“Peever, Rupert, I’m obliged. Caleb, good to see you.” All good friends, that was clear.
“We’d better get you to Sunrise. She’ll come a-runnin’ at that shot, but she was a good stretch ahead of us. We can meet her halfway.”
Caleb studied the splint on Tucker’s leg for a minute, then slid an arm behind his back and lifted him. Another friend, the one he’d called Peever, took the other side.
Shannon heard Tucker make a small sound, so small she wasn’t sure if he didn’t hurt that much or he was being brave and it was really terrible.
Knowing Tucker, he was covering up a lot of pain. She didn’t think his friends were being overly gentle with him.
The third friend walked behind Tucker, close by in case more help was needed. Shannon brought up the rear. Tucker looked back over his shoulder at her every few minutes, and she’d smile to let him know she was all right.
But she wasn’t. She’d just spent five days depending utterly on a man and him depending on her. It was like no experience she’d ever had, and it was now over.
She felt confused and empty and alone, in a way she didn’t think she could fully recover from. Like maybe she’d have this feeling of aloneness now for the rest of her life. Like part of her was missing.
They soon picked up a trail and were making decent time winding downward. But it felt wrong. She was so worried about Tucker, she could barely stand it.
“Shannon needs something to eat.” She heard that same worry in his voice. “She hasn’t had more than a swallow of water at a time in days.” The men kept moving. “Stop! Right now, stop!” Tucker’s voice cracked like the whip he carried at his waist.
Caleb stopped.
“Shannon needs water,” Tucker said. It was nice of him to be thinking of her, but he was in far worse shape than she was.
Shannon spoke up. “Tucker does, too. And we’re both starving hungry. If you’ve got anything to eat, please, we’d be obliged.” She also wanted to wash and change her clothes, and she’d really like to know how her sheep were doing. And she wouldn’t mind walking much closer to Tucker, with her arm around him.
She didn’t bother listing all of that.
“There’s a stream at the bottom of this slope.” Caleb sounded suddenly kind as if maybe in his relentless, thoughtless mountain-man head, it occurred to him to wonder how the two of them might be feeling after all they’d been through. “We’ll stop there. Rupert, you go hunting Sunrise. Bring her to us. Peever’ll get started with doctoring. We’ll need the horses, too. Tucker, she’s got Grew, so you’ll have a ride home. You two won’t have to walk no farther. Bring ’em to the stream. Bring Miss Shannon’s sister, too.”
That stopped her breath for a moment, the thought of seeing Bailey again. There was no doubt it was Bailey. And it was as well, because Kylie would surely take better care of the sheep. Bailey would be worried, yet no amount of worry would stop her from taking action.
The man who’d been walking behind Tucker took off running. That put Shannon much closer to Tucker, which made her feel a bit better.
They rounded a turn in the trail, and Shannon saw the water ahead. Rupert was already across it and far in the distance. Only when she saw the water did Shannon realize how close her knees were to giving out. How empty her belly was. Her vision darkened and her head spun, but she kept moving. It reminded her of the war. That was when she’d learned to march on, even when she wanted to quit.
They reached the bank of the pretty rushing stream. The men settled Tucker onto a waist-high boulder and went to unpacking food and water.
She wolfed down a hard, dry biscuit. Then almost as soon as she started eating, her stomach felt so full she thought she might vomit. A bit of water and she was done with the meal she’d longed for so desperately.
She noticed then her blackened fingers. Eating with such filthy hands was sickening. “Do any of you have some soap?”
All three men—Tucker, Peever, Caleb—turned to her and stared, clearly confused. Which didn’t speak well of their personal cleanliness. She went to the stream and did her best to get clean. She set about washing her face and hands, and even dunked her head in and then watched as coal-dust-darkened water floated away.
If she’d had privacy, she’d have washed her clothes and put them back on wet, rather than wear her filthy shirt and britches. Instead she cleaned up what she could. By the time she was done, she found she could eat a little more.
Yet just a few more bites and she was feeling full again.
She looked up to see Bailey riding toward her, leading a riderless horse. Their eyes met from a hundred yards across a thinly wooded mountainside. Shannon had never seen anything sweeter than the look of joy on her big sister’s face. Bailey didn’t give much away. She had a fiery temper. Shannon saw that from time to time. But mostly she was a calm woman who wasn’t given to hugs and soft words.
But with one look of relief and pure happiness, Shannon knew her sister loved her. Shannon waved. Bailey nodded with one hard jerk of her chin and then leaned low over her mustang to get the most speed possible.
Sunrise was another hundred yards behind Bailey, riding a gray horse with a black mane. Behind Sunrise she saw Rupert with two more men coming, all of them riding hard and fast. Tucker’s friends. They’d all been searching.
Shannon wondered if they’d have ever been found if Tucker hadn’t seen the ceiling wink at them.
Knowing their ordeal was finally over, not counting one broken leg, Shannon took her time chewing a piece of jerky as the search party drew near. When Bailey rode up to the far side of the stream, she swung off her horse, ground-hitched it, and found rocks to run across. She stopped a foot away. They weren’t a hugging family. Shannon decided not to let that stop her, even with the sooty clothes. She flung her arms around Bailey and squeezed for all she was worth, and lo and behold, Bailey hugged her right back.
When Shannon let go, a gloss of tears shone in Bailey’s eyes.
9
Bailey wiped her eyes and studied Shannon. “What is all over you?”
“There was coal in that cave. Burning it helped light our way and most likely saved our lives.”
Five men now gathered around them.
Shannon noticed one wore a parson’s collar and a black hat with a broad flat brim. She tried to remember the last time she’d gone to church. There was a church in Aspen Ridge, but she avoided town as much as possible.
Maybe this was the man who’d married Kylie and Aaron.
“We survived falling into the Slaughter, Shannon,” Tucker said. “I do believe that makes us legends.”
“That it does, Tucker, that it does.” Caleb gave his wild laugh. “It’s a tale that’ll be told all through these mountains for years to come. Every time it’s repeated it’ll get shined up and retold bigger and better.”
Tucker laughed. Shannon joined in.
Then Tucker started talking, beginning with getting knocked off the mountain by the grizzly. He was doctoring up the story to make Shannon a hero. Like she’d saved him by throwing them to almost certain death into a river known as Slaughter. A name well known by everyone present apparently, except for her and Bailey. That’s when she noticed Nev Bassett was with the group. Five of the men were dressed like Tucker, but not Nev. What was he doing here?
Caleb left Tucker and came over to Shannon and hoisted her into his arms so that her toes dangled. “You saved our boy, Miss Wilde. I kindly thank you.”
His hug almost crushed her, yet it wasn’t unpleasant. Two hugs in the space of a few minutes. This wasn’t how her life normally went.
Caleb flung an arm around her shoulders and hauled her over to Tucker, who was sitting on a boulder while one of the men fussed with his leg.
“How’s his leg, Peever?”
The man, kneeling, looked up at her. “You did a fine job tending it, miss, and with precious little at hand to work with.”
Tucker snaked out an arm and dragged her away from Cal
eb. He gave her a kiss right on the lips in front of everyone and smiled. She knew he was teasing, so she didn’t let it bother her overly.
“She took good care of me. I used her as a crutch while we hunted for a way out. She helped keep a fire burning day and night for the whole time we were in there.”
“Five days,” the parson said.
Nodding, Tucker added, “And to have been in there, in the complete dark for five days, we’d have never found our way.”
“She stayed right with you at all times.” The parson sounded less like he was complimenting Shannon than the other men had. “For five long days . . . and nights.”
“That’s right.” Tucker patted Shannon on the back, then turned to the parson, clearly struck by the somber tone.
“You were together both waking and sleeping?” The parson arched a brow.
A stretch of silence followed, broken only by the gentle sigh of the mountain breeze.
Finally, Bailey said, “You’re trying to make some kinda point, Parson. So make it.”
The parson looked Bailey in the eyes and didn’t flinch. Shannon was impressed, because Bailey could make a lot of people, men included, back off.
“My point is I’m here right now, and nothing will do but that I perform a wedding ceremony.”
“I don’t see as we have much choice but to give up our claim, Mr. Stewbold. The barn fire cost us everything. Our crop was stored in there and, meager though it was, it would have seen us through. And our cow and calf and the team, they’re gone. The fire caught enough of the corral, it fell down and they ran off. We searched for hours, but we can’t find a sign of them anywhere. If we hadn’t lost the livestock, we’d’ve been all right. Now we’ve lost everything.”
The man and his wife looked defeated. He spoke with his head bowed low. Hiram Stewbold held them in contempt. Men with such weak spines shouldn’t try and settle the West.
“I’m the land agent here, Barton. I make a modest salary. But I hate seeing good folks suffer. There’s a freight wagon leaving town within the hour for Denver. The mule skinner will take passengers, but he charges for it.”
“We have no cash money, Mr. Stewbold, and we haven’t packed. Our few belongings are still out at the house. We don’t even have a change of clothes or food for the journey.”
“I can stand you the price of the trip and a bit for food. It should take you as far as Denver.”
John Barton shook his head. “But we’d end up in Denver with nuthin’. We have no family there. If we could just wait a few days. Surely another freight wagon will come. And the stage . . .”
“I can’t afford the stage, and certainly you can’t.”
“We’d welcome the help. Maybe there’s something in our cabin we could sell . . . furniture, the wagon?”
“I just got paid today, Mr. Barton, and I’m feeling generous. I may have other homesteaders in need, my money may be gone by the time another freighter is pulling out, and you can’t get to your homestead and back before this one leaves.”
“We can’t pay you back, Mr. Stewbold.”
“In exchange for my generosity, I’ll sell what I can from your place. I doubt I’ll break even, but I’m willing to risk that in order to help you out. Make your own decision, Barton. There are no jobs in Aspen Ridge. If you don’t go now, you may find yourselves freezing and hungry through a bitter-cold winter. But perhaps someone will take you in and show you charity. If not, I doubt you and your wife will survive it, and certainly a baby won’t.”
John looked at his wife, round with a baby that would be born near Christmas.
“We have to go, Mildred.”
“But my mother’s quilts. The clothes I’ve sewn for the baby.” A tear ran down the woman’s face.
The weakness irritated Hiram. He did his best not to let that sound in his voice. “I’m sorry.”
The woman nodded her head silently.
“If you’ll just sign this document rescinding your homestead claim, so that anything I take from your property is legally mine, I’ll go arrange a ride for you.”
Barton barely glanced at what he signed.
“Feel free to wait here in the land office.” Rolling up the paper, Hiram stuck it in his pocket and took it with him. He left quickly, so his smile didn’t show. This was the first homestead title that had changed hands since he’d taken over two weeks ago. He’d learned to make a decent profit on weaklings while doing work as a land agent by spotting those giving up and getting that information to land buyers . . . with a bit of profit for himself.
Masterson seemed to think he needed to instruct Hiram on how to do his job, but Hiram had been working land offices for years, all through the Civil War while fools wasted their time fighting each other.
A quick visit with the freighter secured a ride for the Bartons, and by the time Hiram was back at the land office, he’d resumed the solemn expression. No sense letting the couple know how pleased he was with them moving on without going home. It was surprising how many valuables a family would leave behind.
He didn’t wish them ill. He hoped they found a place to live in Denver before the baby came.
He watched them ride out of town, their only possessions the clothes they wore on their backs. Once they were gone, he didn’t bother controlling his smirk.
He did his day’s work, making sure to go about his business in an open manner, before he turned his attention to the more profitable side of being a land agent in a part of the country with very little law.
10
A wedding ceremony!” Bailey exploded.
Shannon gasped.
Sunrise shook her head. “That is not called for. This could not be helped.”
Tucker said, “Let’s do it.”
Shannon turned and glared at Tucker, who smiled at her and stole another kiss.
“Stop that.” She didn’t say it until they’d kissed quite a while.
“We have spent many nights in each other’s arms, Shannon Wilde. What’s more, we enjoyed it. And I’d like it to continue. In fact, I don’t like the idea of ever spending another night apart from you.”
Shannon crossed her arms. “We don’t even know each other.”
Tucker leaned forward. “Oh, I think we know each other pretty well.”
She thought of how it felt to wake up with him. His strong arms around her. How much she wanted to tend his leg and make sure he was healed up. “But you live in the mountains. I have sheep to take care of.”
Tucker winced. “I hate sheep.”
He took his arm off her waist, and that was the first she’d noticed he was still hanging on to her. And she noticed how much she missed it.
Caleb said, “Sheep ain’t all bad, Tuck.”
“They’re not?” Tucker looked away from Shannon, which gave her a moment to clear her head. And for some reason she wished Caleb would say something that would convince Tucker that sheep were wonderful and a man could be very happy raising sheep.
“Nope, especially the little ones.”
Shannon smiled at the old-timer. He seemed so tough, but he obviously had a softer side.
“Yep, the real young ones roast up real nice on a spit. Mighty tasty.”
Shannon inhaled so hard it turned into an inverted scream. “Nobody’s going to eat my sheep.”
Everyone turned to stare at her, even the parson.
Bailey said, “Then what are they for if not to eat? The ewes can have lambs and increase your herd, but what are the males for? House pets?”
Shannon didn’t know how this had gotten to be about her farming practices. “I’m not marrying Tucker.” The sheep-eating savage.
“No.” Bailey jammed one finger straight at the parson’s chest, like she was aiming a pistol. “She is most certainly not marrying Tucker. It’s out of the question. She doesn’t even know him. They only met five days ago.”
“Five days and nights ago.” The parson didn’t even act angry, more like helpless—which made Shannon feel hel
pless. “She has to. What’s gone on is beyond the pale. Far beyond just improper. It might be overlooked because we are far from civilization and it couldn’t be helped and no one would have to know—if they weren’t both exchanging intimacies right in front of a large crowd of people.”
Shannon probably shouldn’t have kissed Tucker—twice. Nor let him pull her into his arms.
“And they are standing right here, talking about sleeping together.”
“It was five days. We had to sleep,” Tucker said, sounding calm and not all that upset for a man being cornered into marriage. “And it was cold. We needed to hold each other.” He looked at her, and she didn’t look away. “Hold each other close. Real close. All night long. Every night.”
The parson snorted, which helped Shannon break the gaze. “Your sister is ruined, and she’s openly discussing her ruin in front of a crowd of men, none of whom is known for discretion.”
“I resent that,” Caleb said. The man who’d just promised to exaggerate Tucker’s story into a legend.
“In fact, they’re widely known for taking a story, and I quote, ‘Every time it’s repeated it’ll get shined up and retold bigger and better.’” The parson looked at Shannon with eyes that seemed to glow with the kind of fire that made a person repent even if they already had, just to get the man to quit staring. “There is no way to keep your name out of it, Miss Wilde, because you are the hero of it. You threw him over the cliff to save him from the bear.”
“As quick thinking and graceful as a . . . as a . . .” Caleb scratched his beard while he searched for the right word. Then his eyes lit up. “As a doe in full flight.” He smiled, finding poetry in the story. Clearly rehearsing how he’d retell it.
The parson narrowed his eyes at Shannon as if to say I told you so. “You dragged him unconscious out of the water and into a cave no one knew existed.”
“No one knew there was a way out of that endless, killing river. No one had survived it before. It was the stuff of miracles,” Caleb said. “As if you’d been touched by the hand of God, brought right to that cliff to save our Tucker.”
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