by Tess LeSue
They fumbled in the dark until they found the rickety stairs leading up to the kitchen. “I’ll go first,” the man told Alex, stepping in front of her and hefting the ax.
She felt only marginally comforted.
When they reached the door at the top of the stairs she had a sudden fear that it might be locked, but it wasn’t. It squealed softly as the man eased it open, and Alex’s heart stopped again. They tried to move as silently as possible as they crossed the old floorboards. Alex realized with horror that there was no exit from the kitchen. One door led to a main room; through the window they could see Ma Grady rocking in her chair.
They turned the other way, toward a bedroom. Alex’s pulse leaped every time one of the old floorboards creaked.
The rocking stopped and there was a grunt as Ma Grady rose.
“Hurry,” the man hissed, ushering them into the room and silently closing the door. He held a finger to his lips and they stood as still and silent as statues.
Beside Alex was a bureau. It was loaded with a pile of drawstring bags, shaving gear and an oil lamp; one of the drawers was open and she could see the glint of a blade amid the mess of papers and junk inside. A cutthroat razor. Slowly, she reached for it. She’d feel much safer holding a weapon.
As her hand closed around the hilt she could hear Ma Grady bustling about the kitchen. She turned to grin in triumph at the man beside her as she withdrew the razor from the drawer. His eyes widened and to her horror she felt her hand knock the bureau. With a crash the oil lamp tumbled to the floor, smashing at their feet and showering them with glass and oil. All noise in the kitchen ceased.
“Out the window!” she hissed, her heart in her throat. The razor clattered back into the drawer. “You go first and help them out,” she told the man forcefully, feeling the weight of her guilt hit her.
The older woman had already thrown the sash up and in a heartbeat the man was through the window and was lifting the children out. Alex struggled to shift the bureau in front of the door. As she did, it tipped; the bags went cascading to the floor, the drawers slid out and there was a shower of gold coins. Alex gaped at them. Gold? She scooped up a leather bag and felt its weight. There must be a fortune in those bags!
There was a deafening roar and the door exploded inwards. Alex gaped. Thank God she’d moved the bureau; it absorbed most of the buckshot. All she could hear was a strange muffled ringing, but she could see clear enough that Ma Grady was reloading her shotgun.
Alex didn’t pause to think. She threw the heavy bag of gold at the old woman. It hit her full in the face and Alex could hear the crack of her nose snapping. The old woman stumbled back, struck her head on the wall behind and fell like a sack of potatoes.
Oh glory, she was taking the Gradys out one by one today.
She shrieked when someone grabbed her arm. She hadn’t heard Adam calling, or heard him come through the window. Her ears were still full of that odd ringing.
“Let’s go!” she said, not knowing if she was whispering or shouting.
On her way out, she couldn’t resist grabbing more leather bags. She figured the Gradys owed her.
* * *
• • •
“WHAT HAPPENED TO those poor people?” Dolly asked from her position on the washroom bench, her eyes huge.
“I don’t know,” Alex admitted helplessly. It was a question that kept her awake at night. “They were gone by the time Adam and I ran. We headed straight home and gathered our things.” Alex paused. She was too tired to recount the rest of the tale: the way Silas had turned up on her doorstep with the sheriff, Gideon’s mad glee, the murder of Sheriff Deveraux, and the way Ma and Pa’s house had burned to the ground, the black cherry tree flaming like a roman candle. She wanted to forget it all, not relive it.
“I can’t keep this,” Dolly said ruefully, holding the bond out.
“Why not?”
“You think word won’t get to them that some old whore was suddenly cashing in a one-thousand-dollar bond? I don’t want those boys coming to my door.” Dolly shivered.
“What will you do?”
Dolly grinned. “This old cat still has a few lives left. I’ll be fine. Worst comes to worst, I’ll give Ralph Taylor a lifetime of free tumbles to let us use this place until I can get enough scratch together to rebuild my own.”
Reluctantly, Alex took back the crumpled bond.
“Take my advice, darlin’. You burn those bonds, you hear? What you’ve got there is a date with the wrong end of a rope. Theft of that scale is a hanging offense.”
“They can’t have got it legitimately,” Alex defended herself, pushing aside the memory of Sheriff Deveraux at her door.
Dolly shrugged. “Don’t mean much. You can’t spend that kind of money. People will notice.”
Alex stared miserably at the bond, then she straightened her shoulders and made for the stove.
“Aw hell, not here!” Dolly squawked. “You don’t want to leave the slightest trace! You wait until you’re out on the trail, and don’t burn them all at once. You do a few now and then, so you can make sure every last bit of them burns. And you make sure you’re the one to douse the fire the next morning. Check for anything left unburned. Bury it deep, you hear.”
The gravity in Dolly’s voice resurrected Alex’s terror.
Dolly looked at the girl’s pinched face, still covered in soot, and sighed. The poor love. “You get to bed, darlin’. Everything will seem better in the morning.”
“I always say that to Vicky, but it never does.”
16
LUKE COULDN’T BELIEVE it when the trail doubled back to Independence. He’d been tracking them for a couple of days, sure they were headed for St. Louis, but then they suddenly turned right around.
There’d been some kind of dispute. He found signs of it at their campsite. There was a big mess of footprints, where they’d struggled, and the imprint of a man’s back in the dirt. But why would they go back?
To get what they’d come for in the first place, Luke supposed.
But they’d be damn fools to go back to town. Not when the sheriff was looking to question them about the fire at Dolly’s—not to mention the theft of prime horseflesh.
Even though his new mount, a pacy little sable mare, was tiring, he urged her on. He kept picturing the way Victoria had fainted dead away at the sight of Silas. They were looking for a sister . . . She abandoned us, Victoria had said. Well, it didn’t look like the Gradys were convinced.
When he caught up with the wagon train, Luke resolved to get some answers out of the Alexanders about this mysterious sister of theirs.
The trail went cold just outside Independence. Luke got down off the mare, but he could see no sign of them. Why would they wise up now and disguise their trail? He scowled and circled the outskirts of the town, determined to find something. But there wasn’t so much as a single print.
“I think they’re back in town,” he told Sheriff Keeley, when he finally found the man at Gibson’s Saloon.
Keeley was a genial pot-bellied man, with a steel-gray walrus mustache and a big grin. “That can’t be. Someone would have spotted that horse. Since the auction, it’s the most famous horse in the county.”
“The trail leads back here.”
“Right into town?”
Luke frowned. “It stops just outside.”
“Just stops?”
Luke nodded abruptly.
“So you don’t know for sure that they actually came into town?”
“Where else would they go?” Luke snapped in frustration.
Sheriff Keeley shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they’re waiting on someone.”
“Have you got the ‘Wanted’ posters done yet?”
“I tell you what . . . I’ll get a few of my boys on the street, send word around that the horse thieves might be back. At
least we can get everyone looking out for that horse.”
Luke rubbed his face tiredly as he watched the sheriff amble off. He hadn’t slept for the last couple of days. He’d been so focused on finding the Gradys, he hadn’t realized how worn out he really was. He was in no shape to continue the search. He supposed it would do no harm to clean himself up. Get a decent night’s sleep and let the mare recover. And it would give him a chance to look Beatrice up. He hadn’t managed to see her before he’d left, although Dolly swore to him that she was safe and sound. They had a bit of unfinished business to resolve.
* * *
• • •
DOLLY KNEW HE’D had no luck finding the Gradys the minute he walked into Ralph Taylor’s.
“Luke!” Gracie and Seline cried simultaneously, both throwing themselves at him.
“Get off him, girls, can’t you see the man’s worn out? You can harass him after he’s had a nice bath and a lie-down.”
“I’ll get your bath,” Seline volunteered.
“No, you won’t,” Dolly disagreed. “If I know you, girlie, you’ll be climbing in there with him. There’s time enough for that later. I’ll run the bath myself. Come on, Slater, leave your saddlebags here.”
Dolly ushered him through to the washhouse and fussed about, heating water. They didn’t speak until he was submerged in the tub. Dolly had settled herself to beating the dust out of his clothes, but even she couldn’t resist the odd peek at the exposed skin gleaming in the late-afternoon sunlight. “So,” she said slyly, “I hear you and my cousin got better acquainted the other night.” She watched his shoulders stiffen. Lord, the man was all muscle; just look at the way he rippled when he moved.
“What did she say?” Luke demanded.
Dolly’s eyes narrowed. She’d never seen Luke concerned with a woman’s opinion before. He usually took it for granted that he gave satisfaction. “Nothing much,” Dolly said vaguely.
“But she said something.”
“She saw you at the dance, obviously. And then you came back to the house . . .” Dolly let the sentence hang. She didn’t want him to realize that she was fishing for details.
Luke stared down at the surface of the water, although not seeing his reflection; instead he saw a pair of smoky eyes and felt the heat of a firm, arching body. “I had no idea she was an innocent,” he admitted. “I would have left her alone if I’d known.”
“Would you?” Dolly said dubiously.
“I would have tried.”
She snorted.
“Is she upset?” Luke asked, remembering the way she’d stiffened under him, and the tears on her cheeks.
Dolly grimaced, thinking of Alex, covered in soot and her brother’s blood. Somehow Dolly thought the loss of her virginity had paled in comparison to the rest of the night.
“She is, isn’t she?” Luke drew his own conclusions from Dolly’s silence. “I’ll talk to her.” He made to rise from the tub, but Dolly stopped him with a gasp.
“No! Don’t be ridiculous. You might as well finish your bath.” She racked her brains helplessly, trying to think of an excuse for Beatrice’s absence. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Seline and the girls loitering outside in the yard, waiting to pounce the minute Luke emerged. Hell, she thought, it wouldn’t hurt the man to learn a little humility when it came to women. “Besides,” she said slowly, still looking at the girls, “there’s no point, she’s not here.”
“What do you mean?”
Dolly examined him. Did he sound a little anxious, or was she imagining it? “I hate to tell you, Luke, but she left.”
“Left?” He was disappointed. She could tell by the way his face fell. Dolly was flabbergasted. Luke Slater was disappointed. Over a woman. When there was a whole flock of them waiting for him just outside.
“She’s headed for home,” Dolly told him. “She left on yesterday’s coach.”
“Where’s home?”
His question took her completely by surprise. Was he thinking of going after her? Hell. “Back east,” Dolly said, watching him curiously.
“She didn’t sound like an easterner. She sounded southern.”
“She was originally,” Dolly invented swiftly, “but the family moved to Philadelphia.”
“Philadelphia,” he said glumly.
Dolly had to pinch herself to see if she was actually awake and not dreaming the whole thing. Luke Slater was glum over a woman! “You seem quite taken with her,” she said cautiously.
Luke blinked, and then frowned. “I just didn’t want to see her hurt.”
“Uh-huh,” she said skeptically.
“Her being a virgin and all.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Dolly assured him, feeling a pang of pity. She didn’t think Luke had the slightest idea what was happening to him. She thought of Alex, all dirtied and dressed like a boy, right under his nose. She grinned as she wondered how long it would take him to figure it out.
“Next time you write to Beatrice,” Luke said, clearing his throat awkwardly, “maybe you could mention how I asked after her.”
“I will.” Dolly rose to stoke the stove so she could heat him a little more water. “Now, are you going to tell me what happened with those Gradys?” she asked as the almond shells crackled in the fire and released their fragrant smoke.
“Lost their trail.” Luke slumped back in the tub. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been looking forward to seeing Beatrice. Philadelphia! Hell, that was halfway across the country. In the opposite direction to where he was headed.
He tried to push away any thoughts of her, relaxing back and closing his eyes. He swore. The minute he closed his eyes all he could see was her: the way she’d looked that night, walking toward him, naked and lush, her lips moist, tilting her head back and whispering, Kiss me.
“How far out did you lose their trail?”
He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for Dolly’s interruption. Part of him wanted to banish Beatrice from his mind to keep from torturing himself with visions of what he couldn’t have, but another part of him wanted to lose himself in the memory, to relive every moment: touching her, tasting her, feeling the pull of her fingers through his hair and the touch of her tongue against his lips.
He flushed when he realized Dolly was waiting for an answer. “Just outside town.”
Dolly frowned, not understanding.
“I mean, they headed southeast for a day, and then turned around and came back.”
“They came back?” Dolly felt a thrill of fear.
“Yeah,” Luke said thoughtfully. “I can’t for the life of me figure out why they’d come back.”
“Maybe they’re looking for somebody,” Dolly suggested, swallowing hard, and remembering the feel of the thousand-dollar bond between her fingers.
“Silas said they were looking for a sister.”
Dolly’s knees gave out and she sank onto the bench. Her head spun as she listened to him recount everything Victoria had told him. Dolly found she was holding her breath and let it out slowly. “I never heard tell of a sister,” she said shakily. She had to get word to Alex. The girl had to burn those bonds as soon as she could. Although, Dolly thought a little wildly, maybe she’d be better off just giving them back. If she burned them the Gradys would just keep coming after her, never believing the money was gone. Oh, what a mess.
“Maybe they’ll follow the Alexanders until this sister shows up.”
“Out,” Dolly ordered sharply.
“What?”
“Get out. Get out of the bath. You have to leave now.”
Luke was looking at her as though she’d lost her mind.
“You have to go,” Dolly insisted. “You need to find the wagon train before they do.”
“There’s no rush,” Luke told her. “I know exactly where it will be.”
&
nbsp; When he didn’t move, Dolly grabbed his wet hand and tugged. “What if they aren’t looking to follow the Alexanders?” she cried. “What if they decide to hurt them? You saw what that weasel did to Adam.”
“That was because Adam tried to stop him taking the horse.” Luke pulled his hand away. He took in Dolly’s flushed face and the wild look in her eyes. What on earth had gotten into her?
“What if they hurt them to get information out of them? To find out the sister’s whereabouts?”
“Victoria said she abandoned them. They don’t have a clue where she’s gone.”
“But the Gradys don’t know that!”
“Well, we’ll just have to see that they find out, won’t we?” he said thoughtfully. He shook his head. “What kind of heartless woman would leave three kids like those to wander out into the wilderness?”
Dolly glared at him. “Everything she does is for them!”
Luke was bewildered. “How do you know?”
“I don’t,” Dolly lied helplessly, “but I know how a woman’s mind works. I’m sure she’s just trying to protect them.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Forget making sense. Just get out of that damn bath and go after them!”
Luke let her pull him from the bath and within the hour he was back on the mare, still tired and hungry, and completely baffled by the whore’s behavior. She’d really developed some feelings for that runt of a boy. Luke couldn’t see what appeal a skinny boy would hold for a woman like Dolly. As long as he lived he would never understand women.
17
IT WAS DIFFICULT to stay awake.
She’d been driving that horrid wagon for more than ten hours, and then she’d had to help Victoria cook dinner and wash the dishes. All she wanted to do was crawl into the back of the wagon, wrap herself in the itchy old blanket and sleep. But no, she had to sit up until everyone had gone to bed, just so she could burn those damn bonds.