by Sharon Ihle
As that deep sense of belonging gave way to her usual loneliness, Shylo stared up at the cluster of stars high overhead. Even the mood of the desert as dawn approached seemed to reflect her empty existence. All was still, too still. The animals of the night were quiet now, burrowing into dens to sleep through the blistering day, while the sun-loving creatures remained hidden in slumber, the air too cold yet to venture out in the open. Nothing stirred, not even distant memories of a mother's love.
An eerie calm had claimed the land around her, as if sound didn't exist at all. Maybe, Shylo thought, she'd been right all along. Maybe love didn't exist, either.
* * *
Just an hour later Cassie sat at the mouth of the cave and watched the sky change from gray to pale peach as a big red sun appeared, casting fantastic shadows on the surrounding mountains. Buck had gathered up his saddlebags and her valise, then gone off to collect his horse. Soon they would be on their way to Winslow, where Shylo would probably be waiting, worried sick by now. It troubled Cassie to think of her sister fretting over her safety, but she couldn't seem to stop trying to work out a way for her and Buck to stay together a little longer. Even one more night would help ease their parting and take this awful hurting out of her chest.
When he finally rode up a few minutes later, and then hollered at her to climb down to him, Cassie admitted the truth to herself at last. It was over for the time being, maybe even forever. Her heart breaking, she followed his instructions and gingerly made her way down the side of the hill, careful not to drag the hem of Shylo's pretty blue dress along the colorful sandstone path.
"Hot damn," said Buck when she came into view. "Where you been hiding that getup?"
Cassie blushed, as she did whenever he complimented her. "It's my sister's, and the only decent dress we got between us. I was hoping when you saw me in it, you'd just naturally want to keep me around a little longer, or maybe even come with me to California now."
"Aw, sugar face, you know I cain't do that." He leaned down, stuck out his hand, and tugged her up to the front of his saddle. "But now that I see what I'll be missing, maybe you ought to check that post office in about two weeks instead of three or four. I don't know if I can wait any longer than that to set eyes on you again." He laughed deeply, nuzzled her behind the ear, and then spurred his big white horse.
They rode away from their little cave, Buck's hands full of leather reins and a squirming Cassie, who was busy showering him with kisses, and headed due south. They stayed mostly in the washes, following the natural curves of the land, but occasionally Buck would guide his mount up the side of one of the numerous hills in order to scan the horizon for signs of riders. It was as they crested the third peak that he saw movement in the distance. After spurring the horse back down the hill, Buck slipped his spyglass out of the saddlebags and belly-crawled up the side of the mountain again.
He brought the scope to his eye, scanned the countryside, and then gestured for Cassie to join him.
"What is it?" she asked breathlessly.
"Get down, dammit."
"But I can't ruin this dress, too. It ain't even mine."
Buck reached up, grabbed Cassie's hand, and jerked her off her feet. Never had he spoken to her in such a harsh manner, much less treated her so roughly. "You're hurting me, Buck," she cried, "and you—"
"I'm truly sorry about that, girl," he cut in, "but do you think that dress won't get ruint or you won't get hurt even worse if someone was to put a bullet hole through your gizzard? You were a-standing there in broad daylight like first prize at a turkey shoot."
She gasped and scanned the horizon. "You mean the posse's caught up to us?"
"Somebody has. I cain't tell how many's out there for sure, but I can see two of them, and one's wearing a big ole sunbonnet and a dress." He handed her the spyglass. "Take a look and see if that ain't your sister."
It took Cassie a minute to adjust the glass to her eye, and then find the exact spot Buck was telling her to look. When she finally brought the intruders into view, she cried, "Oh, it is. It's Shylo... and Dimitri, too."
"Hush your mouth, girl. Or are you looking to get me shot and kilt?"
"No. Oh, no." Cassie threw her arms around his neck. "I love you, Buck, you know I do. I'd die if you got killed.''
"Well, I love you, too. That's why we got to get moving, and fast."
She pulled away from him. "But can't I just sit in the middle of the wash and wait for Shylo and her Greek fella to come across me?"
"I don't think so, sugar pie. Looks to me like they're packing up and heading south, away from the badlands. We're gonna have to circle around them and do it in short order before they make it out to the flats. Otherwise you're gonna have one hell of a long walk ahead of you."
Because there was really no other option, Buck didn't wait for Cassie to agree with the plan. He just gave her a shove to get her started down the sandstone hill in tobogganing fashion. The sled beneath her bottom was Shylo's pretty sateen dress.
* * *
"About last night. I, ah... "
Dimitri cleared his throat and tried again. "It was never my intention to keep you out overnight in the first place, and I surely didn't mean to compromise your reputation by... What I'm trying to say is that I never thought to—no, I didn't expect to wake up and... Oh, the hell with it."
Dimitri had been working on a long overdue apology to Shylo, ever since she had disappeared a few minutes ago in order to accomplish her morning ablutions in private. She hadn't reappeared yet, but she might as well have. He was pretty sure he could stand in the middle of this wash all day and still never come up with just the right phrase to make everything all right again. He, a man who'd experienced no difficulties in coming up with enough words to fill a hundred-page master's thesis, couldn't seem to find a way to say "I'm sorry. Please don't demand that I marry you because of this."
Of course Shylo had every right to do just that, and he could do no less than make the offer. Through his own carelessness, he had placed her in a scandalous situation that might do irreparable damage to her reputation. Even if he couldn't be held responsible for the accident or the nasty remarks he'd made to her yesterday, apologies were certainly in order for the compromising position he'd wrestled her into as she slept.
He'd somehow managed to drag Shylo into his arms during the night, cradled her against his body, and worked his fingers into her glorious hair, freeing it from the braid she'd fashioned the previous evening. It was bad enough to wake up and find he'd taken such intimate liberties with her as she lay helpless—not to mention his body's lightning responses to her soft curves—but when he met her wide-eyed gaze and realized that she'd awakened before him, Dimitri had realized his fate was pretty well sealed. She'd known what he'd been up to during the night, and now he had no choice but to marry her. Assuming, of course, that she would even have a scoundrel like him.
Glancing over his shoulder once again, Dimitri saw that Shylo was coming his way, looking like a fresh- picked daisy among the barren hills. "Are you ready to go now''" he asked as she drew near.
"All set, " she said, brushing past him on her way to the front of the wagon.
Shylo had fluffed her new yellow dress and petticoats to make them look less bedraggled than before, tucked her hair up under the wide-brimmed bonnet, then pulled the hat down low to hide as much of her face as possible. She wasn't about to risk eye contact with Dimitri—not before she absolutely had to, anyway, for she wasn't quite sure what had gone through his mind when he'd awakened to find her sprawled across his chest this morning. God only knew what he thought she'd been up to, and since she wasn't quite sure herself, she wasn't about to risk a conversation that might lead to a discussion about her shameful behavior.
So they traveled in the same awkward silence they'd awakened to, speaking to each other only to agree on the direction to take each time they came to a fork. Other than that, Shylo dwelled on the steady clop, clop, clop of the mule's hooves against th
e soft sand and imagined that she heard the phantomlike sound of Cassie's voice calling her name over and over, as she'd done in her sleep so often of late. With her mind fully on her sister again, Shylo was close to breaking down over the thought that she might never see her again when Dimitri abruptly reined in the mule.
"Listen," he said. "Do you hear that?"
Trying to ignore the familiar sound of Cassie's sweet voice ringing in the back her mind, Shylo strained to pick out another sound. Other than the howling wind, nothing met her ears. "It's just the wind," she replied.
"But I was sure there was a woman's voice. I thought... I don't mean to get your hopes up, but I could have sworn I heard her calling your name."
Shylo whipped her head around. "You mean you heard it, too?"
"A woman's voice, yes. You heard this as well?"
Staring out at the wash ahead of her, Shylo listened hard, this time trusting her ears. When she heard Cassie's voice again, she cried, "Oh, my God! It is her! I thought I'd imagined..."
She didn't give herself time to finish the sentence but leapt off the side of the wagon and dashed headlong down the wash, calling, "Cassie? Cassie, where are you? It's me, Shylo. Cassie... Cassie!" Over her rapid breathing, she finally heard an answering cry.
"Over here, Shylo. Can you find me? I'm over here."
Following the sound, Shylo zigzagged up the side of a small mountain, and then scanned the sandy valley below. Up ahead at the fork, she caught a flash of bright blue material. "Don't move." she said, hollering at the top of her lungs. "I'll be right there."
Behind her Shylo could hear a man's voice—a very angry man's voice—shouting at her, but she paid it no heed. Without so much as a glance back, she raced down the hill, the hem of her new dress catching on her shoes, and stumbled toward the point where she'd seen the flash of blue.
A moment later the sisters met in a collision of ribbons, petticoats, and bonnets knocked askew. When the initial hugs and kisses were over, and she could finally bear to tear herself away from the sister she loved so dearly, Shylo held her at arm's length, tears streaming down her face, and looked her over carefully.
Choking back a sob, she said, "Are you all right? You don't look too worse for the wear."
"I'm fine," Cassie said, even though guilt over the way she'd let her sister worry had twisted her belly into a painful knot. "They didn't hurt me a'tall."
Not believing her for one minute, a more collected Shylo took Cassie's face in her hands and turned her head first this way, then the other. "No bruises. What about the rest of you? Are you bleeding anywhere?"
Cassie fiddled with the hangnail on her thumb. "I already told you—they didn't hurt me a bit. They just kept me a while, then turned me loose. I'm fine."
But Shylo knew her sister better than that. She was hiding something. "You can tell me anything, and you know it. Tell me what they done, and I'll see that they pay for it with their lives." Cassie's gaze fell to the ground, and Shylo was sure then that there was a lot she wasn't telling. "Did they make a grab for you, or try to, ah... mess with your nuptials?"
Her cheeks hot and glowing, Cassie had to bite her lip to stop a secretive grin from popping up. Keeping her head end eyes down low, she said quietly, "I told you once, and I'll tell you again. They didn't hurt me none."
Shylo probably would have kept at her no matter how hard Cassie tried to reassure her if she hadn't heard a tremendous roar from overhead at that moment. Someone had shouted a word that sounded a hell of a lot like her own name. She turned, glanced up at the mountaintop, and saw Dimitri planted there. The morning sun was at his back, making him look like a large, dark shadow. She could see that he held the blacksmith's rifle high in one strong hand, while the other, fist clenched, was raised to the heavens.
"Can you never listen to what I say to you, woman? I am responsible for your safety. What of the bandits?"
Bandits? Shylo had forgotten all about them in her joy at spotting Cassie. She quickly glanced around. "There's none down here," she called back, and then whispered to her sister, "They are gone, aren't they?"
Resisting the urge to look back to where she'd last seen Buck, Cassie said, "They lit out of here days ago."
When Shylo looked up to Dimitri to report this news, she saw that he was scanning the surrounding mountaintops, still holding the rifle with one hand, the butt tight against his hip as if he'd brandished a weapon in such a manner before. She cupped her mouth to call out to him, but he held up his free hand, silencing her, and then waved to her and Cassie, beckoning them to join him.
"I thought I heard a horse riding off in the distance," he explained when the women reached the crest of the hill. "Let's get out of here so we're not quite so vulnerable in case they return." With that he led them back to the wagon, helped them aboard, then joined them on the bench seat and cracked the whip over the mule's back.
After they were under way again, Dimitri leaned forward, caught Cassie's gaze, and directed his questions to her. "Did you say the bandits left you here by yourself days ago?"
She nodded.
This made absolutely no sense to Dimitri. "Why did they take you in the first place if they meant to leave you behind?"
Prepared for this interrogation, Cassie gave him the answers she and Buck had worked out. "They just took me along as insurance in case the sheriff lit after them. Soon as they got this far, they stuck me inside a cave with enough food and water for a couple a days, then rode off and left me be. I run out of water last night, so I started for Winslow early this morning."
Shylo turned to her sister in surprise. "You knew to go to Winslow?"
"The bandits told me I ought to go there, and where to pick up the trail and such. I probably should have left for town yesterday when it looked like I was going to run out of water, but I was hoping a posse would have come along by now and saved me the trouble."
The girl's story still didn't make a lot of sense to Dimitri, and he suspected there was a lot more to it than she was willing to tell. Assuming her ordeal was probably too horrible to discuss in mixed company, he decided not to press her further. "I'm glad we found you when we did. I'm not sure you would have survived the walk to town."
"I'm glad you come along, too. I got scared out here by myself. You should hear the strange noises around here at night."
Shylo was able to commiserate with her on that point, even though she was sure there was more to Cassie's abduction than she'd let on. "I think I heard those same noises just last night, and I don't mind telling you—they scared the living hell out of me."
"Last night?" Cassie cocked her head, looked from her sister to the handsome Greek, then gasped. "Alone? Just the two of you?"
Dimitri sat back out of Cassie's view and turned away from the women. That observation had pretty well slammed the door to any hopes he still entertained about not having to make an offer of marriage to Shylo. Now there was a witness who could attest to their night alone—one who, he decided as he heard her chuckling to herself, would take great delight in seeing that he paid for the injuries to her mistress's reputation.
His voice grim, he explained the situation, even if it wouldn't do him much good. "We had an accident with the wagon while looking for you yesterday, Miss McBride, and were forced into staying the night. Believe me when I say that no harm came to your employer on my account. Of course, I do intend to make these unfortunate circumstances right somehow when we get back to civilization."
Cassie wasn't quite sure what he meant by "make these unfortunate circumstances right," but she was fascinated by the idea that perhaps her sister had found true love in the same way she had. Grinning, she leaned in close to Shylo. Her expression reversed itself, and her train of thought derailed when she caught a whiff of her.
"Pee-hew," she said, holding her nose. "Do you know that you smell like a horse that's been rode hard and put up wet?"
That comment made Shylo feel almost as happy as she was when she saw the trail of brick-colored
stains all over the back of the blue sateen dress Cassie was wearing; but just having her sister back safe and sound made even those things seem trivial.
"You don't smell a lot like a rose yourself."
The women shared a hardy laugh over that, and Shylo draped her arm across Cassie's shoulders, squeezing her with a renewed burst of enthusiasm. Everything would be all right now. Soon they would resume their journey to California to reacquaint themselves with their mother, and nothing would ever trouble them again. Nothing, Shylo thought, could upset her now that the McBride sisters were together again.
Absolutely, positively... nothing.
Chapter 9
Even though they cut several miles off the distance to town by taking a direct route from the badlands, it still took the tiring mule better than four hours to reach Winslow. After returning the rig and paying for the damaged wheel, a nearly penniless Dimitri insisted that Shylo and Cassie accompany him to the marshal's office, where they could relay the story of the younger woman's abduction and release, as well as provide a description of the outlaws to aid the authorities in their search for the men.
The marshal, who'd been napping on his chair, nearly fell out of it when Dimitri and the ladies stepped into his office and slammed the door behind them.
"Morning, folks." He blinked up at them, rubbing his eyes. "What can I do for you?"
"In case you've forgotten," Dimitri began, irritated to think that the man didn't remember them or their troubles, "Miss Folsom and I were relieved of our capital while traveling on the train that was robbed, and her companion, Miss McBride, was taken hostage by those same bandits. Miss Folsom tried to convince you to round up a... a—"
"Posse ," Shylo supplied.
"Thank you. A posse to go look for her friend, but if you'll recall, you wouldn't do it. This"—he gestured toward Cassie—"is Miss McBride. We went after her ourselves and thought you might be interested in her story. Who knows? Once she gives you their descriptions, you may even think of going after the bandits yourself—if you're not too busy, of course."