“Well, what are you gawking at? Come on, Cal.” Diamond and her wranglers urged their horses into a gallop, leaving the town and its curious, muttering occupants in their dust.
When the dust settled, Adam watched as the young woman picked up her valise and started walking. As she passed him, she compressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.
He nudged his horse into an easy gait. A smile split his lips. It had been one hell of a day, and it was only half-over.
He glanced back, to see the young woman disappear inside a boardinghouse at the edge of town. It looked like Onyx Jewel’s chicken had come home to roost. And wasn’t going to leave until she accomplished what she had come here to do.
Adam wondered if the town of Hanging Tree was big enough for two Jewels. Especially when one of them was a handful like Diamond. And the other was, for now, a complete mystery.
Adam brought his horse to a pause atop a ridge and cast one last look at his herd, peacefully grazing on the banks of Poison Creek. It was difficult to imagine this beautiful land harboring so much hatred and violence. But then, he’d known another time when the beautiful, peaceful hills of his beloved Maryland had run red with blood. Father against son. Brother against brother.
He wouldn’t allow himself to think about the past. There was still too much pain. Instead, he would concentrate on a bright future. Next spring, with the calving, he could be, if not wealthy, at least solvent. And the year after that...
He spotted a cloud of dust in the distance and strained to see what caused it. After a few minutes it became clear. A small carriage, pulled by a single horse, was heading toward the Jewel Ranch. Even from this distance, he could make out the flutter of a pink gown, and the ridiculous pink parasol.
A smile touched his lips. Pearl Jewel had decided to ignore Diamond’s threat, and was about to pay a call.
Wouldn’t he love to watch that display of fireworks?
As he started to turn his mount toward home, he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, another cloud of dust. This one was much bigger.
He turned. And muttered a savage oath.
Several dozen wranglers rode in two columns toward the approaching rig. In their lead was a similarly dressed wrangler, whose fiery hair streamed behind her like a red flag.
Adam wheeled his stallion and spurred him into a run. He had to stop this nonsense before someone got hurt.
Straining at the bit, his horse ate up the distance, until he pulled up beside the rig. Pearl looked up in surprise and drew back on the reins. “If Diamond Jewel sent you to stop me—”
“No, ma’am.” He wiped a sleeve across his sweaty forehead, grateful that he’d reached her in time. “I spotted you from that ridge and thought I’d better warn you. Diamond and her men are just over that hill. And they’re headed this way. If you’d like, I’ll escort you back to town.”
She studied him for a moment. “Didn’t I see you in town this morning?”
“Yes, ma’am. My name’s Adam Winter.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Winter. I am Pearl Jewel. And I thank you for your warning, and your kind offer. But I have no intention of turning back.”
“But that could be dangerous—”
“Good day.” She flicked the reins and the horse broke into a trot.
Adam kept pace alongside her. “Mind if I ride along?”
She peered at him from beneath her parasol. “Whatever for?”
“I’ve had a taste of Diamond’s temper. I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing, Mr. Winter.”
“Adam,” he corrected her.
She smiled then. “Adam. As I told Diamond, I have no intention of leaving until I visit my daddy’s grave. And no one, not even Diamond and all her wranglers, can stop me.”
Adam had his doubts about that, but decided to keep his thoughts to himself.
As they came up over the top of the hill, they looked down on a solid wall of mounted wranglers, with rifles drawn. In their midst was Diamond. When she spotted Adam, her eyes flashed fire.
“So, this is how you plan to have your revenge, Adam Winter,” she called. “By butting into other people’s business. You should stick to your own problems. You have more than enough without taking on any more.”
“You’re right about that. But somebody has to try and knock some sense into that thick head of yours.” He looked beyond her to her foreman. “What’s the matter with you, McCabe? Haven’t you told her that she can’t simply shoot this young woman and walk away?”
“I’ve tried,” Cal McCabe said tiredly. “But Di refuses to listen to me.”
“And why can’t I shoot her?” Diamond shouted. “She’s trespassing. As I recall, you threatened much the same thing earlier today, when Cal McCabe and my wranglers rode up to your cabin. I’m entirely within my rights. And this time, there’ll be no question. The whole town already heard me warn this...person to stay off my property.”
Adam nudged his horse closer, until Diamond lifted her rifle and pressed it to his chest, holding him at bay. They sat astride their horses, facing each other.
Despite the anger that throbbed through her veins, Diamond felt her pulse accelerate at the nearness of him. Damn the man for whatever it was that caused this strange reaction in her.
“I’m not interested in how you’ll justify this to the town,” Adam said softly. “I’m here to remind you that if you carry out your threat, you’ll have to live with the fact that you were responsible for the death of your father’s daughter.”
“Liar.” Diamond’s voice rose, and with it her temper. At this moment, she felt her fury slipping out of control. Fury with Adam for interfering. For taking sides. It was, she reminded herself, one more reason to hate him. “That woman is lying. She’s not my father’s daughter. And if you choose to believe her, you’re a fool.”
“You’re the fool if you react in haste, Diamond. There are laws, even here in Hanging Tree. And lawyers and judges to see that justice is carried out.”
“Oh, I’m aware of that,” she said through clenched teeth. “I saw what the law and the judge did to my father’s killer. Now, get out of my way, Adam Winter.” She waved the rifle, but he refused to budge.
“For once in your life, stop and think before you act. How would you feel if you shot now, and discovered later that she was telling the truth?”
Diamond sent him a hateful look.
“I have proof of my claim.” Pearl’s voice, cool, composed, caused everyone to turn and stare at her. “And I would be happy to share it.”
She opened the tapestry valise and withdrew a paper, then stepped from the rig and held it out to Diamond.
“And what is this?” Diamond’s voice was filled with contempt as she slid from the saddle to confront this impostor.
“A document certifying my birth, and the names of my parents.”
“Forged,” Diamond scoffed, without even bothering to look at it. “Anyone with ink and paper can draw up a document. It doesn’t mean a thing.”
“There is more.” Pearl removed several papers from the valise.
“What are these? More lies?”
“Letters. From my daddy to me.” She thrust them toward Diamond. “I’m sure you’ll recognize his handwritting.”
Diamond snatched them toward her, eager to prove the lie. But when she caught sight of her father’s large, scrawling script on the first page, she dropped it as though burned. “I will not dignify these forgeries by reading them.” She tossed the letters down without another glance.
But the damage had been done; the seed of knowledge planted. And with it, the growing fear that there might be a kernel of truth in what this young woman was saying.
She watched as Pearl bent and retrieved the letters, brushing the sand from the pages as she did.
“I wish you had never come here,” Diamond whispered. “I wish you would just go away and...” She stopped, her gaze arrested by
the glint of something at Pearl’s throat. A breeze ruffled the neckline of the pale pink gown, revealing a rope of gold, holding two stones side by side, one black, one a perfect luminous pearl.
“Oh, no.” The words were torn from her lips.
“What?” Pearl pressed a hand to her throat in a gesture of alarm. “What is it? What has happened?”
“Your... necklace.” With trembling fingers Diamond unfastened her rough plaid shirt. Nestled between her breasts was a similar rope of gold. On it were two stones, side by side. A black onyx, and a perfect, glittering diamond. “It was a gift from Pa when I turned sixteen.”
Pearl lifted her necklace and touched it to her lips. “Mine also was a gift from Daddy for my sixteenth birthday.”
Daddy. The word grated.
“Daddy told me that the necklace would remind me that he would always be at my side.”
“Pa said the same thing to me.” Confused, hurt, angry, and still desperate to deny what she sensed now was the truth, Diamond spun away and pulled herself into the saddle. She needed to put some distance between herself and this...person.
“I’ll allow you a quick visit to Pa’s grave. And then I expect you to leave and never return. Is that understood?”
Pearl stared up at the haughty young woman, then nodded. As she climbed back into the rig and lifted the reins, she glanced toward the wall of silent wranglers, still holding their rifles. Then she turned toward Adam. In this whole vast land called Texas, he was the only one who had shown her the least kindness.
“I would like Adam Winter to go along.”
Diamond’s eyes glittered with suspicion. “Why?”
“Because I trust him.”
“It figures. One skunk always sniffs out another.” Diamond wheeled her mount. “Let’s go,” she called abruptly. “I want to be home by dark.”
She and her wranglers started out at a fast pace.
“I hope you don’t mind, Mr. Winter.”
“Adam,” he corrected her. “And no. I don’t mind at all. I’m just glad I was able to slow things down awhile.” He lifted a hand to shade the slanting sun from his eyes. “You’d better get moving. It looks like Diamond is in a hurry to be done with this.”
Pearl had to whip her horse to catch up with the fastmoving horsemen. They made their way over hills, down gullies, across dry washes that during the rainy season would be swollen and overflowing. And then they paused on a barren, windswept hill. The mound of earth was still fresh. It had been topped off with several boulders. There was nothing else to mark the spot where Onyx Jewel lay.
Adam Winter helped Pearl from the rig, then stepped back to allow her to grieve in privacy. But as he turned away, he caught sight of the horror in her eyes. To an educated young woman from Boston, accustomed to ornate cathedrals and carefully manicured cemeteries filled with statuary and comforting signs of faith, this unmarked grave in the middle of a barren wilderness would seem uncivilized. Primitive.
He glanced at Diamond, who sat astride her horse, trying vainly not to look at the young woman who knelt in the dust. But when a cry was torn from Pearl’s lips, it was obvious that a knife had twisted in Diamond’s heart.
“Oh, Daddy,” Pearl cried aloud. “I cannot bear the thought of you in this place. You deserved better.” She touched a hand to the rough stones that marked the grave. “My heart is broken at the knowledge that I’ll never see you again. Or hear your wonderful, deep laughter. I can’t bear the thought that I’ll never again be held in your warm embrace.”
With a shiver of recognition, Diamond could hear her own voice saying the same words, although she had never spoken them aloud. But they were her words, her emotions. And they scraped against her already raw wounds.
She slid from the saddle and took a step closer, then stopped as Pearl moaned. “Oh, how cruel, that life should take first my mother, and now you, Daddy. I feel so alone. So helpless against what has happened. I’m angry. And I’m sad. And most of all, I’m frightened. Yes. Frightened. Even though I hardly ever saw you, you were the most important person in my world. Bigger even than life. Like bright sunlight piercing the darkness. Each time you came to me in Boston, my world became bright and wonderful. And I foolishly believed you would always be here for me. Now there is no more light or laughter. Now there is only...” Her voice broke, and she fell into a fit of sobbing.
Moved, Diamond stepped up beside her and awkwardly touched a hand to her shoulder. She felt Pearl stiffen at her touch.
“I...I know how you feel.”
Pearl shook her head and said between sobs, “No one can know how I feel. It is as though the light has gone out of my world. Daddy was my rock, my anchor. I dreamed of him each night. Waited each day for his letters. He was the most important person in my life.”
“Yes.” Diamond’s lips began to tremble and she immediately bit them until she tasted blood. “I know. We did everything together. Whenever he left on one of his buying trips, it was as though the world stopped. Then, when he returned, my life would begin again.”
Pearl nodded. “Exactly. He could make me laugh when I was sad.”
“Or when I was angry,” Diamond added. “He used to say I inherited his quick temper, along with his love of horses and guns. But Pa could always tease me out of my temper.”
“He had a wonderful laugh.” Pearl felt a fresh round of pain as her throat tightened, and she swallowed back a sob.
“And so much strength.” Diamond felt tears well up. But she would not permit them to spill over, to stream down her cheeks as Pearl’s did. That was a weakness that a city-bred woman like Pearl could afford. But to a Texan there was no room for tears. “I feel like a stray caught in the hills during a snowstorm. And there’s no one to rescue me. And no way to get back to the safety of my herd.”
Amazingly, Pearl nodded, understanding completely. She squeezed Diamond’s hand. “Since news of Daddy’s death, I’ve felt lost and afraid. I know it makes no sense. I’m an educated woman. A teacher. I’m old enough to make my own way. But the word orphan strikes terror in my heart and I feel...Oh, I feel...”
A sob was torn from her lips, and Diamond answered with a heart-wrenching sigh. But something in her perverse nature would not permit her to give in to what she considered a weakness. She would not, could not, cry.
With Adam and the wranglers looking on in silence, the two young women turned toward each other at the same moment, opening their arms and coming together in a fierce embrace.
For Pearl, it was as though a dam had burst. She wept, openly, unselfconsciously. And all the while, Diamond murmured words meant to soothe. But each word thrust fresh pain through her heart. And each word brought a fresh round of sobbing from the young woman in her arms.
Pearl’s tears flowed freely until there were none left. For the first time, Diamond spoke the words she’d held inside until now. It was as though, with this kindred spirit, she was free to speak what had been carefully hidden in her heart.
“I loved him with all my heart and soul. There will never be another like Pa.”
Pearl nodded.
At last, cleansed, spent, they stepped apart.
They knelt side by side, and each young woman touched a hand to the soft earth. Their lips moved in silent words to the man who had meant everything in the world to them.
“I know Pa’s burial site mustn’t seem like much to a fine lady like you. But this was one of his favorite places.” Diamond’s voice held a trace of reverence. “He used to say that from here he could see for miles. And everything he saw belonged to him. The mountains, the hills, the creek, the sand, the cattle. But most of all, the land he loved.”
“Then ”I’m glad you chose this spot for his final resting place,” Pearl said softly. ”In years to come it will be a comfort to me to know that Daddy is in a place he loved.”
They fell silent again, each lost in private thoughts.
“If you don’t mind, I would like to leave something here. Something very pers
onal, that I know Daddy would have loved.”
Pearl withdrew from her pocket a scrolled paper, tied with a pale ribbon.
“My diploma,” she said. “Daddy would have been so proud. I want this to remain here with him.”
She scraped away a little of the dirt and lay the scroll down, before anchoring it with earth.
At last, as if by mutual consent, Pearl and Diamond stood and, after one last glance at the grave, turned away.
Pearl glanced skyward and took note of the smudges of crimson that streaked the sky. “It’s growing late. I had better return to Mrs. Potter’s boardinghouse. If I linger much longer, I’ll lose my way back.”
“You’re staying at Mrs. Potter’s?” With the back of her hand Diamond wiped at a stray speck of moisture that had slipped, unbidden, from her eye.
Pearl nodded.
“Why don’t you come back to the ranch?” Even as the words spilled from her mouth, Diamond regretted them. What in the world had happened to her common sense? She was shocked by her lapse. But, she reasoned, Pa would approve. And somehow, that thought gave her great comfort at the moment.
Pearl was equally shocked. “It isn’t necessary to invite me into your home. That is not the reason I came to Texas. I came only to visit Daddy’s grave, and to pay him a final respect.”
“I know. And I’m glad now that you had your wish. But I’d like you to come home with me. Besides,” Diamond added sheepishly, “I hate to eat alone.”
“Really? So do I,” Pearl admitted. Despite the tears that still clung to her lashes, she managed a smile. “I wonder if we will discover other things we have in common.”
“I...doubt it.” Diamond glanced at this immaculately groomed young woman, so unlike herself.
Suddenly, the two women seemed ill at ease. This very intimate scene they had just shared was over. They were, once again, two strangers bound by a single thread.
Diamond pulled herself into the saddle and glanced at Cal McCabe and her wranglers, aware that they had been allowed to glimpse something far too private and personal. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started toward home. Cal, send one of the men into town for Pearl’s bags.”