“Yes, I suppose it takes an Indian to know an Indian,” Canary said derisively. “Let’s hear it, Mr., uh, Travis, was it? We’ll hear what you and the other scout here have to say, and then you can be off. We have some important decisions to make.”
Sunny watched Colt stiffen at the rude remark, spoken as though Colt were just some common servant who should get in his say quickly and get out. “I would be careful how you address our scouts, Mr. Canary,” she said before Colt could answer. “They happen to be our most important men. Without them a lot more lives would have been lost by now. Mr. Travis has already been wounded once protecting the U.P. and me and my brother a few months back. He is also a veteran of the Civil War who spent time at Andersonville. You will address him with more respect.”
Canary reddened a little, and Colt grinned inwardly at Sunny’s bold retort. She was back to Sunny Landers, the businesswoman, and he loved that Sunny just as much as he loved the vulnerable, totally submissive woman who had been completely in his control the last two days, or had it been the other way around? She certainly knew how to manipulate men.
Canary nodded to him. “My apologies for sounding short with you, Mr. Travis, but we’ve no time to lose here. This is a very grave situation.”
Colt looked over at Quinn and saw the concern on his own face. Quinn was a good man who knew his job well, although he didn’t know quite as much about how to handle Indians as Colt did.
Quinn nodded to him. “I’ll let you do the talkin’,” the man said.
Colt turned to Canary. “You’re right,” he answered. “This is a grave situation. There are few things more important to the Indian than their sacred burial grounds. I don’t know how many are out there, but it doesn’t take a lot of Indians to create a whole lot of trouble. The Cheyenne are some of the fiercest fighters on the Plains, and believe me, they’ll fight for this one. Personally, if you do decide to go through, I’ll help however I can, but I won’t set foot in the burial ground itself. I happen to believe that it’s too sacred. My advice is to try to find a way to go around.” He looked at Sunny. “The Indians have lost enough land and dignity. Don’t do this to them.”
Their eyes held for a moment, both of them struggling to hide their love and passion, wishing they could talk about this alone. Outside, a wild storm raged, and Sunny felt one raging in her soul. Rain pelted the windows of the plush railroad car, and thunder seemed to literally shake the ground. Sunny tore her eyes away then, looking at Canary. “There must be some way to go around.”
“Not without a great deal of lost time,” Casement answered for the man.
“I say we risk it,” Canary told Sunny. “We have over sixty soldiers with us now, with more to arrive tomorrow. They can rout out the Indians in no time, and there will be enough men to leave a few here to help protect the construction crew in case the Indians decide to attack here too. Once the tracks are laid through the burial ground, we can leave soldiers camped in the area for a while to keep guard until we’re sure the Cheyenne won’t try to come back and destroy the tracks, or until so many of them die that there are not enough left to give us a fight.”
“It isn’t right,” Colt said, his anger obviously rising. “For God’s sake, what’s a couple more weeks, a few more miles! A burial ground is so important to the Indian. You’re building right through land that’s been theirs for centuries, chasing away their game, bringing out more white settlers, now this! To tear up that burial ground is as sacrilegious to them as burning a Bible would be to you! Someday the U.P. is going to rake in millions. Don’t sit there and tell me you can’t afford to lay a few extra miles of track.”
Canary’s face grew to a deeper red, and the others sat dumbfounded at the way Colt dared to talk to him. Canary rose, facing him. “I said earlier I was sorry for the remark I made, but I take it back. How dare you in your position talk to me that way!”
“You asked for my opinion,” Colt growled. “You got it!”
There came another clap of thunder, and the rain came down so hard that one could not see more than a few inches beyond the torrent just outside the window.
“I asked for your opinion about the danger of the situation, not about the U.P. and what it can and cannot afford to do. What the hell would you know about the business end of this thing anyway? I’ll remind you of your place, Mr. Travis, and if you want to keep your job with the U.P., you had better be a little more supportive of the railroad that pays your salary every month!”
“That’s enough, Mr. Canary,” Sunny spoke up, also rising. “Colt Travis is one of our best scouts. Mr. Casement can tell you that. I value his opinion, and he is upset only because he understands the Indians so well.”
Canary looked him over scathingly. “He ought to.” He held his chin haughtily, his thin nose high in the air. “In this particular case, I have to wonder just whose side you’re on, Mr. Travis.”
“Listening to you, I’m beginning to wonder myself,” Colt sneered.
“Now, now, we have a problem here, and this is not the way to solve it,” Casement broke in. “I have a crew out there laying two miles of track a day. Before long we’ll reach this burial ground, and I’ve got to know what to do.”
“White Buffalo ain’t gonna budge,” Quinn added.
Colt turned. “White Buffalo! Is that who’s out there making all the trouble?”
Quinn nodded. “He sent a messenger to the interpreter working with the graders after their attack—said to tell the Great White Father that White Buffalo would never allow the iron horse to go through their burial grounds.”
Colt turned to Sunny. “White Buffalo is the man who saved my life when I was wounded by the Pawnee. I lived with him and his people for months. Maybe I can talk to him.”
He saw the fear in her eyes. “It would be too dangerous now,” she answered. “He would look at you as the enemy.”
“He would value our friendship enough not to harm me. Just let me tell him the U.P. will go around the burial ground. You’ve got pull, Sunny. You can do it.”
Lightning continued to rip the sky outside, and a loud clap of thunder made Sunny jump again. It took all the self-control Colt could muster not to grab her and hold her. He saw the terrible indecision in her eyes, and at that moment he also saw how their differences were going to always be pulling her in two different directions.
Sunny stood there, feeling helpless, while the rest of them watched, wondering at the familiar way in which Colt had called her Sunny instead of Miss Landers. Canary thought the whole situation very strange, Sunny Landers out riding alone with such a wild-looking man, half Indian, no less. He wondered if Blaine O’Brien knew.
“I don’t have that much pull,” she told Colt. “In something like this, it’s a matter of a majority vote. If it was up to me—”
“You’re getting too sentimental, Miss Landers,” Canary said. “It isn’t like you, not the woman I’ve seen at our board meetings. You know the U.P. comes first, and you know what Dr. Durant wants. I vote to go through.” He looked at the other five men present, and they all nodded. “I might add that we wired your fiancé,” Canary added, “and Blaine O’Brien also votes to go through, as did the other two men who could not be here.”
Colt looked at the man, no longer able to bear the torture in Sunny’s eyes. “It’s easy to vote on something like that when you aren’t out there to see for yourself what you’re up against,” Colt said angrily. “You aren’t the ones risking your lives.”
“No, we aren’t,” Canary answered. “That’s what soldiers and you scouts are for.”
Quinn stiffened, and Colt just glared at Canary. “Yes, we’re all expendable, aren’t we? A small sacrifice for the U.P.!”
“I didn’t mean it that way—”
“I know what you meant,” Colt growled. He looked at Sunny. “Quite a bunch you run with, Miss Landers.”
“Colt—”
He turned away from her to face Casement. “Let me go talk to White Buffalo. Give me at least that much. Maybe we can work something out. Let me go see him alone first.”
“No! It’s too dangerous,” Sunny said, unable to hide her personal concern for him. Some of the others watched in shock when she touched Colt’s arm.
“White Buffalo would never harm me,” Colt assured her. He looked at Canary. “Just give me a couple of days, then send the soldiers forward, but stay a mile or so back from the site. Have the lieutenant wait for me before doing anything rash. Whatever White Buffalo has to say, we can wire back to Omaha and get a decision. For God’s sake, the least you can do is let me talk to the man!”
“We’ll lose time in this storm. The site is at least a two-day ride from here, I’m told, a hard ride at that. With this storm—”
“I’ll leave right now. I’ve ridden in this kind of rain before.”
“Colt, this is no ordinary rain,” Sunny protested.
He didn’t seem to hear. He turned to the lieutenant. “You can wait and leave when the storm lets up. Just be sure to hold back like I said. I’ll see if I can reason with White Buffalo.”
“He’s gotten pretty mean and nasty, Colt,” Quinn said. “Lost a lot of family at Sand Creek. I doubt he’s the man you remember.”
“I know what it does to a man to lose his family. I understand him perfectly.”
Sunny’s heart went out to Colt at the remark, and she vowed that she would never let him be hurt again. He would always have the support of her love.
“Come to the kitchen quarters with me,” she told him. “I’ll make sure you have plenty of supplies.”
“Good luck, Colt,” Casement told him. “You watch yourself out there.”
Colt nodded to the man, then glanced at Canary. “Just give me a couple of days. You and the others might as well go on back to Omaha. There’s nothing you can do here.”
Canary nodded. “Try to smooth things over, Travis. We don’t want to lose too many men, and whether you believe it or not, we can’t afford any more lost time or labor.”
Colt held his eyes a moment, thinking how pleasant it would be to rub the man’s pointed nose in horse dung. He made no reply. “Follow me,” Sunny told him. She led him through the other end of the car, past her private quarters and to a little enclosed area just before the platform, where shoes and capes could be stored when first entering the car. She closed the door and looked up at him, both of them close in the tiny compartment.
“I didn’t really mean it about taking you to the kitchen,” she told him, reaching up around his neck. “I just had to get you alone once more, Colt.”
He pulled her close but hesitated before their lips met. “It’s always going to be this way, isn’t it?”
“What way?”
“You and I arguing over what decision to make. I can’t put money and a company before what’s morally right, Sunny.”
“Colt, I told you if it was up to me, I’d go around. But this is something I can’t control. Surely you can see that. Don’t be angry, not now, when we have to be away from each other.”
He sighed, his eyes changing to the look of gentle love that made her want him so. “The only thing I see is that in spite of all this I could never stay away from you. I love you, Sunny. Get yourself to Omaha and back here so when this is over we can be together again. We can shout it to the world that we’re in love.”
She smiled, tears in her eyes. “I was afraid you were already changing your mind.”
He grinned then, leaning down and meeting her mouth. “You know better,” he told her between light kisses. “I just wish to hell I could take you back in there to that bed and make love once more before I leave.” The kisses grew hotter, deeper. He moved a hand to her bottom and squeezed lightly, already aching to be one with her again.
She moved her lips to kiss his neck, breathing in the scent of him. “Oh, Colt, I’m scared for you. I don’t want you to go.”
He kissed her hair. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a lot of years. You know you don’t need to worry about that.” He drew back a little, putting a big hand to the side of her face. “Besides, White Buffalo and I were good friends. He won’t be real happy that I’m working for the railroad, but he won’t hurt me. Of course, if I have to fight him, that’s another story.”
She closed her eyes, turning her face and kissing his palm. “I don’t want to be apart, Colt,” she whispered, the tears coming again. “Every time you leave me I wonder if I’ll ever see you again.”
“You’ll see me, all right. You go back to Omaha and do what you need to do, and I’ll go do what I need to do. We’ll meet again wherever the work camp is by then, and we’ll pick up where we left off. We’ll find a way, Sunny, just like I promised. I’m sorry I lost my temper in there. I’ll try to learn to get along with people like that.”
She laughed through her tears. “Canary has always been an ass. When Durant isn’t around, he likes to play the big cheese just because he’s his right-hand man. He doesn’t like me because I’m a woman, but I’ve never let him badger or snowball me.”
Colt smiled lovingly, rubbing a thumb over her cheek. “I could see that. You amaze me, the way you handle yourself in those situations.”
She reached up and touched his lips. “I can handle any man—except you. You completely undo me, Colt Travis.”
He licked her fingers, taking one between his lips suggestively and nibbling at it. “Good. I like it that way.” He sobered, touching her hair lovingly. “I’m glad you came out here, Sunny. I hated you for it at first. I thought I was going to have to go through the pain of wanting you again but being unable to touch you.” He leaned down and kissed her, a sweet, promising kiss this time. “I love you,” he whispered. “Come back soon, Sunny.”
“You know that I will.”
“You’ll have to be very strong.”
“All I have to do is think about how much I love you and need to be with you. Hold me, Colt, hold me tight.” They clung to each other a moment longer. “I don’t think of you as just my lover,” she told him. “You’re my best friend. You’ve been my best friend for the longest time.”
He kissed her hair. “We might as well get this over with,” he told her. “Bye, Sunny.”
Oh, how she hated those words! She had heard them before, more than she cared to remember. “Good-bye,” she whispered. “God be with you.”
He pulled away, and she saw tears in his eyes. He hurried through the outer door to the platform, and Sunny followed, standing there out of the rain while he ducked into the torrent and literally disappeared. She strained to see, finally making out his form not too far away. She saw him pull something from his supplies and realized it was some kind of rubber rain gear. He threw it around himself and mounted, and the ground splashed beneath Dancer’s hooves as he rode off. It took only a few seconds for her to be unable to see him anymore because of the rain.
A sick feeling engulfed her, and she went back inside, going to sit down on her bed. She rolled to her side and curled up, wondering how she was going to bear the next days or possibly weeks before she saw him again.
“Sunny?”
Sunny recognized Mae’s voice. “I don’t feel well, Mae. Please go tell the others I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to rejoin them for a while. Maybe they should go ahead to Omaha. I’ll be leaving myself soon.”
Mae stepped closer, reaching out hesitantly and touching her shoulder. She noticed Sunny was not wearing her engagement ring. She well knew how Sunny felt about Colt Travis, although it amazed her. Still, she couldn’t blame her in some ways. He surely was a man’s man. “I’m here if you need me, Miss Sunny,” she told her.
Sunny remained turned away, but she reached up and took her hand and squeezed
it lightly. “I know. There’s really nothing you can do, Mae. Thank you.”
Bye, Sunny.
The words rang in Sunny’s ears until she felt like covering them. She never realized love could hurt this much. The last two days had been like a wonderful dream. To have to part so suddenly left her in shock. This was not how she had planned their parting. Now her Colt was out there riding through that awful storm, headed for so much danger. Still, she was headed for a danger of her own, having to tell Blaine she could not marry him. She and Colt would both have to be very strong now, trusting in the special, beautiful love they had found to carry them through the days when they could be together again. “God protect him,” she whispered.
Chapter 24
The enclosed carriage came to a stop in front of Sunny’s home, and Sunny waited for her driver, a young Mormon named Matthew, to come and open the door for her. Her heart beat a little faster with a note of dread at the news Matthew had given her, that Vince was waiting for her at the house. He had arrived that morning. Sunny wanted to be glad he had come, since he had finally expressed an interest in the railroad and their holdings in Omaha; but even when it was for something good, she could not feel comfortable around him.
She wished he had picked a better time. She had wanted to have the next couple of days to herself, to think about Blaine, the Indian trouble, the danger Colt was in. She needed time to prepare herself for reality, to build up her courage, and to come down off the cloud she had been on since finally finding the only true love of her life. She wanted to be alone and lie in a tub and think about how it had felt to have Colt make love to her. The last two days had been so special, and she actually hurt from the want of Colt’s reassuring arms around her again, especially now that Vince was here.
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