Chase looked around at the fading light. He’d have liked to make camp now, before it got completely dark, but he didn’t dare. He needed to put some space between him and that no-account. He’d seen the type before. He’d just a soon back-shoot you as say hello.
The wagon finally rolled to a stop. After their long nap, Sarah was impossible to keep still a moment longer, so Jessie climbed out the back with her, carefully scanning the area.
Chase leaned over the front hoof of the paint, picking it out. Gabe and Jake set about loosening their saddle cinches and hobbling the horses so they could be turned out to eat.
“There’s Gabe,” Sarah called, in a singsong voice, full of vim and vigor.
“That’s right. Why don’t we go over and say hello?”
As Jessie and Sarah approached Gabe and Jake, the boys stopped what they were doing. Gabe reached down to pick Sarah up. “Here’s my honey pie. How you doing? Did you like the wagon ride?” Gabe never gave Sarah a chance to answer one question before he went on to the next.
“How old is she?” Jake asked.
“We’re not exactly sure, but we think around four. She sometimes seems younger, from her years in the orphanage,” Jessie answered. “Will you watch her, Gabe, while I talk with Chase?”
“Sure.”
With a belly full of butterflies, Jessie walked over to where Chase was working by lamplight. She waited for him to finish what he was doing.
“Something you need?” Chase straightened, dropping the horse’s hoof and turning his attention to her. He didn’t seem as accommodating as he had earlier in the wagon. When she didn’t answer right away, he snapped, “There’s a lot to be done, Jessie. What is it you wanted?”
She wanted to ask him about the man they’d passed on the trail. Chase had told her before leaving he wanted her to be careful about whom she revealed herself and Sarah to, so she’d stayed inside when she’d heard them talking. But there was something creepy about his voice. She hoped that she was imagining it, but he’d sounded like Lonnie’s brother. But Chase was tired now, she could tell by his tone. She’d ask after dinner.
“Nothing,” she decided, surprised by his coldness. “I’ll start a fire and warm some of the food Mrs. Hollyhock sent along.”
“Fine.”
Jessie made her way back to the wagon, picking up sticks and fallen dead limbs as she went. She heard Chase call out. “Jake, Gabe, hunt up some wood. Work in a pair and don’t go far. Jessie, you and Sarah stay in camp.”
Jessie dug out the Dutch oven from the rear of the wagon. They’d been lucky that Squirmy Johnson had had one he wanted to sell. Managing without it would have been difficult. The oven was extremely heavy, and she struggled to carry it to the place they would build a fire and plopped it down. She and Sarah gathered some rocks to place around the perimeter.
“That looks pretty good, doesn’t it, Sarah?” she asked, as they fit the last rock into place.
The little girl nodded. A movement at the edge of the clearing brought Jessie up short.
“Sorry if I scared ya.” Jake holstered his Colt. Gabe, who was carrying all the wood, followed him.
“Where do you want this?”
“Right here will do.”
With a grunt, Gabe let the wood fall, then brushed off the front of his clothes. Jake promptly stepped up and started building a fire. After he stacked the wood, he stood and went to the back of the wagon.
“Where do ya keep the locofocos?”
“The what?” Jessie asked.
“The phosphorous matches. I sure hope you remembered to bring some. I ain’t too good at startin’ a fire Indian style.”
“They’re in the box on top. Be careful taking it down. It’s packed quite heavy.”
Jessie unwrapped the cold turkey and pickles from the storage bin. She placed them on the fold-down shelf that doubled as the back of the wagon.
She quickly whipped up a batch of biscuits from two double fistfuls of flour, a glob of shortening, and about half a cup of water. It was the one thing she could make with her eyes closed. When cooked in the Dutch oven, they came out more like dumplings than biscuits.
“Supper’s ready,” Jessie called, as she watched Chase circle the camp for what seemed like the fiftieth time. She was sure that he must have worn a path by now.
Gabe was first to jump up. Grabbing a blue-speckled tin plate, he began helping himself. “Do you want me to fix a plate for Sarah?”
“Yes, please, Gabe. What would I do without you?” Jessie gingerly lifted the hot biscuits out of the oven and placed them in a linen cloth. “Go on, Jake. Don’t be shy.”
Chase finally headed in from the perimeter of camp. He looked tired and hungry. His hat was pulled low to cover his eyes, and dark black stubble covered the lower half of his face. She should tell him now about the man. She should. Perhaps she’d wait until he’d eaten. Something hot in his belly might improve his mood.
Jake and Gabe were already eating by the time Chase sat down, so Jessie offered a silent blessing.
“Any sign of him?” Gabe asked, over a mouthful of turkey.
Never taking his attention away from his plate, Chase shook his head. “No. But if he were to come back, he wouldn’t be leaving any sign. He’s clever.”
A shiver creeped up Jessie’s spine. Clever, just like Lonnie. She’d never even known he was at the cabin until he attacked her.
Sarah took a slurp of her water and edged over to Jake. She’d been watching him all night, and Jessie figured she’d taken a shine to him. Jake stiffened as she placed her wet hand on his knee.
Jake looked to Gabe. “What’s she want?”
“Don’t know. Why don’t ya ask her?”
An owl hooted somewhere, and Sarah edged closer. Straightening up, Jake asked, “What do ya want, Sarah?” His voice was so shaky that Gabe burst out laughing.
“You’re scared of a little girl. Big, bad Jake. Adventurer, mountain man.” Slapping his knee, Gabe kept it up. “Cowhand, gambler. Soon to be miner. Tell me, Jake, what haven’t you done?” Gabe shook his head, his eyes sparkling. “Now I’ve seen everything.”
“Am not,” Jake shot back angrily. “Who’d be afraid of a puny little thing like her?”
“Finish up, everyone, and head to bed. I want to get an early start in the morning.”
Jessie noticed that even as Chase ate, he was ready. His gun was within easy access, and he sat casually, with the fire to his back. Watching.
Jessie couldn’t help the feelings that welled up within her. Here was a man thrown into a situation he’d never asked for. Who’d been forced to marry her. A stranger. And yet he cared enough not to abandon her or the children, seeing to it that nothing happened to them. A warm sensation flowed through her, making her long to go and sit with him by the fire. Curl up into his lap like the kitten she’d once had back in the orphanage.
“Come on, Sarah, let’s get you ready for bed. We’re going to have to bundle you up good so Mr. Frost can’t nip your nose.” Jessie scooped up the child.
“Gabe and Jake, grab your bedrolls and bring them out here by the fire. We’ll alternate night watch.” Chase stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles. “Gabe first, Jake, then me. Keep the fire to your back. And keep it burning.”
“Yes, sir,” Jake replied. Gabe nodded.
Jessie gathered the supper plates and put them in a bucket of water to wash in the morning. Quickly storing the food and filling the coffeepot, she climbed into the wagon behind Sarah.
Chase stuck his head in. “We’ll only have coffee when we break camp. Around midmorning we’ll stop and have a bite to eat.” His gaze, unreadable, followed her every move as she laid out the beds and gathered up more blankets.
“Will you be warm enough out there by the fire?” She searched his face for some sign of softness, a little bit of the caring that he’d displayed back at the cabin. She missed the man who’d so tenderly brushed her cheek with his own. Who had listened pati
ently, his heart in his eyes, to the story she’d never told anyone.
All she saw now was a man chiseled by the elements. Brutally honest, and granite hard. Was she finally seeing the real Chase Logan, the man who was still alive today only because of his wits, instincts, and quick gun?
Chase didn’t answer her question but riveted her with his gaze. “Don’t leave the wagon for anything. Understand?” The muscle in his jaw clenched. “I don’t want to scare you, but wolves and mountain lions live here.”
“Yes.”
Sarah scooted behind the crate packed with the few knickknacks that Jessie owned. She seemed to sense a difference in Chase and didn’t quite know what to make of it.
“Fine, then. I’ll be under the wagon. Knock on the floor if you hear anything unusual.”
Chapter Thirty-five
The first night came and went without incident and was followed by five more. As they climbed in elevation, the weather worsened considerably, with big black storm clouds hanging low over the mountaintops. The ice-cold wind was relentless, whipping about, stinging faces, eyes, and hands with bits of ice.
Jessie tried to keep Sarah’s poor little lips and hands from cracking and bleeding by rubbing castor oil on them, but the harsh elements were too much for her simple efforts. After a particularly unforgiving day, Sarah’s lip cracked so badly, blood trickled down her chin. When Chase saw her, he angrily ordered her to stay in back of the wagon out of the ferocious wind.
Each time Jessie tried to tell Chase that she thought she’d recognized the stranger’s voice, he’d been standoffish and cold. He was building a wall between them. Keeping her at a distance. Maybe she was making too much out of it, and it wasn’t him. Perhaps the stranger just had the same accent. From the wagon she really hadn’t heard him all that well. And at Hollyhock’s, he’d said very few words. If it was Joe, he’d have been back by now.
Chase was worried, Jessie could tell. Getting caught in a blizzard, especially with a small child, would be very bad. It would also make it impossible to proceed farther or return to Valley Springs, if that’s what Chase thought was best. Constantly checking and rechecking the sky, she watched as he pushed them harder and faster, testing the animals.
And still he remained aloof. Secretly she’d hoped maybe he was becoming attached to her and the children. Maybe he’d want to stay once they were settled. But, with a heavy heart, she knew different. Everything he did or said was to the contrary.
She missed the closeness they’d shared in the cabin. Chase’s boyish charm. She knew Sarah missed his warm smile that they hadn’t seen in over a week.
“He’s probably anxious to be free of this responsibility,” she mumbled to herself.
Sarah, who’d been uncommonly cranky for the better part of the day, came down with some sort of stomach ailment. She cried, and not even Gabe could quiet her. Jessie feared that it might be something serious.
Carefully picking her way through Mrs. Hollyhock’s herbal remedies, she wished the old woman were there. They all looked so much alike. She finally identified the tangy smell of catnip and brewed up one teaspoon in a cup of water, as Mrs. Hollyhock had instructed. Soon after drinking the mixture, Sarah was fast asleep.
“Whoa.” Chase, now riding Cody, reined up in front of a river that was twice the width of the street in the town they’d just left. It wasn’t particularly swift, but there were pockets where the water swirled black and forbidding, in a mystical way. The gelding promptly dropped his head and took in big drafts of water. The wagon pulled up alongside, followed by Jake. All the animals drank greedily.
Chase frowned. The clouded sky churned above them, heavy with the snow to come. They’d never beat this storm. The blizzard would hit tonight—he could taste it in the air. Their luck had just run out.
“We need to find some shelter, a place the horses can have some protection from the storm. Watch for an overhang, a rock wall, or, if we’re lucky, a cave.”
Chase circled his horse around to face Jessie. Her haunting blue eyes were searching his face again. For what, he didn’t know. Irritation flashed through him. What in the hell did she think she would find? He was who he was and nothing more.
“It’ll snow soon. If it gets bad, Gabe may have to walk up in front with the horses, help them see the path. You may have to drive. Think you’re ready for that?”
Jessie nodded. She’d quit talking to him much since he’d put up his defensive wall. But he’d had to. Sitting next to her in that wagon, the seat barely big enough for the two of them, had been gut-wrenching. It took everything he had not to pull her into his arms, to show her what he was really feeling. He had to keep reminding himself that he was her husband in name only.
“Fine. Let’s move out. Drive the wagon through the shallow part of the river,” Chase said to Gabe, pointing to a narrow but swift spot in the swirling torrent. Out of the corner of his eye he saw disappointment on Jessie’s face.
She doesn’t know why I’m rejecting her, Chase thought. She doesn’t know that every time I’m around her, it’s hard for me to keep my hands from bringing her close.
Cody sidestepped once before taking a hasty lunge and plunging into the icy water. Chase sucked in his breath as his legs went numb. His hooves still on the sandy bottom of the river, Cody fought the current until he was climbing the bank on the opposite shore. He shook his head, and then the rest of his body, ridding himself and his rider of the frigid water clinging to them.
“Bring ’em across, nice and easy.” Chase raised his arm, beckoning to Gabe. The wagon rolled easily down the small incline to the riverbank, with Jake following close behind on his mount. When the horse’s hooves sank up to their fetlocks in the sandy water, they began to struggle nervously in their harnesses.
Fear gripped Chase. Maybe he should be the one to bring them across. Driving a wagon could be tricky, let alone crossing a swollen river. Could Gabe handle it?
He felt stronger about being ready on Cody. In case something did happen, there needed to be a pickup horse.
“Talk to them, Gabe. Use your voice to calm them,” Chase yelled to be heard over the rushing water. “Easy now, easy.”
Jessie sat next to Gabe. One hand clung to the bow of the wagon, and the other reached over the wagon seat and gripped Sarah, crouching behind. Chase could see Jessie’s mouth moving, talking to the horses, he presumed, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying.
The wagon groaned loudly as a surge of water buffeted its side. “Chase,” Jessie called to him, a ring of panic in her voice.
Then, as if that weren’t enough, a wagon wheel sunk axle deep in a hole. The wagon careened sideways. Gabe slapped the reins over the horses’ backs, demanding more power from them. They responded, pulling the wagon back around swiftly toward their destination.
Spurring Cody back out to the middle of the river, Chase rode up to Jessie’s side of the wagon.
“You’re doing fine.” He smiled his encouragement. Her reaction was a mixture of hurt and confusion. “The hardest part is almost over. You’ll be out before”—he looked at Sarah’s scared face—“you can say ‘Pop goes the weasel.’”
She smiled.
“Let’s get this wagon across and find shelter. My bones are aching.”
Once out of the river, the animals lumbered along slowly. They were cold, tired, and hungry, much like the rest of the group. Gabe was up front now leading the horses, proceeding at a snail’s pace. They’d switched at the riverbank, putting Jessie in the driver’s seat.
Just as Chase had predicted, the snow had started slowly, softly, but was now coming down hard and fast, making it impossible for animals or humans alike to see.
Jessie wrapped the stiff, hard reins around her gloved hands to keep them from slipping. Pain shot up her arms and down her back. Driving a team had always looked like so much fun to her. She’d had no idea of the strength it actually took.
Bone weary and almost overcome with exhaustion, Jessie strained her eyes,
trying to see Gabe.
“Don’t think about the cold,” she encouraged herself. “Soon you’ll be settled in a beautiful little home to call your own.”
She knew she shouldn’t speculate about the home they were traveling to, but the temptation was just too great. The thought of a snug bed with heaping blankets, and a cheerful, snapping fire in the hearth was the only thing that kept Jessie from losing heart.
Besides, Chase, Gabe, and Jake were out there somewhere. If they could withstand the elements, so could she.
Chase suddenly appeared out of the swirling wall of white. His scarf was wrapped around his mouth, his hat pulled low. He rode up next to the wagon seat.
“Everything all right here?” he shouted.
“Yes.”
“I’ve found a grove of trees up ahead. Not too far. It’s not much protection, but we’ll have to make do. Follow me and keep the horses as steady as possible.”
Jessie nodded. It took too much energy to answer in the howling wind.
Sarah peeked her head up over the seat behind where Jessie was driving, startling her.
“Sarah, honey. What is it? What do you need?” “Scared,” Sarah said, reaching out and taking hold of
Jessie’s coat. “Bad man.”
Chapter Thirty-six
Jessie was shocked. She’d thought that Sarah didn’t know about Lonnie and what he’d done back in Valley Springs. The little girl had understood more than she let on.
“Don’t be scared. By now the mean man is back in Clancy. He can’t get you.” Even as she said the words, a sliver of fear sliced through her heart. Would she ever feel safe again?
“Out,” Sarah said, pointing to the swirling snow. She popped her two fingers into her mouth. Up until now, the habit of finger sucking had almost been forgotten.
Where The Wind Blows Page 19