by Lyn Horner
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lil halted a few paces inside the room and swung around. David stood there with his hand on the doorknob, blinking and frowning at her. His hair was rumpled, his shirt half open and his feet bare; he could have been buck naked and she wouldn’t have cared.
“It’s the middle of the night, Lil,” he muttered, voice thick with sleep. “You shouldn’t be in here. Somebody might get the wrong idea.”
She slashed the air impatiently. “I don’t care. Tye’s gone, left town. For C-C-Colorado.” Her voice broke and her eyes began to leak again. “Oh, damn! I d-didn’t want to start b-blubbering!” she choked out, trying to stem the tide.
David left the door partly ajar and came over to put his arms around her. “Ah, Little Red, don’t cry,” he rasped. “Christ! I’d like to knock that idiot’s block off. If I’d found his note sooner, I would have gone after him and pounded some sense into him.”
Lil pushed away from him, sniffling. “H-he left you a note?”
“Yeah. He shoved it under my door. I found it a while ago when I came up.” David went to retrieve a folded sheet of paper from among his things and came back wearing a disgusted look. “I might’ve caught up with him if I hadn’t played cards so late with the boys. But I wanted to make sure they didn’t get into a shoot-out with the Howard crowd.”
Hesitantly, Lil accepted the paper from him and unfolded it. She’d never seen Tye’s handwriting before. It flowed in a bold scrawl across the page.
David,
I am on my way to Colorado. My thanks to you and Del for offering to stand with me, but I will not see anyone hurt on my account. If I stay here that appears likely, and going back to the River T is out of the question. I won’t endanger Jessie and the children OR Lil.
About Lil, you were right. I have only managed to hurt her, and I shall regret that for the rest of my days. Now all I can do is beg you to watch over her for me. What I tell you now will surely make you think the worst of me and rightly so. To speak plain, Lil may carry my child. This very day I planned to right matters by asking her to become my wife. Now I think that unwise, as Judd Howard might hurt her to get at me. Perhaps I’m wrong, never having met the man, but again I won’t risk endangering Lil.
Yet neither do I wish my child to suffer for my sins. Therefore, if Lil finds herself in need of my name, and I pray not for her sake, I must ask you to contact me. She refuses to hear of it, for she hates me now, with good reason to be sure. But you MUST PROMISE to send me word even if she orders you not to. I shall write as soon as I know where I’m to be. Tell Jessie I love her.
Your repentant brother-in-law,
Tye Devlin
“Durn that man!” Lil cried, noting he hadn’t said a word about loving her. But he did. He must or he wouldn’t worry so much about endangering her.
She didn’t recall sitting down, but she found herself seated on the edge of David’s bed. Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she looked up at him. “I’m going after him. Will you help me?”
He frowned. “Lil, you can’t. A woman alone –”
“Don’t tell me that, David,” she snapped, springing to her feet. “I can take care of myself. You know that. I thought maybe you could point me in the right direction, but if you don’t want to help, fine.” She made a move toward the door, but he stepped into her path.
“Whoa, I didn’t say I wouldn’t help. But why not wait until he writes? Then we’d know where to look.”
“No. It could be weeks or months before he sends word. And what if he never does? What if something happens to him and . . . ?” She shivered, recalling Tye’s account of the mine cave-in. “Now. I have to go now.” She started to push past David, but he stopped her again, this time catching her arm.
“Damned if you aren’t as mule-headed as he is,” he barked. “At least wait ’til morning. Get some sleep and –”
“No, it’s got to be tonight. I’ve lost enough time already.” She made a face. “Besides, if Pa finds out what I mean to do, he’ll try to stop me, and I don’t want to get into a fuss with him.”
David released her and planted his hands on his hips. “You really love Tye this much?”
She caught her breath and let it out slowly. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
“All right, Lil,” he said with a sigh, “I’ll do whatever I can. God knows I owe it to you.”
Relief poured through her. “Thanks, David, but you don’t owe me anything.”
“Don’t I?” He smiled crookedly. “If not for you, I would have lost Jessie the night the raiders struck the River T. I haven’t forgotten that.”
Shrugging, Lil lowered her eyes. “I just did what was right.”
“Mmm, and now it’s my turn.” He sat on the bed and pulled his boots on, talking fast. “The Santa Fe, the line that runs through here, doesn’t connect up with Denver yet, so Tye likely headed up to Abilene. From there, he’ll take the Kansas Pacific through to Denver. If we ride hard, and depending on the train schedule, we might intercept him before he leaves Abilene.”
“You’re coming with me?” She hadn’t expected that.
“As far as Abilene, at least.” On his feet now, he tucked in his shirt and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Could be that knothead might need some convincing.”
Lil nodded, teeth worrying her bottom lip. What if Tye flatly refused to listen? What if he wouldn’t come back to Texas? Then she’d go with him, no matter where he led. She had no other choice because she couldn’t, wouldn’t live without him.
David broke into her thoughts as he belted on his gun. “You want to leave a message for your pa?”
She looked at him uncertainly. “I . . . I don’t know. He’ll go loco if I don’t, but if I do he might follow us and try to stop me.”
“Maybe not, if you tell him we’ll be back inside of a day or two, and I hope to hell we will be. All of us.” Slapping on his hat, he grabbed his saddlebags and steered Lil to the door. “Come on. You can write him a note downstairs and leave it at the desk.”
* * *
The ride north seemed to last forever. Lil knew she might have killed herself in her rush to get to Tye, if David hadn’t forced her to exercise some caution in the darkness.
When they finally reached Abilene, it was late morning. They rode straight to the Kansas Pacific depot, but saw no sign of Tye. Lil’s heart plummeted. However, her spirits revived when the ticket agent recalled a black-haired Irishman who’d come through after dawn. He’d caught the early train to Denver, the man said.
Frowning, David took Lil aside. “Are you sure you want to go through with this? Colorado’s a big place, Lil.”
“I’m sure,” she replied, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “Even if I have to tramp up and down every inch of those Rocky Mountains, I’ll find Tye.”
David eyed her a moment, then nodded in acceptance. “I guess I’d do the same in your place. Wish I could go with you, but my pa’s been ailing lately. And there’s Jessie.” He glanced away, and to Lil’s surprise, his face flushed deep red. “She, um, she’s in a family way again and, well, I have to get back.”
Lil smiled at his news despite her own worries. “It’s all right, you’ve done enough already. And congratulations . . . again.”
“Thanks,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Come on, let’s get you a ticket.”
Over her protests, he paid her fare, then insisted on staying to see her off. Her train wasn’t due to pull in for hours, so they had time to kill. David suggested they find a café and get something to eat, and although she was too tense to care about food, Lil went along with him. They didn’t say much over the meal, but as they strolled back to the depot afterward, she voiced her thoughts.
“I kind of figure Tye might head back to the place where he worked before. Do you know where that was?”
David’s brow wrinkled in thought. “No, he was always real closemouthed about it. I got the idea something happened that he’d rather forget.”
“
You’re right. He was caught in a cave-in,” she said quietly. Briefly, she explained about Tye’s partner dying and how he blamed himself, and about the days he’d spent trapped in the mine.
“Good Lord! No wonder he didn’t want to talk about it.” By now they’d reached the depot. David folded his long frame onto a bench outside the building and glanced at Lil as she plopped down next to him. “Did he tell you the name of the mine?”
“No. And I didn’t think to ask.” She groaned and slapped the bench seat in disgust, making her palm sting.
David patted her shoulder. “Take it easy. You still stand a chance of finding him. It’ll just take longer.”
Lil nodded, lips trembling. She refused to cry again; it would do no good.
“In the meantime, you’ll need money to live on until you do find him,” David said, digging in his saddlebags.
“I’ve got my pay from the drive.”
“That might not be enough.” He held out a wad of bank notes. “Here, take this.”
“No! I can’t,” she protested, pushing his hand away.
He glowered at her. “Lil, you either take it or you’re not getting on that train.” His tone made it clear he was dead serious.
Reluctantly, Lil took the bills and stuffed them in her pocket. “Th-thanks, David. I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.”
“Uh-uh. Consider it a wedding gift from Jessie and me,” he said with a broad grin. “Just be sure to let us and your folks know when you catch your runaway bridegroom.”
Lil managed a weak laugh. “I wish I knew where to start.”
David leaned forward, elbows on his knees, fingers loosely knitted. “Well, first you ask around the hotels and miners’ supply houses in Denver. Saloons, too, if you’ve got the stomach for it.”
“I’ve taught more than one loaded-up cowpoke to mind his manners, so I’m not apt to let any drunken miners scare me off.”
His mouth quirked. “All right, say you don’t pick up any leads in Denver. Then you head up to Golden in the foothills above the city. Depending on what you find out, you might try Black Hawk and Central City up in Gregory Gulch. There’s a narrow gauge train that runs up there now, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting there. That’s gold territory, and Tye was after silver back in Utah, but he might have changed his mind. For silver, your best bet will be over around Georgetown. It’s located up the main fork of Clear Creek, south of Gregory Gulch.”
David paused to frown. “If you don’t find him there, you’ll have to try some of the more remote areas back in the mountains. It won’t be easy going, and you’ll need to hire a guide. Just be damn careful who you trust. Some of the toughs who hang around those mining camps would just as soon slit your throat as look at you.” He sent her a smoky green stare. “And that’s not all they’d do to a woman.”
Lil lifted her chin, shaking off the moment of dread his warning caused. All she could do was pray she’d find Tye quickly. She cleared her throat.
“Uh, I have to ask you for one more favor. It’s Pa. He’ll be fit to be tied when he finds out what I’m doing, and I don’t want him coming after me all steamed up. Do you think you can make him understand?”
David sat up and gave her braid a playful tug. “Don’t worry, Little Red, I’ll make him see reason even if I have to hogtie him.”
Lil smiled and looked away, hands clenched in her lap. “You’re too nice to me, David. I’ve caused you a peck of trouble.”
He was briefly silent before saying, “You didn’t cause me any trouble, Lil. I brought it on myself.”
“But all those years I let my folks think you jilted me, when you never even hinted about us getting married. It was all in my head . . . and theirs. And then, when you came home with Jessie, the way I acted. God! I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me.”
Sighing, David hooked a finger under her chin and made her look at him. “First, I care about you too much to ever hate you. Second, if I hadn’t played with your feelings when we were youngsters, none of it would have happened. Now I’ve got a chance to help you find the kind of love I have with Jessie. And if you do, then maybe my conscience will stop eating at me. Hmm?”
A choked sound escaped Lil, and she reached out to him. He hugged her tight, then set her away, and for several moments neither of them seemed capable of speech. Then they both started to talk at once and had to laugh. After that they talked about old times, recalling pranks they’d pulled, ponies they’d tamed, and a dozen other experiences they’d shared. Time passed swiftly, and before Lil realized how late it was, her train arrived.
She thanked David again in a tight voice and gave him another brief hug.
“You take care of yourself, you hear?” he said gruffly. “And when you catch up with that stubborn Irishman, remember to send word. Jessie will be worried sick, your folks too, I reckon.” His mouth crooked upward. “So will I.”
“I’ll remember. Everything,” she promised. Then she turned and hurried up the steps to her car.
Once inside, she found a seat and stuck her head out the open window. “Good-bye,” she called, waving at David.
“So long,” he replied, hand raised in salute.
Then the train started to move, and she settled back in her seat, looking ahead, toward Tye and the future.
* * *
Lil trudged across the dusty street toward yet another saloon. The lettering on the tall false front declared it to be the Golden Nugget. Fitting, she guessed, since the town was also called Golden, and because gold was what drew men to the nearby mountains.
Gathering her skirts, she stepped onto the boardwalk outside the saloon. She’d given up wearing britches after the trouble she’d had finding a hotel room back in Denver. Ladies who dressed like men weren’t welcome, one snooty desk clerk had told her flat out. The others had eyed her with scorn and informed her they had no room available. She’d ended up sleeping in a flea-bitten cubbyhole above a saloon, with her gun under the pillow. Come morning, she’d rigged herself out in gown and petticoats.
She squared her shoulders and pushed through the saloon’s batwing doors. The odor of beer and firewater immediately surrounded her, but she hardly noticed it after all the other whiskey mills she’d visited. Pausing just inside, she glanced around the room. The place wasn’t very busy. Three men sat playing poker at a table off to her left and a couple of solitary drinkers lounged at the bar. One of the card players glanced up and saw her.
“Boy howdy! Look what just walked in, boys,” he said, grinning at his cronies. He pointed in her direction and they turned to look.
“Well, well, a pretty gal come to visit,” one of the others commented. “Hey, honey, you lookin’ for company? Come on over here. You’re welcome to join us.”
“No thanks,” Lil said, giving him a cold stare. He grumbled something to his friends, but she ignored them as she walked purposefully to the bar. Behind it, a lanky man with oiled dark hair and a droopy mustache stood wiping a glass with a dingy towel. He frowned as he watched her approach. Setting her heavy reticule on the polished mahogany bar, she started to ask him a question, but he didn’t give her a chance.
“You oughtn’t to be in here, Miss,” he said, mustache bobbing with every word. “This is no fit place for a lady.”
“I’ve heard those words before, mister,” Lil snapped. “They haven’t scared me off yet.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe they should have.”
“Look, I just want to ask you something. Then I’ll clear out. Okay?”
He eyed her suspiciously then nodded. “All right, but make it quick.” Looking past her, toward the three poker players, he added, “I don’t want any trouble in here.”
“That’s fine with me. I only want to know if you’ve seen a black-haired Irishman come through here in the past few days. He’s got blue eyes and he’s about yea tall.” She raised her hand to indicate Tye’s height. “And he’s good looking.”
The man set aside the glass he’d been polish
ing and tilted his head in thought. After a moment during which Lil barely breathed, he said, “You know, that sounds like a gent who stopped in two, maybe three days ago.”
Lil heart leapt and she tingled with excitement, hardly believing she’d finally cut Tye’s back trail. “Did he say where he was bound?” she pressed.
“Can’t recall as he did. Why are you so all-fired anxious to find him, Missy?”
Her soaring hope died a cruel death. “He’s my beau,” she said distractedly, keenly disappointed and wondering what to do next. Caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t see the barkeep stiffen or pay attention to the sound of approaching footsteps.
“You’ve got a beau, do yuh?” a sarcastic voice said.
She looked up and, reflected in the mirror above the bar, saw the poker player who’d wanted her to join him and his friends. He was standing directly behind her.
“Seems like he ran off and left yuh if you’re up here lookin’ for him,” he scoffed.
“That’s none of your business, mister. Now back off,” she demanded.
“Ah, that’s no way to talk, honey. All I want to do is make you feel better.” He ran a hand down her arm, sending a jolt of fury washing through her.
“Take your hand off me,” she gritted. When he merely laughed, she grabbed her reticule off the bar, reached inside and drew out her pistol. Knocking his hand aside, she whirled to face him, gun pointed at his chest. “I said back off. Now!”
He stumbled back a step. “Whoa, there’s no call for you to pull a gun on me.”
“I don’t want trouble in here,” the barkeep repeated nervously at her back.
Paying him no mind, Lil saw the other two card players push to their feet and start toward her. Deciding all three needed to learn she wasn’t playing, she fired off a shot. The bullet drove into the floor a few inches from the man who’d dared to touch her. He yelped and jumped back, his compadres froze in their tracks, and the whiskey peddler cursed loudly. The two men who’d been nursing drinks by the bar, one on either side of Lil, scuttled away.