Night Winds (34 page)

“Father?” Her voice echoed against remaining walls and the underside of what had been her room
. As she moved further in, she noticed Alberta’s bed dangling from a huge hole in the ceiling of the dining room. Her aunt’s heavy wardrobe lay on its back across the flattened rosewood table.

Had her aunt been in that bedroom when it had collapsed
? “Aunt Alberta! Alberta Rowan!” Shae cried. Though no one answered, she once again heard clattering above her head.

Nervously, she peered up the stairs
. Would they bear her weight or collapse and bring the whole house down around her ears? Or worse yet, atop her head.

But what other choice could she make than to try
? Could she abandon the possibility that someone lived upstairs? Could she ask Harry, and endanger his life, to find out? Rejecting those choices, she stepped, very lightly, on the first of the twelve stairs.

*

Ethan hadn’t meant to walk in this direction, past the Rowan house. But out of some old habit, he turned down Austin Street on his way from the ruins of the bayside docks. He wished he’d thought earlier today to bring along a saddle horse to the infirmary. He’d been forced by the debris blocking many streets to use his feet instead of the large coach. His attempts to hire a mount had been met with disbelief. Every surviving horse that could be found was being pressed into the work of carting bodies to the dunes outside the city, where they could be identified.

Or at least that had been the first plan
. Later, he’d overheard some men say that because of the numbers and the threat of pestilence, the dead could expect no better than the ignominy of mass cremation.

When he’d at last reached the area where he’d kept the
El Dorado
, he’d been stunned by the destruction. Blocks inland, he saw carcasses of fine yachts piled, crushed beneath the weight of filthy cargo scows and fishing vessels. The very docks were strewn among the mangled wrecks.

He’d walked the bayside area for hours, searching for some clue as to his own yacht’s fate
. He thought of all the hours he’d spent aboard the boat, the many times he’d sailed her just to see the sunset or watch the dolphins leaping in his wake. When finally he found her, smashed against the solid structure of Raymond Tisdale’s bank, he nearly wept aloud. Though the bank yet stood, the
El Dorado
and the Tisdales were all gone.

Feeling more desolate than ever, he began walking toward the Rowan house
. He knew that Shae was gone, but he wanted, one more time, to see the house where she had lived. He counted her loss nearly as painful as his yacht’s.

As he walked, he passed across muddy flats swept clean of any human habitation, then other neighborhoods, which for no apparent reason stood almost intact
. It was in one of these where he saw Sal Madsen, who was helping a gang of men tie ropes around a milk cow’s carcass so it could be moved.

Ethan remembered Phillip’s warning to stay away from Dawson and his friends, the most dangerous of whom was Madsen
. No, warning was the wrong word. Payton’s words had clearly marked a threat. He knew, or had guessed all of it. And Ethan no longer believed the man too weak to do anything about it.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he’d underestimated Phillip
. Still, even Achilles had a weak spot. That Greek fellow, after all, had long ago proved that even a hero could be killed.

*

Shae heard Harry’s footsteps an instant before he grasped her upper arm. “You’re mad, aren’t you?” he asked. “Are you trying to get both of us killed?”

She shook her head, but more clacking upstairs attracted his attention.

“Do you hear it? Someone’s up there,” she said, shaking off his grip. “Stay here, please. Or better yet, go outside. I’m lighter, for one thing, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

He rolled his eyes, a gesture that made him look even younger than her earlier guess of twenty years
. “A fine, brave tale that would make for me new mates. You stay right here, Missy.”

He brushed past her and trotted up the stairs as fearlessly as if the house were carved of solid stone
. Within moments, she heard the squeak of a door hinge, then his voice. “Well, I’ll be dipped in meal and fried in pig fat! You’ll want to see this, Missy! Be careful on those steps, but once you’re here I’ll wager you’ll agree the sight is worth the risk.”

She mounted the stairs more slowly, for a fresh wave of dizziness accompanied her effort
. Once she reached the top, the sight of the dimming sky above her and a large fracture in the hall floor near Alberta’s room convinced her caution was still needed.

She stepped through the open doorway of her room and sucked in a startled breath
. For there, with her head held high and ears tipped forward, stood Delilah, who quickly whinnied her a greeting. Her golden hide was caked with mud; her white mane and tail were clumped, but as far as Shae could see, her fine, blooded mare had not a mark of violence on her.

The horse clumped forward, then thrust her velvet nose and snorted into Shae’s offered hand.

“Meet Delilah,” Shae told Harry, “the most exasperating beast in all creation. I’m glad to see you, girl.”

Despite her introduction, she patted the mare with real affection.

“She may be what you say, but she’s got horse sense a plenty to come up here for shelter.”

Shae nodded her agreement
. “Horse sense or not, she won’t be easy to get down. I still can’t imagine why she’s here, but not my family. Did you learn anything from those two men?”

Harry shook his head
. “Those poor blokes’re just out looking for their own, the same as you are. They didn’t know a thing about your people. Why don’t you go out where it’s safer, and I’ll see about getting the horse down those steps.”

The moment he reached for the mare’s halter, Delilah laid back both ears and snapped
. Harry yowled and clamped a hand down on the inside of one forearm. “You stupid jackass! With creatures like you about, it’s no small wonder I took to the sea!”

“Are you bleeding?” Shae asked.

He peeked beneath the hand that he had pressed to the bite. “No. Nothing but a bad pinc
h
though not for lack of trying.”

He glared at Delilah as if he’d like to bite her back.

“Do you have another of those biscuits?” Shae asked. Her hand and bruises throbbed, and she felt as if she’d like to sleep for an entire month. She couldn’t wait all night on Harry, who appeared to know little about horses.

He absent-mindedly took one from his pocket and handed it to her, while he studied the mare intently
. “Now off with you, Missy. This ain’t a lady’s matter.”

Shae place the hard bread on her flattened palm
. Ignoring Harry, she kept her voice low and soothing. “Come, Delilah. We’ll find you hay and water.”

Delilah snorted at it, and her ears pricked forward
. When she tried to take the food, Shae stepped closer to the door. The mare followed behind her.

The horse stretched her neck toward the proferred biscuit and followed along like a trained dog
. The floorboards in the hallway groaned ominously beneath the mare’s weight, and Shae glanced nervously toward the crack she’d spotted when she first came upstairs. Did she only imagine it, or had it grown even larger?

The mare moved to the edge of the stairwell before she stopped, ears flattened
. Harry tried to push her from behind.

“No!” Shae warned, but it was too late
.

Delilah’s rear quarters lifted, and she kicked out viciously
. Seizing the opportunity, Shae snatched the mare’s halter and yanked with all her strength. The horse, with her weight balanced only on her front quarters, stumbled forward. As she lost her footing, Delilah had no choice but to trot swiftly down the stairs.

Once there, the mare leapt into the parlor and bucked emphatically, as if to show her disapproval of her method of descent.

“Are you hurt?” Shae called from her seat at the bottom of the staircase. She’d been fortunate to avoid a trampling as she fell.

“Only me pride
. And you?”

She stood gingerly, and braced herself against the wall
. “I don’t know why, but no, I’m not. Just tired.”

They had far less trouble coaxing Delilah down the porch steps, for once the mare saw earth, she seemed eager to set her hooves on it once more
. Despite Shae’s uncertainty about Phillip and her family, she felt like cheering when they reached the muddy yard.

And then she spotted Ethan, staring open-mouthed
. He ran toward her, arms outstretched.

Shae recoiled, avoiding his embrace.

“Please,” he begged.

Harry looked confused
. “This ain’t your beau then, Missy?”

“No.” Her voice froze over, like a winter pond from her Philadelphia home
. “Ethan Lowell is nothing to me.”

“Mr.
Lowell
, is it?” Harry asked, obviously excited. “What a stroke of fortune. I’m from one o’ your ships,
The Marlin
. She’s beached down the peninsula, about three hours’ walk. I was just about to go an’ find your offices.”

Ethan regarded him as if he were a particularly annoying insect
. “You’ll find the office on Commerce Street, and someone there who’ll be interested. Run along, now. I must speak to the lady.”

“You can’t just dismiss him like a servant
! This man helped me. I consider him a friend,” Shae protested.

Harry looked at her and shook his head
. “A
friend
, is it then? Me reputation as a ladies’ man’ll be in ruins now.”

He winked at Ethan, who scowled in return, then dug a pair of double eagles from his pocket
. “There’s a lad. You have our thanks. Now you’ll be leaving, promptly.”

Harry neatly caught the coins as Ethan flipped them and nodded his thanks to the man
. Then he turned a curious gaze on Shae.

Ethan pointed in the general direction of his father’s business office
. “It’s that way, boy. Can’t miss it. Now as I said, run along. My father will doubtless offer you a finder’s fee, perhaps even a percentage of the salvage. But neither one of us is fond of those who don’t take orders quickly.”

“That’
s
that’s very generous, sir. Miss Shae?”

Shae had no idea what to say
. With what she knew of Ethan, she didn’t want to spend a moment with him. Neither did she want to cause Harry any trouble with the Lowells. Right now, she felt so tired and dizzy, every word took great effort.

“Thank you,” she finally told the sailor
. “You’ve been very kind. And don’t worry. I’ll be going to find my fiancé, Phillip Payton, in a moment.”

As Harry said goodbye, Shae turned an icy gaze on Ethan, to see how he’d reacted to the news that she planned to marry Phillip.

His expression was so filled with regret that she almost pitied him. That is, until he next spoke.

“I’m so sorry to bring bad news, dear, but Phillip Payton’s dead
. He drowned in last night’s storm.”

At his words, last night’s black flies filled the periphery of Shae’s vision
. She tried to make sense of what he said, but the swarm grew thicker, closer, until it descended like a wall of winged obsidian across her consciousness.

*

One of the nurses told Phillip he was desperately needed outside of the infirmary. For the first time since he’d come here, Phillip trotted out into the autumn sunlight. The azure sky was so bright he had to shade his eyes against it. He followed the young woman to what he’d assumed was some sort of medical emergency. What he saw, instead, spurred him to a run.

A group of four coarse-looking white men surrounded Abraham
. The boy’s arms were pulled behind him, and a rough loop of rope hung around his neck. At least two of the men had pistols sticking from their waistbands.

“What in God’s name is going on here?” Phillip demanded.

A large man with a larger belly pushed his way forward. “White woman caught this nigger stealin’. We knew he was guilty ‘cause he lit out runnin’ when we tried to talk to him. But before we could find a solid tree to string him up, he started squallin’ he was yours. Wouldn’t a bothered with it, but I got to thinkin’ how you helped out my little girl once. This boy right, Doc Payton? You got some sort a responsibility for him?”

“Abraham, what happened?” Phillip asked, ignoring the man.

The boy lifted his head tiredly. He looked already defeated, as if he were certain he would die. “I was only lookin’ for my mama and my brother. Then this white woman calls out, ‘Hey, boy. I got a job for you. I need you t’ help pull this drownt heifer offa my front porch.’ I told her, ‘Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I gotta find my family. They might need me bad.’ She got real mad, started hollerin’ about how I was shiftless and I’d be sorry if I didn’t remember ‘bout my place. I got real scared then, you know? Cause I seen this gang a men roustin’ ‘round lookin’ for any trouble they could find.”