He didn’t know if he was glad or not that Matt Carlton hadn’t taken the train out of Elko. It could mean they were right behind him and had a chance to catch up with him. Or it might mean Virginia City was no longer his destination. If Carlton had taken off in another direction, they wouldn’t know it, and the advantage would be lost.
But he was out of options. They would have to press on toward Virginia City and hope Carlton was headed there.
That night, while Silver and Dean slept on the opposite side of the campfire, Jared lay awake, staring up at the stars.
He was close. Closer than he’d ever been to finding the man who’d killed his parents and sister. God willing, he would find Matt Carlton in Virginia City. He would haul him back to Colorado where he could stand trial. It would be easier to prove his guilt there than anywhere. He could write to Owen Harrison in Fort Worth. Another person who could attest to Carlton’s atrocities.
And then what? What would he do when he was no longer looking for the man with the crescent-shaped scar? Would he go on, just as before? Would he still be a bounty hunter? And if not, then what?
Utter weariness washed over him. He was bone tired. Soul tired. Tired of the endless miles. Tired of the dirt and the hunger and the heat. Tired of carrying a gun and always being ready to use it. Tired of the hate that ate at his soul. Tired of what he had become.
He used to dream of going back to Fair Acres, but that was impossible. Kentucky was a part of his past, a part he couldn’t return to. His fingers touched the cool metal of his Colt revolver. Violence. That’s what he knew. That was all he knew anymore. He’d become accustomed to it.
He looked across the campfire at Silver, and a longing stirred within him that had nothing to do with physical desire. He allowed it to linger only a moment before he drove it away.
Silver Matlock was too good for the likes of him. He would only end up hurting her by association.
Silver sensed Jared watching her. Her heart begged her to open her eyes and meet his gaze. Her head demanded she pretend to be asleep. The Good Book said the heart was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So she listened to her head. This time.
She rolled over, turning her back to the fire—and to Jared. Removing the temptation to look at him. For nearly a month, she’d traveled with him. He could be hard. He could be distant. But he could also be kind and gentle. She caught glimpses of the good in him every day. Had she really fallen in love with Jared Newman? How could she love him? He’d never kissed her, never encouraged her affection in any way. And yet . . .
Tears slipped from beneath her eyelids and dropped onto the rolled blanket beneath her head.
They would find Matt Carlton. She was certain they would. They would collect a reward—she was certain of that too—and she would be able to rescue her father from financial ruin. But then Jared would ride away, leaving her behind. And she could not bear thinking of that fast-approaching day.
CHAPTER 23
It was around noon, three days after leaving Elko, as their small party rode along a narrow trail on a hillside, the sun overhead as scorching as ever.
All of a sudden, Cinder reared up, her shrill whinny jarring the silence that had accompanied them for miles. Unprepared, Silver tumbled into the draw below, slamming hard at the bottom. Agony exploded in her head and the wind was driven from her chest. Shards of pain shot up her leg.
From a distance, she heard Jared say, “Don’t move.” But then he touched her, and she realized he was beside her. How had he reached her so quickly?
She opened her eyes and tried to sit up.
“I said don’t move.” He gently pushed her back.
She grimaced. “I’m all right.”
“Sure you are.” He began to explore her limbs with his hands.
When he reached her right ankle, she gasped in pain.
He frowned. “Better take your boot off and have a look.”
When he lifted her foot off the ground, a wave of dizziness sent her spiraling toward a black pit. She fought to remain conscious and dug her fingers into the dirt as he removed her boot.
“Wiggle your toes,” Jared said, still elevating her leg.
She managed to do so.
“It’s not broken. A bad sprain, I imagine. But you’re not going to get that boot back on. Look how swollen it is already.” He lowered her leg to the ground. “Dean, you’d better bring the horses down. We’ll camp here for the night.”
The boy nodded—she hadn’t noticed that he was down in this ravine as well—and took off at a run.
“We ought to make Winnemucca by tomorrow night. We can have a doctor look at your ankle there.”
“We can’t afford a doctor. I’ll be all right.” She remembered Jared saying something similar after he’d been knifed and almost smiled, despite the pain.
Jared grunted. “We’ll see how you feel about that in the morning. For now, we’d better try to make you comfortable.”
“What made her spook? It happened so fast, I didn’t see anything.”
“A rattler.”
“Where’s Cinder now?” Silver twisted and tried to look up the steep incline. Her head throbbed in response to the sudden movement.
“Not sure. She ran off a ways.” He looked up the hillside. “I’d better help Dean. Will you be all right until we get back with the horses?”
“Yes.”
“I’d try to make you more comfortable, but—” He lifted empty hands.
“I’m fine where I am. Just go before Cinder runs off too far.”
Jared rose above her. “We won’t be long.”
As soon as he was out of sight, Silver released the groan she’d been holding in. The pain was worse than she’d let on.
Tears burned the back of her eyes. Why did this have to happen on top of everything else? She had less than sixty days left to find Matt Carlton and get the reward and save her parents. There was no time to be laid up with another injury, hers this time. Their supplies had dwindled to almost nothing. They had little money left for any purpose, let alone to pay for the services of a doctor.
It all suddenly seemed hopeless.
Jared knew Silver hurt more than she let on during the final leg of their journey to Winnemucca, but she didn’t complain. Not even once. Though they could ill afford it, Jared used some of their precious remaining coins to pay for a hotel room. If they had to stay long, they would soon be completely broke and hungry.
After paying for the hotel room, Jared returned to the street and helped Silver from her horse, never letting her feet touch the ground. He carried her into the lobby and up the stairs. The three-week-old knife wound twinged a bit from the effort, but he ignored it.
They reached the door to the room, and without him asking her to, Silver reached out, turned the knob, and pushed the door open. The room was small but clean, the bed covered with a patchwork quilt, the window hidden behind bleached muslin curtains. There was an oval rag rug in shades of blue on the floor. A cherrywood dresser with a mirror stood against one wall, a washstand with pitcher and bowl against another.
As Jared set Silver on the bed, he said, “I only had enough to pay for one room. Dean and I can sleep on the floor.”
She nodded without comment.
“I’m going to check around town, see about a doctor.”
Silver touched his wrist before he could step away from the bed. “Wait, Jared.”
She reached beneath the neck of her bodice and withdrew the locket. In the weeks they’d been together, he’d seen her touch or hold it numerous times as they sat near the campfires. As if she drew comfort from it. No one had to tell him it was precious to her.
“Take this and sell it. Don’t let anybody cheat you. It’s valuable. That’s a real diamond. The necklace belonged to my great-grandmother, who left it to my mother when she died, and my mother left it to me. But don’t use the money you get for a doctor. We need other things more. My ankle is sprained. That’s all. I’ll be able to
ride hard and fast again in a couple of days.”
He took the proffered necklace, feeling like a failure as he did so. He’d let her ride along with him. He should be able to take better care of her.
“All right,” he agreed. “We’ll see how you feel in the morning.” He turned toward the boy. “Dean, come with me. We’ll bring in our supplies, and then I’ll take the horses to the livery.”
Half an hour later, Jared stepped out of the livery stables and glanced down the dusty main street. He removed his hat, wiping his sleeve across his forehead, then replaced it with a firm tug. As he’d done in every town since Laramie, he would start with a few questions at the train station.
Winnemucca had begun as a trading post, but it had grown into a fair-sized town with the coming of the railroad. It had the typical false-fronted stores and saloons, most of them unpainted, all of them faded by the hot desert sun and cold winter winds. The main street was wide to facilitate turning wagons. Jared had passed through a hundred towns like it in the past six years.
The clerk behind the counter at the rail station looked up from beneath his green visor. “Can I help you, sir?”
Jared described Carlton with a few words.
“Not much to go on. Can’t say as I’ve seen him, but doesn’t mean he didn’t come through here. Hey, your name wouldn’t be Newman, would it?”
Jared tensed. “Yes. Why?”
“Got me a telegram here for you.” He handed Jared an envelope.
“Thanks.” He turned away as he ripped the seal and pulled out the telegram. It was from Doug Gordon.
He went back and read the contents. Three murders . . . Suspect in jail in Silver City, Idaho . . . Could be the man you’re looking for . . .
Carlton in jail in Idaho? Could it be him?
Jared turned toward the clerk again. “Does the stage to Idaho come through here?”
“Sure does. San Francisco to Boise City and vicey versey.”
“Where can I find the schedule?”
“You’re in luck if you’re headed north. Next one through’d be ’round six o’clock tonight. Passengers board across the street.”
“Thanks.”
He went outside, pausing on the boardwalk. His gaze moved to the hotel while he shoved his hand into his pocket, fingering the few remaining coins and the locket Silver had given to him. The stage—with a change of horses every ten to fifteen miles—would be a good four days faster than if he traveled by horseback, but he didn’t have enough money on him at the moment to pay the fare. He would have to get it somehow. He had to get there and back fast. If it was Matt Carlton sitting in that jail, Jared’s search would be over. He could start his life over again. Somewhere. Somehow. Maybe with someone by his side.
Maybe with Silver by his side.
Silver. If he told her face-to-face about the telegram, she would want to go too. She would insist on it. No, better to force her to wait for him to come back. Call him a coward, but he would rather send her a note, along with enough money to keep her and Dean until he returned from Silver City. He ought to be able to get enough for the packhorse to take care of those expenses. The locket he would hold on to. Despite her generosity in offering it, he wasn’t going to sell it. Not yet, anyway.
Silver grew worried when Jared didn’t return to the hotel after several hours. Finally, she sent Dean to look for him. The waiting was pure agony. She wanted to do something. Lowering her legs to the floor, she tried to stand, but her ankle couldn’t support her. She dropped back onto the bed with a small cry as pain shot up her leg.
As if in answer, the door opened and Dean stepped into the room. “Couldn’t find Mr. Newman anywhere.” He looked at her foot where it rested on the floor, then glanced down at his own feet, his hands shoved into the pockets of his overalls. “Cinder an’ the pinto are in the livery, but the man there said he bought the packhorse I was ridin’.”
“Jared sold the packhorse? But why would he—”
“Fella said he seen Mr. Newman get on the stage.”
“The stage?” It wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t leave them there. She used to fear he might do that, but not anymore. The information had to be wrong. Jared wouldn’t take the money from her necklace and the sale of the packhorse and desert them.
“I asked at the express office. He’s gone, all right.”
The betrayal burned hot in her stomach. She swallowed back the rising panic and tried to think logically. He hadn’t sold his saddle horse along with the pack animal. He had to be coming back. But where had he gone, and why had he left without telling her? How long would he be away? If he was headed for somewhere close by, he would have ridden there, not bought a ticket on the stage.
He’s abandoned us. He wants the reward money all to himself.
After all this time, after all those miles, he’d left without a word or a backward glance. In the beginning, she would have thought him capable of it. But not now. Not after he’d won her trust . . . and her heart.
And yet he’d done it.
She drew her injured ankle up from the floor, propping it high with an extra pillow and blanket. She forced her voice to sound calm. “Let’s get some sleep, Dean. We’ll worry about what to do in the morning. If you’re hungry, there ought to be something left to eat in the saddlebags.”
“I ain’t hungry.”
Jared had betrayed the boy too. Dean had believed Jared would find and capture the man who’d killed his parents. Now what?
She closed her eyes. Lord, please help me to know what to do next. Help me take care of Dean too. Give me strength to do this alone.
Alone. She didn’t want to be alone, but that’s where she’d found herself once again.
The stage bounced and rocked on its leather springs, jerking its inhabitants from side to side. Holding on to the side panel of the coach, Jared stared out the window. The setting sun cast a reddish hue across the desert floor, making the sage look like bushes of fire.
Jared wondered how Silver had taken the news of his going. No, he didn’t wonder. He knew. She would be angry that he’d left her and Dean behind. She wanted to be a part of the capture of Matt Carlton. She would have declared herself able to take this journey. And that would have led to an argument. He didn’t want to argue with her. Not ever.
Maybe he shouldn’t have entrusted the note of explanation and the remainder of the money from the sale of his horse to the Wells, Fargo agent. But that’s what those agents did. They delivered mail and gold all over the West. Why not down the street to the hotel?
Yes, she’d be angry with him today, but hopefully she’d be over it by the time he returned. And if he came back with the news of Matt Carlton’s capture, all the better.
Jared leaned back and drew his hat brim down low, hoping to get some shut-eye.
CHAPTER 24
Leaning on Dean, Silver entered the livery stable. She waited a moment for her eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. At the back of the building, she saw the red glow of a fire and heard the roar of a bellows and the clang of metal as the blacksmith pounded an iron shoe against the anvil. She and Dean moved slowly in that direction.
“Excuse me, sir,” she called, but her voice was drowned out by the noise. The smithy hammered away. “Excuse me,” she hollered a second time.
Still no reaction.
She reached out and touched the man’s shoulder.
He startled. Swearing a blue streak, he turned toward her with his hammer raised. He lowered it when he saw her. “What’re you doin’, sneakin’ up on a man like that?”
“I’m sorry. I called to you, but you didn’t hear me.”
He gave an abrupt nod. “What can I do for you?”
“I . . .” She tried not to think about what she was about to do. It hurt too much. “I understand you buy horses.”
“Sometimes. If I like what I see.” He set aside his hammer, then wiped his hands against his leather apron. “What you got?” The man’s face was darkened by soot and
reddened from the heat of the fire. He was about the same height as Silver but would have tipped the scales at more than double her own weight. His eyes seemed rather small in his large, square face, showing entirely too much white around them. She hated the idea of selling Cinder to him, but she had no other choice.
She turned toward the stall that held her horse. “The buckskin mare. She’s mine. I’d like to sell her if you’re interested.”
“She’s yours?” he asked, his tone suspicious.
Silver straightened and tried to speak with authority. “I was traveling with Mr. Newman, who brought in three horses. He sold you the sorrel gelding yesterday, correct? Did he sell you the pinto as well?”
“Might have done. What business is it of yours if’n he did?”
“None at all.” The answer stung her heart. “But the buckskin is mine, and I should like to discuss a fair price for her.”
The blacksmith drew his arm beneath his nose as he sniffed. “She’d be a good mount for a woman, I reckon.” He moved toward the stall.
“Yes, she is.” Silver followed him, still leaning on Dean. “She’s a good saddle horse for anyone. Man or woman. And she’s strong, with plenty of endurance. She’s carried me all the way from Colorado.”
“Hmm.”
“If you don’t want her, I’ll ask around town.”
“Don’t get your nose in the air, little lady. I never said I wouldn’t buy the mare.”
We should be headed for Colorado. I shouldn’t be doing this on my own.
Silver and Dean stepped from the station platform onto the westbound train. Using the money she’d obtained from the blacksmith for Cinder, she’d purchased two tickets for Carson City, where they would change passage from the Central Pacific Railroad to the Virginia & Truckee Railroad for the final leg of their journey.
But what would they do when they got there? Heaven only knew. She knew nothing about finding a fugitive from the law. But she hadn’t made it all the way from Twin Springs, Colorado, to Winnemucca, Nevada, just to turn around empty-handed. Jared Newman may have deserted her—it felt even worse than when Bob left her at the altar—but she wasn’t letting him claim any reward alone. She wanted and needed it, and she had some right to it. Jared owed her a share.
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