Authors: Beverly Jenkins
While the children took seats at the table, Maggie asked their mother about their educational abilities. Nathan and the twins could read, but five-year-old William could not. In the middle of the conversation, Little Dove arrived, and in the wagon with her were David and two little boys Maggie had yet to meet.
Sarah drew back. “You're letting Indian children in the school?”
“Yes.” Maggie waited.
“I want them taught outside away from mine.”
“Then you should probably take your children home because I won't be separating any of my students by race.”
Maggie could see Sarah trying to decide what to do, so she let her think it over while she went to greet Little Dove.
In the end, Sarah Green's children stayed and the first day began.
I
an rode into Osprey at a slow pace. The few buildings that made up the town's center stood as testament to how small it was. It had started out as a trading post patronized by trappers, Natives, and mountain men. As more and more men drifted into the county to work the mines and lay track for the railroads, a saloon was built and then a boardinghouse and then a few houses. It now sported a barbershop, a mercantile, and a telegraph office that doubled as the office of the sheriff and the mayor. He'd come to town to meet with Harper and to see if there had been any fires overnight. There hadn't been any in the past few days and everyone was hoping that Draper was giving up. Ian didn't believe it.
When he reached the office he saw Vivy rushing off to her carriage.
She called, “Tell Maggie, I'll be by the school soon as I can to see how things are going. You two should come have dinner with me sometime soon, too.”
Ian had yet to meet a busier woman than Vivian Palmer July. If she wasn't in town, she was in Casper or Cheyenne or Laramie or driving hell-bent across the countryside taking care of the needs of her constituents. She was a stellar mayor, but he understood why Harper had gone to the cathouse for someone to talk to. Getting her honor to sit still was like trying to catch the wind.
Inside the office with Harper was Tom Benton. There was also a man wearing a suit that Ian didn't know, so Tom made the introductions.
“Ian, this is Walt Clark. He works for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.”
Ian shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
Clark said, “Same here. You look familiar.”
Ian had done work for the Pinkertons a few times in the past but he didn't try and spark the detective's memory.
Harper said, “Walt's got good news. Take a look at this.”
Ian studied the face on the poster Harper handed him. “This looks like Draper.”
The detective said, “We're fairly sure it is, but he's changed his name.”
The name on the wanted poster was Harold Mann and he was wanted in Ohio and Pennsylvania for embezzlement. Ian smiled. “Are you here to take him back?”
“Oh yes. He may be wanted in Indiana as well, but I'm waiting on verification from our Chicago office.”
Tom said, “Maybe this will make my daughter come to her senses.”
“Let's hope,” Ian replied. “When are you going after him?”
“Just as soon as the sheriff, Mr. Benton, and I leave here.”
Harper asked, “Do you want to go with us, Ian?”
“Can you handle him without me?”
“Yep.”
“Any open warrants on Ketchum?”
“No,” Harper said, “but once Draper's taken into custody he'll probably head for the hills.”
Ian hoped so. “Then if you have everything under control, I'm going to stop in the mercantile, grab some things Maggie and Charlie asked me to bring home, and head home to spend the rest of my years catching up on my sleep and being with my wife.”
Harp grinned. “Enjoy yourself.”
“I plan to. Nice meeting you, Walt. Thanks, Tom.”
“You're welcome.”
Ian walked down to the mercantile. After purchasing the items on his list he rode home a happy man.
John Draper aka Harold Mann was arrested without incident a few hours later, and everyone breathed a long sigh of relief.
M
aggie spent the rest of the month of June teaching her students and enjoying her husband's company, especially at night. Lightning finally relented to having Maggie on her back, but only after an entire day of bucking her off as if to emphasize that she was still in control.
But after much fussing and cussing by Maggie in response, along with applications of Charlie's liniment for all the bruises she sustained in the falls, she and the mare became horse and rider and spent their days galloping across the countryside.
Maggie was riding Lightning home from school one day when she saw Henny Benton approaching on the road ahead. To her surprise, riding with her was Pratt Ketchum. Maggie planned to ride on by but Henny stopped. Rather than be rude, Maggie stopped to be neighborly.
“Well if it isn't our little schoolmarm,” Henny said.
Maggie hadn't heard anything about Henny since Draper's arrest and like everyone else assumed that Ketchum had left town. Apparently not. She wondered if Ian was aware that the gunslinger was still around. “How are you, Henny?”
“I'm well. Say hello to Mr. Ketchum. He's working for me now.”
Maggie gave the cold-eyed man with his disfigured face a terse nod.
“Oh, you can do better than that, especially since you're going to be together for a while.”
Maggie went still. When she looked back at Ketchum he had his gun drawn and pointed her way. She fought to keep her fear under control. “If I don't return home, Ian will come looking for me.”
“But by then, you'll be long gone.”
Maggie tightened her grip on the reins in anticipation of making a run for home only to have Ketchum threaten, “That's a fine mount you got there, be a pity to put a bullet in her.”
Maggie relaxed her hands but not the hard set of her features.
Henny turned her horse and told Ketchum, “Thank you for your services.”
“Anytime.”
She rode away and as she did, he sighted and put two bullets in her back. Henny cried out, slumped over her horse, and then slid to the ground. Maggie turned stricken eyes his way. Henny managed to turn over for a moment and the surprise in her eyes as she stared back at Ketchum mirrored Maggie's.
“Nice working for you, Miss Benton.”
Holding the gun on Maggie now, he waved her forward. “Let's go.”
Maggie saw Henny collapse back onto the road and tried not to think about meeting the same fate.
W
hen Maggie hadn't returned home by late afternoon, Ian figured she was engrossed in something at school and had lost track of time, but when Harp galloped onto the property a short while later to let him know Henny's dead body had been found on the road near the school, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
“Someone shot her in the back.”
“Good Lord.” In spite of Henny's ways, no one would have wished her such a tragic end. “Any idea who might have killed her?”
“No. Old man Jeffers found the body. He said there were at least two other sets of hoofprints there.”
“Maggie's late getting home.”
“School door was closed when I passed by. Maybe she's at Georgie's.”
“Maybe, but something's not right. I can feel it. I'm going over to the school and see if she's there. Hopefully she is with Georgie. Where are you going?”
“Back to the spot where Jeffers said he found Henny. I was at Tom's when he brought her body home.”
“Okay. Let me get Charlie and we'll ride with you as far as the school.”
Ian's heart was pounding. He hurried into the house to get his gun belt and on the way, he prayed.
M
aggie was trying not to let her fear best her so she could think. She also needed to find out why she was being taken. “Did Henny pay you to get rid of me?”
Ketchum was riding beside her and they were heading south. “She did, but I don't work for her.”
“Draper's in jail.”
“Which is where he should be, but I'm not working for him, either.”
“Then who?”
“An old friend of yours named Langley.”
“What?”
“Yep. He must want you bad. Paid me a thousand dollars to find you and bring you back. Promised me a thousand more once he gets his hands on you.”
“I thought Sheriff Wells had him in jail.”
“Wells met with an accident, so to speak. Town gave him a real nice funeral.”
Maggie was speechless. Here Ian had been thinking Ketchum showing up in Wyoming had been tied to revenge against him, but in reality the killer had been after her.
“Tried to get you the day I came to the house but you were ready for me.”
I have to get away from this madman!
“I like my women feisty, maybe I'll get me a taste of what you've been giving the Preacher man before I turn you over.”
She shuddered with revulsion. “When Ian finds us, and he will, you're going to pray for death.”
The disfigured face smiled.
“How'd you find me?” Maggie wanted him to keep talking.
“Wasn't hard. Preacher man casts a big shadow. All I had to do was ask a few of the railroad agents if they'd seen you two. The sheriff in Abilene was particularly helpful.”
“Granger.”
“Yep.”
She frantically searched her mind for what she might have in her saddlebag to aid her escape because she had no weapons. There was a primer, what was left of her lunch, a few quill pens. She paused on that. Quills weren't nearly as effective as a rifle might have been but . . . “So where are we going?”
“Denver, then we'll take the train east to Kansas.”
Maggie prayed she'd be free long before then. For the moment she only had herself to count on because she wasn't sure if Ian or anyone else knew she was missing.
Ian did. The hoofprints left in the dusty road were a bit covered by the wheels of Jeffers's wagon but Ian could tell by what was left that Lightning and Maggie had been there. Lightning's tracks were distinctive because being the prickly mare that she was, she'd only wear a special type of shoe, and that was what Ian was looking at. “They're heading south.”
He and Charlie and Harp followed the tracks for about an hour.
Charlie said, “He doesn't know the area as well as he might, so he's keeping to the road.”
Just as he said that, the prints of the two horses headed into the trees and disappeared. Ian cursed and looked around. They still had no idea who she was with but they assumed it to be the person who'd back shot Henny.
Harp said, “We'll find her. Let's just keep going.”
As he rode, Ian let the fury he felt override his fear because if he didn't he'd not be clearheaded enough to keep on the trail. The parts of him that loved her more than his life wanted to go galloping off at full speed screaming her name, but that would only alert whoever had taken her to his presence behind them, and he wanted to come up on the person as silently as the angel of death. A verse from Lamentations rose up from inside:
And on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived.
As dusk rose, Maggie was certain Ian knew she was missing because she could feel his presence somewhere behind them. She needed to slow down the man riding beside her. “I need to relieve myself.”
“Soon as I find us a place to hole up for the night.”
“I can't wait.” She could tell by the way he was looking around that he wasn't certain as to where they were. Maggie didn't know, either, but Ian probably knew the area as well as he knew how much she loved him, so she kept her hopes high.
They rode for a short while longer and into a small cove surrounded by towering aspens. “We'll spend the night here.”
“May I go now?”
“Yeah but not too far. Get back quick or I put a bullet in your mare's head.”
Maggie dismounted and grabbed her saddlebag.
“Leave that here.”
“I'm bleeding from my monthly. I need to make a change.”
She could see him studying her in the descending gloom. She waited.
“Go on, but remember, make it quick.”
“I will.”
Maggie knew he wouldn't allow her to go far so she didn't. But once she was out of sight, she opened her bag and felt around inside until she found her two quill pens. She placed one in each pocket, took care of her needs, and headed back. She wasn't on her monthly. In fact, she hadn't had one since right after arriving at Night Hawk. She thought she might be carrying a child, but hadn't said anything to Ian as of yet because she'd wanted to be sure.
Maggie returned and threw the bag back over the saddle horn. She patted Lightning with sadness and affection. “He'll find us, don't worry.”
“Move away and take a seat over there.”
“Can I remove her saddle? She's had a long day.”
“I'll do it. Sit over there.“
She sat on a felled trunk. “How do you know Langley?”
“Met him through a friend of a friend.”
He unsaddled Lightning. As he set the saddle on the ground, the mare reared high on her back legs, while he scrambled to get out of the way, Lightning galloped off into the dark. He drew his gun and fired. Maggie's heart leapt into her throat but when she didn't hear any equine cries of pain to indicate the bullets had found their mark, she relaxed and smiled. Too bad the mare hadn't kicked his brains out, but Lightning was free and undoubtedly headed home. Now Ketchum would have to make her walk or take her up on his mount. Maggie was fine with either choice because both would slow them down.
What she wasn't fine with was him stalking over to her and striking her with the back of his hand so forcefully her head rocked. She grabbed her throbbing cheek.
“Bitch, if you weren't worth so much alive I'd kill you right now.”
The blow left her seeing stars, and hurt much more than the last time she'd been struck by Carson Epps. He grabbed the front of her shirt and snatched her to her feet. In that same motion she swiftly drew the quills from her pockets and shoved one metal-tipped quill deep into his throat and the other into his eye.
His scream pierced the night and he stumbled back. Maggie had no time to gloat over her handiwork, she was too busy running.
The three men heard the scream and looked in that direction. Ian offered up a deadly smile. “I think my Maggie just struck back, boys. Come on.”
But before they could ride off and investigate, they heard her calling Ian's name.
He hollered back, “We're here. Keep calling!”