"Listen, ma'am!" said Washburn with dominance. "I didn't tell you because that shortcut would mean going through a canyon where the Sweetbriar flows from another valley. The last intel was a renegade band of Apaches might be hiding out there that have been terrorizing whites and peaceful injuns alike. It's a place to avoid unless you are just in the frame of mind to go looking for trouble."
"Well, we sure as sugar don't have to look for trouble," Catalina said. With a huff, Lijuan finished her sentiment. "As Honor likes to say—trouble finds us!”
“Give me a bunch of ordinary renegades any day. We’ve had our scrapes with the likes of Black Hawk and his Omegas back in Arizona. I’m sure you’ve heard of them?” Lijuan boasted.
“Who hasn’t? That Yavapai has made it his mission in life to drive Americans out of your territory,” he said.
“Yeah, well he’s got a personal grudge with the Wilde family, but I don’t want to talk about that! I want to ride!” said Lijuan. He beckoned the women to follow, and he returned to the camp where the drilling had ceased. The sergeant shifted on his feet uncomfortably.
“Come on, men” called Washburn. “This supply mission is on hold. We’ve got us a Mexican bandit who’s gotten too big for his britches if he thinks he can take over an entire valley! Boots and saddles!”
When the men were ready to ride, Lieutenant Washburn ordered the bugler to sound the Stand to Horse call. The men and horses fell into formation. Washburn watched as Catalina, astride one of the horses from one of the men staying behind to watch over their livestock slipped into formation with the men along with Lijuan was as well. Briefly he had considered ordering Catalina to stay behind where she'd be safe. But if her stories were to be believed, she was as good a shot as any of his men, and better than some. She struck him as someone who could keep a cool head under pressure. There was just no point in arguing with her, as he'd just be wasting his breath.
At his signal, the bugler sounded the call to move out. The horses needed no nudging to go, as they knew the bugle calls as well as did their riders. They formed a double column with Lieutenant Washburn in the lead and Catalina and Lijuan riding side by side just behind him. After twenty minutes of steady riding, they turned into the dreaded canyon where a hostile Apache could be lurking behind every boulder and around every turn.
There was a silent eeriness to the canyon. The hot sun beat down upon their sweaty faces, blazing and torturously hot, and Lijuan looked irritated. Catalina knew it was a mask though, covering her deep concern for Cassandra going on after Los Rey Lobo on her own. Lijuan called out to Washburn that they needed to move faster. When he didn’t acknowledge her, she shouted it again only louder, and the man raised his gloved hand and made a forward motion, commanding the troops to pick up speed.
The gorge continued to bake, and there weren't a lot of pretty sights to be seen, but still, they trekked on through this shorter passage through to the De La Santa Barbara Valley. For Washburn’s part, he had an awkward feeling from the beginning about this one and being pressured by the surly Lijuan Wilde wasn’t helping. How the hell were they sisters, he thought, and it had nothing to do with their two different races, but their starkly different demeanors. Plus, he was dealing with the residual embarrassment of having been caught in a compromising situation with a woman.
Better to check his annoyance and concentrate on the group’s surroundings, he reasoned, knowing how dangerous and treacherous this path could yet be. He needed to stay on the alert for anything that might come their way, as now they had just passed the point they had scouted up to previously and found no renegades. Washburn’s caution would prove to be warranted because their movements fell under the gaze of unseen and hostile eyes.
CHAPTER 17
As Cassandra looked at the steak on her plate in front of her, she reflected on how the afternoon had taken several most unexpected turns.
Across from her sat Rey Lobo with a smile on his face as he uncorked a bottle of wine.
“I trust you find the steak worthy. I imagine you worked up quite a hunger while you were lost.”
“It’s quite divine. I cannot thank you enough,” she said as she looked around amazed at the living quarters above where the old chapel had been located.
Once housing the living quarters of the priest and the nuns, it had been remade into a well-appointed living area. All the furniture looked new and was very ornate while it rested on perhaps the plushest rugs she had ever seen, her feet feeling like they were sinking into it. Then there was Rey Lobo himself. During the hot trek between the hills towards the wall of the mission, she had a clear picture of what the despicable man would look like.
Instead of the fat, balding repugnant-looking man with missing teeth she had envisioned, to her surprise he had been a dashing, handsome man with enticing brown eyes speckled with gold. His shoulders were broad, and he stood a good six feet. In short, he was the opposite of the wretched train wreck of an outlaw she had been expecting. This unexpected development she treated as a boon, as she knew she could turn it to advantage while she stalled for time awaiting the reinforcements she had sent Lijuan to assemble.
Arriving at the old church, everything started as she had expected. Pounding on the door of the mission had brought a quick response. As soon as the door opened, she was taken prisoner by a man sneering at her for ignoring the obvious warning they had left at the edge of the sweetbriar.
A second man had gone charging off and brought back another man who was large, hulking, and clearly a brute if she ever saw one. Quickly, the lout had hastened her towards a staircase. As she walked towards it, her eyes caught sight of the doors that in any working mission would have led into the nave or chapel area where the faithful would assemble in the pews. The double doors here were securely locked with a large chain and a substantial looking lock keeping the links together.
When they climbed the staircase and exited at the top near an abutment, her eyes had taken in the compliment of bandits that had assembled atop the wall, viewing something happening in a makeshift pen along the wall below where the men were looking down.
As she ascended the stairs, the cries of a man and the bloodcurdling growl of some type of beast made the hairs on her arms stand up. Once topside, she looked down into the pen in complete bewilderment at the end of some sort of modern version of a gladiator’s contest from stories Whip used to read to her and Dutch as children about the ancient Romans.
There had been no time for Cassandra to process this outlandish scene when a striking man had separated from the crowd, and with an air of confidence, strode over to where she was being held.
“What have we here, Dogget?” Rey Lobo asked, his eyes appraising Cassandra closely.
Dogget shook his head, "Showed up at the door a few minutes ago begging for help. Though she isn't going to like the kind of help we have to give."
Cassandra drew back as he suddenly took her hand and kissed it. “Be still that kind of talk, Mr. Dogget. She is our guest.”
Thunderstruck, Dogget blurted out, “Our guest?”
Rey Lobo questioningly raised his eyebrows and Dogget fell silent. "Tell me, dear lady. How do you come to be way out here?"
Drawing on the story she had concocted on the way to the mission, Cassandra put on a sorrowful face. “I was trying to leave the valley, but directions have never been my strong suit. I became lost and worse, yet my horse threw me and ran off. I wandered until I found this place. Please, you must help me escape. A dreadful man is terrorizing this valley. He is called Los Rey Lobo!”
“Good lady, I am Rey Lobo and do not believe everything you hear!”
Mixing surprise with feigned terror, Cassandra continued to sell herself as a frightened woman. "You are Rey Lobo! Oh, no. Please! Please do not hurt me. I came to this valley only days ago to be the new schoolmarm only to find the school destroyed … by you from what I was told!"
Lobo’s dismissive wave greeted her as she stepped back from him. “Guilty as charged �
�� but I urge you to relax. I mean you no harm. Please. You know who I am … please share with me your name.”
Without hesitation, Cassandra introduced herself as Kelly Cornell. As was her habit, she frequently used Kelly as an alias as a nod to Kelly Wilde, a mother she barely remembered but still forever missed in her heart.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Cornell.”
“Please don’t hurt me!” she shrieked raising her voice so shrilly that it made the brutish Dogget, standing nearby, wince.
“Nothing of the sort shall happen. You are my guest here.”
With a quivering chin, she sobbed "But I have heard dreadful things from what's left of the townsfolk. You are running them out of the valley with methods most forceful I might add."
A derisive snort flew out of Rey Lobo’s mouth. “Trespassers all! My family holds ancient claim to this valley when it was but a speck in the vastness of the Spanish empire. I am merely reclaiming what is mine.”
Cassie found this an interesting wrinkle, but she held little stock in it. A criminal like Rey Lobo she was sure was a stranger to the truth. Still, she played along.
"I … see … well if you wish to send people from the valley, I hope you will kindly let me be on my way."
“Absolutely! But first I must insist you rest and get cleaned up. I know how important such things are to women such as you. In the meantime, I shall have a meal prepared. You must be famished from your wanderings. His eyes seemed to search for someone in the crowd, and then he pointed to one man. You there, Chavez! Find your sister Lupe and have her draw a bath in the mistress’s quarters!”
Dogget opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, but Lobo shot him a look that caused him to remain silent.
“And then you get to cooking a couple of steaks with some potatoes and corn. Get to it!”
The young man nodded and hastened off.
Cassandra made a show of coming out of her shell. “You are most kind … it is still hard for me to believe then that such a man would be behind the destruction I have seen.”
“In life sometimes, one cannot settle for half measures. The valley is ours, and we shall reclaim it by whatever means necessary. Enough with that, my dear. It is time to show you the kind of hospitality one would find in Old Mexico.”
Cassie smiled at him, but her mind was going over everything that was said, references to more family beyond him. He had spoken of a mistress, but he wore no ring. A sister or a mother perhaps? Could this be the same she that the dying man back at the Sweetbriar had spoken of with some of his last breaths?
“I would be most grateful to accept your generosity.”
“Come then. We must adjourn to the mission itself.”
Rey Lobo motioned towards the stairs and she looked down the wall. She would have expected the walkway they were standing on to continue all the way to the mission. However, the span of the centuries had not been kind to the wall. It had partially collapsed along the way blocking access leading to where it would have naturally merged with the second story of the old chapel building. It seemed they would have to go down to go up again.
As she walked to the top of the stairs, she looked across the courtyard. There was a similar staircase that led upwards, but unlike on this side, a sturdy looking block-like building was constructed on the outer part of the wall. What the missionaries had once used it for, she could only guess. Now it appeared to be some sort of storeroom of Rey Lobo’s. A man walked up the stairs, entered it, and quickly emerged carrying a pickaxe and a bucket.
Not wishing to draw any suspicion from Rey Lobo by appearing overly curious, she drew in close to his side and walked with him down the steps. So far, despite the surprises things were going better than she could have hoped for. Every minute brought her anticipated help ever closer.
Once they were in the upstairs of the mission, Cassie had been greeted by a young Spanish woman of no more than eighteen, if she had to guess. Her shiny black hair and coppery skin instantly made her think of Catalina. With any luck, she would see her youngest sister again, backed up by Washburn and his troops. The young woman smiled at her and spoke to her in broken English, saying that she would have the bath ready as soon as possible. Rey Lobo excused himself saying he had business to attend to but would return after she had enjoyed her bath. He swept her into a room that was decisively feminine. Through an open door, she saw a bathtub.
After Rey Lobo left, she sat in a chair in one corner and watched as Lupe periodically came up the stairs toting a bucket full of hot water heated over a fire somewhere in the courtyard. Cassie felt a flash of guilt at how hard the young woman was working. At Cedar Ledge the grand ranch house was continually being equipped with the latest advances in plumbing at Honor Elizabeth's insistence as her primary responsibility in the family to was to oversee the running of the household.
Cassie knew that it chafed at Honor that she didn’t contribute more to the family, but the young woman hadn’t found her true calling yet. She was well educated, but there were few opportunities for women, let alone one who was also a Negro. It wasn’t fair, and Cassandra knew it. Had her uncle not been the governor, there was no way she would have been allowed into the position she was in, and her talents would have gone to waste.
Cassie shook off these thoughts and returned to thinking how none of the family objected when Honor had the latest plumbing installed. Even Lijuan, who controlled the purse strings of Cedar Ledge, was more than happy to write the checks as they all benefited and enjoyed it. As Lupe emerged with another bucket, she put her guilt away. By associating with Rey Lobo, she was a criminal as well. Still, she knew there might have been extenuating circumstances that led her to be here at this time and place.
The girl promised one more bucket would do it and hurried away. Cassie rose and looked at the bookcase. Whoever the woman was, she was a well-read individual. All the classics were there, but there were also books on science and engineering. This intrigued Cassandra a great deal. Especially when she came to one shelf that held a series of books entitled The Minerals of the World. The thin volumes were alphabetized. Missing was the volume containing the letter “b.” Cassie smiled; knowing this gave more credence to what she suspected was really going on in the De La Santa Barbara Valley.
CHAPTER 18
Washburn and the Wildes' strike force had ridden in peace for several miles or so until they came to the place where the Sweetbriar Creek spilled down one side of the canyon and started its course for the De La Santa Barbara Valley. They stopped for just a few minutes to water the horses. Even though it hadn't been all that long or far that they had ridden, in the desert lands of the West, water was always taken advantage of any time it was nearby. No one knew what the day would hold, so it was best to water up while they could. Lijuan had mumbled something about the Sweetbriar water appearing okay beyond the valley but she hadn’t made any effort to elaborate.
The men and Catalina stayed mounted while the horses drank, all eyes alert to their surroundings. Their vigilance paid off. One of the soldiers at the far end of the row of drinking horses spotted movement in the scrubby bushes on the opposite bank. He was unsure if the movement was human or animal until his mount snorted softly and began sidestepping away from the river's edge. That was a sure sign there were Indians about.
He guided his nervous horse over to the lieutenant to notify him. He needn't have bothered, for just then a volley of arrows flew across the river. Most of them fell into the water, short of their intended marks. However, one grazed the shoulder of a soldier whose horse had stepped farther into the water. Instantly, the bugler sounded the Commence Firing call. Rifles were swung to shoulders, and the arrows were answered with bullets.
Catalina, knowing that the Apaches were likely all around them, looked back down the canyon the way they’d just come, and scanned the canyon walls for any sign of the enemy. Sure enough, she spotted two of them perched on a rock ledge about forty feet away. She aimed her Henry
repeater at one of them and squeezed the trigger. Her aim was perfect, and he fell to the canyon floor, dead. Before his companion realized what happened, he, too, joined the first one on the floor of the canyon, also very dead.
Quickly scanning the area behind, above, and in front of her, Lijuan spied another Apache running away. If he was out to bring more friends to the party she had no compunction about shooting him in the back, she jumped off her horse, steadied her aim, and fired, but he was running in a zigzag pattern, and she missed him. Lijuan's gunfire added wings to his feet, though, and he was soon out of sight. She turned her attention to the arrows and bullets flying back and forth across the river. Most of the arrows were still falling short. As the Apaches had some bushes to hide in, many of the bullets were not hitting their marks, either. Occasionally, there would be a yelp as a bullet collided with human flesh. But not being able to fully see their opponents made killing them most difficult.
It was then that Washburn made the call for them make a dash down the canyon to reach the valley.
“Running from a fight? Lijuan screeched, “My brother David is a captain in your same army, and he would never do that!”
“I’ve had about enough of you!” Washburn bristled his, eyes flashing in anger.
“Leave him alone, Lijuan! Don’t you see why he’s callin’ for us to run?” Catalina said. She loved Lijuan dearly, but her older sister could be exasperating when she went into her hellcat mode.
“Enlighten me!” Lijuan snarled as she swung herself up on her mount.
“We have a mission to take down those bandits terrorizing the valley. We can’t waste our ammunition battling these Apaches if we can avoid it. I thought you wanted to come to the aid of Miss Wilde?”
Lijuan fell silent. He had checkmated her, and she knew it. There was no time to stew on the matter as suddenly it seemed as if a floodgate had opened. Rapidly, from nowhere came an arrow from the canyon top, and landed right in front of them. Right after that, the group could hear the shrillest, eardrum-shattering screams being hollered from upon the canyon rim. Once the screams and blood-cries started, more arrows came blasting down the canyon walls hitting the ground all around them.
Into The Lair 0f Los Rey Lobo: Wildes 0f The West (Half Breed Haven Book 9) Page 12