Most of her friends adored their fathers, but her father was vastly different from her friends’.
He had cheated his way into wealth by his skill at gambling. In fact, he had amassed enough money to leave their home in St. Louis, Missouri, and had bought up land in Utah, enough land to build a whole town.
Nicole’s face flushed red even now as she recalled the reason why they had left St. Louis. Her father had cheated at cards one time too many, and the leaders of that fine city had told him that if he didn’t take himself elsewhere, they would lock him up and throw away the key!
Her father had heard about Utah, with its green valleys, towering mountains, and rivers teeming with fish. His favorite pastime after playing poker was fishing.
Nicole had accompanied her father many a time when he went fishing in the muddy waters of the mighty Mississippi River. She had brought in many a delicious catfish that her mother had cooked and placed on the evening dining table.
She wondered whether her father was enjoying the fishing in Utah. Had he truly been able to put his gambling days behind him and enjoy spending time with his wife, whom he had often neglected while gambling was the most prominent thing on his mind?
Her mother had not enjoyed fishing or boating, so she had not shared those rare moments when Nicole joined her father on the river, laughing and talking.
Nicole had seen her mother smile with joy when Nicole’s father had told her that he was through with gambling and that he would build her a whole town in Utah that she could all her own!
It would be named after their family.
It would be called…Tyler City.
It had been decided that Nicole would stay in St. Louis until she finished her schooling and received her teaching credentials. Until only a few weeks ago, she had lived with her aunt Dot and uncle Zeb.
But now?
Having finally earned her teaching credentials, she was anxious to join her mother and father in Tyler City.
Her father had told her that with the town so new, everything from doctors to teachers were needed.
She would be the first teacher!
She had begun her journey west on a riverboat. Oh, how slow it had been.
After smelling the stench of fish that wafted in from the river, she had been glad to board a stagecoach for the final leg of the trip. Even now the smell of fish seemed to cling to her skin and clothes.
But it had been rugged traveling since she had boarded the stagecoach. She ached all over, especially her behind.
The voices of children broke through her thoughts, bringing her eyes to the four little girls who had been silent for most of the trip.
But now their father had announced that they had almost reached their destination, a new, small town called Hope. Their excitement at this news showed in their lovely eyes and high voices.
Suddenly their father ordered them to silence, scolding that they were bothering the young lady.
Nicole almost spoke up to tell him that it mattered not to her if the girls were talking, but decided against it. After spending so many hours in the coach with this man, she knew that his word was law to his family. To them he was almost a god!
Her fellow travelers were a family of Mormons, which included four little girls and two wives. The man’s name was Jeremiah Schrock, and his wives’ names were Nancy and Martha.
But Nicole had not been told the names of the girls. When she had entered the stagecoach, the man had introduced himself to her, as well as his two wives. From that point on he had remained silent except for when he found reason to scold one daughter or the other.
Though he did not speak to her, he continued to give Nicole looks that made her very uncomfortable. He was a man of fine appearance, with a square jaw that was prominent even though he wore a beard.
He had sparkling blue eyes, and was dressed in a suit of black that revealed muscles bulging against the tightness of the fabric. Nicole knew that he was the sort to attract many a woman’s eyes to him.
But not her. She hated the way he looked her up and down, as though he might be sizing her up to be his third wife!
That thought repelled her. This man had already taken two wives, seemed to enjoy lording it over them. She had no desire to be the third.
During this long trip on the stagecoach, Nicole had avoided the man’s stares by gazing out the window, while feeling pity for the poor things that he had already claimed as his.
They were timid women, who hardly spoke a word during their entire time in the stagecoach.
She now looked out the window just in time to see that the stagecoach was approaching the small town of Hope, where a small community of Mormons had been established.
Nicole strained her neck to see as much as she could of the place. She found it to be a lovely, quiet community of small, yet pretty, houses, all painted white.
Many children were running around outside, laughing and playing. She saw women hanging wash on lines. She saw a vast garden planted with everything needed for survival.
Just as the stagecoach drew to a stop, Nicole smiled and waved from the window to a little girl. The child stared back at her from between a man and woman whom Nicole concluded were her parents.
Nicole flinched when one of the wives who was departing the stagecoach, the one named Nancy, stepped on Nicole’s foot. She realized quickly that it was no accident when Nancy glared at her as she stopped to meet Nicole’s gaze.
This woman had quietly sat by as her husband measured Nicole’s appeal, but she was obviously seething at the idea that Nicole might be her husband’s third wife.
Nicole wanted to tell Nancy that she would never consider joining their family, but kept silent as the woman joined the others outside. The members of the small community took turns embracing the new comers.
The girls were soon gone, holding hands with new friends, giggling, as they ran off to play.
The stagecoach lurched forward, jarring Nicole so much that she almost fell from the seat. She settled in again for the rest of the journey, thank goodness, this time alone.
She smiled as she thought about what lay ahead…her family’s very own town. She envisioned it being neat and pretty, and as peaceful as the Mormon town that was now far behind her and soon forgotten.
Sighing in relief at having the coach all to herself, Nicole was pleased to see that she was now traveling through a beautiful setting of lush trees and thick, green grass.
She enjoyed smelling the scent of flowers that grew wild amidst the grass. Their varied colors gave the countryside the look of a patchwork quilt.
She gazed farther from the window and saw one of the tallest mountains she had ever beheld.
She had been told about this mountain before boarding the stagecoach. It was said that many Navaho people lived on it, renegades who had gone there to avoid conflict with the U.S. government.
She had heard that the Navaho had fled high up on that mountain to be safe from the cavalry, and also other enemy tribes.
She shivered as she recalled someone saying, too, that no one but the Navaho should go on that mountain or they might wind up being scalped.
Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by the shocking sight of rolling black smoke in the distance.
What alarmed her most was that the smoke was coming from the direction of Tyler City.
She stiffened when she heard the approach of a horse. A lone rider came up to the side of the stagecoach and shouted at the driver that he should turn the stagecoach around and drive quickly back in the direction they had came from. He told them to flee for their lives, and Nicole felt sick inside when he explained why.
He was saying that things had gone crazy in Tyler City.
Murder!
Mayhem!
The stagecoach driver wasted no time making a wide, shaky turn with the stagecoach.
When Nicole realized that she wasn’t going to be taken to Tyler City after all, she stuck her head out the window and shouted at the driver.
“Stop!” she cried. “Please turn back. You must go on to Tyler City! You can’t leave those who are alive there stranded. You must go and help them. My…parents…are there. Please?”
“Not on your life, lady,” the driver shouted back at her. The stagecoach was now headed away from the burning inferno behind them. “Get your head back inside! Shut your mouth! I’m not ready to lose my scalp. Don’t you know it’s Injuns that are responsible for what’s happened there.”
Realizing that nothing she said would convince the driver to go to Tyler City, she knew that all that she could do now was try to convince him to stop and lend her a horse so that she could ride there, herself.
While she had lived with her aunt Dot and uncle Zeb in St. Louis, her uncle had taught her how to ride, and she was now as good as any cowpoke who might challenge her to a race.
“If you won’t take me to Tyler City, please at least lend me a horse so that I can go there myself,” Nicole shouted.
Her hair blew around her face and whipped against her cheeks.
She brushed it aside as she waited for either the driver or the guard to answer her.
The man who had warned of the devastation up ahead had already raced off to safety.
“Please, oh, please, at least do that for me,” Nicole cried when the men still didn’t respond to her. “My mother and father are in Tyler City. In fact, it’s my father’s town, established by him, and named after our family.”
That drew the driver’s attention.
He gave her a strange, pitying look, then drew the horses to a shuddering halt.
Nicole saw this as a positive sign. She grabbed her reticule and hurried out the coach just as the driver jumped down to stand beside her.
“It’s your scalp, lady,” he said, nervously shuffling his feet. “Guess I can spare one horse if’n you can cough up enough money to pay for it.”
Her heart pounding, Nicole opened the reticule and grabbed a handful of coins. “That’s all I have with me,” she said, searching the man’s dark eyes as she held the coins toward him in the palm of her hand. “Please say it’s enough. I truly must go and see how my parents are.”
He stared for a moment longer into her eyes, looked at the coins, then shrugged and took the money.
As he shoved the coins into his front right breeches pocket, he hurried to the team of horses.
“I think you’re mighty foolish,” he said, as he finally separated a brown mare from the others. “It’s no skin off’n my back whatever you do, for the horses don’t belong to me, but the stagecoach company. I’ll just tell ’em this mare was stole by a bunch of Injun renegades.”
He placed a bridle and reins on the horse and led it to Nicole. “I think you should think again about what you’re going to do,” he said, before handing the reins over to her. “It sounds like bad trouble in that town.”
“I know,” Nicole murmured. She swallowed hard and glanced at her bag of belongings lashed to the top of the stagecoach. In it were her teaching certificate as well as other things precious to her.
She started to mount the horse, bareback, but stopped when the man who rode with the stagecoach as its guard pitched Nicole a rifle and a small leather bag of ammunition.
“I wouldn’t sleep nights if’n I hadn’t given you something to protect yourself with,” he said thickly. “I just wish you’d reconsider.”
The driver came with a saddle that he carried with him on his trips, secured it to the horse, and then got Nicole’s travel bag and attached it at the side of the saddle.
“You are too kind,” Nicole said as she opened her bag and wedged the rifle into it, with only the butt sticking up in the air.
She hurriedly mounted the mare, gave the men a quivering smile, then rode off in the direction of the black, rolling smoke.
She was afraid that she might already be too late to help her parents.
Her jaw tightened when she thought of something else.
Was her father somehow responsible for what had happened in Tyler City? Had he gone back on his word and begun gambling again? Had he cheated one man too many?
Although her father had promised Nicole’s mother that his gambling days were over and done with, deep down inside, Nicole had always believed that was impossible.
When gambling got as deep in a man’s gut as it had her father’s, there was no way on earth that he’d ever be able to look the other way if he was challenged to a game of poker.
Chapter Three
Feeling sick to his stomach from the raging temperature that had invaded his body, Eagle Wolf drew rein beside a stream.
He dismounted from his horse and stumbled to the water, falling to his knees beside it.
He hung his head over the water, but nothing came from his stomach. He had actually wanted to vomit so that he might feel a little better.
He raised his head and gasped when he saw his reflection in the water. His face was flushed from the fever and he knew that he must find a place to rest while he battled the disease that had weakened his body.
With knees trembling and broad shoulders drooping, he turned and looked at the place his horse had brought him. He had ridden the last mile with his eyes half closed, his ability to reason all but gone.
He had just hung on to the reins and let his horse take him where it would.
It seemed to Eagle Wolf that his steed had sensed the importance of finding the right sanctuary for the man who had always treated him so well.
His stallion seemed to have understood the need for Eagle Wolf to be in a place where he could rest and get well without having to concern himself with passersby. The animal had brought him to a small, hidden canyon, where there was plenty of water from a stream trickling out of cracks in the mountainside, and where there were soft pine needles upon which he could sleep.
Not taking time to build a campfire, he secured his horse’s reins, then took a blanket from his travel bag.
Just as he had spread the blanket on the soft pine needles, and had turned to lie down, something in the distance caught his eye.
He crept over to the edge of the bluff that overlooked the land below.
In the distance he could see black, rolling smoke and he quickly realized where it was coming from.
He knew of a small town that had recently been established not far from Navaho Mountain. It was a town called Tyler City.
Word had been brought to him that the man who established this town was a well-known gambler who had come to this area from a place named St. Louis.
Eagle Wolf knew that the reputation of such gamblers followed them wherever they went, and trouble followed them, too. There was always someone ready to challenge the one who was said to be the best.
Eagle Wolf had heard that often such duels with cards led to duels with firearms…and death. He wondered if this time someone had gotten angry enough to set fire to the entire town.
He watched the flames rolling upward from first one building and then another, as the smoke billowed into the sky.
If he were not alone, and he were well, he would ride down to that place of devastation and see if there were any survivors who needed help. Although he hated the U.S. government and its pony soldiers, he did not bear ill will toward the ordinary people, who had nothing to do with the decisions that had almost destroyed his tribe.
But as it was, he was alone, and his warriors were many miles up the mountain. And even if his warriors were close enough for him to go to them, he was not strong enough, either in body or mind, to even ride in his saddle now.
Suddenly he saw a lone rider traveling hard on a magnificent steed, toward the burning town.
He wiped at eyes that were blurring with fever, hoping to get a better look. When he lowered his hand, he realized that the lone rider was not a man, but instead…a woman!
He was awestruck by the woman’s long red hair, which fluttered and blew in the wind behind her as she raced onward, obviously intent on arriving in the burning to
wn as quickly as she could.
He wondered what she was doing alone when danger lay everywhere. A lone woman attracted the worst kind of men, those who would not hesitate to take advantage of her.
Where had this woman come from? He saw no other riders anywhere.
Suddenly he was overcome by dizziness. The land below him became a swirling mass.
He knew that he was in danger of falling if he did not lie down. He must concentrate on his own welfare now. Whatever happened below could not concern him.
He must think of himself now, for he had his people’s future to think about. He must get well so that he could return to them.
Even though he loved his brother, something in Eagle Wolf’s heart told him Spirit Wolf could not altogether be trusted. Lately his brother had looked at him with a strangeness in his dark eyes.
But this was not the time to concern himself with his suspicious. When Eagle Wolf returned home, he would look into his brother’s strange behavior.
He stumbled back to where he had spread the blanket over a soft bed of pine needles.
He eased down onto the blanket, and almost the moment he closed his eyes, he was fast asleep. But his sleep was not peaceful.
He dreamed.
He groaned.
He tossed and turned.
Suddenly he awakened in a sweat.
He did not feel as feverish as he had before going to sleep. But the weakness that had claimed him now was a new enemy.
Again he closed his eyes, and this time he slept more peacefully.
When he began dreaming anew, he saw the woman on the horse again, but this time her red hair was swirling all around her and her steed, fully enveloping them both. The woman’s hair was so beautiful as the sun shone on it, making it an even deeper red.
In his dream he saw the color of the woman’s eyes, which were as green as fresh spring grass.
And her lips. They were red, too, and oh, so perfectly shaped, as though they were made to be kissed.
He could not see much more than that since her long, flowing hair hid the rest of her. But his senses were so keen in this dream, he could actually smell the woman’s sweetness, as though she had bathed in the petals of the roses that grew wild along the plains.
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