Brides of Prairie Gold

by Maggie Osborne

  "From Ellen's bouquet. I even gave you part of the bouquet itself. Far better signs than you ever gave me!"

  "Ona you slashed my bedroll. Was that you?"

  Crimson flooded her cheeks. "I thought you had abandoned me for the whore. That was before I understood you were testing me, before I realized what you wanted me to do. I didn't kill her, but I wounded her. If you still want me to kill her, I will."

  "You're mad," he said softly. The journey west had driven others mad before her. He should have watched more carefully, shouldn't have made himself so inaccessible. Should have

  Her fingers curved and she dragged them across her breast like claws. "Don't say that!" She hissed at him, and her eyes darted. "Ellen said that, and I hate it!"

  "Ona, listen to me." He didn't have a notion what he would say next and was almost relieved to be interrupted.

  Two disastrous events occurred simultaneously. A snowflake tumbled lazily out of the sky and settled in Ona's dark hair, followed by another, then another. The sight appalled him. Before Cody could consider the consequences of early snow, Webb Coate broke out of the forest, running toward them. One glance at Webb's face, and Cody felt his gut tighten. There was something worse than an early wet snowstorm. And it was coming toward him.

  They had awakened to frozen water buckets and a heavy, chill fog floating among the firs and cedars, drifting as low as the tansy and ragwort that grew thick against the forest floor. The fog didn't burn off, but eventually rose to hover near the tops of the trees, leaving dripping branches behind. It was a cold unpleasant day.

  Perrin unpacked her heaviest shawl and wrapped it around her shoulders, then labored to coax damp wood into flames. When she had the fire crackling, she sat beside the heat, gritting her teeth as icy droplets spotted her skirt with moisture. Warming her hands around a mug of coffee, she mentally listed all the things she should do today. The chores seemed overwhelming; the effort to build a fire had worn her out.

  Everyone blamed the altitude for sapping their energy, but in truth they were all weakened by malnourishment, minor illnesses, and the rigors of the journey. Even Hilda, whom Perrin considered indestructible, suffered a touch of dysentery. Thea continued to fight a runny nose and sore throat. Bootie was slightly jaundiced. Everyone's flow cycles had ceased two months ago. They had all lost weight.

  Sighing deeply, Perrin sipped coffee which had cooled rapidly in the cold air. Refusing to accommodate the indignities of dysentery or permit herself to rest, Hilda had gone off to meet Cora for a reading lesson, and Perrin was alone. The familiar sounds of the camp swirled around her, Heck's persistent hammering, Miles's murmur to the surviving animals, the sound of women's weary voices calling out in inquiry or annoyance.

  The sounds opened a well of loneliness inside her chest.

  Very soon the brides would marry and scatter to homes along the Willamette Valley. Mem and Bootie would sail to England. Perrin would seek employment in Clampet Falls, her future an empty space waiting to be filled.

  Perhaps she would occasionally glimpse Cody when he rode into town to purchase supplies for his ranch. Perhaps they would nod to each other, or exchange polite howdy-dos. He might remark on the weather; she would agree. Then they would walk away as if this journey had never happened, as if they had not yearned for one another, as if they had not lain in each other's arms one warm night when the air itself sang of love and lovers.

  No, she commanded herself, tilting her head to blink hard at a leaden sky. She would not think about him. She would not long for him or weep for him. She would not wish there had been no Ellen or no Joseph, would not mourn the past or the future.

  If Cody wanted her, she was his. She had all but spelled it out for him. Since that humiliating conversation, she had felt him watching, had sensed his agitation and his black mood. She knew he thought about her and fought a private war as the journey approached an end. But he had said nothing, had offered no signal that anything had changed.

  And how could it? Time would not erase the fact of Joseph Boyd. Or Ellen's betrayal. Or all the dark confusion those events unleashed in Cody Snow's heart.

  And yet something stubborn and dogged clung to the small hope that one daysoon, please soonthe sun would rise and Cody Snow would recognize and admit that he loved Perrin Waverly. He did love her. She read it in his eyes, felt it whenever he came near. He didn't want to love her, she knew that, but he did. And she knew that too. That was their tragedy.

  A deep sigh lifted her breast and she clutched her shawl close to her throat. As soon as she could save enough money, she would go to California. Whatever she found in California would be easier to endure than the torment of waiting and hoping to glimpse Cody in Clampet Falls and the pain of loss that would wound like a blade when she did encounter him.

  She blinked at tears in her eyes. She was wasting the morning torturing herself with thoughts of Cody Snow after she had promised she would not do this anymore. Standing abruptly, she shook icy droplets from her shawl, then looked around, seeking a diversion that would focus her thoughts on something, on anything, else.

  Contemplating the forest, she decided a walk would clear her mind, and she could search the undergrowth for herbs to replenish her medical box. With luck, she might discover something to ease Hilda's discomfort or something to boost her own flagging energy.

  After fetching a basket, she called across the wagons to Mem and gestured toward the forest, then she pushed through a thicket of wild blackberries, long since stripped of fruit, and entered the cool scented stillness of pine and alder.

  An hour later, her basket brimming with interesting specimens, she returned through the tree trunks toward the sounds of the camp, pleased to note that she'd worked up an appetite for the salmon purchased from visiting Indians late yesterday.

  She felt rather than heard a rush behind her. Before she could whirl or utter a sound, a dirty hand thrust across her shoulder and clamped over her mouth. The basket fell from her fingers, and she struggled silently with a man who dragged her backward.

  Through the alders, she saw Bootie toasting her feet at Mem's fire, saw Ona Norris pacing in front of her wagon, pausing to frown toward Cody, who walked toward the cliff ledge overlooking the Columbia. She heard Heck Kelsey swear, then resume hammering. She was near enough to see them, hear them, smell the tang of woodsmoke curling from the fires.

  A silent frustrated scream echoed in her head. Cody! Look this way! Please. Help me, my love, help me !

  Desperately, she clawed at the man's thick hand and kicked backward. If she could only free herself long enough for one scream, please, just one scream.

  He dragged her down an incline that blocked the view of camp, then twisted her roughly to face icy yellowish eyes. Perrin gulped breath to shout. Before she could scream he smashed her across the side of the head with his gun butt. Gasping, she dropped to her knees on the wet forest floor and her head erupted in excruciating pain. Slowly, she toppled backward. Then there was nothing.

  Webb pushed Ona aside. Cody didn't think he noticed her. "Perrin's gone." He lifted a basket and a strip of torn dark material. "Mem saw her returning from a walk, but when she looked up a minute later, Perrin had vanished. Mem checked her wagon, asked everyone, then called me. I found these."

  "Quinton," Cody said softly, his eyes raking the trees through snowflakes. There wasn't a doubt in his mind. "If he's harmed one hair on her head, I'll We'll fan out the men"

  Webb's steady gaze brought him to his senses. If he fanned his men through the forest, Quinton would pick them off as easily as plucking berries from a low branch. "Goddammit!" He slapped his hat against his leg. "There's no chance that she wandered off and got lost?" Hope stripped his voice naked.

  "None. When Mem saw her, she was within shouting distance. From where I found this basket, she could see the wagons and the fires." Webb shook snow from his hair. "There was a scuffle. Her skirt caught and tore. The man's prints are deeper leading away than approaching. He carrie
d her."

  Cody didn't have to ask why Webb had not followed the tracks. The heavy early snow was falling thickly now, accumulating on the ground. Frustration and anxiety tightened the knots along his jaw. "If anything happens to her"

  "I hope Quinton rapes, then kills your whore!"

  Cody blinked and both he and Webb looked at Ona, having forgotten her presence.

  "She still has you bewitched!" Whirling, she ran into the snowflakes toward the wagons.

  "What the hell was that about?" Webb asked.

  Quickly, Cody sketched the story. "Apparently she believes I promised to marry her an hour before I married Ellen." He shook his head. "She thinks that she and I have been exchanging secret messages along the trail. She's the one who shot Perrin."

  "She's mad," Webb stated flatly.

  "I'll put a guard on her so nothing else happens." He shook snow from his hat and jammed it on his head. "But that problem will have to wait. Right now we need to decide"

  A voice shouted from the forest. "I've got one of your brides, Snow."

  Both men dropped to a crouch and ducked into the undergrowth, guns in their hands. They scanned the trees, searching for a form, but snow and thick foliage distorted direction and distance.

  "I'm offering a trade, which is more than you ever offered me. You get your bride back when I get them carbines and ammo."

  Cody couldn't see a damned thing through the falling snow and thick tree trunks. "It's not my decision to make, Quinton. The arms belong to the brides and their bridegrooms. I only have part interest." He muttered to Webb, "See anything?"

  "Nothing."

  "Let the woman go, Quinton! You and I need to talk."

  Quinton shouted an obscenity. "You got until tonight to pull the arms wagon out of line. Leave it at the first turnout on the Barlow Road. If you don't do as I say, I'll kill this bride and take me another one. I'll kill 'em all if I have to."

  Sarah and Mem emerged in front of the wagons, holding their rifles and scanning the tree line. But now there was only silence. They turned anxious glances toward Cody and Webb.

  "Damn women," Cody snapped. "They might as well paint a bull's-eye on their chests! Can you track him?"

  "Not far," Webb answered shortly, staring through the falling snow at his wife. "She's got a mind of her own, that one." His expression blended equal measures of adoration and exasperation.

  Slowly, Cody straightened, gripping his gun, half blinded by hatred for Jake Quinton. Quinton had Perrin. Christ. Of all the women, it had to be Perrin. Sweating, he battled a futile impulse to run into the trees, shouting her name.

  Now an unthinkable possibility had been added to the choices he'd pondered earlier.

  He strode toward Sarah and Mem, halting before them. "Call a meeting," he ordered Sarah. "I want everyone at Smokey Joe's fire in fifteen minutes. That will give me time to talk to the men first."

  He met Webb's black eyes over Mem's head. There was sympathy in his friend's gaze. And also a reminder that Cody had to decide this dilemma from the perspective of the wagonmaster, not a man who had suddenly grasped the truth.

  He loved her. If he'd needed a jolt to knock some sense in his head, he'd just received it. He would always love her. Perrin was his woman. Webb knew it. Even Ona Norris knew it.

  Finally, Cody Snow knew it.

  "By now you know that Quinton has Perrin." The snow was falling steadily. An inch had accumulated on the ground. He could hardly see the women standing at the back of the group.

  The silence was so absolute that he could hear snow sliding off arching branches. He made himself speak the hardest words he had ever uttered. "I cannot trade Quinton the weapons and ammunition for Perrin, and I can't allow you to do it either. The profit from the arms will guarantee your future and the future of your bridegrooms." A low sighing sound reached his ears.

  "Webb and Heck Kelsey will take the train on into the Willamette Valley over the Barlow Road. You'll move out as soon as the sky clears, no matter what time it is. You're going to travel fast and hard. This last leg will be worse than anything you've yet experienced, so get some rest."

  "What will you do?" Sarah inquired.

  "I'm going to kill Jake Quinton and rescue Perrin if Quinton doesn't kill her first."

  Hilda licked lips that were dry and cracked by fever. "How many men does Quinton have with him?"

  "We're guessing four or five. He couldn't have traveled as quickly or as quietly with more." Cody couldn't see Ona's face through the snow, but he could feel her stare. He hadn't had time yet to order her confined, but he would when the meeting ended.

  Placing her fists on her hips, Mem glared at Webb standing at Cody's side. "Quinton said he would kill Perrin if he doesn't get the arms wagon tonight. If we move out and take the arms with us, we've as good as pointed a gun at her head. How could you agree to this plan?"

  "I don't agree," Webb said quietly, folding his arms over his chest. He could guess what was coming and he smiled at her.

  "I don't either," Mem snapped. "Give Quinton the wagon."

  "That's easy for you to say," Cora objected. "But for the rest of us, that wagon decides whether we git houses or we don't. Whether we're warm this winter or we ain't."

  Ona's voice called out of the snowflakes. "I say leave her!"

  "Quinton has only four or five men, but we've got six if we don't count Smokey, who's on crutches." Sarah counted off names, "The two teamsters, Miles Dawson, Heck Kelsey, Webb Coate, and you. Why don't all the men go after Quinton and save Perrin?"

  There was nothing Cody would have liked better. "We could ride off that direction," he said, pointing, "and they could be over there. With the men gone, Quintan's gang could ride in here and take the weapons and kill all of you. Moreover, finding Quintan's camp could take several days. And we don't have several days, ladies." He glared at the falling snow. "Time is running out. All the signs point to an early winter. This could be the first of several big storms. If we get trapped, we could be here all winter. I'll tell you flat out not many of you will survive a winter in these mountains."

  He ended by telling them that he would have ordered the train to roll minutes after he spotted the first snowflake. He would have done that in any case. The only difference now was that Webb and Heck would take them the last ninety miles. And Perrin was gone.

  Augusta Boyd pushed through the women and walked up beside him. She met his eyes, then turned to face the group.

  "I say to hell with the men's plan." Her blue eyes flashed. "Everyone here owes Perrin Waverly something better than abandonment. If it wasn't for Perrin, I wouldn't be here now. Neither would you, Cora. Who's been doing the chores so you can rest, Hilda? And Ona? Who walked three miles to the Mormon train to trade for oil to treat your cactus infection, then walked three miles back? Who comforted you, Bootie, after the incident with Jane's husband? Thea? Do you remember who caught you when you were almost swept away at the bathing hole outside Boise?" Her hard gaze found Sarah. "You wanted Perrin's position badly enough to incite the others to take it away from her. Maybe by now you've learned how hard she worked for all of us. I say we don't leave here without her."

  Face flaming, Sarah hesitated, then stepped forward. "Augusta is right. I Perrin confided in me, and I" She looked at Cody. "I knew she was not acting promiscuously when she ran into Captain's Snow's arms. I'm ashamed that I didn't defend her and that I wanted to be the representative badly enough that I" She bit her lips and dropped her head. "Since I've been doing Perrin's job, I've gone to bed without supper more nights than I can count because I've been busy solving problems for each one of you. Just as Perrin used to do. You know what you've asked me to do, but you don't know how many others also need a problem solved. It's a tremendous amount of work. We didn't know because Perrin never complained."

  "This is merely wasting time. All of you are leaving the minute the sky clears," Cody snapped.

  "Quinton will just follow us," Mem said, turning toward the group. "I ag
ree with Augusta. This train goes nowhere without Perrin. And we don't give that bastard the arms wagon either! I was wrong to suggest giving it to him."

  Ona elbowed to the front, her eyes blazing. "Perrin Waverly is a whore! Have all of you forgotten that?" Her chin jutted at Cody. "That's why Sarah is our representative. That's why most of you stopped speaking to her! Well, that hasn't changed! And I, for one, am not willing to risk getting shot for the sake of a whore! I say we go without her!"

  Cody's eyes were as hard as blue flint. "Maybe you'd also like to tell them you're the person who shot Perrin in the arm."

  She looked up and gasped. Surprise and betrayal filled her eyes. "You wanted me to kill her!"

  Thea's voice cut through a shocked silence. "Oh, Ona." She spread her hands and looked helplessly at the others. "She she has this idea that she and Mr. Snow but Perrin"

  "You are deranged," Sarah stated flatly, staring at Ona. "I should have figured out it was you who slashed Perrin's dress and did those things. As for Perrin I regret what we did, and I'm embarrassed by my role in it."

  "I hate all of you."

  Cody nodded to Heck and Miles and they stepped forward to escort a hissing, spitting Ona Norris out of the circle and back to her wagon. "Tell Smokey Joe to make sure she stays there."

  When Ona was gone, he returned to the others. "Whatever you ladies think you're suggesting, it isn't going to happen," he said curtly. "Webb predicts this storm will pass through rapidly. We should have some sun in about two hours, then this train is going to roll out."

  "Well, I won't be on it," Augusta stated quietly. "I've been practicing twice a day for two months to shoot Jake Quinton. I'm going with you to find Perrin Waverly. I used to think Perrin was but that doesn't matter anymore. I know she's treated me fairly and I owe her my life. I owe her better than leaving her to Jake Quinton's men."

  Mem shot Cody a defiant glance. "I agree." She stepped up beside Augusta and stared at him. "Perrin is my friend, and I'm not going to Clampet Falls without her."