The silence was eating at her, giving her too much time to worry. “Where do you live anyway?”
“Southeast of Divide.” Tom picked up the pace, as if he meant to run away from her questions.
Well, let him try. “How close to Belle Harden?”
“She lives a long way to the northwest, but I run across her once in a while.”
Something moved in the woods.
Mandy’s hand was on her rifle before she was aware of the motion.
“Careful, it’s one of the—”
“I know.” Mandy cut Tom off, furiously. “Part of being good with a rifle is knowing what I’m shooting at. Did you think I’d just start unloading bullets into the underbrush?”
Mandy’s heart pounded because she’d come perilously close to doing just that before she recognized the slender Shoshone brave, riding his horse, shadowing them in the woods. The horse’s unshod hooves barely sounded on the soft forest floor. The man emerged, long and lean, dressed in buckskin pants and no shirt, carrying a spear and riding a pinto pony bareback.
The trail widened, and they were riding down a smooth meadow, sloping away in the moonlight. Mandy knew this land well and knew they could make good time for the next hour in this direction.
“Let’s put some space between us and that gap.” Tom’s voice was hard, commanding. And he didn’t wait to be obeyed. He kicked his horse and began a steady, ground-eating gallop.
Another Shoshone appeared silently as a ghost from the woods. The hoof beats became a steady drum like the rolling of distant thunder as more and more of her friends rode out of the night. They drew nearer until they were riding, surrounding her, flowing with her over hills and down swales, around rocky outcroppings between wooded areas.
“What’s that?” A deep rumbling from behind them caused Tom to pull his horse up and wheel back toward the direction they’d come.
“Thunder?” Mandy looked over her shoulder into the night sky. Starlit, no sign of an approaching storm.
“That’s all this night needs is rain.” Tom turned and rode on.
“An avalanche, maybe.” Mandy’s skin crawled for no reason she could understand, and she rode quickly after Tom. Whatever that was, it was far behind them and made no difference to this journey. The only difference it might make was if that gap had collapsed, something Mandy used to worry about when she passed through it.
Now, she turned her attention to the far more likely possibility of being cut down by gunfire.
Cord stood from behind the sheltering rock. The air was still full of dirt, but all the rock had settled down. In the darkness, he could see that they’d turned the gap to rubble.
“Now let’s hunt for my brothers.” J.D. was a tough man, but he couldn’t keep the tremor out of his voice.
Cord wanted to go out and holler up to that overlook where the witch woman lived, make sure she knew who’d locked her in. Whether it was the explosion or his own pleasure at finally taking action against the woman, Cord felt none of that spookiness that had plagued him almost from the beginning.
The woods felt safe, empty. Even the night critters were scared back into their holes by that explosion. “Start hunting.” J.D. knew better than to hunt.
“We’ve never found a single man, J.D.” Cord would have hunted, though, if it’d been his brother.
“This time I’m not stopping until I do.” J.D. whirled, like he was going to storm off on his own. But he didn’t. No one wanted to be alone.
“This’d be a good time to remember Cooters stick together. Let’s not go off alone.” Cord wouldn’t have gone along except for the faded sense of spookiness.
Maybe they’d driven off the evil spirits with the dynamite. “First light will be coming soon. Then we’ll keep looking until we piece together what’s happened.”
J.D. jerked his chin, satisfied with the decision. They went as a pack to study the place where J.D.’s brothers were last seen.
There were four or five Shoshone riders in front of Mandy and as many behind her. It was the whole family, children, women, young men and old.
No one talked as they galloped along. She’d certainly spoken to her friends and protectors in the last year. But they were a quiet people, and she wasn’t even sure of their names, though she recognized faces.
They weren’t even really her guards. And they were goodhearted, peaceful people. But they did walk the woods all around her home. And they could defend that land if forced to. Their very presence kept the Cooters back. She rarely spoke to them or even saw them, but a few times one of them would come to the house for some reason. She’d heard stories in their broken English of Cooters being stopped, but she didn’t ask how. She did know the villains had chosen to leave her alone as long as she stayed in her mountaintop home, and she gave these people credit.
They reached a narrow spot in the trail that wound sharply downward. Tom, who kept the lead, slowed his horse to a fast walk along the treacherous path. The trail dipped lower and widened.
Mandy rode up beside Tom to check on the children. Both were fast asleep. Catherine was dozing on her lap.
The trail wound back and forth across the face of the mountain. Jagged peaks rose high over their heads as they descended.
“Let’s stay to a walk for a while. The horses are blowing hard.” Tom glanced at her, his face weathered, his expression determined, as if he expected her to start fussing at him again.
Like a nagging woman rather than one of the straightest shooters in the West.
“Why did your husband build up there anyway? Stupid place for a house.”
Mandy sniffed. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Reckon I’m not quite dumb enough to figure out what Lord Gray was thinking.”
“Lord Gray, that’s about right.”
“And you’re Lady Gray. That’s why you dress as you do, right?”
“I dress in gray because it was one of Sidney’s quirks. It seemed like he came up with a new one with every sunrise. Gray clothes, gray like his name.”
“And he dressed you?”
“No, he went to town. I didn’t.”
“Never?”
“I had three small children, and Helena is a brutally hard day’s ride. Why would I go to town?”
“So you wear gray because …?”
Mandy saw clearly he didn’t get it.
“Because if any clothing or fabric was purchased, Sidney bought it, and he bought gray. I could make my clothing and the children’s clothing in gray, or we could go without. I’m lucky the man didn’t make the children wear gray flannel diapers. I suspect it’s hard to find, or he’d have done even that.”
“I’ve mentioned this before.” Tom arched one eyebrow. “But your husband—”
“Was an idiot.” Mandy cut him off. “I know.”
“And is that why he built his home all of gray stone?”
Mandy almost laughed. It ended up being more of a snort. A cranky snort. “Well, Tom, stone is gray almost all the time, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“So the color of Gray Tower is just a coincidence?”
“Actually it is mostly. Although he could have just built a log cabin. But Sidney loved building himself a castle, and castles are made of stone. It probably is what set him on his gray clothing obsession. Gray for his name, Gray Tower for his house, gray suits. And he built up there because it suited him to be above everyone. He could play at being a king.”
“It’s a wonder he bought my black horses.”
“He wouldn’t have later on, after he became obsessed with all things gray.”
“All on top of a gray mountain. And why’d he build it up there, so far from everything?”
Mandy sighed. “For the simple reason that Sidney had a thirst for looking down on people.”
“But he was an idiot; everyone thought so. There’s not a man in these mountains that doesn’t consider him a fool and look down on him. They laughed when he died and asked how the no-account manag
ed to survive as long as he did. How could he look down on anyone?”
“I doubt you said to his face you thought poorly of him.”
“Well, no, of course I didn’t.”
“The answer is simple then. He didn’t know. He thought highly of himself because of his money and assumed everyone else felt the same.” Mandy shrugged. “I’m not sure Sidney was completely rational toward the end. He couldn’t have noticed anyone who disagreed with his delusion. It made no sense to imagine being high up in some far-off place made you important. Someone had to see you showing off to be impressed. And someone has to speak to you, to tell you how powerful and important you are. I think in his calmer moments he knew that. He never even stayed in that house much. He’d go to Helena at least once a month, often twice. And he’d stay away a week or more. The shortest trips he made were six days. He took longer trips occasionally.”
“You said Helena was a hard day’s ride.”
“Yes, and Luther always made it in two days. Once in a while it would take three. But Sidney didn’t care much for roughing it. He preferred leisurely two-day rides in. Then, once he was in town, he stayed and conducted business. Lived in the best hotel, ate good food.”
Spent time with dance hall girls. Mandy didn’t say that aloud.
“Leaving you up here alone with the children?”
“Like I was when Jarrod was born.”
Tom had come to deliver horses and ended up next thing to delivering her baby. She’d known back then how things were between Tom and her. A bond had formed that day. It was the kind of shared experience that made a man climb a mountain to get to a woman. And made Mandy ignore common sense and ride out into the dangerous world with him.
“Sidney’s trips to town usually lasted a week or two. Sometimes he stayed away more than a month. He told me he rode to Denver on those occasions to have a visit with his gold.” That hadn’t been true, as Mandy found out much later.
She’d given Sidney the bad news, after Jarrod was born, that she’d never share a bed with him again. There would be no more babies born between them. He’d kicked up a fuss, but Mandy hadn’t been able to stand the thought of his touching her. She’d blamed it on Sidney’s behavior, but now she wondered if it wasn’t at least partly because of how she felt about Tom.
“After Jarrod’s birth, Sidney stayed away even more. I … I strongly suspect …” Mandy hadn’t meant to start this. She did a lot more than suspect. Sidney had flaunted it.
“That there was another woman?”
Mandy nodded. “I wasn’t going to risk being alone with another baby to birth, and I told him so. He got difficult. He seemed to no longer care what anyone thought of him, as if everyone was beneath him, and that most definitely included me. I suppose that means he did care for me, at least a little, if I could hurt him that way. But I was too angry to be swayed, and he had his son. That was enough for him.
“He’d gotten self-indulgent and sullen. He gained an amount of weight that should have been impossible in the West, with it taking so much work to provide food. But Sidney lived high when he was away from home. Or so I assume. Lavish meals, not a minute’s worth of hard labor. His appetite for food was as large as his appetite for grandeur. He completely quit paying attention to me or the children, even Jarrod. When he was home, he sequestered himself in a huge room in his stupid fortress, with a masterful view of all that was beneath him.” Mandy hesitated. “And he began watching the stars.”
“The stars?” Tom’s brow furrowed.
Mandy realized she could see him quite clearly. The night was waning, and the sun was pushing its way toward the horizon. Another day began. How many did they have before the Cooters came?
“Yes. When he spoke at all, he spoke of constellations and comets and planets. I think he begrudged anything that was above him.”
“Even the stars?” Tom laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it.
“Yes. I was watching the stars when you jumped me.”
“A scope? Was that what you held? I thought at first it was your rifle.”
“No, it was Sidney’s telescope. I’ve taken a liking to stargazing. The scope went flying over the cliff when you tackled me. It’s the one thing I’ll miss from that fortress.”
“Because now you begrudge anything that is above you?”
“No.” She controlled the urge to punch him as they moved along side-by-side in the dampness of dawn. “Just the opposite. To remind me of how small I am. How alone. How completely I have to depend on God who could create the heavens.”
“Nothing like the Montana Rockies to remind a person of God.” Tom looked around and saw that they had a clear stretch ahead. “My horse isn’t breathing hard anymore. Let’s try and make some time.”
He kicked his horse into a gallop, and Mandy fell in behind him again, glad that the talk had ended. Glad to think of something other than her wretched marriage.
“Cord, over here. I found two sets of tracks.” J.D.’s voice brought everyone running.
“Your brothers didn’t come riding out of that gap.” Cord studied the ground, and those tracks were clear. And enough debris had settled on them that it was undeniable that someone had ridden out of that gap shortly before the dynamite had gone off.
“She got away!” Fergus howled like a wolf with his tail in a crack.
“But she broke from cover.” Cord suddenly had a chance at what he’d thought he’d lost. Like a bird that’d been flushed from the scrub brush, Lady Gray had run. That meant she was away from this awful haunted ground. Maybe there was still a chance he could have everything he wanted. The lady and the gold. He faced the direction the tracks led and almost smelled the running prey. “We can get her now.”
His cousins and Fergus all got it the first second he spoke out loud. Lady Gray had left her fortress, and she’d left this spooky, cursed woodland.
“Let’s ride.” Cord swung into the saddle and kicked his horse into the fastest gallop the trail would allow.
Five
The ride went on, slow in spots, faster when the terrain allowed. Occasional breaks when one of the little ones had to be seen to in some way or other.
Mandy noticed several of the Shoshone braves pick up speed and ride ahead as if Tom had ordered it. But Mandy’d been watching, and Tom had given no order. How long had he been planning this?
Catherine slept in Mandy’s lap, and she saw no sign of the children being active on Tom’s horse.
The sun began to show itself. Mandy knew she should be exhausted, but she was exhilarated. She was free.
And the Cooters were now free to come for her.
God, forgive me. I’ll bring trouble with me to Tom and anyone else who tries to protect me. But it feels so good to be free. Thank You. Protect me. Protect my children. Protect Tom and these wonderful people who have guarded my home and all the new people that I will brush up against.
Mandy knew she needed to get away from everyone who mattered to her. But how? How could she protect her children away from the fortress?
The land grew more civilized, at least compared to where Mandy had been living. There were open valleys, pastures full of cattle. They startled a herd of elk and, as they forded a stream, scared a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs.
Enough of the land was rugged that the horses walked and had a rest from time to time. The Shoshone people stayed at her side like a human barrier from attack, and it tightened Mandy’s throat to see their loyalty. Though she’d tried to be a good neighbor to them, mainly their loyalty came from the love of these people for Wise Sister. That love and loyalty might well get them killed.
The burden of that had kept Mandy sequestered for this last year. And now, to be out, to be free … The guilt and the longing were so powerful she was reduced to following Tom’s orders. Like a brainless sheep.
Standing idly by while a man came courting Emma was killing Belle Harden, and when something went to killing Belle, her very first instinct was to kill it rig
ht back.
It was in that spirit that she kept an eagle eye on Emma’s beau.
It was the longest night of Belle’s life. And she’d had four wedding nights, given birth to six children, and married off a daughter against her will. Belle’s will, not Lindsay’s. Lindsay had been all for that wedding.
But none of it had been this bad.
Marrying off Lindsay had been bad, but it had been quick. This could drag on for a long time. It’d better.
But that meant it was awful to watch.
Silas had rounded up the young man, and Belle hadn’t been quick enough on her feet to prevent the meeting.
“She’s not old enough for a beau, Silas,” Belle hissed in his ear, feeling for all the world like a rattlesnake. She had fangs, too, and she wasn’t afraid to use them.
“She’s a woman grown, Belle. What was I supposed to do when Linscott asked if the young man could meet my daughter?” Silas stood beside her on the tidy porch of the house he’d built for them right after their marriage. He’d added on a bedroom since then. Good thing with the family growing.
“You could have shot Linscott. That man has been a thorn in my flesh for years.” Belle thought of the beautiful black stallion that had been born to one of her older mares from Linscott’s runaway stud and almost forgave the varmint.
The varmint being Linscott. She forgave his stallion easily enough.
Linscott had shown up and tried to make Belle pay the outlandish stud fees. They’d both known he was wasting his time, but it had given Belle a chance to gloat, so she’d let him stay and complain for a while. The gloating, combined with that beautiful foal, now one of her top horses and earning her stud fees of her own, had been enough fun that she’d almost forgiven Linscott.
But not quite. And now she could draw on that old grudge to stir up her temper into a wicked storm complete with lightning bolts coming out of her eyes and stabbing right into Mark Reeves.
Belle’s eyes slipped to where Emma and that whippersnapper walked, a good three feet of space between them, along the corral, talking horses, Belle hoped. They neared the corner of the barn, and to keep the young couple squarely in sight, Belle leaned sideways and conked her head on the post that held up the roof of their porch.
Sophie's Daughters Trilogy Page 64