by Rue Allyn
“You’re frowning. I can’t have that.” Laughter sparkling in her eyes, Kiera rose above him and leaned down to kiss him.
His response was instantaneous — inhaling, absorbing her essence as if he’d never get enough. He shifted her onto her back. Where has all my resolve gone?
With that thought, he tore himself from Kiera’s arms and the bed, reaching for his clothing before her protest could hit his ears.
She lifted up on her side, her head supported by one hand. “Is something wrong?”
He shook his head, looking at her lovely face. “We need to get back to Lake Yellow Stone.”
“Why?”
Ev thrust a hand through his hair. “Because this … ” he gestured toward the bed. “Nice as making love with you is, this isn’t right. We’ve both got responsibilities, and we can’t ignore them for very much longer.”
She shuttered her eyes and lay back down. “You’re right.”
Her tone was flat. Her whole body spoke of resignation and regret. He hated that he’d caused the change, extinguished the spark of easy delight in her eyes. What choice did he have? With all his heart, he might want to believe her innocent of all accused crimes, but his belief wasn’t enough. She had to stand trial and be declared innocent in a court of law before he could allow himself to imagine any kind of future for them.
Why that mattered he wasn’t sure. What kind of life could there be for a woman with a man who wouldn’t put down roots? The kind of life his mother had? He’d never allow that. He’d live his life alone to prevent it. But Kiera … Even after the trial, he couldn’t see them together. They were both too independent — too restless and stubborn — to be able to build an enduring relationship.
He finished dressing. “I’ll tend to the horses.”
She shifted, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and reached for her buckskins. “I’ll get breakfast started. We can make plans for returning to the Shoshone village while we eat.”
After breakfast, he left closing the cabin door harder than he’d intended.
• • •
Kiera started at the loud bang of the door closing. She’d wanted to object, to argue, when Ev made his pronouncement about returning to Lake Yellow Stone. She hadn’t. She knew their time together was limited. Ev’s declaration that they needed to return indicated more than awareness of the days left before Boyd’s time ran out. Clearly Ev was bothered by the contradictions of making love with a suspected criminal. While she didn’t like the decision to leave, she respected his feelings. Staying longer would be worse than leaving.
It would take her a day to get ready, so they’d leave the following morning. Maybe she could convince him to give her one more night. If he did, that one night’s desire would have to last her a very long time, perhaps even a lifetime.
Late that afternoon, Kiera checked her preparations for the return journey to Lake Yellow Stone. She had enough supplies for five days on the trail. Her precious photographs of the horses — taken last year when Muh’Weda trained the ponies — were sealed in a waterproof packet. She had one last task to perform. Ev was out in the stable checking the horses’ tack and mending any worn pieces. Knowing she’d be back before he missed her, she buckled on her gun belt out of habit and set off for the ghost town’s bank.
As she walked, she considered the various twists and turns her life had taken. She’d learned from each experience and strongly believed that she could now stand up to her grandfather, the wealthy and almighty Carlton Rosencrantz Alden IV of the Boston Aldens. She’d encountered much worse than his dictatorial misogyny. First, she’d deal with Big Si’s accusations, then she’d set out for Boston. It was past time that she brought Edith and Mae to Smoke Valley, saving her sisters from their grandfather’s brutality, deprivation, and parsimony, just as they had saved her three years ago when they helped her escape.
However, in order to travel to Boston and back she needed money, so she headed to the deserted town’s bank where she’d hidden the stash of gold nuggets she’d found during her photographic jaunts around the area. Beating her grandfather at his own game by having her own money would be a real pleasure.
She was through the door into the bank before she realized that someone else was in the building — three someones, to be exact.
“Well lookee what we got here.” A tall man with a dirt-streaked duster thrown over his plaid shirt and worn denims stared hard at Kiera. His voice was raspy, like he didn’t talk much. The lust in his eyes sent a chill down her back and tightened her throat.
“She a squaw or a white woman?” Sporting snakeskin boots, the shortest of the three squinted at her and spoke in a high, thin whine.
Kiera shook off fear. She needed to survive, not shiver in her moccasins.
A pearl handled colt rested against the thigh of the third man whose gaze traveled over Kiera from top to toe and back.
“She may be wearing buckskins, but I never seen no squaw with hair that red. Wonder if it’s natural?” He spoke calm in tones smooth as cream. His yellow eyes gleamed, and a lewd grin spread across his face. “Let’s find out.”
Before he took half a step in her direction, Kiera had her pistol pointed at him. Her blood chilled at the image his suggestion inspired.
He halted in mid-stride. Behind him jaws dropped, and eyes widened on Whine and Rasp.
Cream-voice raised his hands, palms out, and shifted his balance. The other two followed suit. “Ain’t no call to be wavin’ that handgun around, miss. I’m just being friendly.”
Kiera ignored the euphemism. “Keep your hands up. All three of you get inside that teller’s box then lock the door behind you. I want to hear the lock click.”
The three studied her. Then Cream nodded. “Go ahead boys. Let’s do what the little lady says.”
They trooped into the box and stared out at her from behind the barred window.
“Lock the door.”
Raspy lowered his left hand and reached for the door.
The snick of the lock broke the silence. She’d bought herself about five seconds’ head start. Which was good. She only needed two.
Still facing the men, she commenced backing toward the open door she’d just come through.
“I see you gentlemen got the same information I did from the assay office.” She wanted them to think she was just like them, a claim jumper, and hadn’t walked the entire town and valley over the past year and a half. “Since you’re here first, I’ll be on my way. I’ll leave you to your business and thank you kindly to leave me to mine.”
She stepped out of the bank and onto the aged planks of the boardwalk. Then she ran.
Left to the corner of the bank then left again down the alley between the bank and the mercantile. Halfway down the alley, she leapt into a narrow space between the bank and a row of rain barrels. Then, making herself as small as possible, she hunkered in the shadowy area formed by the barrels, the wall of the bank, and the cantilevered second story.
Bootheels pounded on wood then thudded against the earth of the alley. All three men ran past her.
“Gawd almighty, she’s fast,” muttered Whine.
“Where’d she go?” growled Rasp.
“She can’t have gone far. You two search here, one left, one right. I’ll go keep an eye on the main street from the bank, in case she doubles back.”
The noise from two sets of steps faded in opposite directions while Cream’s stride grew louder. As he passed the row of barrels, he kicked each one, checking to see if she was hiding there, but he didn’t look past the casks. Kiera knew he wouldn’t. The space she was in was so narrow that unless you knew it was there, you wouldn’t see it. To an uninformed eye, the barrels looked like they lined the outer wall of the bank.
She waited until she heard Cream walk down the boardwalk that fronted the ba
nk.
Then she eased from her hiding place and, keeping to the lengthening shadows, crept toward the back of the alley. She peered around the corner of the building looking both ways for Rasp and Whine. Each had his back to her and was several buildings away. She edged sideways across the end of the alley to the mercantile’s back entrance. None of the doors in town were locked — the more fool her pursuers for not trying them — so she could hide inside that building until dark. Then she could slip away and run back to the cabin where she knew Ev was finishing the preparations for their departure. Leaving tonight instead of tomorrow morning would make little difference and might just save their lives. As long as the claim jumpers didn’t run into Ev and he didn’t come looking for her, she and Ev would be fine.
For a good hour, as the sun sank toward the rim of the valley, she worried over what the claim jumpers were doing at the same time she fretted about what Ev might do. Then her brain gnawed over what he wasn’t doing. He should have noticed by now that she wasn’t at the cabin. Of course her horse was still in the corral, so he would know she’d come back. Maybe he was smart enough not to concern himself about her the way she was worrying about him.
She’d just begun to relax a bit when a barrage of gunshots sounded from the direction of the cabin. She dashed for the front of the building, leaping broken furniture or tossing it out of her way as she ran. From the number of shots fired, she’d bet all three claim jumpers had ambushed Ev. There was no one else they could be shooting at.
Pelting down the dusty street, she made her way to the cabin as fast as she could. Only when the small structure came into sight did she slow. She had to take stock of the situation. Where were the gunmen? Where was Ev?
The answer to the first question sheltered behind a hay wagon and a stack of firewood about fifty feet from the cabin’s front door. Concentrating on the cabin, their backs were to her. She cursed her lack of skill with a pistol. She’d never be able to get close enough to them to shoot all of them before they killed her. She’d have to find another way to help Ev, who returned fire from inside the cabin.
Through the haze of gunsmoke she studied the area. The horses milled in the corral on the far side of the house. Still within sight of the attackers, it seemed to be out of gun range. The gear and tack would be stowed neatly in the shed. She’d discovered that much about Ev in the past week. He was meticulous in caring for the gear that meant survival in the wilderness. As long as Ev kept the gunmen busy and focused on the cabin, she could slip around in back of them and make her way to the corral. Maybe even get the horses saddled and ready to go without being noticed.
Then it was just a few steps to the back of the cabin, where she could crawl in through the window. She and Ev would exit the same way, leave the gunmen flat-footed, and be long gone before the men could even get to their mounts. By then, darkness would fall. Between night and the perpetual mist ringing the valley, any trail would be impossible to follow. The attackers would never catch them, and Ev would be safe. Risky at best, the plan was such a damn fool notion that it might get her killed. Success hinged on the claim jumpers being as single minded as they’d shown themselves to be so far. She searched her brain for a better choice and came up with nothing.
She put her plan into action. Everything worked perfectly until she was tightening the last cinch and the gunfire sputtered into silence. She froze behind Ev’s big bay not wanting to draw attention by moving.
The silence drew out.
Sweat trickled down Kiera’s back. What are those men doing? She peered around the bay’s nose to see Rasp and Whine hauling straw from the wagon to spread it knee deep around the cabin’s perimeter.
What in the …
“We know you’re hurt.” Cream’s shout cut off her thought.
Hurt? Ev is hurt? How? How bad? Not bad enough to stop him from fighting back. He’s been injured all this time while I’m messing around with horses, counting on him when he should be counting on me.
“Come on out, and we’ll let you and the woman live.” Even shouting Cream’s voice oozed like honey from a comb.
“What woman?” Ev’s voice was strong.
Pray heaven he’s not hurt too bad. Whatever his injury, his head seems fine.
“We got her tied up down to the bank in town. All we want’s the gold. You come out we’ll give her back to you.”
“I don’t know any woman, and I don’t have any gold.”
“Lyin’ won’t do you no good. You got two choices, come out or burn to death in that cabin.” As Cream spoke, Whine and Rasp ran toward the structure, guns ablaze and carried in their free hands flaming bundles of hay.
Ev answered with his own hail of bullets. Both men managed to get their makeshift torches to the hay, but Whine lay face down in the rapidly spreading fire. He wasn’t screaming, so Ev must have killed him.
She watched Rasp hobble back behind the woodpile. He was injured too. Whatever wounds Ev had, they didn’t interfere with his ability to hit what he aimed at. In the time it took for her to form that thought, flames surrounded the cabin, and a column of smoke began to rise skyward.
She had to get Ev out of there now, and she’d have to take the horses with her or risk having the mounts run in panic from the fire or be killed or taken by the gunmen. Knowing she would expose herself and the horses to the jumpers’ gunfire the entire distance from the corral to the cabin didn’t stop Kiera. She was out of options. She secured the reins of the bay to her saddle then leapt to the back of her mare. Shouting for Ev to get out the back window, she pulled her pistol, aimed it in the general direction of the gunmen, and kicked her mare into a gallop. Ev was climbing out the window as she rode up. Kiera slowed but didn’t stop. He dropped into the empty saddle. Not waiting to untie the bay’s reins she hightailed it away from the fire.
A flurry of bullets followed as she and Ev raced off.
When they came into the main part of town, she slowed. She wanted to find the claim jumpers’ horses. To keep the gunmen from following, she’d lead the mounts away leaving Rasp and Cream stranded.
“Stop.” Ev’s command came as a surprise.
“Why?” She turned in the saddle. His face was chalky white. Blood dripped from his temple down his neck, soaking his shirt. It also oozed from a nasty wound in his thigh.
“Something’s wrong with my horse.”
“You’re bleeding to death, and you’re worried about your horse?” She shouted at him terrified that he’d keel over in front of her, that she’d lose him. She’d kill those claim jumpers with her bare hands just for hurting him.
His lips twitched. “If I don’t have a mount, it won’t matter if I’m dead or dying. Those galoots’ll kill me.”
He was right. She swallowed her panic. First thing’s first. She dismounted and discovered that a bullet had nicked the bay’s hock. The tendon was still intact, so the gelding would heal with rest. Carrying a man — even one much smaller and lighter than Ev — over rough terrain would cripple the horse. They had to get Ev a different mount.
She led the horses to the back of the abandoned stable at the far end of the street. Using the rear entrance to the building, she brought Ev and the mounts inside. Then she tended Ev’s wounds.
“The head wound may look bad, but it’s really just a scratch. Better see to my leg first.”
She nodded and went to work. The bullet had gone all the way through the fleshy part of his upper thigh and hadn’t hit an artery. That much was good. The bad part was that until the wound healed, the leg would be next best thing to useless. He couldn’t control a horse, and that would slow them down. Finding the claim jumpers’ horses became even more important now.
Next she unsaddled the bay, cleaned and bandaged its wound. Then led it to an open stall and gave it food and water before returning to Ev. With his wound cleaned and bandaged, she gave him water,
all the guns and ammunition, and settled him at the window in the front of the stable. From that vantage he could see the entire main street of the ghost town and had a good view of the entrance to the two lanes that ran on either side in back of the single street of buildings.
“I’ve got a good idea where their horses might be,” she told him. “I’ll go and get them.”
“You’d better take a pistol with you.”
“I can’t hit anything I aim at, remember.”
“No, but as you told me once you can scare someone enough to make shooting you difficult.”
She stared at him. She wanted to stay and protect him, help him fight off trouble. She couldn’t. She was the only one who could get those horses. She wanted him to have every weapon possible to keep him safe until she got back. The pistol he thrust at her would help her get back to him. She nodded and took the weapon shoving it into her belt. Then she headed for the stable’s back door.
She rounded the corner of the stable running for the cover of the closest building and nearly stopped short at the sight that met her eyes.
In the time she’d taken to care for Ev and the bay, the fire at the cabin had grown, engulfing almost half the small town. Flames raced from building to building, roaring its hunger to the world. Explosions boomed and rocked the ground as ammunition and other abandoned incendiary materials overheated. When the claim jumpers lit the fire around the cabin, they obviously didn’t think about the drought conditions existing in the valley and throughout most of Wyoming. Only one place in the valley would be safe from the inferno.
Already, ground squirrels and other small creatures scurried in the direction of the waterfall. Too bad the fall lay in the opposite direction from where she and Ev needed to go. Didn’t matter. The flames spread in all directions. Once in the treetops, the fire would outrace any horse. Running water was their only hope of survival.
