Autumn Lover

by Elizabeth Lowell

  “I’m aware of that. Will we make the contract?”

  “One way or another.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Pointedly Hunter looked at the Indian girl and said no more.

  Elyssa’s eyes widened slightly. Apparently Hunter, too, wondered just how much English the girl understood.

  “The boys are combing the marsh in all the places you showed them,” Hunter said. “Morgan and Johnny have the dogs working the high canyons.”

  “I see.”

  “You will,” Hunter vowed under his breath. “One way or another, if it’s the last thing I do on this blessed earth.”

  A pink flush appeared on Elyssa’s cheeks. She suspected that Hunter wasn’t talking about cattle at all.

  “If anything changes,” she said in a remote voice, “please advise me at once.”

  “You’ll be the first to know. I guarantee it.”

  That was one promise Hunter was looking forward to keeping.

  But first he had to figure out a way to get Elyssa alone. He had to do it quickly, for his time on the Ladder S was running out. If Ab’s raiders didn’t attack soon, Hunter would have to go after them.

  Then he and Case would go back to the Spanish Bottoms. The sooner they got there, the sooner the last of the Culpeppers who had raided in Texas would be brought to justice.

  Standing just beneath the ridge overlooking Wind Gap, Hunter merged into the piñons and waited. All around him the night seethed with wind and the promise of rain.

  A lark’s call sifted between the piñon boughs. Hunter returned the call as softly as it had come to him.

  Case appeared in front of his brother.

  “You keep riding your men so hard, you’re going to lose them,” Case said quietly.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Even Morgan is tiptoeing around you, and God knows he is a tough son.”

  “How do you know what’s going on at the Ladder S?” Hunter retorted.

  “Same way I know what it’s like in the Culpepper camp,” Case said sardonically.

  “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

  “Yeah. Her name is Sassy. What went wrong with you and that little gal of yours?”

  “She’s not mine,” Hunter said curtly.

  “The hell she isn’t. She’s yours whether you’ve ever had her or not.”

  Even in the uncertain moonlight, Case saw the change in Hunter’s expression.

  “So that’s the way of it,” Case said quietly. “Is she pregnant?”

  “It’s none of your damned business,” Hunter snarled.

  “The last time you said that to me, I was telling you what a common piece of trash Belinda was.”

  The frustration and anger in Hunter leaped without warning. He went after Case in an undisciplined rush. There was a short, sharp skirmish, but the advantage was all Case’s. He was in control of himself.

  Hunter wasn’t.

  Rather quickly Hunter found himself facedown on the ground, breathing hard, trying to buck Case off his back.

  “Give it up,” Case said, increasing the pressure on Hunter’s neck and arm. “You’re the one who taught me this hold. You can’t break it without breaking your own stubborn neck.”

  Hunter kept struggling.

  “Damn it!” Case said. “Stop acting like a green kid. You weren’t the first man Belinda fooled, or the last.”

  Abruptly, self-control returned to Hunter.

  “Let me up,” Hunter said through his teeth.

  “Not just yet,” Case said calmly. “First I want to know if I’m going to be an uncle any time soon.”

  Tension snaked through Hunter’s body again, but he made no effort to throw off Case.

  “I don’t know,” Hunter said.

  “Ask Sassy.”

  “I did.”

  “And?”

  “She told me to go to hell.”

  Case muttered an indistinct word. An instant later he released Hunter. Simultaneously Case stood up in a lithe rush.

  Warily he watched Hunter come to his feet. When Hunter showed no inclination to jump him again, Case let out a long breath.

  “Sorry,” Case said quietly. “I thought you were just being pigheaded about Sassy, the way you were when you wanted Belinda.”

  “And you told me she was a shallow little flirt.”

  “She was.”

  “I know. Now.” Hunter’s voice was both weary and bitter. “What a goddam shame it cost the lives of two fine children for me to find out what I had married.”

  “Their dying wasn’t your fault.”

  “That’s what I tell myself fifty times a day.”

  “Do you believe it?”

  “No.” Hunter hesitated, then said simply, “Thinking of them scared and hurting and crying for their daddy…It eats me alive.”

  “So you’re going to spend the rest of your life punishing yourself, is that it?”

  Hunter shrugged.

  “You think that will make it right?” Case asked.

  “I don’t know what I think. All I know is…” Hunter’s voice died.

  “I’ll tell you what I know,” Case said. “You come to a point like a bird dog whenever Sassy is in sight.”

  A hissing curse was Hunter’s only answer.

  “Why don’t you marry her?” Case asked calmly. “The world needs more decent people. The two of you would have good kids.”

  The sound Hunter made could hardly be called a laugh.

  “Not Elyssa,” Hunter said bluntly. “Not with me.”

  “Why?”

  “She didn’t like it one bit. When I tried to make it right, she went for my eyes like a cat.”

  Case’s expression shifted very slightly, as close to a smile as he ever came since the war.

  “Seems to me,” Case drawled, “that a girl with that much passion in her would be worth the trouble of gentling.”

  “First I have to catch her. She’s as hard to get close to as that ghost you keep chasing.”

  “Interesting thing about that ghost,” Case said.

  “Did you find out who he is?” Hunter asked quickly.

  “No. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of that critter since Gaylord was killed. Nobody is giving information to Ab now, either.”

  “How do you know?”

  “That’s what I’m supposed to be doing now,” Case said ironically. “Spying on the Ladder S for Ab.”

  “Interesting.”

  “I thought so.”

  “Does Ab trust you?” Hunter asked, thinking fast.

  “Ab doesn’t trust anyone.”

  Hunter grunted.

  “Like you and women,” Case continued. “Ever since you let that faithless bitch lead you around by your dumb handle, you haven’t had a good word to say about women.”

  Hunter gave Case a long, measuring kind of look. Quietly Case waited to see if his brother would lose his temper again.

  In the moonlight Case’s pale green eyes looked the same as Hunter’s—like hammered silver.

  “You’re riding me pretty hard,” Hunter said. “Why?”

  “You’re riding Sassy harder.”

  “If you’re that steamed about it, marry her yourself.”

  “I’ve thought of it,” Case said easily.

  “What?”

  “Keep it down unless you want visitors.”

  “What’s this about you and Elyssa?” Hunter demanded in a low, seething voice.

  “Nothing but a few facts.”

  “Such as?”

  “Sassy is a woman alone in a country where women have a hell of a hard time alone,” Case said. “She has a fine ranch and a desire to make it work. If she didn’t believe in such a damn fool thing as love, I’d have a ring on her finger so fast it would make your head spin.”

  “No.”

  “Why not? Are you planning to marry her?”

  “It’s the only decent thing for me to do,” Hunter said simply. “But she’s not having a
ny part of it.”

  Case grunted. “She was a virgin, then. I wondered.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Hunter answered anyway.

  “Yes,” he said distinctly. “Elyssa was a virgin.”

  “At least you know who she’s been with,” Case said. “Girl like Belinda, you never could tell how many neighbors were looking at her and remembering what it was like to climb into her saddle.”

  Hunter grimaced but didn’t disagree.

  For a few minutes the men stood and listened to the sounds of the night. Then Case turned his attention to his brother once more.

  “Ab is going from bad to worse,” Case said. “Gaylord was a favorite of his.”

  “Ain’t that just too damned bad.”

  “You getting ready to go after Ab?”

  “I don’t have much choice,” Hunter said. “The army will be wanting their livestock in less than two weeks.”

  “How many head of cattle do you have for them?”

  “Beeves? Less than fifty. Maybe another hundred in breeding stock.”

  “The Ladder S won’t last long without breeding stock,” Case said.

  Hunter didn’t answer.

  “But that’s not our problem, is it?” Case continued. “Culpeppers are.”

  “Have you found where the stolen cattle are being held?” Hunter asked curtly.

  “Funny thing about that. Lately I’ve noticed some prime Ladder S strays on B Bar land.”

  “Strays?” Hunter asked sharply.

  Case nodded. “It’s as though some of the cattle are drifting out of wherever they’ve been held.”

  “Backtrack them.”

  “I did. They seem to be coming from the willow bottoms north of the B Bar.”

  Hunter grunted. “That’s a rough stretch of land from what I’ve heard.”

  “You heard right. Lots of ravines reaching back up into the Rubies. A man could hide a lot of cattle up that way.”

  “Not good enough. I have to know where the cattle are before I risk a raid.”

  “I’m getting close,” Case said.

  “You’ve got three days.”

  Case nodded.

  “If you find out about the cattle before then, don’t wait for dark to tell me,” Hunter said. “Just get over here quick. We’ll need you at the ranch more than at the raiders’ camp.”

  “What if I can’t find the cattle?”

  “At dawn on the fourth day, I’ll raid the B Bar and let the devil take the hindmost.”

  “Where do you want me?” Case asked.

  “Wherever you won’t get shot by my men.”

  Case nodded. Then he slid his gun from its holster, spun the cylinder to check the load, and returned the gun to its place with an easy motion.

  “Watch yourself on the way back,” Case said.

  “What about you?”

  “I’m not distracted by a girl I want who’s mad as a dunked hen at me.”

  “I’m not a fool.”

  “Most of the time,” Case agreed sardonically.

  “What’s really bothering you? That you can’t have Sassy?”

  Case shook his head.

  “It’s the ranch I want,” Case said. “The ranch is something to build on when the last Culpepper is dead. Something that can’t be brutalized and dumped like broken whiskey bottles by the side of the trail.”

  Hunter was too shocked to speak. He sensed that Case was talking about how Em and Ted had died. It was a subject Case had refused to discuss, ever.

  Until now.

  “I’ll never speak of it again,” Case said. “I just wanted you to know that you’re the only living thing I’m able to care about since I found those kids. If Sassy can give you any ease with yourself and the past, I’ll be as happy for you as I can be for anything.”

  Hunter closed his eyes as a wave of grief went over him for all that had been lost to the cruel past.

  And part of what Hunter mourned was Case’s laughter. In some ways Case was dead as surely as Hunter’s own children.

  “Case…”

  There was no answer.

  Case had gone into the darkness as silently as he had come.

  21

  “I have to show you something,” Hunter said.

  Elyssa gasped and spun around so quickly she almost dropped her mug of breakfast coffee.

  She had been certain Hunter was gone. From her bedroom window she had seen him ride out on Bugle Boy just after dawn. Then, after she could no longer see Hunter silhouetted against the rising light, Elyssa had drawn a long breath.

  It had been her first deep breath since yesterday, when the delicate touch of Hunter’s tongue had sent heat splintering through her body.

  The darkness in his eyes haunted her.

  “I thought you left,” she said.

  Hunter gave Elyssa a hooded look. She was wearing the muffling men’s clothes again. He acknowledged that they were more sensible for range work, but he missed the shimmer and sigh of silk swirling around her legs.

  “I did leave,” Hunter said neutrally. “Then I came across something you have to see.”

  “What?”

  He shook his head.

  “If I tell you, it will prejudice you,” Hunter said. “I need your first impression. How soon can you be ready to ride?”

  Puzzled, Elyssa set aside her coffee. As she faced Hunter, she told herself that her heart was beating faster because she was startled. It couldn’t be racing simply because she was about to ride out over the land with Hunter once more.

  Alone.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Not far.”

  Within minutes Elyssa and Hunter were mounted and riding away from the ranch house. Hunter rode with the rifle across his saddle and his eyes ceaselessly searching the land.

  Elyssa rode the same way. The only difference was that her eyes kept straying back to Hunter. When she realized it, she was angry with herself.

  It made no difference. Hunter drew her glance the way flame drew a moth. The shattering tenderness of yesterday’s caress still burned against her wrist.

  Asleep, she dreamed of him.

  Awake, his words echoed seductively in her mind, undermining her anger.

  You have everything to learn from me.

  Silently Elyssa followed Hunter across the land. The storms had taken a toll of the tawny grasses. Most were beaten flat by wind and rain. For the lowlands, autumn was a time of turmoil and defeat.

  But high on the shoulders of the mountains, aspens were coming into their full autumn glory. Leaves on some groves had turned as yellow as the summer sun. Other aspen groves were an orange so vivid it looked like tongues of fire licking up the deep canyons and long, shallow ravines.

  Broodingly Elyssa’s eyes returned to Hunter, her autumn lover, a man as complex and compelling to her as the land itself.

  Hunter was aware of Elyssa’s quiet glances. That, and the emptiness of the land, eased some of the tension that had been riding him.

  No matter how hard Hunter searched the wide land, he saw no sign of other people. He and Elyssa could have been alone on the face of the earth. Despite that, he kept to the lengthy, meandering route he had chosen.

  Finally Hunter brought Elyssa to a place where mountains and the long, wide valley merged at the edges in a series of rumpled ridges and canyons. At the head of a small, steep canyon there was a cave mouth shielded by a riot of shrubbery. Clear, sweet water flowed between the willow thickets crowding the banks of a small stream.

  Elyssa recognized the place. She had been to Hidden Creek before, but not for many years. And never by such a circuitous route.

  Without dismounting, Hunter rode Bugle Boy through a thicket and into the creek itself. As he turned the horse upstream, Leopard followed. Limber willow branches bent away from the horses, then sprang back into place with little to mark the fact that horses had passed through.

  When Hunter reached the cave mouth, he reined aside. A gesture
of his hand urged Elyssa to ride in front of him into the cave itself. After Leopard walked past, Hunter bent low on Bugle Boy’s neck and followed. Calmly both horses walked beneath an overhang of rock and into the mouth of a cave.

  Just beyond the smaller opening, the cave was perhaps a hundred feet wide and three times that deep. Because it was autumn, there was a wide margin of dry, sandy bank around the pool that was concealed within the cave.

  The pool itself was like a black mirror reflecting day light from the entrance. Any disturbance to the water left ghostly, quicksilver traces on the surface. At the back of the pool was a long, narrow crack in the mountain.

  In spring, water would gush from the crack with a sound like thunder. Today water welled up silently, filling the pool as quickly as the small creek drained it.

  Hunter dismounted and grabbed a loose screen of freshly cut brush. He pulled it into place across the lower part of the opening, concealing the mouth of the cave.

  With the brush screen in place, the light filtering into the cave became as mysterious as the quicksilver motions of the pool itself. Bugle Boy went to the water and drank. Silver circles shimmered outward from his muzzle.

  “Can you see?” Hunter asked.

  Elyssa started. Hunter was standing at Leopard’s shoulder. His left hand was on the stallion’s bit.

  “All I can see is that we’ve ridden four miles and we’re only a half mile from the house,” Elyssa said. “Why?”

  “Get down. It’s over here.”

  Hunter stepped aside as though he knew that his closeness was making Elyssa nervous. Retreating a few steps, he waited for her to dismount. When she did, he turned immediately toward the stream.

  “This way,” he said.

  After a moment of hesitation, Elyssa followed Hunter. He went to the point where the pool overflowed to create Hidden Creek. There he waited until she came to stand by him.

  “Where is it?” Elyssa asked.

  “Other side.”

  Elyssa peered into the oddly luminous darkness on the other side of the creek. She could just make out blurred shapes of boxes or bedrolls or both.

  “Can you see it?” Hunter asked.

  The subtle, leashed anticipation in his voice made Elyssa curious.

  “No,” she admitted. “I’m afraid I can’t see much at all.”

  “Hang on.”

  With that, Hunter lifted Elyssa off her feet, carrying her across his chest like a child. He was splashing through the creek before she realized what had happened.