The Kissing Tree

by Bice, Prudence

  Georgiana began to struggle then. The thought of this man thinking he might be doing her a favor caused her anger to thaw the frozen fear and finally release her limbs. She had to get free, for herself and for Samantha.

  “ ’Course, I never did mind them a bit feisty,” he said, a sick smile spreading across his face. She couldn’t help the slight scream that escaped her lips as he gathered both of her wrists in one hand. His hand that held the knife slammed down hard over her mouth, cutting a small gash in her cheek. “Now see what you’ve made me do. I warned you not to make a sound. You’d better hope no one heard that. If you scream again, I’ll have to cut your throat, and that will ruin this pretty dress of yours.”

  Georgiana stopped struggling.

  “That’s better. Now, I’m going to move my hand. Are you going to try to scream again?”

  She shook her head.

  “Good.”

  As he removed his hand, Georgiana quickly took a couple deep breaths. His hand was large and covered her nose as well as her mouth. Had he held it there much longer, she might have passed out from lack of oxygen.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” she threatened when she finally found her voice. “They’re going to find you, and this will make it even worse. Let me go and I won’t tell anyone you tried to—”

  He laughed harshly.

  “Nice try, sweet thing. Even if they’re lookin’ for us, they’ll be lookin’ for horse tracks not a wagon. Who robs a bank with a wagon? They’ll not be findin’ us, at least not tonight.” He moved his face even closer to hers and put the knife to her neck. “No one’s going to save you from me tonight.”

  Slipping the blade underneath the sleeve of her dress and camisole, he cut through the fabric. The dress slipped away, exposing her shoulder. He groaned, and she felt his lips upon her skin. Georgiana’s flesh began to crawl, and she instinctively began to struggle violently. Her efforts to free herself earned her the knife once again pressed to her neck. Fear overtook her then, fear intertwined with hopelessness. The tears finally let loose as she was about to sacrifice all.

  No, she would rather die than give in to him.

  As she opened her mouth to scream, she heard the hammer of a gun being pulled back. The man froze.

  “Lay another hand on that girl, and you won’t see the light of day.” Though Georgiana could not see her, she could hear it was Cordelia. “Now, get up and get out of the wagon!” Slash stood up reluctantly, his hand gripping his knife viciously. “Slowly, now . . . don’t give me any excuse to pull this trigger. You of all people know how much pleasure that would give me.”

  Slash slowly climbed down the side of the wagon. He was seething. Georgiana could see his breath steaming the air in short, harsh spurts, but he didn’t say a word, only glared at Cordelia hatefully. His look seemed to goad her on.

  “Oh, come on now, Jake,” Cordelia said. “I’m actually quite surprised you resorted to such brutal tactics. You usually pride yourself on being able to sugar-talk a woman into your bed. Are you losing your touch?”

  When he answered her, his voice was barely in control. “Watch it, Cordelia.”

  She did not heed his warning.

  “Seems to me, I gave very specific instructions that none of you were to lay your hands on these women. Yet here you are.” She shoved the muzzle of the gun closer to his chest.

  “I couldn’t let a good thing go to waste, now could I? Not just because you’re . . . ,” he paused and forced a step closer to Cordelia, ignoring the gun, “jealous perhaps?”

  Cordelia’s eyes flashed with anger.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Jake! You’re no more than a lowlife, scum-suckin’ leech that gets his kicks preyin’ on innocent women. I was a fool not to see it the first day I laid eyes on you. Now . . .” Georgiana watched Cordelia instinctively and protectively place her hand across her abdomen. Immediately she knew. “Now . . .” The mask of anger on the woman’s face faltered for a moment, and Georgiana caught a glimpse of hurt and fear, but she quickly recovered. “Now you get back in the cabin and don’t ever even think of crossing my instructions again, not if you want your share of the money, anyway.” She looked him directly in the eyes. “If you can’t live with that,” she added, nodding to one of the horses tied up to a nearby tree, “you can get on that horse over there and ride out of here.”

  “Why you—”

  “As a matter of fact,” she continued, reaching down, picking up a bag that lay at her feet, and tossing it to him, “you can leave right now whether you want to or not.”

  “Why you little—” Jake seethed. “This isn’t even a fourth of what we agreed on.”

  Georgiana’s heart sped up as the heat of the conversation escalated.

  “You’re lucky I’m givin’ you anything. I’ve decided you have other things you need to help pay for.”

  Georgiana knew what she referred to, but the man seemed clueless.

  “Why, you greedy little—”

  Before Georgiana knew what was happening, she saw a glint of a knife as Slash lunged forward. The shotgun fired, and he slumped to the ground. Cordelia stared at his lifeless body for a moment, not moving.

  Abruptly turning to Georgiana, Cordelia shouted, “You! Get back in the cabin!” Georgiana quickly scrambled out of the wagon. “And don’t you try anything, or you’ll join him.” She motioned with her gun to the dead man lying before her.

  Hurrying toward the door, Georgiana looked back once more just in time to catch the painful look that crossed Cordelia’s face. She had just shot and killed the father of her child. Unexpectedly, Cordelia looked up to meet Georgiana’s eyes. Georgiana couldn’t keep the look of sympathy from off her face. Cordelia looked puzzled for a moment, and then a knowing look came to her eyes as she realized Georgiana knew her secret.

  “It wouldn’t have made a difference to him had he known. He would never have changed.” Giving the man one last look, she added, “It’s better this way.”

  Georgiana turned away, unable to look at the woman’s haunted face any longer, and went the rest of the way into the cabin. Cordelia followed.

  When Georgiana came through the door, she straightway looked over to Samantha. Samantha was sitting up straight, eyes wide with fear. Georgiana hurried over to her friend and put her arms around her shaking body.

  “Georgiana . . . I thought.” Tears began coursing down Samantha’s face, and Georgiana tried to soothe her.

  “Shhh, it’s all right . . . I’m all right,” she reassured her friend.

  “But your face, your dress—what happened?”

  It was then Georgiana remembered the cut on her face, and her hand went to her cheek. The cut was not deep, and the blood had stopped and already begun to dry. She shuddered involuntarily at the thought of what had almost occurred. If Cordelia hadn’t shown up, she would have been far worse off, maybe even dead.

  “I’m all right. It’s just a surface cut,” Georgiana spoke soothingly, trying to calm Samantha down. She couldn’t help but look over at Cordelia.

  Cordelia was watching them, and when their eyes met, Georgiana mouthed the words “thank you.” The woman still had some decency left. Cordelia nodded her head, turned away, and yelled at the two sleeping men.

  “Gil, Wyatt!” she shouted. The men did not move. “Get up!” she yelled again. Georgiana couldn’t believe the two had slept through the sound of the gunshot. When the men still didn’t move, Cordelia walked over and gave each man a swift kick with her boot. “I said, get up!”

  Both men sat up groggily and rubbed their backsides.

  “What was that for?” Gil complained.

  “That’s for not gettin’ up when I hollered at you,” Cordelia shouted angrily.

  “Ya know we can’t hear hardly nothin’ since we did all that dynamite blastin’ for the railroad last summer,” Wyatt groaned.

  “Yeah . . . ya don’t need to treat us that way,” Gil added. “Uncle Carl’s gonna hear about—”

&n
bsp; “Quit whinin’. My pa’s not here and we’ve got to get movin’,” Cordelia informed them. Straightaway, both men complained again.

  “Thought we weren’t leavin’ ’til sun up,” Wyatt moaned. “We still got us a couple of hours.”

  “Wyatt’s right. ’Sides, we’ve barely been asleep an hour,” Gil added.

  “Well, we can’t wait until sun up. What you boys didn’t hear with those deaf ears of yours was the shotgun,” Cordelia said, her face a stone mask.

  “Shotgun?” Both boys hopped to their feet at once.

  “Who fired a gun?” Gil looked around for a moment. “And where’s Slash?”

  Cordelia ignored their questions, went to the backroom, and then started bringing out bags of money and setting them by the door.

  “We’ve got to get out of here now. Though you may not have heard that shotgun, if the posse did, they’ll be after us in no time.” The boys were still standing dumbfounded, so she began to give them specific orders.

  “Gil, go hitch up the wagon . . . and drag the body into the bushes behind the cabin.”

  “The what?” Gil asked incredulously.

  She ignored him and went on.

  “Wyatt, tie up that girl’s hands again,” she motioned toward Georgiana, “and get them loaded in the wagon. Then come back in and help me carry the money out.” She headed to the bedroom.

  “How did ya get untied?” Wyatt looked at Georgiana accusingly. Georgiana paid him no heed.

  Neither of the boys made any motion to get moving. So Cordelia turned back around and put her foot on the edge of the feeble table and shoved hard, knocking it over to get their attention. Samantha jumped in Georgiana’s arms.

  “If you boys don’t want to find yourselves in jail or hangin’ from a tree come mornin’, you’d better start movin’!”

  “But I thought we were leavin’ them here.” He looked at Georgiana and Samantha.

  “Plans have changed, boys. We no longer have the upper hand. We’re going to need those two for insurance purposes.” She glared at Georgiana when she said it as if to say, “That’s the only reason I came to your rescue.” But Georgiana knew the reason had been different. She no longer feared for their lives as long as they cooperated. She just hoped no one else would have to die.

  21. Money Can’t Buy You Love

  Ridge knew they were getting closer. They found the fresh tracks about an hour ago. Once he’d finally put two and two together and figured out who they were chasing, it had been easy. The sheriff and Mr. Wallace had a hard time believing it was a woman who had orchestrated the carefully planned bank robbery, but after questioning them why she’d been hanging out at the bank so much, and why she’d moved back in the first place, they agreed it was suspicious. When Ridge told them how he’d come upon Cordelia leaving town in a wagon and heard what he now realized was in truth a gun being cocked, they had been convinced enough to change courses and look for fresh wagon tracks instead of horse tracks. Most bank robbers would have hauled out of town like hellfire and ridden all night, but Cordelia seemed to have another plan. What really worried him was the time that had been wasted before he’d realized who and what they were lookin’ for.

  It was dark, which made following tracks difficult. He and Mr. Wallace rode slightly ahead of the others, stopping often and double-checking that they were still headed in the right direction.

  When the wagon tracks veered off and headed up a small path toward the mountains, Ridge remembered that Cordelia’s father used to own a hunting cabin not too far up the first steep incline. They’d be there before daylight.

  Knowing they would come upon the cabin soon, his fear intensified. What if they had already hurt Georgiana or Samantha? Ridge glanced over at the lines of worry and fear etched into Mr. Wallace’s face. He imagined he wore a similar look.

  He was glad now that the sheriff had insisted Dawson ride alongside his deputy since he had little experience with such matters as bank robbers and posses. Dawson had been grateful to come along at all. Ridge was glad he didn’t have to look into the worried face of Dawson the whole way. Let the sheriff deal with him.

  They’d convinced Angus to stay at the ranch in case, for some miraculous reason, they’d been wrong and Georgiana or Samantha showed up there. It was a hard thing for Angus to agree to, and Ridge felt guilty insisting, but Angus’s eyesight had worsened considerably over the last few years. He would be worried about the man tracking in the dark, and Ridge already had enough to worry about.

  A vision of Georgiana in blue, smiling, came to his forethoughts. He remembered how his heart rate increased by her touch as she had placed her hand on his earlier that evening, thanking him for finding her father’s medallion, and again when they’d danced. Please God, keep her safe, he prayed, and help us find them soon.

  He could not lose her again.

  When a gunshot went off, Ridge felt a jolt go through his entire body. He looked over to Samantha’s father and saw his fear mirrored in the man’s eyes. The two men increased their pace dramatically and moved even further ahead of the other men in the posse.

  When at last they reached the cabin, it was deserted. Mr. Wallace looked around outside, and Ridge went into the cabin. A fire still burned in the fireplace, and a table lay on its side. The outlaws had left in a hurry. As Ridge walked around the cabin, he spotted another blue ribbon lying on the floor by the far wall. He bent down to pick it up. She was trying to leave a trail to let them know where they’d been. Mr. Wallace entered the cabin and began talking.

  “There’s another way down the mountain with fresh tracks off to the east, and . . . I found a body in the bushes behind the cabin.”

  Ridge swung around to look Mr. Wallace in the face as his heart started to pound. Mr. Wallace immediately shook his head.

  “It wasn’t one of them, but I think I know the man.” He paused and shook his head again. “Well, at least I thought I did. A man who looked like him came into the bank last Monday, called himself by the name of Winslow Thurston Applegate III. Said he was plannin’ on movin’ out this way. Told me he’d sold a very profitable cattle ranch down in Texas and was wonderin’ how the banking worked around these parts. He wanted to know whether we kept all our money here or transferred some of it to the Denver Bank. Asked how often the Wells Fargo stage came through. I’m afraid I may have given out too much information.”

  “Well, what worries me right now is that they’re fightin’ among themselves. We need to find them immediately!” Ridge hurried out of the cabin and to his horse. Mr. Wallace followed close behind. As the sheriff and the rest of the posse rode up, Ridge announced to Samantha’s father, “I’m ridin’ on ahead. Show the sheriff the body and tell him what you know about the man and then catch up with me.”

  Ridge mounted his horse and headed off in the direction the wagon had gone, nodding to the sheriff as he passed by but purposely avoiding Dawson’s stare.

  He was worried. Who had done the shooting and why? The wagon was less than an hour ahead. If he hurried and caught up to them before the sun came up, he might have an advantage.

  He rode hard. Scenes from the previous day flew through his mind: Georgiana’s feet dangling in the creek while she ran her fingers though her hair; watching her dance around the deserted social hall hand in hand with Samantha; waltzing as close as he dared at the dance while staring into her eyes. He could stare into them forever. He loved her. He had always loved her—from girlish braids and ponytails with ribbons dangling to the beautiful, full-grown, remarkable woman she was now. Nothing could change the fact that his heart belonged to her. Her memory had never relinquished its hold on him, and when she had returned, only then did his heart begin to truly beat once more.

  His thoughts quickly changed to the conversation he had with her grandfather just before he had left for the dance.

  Angus had wandered up to the creek, still in hopes of catchin’ a trout or two for his dinner. Ridge figured it was as good a place as any to finish
the conversation they had begun earlier, so he’d gone after him to talk.

  When he spotted Angus, he was sitting on the far side in almost the exact spot that had become Ridge’s favorite. Obviously the man had better luck there too.

  Ridge made his way up the creek, crossed over the bridge, and meandered his way back down to where Angus sat with his eyes closed leaning up against a tree. For a minute, Ridge considered whether the older man might be asleep, but when he sat down only a few feet away, Angus immediately acknowledged his presence.

  “Evenin’, Ridge.”

  “Evenin’, Angus.”

  “Was wonderin’ when ye would be comin’ around,” Angus commented.

  “Been expectin’ me, have you?” Ridge asked.

  “Fer sure and fer certain, I was. Knew ye had a bite to settle with me yet tonight.”

  “Yes . . . well . . .” Now that Ridge was sitting next to Angus, he couldn’t hardly bring himself to chastise the man.

  “Suppose I should be apologizin’ fer earlier. But I can’t bring meself to do it.” He opened one eye and looked up at Ridge, then closed it again. “Ya know how I feel about the two of ye.”

  “Yes, and you know how I feel about you interferin’.”

  “Aye, I do lad, but I just can’t help meself. I’m an old man now, stubborn and set in me ways. Just a lookin’ out fer me granddaughter, I am. Wantin’ her to have a happy life, like the likes of me and me Shannon, filled with love and lots of laughter. Now that there Dawson fella is a good lad, but I know me girl is not in love with him.” Angus peeked out of one eye again. “Just as surely as I know she’s powerful in love with ye.” He closed his eye again and continued talking. “The lad had a talk with me today. Told me he had already asked me granddaughter to marry him. Said tonight he was goin’ to be askin’ fer her answer.” Angus squirmed uncomfortably. “He up and asks me what I thought she’d be tellin’ him.” Angus let out an exasperated sigh. “Will ya believe that? Him askin’ me such a question? Now how was I to be answerin’ that, lad? I may know what’s in me girl’s heart, but I never know what’s goin’ to come out of her mouth.” Both men chuckled.