by Karen Kirst
“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” She let her apology fade out when he chuckled again. “It’s not funny, Myles. If my father…”
He shook out his blanket. “Like I told you last night, I intend for you to reach your father in one piece, Delsie. And that means not letting you lie on the cold ground all night and catching sick.” He bent forward to peer directly into her eyes. “Besides, nothing untoward happened. I promise.”
“Well, that’s good to know.” Amos watched them from beneath the branches.
Myles stiffened beside her, red creeping up his neck. “Amos. Morning.” He ran a hand over the bristles of his jaw without looking at Delsie. “Delsie was shivering something fierce. I wasn’t sure what else…to do.”
It was her turn to laugh softly. “Apparently Myles was being gentlemanly.”
A smile worked at Amos’s mouth as though he, too, was trying not to chuckle. “Good to hear. I’m going to see if I can’t rummage up some breakfast.”
Delsie maneuvered out from under the pinyon pine and brushed bits of dirt and twigs from her dress. Myles offered her some water from his canteen. The water tasted good, but her stomach still rumbled with hunger.
While he saw to the horses, Delsie started making a fire. By the time she had some good-sized flames built up, Amos returned. “What’s on the menu for this morning?” she asked teasingly.
“Snake.” Amos held the long reptile aloft. Delsie fought a cringe by reminding herself it was food, and possibly the only meal they’d get until tonight.
Amos helped her prepare the snake, then the three of them ate the meat. She certainly wouldn’t put it down as a delicacy or even something she wished to have on a regular basis, but she had to admit it wasn’t all bad.
After washing down the snake meat with a little more water, each of them climbed back into their saddles. Amos led the way through the sagebrush to the main trail, where they headed due west again. The sun had fully risen in the east, and with it, the temperature. Delsie could hardly believe she’d been shivering violently with cold last night, when the day felt warm and pleasant now.
The memory of being cold sparked the recollection of waking with her cheek pressed to Myles’s shirt and his arm resting loosely against her shoulders. She ought to be mortified, but he’d done nothing improper. He’d just been concerned for her.
Not for the first time, she offered a silent prayer of gratitude for Myles’s presence in her life and for his and Amos’s help. God had truly been looking out for her to lead her to two such competent and kind men. She wished there was more she could do to repay them, beyond the money she’d promised them at the end of their journey and the horse waiting for Myles. If undying thankfulness could be converted into wealth, these two men riding silently ahead and beside her would live like kings the rest of their lives.
Delsie smiled at the thought of either Amos or Myles sporting a crown and strutting around a palace. While they had both insisted they’d chosen to come on this journey and would see it through fully, she was still grateful they had all made it so far unscathed. In light of all she’d experienced—a runaway horse, nearly freezing to death, an unwelcome marriage proposal, a flash flood and a night out in the open with only rabbit and snake to eat—Delsie couldn’t imagine anything worse ahead. A seed of optimism sprang up inside her and she fueled it with thoughts of Lillie and the rapidly narrowing distance between her and her sister. Lillie would be married in five days, and Delsie had every intention and belief she would be at the blessed event.
The first station they came upon that morning stood as empty as the one they’d encountered the night before. Thankfully, this one also had a well. Amos suggested taking a rest earlier than normal to water the horses and let them feed on the surrounding grass, and Myles agreed.
Delsie dismounted and accepted another drink from Myles’s canteen. Wiping her mouth, she eyed the nearby cabin. Could there possibly be any food left inside? Something they might take with them? She left the men and moved with purposeful steps to the door, which had been left ajar. A quick peek through the gap showed the place was devoid of its former occupants. She pushed through and smiled when she spotted the cupboard across the room. Perhaps there was a little flour inside it.
She started forward but stumbled over something on the floor. Righting herself, Delsie glanced down to see the offending object. It was a boot and not an empty one, either. Her gaze shifted from the boot, to the pant leg, to the dead man’s vacant eyes and finally to his bloodied forehead. A panicked scream fled her mouth as she stumbled blindly back out the door.
“Delsie?” Myles rushed toward her, Amos right behind him, his gun in his hand.
“Th-that man in there. He’s been…” The horror washed over her anew, sickening her stomach. She clamped a hand over her lips and fled to the nearby corral, where she dropped to her knees beside the fence. In a matter of minutes, she’d emptied her meager breakfast into the dust. Her body trembled with shock as if cold, though a clammy feeling made her sweaty, too. She sank against one of the fence posts and wrapped her arms around her knees.
“It’s all right,” she whispered to herself. “It’s all right.”
From the corner of her eye, she watched Myles slowly approach her as if she were a skittish colt. “Delsie? You all right, darling?”
She shook her head and rocked her body back and forth.
“You’ve had a shock, but you’re going to be fine. Do you hear me?” He squatted next to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. The human contact released some of the numbness inside her.
“I wish I hadn’t seen… I’ll never forget…” She stifled a cry with her hand to her mouth.
“Amos is burying the man now.” Sure enough she heard the scrape of a shovel against the dirt. Where Amos had procured a shovel, she didn’t know.
“Do you want to sit some more or do you think you can stand?”
“I… I’ll stand.”
Myles gently helped her onto her feet, then pulled her to his chest. Delsie wrapped her arms around his waist and allowed the steady beat of his heart to soothe her shock.
“What have I done, Myles?”
He rested his chin on top of her hair—she’d hung her hat on the saddle horn before going into the cabin. “You didn’t do anything. That man was dead long before we came along.”
“No. I mean having us come all this way, in the middle of a warpath.” She bit her lip to keep from sobbing. “I knew we might encounter things, but I foolishly let my desire to reach Lillie outweigh the dangers.”
Myles eased back and tipped her face upward. “It wasn’t foolish. God knew you’d be here—now—on this very trail, fighting to restore your family.”
“Do you really believe that?”
A faint smile creased his mouth. “Do you?” he countered.
Delsie thought back to the night Myles had told her the journey wouldn’t work, at least not in the way she’d planned in the beginning. She’d been full of doubt and despair until she’d read that verse of scripture. Cast not away therefore your confidence. She’d tossed aside some of her confidence since then, but she still had some remaining. This was what God wanted her to do and He’d provided everything she’d needed to make it happen.
“Whatever comes, Delsie, He’s with us.” His words so closely mirrored the ones in her own head that she wondered if he could somehow read her thoughts. “Isn’t that what He wanted Elijah and those priests to understand?”
She nodded, grateful for the reminder.
“Don’t give up on Him or Lillie. Not yet. Not when we’re so close.”
His assurances restored some of her own, but doubts still loomed large in her mind. “But the worst might lie ahead. We could end up like that…” She swallowed the taste of bile in her throat. “Like that man.”
His expression hardened with resolve, deepening the black of his eyes. “Then we’ll do so, knowing we followed God’s will and didn’t let fear rule our lives.”
Embracing him, she cleared her throat enough to say, “You’re a good man, Myles Patton.”
“And you’re a strong woman, Delsie Radford. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
She let his courage and compliment seep into her troubled heart and thoughts.
“You ready to keep on?”
She took a deep breath and stepped back to see his face—this handsome face she’d come to know nearly as well as her own. “As long as you’re keeping on with me.”
He tucked a curl behind her ear and smiled, though the gesture held a trace of sadness. “Until the last inch of the trail.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Where had those faith-filled words come from? Myles thought ruefully. Fifteen days ago he would have scoffed at the idea of spouting off religious sentiments, especially to a beautiful woman. He and God had parted ways after Charles’s death and both of them had seemed fine with it. Today, though, he’d known exactly what needed to be said to bolster Delsie’s shattered confidence. But more than that, he believed every word he’d spoken, too.
Whether it was God working through him or Myles’s own desire to be the man Delsie clearly saw in him or perhaps both, he wasn’t sure. All he knew for certain in this moment was that this journey was no longer some foolhardy venture.
God was aware of him—even as lonely and embittered as Myles had been—and He’d placed something directly into his path that he couldn’t ignore or run from. A little soldier with eyes of deep blue, a smile that brought him pure delight and a faith as large as the prairie sky. He’d been dodging God, but God hadn’t let that bother Him. Instead He’d dropped Delsie right in front of Myles and let her work her charm and kindness, a compassion Myles guessed had held her family together for so long after her mother’s death.
However deep her strength and confidence ran, though, he still wished she hadn’t been the one to discover the scalped station owner earlier. If only he could have protected her from such a gruesome sight. He darted a glance to his left. She rode with her back erect, her face trained forward, but he sensed the sadness lingering around her.
A few more days, he reassured himself. Then the worst will be over.
At least in terms of the trail dangers. His biggest obstacle still lay ahead—saying goodbye, indefinitely, to Delsie. He didn’t want to think about not seeing her lovely face every day or hearing her laughter or feeling her gentle touch that had a far greater effect on him than all the hazards they’d faced so far.
He drove such depressing thoughts from his mind by studying the surrounding desert, looking for signs of possible ambush. Sometime later he spotted buildings and movement up ahead that had him reining in his horse and placing a hand on one of his guns.
Amos and Delsie drew to a stop beside him. “What is it?” she asked quietly, her hands clenching her mare’s reins tighter than normal.
Myles shook his head. “Not sure. Looks like a bunch of horses and people.”
Amos squinted. “I don’t think they’re foes. But let’s ride in slow just the same.”
“Suits me.” Myles nudged his mount forward, but he removed one of his revolvers and set it across his lap, just in case.
He led the way, slowly, toward the station and the group ahead. The closer he came, though, the more the details came into focus. It wasn’t Indians. A group of what appeared to be Express riders and workers milled about the station. Myles hadn’t seen this many men in one spot for several days.
“Howdy,” he called out as he, Amos and Delsie stopped at the edge of the station yard.
“Howdy back,” a man with sandy blond hair answered. He and a few other riders strode over to the trio.
Myles dismounted before helping Delsie to the ground. He knew full well she could get off her mare unassisted, but he didn’t particularly like the wide-eyed looks from the men watching her. “Got some sort of rendezvous going on?”
The sandy-haired man chuckled. “Not by choice.” He turned his attention to Delsie. “What brings you to this fair desert, miss?”
She glanced at Myles, then smiled at the man. “We’re traveling to California as quickly as we can. For my sister’s wedding.” She removed her hat and studied the group of men. “We’d be very much obliged if we could purchase some food from you, gentlemen. We didn’t have a home station to lodge in last night, which meant little to eat for dinner or breakfast.”
“Sorry to say but you won’t find any posts open from here to Carson Valley, Nevada,” a short man replied. “Indians have attacked them all and driven off the livestock.”
The sandy-haired rider spoke up again. “That’s why we riders and station keepers met here. We’re waiting for soldiers to come and help us reopen them.”
Myles looked at Delsie. The color had drained from her face, but she held her chin aloft.
“We can certainly feed you,” the same rider added. “Come on.”
Myles trailed Delsie and Amos to the nearby cabin. They were introduced to the owner, then invited to sit for a meal of flapjacks. Myles and Amos ate three helpings each, and even Delsie had seconds.
Once they’d eaten their fill, the owner explained the current situation with the Indians. Myles grew more and more discouraged as he talked. Without home stations, or any stations at all, they’d be forced to find their own food and water again. Then there was the very real possibility of meeting up with some of the Indians themselves. Their safest option was to wait for the soldiers, too, but that would mean Delsie would miss her sister’s wedding.
Delsie excused herself when the talk turned to those who’d been killed, though Myles remained behind. If they were to continue, and everything in him told him they would, he wanted to know exactly what sort of fight they were riding into.
After a time the conversation turned to geography and landmarks. Myles left Amos to find Delsie. She’d been outside, alone, for at least a half an hour. Was she safe? Had any of the riders tried taking advantage of his absence?
Relief coursed through him when he found her, standing alone, feeding grass to several of the station horses on the other side of the corral fence. She turned at his approach and threw him a tight smile.
“Sounds rather…dire…doesn’t it?” She fed the last bits of grass to one of the animals, then brushed off her hands.
“Yes.” He couldn’t deny it. “But you knew it might be. We knew it might be.”
Resting her hands on the highest rung of the fence, she stared at something across the corral. “It all sounded so simple two weeks ago. Ride as far and as long as we can, purchase food, sleep, do it again the next day.”
“And it has been.” Myles placed his hand atop hers. “Apparently now is where it gets more complicated, but it’s not impossible. Do you want to keep going?”
She twisted to face him, her back to the fence. Her gaze was full of equal parts uncertainty and determination. “I have to try, Myles. But I understand if you and Amos don’t want to…”
“I’m not leaving,” he practically growled.
He planted himself in front of her, encroaching on her space. She tipped her chin up to look at him. The undisguised trust shining in her blue eyes, the warmth of her breath against his jaw and the nearness of this beautiful woman stole his words.
He loved her. The realization washed over him as soft as a whisper and as brash as a thunderstorm. And because he loved her he would accompany her through one danger after another before letting her go at the end of the trail. Her happiness and desire for a complete family meant more to him than a thousand horse ranches.
With great effort, he stepped back. A hint of what might have been disappointment flitted across her somber expression, making him wonder if she might love him back. Myles pushed aside the hope such a thought inspired. It didn’t matter.
“So what will it be, Miss Radford?” His voice sounded husky with emotion, even to his own ears. “Are you ready to finish this, no matter what lies in our path?”
She glanced past him in t
he direction of the station, her shoulders rising and falling with a soft sigh. He wanted to reassure her, as he’d done earlier after the incident with the dead man. But this time, with the knowledge of the new perils they might face, she needed to make the decision herself, whether to go or stay.
When she met his level look straight on a few moments later, every lovely feature was etched with resolve. “I’m ready.”
*
Delsie shifted in the saddle and licked her dry lips. Don’t think about food or water, she chided herself for surely the hundredth time, even as visions of roasted lamb, mashed potatoes, meringues and pitchers of ice-cold lemonade rose into her mind.
What she wouldn’t give to feel the same burning tenacity she had two days earlier when she’d told Myles she was ready to keep going. That determination, while still smoldering deep within her, had cooled considerably after forty-eight hours of little to eat or drink.
That Express rider had been right—none of the stations they’d passed were occupied. Out of sheer necessity they’d lingered at those with working wells or nearby springs, but both Amos and Myles were reluctant to stay in one place for long.
The lack of real sustenance for them and their horses was beginning to show in their slower pace. They’d been forced to ride until well after dark the night before to cover the needed distance. That also meant no fire, so they’d divided the small amount of jerky they’d procured at the rendezvous Express station among the three of them. Delsie was grateful for even that little bit, but she’d still gone to bed more hungry than not. Amos had managed to kill another snake this morning, which meant some breakfast. But that had been hours ago.
She pressed a hand to her grumbling stomach and tried to focus on something else. Like the way Myles had looked at her beside the corral—his intense gaze capturing hers. Their shared kiss in the barn seemed like months ago now and the start of her journey back in Missouri felt like another lifetime.