had swallowed.

  “Hold it, Carmichael! I’m not through with you yet.”

  Delaney stopped in the doorway and faced him. “Major?”

  “I’ll win! I had you followed, Carmichael. Once the Apaches find out how you betrayed them, they’ll kill you.” Ross waited for the fear, he wanted that desperate panicked look a man wore when he was cornered. He needed to see Carmichael beg.

  Delaney’s lip curled, and all the scorn he felt was directed at Ross. “You’ve a long wait ahead of you, Major, if you’re hoping that Chelli’s coming back.”

  “What!” Ross shoved his chair back and stood up, pushing the table aside and knocking over the bottle and glass.

  Delaney gazed at the liquor spilling into the warped floorboards, then lifted his gaze back up to Ross’s face.

  “Chelli’s dead.”

  The major’s roaring demands that he return followed Delaney down the street. He ignored them just as he ignored the curious men that stopped whatever they were doing to watch him walk by.

  There was a lone tent set up at the end of the street, and here Delaney stopped. A look inside showed him serious gamblers and the hardcases who weren’t wearing their guns for show. He stepped inside, needing a drink to wash the bitterness from his mouth. A plank set on two barrels served for a bar, whiskey the only drink offered. Delaney motioned for the barkeep to leave the bottle.