Texas Blue (25 page)

When she didn’t protest, his hands began to move at her waist, spreading out over the layers of coat and clothes as if he had to feel her, had to know that she was there.

Just having him close, she thought. That would be enough. That would be all she could handle. When he was gone, she’d remember that once in her life, she’d let her guard down a bit and it hadn’t been as frightening as she’d feared.

Sumner rattled his way to their side of the car, giving them time to move a few inches away from each other. “Hell of a night to be traveling in an open car,” the old man said.

“It is,” Lewt managed.

“I think I’ll turn in. We won’t get there before dawn. Once we’re riding we’ll be wishing for sleep, I figure.”

They all moved toward the stash of supplies and spread out bedrolls. Sumner took the spot closest to the horses. He used his saddle as a pillow and, half sitting up, pulled his hat low only minutes before he began to snore.

Wyatt took the other side of the cleaned-off floor. He rolled up in his blanket and pressed his back against one of the supply bags. He didn’t look comfortable, but the ranger also didn’t seem like a man who complained. If Em was guessing, she’d think that this might be one of the more comfortable places he’d slept during his years with the rangers.

Lewt spread her blankets a foot from his own. When she curled up inside, he removed his heavy leather coat and placed it over her, claiming all he needed was the blanket.

She watched him stretch out flat on his back and then raise his hand in the moonlight slicing through the car sides.

Em knew what he was offering. She snuggled in the warmth of his heavy coat and laced her fingers through his. She thought she’d be too worried or too uncomfortable to sleep, but something about having this man so near comforted her. She fell asleep.

When she awoke, all three men were up and the train was pulling into the station. She scrambled to get her things together as the train stopped and the door dropped. Within minutes they were unloaded, the horses wild with fright over the steam. Everything seemed to be happening at once. Sumner strapped the bags on one of the extra horses and Wyatt disappeared to the nearest outhouse.

“Morning, beautiful.” Lewt smiled as she stepped to the edge of the car, looking for a place to jump down.

She stared at him, thinking she probably looked a sight. Strands of her hair had come loose from her braid, and she wouldn’t have been surprised to find straw hanging off her clothes.

He raised his hands, and she leaned forward as he caught her and swung her down to ground. They moved to the horses in silence, but both knew that she’d forgiven him for yesterday. They were back to being friends and, she decided, just a bit more.

He lifted her saddle onto her horse and faced her. “I’m glad you’re with us,” he whispered. “I was wrong. You’ve got as much right as any of us to ride to help Duncan. Just promise me one thing. Don’t take any chances unless I’m there to cover your back.”

She nodded. “If you’ll promise me the same thing.” For this unsteady new friendship to work, he had to accept her as an equal.

He smiled as if he understood her meaning. “Agreed.”

When she finished saddling her mount, he tossed her an apple. “Enjoy breakfast. We’ll be ready to ride as soon as Wyatt gets back.”

Five minutes later, they were headed south at breakneck speed. Wyatt led the way with Sumner just behind, then Em, then Lewt. She caught herself glancing back to make sure he could keep up, but he seemed to be having no problem. She’d taught him well.

They stopped to rest the horses about noon and again three hours later. Wyatt and Lewt passed out hardtack and canteens, but no one suggested a fire. There wasn’t time.

By late afternoon Sumner had taken the lead, and they began to move slower. The old man was digging through twenty years of memory to find the trail that had once taken him into Mexico to a big place built like a stage station. He said the scarred woman sold supplies to travelers on one side and anything else on the other side. He remembered there had been whiskey and opium for those who wanted to forget what a mess they might be in and soiled doves for those looking for a few minutes to remember. Mixed in with it all, surrounding it all, were card games that lasted for days and often ended with gunfire. The woman who ran the place, Toledo by name, took no part in the gambling other than to charge outrageous prices for the drinks and food during them. She also charged the survivors for any burials.

When they stopped to water the horses, Sumner told them he’d gone down with another ranger looking for a strawberry-headed woman whose husband claimed she had been kidnapped by outlaws. They found her dealing cards, but she wasn’t in any hurry to come back to Texas. Apparently the customers treated her better than her man had. She claimed he worked her harder than the plow mules during the day and then rode her half the night. She’d begged them to let her stay.

Sumner smiled his toothless smile. “We went back alone and told the farmer she was dead. He shrugged and said he’d already ordered another woman from a mail-order bride place. I’ve seen men who had to shoot their horses show more emotion than he did. I always wondered what happened to that girl. Who knows, she may still be there.”

“But you and the other ranger did nothing about the illegal things going on down there, or the outlaws holing up there?” Em had to ask.

“It wasn’t our concern. We were just there to bring the woman back, and there’s no law that said we could do that if she didn’t want to come.”

Lewt had shown little interest in the story. “How much longer until we’re there?”

“We’ll reach the river by midnight and sleep there. Then we’ll cross in the morning and be at the Three Forks ranch before noon.”

They all looked tired as they climbed back on their horses and continued riding. Em worried that this trip might be too much for Sumner. He’d been twenty years younger when he’d crossed before, but they might never find Duncan without him.

As he’d told them they would, the little band reached the river before midnight. They camped and built a fire. Em helped make coffee and boil up a soup made from vegetables. Without more than a few words, they ate and spread their blankets out around the fire.

Lewt put the head of his bedroll so close to hers that the tops of their heads almost touched. He sat watching her unbraid her hair and comb it before braiding it once more in a smooth rope. She guessed they were both too tired to say anything, but the way he looked at her told her how he felt. He liked watching her, and the knowledge warmed her cheeks.

When she lay down, she raised her hand above her head and found his hand there waiting.

She liked the way he remembered to hold her hand and didn’t kid her about it. A friend and more, she decided. A friend for a few days and then only a memory.

D
UNCAN BEGAN TO WORK HIS LEG, EXERCISING until he was sweating. If he was going to break out of this place, he had to be strong enough to overtake Ramon in seconds, before the big man could alert any other guards. From bits and pieces he’d picked up, there were a dozen men working for Toledo and they took their meals in the kitchen just beyond his locked door.

He had no idea where they were the rest of the time, but pacing seemed to help him think. The sheet wrapped around his waist was bothersome, but necessary. She’d washed every part of him, but he couldn’t see himself standing nude in front of Anna, be she child or woman.

She watched him with her huge dark eyes as if she had no idea what he was doing. He thought he saw a slight reaction when he pulled his clothes from under the bed and found his guns tucked between the layers.

A few nights ago, after he knew they’d been locked in for the night, he motioned for her to sit on the floor.

She looked wary as if fearing he might be tricking her. Duncan started to take her hand, but she jerked back and he knew her fears. He lowered himself to the floor and hoped she’d follow.

She sat down slowly a few feet away, and he pulled a burned stick from the fire. With the ashes, he drew a square on the rock floor. “If this is the house, where does the sun come up?”

She watched him for a moment, then pointed to the left of the box he’d drawn.

“And where is this room inside the house?” He offered her the stick.

She drew a tiny square in the back away from the sun, and then she began adding squares to his drawing as if she understood what he was trying to figure out. A barn to the north with a corral. A road running northeast and then south just beyond the barn.

He smiled and whispered, “Horses?”

She pointed.

“Stores of supplies?”

She drew a circle to the left of their room.

For the next half hour, he whispered and she showed him on their crude map where everything was, down to the guards’ stations.

“Thank you,” he finally said as she handed him the stick back and began to wash the map away.

Duncan stood and forced himself to pace, working out the soreness in his leg. He listened at the door and heard nothing. The kitchen must be closed for the night. Which meant that Ramon, or maybe some other guard, was sleeping on the other side of the door.

Exhausted, he finally climbed into bed. Every night he was managing to do more, but he worried that he wasn’t recovering fast enough.

Anna moved to a dark corner and removed her clothes. Every night she wore a soft gown that had been washed so many times it looked little more than a rag. She climbed onto the bed beside him, curling into her ball next to him, almost touching him. Since the night she’d cried on his chest, she hadn’t come so close to him. He knew she wasn’t afraid of him as she was of Ramon, but she still didn’t trust him completely.

He moved so that he could whisper near her ear. “Ramon said you came here more than six years ago. He said he heard you were six or seven at the time. How old were you, Anna, when you came to stay?”

She sat up on her legs and looked at him as if no one had asked her such a question or expected her to respond. Slowly, she lifted her hands and held out all her fingers, then closed one fist and held two up on the other hand.

“You were twelve?” He found it hard to believe that even with her small build, the old woman had missed her age by five years.

She nodded.

“That would make you about eighteen now.”

She shook her head.

“Nineteen?” he guessed again.

She nodded, and he thought she was brilliant to be able to pull childhood off for so long.

“Why didn’t you, or did you try to run away?” He thought he remembered Ramon telling him one night that Anna had tried to run once and she’d almost died from the punishment.

She turned her back to him, then unbuttoned a few buttons of her gown. Holding it in the front, she let the garment slip free at her shoulder and showed him the thin long scars on her back from the years-ago beating. There were fresh bruises as well along her arms, as if some hand had jerked her suddenly.

Duncan got the picture. It wasn’t all that hard to break a twelve-year-old; a few beatings, but as she got older, Toledo must have begun locking her in. It crossed his mind that maybe the old woman knew or suspected that Anna, though small, was fully grown. Duncan wouldn’t put it past the old witch to make Ramon wait for his prize as long as possible, but Duncan had no doubt that one day she would turn her great-niece over to the man. Toledo had plans for Anna, and they were too horrible for him to imagine.

When she started to pull her gown up, he stopped her with a gentle touch. “No,” he whispered. “Let me see them all. I don’t ever want to forget what the old woman did to you.”

She didn’t move, but sat with her back perfectly straight for a few minutes, then slowly pulled button after button free until the gown fell to her waist. The thin scars, some layered on one another, ran to her waist and beyond, he guessed.

“No one should be beaten like this. No one,” he whispered, more to himself than to her. He brushed his hand over the scars, wishing he could brush away the memory of the pain she must have suffered. “Anna, tell me, how did you survive?”

She looked at him over her shoulder, but she didn’t say a word as she buttoned up her gown. Somewhere along the way she’d been trained too well not to talk, even to someone she trusted.

When he raised his arm, she moved into his hug. For a long while he held her, his hands spread across the damage that had been done to her so many years ago.