The cave was silent. Utterly silent, as if it had been empty for a very long time.
He bolted up in his bed, fear grabbing at the heart of him. His head reeled with the sudden movement. He braced himself and waited for the world to settle again. When it had, he hauled himself to his feet, shaking and cursing.
He stumbled toward the mouth of the cave. He looked at the empty pallet laid out on the floor, at the fire burned to ashes hours before. He saw Cass had taken all her things, her blanket and her herbs and her medicine bundle. Meggie's few belongings were gone, as well.
"Cass!" he shouted, though he knew it was futile. Only his own agonized shout came back to him.
Cursing steadily, he ran out into the tiny meadow beyond the cave. His horse was grazing at the fringe of the trees—his horse alone. He didn't have to think twice about where Cass and Meggie were headed. Cass was going to Fort Carr to give the girl back to her father.
He spun back into the cave, gathered up what he would need, and went to saddle his horse. It was well after midday. They must be hours and hours ahead of him by now, far enough to make catching them nearly impossible. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try.
He rode as if the hounds of hell were at his heels. He rode with his head reeling from the effects of whatever Cass had given him to make him sleep, rode sick with concern for a woman and a child traveling alone.
He worried that Cass had given up, that in taking Meggie back, Cass had decided to stop caring, stop hoping, stop being able to risk her heart. He couldn't blame her for feeling that way. Losing his parents had destroyed Drew Reynolds. Cass had lost even more than he, and now she was giving up the child she loved with all her heart.
Hunter just couldn't let it be too late for Cass, not when he hadn't told her how much he loved her, hadn't convinced her they could make a life together. With or without Meggie, they could find happiness, here on the plains or living in the mountains. He had to find her before she stopped believing in the future and shuttered herself away as Drew had done.
The sun was down, and Hunter was riding through the blue half-light that preceded full dark, when he saw a flicker of light and a twist of smoke spiraling skyward.
"Cass," he breathed in exasperation, both relieved to have found her and angry that she had taken the chance of lighting a fire out here in the flat where even the smallest spark blazed like a beacon.
He took care to tether his horse some distance away and came into the campsite on foot. But Cass and Meggie weren't huddled by the fire. Instead he found a battered cavalry trooper bent over a rabbit he was trying to cook on a stick. The man dropped his dinner into the flames as Hunter came at him out of the dark.
"Who're you?" the man demanded once he realized Hunter had the drop on him. "Wait, I know. You're that scout from Fort Carr, the one that killed that sutler fellow a few weeks back. Jobbert, or something like that. You going to shoot me, too?"
"Alain Jalbert," Hunter corrected him. "And I didn't shoot the sutler. I knifed him. Who are you?"
"I—I'm Corporal Mason Manus," the trooper told him.
"From Captain Reynolds's company?"
Manus nodded.
"What are you doing way out here? Is Captain Reynolds still looking for his daughter?"
"It's hard for me to say. I got separated from my troop in the battle at the Indian camp. Someone banged me on the head. When I woke up a tepee had fallen on top of me and everyone was gone."
"How long ago was that?"
"It took three or four days before I was fit enough to travel. I lived off things I found in the village. I didn't see a soul there once I woke up. I been walking since yesterday noon, trying to get back to the fort without my horse."
"Have you seen any sign of Mrs. Reynolds or Reynolds's little girl?"
"The child his Indian bitch run off with, you mean?" The corporal spit. "I ain't seen much of anyone, until tonight."
"Ran off with?" Hunter pressed him, determined to ignore the man's reference to Cass. "Who said she took the child?"
"Why the captain, I guess," Manus told him. "The captain had a warrant for her arrest for taking that child and spying for the Indians."
"Ben McGarrity issued a warrant for Mrs. Reynolds's arrest?"
"I guess. The captain had one, all right."
Hunter shivered. There had been a whole lot more to Reynolds's enmity than either he or Cass had guessed. "Are you sure about this, Corporal Manus?"
"I ain't used to conferring with the captain directly, you know, but everyone at the fort was in an uproar about her taking that girl. We rode out the morning after Captain Reynolds found her gone, followed the trail right to that Indian camp."
"You say the trail led right to the camp?"
"Well, no sir. Not now that you mention it. We tracked them to a tepee set off by itself. We burned the son of a bitch and followed the trail north from there."
Concern for Cass roiled up inside him like thunderheads on a muggy afternoon. Whoever had been tracking for Drew had followed not the war party that had taken Meggie, but Cass and him. That's how they'd found the Cheyenne camp and why they were so sure that Cass had Meggie. It was also why it was so dangerous for Cass to ride into that fort all by herself.
Hunter had to get there before she did. He had to warn her that Drew—that everyone—thought she'd kidnapped Meggie. He had to try to persuade her that it wasn't too late go to the mountains with him.
"I'm heading for Fort Carr, Manus," Hunter said. "I'd take you with me if I could, but I've only got one horse, and I need to make time with him. I'll let them know you're out here so they can send a patrol to bring you in."
"You're not going to shoot me, then?"
Hunter couldn't help grinning. "Not unless you're crazy enough to try to shoot me first."
Manus shook his head. "I 'bout done all the crazy things I intend to for a while."
Hunter nodded and turned toward where he'd tethered his horse. "And Manus," he called over his shoulder.
"Sir?"
"Put out that fire. You can see it for miles, and the next folks it attracts might be a whole lot less friendly than I am."
Chapter 24
Fort Carr lay before them on the far side of the Platte. Cassie's breath caught in her throat as they paused on the rise to look down at it—at the long, wooden bridge, at the cluster of rough-hewn barracks and cabins set in the swishing expanse of prairie grass, at the tepees of the friendly camp nestled off to the west. Drew was in the fort somewhere, waiting to take his daughter back and break Cassie's heart.
Blood and honor demanded that she return Meggie to her father. Yet as hard as she'd tried to prepare herself, Cass wasn't ready to say good-bye. She curled her arms more tightly around the child who rode before her in the saddle and pressed her cheek to Meggie's hair. Her eyes stung with tears she dared not shed as she breathed the scent of Meggie's little-girl sweetness and her little-girl dreams. Yet Cass had no choice about what she must do.
She straightened in the saddle, blinked away the tears, and eased her horse down the bank toward the fort.
The sentries stopped her at the near end of the bridge. "Halt!" the corporal of the guard called out, his rifle at the ready. "Dismount and state your business."
Cass swung down from her horse, taking care to leave Meggie in the saddle. "I'm Cassandra Reynolds. I've come to Fort Carr to bring Captain Reynolds his daughter."
The man shifted his gaze to the riverbank, to where the cottonwoods grew thick along the sides of the bridge. "You alone, Mrs. Reynolds?"
Cass's nerves began to hum. The corporal must suspect she and Meggie had been sent by the Indians as some kind of diversion.
"There are just the two of us, Corporal," she assured him, tightening her grip on the reins. "May we pass?"
"I'll escort you to the fort myself, ma'am. You're under arrest."
Cass spun and jabbed her toe into the stirrup, trying to mount her horse and spur away. The corporal was too fast for her.
He caught her around the waist and flung her to the ground.
Meggie screamed. The horse began to dance.
Cass scrambled to her feet and felt the thump of the trooper's rifle barrel against her breastbone.
"Get the girl!" the corporal ordered, and the other sentries jumped to obey. One of the privates grabbed the horse's reins and a second dragged Meggie out of the saddle.
The little girl kicked and scratched, shrieking Cassie's name. The private cursed, and in spite of the gun pressed tight against her chest, Cassie turned.
"It's all right, Meggie," she shouted. "The man won't hurt you if you're good."
Meggie's struggles subsided. She hung clamped against the private's chest, dangling against his legs like a rag doll. Her face was splotched with tears. "They're going to make you go away," she sobbed, "just like Mama!"
"No, Meggie, no! I'll be fine. They're going to take you to your papa."
"I don't want to go to Papa. I want to stay with you!" Meggie wailed. "I want to take a rest with you!"
A rest. In spite of herself, Cassie laughed. This had to be the first time Meggie had ever volunteered to take a nap.
"You can take a rest back at the cabin. I'll come and lie down with you as soon as I can."
The burly private heaved Meggie onto his hip and started toward the fort.
"No!" Meggie yelled, twisting and kicking again. "No! I want to take a rest with Cassie!"
The trooper kept walking.
Once the private and Meggie had cleared the bridge, the corporal gathered up her horse's reins and prodded Cassie toward the fort.
"Will you tell me why I'm being arrested?" she asked him.
"Don't you know what you did, Mrs. Reynolds?"
"I rescued the captain's daughter from the Indians and came to bring her back to him."
The corporal snorted and spit. "Well, then, I guess the officer of the day will tell you what the charges are when we get to the guardhouse."
To the guardhouse. The air burned cold as hoarfrost in Cassie's lungs at the memory of visiting Many Buffalo in the close little cell. She'd be screaming by nightfall if they locked her up in there.
"And my husband?" she asked, her voice quivering just a little. "I'd like a word with Captain Reynolds."
The corporal snorted and spit again.
They started collecting a crowd the moment they stepped off the bridge. It was just like the day she'd been exchanged and ridden in with Drew. She remembered how she'd shuddered as the people and the buildings closed around her, how the sights and smells had made her head pound and stomach pitch.
It was worse today. She knew these people, their hatreds and their prejudices, their perfidy and their ruthlessness. She could hear their muttered threats and see the hostility in their faces.
Ben McGarrity stood on the steps of the headquarters building waiting for her. The corporal nudged her toward him with the barrel of his gun. She saw no sign of Drew, and Cass was suddenly grateful that Meggie wasn't with her now. Whatever was about to happen was far more daunting and dangerous than anything Cass had imagined she would face by coming here.
McGarrity looked down at her, his eyes weary and dark with something that looked very much like disappointment. "So you came to give yourself up, did you, Cassandra?" he asked her.
Cassie stiffened. "I came to bring Meggie to her father."
She heard the hiss of whispers around her and knew better than to discount their malevolence. A creep of foreboding inched across her shoulders.
"I didn't want to believe you could do this, Cassandra," McGarrity went on with a shake of his head. "I didn't want to believe you were in league with the Indians all this time. But three different troopers saw you during the attack on the Cheyenne camp. They said you were armed and dressed like an Indian. They told me you had Meggie with you. Surely that proves Drew's allegations."
Cass swallowed hard, her throat as dry as tinder. "His allegations?"
"That you abducted Meggie, for one."
Cassie's heartbeat stumbled. Was that what Drew thought? Was that what they had charged her with?
Before she could answer, McGarrity continued. "That you carried on illicit trade with the Cheyenne."
"I gave an Indian woman a few cans of milk so her sister's child would live!" Cass declared. "I swear that's the only contact I've had with the Cheyenne since I came here."
The furrows in McGarrity's brow deepened. "That you aided in the escape of Many Buffalo."
"Major, please!" Cass's voice rasped with the strain of trying to make him believe her. "I had nothing to do with Many Buffalo's escape."
"And most serious of all—that you sent word to the Cheyenne and Sioux about the munitions wagons."
The crowd's angry murmurs rose in a groundswell of curses and accusations. Around her she saw the somber faces of Parker's cavalry troopers, men who had lost their leader and their comrades in that fight. She saw thick-bearded muleteers scowling—three muleteers had died driving those wagons. She saw Lila, her eyes alive with blame for Josh's death. These people wanted the men who'd died avenged, and they sounded ready to hang her without so much as the courtesy of a hearing.
Ben McGarrity's face went grimmer still. "We also had reports that Jalbert was in the Cheyenne camp, that you've been in league with a murderer."
Cassie glared up at Ben McGarrity, her anger on Hunter's behalf overwhelming concern for herself. "Haven't you looked into what happened that night?" she challenged him. "Don't you know Hunter killed Tyler Jessup in self-defense?"
"So you have seen him. Drew figured you'd go looking for Jalbert when you ran off."
"Hunter helped me follow Meggie's trail."
"Follow Meggie's trail?" There was derision in the major's voice. "Don't you know the way to the Cheyenne camp?"
Panic churned hot in her belly. "Damnit, Ben!" she shouted. "Are you going to let me tell you what happened, or have you already condemned me?"
McGarrity looked down at her, his mouth narrowing with consternation and something that might very well have been regret. "What am I to believe, Cassandra? You admit to giving an Indian contraband, and then you help a horse thief escape. You pass word to the Sioux about the rifles. You were seen in the Cheyenne camp when the troops rode in. And now you've come back to the fort with the child you've been accused of abducting."
"I didn't take Meggie with me when I left. I never told anyone about the rifles. Please, Ben, just listen!" Cass's voice dipped and cracked with desperation.
Ben McGarrity's face hardened, like water glazing with ice. "You'll have ample chance to defend yourself at the hearing tomorrow."
Cass went on as if she had not heard. "If any of this were true, would I come back here? Would I have brought Meggie to her father?"
McGarrity just shook his head as if he were unspeakably weary and called her captor forward. "Corporal Hoskins?"
"Yes, sir."
"See that Mrs. Reynolds is removed to the guardhouse."
No-o-o! she wanted to moan. She wanted to plead with Ben not to lock her away, but how could she show her weakness in front of all the people who hated her?
As the corporal grabbed her arm, fierce, biting cold spread down her limbs. Spangles of white rose in her head like whorls of snow in the prairie wind.
But just as they turned, a rider appeared at the far end of the parade ground. He was a tall man astride a long-legged roan, a dark man with a clutch of eagle feathers tucked into the band of his broad-brimmed hat.
Hunter! Cass's hopes soared with a sudden elation, then swooped toward desperate fear. She jerked free of the corporal's grip and ran toward Hunter waving her arms.
"No!" she screamed at him. "Don't come here! Go back!"
Still, he galloped toward them. People scattered to make way, as Hunter pulled his lathered horse to a stop just short of the headquarters steps. The moment he swung out of the saddle, the guards swarmed over him, grabbing his arms, taking his weapons. He made no move to resist.
McGarrity looked stunned, like a man who thought he'd seen all life's surprises and was being proved wrong.
"Well, then, Mr. Jalbert," Ben greeted him. "Have you come to turn yourself in, too?"
The crowd edged closer, eager to hear Hunter's answer.
He glanced in her direction. "I came for Cass."
As if he thought Jalbert was about to snatch her away, Corporal Hoskins tightened his grip on Cassie's elbow.
"I know what you think she's done," Hunter went on, "and I came to tell you the truth."
"The truth," McGarrity huffed. "If you're so damned eager to tell the truth, you can do it at her hearing tomorrow. And while you're at it you can answer the charge of murder that's been lodged against you. Corporal Hoskins—"
"Goddamnit, Ben!" Hunter broke in, shaking off the guards. "Isn't Meggie here somewhere, confused and afraid? Even if she's with her pa, she's scared because she's losing Cassie. Can't we get the charges against Cass settled now, so she can go comfort that little girl?"
McGarrity cursed volubly under his breath.
Cassie watched him, her chest squeezed so tight she could barely breathe. Even if Ben gave them the chance to tell him the truth, could she and Hunter make him believe it?
McGarrity scrubbed agitatedly at his beard. "All right, goddamnit. Bring the prisoners into my office. I'll hear what they have to say—for Meggie's sake."
The crowd rumbled their disappointment as Corporal Hoskins and two guards prodded Cassandra and Hunter up the steps.
Once inside, Ben settled himself behind his desk. The office was a familiar room, close and overly warm, smelling faintly of cigars. Cass stood beside Hunter before the desk, knotting her hands to still their trembling.
"Now then." The major glared at both of them. "Start at the beginning—and this had better be good."
Cass explained about Meggie getting into Drew's paints, and the argument she'd had with him. She told him how she'd waited to say good-bye to Meggie, and how she'd discovered the child had run off.
"About five miles from the fort, I found signs that Meggie had been taken by a Cheyenne war party. I picked up their trail and started following it north."
So Wide the Sky Page 36