by Piper, Marie
Appie always slept near the wagon, so Emma took to sleeping in the same area. Not wanting to be around the jovial men and their dinnertime chatter, she’d take her bedroll and immediately set it up by the wheels of the wagon. As soon as dinner had been cleared, she’d go right to her bed and lie awake for hours. Bill hadn’t come near her in days, except for when she couldn’t be avoided. He took off for the herd early, and didn’t come back to sleep until almost everyone was already snoring. Each night, Emma lay watching the fire and waiting for him to return. She knew he wouldn’t speak to her, but she couldn’t sleep without being sure of his safety.
On their third night in the pass, the howl of a coyote made Emma jump. When she saw that Appie noticed, she pulled her legs up to cross them beneath her. The troublesome ankle felt much better. She barely noticed it anymore. “I don’t like the night anymore.”
“I’ve spent some time alone in the woods.” Appie nodded in understanding. “It ain’t something a body forgets. Sometimes the night makes me uneasy too.”
“In the war?” she asked. “Did you fight?”
“I wasn’t lucky enough to be a soldier.” Appie traced a finger in the dirt. “I was running for my freedom. Never going to forget it. Each twig snapping had me thinking it was a Confederate come to drag me back. A few of my friends were with me, and all I could think of was how I’d keep us all together and alive. I’d rather have run into a coyote, let me tell you.”
“I sometimes forget that my problems aren’t the biggest in the world,” Emma said.
“I reckon everyone feels that way from time to time. Folks always got bigger problems than someone else. We’re no more than specks in a big cloud of dust, when it comes down to it. None of us.”
“When did you come to the ranch?”
“I found my way to Laredo. Josiah came in to post a notice he was hiring some men. The McKenzie ranch was smaller during the war, but the army needed beef, so they started driving the cows north to Kansas and wherever the troops needed them to go. One day in town, I walked up to Josiah and signed on. Was the only man of color on the ranch, and he was either too smart or too stupid to ask me where I’d come from. But I worked hard, and over time we came to be friends. And I have stayed on, even though I’m too old to ride a horse all day anymore. I always liked cooking and tending to things more than driving cows.”
“You’re wonderful at it. The men all adore you.”
Appie smiled a little. “I’ve known the boys since they was babies. My Deborah and I were at the house for each one of their births, save for Saul, who was born while we were out on the trail one year. As soon as they could walk, Josiah had them doing chores on the ranch and learning to ride.”
“Andrew being fired is my fault.”
“Andrew being fired is Andrew’s fault. That boy, from the time he could make words, was belligerent and vile-mouthed. Drove Maureen near crazy. She had Bill, and Jess, and Pete. All three of them were the sweetest-tempered children ever put on this earth, and then along came Andrew. He’s the spitting image of Maureen, but not a hair like her in spirit. She’s as warm and loving a woman as they come. She had her hands full with Andrew. Then Saul came, another sweet-tempered boy. And then Theo, just like Andrew, only smaller.”
“Bill doesn’t talk about Theo.”
“None of them do.” Appie poked at the fire. “There ain’t much good to remember of him. Andrew, once in a blue moon, had moments of being at least amusing. Theo wanted to fight and drink, and that was all. He got himself arrested in Cricket Bend. Bill bailed him out, and Theo was right furious and went back to that town even though we all told him not to. He crossed paths with a meaner man, and they found him in a barn with a cut throat.”
“That’s horrible.” Emma pulled her jacket around her shoulders.
“It was, but it wasn’t a terrible surprise. Now, if it had been Jess, or Pete, it would have been a sad tragedy. They’re sometimes reckless, and they drink too much when they go to town, but they’re not bad ones. They’ll settle down and make good husbands one of these days. Same as Bill will, if the day ever comes he meets the right woman. Unless he already has.”
She didn’t miss the look Appie cast her way. “I don’t think I’m the one he’s looking for.”
“Maybe not. But you’re the one he needs.”
“First, he’d have to be willing to speak to me again.”
“He will.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that man has a heart as big as the whole West. And he gave it to you.”
“I might have broken it.”
“Maybe it’s bruised, but it’s not broken. Bruises heal. Broken is forever.”
Emma gave Appie a smile. “I will miss you when I leave.”
“Unless you don’t go.”
“I have to. Appie, I’m so close to the man I’ve been chasing.”
“Think about this: you’ve gotten by these past weeks without this man you’re chasing, or the money he stole. Maybe you’re not meant to have either.”
Emma didn’t know what to say in response. Fate had never been something she’d ever put stock in. After coming all this way, could she really just give up on finding Hank and reclaiming her things? After everything Bill had learned, would there even be a point in doing so? His anger at her was obvious, and maybe the best course of action was to carry on. Her head rolled with jumbled thoughts, so she lay down to sleep in the hopes she’d wake with a clearer head.
Instead, she woke to the sound of a gunshot. As she came awake, she noticed the strange sensation of rumbling beneath her. The ground began to shake. The earth she lay upon was moving.
Off a ways, she heard what sounded like distant thunder.
Suddenly, Appie grabbed her to pull her up so she stood on her bare feet. “Get to Maggie. Now.”
Emma heard the noise growing louder, joining with other sounds of a low timbre. It all seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The hairs on her neck stood up. “What’s happening?”
The horses began to huff and whinny. Emma saw the shapes of the sleeping men rising from their bedrolls and running off in all directions.
“The herd,” Appie said, grabbing everything he could and throwing it in the back of the wagon with no hesitation or attention to where it landed. “Get yourself on Maggie and get far away from here. Go the way the cows aren’t going. And don’t you come back until you can see it’s calm again,” he said over his shoulder, moving faster each moment.
“But what’s going on?” Emma didn’t understand. She grabbed his arm. “Appie!”
“It’s a stampede,” Appie cried. “Go!”
By then, the whole drive had fallen into chaos. Emma looked around for the horses, and went in the direction where she’d last seen Saul in charge of them. She walked, and then she ran. Fear traveled through everyone and every animal she passed, and it seeped into her until she felt rising panic. By the time she located Saul, he had a bucking horse on a line, and a circle of other terrified horses stamping around him.
In the dark swirl of moving animals, it was impossible to find Maggie. Emma knew she needed to get out of there quickly, before she got hurt. Someone was going to get hurt, she feared. She thought of grabbing another horse, but she didn’t trust any of them.
She had to find Maggie.
“Sparrow!” Saul called. He gestured to a spot that was a few yards away.
There was Maggie, stomping and skittish, but close enough for Emma to run to and grab. Reaching her, Emma touched Maggie’s muzzle before pulling herself awkwardly up on Maggie’s bare back and taking hold of her mane.
Emma took in the craziness all around.
The usually organized herd of cows and horses had gone everywhere. The night’s landscape was dotted with white. The herd had splintered off into smaller packs of animals running in every direction. Emma tried to spot any of the men she owed her life to. Appie stood on the seat of the wagon, as far from harm’s way as h
e could probably get. She saw Josiah race through the thick mass of troubled cows, and Ollie wielded a whip to keep a group of cows from charging back the way they’d come.
Every man she didn’t see sent a spear of fear through her.
Jess, Pete, Nick, Blue, Hiram. Anyone who wasn’t accounted for could be dead, trampled.
Worst of all, Bill was nowhere to be seen.
And where had the gunshot come from? There had been a gunshot, hadn’t there? Had she dreamed that part?
Maggie was uneasy. She lost her footing and stumbled, and Emma was nearly thrown. Doing as Appie had instructed, Emma turned the horse away from the growing madness and kicked her into a run heading in the opposite direction the drive had come. She bent forward over Maggie’s neck, and didn’t look back until they’d found a safe place to stop. The pass narrowed, limiting how far she could go, but she felt it was far enough. From her seat, she watched the men riding like warriors, trying to wrangle the fearful cows and horses back into order.
As she took in the unfolding stampede, a deep and terrible fear punched her in the gut.
She’d only felt fear so strong one time in her life.
She remembered Angus Keene. She remembered glass breaking on his face, and the flames on his clothing trailing down to the floor. Unable to breathe or make sound, all she’d been able to do was run. So, she ran.
She was always running—from or to something. Right then, she could run. Race past everything and out of the pass and be on her way to Cricket Bend before anyone realized she was gone. With her money, she could forget all about the McKenzie drive and the trouble she’d caused.
A rider broke away from the rest to go after a trio of horses trying to get away. The horses, running hard, headed toward where she and Maggie stood.
The rider had to be Saul. Left to handle nearly a hundred terrified horses alone, he’d been outnumbered. The sweet man could use another set of hands, even if they were her own.
If she and Maggie went back, they could cut the running horses off. Maybe they could slow them down a bit. Maybe it would be enough to let Saul catch them. Maybe it would be the difference between his facing the challenge alone and getting hurt and a successful outcome.
“Damnation and hellfire!” Emma hollered to no one. She was as much a part of this drive as any of the men were. Even if it was the stupidest idea of her entire life, she was going to help.
“Forgive me,” she whispered to Maggie as she drove her bare heels into the horse’s sides.
Maggie took off down the slight hill of the valley. Both of them turned to come right at the three horses. Emma waved at Saul and rode straight for the charging beasts, who were startled by her appearance, skittered, and tried to stop before attempting to run again.
Saul leapt from his horse and caught the lead of one who was still dragging theirs. That horse bucked, but Saul held on and brought him back to the earth. The horse calmed a little. Saul tossed the lead to Emma, before grabbing a rope from his saddle and going after another, who stood, stomping, not far off. After a few jumpy starts, Saul managed to get a rope around the horse, and lead it back to the group. The third horse was gone, running as fast as he could run.
“Are you crazy, riding in like that?” Saul asked in a scolding tone. His face was white.
“Appie told me to get far away,” Emma said, by way of explanation.
“But you came back.”
Emma nodded.
“Glad you’re not that good at listening to orders,” Saul replied. “We can take these two back. Then you can help me round up that one and a couple others who broke free. Cows, we can catch later. Horses can go miles when terrified.”
“I’ll help you,” she answered.
She followed him, and they led the nervous horses back into the fray and tied them.
The cows who had hung back from the rush were still roaming in all directions around them, and dust filled the air. Emma nearly choked.
Most of the cows were gone, along with most of the McKenzie men. They’d charged ahead through the pass, and god alone knew how far they had gone.
Bill would be up there, in the middle of all the greatest danger. Everyone else would be with him. In all likelihood, one or more of the men would be hurt, or worse. Emma’s hands started to shake at the thought of death being upon them. Josiah had thought she was a bad omen, and maybe she was after all.
“You can’t help,” Saul said.
She knew it was the truth.
“They’ll handle it,” he said. “Let them. Come on. There’s plenty of work to be done here and now.”
With a glance in the direction Bill would be, Emma realized he was right. She didn’t even have a saddle. She certainly wasn’t an experienced cattleman. All she could do, if she went charging in to the madness, was cause more trouble. Staying back was best. This was where she could be of use.
Bill knew what he was doing. All of them would know what to do.
She had to believe that.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Bill
Josiah McKenzie’s premonition of bad luck had come true.
The cows went every direction, loud and heavy and not stopping for anything. Bill and Pete met up, and Blue came up after them, and they headed up toward the front of the herd.
As they circled the herd, the men would need to all ride in one direction, pushing the cows into a smaller and smaller circle until they couldn’t move anymore. That was the only way to slow the herd and stop them from being lost in the pass. Edges and drop-offs were everywhere, and they could surprise a man or cow who wasn’t paying close attention.
Bill looked around for the rest of his men. He saw most of them.
Jess should have been on patrol, but he was still unaccounted for. Bill’s heart wouldn’t beat again until he laid eyes on his brother alive and well. He refused to think Jess might be lying somewhere in the dirt, already a pulp beneath their hooves. He rode on, fast as wind. Nick picked up his trail and fell into line, circling cows and stopping them from moving forward until they reached around the area where Jess should have been.
Josiah had arrived a moment earlier, and they met him at the point where the cows had stopped. They simply wouldn’t go further ahead.
“God damn,” Pete exclaimed, as they learned why.
King lay in a pool of dark blood, which was swirling to mud in the dirt.
The imposing longhorn, the leader of the rest, had been taken down with one bullet and a slit throat. His nearly pure white coat was stained with the red of gore and death, and his large eyes were still open. Thanks to his big horns, his head couldn’t lie flat, so it stayed at a strange angle.
Bill smelled the blood. A bitter taste came to his mouth.
“Jess!” Pete pointed to a shape on the ground in the distance.
Everyone rushed toward him, the collective hope that Jess still lived consuming all their thoughts and prayers.
As the men got close, Jess stirred.
“Hot damn.” Pete dropped to his knees by his brother’s side. He helped Jess sit up as the rest of the men reached him.
“What in the hell?” Josiah exclaimed as he leapt from his horse. “Are you hurt, son?”
Jess held his head as Pete got him up to his feet. “I’ll live. Son of a bitch.”
“Did you see who hit you?” Josiah asked.
Jess was dazed, but rose to standing. “No. There was no one around but the cows. It was dead quiet. They were fine. Nick was on watch with me, but I sent him back early, it was so quiet.” Jess noticed King laying in the dirt. “Poor choice of words, I reckon.”
“Lucky you didn’t get trampled,” Bill said.
“What in the hell happened to him?” Jess asked.
They all stared at the corpse of the bull, the leader of their herd. No one had an answer for Jess’ question.
“Where’s everyone else?” Jess asked.
“Don’t know,” Pete said. “I saw Appie with the wagon, and Hiram and Ollie wen
t off that way to grab some scatterers.”
“Saul.” Josiah realized who wasn’t with them. “He’d have stayed with the horses.”
All the horses. Nearly a hundred scared horses ready to run for their lives, and Saul left alone to handle them. Bill hoped his little brother had the smarts to not try and keep them calm. Letting them all run wild and getting them later would make more work, but it’d more likely keep him alive.
“Where’s Sparrow?” Jess looked at Bill.
Emma. Bill’s eyes grew wide as he realized she wasn’t there. In all the madness of the stampede, he’d pushed everything but the drive from his mind. Surely she’d have fled either on foot or horseback as far from the drive and danger as possible. The woman’s instinct to run might have kept her alive yet again.
But if she’d stayed? She might have, mightn’t she? If she cared for him as she’d claimed to, she might have stayed and come looking for him.
Regardless of what had happened between them, she adored Saul and Appie and the other men, as well as Maggie and the rest of the horses. She might have been alone in the night, surrounded by cows and horses and men gone wild. Any number of things could have happened to her.
And someone had murdered King.
Bill knew immediately who’d done it.
He got on his horse and headed back to where camp had been, his brothers following. Jess hopped on behind Pete, and they rode together, since Jess’s horse was long gone.
“Saints alive!” Nick yelled as they saw people up ahead.
Bill felt relief wash over him.
Saul and Emma were together, handling a fairly serene group of horses. Appie held three horses by their leads as well, but waved to the approaching riders. Bill let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding when he saw the three of them alive and unharmed. Saul jumped from his horse and took the leads of two more and tied them. Emma led another one over to him.