Mary Connealy - [Kincaid Brides 03]

by Over the Edge

  “Finished up here?” Seth rode up to Rafe’s line shack with all the womenfolk and children. He saw Rafe, Ethan, and Heath packing up the tools. It struck him for the first time that the men had left him behind with the women. When had exploring that cavern gotten to be women’s work?

  Rafe talked with Seth briefly and then rode off toward his place. Ethan and Audra planned to cross the gulley and ride home that way, using horses the Kincaids kept corralled for just this reason. Ethan had Maggie on his back and Lily in his arms. Audra smiled at him like he was a knight in shining armor. Seth wondered what it would take to get Callie to look at him that way. He glanced over his shoulder to see Connor—in a pack on Seth’s back—waving wildly. Seth decided he’d done his best to carry the load today.

  “You’ll drive some of the herd over here in the morning, then? We might as well use my meadows before that belly-high grass gets buried under ten feet of snow.”

  Ethan jerked his chin in agreement. “And I’ll bring enough to drive some on to Rafe’s. He’s ready for a few more head now.”

  They made some quick plans for the drive, then Ethan hiked off with his wife and two children. Seth had a sudden urge to call them back. It hit him real hard that he’d be staying in his cabin with a bunch of people he didn’t know all that well. A family that had appeared in force from out of nowhere.

  What if Pa really did have more families? What if they all came to live with Seth? He could end up with his own town. He shouldn’t have to take care of them all.

  Why did he have to keep all the surprise Kincaids?

  Because Callie said so, that’s why.

  Seth headed home with Callie, Connor, and Heath.

  ———

  “Can you and Heath put the horses up while I get a meal on?” Callie arched a brow at Seth that looked like she had her doubts.

  Her look stung his pride as if she doubted he knew how to unsaddle a horse. His jaw firmed and he didn’t speak.

  She didn’t appear to notice his restraint. Instead she said, “Give me Connor.”

  He let her unhook their son from his back and took her reins while Heath led his own horse. Seth headed for the barn with his little brother. Between the two of them, maybe they could do the man’s work around here.

  “Seth!” Callie’s sharp voice had Seth whirling around, his gun in hand, without making a conscious decision to draw. Callie stepped out of the house holding her Winchester in both hands, its muzzle aimed at the sky. Her eyes were alert, studying the woods around their cabin. “Someone’s been in the house.”

  “Any sign of someone in there now?” Seth headed toward the house as Callie backed away from it.

  “I don’t know. I grabbed my rifle and got outside. I didn’t want to hunt alone with Connor on my back.”

  Knowing Callie expected him to protect her and Connor gave Seth a thrill so deep he couldn’t breathe for a second. He started running toward the house, getting in front of his tough little wife, who’d turned to him for help.

  He saw Callie pass her six-shooter over to Heath. The kid was too young, but he’d talked about trapping and hunting. Seth was a hand at hunting by Heath’s age. But hunting a meal and hunting a man were a lot different.

  “Come in behind me, Heath.” Seth glanced back and saw that heavy Colt held steady, pointed up where a misfire couldn’t hurt anyone. The gun seemed to fit comfortably in Heath’s hand.

  Seth swung the door open, standing off to the side. The thick logs would block a shot.

  “The fireplace was cold and cleaned up. That stack of blankets isn’t folded the same as I left them.” Callie spoke low, a few paces back. A careful kind of woman. “Looks like two people. Probably left at first light.”

  “Yep, probably.” Seth slid inside. The house felt empty. He reckoned Callie had read it exactly right.

  He made quick work of checking all the rooms. “Now let’s go see if anyone bothered our animals.” Seth led the way outside.

  Seth turned in a circle, looking overhead. He’d gotten into that habit in the war. “Let’s check the barn first.”

  They walked past their mounts, ground-hitched, standing in the middle of the ranch yard.

  Seth went up to the barn door and pressed his back to the wall beside it. Callie stayed off to the side, watching.

  Heath said, “I’ll swing the door open real easy.”

  Hesitating, feeling like it oughta be a grown-up’s job, Seth finally, after a glance at Callie, nodded. “Stay low.”

  Crouching, Heath reached for the heavy wooden bar they used to latch the door. He lifted it and eased open the door, which swung in on smooth metal hinges.

  There was no sound, no moving around. Heath looked at Seth, who said, “I go first.”

  Dragging air into his lungs to steady himself, Seth pivoted and charged in. The thrill of it making him think of how he hated being bored. How he craved risk and adventure and danger.

  No shot rang out. Seth studied the dark corners of the barn and listened and smelled.

  “The stalls are clean, just like we left them.” He glanced at Heath and the boy’s eyes were a sharp, startling blue. “But it wasn’t as deep with straw. Someone cleaned out two stalls and re-bedded them.”

  Heath came up beside him. “Yep. They moved some of the leather, and I left that oats bucket in the oats bin, not standing beside it.”

  Sharing a long look, Seth turned back to Callie with a frown. “It’s not unheard of for a man to lay up in an empty cabin when he’s riding the country. Probably nothing to it.”

  “’Ceptin’ he tried too hard to cover his tracks.” Heath still had Callie’s gun handy.

  Callie kept her back to Seth’s so they had eyes aiming in all directions. “Why do that if you mean no harm?”

  Seth was impressed. His little brother noticed a lot for one so young. His wife was just plain savvy, maybe more than Seth, and Seth liked to think he was mighty good. Seth looked at Callie and saw Connor grinning from where he hung on her back. It burned like fire to think there might be someone around here endangering his wife and son.

  “Let’s check the corral.” Seth led the way. They studied tracks and saw no sign of someone lingering in the woods.

  “Whoever it was is gone,” Seth said. “You okay to go back in the house alone, Callie?”

  “Yep. But we’d best keep our eyes open.” She headed in, leaving the menfolk to see to the still-saddled horses.

  Seth and Heath worked side by side, and Seth noticed—and not for the first time—how well Heath handled a horse. He’d been good to have around when they were looking for trouble, too. Could the boy tell that he wasn’t all that welcome? There were some guilt pangs, but Seth sure would’ve liked to be alone with his wife.

  Seth looked across the back of the black mustang they were brushing just as Heath met his gaze.

  “You got Pa’s blue eyes. Like me and Connor.” Seth didn’t know if it meant all that much; it was just true.

  “So you believe I’m your brother, huh?” Heath sounded his usual sullen self.

  “Do you get crazy sometimes?” Seth asked. Did the eyes go with the reckless streak? “Do you ever want to go out and face down a grizzly? Or climb a mountain? Or explore dark caves?” Seth dropped his voice. “Do you ever think wild wolves are calling you?”

  Heath gave him a hard glare. “I’ve been pretty much the man of the house from the first minute I was old enough to pick up a bucket of feed or lead a horse to water. No, I don’t do reckless things. I don’t hear wild animals calling to me. My family counts on me.”

  The kid was just tall enough to see over the back of the horse.

  “They’d have been in big trouble without me. Why? Are you reckless? Or no, you’re trying to warn me that I’ll soon be the man of this family, too, when you go off into that cavern and don’t come back. Great.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Heath’s expression didn’t change, but Seth thought maybe his chin was a lit
tle higher and his shoulders more square, like maybe he carried a heavy load and Seth had just eased it a bit.

  Seth took a long moment to impress it in his spotty memory that he’d better not go anywhere. “C’mon. Let’s help get supper on the table.”

  They walked inside, not talking but not growling at each other, either. When Seth swung the door open, it was to the smell of hot food. Callie was at the fireplace lifting a Dutch oven off the hook with one hand while holding Connor on her hip, on the side away from the fire. With towels to protect her hands, she set the pan on the table and lifted the lid to the smell of meat, sizzling and delicious.

  “Ham.” Seth couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so welcome. Oh, Julia and Audra had fed him and made him feel welcome. But this was his house and his wife.

  It struck him then that having a wife was a wonderful thing in more ways than just having a pretty woman close to hand—a pretty woman who was blue blazes with her pistol. There were all sorts of good things about having a wife.

  “I looked closer. Someone definitely spent the night.” Callie gave him a level look—not worried, but just letting him know.

  Seth couldn’t help thinking of all the trouble that had plagued the Kincaids over the last months. “Anything missing?”

  “Nope, not even food.”

  “Probably just passing through.” Seth shrugged, but he’d keep his eyes open. Not a bad idea anyhow.

  Callie nodded and began dishing up food.

  There were plates and forks around the table. Seth wasn’t even sure he’d seen all these things before. He’d been gone from this cabin as much as possible, staying with his brothers. He knew his cupboards had been stocked with food and dishes, yet he hadn’t paid much attention to the details.

  “Seth, can you take Connor?”

  With Callie’s request the night changed from a moment to savor, to chaos. Seth washed up quick and took Connor, who seemed happier dangling too close to the fire than being torn out of his ma’s hands. Callie hustled around, getting food on the table.

  Heath threw in helping Callie. Despite the kid’s surly nature, Seth couldn’t help but see he was a decent sort. He’d been raised right. Probably his ma’s doing.

  Things didn’t settle down much through the meal, mostly thanks to Connor. And Seth didn’t really have much chance to do more than eat and pass dishes and wrestle his son before they were all done and cleaning up.

  “This is new, Jasper.”

  Jasper gave Bea a sharp look. “I can see that.”

  “It can’t be the place Gilliland and his wife lived; it’s not old enough.”

  “It’s the place all right, just not the old cabin.” Jasper stared at the cabin, figuring, then directed his eyes to the ground. “Just as I thought. Look at the footprints. There’s been someone here just today, probably just finished building it. And that pile of kindling over there is what’s left of the old cabin.”

  He dismounted, lashed his horse’s reins to a scrub oak, and stalked toward the remains of the structure. “If Gill had anything hidden in the cabin, it would’ve come to light when they tore it down. We’ve got to assume the Kincaids have my diamonds.”

  He stopped at the front door beside a forgotten slab of flooring and glared. How was he going to get back those diamonds? Gilliland had a saloon in Rawhide. His men had written that they’d searched it thoroughly. Disgusted, he kicked the flooring hard, knocking it into the sturdy door. It bounced back and rapped his shin so hard he stumbled.

  Mad clean through, he bent down to grab the wood and give it a hard toss. And saw something sparkle in the dirt.

  Dropping to his knees, he scratched at the dirt that nearly covered it.

  “What’s wrong, Jasper? Are you hurt?” Bea came to his side just as he reared back, lifting the diamond to eye level.

  “They found the diamonds for sure.”

  Bea gasped. “It’s beautiful.”

  Jasper clutched it in his fist, then leaned down again. “Help me search. Maybe they lost more of them.”

  Bea was on her knees hunting just like a good little crook. She’d done her best to leave the sordid life behind that she’d lived in Houston, but Bea had a taste for pretty things. And she’d worked hard all her life and come away wearing cotton instead of silk.

  With a twist of satisfaction, Jasper knew that sparkling stone was winning her over to his side.

  “Nothing. Do we need to dig? Maybe Gilliland buried them right here. Maybe they almost unearthed them while they were building, but they never found the gems.” Bea used her fingernails to claw at the hard dirt.

  “It’s solid rock down only a few inches. Nothing was buried here; it was dropped. That means they took the diamonds somewhere.” Jasper lifted his head from the futile search and studied the surrounding area.

  “Two riders went that way.” Jasper pointed toward a mountain to the west. “And we saw three riders heading back to the cabin where we slept last night.”

  “We’d be better off going after two.” Bea didn’t say a word to discourage Jasper. That’s when he knew he had her.

  “But from the talk I heard in town, the two who went that way are probably Rafe and his wife. Rafe Kincaid is a tough man, and I don’t know where Rafe’s cabin is exactly, but they said something in town about a hidden canyon that was well defended. Something about a mountain gap with a tight entrance. Almost impossible to get into.”

  “But there were more of them going back north.”

  “I wish we’d’ve seen who was with that party. I didn’t even hear them go past while we were eating. We should have just trailed after them when their tracks showed up on the road, but I wanted to see where Gilliland lived.”

  “Seth Kincaid owns the cabin we stayed in last night. He’s the one I saw in town. He’s the one they say isn’t right in the head. He’ll be there alone with his wife and child. That’s a man I could make talk.”

  The day was wearing down as Jasper looked back at the trail to Seth Kincaid’s spread. Then he looked at the new cabin, standing empty.

  “One more night on the trail, Bea. Tomorrow we’ll go have a little talk with Seth Kincaid. We’ll end this and go on back to Colorado City.” He turned and looked her in the eye. He saw the shadows of greed and temptation, and it fed those very things in himself.

  “We might as well use another Kincaid cabin tonight.” Bea gestured toward the tidy house. “They don’t even know we’ve been living off them for two days now.” A hard laugh escaped from Bea.

  Hearing her laugh left Jasper with a strange feeling he couldn’t quite identify. Unpleasant, like guilt. Like maybe . . . sin. He himself was no stranger to sin, but causing Bea to sin when she was trying so hard to change—that was a different kind of sin altogether. Jasper couldn’t tell if God was poking at his long-sleeping conscience, or the devil was poking him straight into the flames of Hades.

  Chapter

  24

  The long day was over and they settled around the fireplace.

  Just like a family.

  Which they were, Seth admitted—even though all three of them had been sprung on him in the last week.

  Seth owned a single rocking chair and he waved Callie into it and placed Connor on her lap. Heath took a spot near the hearth, his back resting against the warm stones. Connor squirmed to get down, and Heath moved just enough so as to block the boy when he crawled toward the fire.

  Seth grabbed a chair from the table, dragged it to Callie’s side, and sat down. The crackling and flickering of the fire, the warm scent, eased his tired muscles.

  “Can you turn the lantern light up, Seth?” The crinkling of paper drew Seth’s attention to what Callie held in her hands.

  “What’ve you got there?”

  “Those maps Julia had me draw.” Callie thumbed through them, then frowned. “I’m missing a page.”

  “What page?” Seth rose from his chair and dragged it closer.

  “The one that shows what’s righ
t below that pit by Julia’s old house. I drew it that first day along with several others.”

  “Maybe you left it at Rafe’s?”

  With a jerk of her shoulder, she said, “Maybe.” She was silent a few seconds. “No, I had them out when we were at the line shack; when we stopped for Ethan today I remember studying them with Audra while we waited for the others to pack up. I must have dropped it. I never went down through the pit entrance. So I don’t really know what it looks like down there.”

  “I know it really well. I can tell you what that part of the cavern is like.”

  Callie gave him a worried look, then turned back to her papers. “Okay, let’s draw another one.”

  “Can I see what you’ve done already?”

  Seth looked at Heath, who was concentrating on Connor. Yet there was a sadness about the boy that made Seth feel guilty for wishing the youngster would go away. “You want to look at the maps of the cave?”

  “I don’t care about that stupid cave.”

  “I’m sorry things aren’t how you’d hoped, Heath. I’m still trying to get the notion that Pa had two families settled in my head.”

  The boy met his eyes, his brow furrowed. “I don’t like living off you. I want what’s mine.”

  Looking at him, Seth wondered if the kid weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. He was mighty small to think he was up to being on his own.

  “I know you do, Heath. I . . .” Seth glanced at Callie, the brains of this family.

  Callie had stopped studying her papers. “There isn’t anything much to give you right now,” she said. “For the winter at least, you need food and a roof over your head.”

  Heath sighed until Seth worried the boy’s body might deflate.

  Callie extended the maps to Seth, and he took the stack of papers and studied them. “You really are good at this. These are all rooms I recognize. Like this one.” He pointed to the tunnel with the hole. “You really show what it’s like there.” He shuffled some more pages until he found her fish fossil. “And you did a great job with the fish bones.”

  “Let’s figure out the one that’s lost.”