Sagebrush Bride

by Tanya Anne Crosby

  Elizabeth nibbled her bottom lip a moment in thought and then announced, “I can’t believe Mr. Bass would worry me as he did. In his letter he wrote that they’d both been killed—killed,” she stressed, her tawny eyes seeking out Cutter’s. There was a peculiar sheen in them, as she asked, “Can you imagine how that made me feel? He had me thinking that both Katherine and her husband had been in an accident—or that they had been murdered, even!” She shook her head with disgust, her expression growing gloomier by the second. “Elias bass a lot to learn about the phrasing of his words.”

  She couldn’t help but speculate that her sister might still be alive today… that her little daughter might not be orphaned… if only their mother hadn’t taken Katherine away… if she hadn’t been so terrified of being scalped alive that she’d run off to St. Louis without so much as a good-bye. She glanced up at Cutter suddenly to find that he was watching her. How right he was; life wasn’t fair! “How did you happen to discover so much in such a short time, anyhow?”

  He lifted a brow. “Ain’t much a few drinks and the right questions can’t ferret out.”

  Elizabeth’s brows knitted as she remembered the night they’d first met, and the drinks he’d plied her with. It seemed to be a favorite ploy of his—this getting people lushed so he could have his way with them. Against her will, she suddenly found herself wondering whether he’d gleaned his information from some jezebel like Bess. “While you were at it… you didn’t happen to discover how it was that Katherine died, did you?”

  Cutter sighed. “Nope,” he said, “but it won’t be long before you can ask Bass yourself. Looks like we’re here.” He tipped his head.

  Turning, Elizabeth caught the dazzling reflection of the afternoon sun on the distant windowpanes. They glittered like jewels.

  The ranch and its accompanying buildings were surrounded by cottonwoods and oaks. As they neared, the big house began to take shape, and Elizabeth thought it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen in her life.

  So this, she marveled, was the place Katherine had called home.

  With its double stories and whitewashed brick facade, it was also the grandest place she had ever laid eyes upon. Yet there was a lonesome beauty about it, too, emphasized by the fact that there was no one bustling about with chores, no one rushing out to greet them. The lawn, with its tall, unkept grasses, hinted of defection, and was infiltrated with wildflowers of every color. To Elizabeth it looked more like a meadow than the manicured lawn it was supposed to be.

  Two cottonwoods sat, one on either side of the walkway, the lush green of the leaves contrasting with the white of the house. The effect was striking. Adding to it were the white-painted trellises built high against the brick. Red roses in full bloom climbed askew. Some of the branches grew free of the trellis and fell forward untrained, the leaves spotted and yellow, while other branches were completely bare but for the thorns, and a cluster of red blooms at the extremity. The thought that came immediately to mind was that the war had taken its toll here, as well. It was obvious that someone had once cared very much for the place… and that now no one seemed to bother.

  Nor were there servants about to work the small vegetable garden off to the right of the house—or to paint the small picket fence that surrounded it. The whitewash was chipped and peeling. At their approach a small black and white spotted dog perked its ears and then barked succinctly, as though the effort were more than he should have been expected to give. Again it barked, swaying on its feet, as though battling the urge to flop lazily to its belly.

  “Dat’s Shifless,” a child’s voice called out as they neared. “But don’ worry… he won’t hurt you none!”

  As though in affirmation, the dog squatted, keeping its ears perked and its eyes fixed on the trespassers.

  Startled by the voice, Elizabeth felt her heart vault. She reined in, her eyes searching frantically, desperate for a glimpse of the child who had spoken. It would have to be Katie, she knew intuitively. And it seemed as though she’d waited and waited and thought of this moment for an eternity.

  What would she look like now?

  Who would she look like?

  What was she like?

  Where was she?

  “We call him Shifless ‘cause my papa said so,” the voice revealed sweetly.

  Again, Elizabeth whirled about on her mare, searching. At last she spotted the small girl perched precariously upon a windowsill on the second story, and her heart leapt within her breast.

  As tiny as she was, the tree limbs had completely concealed her from view until now. As Elizabeth stared, bewitched, her heartbeat accelerated, beating into her throat. In that instant she felt near to bursting with pride… and so many other emotions, she couldn’t begin to understand them all. As she watched, the child rocked forward, coming alarmingly close to losing her balance, and Elizabeth’s breath snagged. She froze in the saddle, wholly terrified that the child would fall to her death right before her eyes.

  “Well… you seeee…” The girl shrugged matter-of-factly. “He usa be called Smiley,” she said smartly, “but my papa said he was too shifless to smile.” She proffered a dainty upturned hand, pausing, as though remembering, and then her expression screwed pitifully. “My papa’s gone now,” she revealed, with the innocent bluntness only a child could possess. “He went to heaven in the war.”

  Elizabeth was too shaken by the child’s near fall, and too taken aback by her revelation, to reply. She wasn’t even aware that Cutter was no longer beside her on his horse until she spotted him on the trellis, climbing swiftly upward as though he were born to it.

  “Who are you?” the little girl asked bravely, tilting forward a little to see better.

  Elizabeth cried out in panic, finally discovering her voice. “Please—sit back for me!” she instructed, on the brink of hysteria. Immediately she slid from Cocoa’s back to the ground, hurrying forward, until she stood just below the child’s window, looking up. She struggled to focus her vision.

  All at once she was stricken dumb, blinded to everything but the child above her. The most beautiful, if somewhat blurry, little face looked down at her where she stood… small, pert nose, it seemed—like Katherine’s, she thought with melancholy. Dark hair, a mass of ringlets—perhaps her father’s? And the eyes? At this distance, she couldn’t tell.

  As Elizabeth stared, transfixed, hot tears pricked at her own eyes. Her throat constricted.

  “My name is Katie Lizabeth,” the child declared impulsively, her voice precious.

  And again Elizabeth’s heart leapt. A sob escaped her tightening throat as she whispered the name reverently. Katie Elizabeth. Katherine hadn’t forgotten her, after all. Against her will, her vision began to cloud. It had never bothered her much that her vision wasn’t perfect, but at the moment, she loathed that fault in herself.

  Elizabeth gulped down the knot that rose in her throat. “Katie Elizabeth?” Elizabeth repeated hoarsely.

  The child nodded once, with fervor, smiling. “What’s your name?” she asked boldly.

  “My name?” Elizabeth’s voice broke with emotion. “My name… is… is Elizabeth, too,” she answered slowly, her eyes stinging and raw.

  “Oh,” Katie replied thoughtfully. She wrinkled her nose prettily, considering that fact a moment. “Well… ” She wagged a finger down at Elizabeth brashly. “But I bet you din’t know I hadda aunt named Lizabeth, and she’s coming to get me—my grandpapa says so.” Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh! Are you my aunt?” she asked hopefully. And then, with a bit of skepticism, she added, “You’re not my aunt, are you?”

  Elizabeth’s heart welled with emotion. Yes! she wanted to shout. Yes! Oh, yes! “Well,” she began slowly, her stomach fluttering wildly. She attempted a tremulous smile. “Yes,” she said, at last, choking back her tears. And then, with more force, she repeated, “Yes, Katie, I am.”

  With a shriek of delight, Katie surged forward, clapping her hands, and kicking the brick at her feet. />
  “No, Katie! Sit back before you fall! Where’s your grandfather?”

  “Don’ worry,” she boasted to Elizabeth, “I never fall!” But in that moment, Cutter caught her attention. She peered down at him curiously, teetering further.

  Elizabeth bit her lip as she watched Cutter quicken his pace, only to slip when a rotten slat gave way. Feeling blindly with the toe of his boot, he regained his footing and began the climb once more. Silently Elizabeth urged him to hurry.

  “Is that my uncle climbin’ up the house?” Katie wanted to know. “I climbed up and up, before, but my mama spanked my butt,” she said gravely, nodding. And then her eyes widened in speculation. “I bet you’re gonna spank his! Aren’t ya?”

  Elizabeth heard Cutter’s soft chuckle, but had no idea how to respond, even had she been able to. Her thoughts were focused only on Cutter’s ascent. The higher he climbed, the slower he seemed to move, the more the trellis swayed.

  “I bet you din’t know that I was this many!” Katie exclaimed suddenly, meeting Elizabeth’s gaze once more. She held up what appeared to be five fingers, and then struggled to get down the fifth. Failing miserably in the endeavor, she thrust her thumb down forcefully with her other hand, releasing the sill in the process… losing her balance.

  “Katie!” Elizabeth shrieked, but just as the child toppled forward, Cutter reached her, placing a steadying hand to her small chest.

  “Easy there, little gal,” Elizabeth heard him say.

  “Oh, but I never fall!” Katie exclaimed indignantly. “I never do!” she insisted at the rise of Cutter’s brow.

  “Well, I do,” Cutter imparted. “Fell out of a tree once when I was just a mite bigger’n you. Been scared of heights ever since,” he swore with so much emphasis that Elizabeth found herself smiling.

  Katie gasped. “You’re not scareda heights?” Cutter nodded slowly, and Katie giggled, as though it were a ridiculous notion. “Not me!” she boasted, her hands going to her hips. “I bet you’re scared now. Aren’t ya?”

  “Reckon so,” Cutter admitted soberly.

  “Ohhhh, you pooooor thing,” Katie said with so much parental concern that Elizabeth had to giggle. Nodding gravely, Katie added, “Do ya want me to pull ya in? Do ya? I can save ya!” she declared solemnly.

  “Can you really?”

  “Oh, yes!” Katie swore with vigor, her eyes sparkling. “You just watch me and see! Give me your hand,” she demanded.

  “Oh… I dunno,” Cutter said, resisting the urge to do just that. His foot was hurting like hell, and standing out on the trellis wasn’t helping any. “Maybe you should get in and pull? I believe I’m too afraid to give you my hand unless you’re safe inside your room. That is your room, isn’t it?”

  “Uh-huh… but why?”

  “ ‘Cause we might both fall,” he explained, “and I sure wouldn’t wanna break my arm again.”

  “Oh!” Katie exclaimed. “Dat mussa hurt! Good idea!” She scrambled down from the sill. “And know what? I think I will be stronger in my room. But why did ya climb up if you’re so darned scared?” she wanted to know.

  “Darned?” Cutter reproved.

  “Uh-huh. My granpapa says it all the time,” she explained somberly. “Din’t ya never hear that word a’fore? People say darned when they’re reeeeal mad, you see, and sometimes they even say…” She whispered a word.

  “You don’t say,” Cutter remarked, managing to sound only mildly amused. He glanced down at Elizabeth and sent her what appeared to be a wink.

  “Oh, sure,” Katie said matter-of-factly. “Din’t ya never hear that one, neither?”

  “ ‘Fraid not,” Cutter lied.

  Katie chatted incessantly, but with Cutter’s help, she was soon standing safely within her room. Once inside, she thrust out her hand.

  Astounded at the scene unfolding before her, Elizabeth watched as Katie held out her little wiggling fingers for Cutter to grasp. And she couldn’t help but giggle as Cutter pretended to let Katie pull him within, grunting and moaning. Feeling a sense of wonder, she stared at the pair in the window. When Cutter was on his feet inside, he spoke to Katie softly, patting her head. And still Elizabeth stared, feeling an affection in her heart that startled her in its intensity.

  From what she could tell, Katie looked much as she remembered Katherine had looked at that age. And Katherine had been a beautiful child. The only difference she could discern in them was the hair. Katherine’s had been as rich a gold as wheat before the harvest, and as straight as her own.

  It wasn’t until Cutter had been inside a full moment that she began to wonder if he didn’t intend to come back out. Her expression turned suddenly disbelieving.

  “Cutter?” No reply. There was only the blur of an open window. “Cutter!” she hissed. The dog barked behind her, but Cutter never reappeared.

  “Cutter!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “You can’t just leave me here!’’ Elizabeth shouted up to the empty window. “Cutter McKenzie! You come back out here this instant! You can’t—”

  Abruptly the front door flew open and a woman’s unfamiliar round face peered out, looking first bothered, and then stunned. As she stared, her chin dropped and her eyes widened. Suddenly she cocked her head, as though in question.

  “Uhh… uh… h-hello,” Elizabeth stammered. “I-I-”

  “Lands!” the woman declared suddenly, so loudly that Elizabeth leapt back a step. Her face was pale, as though she were looking at a specter. “But no! It couldn’t be!” she continued, as she slowly came forward and did a half circle around Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth watched her warily, following her steps with question, turning as she turned.

  “My, what an uncanny resemblance!” the woman said at last. “You must be Elizabeth!”

  Elizabeth nodded slowly.

  The woman nodded, too. And with an abrupt shriek of delight, she seized Elizabeth by the hand. “Oh! But isn’t that always the way!” she exclaimed. “We’ve been expecting you, but Mr. Bass isn’t here just now! He was called away on business, wouldn’t you know.” She patted Elizabeth’s hand reassuringly, then released it. “But do come in, and don’t mind me! Lands sakes, I just can’t believe my eyes! Katie will be so glad to see you, finally. And goodness, if you don’t look so very much like her mother!”

  Elizabeth’s brows furrowed. She did? Katherine? But she didn’t recall that as so! At a complete loss for words, she followed the woman inside, and was led into a large foyer. From it, two pillared doorways led, one right, one left, and a double stairwell curved upward from its center, joining above them to form a loft of sorts. Beyond the stairwell, there was what appeared to be a small parlor.

  The woman stopped at the foot of the right stairwell, calling upward, her voice shrill but warm, “Katie, dear… please come down!” She then turned to Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth merely stared, her thoughts whirling. Folding her hands in front of her nervously, she smiled, and the woman tittered happily, coming forward to take and pat her hand once more.

  “I should tell you that that child upstairs has wanted to know, every single day since your telegram came, just when it was that you were arriving. She just couldn’t wait!” And then, with a catch to her voice, she added, “You’ll have your hands full with that one, I fear.” Her eyes sad, she averted her gaze. “Katie!” she called again, glancing upward uncomfortably.

  Elizabeth looked about anxiously, silently cursing Cutter for leaving her alone. He was sure to come down the trellis and find her gone. And then what? Surely he would realize that she was inside? He would knock, wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t just leave her? She grimaced at the thought. With the mood he was in lately, she wouldn’t put it past him. Her gaze was drawn helplessly to the stairwell. What on earth could he be doing up there for so long? she wondered peevishly.

  “You’re so quiet,” the woman marveled, watching her. “Your sister was so chatty—bless her soul—like her daughter, I’m afraid.”
r />   Elizabeth remained speechless, nodding mutely, remembering that her sister had, in fact, been very talkative as a child.

  “Goodness!” the woman said suddenly, frowning as though recalling something at last and chiding herself for not remembering sooner. “How remiss of me.” She left Elizabeth abruptly and went to the door, snatching it open.

  Peering out over her shoulder, Elizabeth searched for a glimpse of Cutter. Finding none, she frowned.

  The woman turned to Elizabeth, nonplussed. “Well, now, I thought there were two horses out there. Where’s your husband?” she asked with genuine puzzlement.

  Elizabeth’s brows lifted in surprise. “H-Husband?” she repeated stupidly. “Oh, yes! My husband!” Looking about uneasily, she wished Cutter a dozen ways to perdition. “Well!” she began, her mind racing wildly. Impulsively she extended her hand. “I—I am Elizabeth B-B—McKenzie,” she amended quickly. She nodded uncomfortably, having no idea what else to say.

  The woman appeared amused, her smile enduring. “Yes,” she said, her eyes alight with kindness. “Yes, I know. And I am Mimi,” she returned, proffering her own hand in welcome. Elizabeth grasped her fingers, shaking them absently, all the while heaping blasphemies on Cutter’s head. She gritted her teeth.

  Mimi continued to smile benignly. “He did come with you, didn’t he?”

  Elizabeth smiled back, though she felt like crying and screaming. “Oh, yes,” she conceded nodding absently. Miss Mimi began to nod, as well, her brows lifting. She waited patiently for an answer Elizabeth didn’t have, and Elizabeth despised Cutter in that moment. Elizabeth continued to nod, her mind racing.

  “Your husband?” Miss Mimi prompted.

  “Oh! Well, you see,” Elizabeth continued uneasily, “he’s… he… well, you see, he—”

  “I saved him! I saved him, Miss Mimi!” Katie’s voice called out above them.

  Both Elizabeth’s and Miss Mimi’s gazes were drawn up at once—Miss Mimi’s to find Katie bouncing with glee on a dark stranger’s shoulders, her hand tucked neatly under his chin, throttling him.