When she had been born, a very young Lijuan had been ignorant of the tragic circumstances of Honor's birth. Still, she knew something was terribly wrong. All she could remember was people crying and the words from her brother David that Miss Lizzie had gone to heaven. Even now, she wasn't sure if she was remembering David saying that or if she remembered him telling her what was said that day. They were all so young.
The darkness that had fallen over the family home in Philadelphia soon led to the family being swept away, heading across the breadth of America for the promise of a new and better life. Sadly, tragedy still shadowed the Wildes even as they began their new life in Arizona. However, in the good times, Lijuan remembered how much she had been enchanted with her now being the "big sister," and she had delighted in having Honor tagging along after her.
Lijuan had found her little sister adorable with her mocha skin and those big hazel eyes of hers. Like any little sister, Honor Elizabeth could be pesky, but even as a child, Lijuan was very careful never to be like Cassie who at the time still held her at arm’s length. That distance was never extended to Honor and later Catalina when she came into the family.
Years later, after a night of drunken antics, Cassie and Lijuan had lain in a haystack staring at the spinning stars above. It had been then out of nowhere she had asked Cassie why that was so. The pair had bonded for several years now before that, so Cassie guiltily felt she owed her sister an explanation.
Cassandra had said how she had known the mothers of the two younger girls and had been there for the pregnancies and the births. When Lijuan came into their lives, she was just a small, immature child and could not wrap her mind around the sudden appearance of a sister out of whole cloth. By the end of the admission, Cassandra had done something Lijuan had almost never borne witness to, and that was break down sobbing, saying how sorry she was. Lijuan had hugged her and told her not to worry. Her older sibling continued to rock in her arms until at last both teenagers had drifted off to sleep.
Lijuan's thoughts circled back from her treasured closeness with Cassandra to the one she shared with Honor. Whip had sent the pair back to Philadelphia to stay with family when Arizona had fallen under the control of the Confederacy during the war. His correct thinking, of course, was that they would draw too much-unwanted attention. So, once in Philly, Honor had been sent to a prestigious finishing school for Negro girls. Lijuan, even if she could have gotten in, had no interest in learning the fineries of being a lady. Instead, she had attended a small school for the local Chinese population. Whip had been disappointed in her opting out of the finishing school, but in the end acquiesced, saying it was a streak of her mother in her.
Later, when Honor Elizabeth was enrolled in a college catering to coloreds in New York City, Lijuan had finally joined her sister knowing she needed the proper education for her upcoming role of running the overall operations at Cedar Ledge. Their time together truly cemented just how well the pair knew each other. Lijuan could easily predict how indignant Honor was going to be about her having left Cassie behind and Lijuan knew she wouldn’t blame her, as she felt the same way.
Lijuan had just navigated a bend in the trail necessitated by a boulder the size of a small house when to her right a flash of light caught her eye. Instinctively, she snapped her head in that direction to see what it was. Instantly, she realized that it wasn’t a threat but a blessing. Jerking Kong’s reins, she led him off the trail and down an embankment to a small brook whose surface had caught the afternoon sun. Lijuan slipped from her saddle and knelt by the water’s edge in one fluid motion.
A quick sip of the water told her that there was nothing out of the ordinary about it, unlike the Sweetbriar. She took a long quenching drink for herself, but it wasn’t for her benefit that she had stopped. Kong badly needed a drink after his labors and they still had a long way to go after they left the Holmes’s place. Gently, she led him to the water and was pleased when he didn’t hesitate to lower his head into the flowing waters of the brook and begin taking his fill.
Not more than five minutes later, they had trotted back up the hill to rejoin the trail. Lijuan didn't have time even to start to get Kong back up to speed when she bristled at the sound of furious hoof beats behind her. Spinning around in her saddle she watched two riders pacing each other at full speed round the bend, and in an instant, they separated and flanked her, neatly trapping Lijuan between them.
CHAPTER 9
Cassie had been right about the distance to the hideout of Rey Lobo. Not quite half an hour had passed as she followed the trail and threaded her way through the hills, across the bridge over the frighteningly deep rift, and into more hills. Now she was on the brink of reaching her destination. As she crested the last hill, she saw the terrain gave away to a wide open plain. Quickly she backtracked so as not to be seen. After tying Lily up in a thicket of trees at the base of the hill, she returned to the crest and lay flat to reconnoiter what lay before her. She opened the small pair of binoculars she had fetched from her saddlebag and took in the mission.
About a quarter mile out on the plain stood the old church from the heady days of Spanish exploration of the New World. She could see that it consisted of a two-story main structure; that there was no doubt the chapel was on the lower level and living quarters were on the second story. Rising on each side were a pair of bell towers, one of which was in dire shape having partially crumbled away. The entire compound was surrounded by a very sturdy looking adobe wall that also rose two levels. It seemed the Spaniards were taking no chances when it came to the indigenous of the new continents who rebuked the notion of converting to Christianity.
For a moment, she found herself wondering what had happened to the original inhabitants of the mission. Had they succeeded in enough conversions and had moved onto other territories, or had they been slaughtered to a man by ones they would have called the unbelievers. An insatiable curiosity came naturally to Cassandra. It was one of the reasons she had become a detective in the first place.
When the family had arrived from the east and purchased the original property Cedar Ledge lay upon from the Corderro family, it had been assumed by all that, though Cassie was the oldest, Dutch (as David had taken to calling himself) would take over running the ranch from Whip someday. The someday had come a lot sooner than expected as Whip had longed to return to his first love, the practice of law. Cedar Ledge had always been the late Mercedes’s dream and after she was gone Whip still intended to make a go of it to leave a legacy to his many children.
As he shifted his focus away from the ranch, he put Dutch in charge, and almost immediately the family’s plans needed to be altered. Ranching was not Dutch’s forte; he wished to go to West Point and be in the military. With pride, Whip had allowed it, and Cassie was to be groomed to run the ranch.
That plan had also been short-lived. Her natural curiosity and love for the concept of the law and standing up for what was right burned within her. However, there were not many options open for a woman when it came to law enforcement. Undaunted, she prepared as far back as when she had been a teenager, awaiting the day something would open up for her.
When she had learned of Kate Warne, the first ever female Pinkerton, she saw that opening and had left Arizona to persuade Mrs. Warne to take her on as an unpaid trainee of sorts. If Kate determined she was up to snuff, perhaps she could land work with Allan Pinkerton’s famed detective agency. Cassandra had proved to be an apt pupil and Kate had enthusiastically brought her into the Pinkerton fold where Allan had nicknamed them the “Double W’s.” As happy as she had been to be with the storied agency, she knew there was still a bit of disappointment on Whip’s part about her choice; but he had given his blessing to stay back east and work for them.
In the end, of course, it had been the most fortuitous for everyone, because that had made Lijuan the next choice to run Cedar Ledge. All had agreed in the years since not one of them could ever have done a better job than her sister had done. Lijuan was
proud but always gave a lot of credit to Cattie who ran the actual cattle operation and Blue River who a brief time ago at his youthful age had taken over their timber business.
As Cassandra continued to study the mission, she found her gaze focusing on other things. Coming out of where the massive front door was, a set of tracks looped around behind the mission. Her eyes shifted beyond the structure at the mountains that made up the southern end of the valley. They appeared to taper towards each other leaving a gap that Cassie safely guessed was the way out of that end of the valley. Arizona was her stomping ground, and she admitted to herself she didn’t have much familiarity with Nevada, so she wondered what the nearest large community the southern exit might lead to.
As curious as she might have been about that, it didn't place much relevance on her task at hand to stop Rey Lobo. Her last bit of reconnaissance was to look at the land around the mission. She would be hard-pressed to recall a more worthless looking landscape. Just rocky terrain with bushes rising here and there with their arms outstretched to the sky as if begging a deity for rain. Beyond the mission, she could see the forest. At least that was more promising looking than the arid-looking mess in front and on the sides of the place. Scanning the expanse surrounding the mission closer, she perked up when she noticed scattered around several areas where there had been apparent excavation with tell-tale piles of earth and rock marking the worksites. Interesting, she thought.
Cassie took one last look back at the mission, noting with pleasure she didn’t see any sentries patrolling the wall. She preferred to be able to approach unseen. If she had to guess, she believed the so-called Wolf King must feel confident his grisly warning back at the Sweetbriar would keep anyone from daring to venture to this side of the creek.
Returning to Lily and putting away the binoculars, she reached down and started throwing dust and dirt onto her clothes to suggest an arduous trek. Then she took Lijuan’s canteen and enjoyed one last pull on it before raising it above her head and sprinkling water down on her until her hair was matted. Finding it a bit distasteful, Cassandra could only shrug and then rub most of the remainder of her water under her arms to simulate the sweat of a long journey and complete her illusion as a weary traveler. Finally, what was left in the canteen she poured in her palms several times to let Lily drink. Cassie repeated this several more times until the last of the water was gone.
Looking around, she spied several large rocks and prepared herself for doing the thing she least wanted to do. Slowly she unbuckled the twin holsters and felt the weight of her guns vanish from around her waist. Carefully she hid the gun belt with her prized weapons under the rocks. She had owned them for a long time since she was sixteen when she had confided in her uncle that someday she hoped she could uphold the law.
Nathanial Duvalier had surprised her the following Christmas with the pair of silver-plated, pearl-handled guns he had ordered from a specialty gun maker in San Francisco. She couldn’t help but smile to think how often she had used his gift in service to him. When she had returned to Arizona, he had long since been the territorial governor, and he had made her a special lawman, operating undercover wherever he might need her to help keep the peace in the territory.
Leaving them behind and walking into a dangerous situation was always the last thing that she wished to do but it would not be the first time. It was part and parcel of being undercover. With nothing left to do, she said goodbye to her mount and walked back up the hill and began making her way down the other side out onto the open plain. Time to open this ball, she thought as she made her way through the simmering heat.
CHAPTER 10
Lijuan didn't speed up to escape the clinch of men, nor did she slow down. Instead, she kept her pace, waiting to see what they would do. There was a small chance that these were residents of the valley, but more than likely they were some of Rey Lobo's men. Still, they hadn't pulled their guns on her, so the slight chance still existed their intentions weren't untoward.
She was not surprised when that possibility vanished almost instantly when the man to her left opened his mouth, a mocking grin plastered on his stubble-ridden face.
“Come on now, girl. You need to come to a stop. We wanna talk.”
The other man’s laughter was carried on the wind. “Would you look at this, Wilkes, we got us a genuine China woman!”
“I see that, Montgomery. Where you wander in from, girl? There ain’t any railroads bein’ built in this here part of Nevada. No need for there to be any coolies around here.”
Lijuan ignored them and kept riding at a good clip, but she did loosen the grip she had on Kong’s rein with her right hand as her eyes glanced down momentarily at the hammer adorning her right side.
The one called Wilkes had an insufferable grin on his face, giving her a clear view of teeth that screamed out to be seen by a dentist. “Ah, we were just playin’ with you, China doll. We saw you back at the Sweetbriar with that well put together blonde. Looks to us like you two are too stupid to heed a warnin’. Now if you think you’re goin’ back to get some sort of help, well sister, we’s here to put the kibosh on that. As for blondie, well …”
“We seen her headin’ towards the mission. That bitch is as good as dead.” The other man cut in.
Lijuan could no longer help herself and she too let a grin unfold on her face.
“You don’t know my sister.”
“She speaks and English too!” Montgomery blurted out genuinely surprised.
“Never mind that … what you mean, your sister?” Wilkes demanded. “She was pure white, and you are well … what you are.”
“Sorry, I don’t see the need to explain my family to a couple of jaspers who are either going to be dead very soon or at least unable to speak.”
The pair of men glanced across Lijuan at each other, almost disbelieving their ears that this petite little beauty was issuing a threat. With his eyes narrowing Wilkes looked carefully at her. "What you talkin' about?"
“This!”
Lijuan dropped her right rein and snatched her hammer from her belt and swung it at Montgomery. It connected directly with his mouth with a sickening thud, shattering the bottoms of several of his top teeth and knocking others on the bottom row entirely out. A keening shriek of pain erupted from the man as he fell from his horse, smacking into the trail and rolling twice before he came to a stop.
A stunned Wilkes stared as Lijuan deftly dropped the left rein and tossed her hammer to her left hand while scooping up the reins with her right. There had been so many occasions over the years that one quirk all six of the Wilde children shared came in handy … all had been born ambidextrous. As she prepared to strike, Wilkes lurched back to his senses and yanked his reins to swing away from her reach just as she swung the hammer at him. Lijuan cursed as it connected with only empty air where his chest had been a moment ago.
Wilkes had not only pulled away from her, but he now dropped back behind Lijuan putting her at a disadvantage as he drew his gun. Lijuan was no stranger to men like Wilkes, and she guessed he would be firing at her in no time at all, so she dug her heels into Kong to bring him into a gallop as she began to zigzag back and forth hoping to prevent him from drawing a bead on her.
Behind her, she heard the first shot from his gun, but she had already started her next zig, and the shot easily missed her. Again, he fired, and his shot went through empty air as she maneuvered away barely in time this time. Four shots to go, she thought, but she knew he was getting closer and had to be getting wise to her pattern. Goading an enemy, Cassandra had once taught her, made them act foolishly. Lijuan hoped it would work here. Drawing her gun, she held it over her shoulder and fired three shots blindly. She had no expectation of hitting him, but she hoped that would provoke him.
A series of shots could be heard behind her, and she had little time to celebrate getting him to expend his ammunition in anger as one of the shots ripped through her bedroll and grazed her right thigh. A pain like being stung by a d
ozen bees erupted along the graze, and she looked down to see red seeping through her pant leg. Behind her, she could hear laughter.
Let’s see who’s laughing now, she thought, as she jerked her reins bringing the horse to a stop. The startled Wilkes, who had at last lined up the perfect shot targeting her back, pulled his reins back and the gun in his hand fired off a wild shot, its bullet striking a dead tree to the right of Lijuan, chipping its bark off into the air.
By her count, it was his last bullet. Six shots had been fired. It was now or never. A moment later, she lived up to the graceful part of her name, which translated meant beautiful and graceful. Lijuan let go of Kong's reins kicked her feet out of her stirrups and flipped around in her saddle facing backward. Her gun went to her hand, and she raised it up towards Wilkes whose face went as white as the proverbial sheet.
Her finger twitched in the trigger guard, but then she withdrew it. Too easy she thought. Snatching her hammer from her belt with the other hand she flipped her wrist in a mighty throw. The hammer spun end over end the sunlight glinting off it as it flew until it struck Wilkes directly in his chest carrying him off his horse. Wilkes crashed to the ground rolling into a heap as a dust cloud billowed around him. Lijuan was already off Kong and running towards him.
"You think you can threaten one of my sisters or me?" Lijuan was snarling as she skidded on her knees up next to him. She drew her gun to cover him as she eyed a coil of rope of his horse. If he were alive, then she would tie him up and deal with him later. She was just reaching to flip his body over to see whether he still lived when he proved to be quite alive indeed.
Into The Lair 0f Los Rey Lobo: Wildes 0f The West (Half Breed Haven Book 9) Page 7