Rosanne Bittner

by Paradise Valley

  “There’s a wide, beautiful valley that takes you there,” Newell added, giving his attention to Maggie. “Trouble is, anybody atop those cliffs can see you comin’ for miles. If you think you’ve seen big country out here, ma’am, wait till you see the valley on the way to Hole-In-The-Wall. Outlaws graze their horses and cattle there. Sometimes, a lot of them camp right there in the valley.”

  Sage rose and paced. “The damn pathway is so narrow it only takes one man to guard it. You could send a whole army up that trail, and one man could pick them off, one at a time.”

  “Sage, you don’t know for certain that’s where Jasper and the other one went,” Kate reminded him. “You need to find John Polk and see what he knows.”

  “Oh, I’ll find him, all right. If the son of a bitch hadn’t warned Jasper, he and Jimmy Hart might still be here in town, and we could get this over with. Riding to Hole-In-The-Wall is another matter.” He walked to the table and crushed out his cigarette in an ashtray. “Thanks, Newell. Have some breakfast. I’m going outside to get some air. I need to think about this.” He grabbed his hat from where he’d left it hanging near the door and walked out.

  Newell glanced at Kate. “I’ll go talk to him some more. I can eat later,” he told her. He drank the rest of his coffee and nodded to Maggie. “Ma’am, Sage is right. Hole-In-The-Wall ain’t no place for the likes of you.” He rose. “See you later, Kate.” He put on his hat and walked out.

  Maggie closed her eyes and leaned back. “He’ll try to go without me, Kate. I can’t let him.”

  Kate tapped some ashes off the end of her cigar. “Well, honey, it’s a rough trip. Getting through the trail that leads up the cliffs is dangerous enough. You need a damn good, sure-footed horse, and then, you have the problem of what you’ll face when you get to the top. Even the bravest lawmen won’t attempt going there.”

  Maggie sighed. “There must be some way. Sage will figure it out.” She faced Kate. “And I know firsthand what men like that Jasper are like. I want to see their faces when they realize that the woman they raped and left behind to die alone on the plains actually came for revenge. You’ve got to help me convince Sage to take me with him. If we end up getting killed, then at least we’ll die together.”

  Kate smiled softly, shaking her head. “By God, you are the right woman for Sage.” She leaned closer. “Is there anything left that you’re afraid of?”

  Maggie put a hand to her stomach. “I’m afraid of everything, but not when I’m with Sage. I always know I’m safe when I’m with him.” She looked at the skirt of the simple gingham dress she wore, the only dress she’d brought along, except for the fancy one Sage bought for her in Atlantic City. “There is only one thing that truly frightens me, Kate, and that’s Sage himself. I’m afraid I’ll lose him after all.”

  Kate frowned. “What makes you say that? The man is crazy about you.”

  Every day brought her closer to the truth, and she dreaded it. She’d told herself not to trust anyone she’d just met, but instinct told her Kate Bassett was an exception. “I’m carrying, Kate, and Sage doesn’t know it. What’s worse is that one of the men we’re after is the father. It’s impossible to know which one.”

  Kate sucked in her breath and closed her eyes, then let out a deep sigh. “Oh, Maggie, why haven’t you told Sage?”

  “I’d like nothing more than to tell him, but it’s a bastard, Kate. He might not be able to accept how it was conceived. I mean to keep it. When I lost my little girl back in Missouri, I wanted to die. My little Susan was so sweet and innocent and loving—the best thing that ever came into my life. This baby is just as innocent. I want to make sure he or she is loved. It’s not the baby’s fault how it came to be.”

  “You really should tell Sage, Maggie.”

  “Not yet.” Maggie looked at her pleadingly. “Promise me you won’t say a word. I only told you because I thought I could trust you.”

  “But… you can’t go riding off to a place like Hole-In-The-Wall with a baby in your belly! You never should have made this trip at all!”

  “That’s what Sage would say if he knew. He never would have let me leave Paradise Valley. I had to come, Kate, and the deeper I got into this, the more important it was that Sage didn’t know. Then we fell in love, and now, I’m scared to tell him—not because he wouldn’t take me with him to finish this, but because he’d leave me behind for good.”

  “He’d understand, Maggie. I know him. He’d be upset at first that you didn’t tell him, but he loves you. He’d come around.”

  “I wish that was true.” Maggie leaned forward and covered her face. “Sage must have told you how his first wife tricked him into marriage to get money. She hurt him really bad, Kate. And when I tell him about this baby, he’s going to think I want someone I can pass off as the father of my baby, someone who can provide for me and the child.” She faced Kate again. “But I love him, Kate. It has nothing to do with my baby—honest.”

  Kate nodded. “I believe you, honey, but I think you underestimate Sage’s ability to accept this. Men like Sage don’t judge others the way most ordinary people do.”

  Maggie shook her head. “I don’t know, especially when I realize he still has feelings for Joanna. She’ll be at the ranch when we go back. I’m sure of it. And once he sees her, and with me carrying a bastard child…”

  The room hung silent.

  “There’s no chance it’s your husband’s?” Kate finally asked.

  Maggie shook her head. “James hadn’t come near me that way since my last time of month. We were too tired from our trip.” She couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes. “This baby was bred out of violence, and I can’t lie to Sage. It would be easy to say it belongs to James. I could even claim it’s Sage’s, but he’s the type who’d see the lie in my eyes. He knows what happened, and he’d always wonder, so I might as well tell him the truth.”

  “And soon.”

  Maggie wiped away a tear. “Please don’t tell him. I’ll know when the time is right, and it can’t be until all this is over. I wanted your opinion on how you think Sage will react.”

  “Sage loves you. Even if he doesn’t accept it at first, he’ll never let you go, Maggie.”

  Maggie glanced at Sage’s gun belt hanging near the door. “I’d like to believe that. If it weren’t for Joanna… what she did to him… I’d have more hope. But Sage hates being duped by a woman, and I’m scared that’s how he’ll see this. Even if I wasn’t carrying, I think Sage needs to face Joanna again and make sure he’s through with her.” She met Kate’s gaze. “I will tell him the truth, Kate, because I’ll have no choice, but he doesn’t need this on his mind when he goes after those men.”

  Kate shook her head in resignation. “If Sage does turn you away, you come to me first Maggie Tucker, understand? You come to Lander, and let me help you. Don’t you go running off and try to raise a kid on your own. Promise me that. I know what it’s like to be alone against the world, and it’s hell for a woman. You’ve always got a home here, if you need it. And if that does happen, I’ll pay a visit to Sage myself and give him a good going over for sending you away!”

  Maggie smiled through tears. “Thank you. I feel better knowing there’s at least one other woman who understands.”

  Kate laughed softly. “There aren’t many things I don’t understand. If Sage turns you out, I know damn well he would come looking for you after he had time to think. He’d probably come here first to talk to me. Mark my words, Maggie. That man won’t get by without you any more than you’ll get by without him.” She reached over and squeezed Maggie’s hands. “And when you have that kid, I intend to come to Paradise Valley and pay you a visit.”

  Maggie smiled. “I’d love that.”

  They heard Sage and Newell outside the door. Maggie quickly wiped away her tears before the two men came inside.

  “We’re gonna take a little stroll through town—see if we can spot Polk,” Newell told them. “Might be we’ll have to sp
end the day at Chet’s waitin’ for him to show up. No sense ridin’ around in the hills tryin’ to find his camp when he’s likely to walk right into Chet’s… where me and Sage will be waitin’.”

  Sage reached for his gun belt he’d left hanging on the wall. “Don’t expect us back any time soon,” he told Maggie as he strapped on his gun. “It’s not likely Polk knows we’re here, so if he shows up at Chet’s, he’ll walk right into a trap. And I’ll, by God, get him to tell us where Jasper and Jimmy went.”

  Maggie breathed deeply to still her heart. They were closer than ever to finishing what they left Paradise Valley to do. Of all the things they’d been through, she knew deep inside that this was the most dangerous part of their journey. If it meant going to Hole-In-The-Wall, she’d have to do some fast thinking and fast talking to convince Sage to take her along.

  First, there was the matter of John Polk. She watched Sage walk out the door, and all she could do was pray she’d see him alive again.

  Thirty-three

  Maggie walked to a front window in Kate’s parlor, pressing a lace-trimmed handkerchief to her damp forehead and neck. “I can’t believe it’s the middle of July already,” she commented. “Sage and I left at the end of May. We’ve ridden so far together. It was cold when we left, and now, it’s so hot.”

  “Maggie, come sit back down, and stop worrying,” Kate insisted.

  “I can’t help it. I don’t like this, Kate. Sage and Newell have been gone so long.” It did little good to keep staring out the front window. It was dark outside, and she couldn’t see beyond the light of a lantern on the front porch. “Sage should have taken me with him.”

  “To the saloons and brothels? Sure. You’d fit right in.” Kate lit a cigar and threw her match into the nearby fireplace, its hearth unlit because of the heat. Maggie wondered at the sounds coming from the streets… distant piano music, occasionally, a woman’s shrieking laughter. She couldn’t help thinking about Sage once being a part of such wild activity. The sound of yet another gunshot made her flinch. “Every time I hear that I could scream.”

  “Listen, Maggie, get it through your head that what’s going on in town is a life Sage knows well. Most up at this hour are a bunch of drunks being stupid. Sage knows how to watch his back, and he can handle the worst. You should know that by now. If John Polk shows up, by the time Sage is done with him, he and Newell will have all the information they need.” Kate leaned back in her rocking chair and picked up a jacket she’d promised to mend for one of her boarders. “There aren’t many men who can handle themselves better around that rabble than Sage can.” She laid the jacket in her lap and kept the cigar between her lips as she squinted to thread a needle.

  Maggie turned from the window. If not for her anxiety, she thought how easy it would be to laugh at the picture of someone like Kate Bassett doing something as domestic as sewing, while at the same time, smoking a cigar. Kate was a wonderful cook—a contrast of character that was so common out here. “Tell me about Newell,” she asked Kate. “I need to talk about something besides Sage and what’s going on in town.”

  Kate laid her cigar in an ashtray. She answered Maggie, while she finished threading the needle and searched for the ripped seam in the jacket she was mending. “Newell came here to get away from something, but he’s never told me what it is. Could be a woman, or maybe a robbery, or a murder. Out here, everybody comes from someplace else, and usually, it’s to hide or to start life over where the law and the government can’t do much to stop you.” She found the seam and began sewing. “Of course, that’s changing now. Lawyers, lawmen, and even the government are trying to make living out here like it is back east, but it will take a long time. Folks here like things the way they are.”

  Maggie sat across from her, and Kate stopped her needlework for a moment. “Speaking of Newell, though, he’s a good man,” she told Maggie. “Oh, he likes to drink and gamble, but ninety-nine percent of the men out here do that.” She returned to her mending. “He used to visit the brothels, but he’s pretty much stopped that. The last couple of years it’s just been him and me. And he’s a good hired hand. I don’t think I could run this place without him.”

  Maggie sipped hot chocolate Kate had made for her. “Do you think you’ll ever marry?”

  Kate laughed, shaking her head. “People like us don’t marry. I’m too used up for that, and I can’t have kids. And Newell—he’s fifty. People our age, who’ve lived the kind of lives we’ve lived, don’t get married and have families. We’re comfortable with each other and know that as we get older, we’ll need to take care of each other.”

  Maggie studied her, watched her finish sewing up the torn seam. “I’d call that love, Kate, wouldn’t you?”

  Kate paused. If Maggie didn’t know better, she’d swear the woman was about to cry.

  “Well, now, honey, I guess you could call it love.” She looked at Maggie and smiled rather sadly. “Love with no strings attached. That’s the only kind of love a man like Newell could handle.”

  “Has he ever said he loves you?”

  Kate chuckled. “No. And I’ve never said the word either. It’s something that’s there. We don’t need to say it.” She finished sewing the jacket.

  “I have a feeling the only man you knew deep in your heart you loved was Sage,” Maggie suggested.

  Kate gave her a wink. “Sure I did. No sense denying that.” She tied off and cut the thread, then studied her finished work. “I loved Sage for the same reasons you love him. He’s solid, trustworthy, protective, knows what he wants, and goes after it.” She looked straight at Maggie. “And God knows he’s easy to look at.”

  Both women smiled.

  “He’s flat out the handsomest man I ever set eyes on,” Maggie replied.

  Kate nodded. “Me too, and I’ve come across a whole lot more men in my lifetime than you have, honey.” She sobered. “Sage has done some bad things, but he was an angry young man with no direction and a broken heart. What those supposed parents of his did back in San Francisco is unforgivable.” She set the jacket aside and reached over to pick up her cigar. “And you’re wondering about me, aren’t you? How I ended up an aging prostitute who will never marry.”

  Maggie set her cup aside. “That’s not my business.”

  Kate shrugged. “It’s natural to wonder. Somebody like you can’t understand this life, and I don’t blame you.” She smiled sadly, puffing on the cigar a couple of times before she continued. “I came out here much the same way you did, Maggie. I was young, stupid, and scared. I had no idea what this land was like before my parents and brother and I left by wagon train from Chicago.”

  She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

  “That was such a long time ago,” she said absently, “but sometimes, it seems like yesterday.” She sighed. “We never made it to California. We were attacked by Indians. My whole family was killed. I was taken captive, and a savage claimed me for his wife. When I didn’t give him any kids, he passed me off to the single ones who wanted to learn about sex before they took their own young brides.”

  Maggie closed her eyes against the horrid picture. “How awful.”

  Kate waved her off, forcing herself to pretend it didn’t matter anymore. “Anyway, by the time they deserted me near a gold town, I was already pretty used up. I knew absolutely no one. I walked into that town, and the minute the men knew where I came from, I had no hope of finding a decent man who’d want me. I tried scrubbing clothes to survive, tried sewing, cooking—whatever I could. Then a gambler came along who suggested how rich I could get if I turned to prostitution and opened my own brothel. By then, I didn’t have much pride left, figured it wouldn’t make much difference what I did… sleeping with men and running a brothel was a whole lot easier than using a scrub board and sweating over a hot stove in the summer to feed a bunch of ungrateful no-accounts. The gambler was good to me, bought me a pretty dress, showed me how beautiful I could be—how I could use that beauty.”r />
  She faced Maggie, her eyes misty. “We opened a brothel together. Later my gambler friend got shot over a card game, and I was on my own. My life was pretty well set for me, and I knew by then something was wrong that I’d never get pregnant, so I ended up running one of the fanciest whorehouses in town. That was in the Dakotas.” She shook her head at the memories. “Like most gold towns, it fast died when the gold ran out, so I started traveling with my girls. I’ve been all over the west and ended up here. I ran a brothel here too—saved enough money to try living a decent life for at least a few years before I die. So… here I am, running a boardinghouse.”

  Maggie shook her head. “I don’t think I could have survived what you survived.”

  Kate sighed. “Sure you could. You already have, from what I’ve learned about you. The only difference is you found Sage at just the right time. You’ll be able to live the life a decent woman is meant to live. And God has blessed you with the ability to have babies. I have a feeling you and Sage will have quite a big family, and I hope I live long enough to see all those kids.”

  “First, he has to accept the baby I’m carrying.”

  “Oh, he might stew about it for a while, but he’ll accept it.”

  Someone knocked on the back door. Both women rose and hurried into the kitchen sure it was Sage and Newell. “I hope nothing is wrong,” Maggie said, worried as to why they would knock at the back door.

  Kate opened the door, and Maggie gasped when two men barged in.

  Jasper! She turned to run, but the big man grabbed her from behind and planted a smelly hand over her mouth. He whirled her around in time to see Jimmy Hart slam the barrel of his gun over Kate’s head twice. Kate slumped to the floor. Jasper dragged Maggie out the door. She felt a stunning blow to the back of her head, and everything went black.