Reckless Destiny

by Teresa Southwick

  He stood to his full height. From the gleam in his eye, she knew he took satisfaction from the fact that she had to look up slightly to him.

  “I’m a man, Miss Tanner. A man doesn’t hide with a bunch of little kids.”

  “I’m in charge here. And you’re not a man yet.”

  “Old enough.”

  She was scared and angry and in no mood to argue. “If you don’t get down behind those tables with the others this instant, you’ll be writing ‘I will obey my teacher’ until your hand falls off!”

  He didn’t move or say a word. She took hold of his earlobe.

  “Hey!” he hollered. “Ow! Let go!”

  She pulled him closer until she could see the fine reddish-gold hair on his chin that he would be taking a straight-edge to in a year or so, and spoke through gritted teeth. “Move, mister, behind those tables with the others, before this ear comes to rest on your shoulder. Do you understand?”

  “Yes’m,” he said meekly. He turned and, with one hand on the edge, leaped over the table and crouched down beside Bart Grimes.

  She stared at them and at the open window behind. “On second thought, Reynolds, there is something you can do.”

  “Yes’m?”

  “Stand guard at the window.” She thought for a minute. “But stay down and keep your head out of the way.”

  He nodded and crouched down beside it.

  “Bart and John, watch the younger ones.”

  The two boys nodded and she ran onto the boardwalk outside. The sun was bright, and it took her several seconds for her eyes to adjust. Then she saw Kane, standing just outside the door, pistol drawn, every muscle tensed, senses alert as he stared into the distance. Cady’s heart jumped a little at the sight of him. Then she followed his gaze and saw soldiers ringing the perimeter of the fort, all of them in identical poses, one knee in the sand, rifles raised and sighting an invisible enemy.

  She moved beside him and put her hand on his arm. “What is it, Indians?”

  “I’m not sure.” He barely shook his head as a bemused expression crossed his face.

  “We heard shots. They sounded like they were right outside the mess hall,” she said.

  “They weren’t like any gunshots I ever heard before.” Kane sounded puzzled.

  “Then what was it?”

  “I can’t say, but I intend to find out.” He looked down at her, and his mouth softened a little. “You stay inside. I’m taking a patrol out to—”

  “You’re going out there?” she asked, fear making her heart pound until she thought it might jump into her throat. “You can’t.”

  He didn’t give her any indication what he was thinking. “I have to.”

  “But why?”

  “Because it’s what a soldier does. You keep telling me not to interfere with you and the job you came here to do. Now it’s my turn.” He took her upper arm and started to turn her back toward the mess hall. “Go back inside with the children.”

  “But, Kane—”

  “You’ll be safe there.”

  “I’m not concerned about me. I’m worried about you.”

  The crunch of boots turned their attention to the enlisted man walking toward them. “Captain?”

  Kane dropped his hand from her arm. “What is it, White?”

  “I found something, sir, behind the mess hall.” He stopped in front of them and saluted Kane.

  In the soldier’s palm, Cady saw what looked like a half-smoked cigar with a singed string attached to it and blackened, exploded firecrackers at the other end.

  A muscle jerked convulsively in the captain’s cheek as he raised his eyes to the other man. “I think you just found our Indians, private.”

  7

  Kane saw the fear still clouding Cady’s wide-eyed gaze. The effects of it lingered in her pale cheeks, and her mouth looked pinched and tight. If he was right, the whole thing was a practical joke aimed at her. Anger smoldered inside him, but he tamped it down as the other man handed him the remains of the cigar and the firecrackers.

  They had burned recently; he could still smell the lingering odors of sulfur, gunpowder, and tobacco smoke.

  “Private, spread word that the danger’s passed.”

  “Yes, sir. Anything else?” The soldier looked at him impassively.

  Kane shook his head. “That’s all. Dismissed.”

  “Yes, sir.” The man saluted, turned on his heel, and walked away.

  “When I get my hands on that little hellion—”

  “Who?” Cady asked. “What are you talking about?”

  As he looked down at her, the fury he’d been fighting flared a little brighter. Part of it was directed at the redheaded scoundrel who had deceived everyone into thinking the fort was being attacked. Mostly, he was mad at himself and the feelings he couldn’t seem to control. In a time of danger, he hadn’t thought about signaling the call to arms or guarding the perimeter or taking cover.

  His first thought had been protecting Cady.

  “I’m going to wring his scrawny little neck.” Kane tried to rein in his temper.

  “Who?” Cady shaded her eyes with her hand as she continued to stare up at him. “What is it, captain?”

  “R. J.’s been up to mischief again.” A muscle jerked in his cheek as he gritted his teeth.

  “Does this mean you don’t have to lead a patrol out after the Indians?”

  He saw worry in her eyes and his breath caught for a second when he thought it might be for him. Then he realized he must be wrong. She’d never been through an Indian attack. She would naturally be afraid.

  “My only mission is to pursue and punish the miserable little scamp responsible for putting this military post on alert for no good reason.”

  “How can you be so sure it was Reynolds?”

  “Look at this cigar.” In his open palm, he pointed out the distinctive square cut on the end. “There’s only one person around here who smokes cheroots. They come all the way from San Francisco.”

  “You can’t mean the boy smokes those things.”

  “His father does. It would be easy enough for him to get one. Come to think of it, he probably did smoke it to get it going enough to set off the firecrackers.”

  “So that’s why he looked so pale when he came to school. And why his voice was hoarse.”

  As word spread of the false alarm Kane watched the soldiers around the perimeter slowly stand and look one last time into the distance for any hint of trouble. They shook their heads, wondering what was going on, then went about their business.

  Kane lifted his hat and, with his forearm, brushed away the sweat trickling into his eyes. “He’s in a lot of trouble this time,” he said, as he settled his hat low on his forehead.

  Cady put her hands on her hips and stared at the doorway of the mess hall. “This explains why he was so anxious to come out during the danger and see what was going on. It’s easy to be brave when you know there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  “I have a hunch that wasn’t the only thing he had in mind.”

  “Why do you think he did it?”

  “To get even with you.”

  She placed a hand on her breast. “Me?”

  Kane noticed that the hand still shading her eyes was shaking. She had been scared, but she hadn’t lost her head. He admired that. He would bet his captain’s bars that the prank had been intended to pay her back. He knew how much R. J.’s pride had suffered over the snake and how much he hated Cady for the punishment she had given him. The boy had to learn he couldn’t pull stunts like that. Kane would make R. J. Wexler wish he’d never been born.

  He stared at the mess hall door. Beyond it, in the shadowed interior, some of the children were starting to move around. “I think R. J. had a lot of reasons for what he did. But since you arrived, you’ve made him toe the line. My guess is that revenge is at the top of his list.”

  She watched soldiers walking by in twos and threes, back to their normal duties. A few women wi
th their babies had come outside and were talking excitedly. She looked back at him.

  “I can’t believe he’d do that.”

  He nodded grimly. “Believe it.”

  He walked her over to the doorway and poked his head in. Some of the tables were turned on their sides, but the children who had been crouched behind them were standing up. R. J. slouched lazily beside the window with a knowing grin on his face. Before Kane could go in and grab the boy by the collar, Cady spoke up beside him in the doorway.

  “Everything is all right, children. There are no Indians. It was a false alarm. Boys, will you turn the tables upright, please? We’ll get back to work in just a few moments.” She observed the activity for a few seconds, then nodded with satisfaction as her orders were being carried out.

  She slipped back outside and Kane followed to be sure she was really all right. She leaned her back against the adobe wall. He noticed the remains of anger, fear, and what he thought might be a sense of violation swirling in her eyes. But when she glanced up at him, he saw wariness too. That expression, he knew, was for him.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry about turning the tables over. I didn’t know what else to do, and I figured we should at least have some protection. Reynolds was our lookout. Isn’t that a laugh?”

  Kane glanced inside the mess hall. R. J. was standing with his back to the window and his arms crossed over his chest, a cocky stance. Some guard. He’d known there was nothing to watch for. It was time for the kid to have some of that brashness worked out of him.

  He stepped through the doorway and called out. “Wexler!”

  R. J. started, then stood up straight. “Yes, sir?”

  “I want to see you in my office. Pronto.”

  The boy’s face paled, but he nodded and walked toward Kane, hesitating when he was an arm’s length away. “Something wrong, Kane?”

  “It’s Captain Carrington. And we’ll discuss it in my office. That’s an order.”

  R. J. nodded and moved forward without another word. Kane stepped aside to let him pass, but he didn’t miss the irritated look meant for Cady as the boy brushed past her and on his way.

  Kane looked at Cady. “You did exactly what I would have done in your place.”

  She went completely still, as if his words amazed her. “I did?”

  He nodded. “But you should have stayed inside.”

  “I had to see if you—I mean, I couldn’t stand not knowing what was happening.”

  “Curiosity could get you killed.” He heard the edge of irritation in his own voice. She looked startled, but he wasn’t about to explain that, when he’d first heard the noise, getting to her had been all he could think about.

  His initial reaction should have been to protect his men. Ever since the day he’d joined up, the army had been the most important thing to him, like family. But instead of protecting his command as he’d been trained, he’d gone to Cady.

  He’d known from the first moment he laid eyes on her that she’d be trouble. It didn’t improve his disposition any to know he’d been proved right.

  “I’ll try to control my curiosity from now on,” she said.

  “It’s advice that might just save your life one day. Next time, take cover and stay put. For God’s sake, keep your head down or you’re liable to get it shot off.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Just do as you’re told, Cady. Follow orders.”

  “Yes, sir, captain.” She straightened, stiff as a fireplace poker, pulled her shoulders back, and saluted. Her exaggerated military stance pushed her soft, rounded breasts against the material of her blouse. No soldier he’d ever seen filled out his clothes in quite that appealing way.

  In spite of his annoyance, he couldn’t help smiling. “You wouldn’t make a very good soldier.”

  “What are you grinning at? And what makes you so sure I wouldn’t make a good soldier?” Irritation flashed in her green eyes.

  He wanted to say because she wouldn’t fit the uniform. He decided against it. “You question every order you’re given. A good soldier doesn’t do that.”

  “It’s good to ask questions.”

  “If you’re a student”—he looked at her intensely—”or a teacher. But a soldier needs to obey without question. Someone’s life could depend on him.”

  “You mean you do what someone else tells you even if you think it’s wrong or there might be a better way?”

  “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  She nodded emphatically. “Then you’re absolutely right. I wouldn’t make a good soldier.”

  Or a soldier’s wife. He shook his head, wondering where that thought had come from. He pushed it away as fast as it had popped into his mind.

  “This discussion is getting us nowhere,” he said.

  “Truer words were never spoken. Isn’t that a wonder? We agree about something.” She took a deep breath. “Stimulating as this conversation is, captain, I need to get back to the children.”

  “And I need to come up with a suitable punishment for R. J., something that will make him think twice before pulling a dangerous stunt like this again.” He tried to gauge her reaction to his words. “This is an army problem. What he did could have caused serious harm to everyone here in the fort.”

  “You’re absolutely right.”

  “If anyone had panicked or shot without thinking, someone could have gotten hurt.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  “He needs to have a lesson he won’t forget.”

  “Without a doubt,” she said.

  He realized she wasn’t arguing, just agreeing as he blew off steam. She looked up at him, her big green eyes wide and beautiful, with only a small amount of her recent irritation with him still evident.

  “What’s wrong, captain?”

  “I expected you’d want to deal with him.”

  “Why? This is an army problem.” She turned and went inside.

  Kane rubbed the back of his neck. Just when he thought he had her figured out, she surprised him again. She was probably just about the most ornery, interesting, keep-a-man-on-his-toes female he’d ever met. That was the most annoying thing of all.

  Ten minutes later Kane looked at R. J. Wexler, lounging in his office, and got mad all over again. What the kid had done was serious. But Kane knew his anger was bigger, hotter, harder, because of Cady. Not just because the prank was directed at her, although the thought of it made him want to wring R. J.’s neck. But it brought home to him what he’d known since Jack Tanner dumped his beautiful little sister in Kane’s lap: She was trouble.

  R. J. sat on the simple wooden chair in front of the desk. “Kane, what’s the—”

  “Stand up straight,” he said, grinding out every word through gritted teeth.

  The kid jumped at his harsh tone, and his blue eyes grew round. He put his hands in his pockets and lowered his gaze.

  “Pull your shoulders back, chest out. Act like a man.” Kane slapped his palms on the crisscross of white scratches that marred the top of his desk. “Look me in the eye.”

  The boy’s gaze snapped up. Beads of sweat gathered on his upper lip. “Wh-what’s wrong, Kane?”

  “I told you before, it’s Captain Carrington to you.”

  So he’d decided to play dumb instead of owning up to what he did. Kane was disappointed in him. Whatever mischief R. J. had done in the past, he’d always admitted his part in it.

  He took a deep, calming breath. “I’ll give you one more chance to come clean. Did you set those firecrackers to go off outside Miss Tanner’s schoolroom?”

  Something flickered in the kid’s eyes, but he shook his head. “Don’t know nothin’ about it.”

  Kane showed him what was left of the cigar and the small explosives. “Have you ever seen this before?”

  “You gotta let me—”

  “Yes or no.” Kane gave him a stern look. He hoped R. J. would do the right thing.

  T
he boy’s shoulders slumped and all the starch seemed to go out of him. “Yes. I seen it before.”

  Kane nodded approvingly. He was still mad as hell about what the boy had done, but it would have been a lot worse if R. J. had kept up the lie. “I’m glad you decided to tell the truth. Why did you set off the firecrackers? Were you trying to scare Miss Tanner?”

  “It was easy. She’s a tenderfoot, not like the rest of us.” R. J. relaxed and rubbed a knuckle across the freckles on his nose. “It was pretty funny the way she—”

  Kane surged to his feet, furious at the way the boy mentioned Cady in that offhand manner. He knew the kid understood the intensity of his anger when R. J. tipped his head back, stared up, and blinked his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and then down as he swallowed hard and then backed up two steps. It was a good thing he moved out of reach. Kane knew if he touched him right now, he’d be hard put to keep himself from blistering the boy’s backside. Although R. J. deserved it, that was his father’s place.

  He pointed at the boy. “You’re in a lot of trouble, mister.”

  “Are ya gonna wallop me?”

  “No.” The kid let out a relieved breath and Kane grinned without humor. “What I have in mind is worse than a licking. For the next four weeks, whenever you’re not in Miss Tanner’s schoolroom, you’ll be digging an outhouse.”

  “You can’t make me do that!” he cried defensively. “My pa—”

  “Your father would agree with me. He’s the commanding officer. He’s in charge of everything that happens at this fort.” Kane leaned forward slightly. “Someone could have been injured or killed because of your damn shenanigans. What do you think that would do to his reputation, not to mention his career?”

  “I was just funnin’.”

  “Your ‘fun’ could’ve killed someone. Because of your sh—” He took a deep breath. “Because of what you did, I think it’s an appropriate punishment detail.” R. J. opened his mouth to protest. “Get a shovel from the stable. Lieutenant Brewster will show you where to start digging.”

  “But school’s still in,” he protested, his voice going up a few notches until it cracked.

  “I don’t think Miss Tanner wants to see your sorry hide any more than I do. Now git. I don’t want to hear another word out of you.”