“It’s a good thing there weren’t any children.”
“She was big and swollen back in the winter when I had a stop here. I figured she’d had the baby by now.”
Ty shook his head. “She sure don’t look pregnant now. Wonder if she lost the baby?”
“I don’t know, but the least we can do is give them a decent burial. If we find a baby’s grave, we’ll put them beside it.”
“I agree, but for the time being, let’s get the bodies out of here.”
Ray gently turned the woman to her back. “Looks like they had their way with her before they killed her. Wonder why they shot her instead of using an arrow.”
“Probably to make us think an Indian would never shoot another Indian with an arrow.”
“You’ve got a point.”
“Let’s hurry and get these bodies out back before one of the passengers decides to come in here.” Ty picked up the woman. “Can you get the man by yourself?”
“Yep.” Ray hoisted the body to his shoulder. When they got outside, he added, “I hate the thoughts of them laying out here in the elements. You sure we don’t have time to bury them now?”
Ty shook his head. “Not now. We’ll take care of that later, but first we’re going to have to prepare for another attack.”
“So you think they’ll come again?”
“I figure they’re not far away. Probably waiting on down the road for the stage to come by. They probably thought as soon as you saw this place had been destroyed, you wouldn’t stop, but would continue on.”
“So you figure they plan to ambush us down the road instead of waiting here.”
“That’s my thinking.” Ty glanced at Ray. “Carrying anything valuable this trip?”
Ray nodded. “The strong box is full of gold. Going to the bank in Deer Meadow.”
They placed the bodies of the man and his wife on the lean-to that served as a back porch. “Is the gold still on the stage?”
“Yeah. Think I should go take it off and hide it somewhere in the barn?”
“Not a bad idea, and while you’re there, grab a tarp or a couple of horse blankets to cover the bodies. I don’t want to leave the folks exposed to the elements—or worse.”
“I understand that.” Ray stepped off the porch. “By the way, the horses are gone. I guess they didn’t want us to have fresh ones when we left here.”
“This attack was well planned, so we better be well organized when they return.”
“I agree, Eldridge. I’ll hurry back.”
True to his word, Ray returned in a short time. He not only had the blankets, but he had a couple of rifles with him. “Had the one I use and an extra under the seat. Brought all the ammo I had on the stage, too.”
“Good. We may need it.” Ty took the blankets and spread them across the bodies. “Get the money hidden?”
“Put it in the feeding trough and scattered hay about. Don’t figure they’ll look there.”
“You’re right. They probably won’t.” Ty opened the kitchen door. “Now, let’s go see if anybody among the passengers can handle a gun or if it’s going to be up to you and me to defend the place when the outlaws return.”
Ray chuckled. “Bullins might be able to shoot a little, but I got my doubts about the women.”
“So have I. More than likely, I was right. This is going to be up to us. I just hope there aren’t too many of them.”
“Maybe it’ll only be a few. Lots of tribes have splinter groups.”
“This wasn’t done by Indians, Ray.”
Ray’s brow wrinkled. “But the arrow…”
“That was to make us think it was an Indian attack. If they’d been smart they’d have used an Apache weapon or one from one of the other tribes around here. I have no idea where they got it, but they messed up by using a Sioux arrow. You don’t usually find the Sioux in Arizona. They’re mainly in the Montana and Dakota areas.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. My grandmother was Sioux.”
****
Xenia wondered why Ty and the stage driver closed the door when they left the room. She almost followed them, but decided Mea Ann was too upset to be left alone.
“I don’t much want to sit at that table, Xenia.”
“Neither do I, but as Mr. Eldridge said, we don’t have much choice. I can’t see us getting down in the floor and Mr. Bullins has already claimed the only chair.”
Mea Ann almost smiled. “Then, I guess we either have to sit on the opposite bench or stand.”
“Looks like it. Come on. I’ll sit first if it’ll make you feel better.” Xenia dropped to the bench on the opposite side of the table from where the body had been.
Mea Ann eased down beside her. “Xenia, do you ever wish we’d never come on this trip?”
She did, but she wasn’t going to tell her sister. “It’s too late to wish such a thing, now. We’ve come too far to turn back, so we might as well make the best of it.”
“Why in the world did you ladies come on such a trip in the first place?” Lou turned in his chair to look at them. “No woman from the east should be traveling alone in an area like this. Anything could happen to you.”
“We came to take care of family business,” Xenia said, and hoped Mea Ann wouldn’t elaborate.
Mea Ann didn’t say anything else about family. Instead, she changed the subject. “How often do you come to this sparsely populated area, Mr. Bullins?”
“This is my third trip, and hopefully, it will be my best one so far.”
Mea Ann gave him a tentative smile. “Why is that?”
Xenia watched him give her the lustful smile he’d been bestowing on her and didn’t like what she saw. “It doesn’t matter, Mea Ann.”
He ignored her and patted the suitcase. “I was just about to say the company of you beautiful girls have made it a success whether or not I sell any of my equipment.”
Mea Ann looked at the floor, and changed the subject. “There’s blood on the floor. I hope that poor man didn’t suffer too much.”
“Damn Indians,” Bullins muttered.
“Please, Mr. Bullins. I’d appreciate you not cursing.”
“I’m so sorry, Xenia. I should have controlled my temper, but it makes me mad when the renegade Indians do something like this. The army should’ve killed them all.” He gave her that smile she couldn’t help but think was oily. “Ladies like you and your sister should be spending your time where men can look after you, not have to deal with something like this.”
“It’s tragic, but I don’t see how we can avoid it now that we’re here.”
“When you get to Deer Meadow, I’m sure you’ll find the men will appreciate you more. Then you won’t have to be subjected to an Indian raid or a man like Ty Eldridge.”
“Mr. Eldridge doesn’t seem so bad,” Mea Ann said. “He was careful to make sure there was no danger in here before he let us come in.”
He shook his head. “Now I know how innocent you and your sister are. Don’t you know what Eldridge is?”
Xenia interrupted. “I don’t think we should be discussing Mr. Eldridge or anyone else. It looks to me like we should be trying to find out what’s going on here.”
“Xenia’s right,” Mea Ann said.
“You don’t have to worry. I’m sure the stage driver will know what to do if Eldridge doesn’t kill him first.”
“What do you mean?” Mea Ann looked scared.
“Don’t you know what he is?”
Xenia wasn’t sure what Lou was going to say, so she said, “It doesn’t matter what he is.” She stood. “I’m going to look out the window and see if I can tell why Mr. Eldridge told us to stay in here.”
“The breed probably put us here to wait for his friends to come back.”
She whirled around and glared at him. “What are you saying?”
“Can’t you tell he’s part Indian? They’re all alike. I got in a little trouble with one in Deer Meadow last time I was there
. Just hope it’s all been cleared up by the time we get in.”
“What difference does it make if he has some Indian blood in him?”
“Oh, Miss Xenia. It’s an important factor in this area.”
Again, Mea Ann changed the subject. “What kind of trouble did you get into with an Indian, Mr. Bullins?”
He chuckled. “Miss Poindexter, that’s not something I want to discuss with a lady.”
Xenia shook her head and tuned out their conversation. Looking out on the dusty yard of the way station, she let her mind drift back to the events that led to her and Mea Ann to Arizona without an escort. It all started when their mother’s brother, Seymour Longstreet sent a letter to the sisters saying that he’d been falsely arrested in a town called Deer Meadow in Arizona Territory and needed them to come help him out before they decided to hang him. He said he wasn’t well, and needed someone to help care for him while he fought for his freedom. He’d also said they needed to come without telling their parents because his sister and her husband had never liked him and would stop them if they told him they were going to leave.
Of course, being the good daughter she was, Mea Ann insisted they show the missive to their father.
Afterward, Xenia couldn’t understand why nobody in the family seemed at all concerned about Uncle Seymour. She remembered him as a funny man who smoked stinky cigars and told little girls scary, but funny, stories about going west and taking part in all kinds of exciting things, including rounding up cows and fighting Indians.
Yes, she knew everyone thought of him as the family rebel. Yes, he hadn’t been in touch with anyone for the past ten or twelve years. And, yes, he’d told his sister and brother-in-law he never wanted to see anyone in the damn Poindexter family again. But that didn’t give the whole family the right to sit at home in their fancy Richmond houses and let some unscrupulous sheriff in a small town nobody ever heard of, in the middle of a nowhere territory, hang a sick man.
She remembered clearly her father saying, “Calm down, Xenia, they won’t hang Seymour. Anyway, he’s probably lying about the situation. Even if he’s telling the truth, he’s always been able to get out of scrapes like this. He’ll get out of it this time, too.”
“But, Father, what if he doesn’t get out of it and they hang him this time?”
“Listen to your father, Xenia. He knows what he’s talking about.”
“But, Mother, how can you sit by and let this happen to your brother?”
“I know my brother better than the rest of the family, dear, and your father is right. If he says Seymour will be fine, I’m sure he will be.” Clara smiled at her daughter and twisted her lace handkerchief, as if she wasn’t sure of what she was saying. “Now, why don’t you come with me to the sun porch and we’ll discuss what you need to wear to the Emmerson’s party Saturday night. It’s time you started being more social. You might even attract the interest of some acceptable young man.”
“I don’t want—”
“Go, Xenia. I’m busy and I don’t want to discuss Seymour Longstreet any further. You need to get these silly notions out of your mind. The mention of the man’s name upsets me.” Her father picked up his newspaper and sat back with his pipe.
Xenia didn’t remember what she, Mea Ann, and her mother talked about on the sun porch, but she did remember that she decided that if nobody else was going to do anything about Uncle Seymour’s plight, she would do it herself. She was sure if she handled her right, Mea Ann would help her.
The next day, she’d gone to visit some of her cousins and asked them to help. They all assured her that the ‘Longstreet fellow,’ as they called him, was probably making his problem seem bigger than it really was. When she insisted somebody had to do something, her cousin, Harry, promised to check it out.
Xenia waited two days for her cousin to keep his promise, but he didn’t do a thing, and when she approached him again he refused to discuss it further. It was then she decided she’d go to the town of Deer Meadow and do something about her uncle’s situation herself—no matter what everyone else said.
She confided her plan to her sister, and Mea Ann wouldn’t hear of her going alone. Knowing they had to slip away or their father would stop them, it took the sisters two weeks to gather enough money for the journey and to make their arrangements.
Now, here they were in this awful way station where murder and mayhem had taken place, and they still hadn’t reached Deer Meadow. Nor had they gotten any nearer to solving Uncle Seymour’s problems.
Chapter 2
Ty came back into the main room of the way station. Ray followed. When Ty looked them over, he knew they would be of no help. The salesman looked like a scared little man who had never been in such a situation before and had no idea of what to do. As for the women, he knew they were the kind to be more at home sitting around in some fancy parlor sipping tea than being in a location where their lives were in danger. They’d grown up under some man’s protection and they probably would always be in such a position whenever they went back home and married some dandy.
He took a breath. “Folks, we’re not sure of what we’re facing here, but Ray and I feel we should prepare for another attack.”
“Oh, no,” Mea Ann said in a shaky voice.
“Are you saying the savages who killed the man here may come back?” Lou glanced at the women as if to say, “I told you he was waiting on his friends.”
“We believe they attacked the way station thinking the stage wouldn’t spend any time here, once Ray found there were no services and no fresh horses.”
Lou frowned at him. “I don’t see that gives you a reason to make us stay here like sitting ducks.”
“Of course it does. When the stage doesn’t come by where they plan to ambush us, they’ll come back here to check.”
“I think he’s trying to set us up for his friends.” Lou looked at Ray. “You can’t possibly agree with that, can you?”
“I absolutely do. When I went to the barn and didn’t find horses, I knew we couldn’t go any farther until the horses we have are rested. My steeds are exhausted and couldn’t outrun anybody. We wouldn’t stand a chance if we went on.”
“But you can’t make us stay and wait for those renegades to come back and kill us. Can’t we—”
Xenia whirled around. “For heaven’s sake, Mr. Bullins, stop arguing about it. I’m sure these men know what they’re doing, and they’re not only doing it for themselves, but for our safety, too.”
“Listen, Missy…”
She ignored him and turned to Ty and Ray. “What can we do to help?”
Ty couldn’t help being impressed that the little spitfire believed him and was willing to do what she could, which he doubted was anything that would be of use to them. “We’re not sure how many attackers there are or when they’ll be here, but we know they’re well-armed. Can you shoot a gun?”
She shook her head. “Do you mean they have guns as well as bows and arrows?”
“This wasn’t done by Indians, Miss Poindexter. They only tried to make us think so. Probably because they thought we’d leave faster and head their way to get away from who we thought were savages,” Ray interjected.
“How do you know?” Lou asked.
“Don’t worry about it. We know,” Ray said.
“Enough talk.” Ty moved to the door. “Bullins, you start pulling that table and benches over here and barricade this door.”
“What are you going to do?” Bullins almost sounded as if he whined.
“He’s going to build a barricade with the rest of the furniture for the women to hide behind and I’m going into the kitchen and block the back door.” Ray turned and left the room.
“I want to do more than hide behind furniture,” Xenia said.
“You can, but we still need to build a barrier. We all may want to get behind it if the outlaws get inside the building.”
“Alright. Tell us what to do. Mea Ann will help too, won’t you, sister?”
“Of course I will.” She stood and rubbed the remaining few tears from her eyes.
“Fine, ladies. I’m going to see if I can’t turn that cabinet on its side. It’ll give you the best protection from flying bullets. Why don’t you go into the room to the left? It’s probably a bedroom. Drag a mattress, blankets and anything else you think will help out here.”
He watched the women leave the room and shook his head. What was it about them—no, not them—her? What was it about that little blonde that made him feel differently than he ever had about a white woman? She was sassy, haughty, and definitely not his type. Yet, there was something about her that did things to his insides. Things that had never been done before. Not even when he had the relationship with…He wouldn’t let himself finish the thought.
Shrugging, he moved to the cabinet and leaned against the side. It didn’t take long to tip it over. He was surprised when the doors flew open and a few baby clothes and a rough carved toy rattle tumbled to the floor. Frowning, he picked up the rattle. Could there have been a child here? We haven’t found a baby’s body. If one was here, where could it be?
“Mr. Eldridge!”
He dropped the rattle and ran to the bedroom. He stopped short when he saw Xenia and Mea Ann on their hands and knees looking under the bed. He knelt beside them. “What is it?”
Xenia pointed to a bundle stuffed in the back corner under the bed. “It looks like a baby.”
Before he could say anything, it whimpered and Mea Ann began to crawl toward it. “It is a baby, and I’m going to get it.”
“Be careful, Mea Ann.”
“I know how to look after babies, Xenia. I looked after you for several years.”
Ty said nothing, but his mind ran wild. So, Mea Ann Poindexter is the elder sister. I thought she looked a little older, but Xenia is the one who always seems to be in charge. Wonder how old she is, anyway?
“Ouch.”
“What happened?” Xenia leaned a little farther under the bed.
“I just bumped my head on a bed slat, but I’m fine.”
Xenia’s Renegade Page 2