He seemed to be thinking about something very seriously. “No, this is something I have to do.”
“ ’Ring, wait a minute. I know that you take your honor very seriously, but this isn’t the time to think of honor. You have no weapons and we’re chained together. You can’t take on an armed man alone. Let’s go down the mountain, then you can get Frank and Sam to help you.”
“I don’t trust those two. No, I think that now is the time. I think he may be expecting me, that’s why he’s here.”
’Ring stood up, and when he did, he brought Maddie up with him.
She put her hands on his chest. “Don’t do this, ’Ring,” she said. “Please don’t do this. I won’t let you do this.” She sat down on a fallen tree and folded her arms over her breast.
He looked down at her as though he were amused by her.
“Don’t you dare look at me like that,” she hissed at him. “I am not being a silly female, and I resent your insinuation that I am.”
“I didn’t say a word.” His mouth was twitching in amusement.
There is nothing in the world more infuriating than a smirking man. She refused to say another word to him but instead stared straight ahead at an aspen tree.
“Not going to let me move, are you?”
She still didn’t talk to him, but looked at that tree.
With a chuckle that only a man who is laughing at a woman can make, he bent over and picked her up, his arm about her waist, her backside pointing toward the front of him. “What an interesting position. We could go together after the man.”
She pounded the back of his leg with her free hand. “You can’t go after him. You can’t risk your life for a horse.”
At that he turned her around and stood her in front of him. “You’re worried about me?”
She gave him a look of disgust. “I don’t know why I am. I guess it’s just that I’m worried about my own skin. If we’re attached and you go where there’s…there’s bullets flying, I might get hurt.”
He smiled down at her and smoothed her hair out of her eyes. “I’m glad that you’re worried only about yourself.”
“Please don’t risk yourself—or me.”
He continued smiling. “Then I guess I better not risk you. The world would lose a lot if it lost you and that God-given voice of yours.”
She let out her breath, glad that he could see reason and wasn’t going to try to be a hero and go after the man. She was still smiling at him when he reached into his pocket and withdrew a key. She was smiling when he lifted her bound right hand and kissed her palm. She even smiled when he inserted the key in the lock.
“Thank you,” she said sweetly after he released her. It wasn’t until he used the key on the band about his own wrist that she realized what was happening. She rubbed her sore wrist, her eyes wide, her voice low. “You had a key all along.”
“Of course. Now, baby, I want you to stay here and wait for me. I’ll get Buttercup and come back for you. Try to be quiet.”
“You had the key.”
“Sure. You did hear me, didn’t you? I think that Indian friend of yours will look out for you, but I can’t be sure, so I want you to be still.”
“You had the key.”
’Ring looked at her and he saw a woman who was on the verge of getting very, very angry. “You don’t think I’d have let that man take the only key, do you? Do you realize what could have happened if there had been any real trouble and the two of us were chained together like a couple of sausages? Surely you thought of that, didn’t you?”
“You had the key all the time. You lied to me.”
“You, my lovely, are the king and the queen of all liars. Come on, sweetheart, don’t you have a sense of humor?”
She was sputtering as a few hundred words tumbled over themselves to get out.
He kissed her. “As much as I’d like to stay here and argue with you, I have some business to attend to. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can.”
Maddie didn’t have time enough to recover herself before he slipped through the trees and was gone. She sat down on a fallen log and put her head in her hands. She thought of the lack of privacy of the last three days, the way they’d had to walk together, sleep together, the way they had not been able to get more than three feet from each other.
At some point her anger dissolved and began to be replaced with laughter. He had certainly repaid her for all the times she’d tricked him.
She was sitting on the ground, her arms tucked about her knees and musing on what he’d done, when she remembered where he was going. He was just fool enough to go up to that robber and demand the return of his horse—and the robber would repay ’Ring with a bullet through his heart.
Maddie could do some of her own silent traveling when necessary, and now she began to move through the shrubs and low bushes with all the sound of a snake. When she was close enough to the robber’s camp to hear voices, she stopped. ’Ring seemed to have extraordinarily good ears, and she didn’t want him to hear her.
But he must have heard her, for the voices stopped as soon as she could see the men—and the voices were replaced with sounds of flesh hitting flesh. Before she thought about what she was doing, she started moving toward the two men. Maybe she could get the robber’s gun and—
She didn’t think anymore because Hears Good sent an arrow flying into her path. She put her hand on the arrow and her mouth turned into a grim line. He wouldn’t come to her when she called to him, but he stayed around and spied on her when she was with the man she loved.
“Show yourself,” she hissed at him, but only the wind in the trees answered her. She was tempted to defy him and go to ’Ring in spite of what Hears Good wanted her to do, but she wasn’t a fool. Even if she didn’t like his methods, she knew that Hears Good’s advice was right.
So Maddie sat down and waited, waited for what seemed to be an eternity. The sun reached its zenith and it became afternoon while she waited for ’Ring to return. Every muscle in her body was tense as she expected at any moment to hear a shot.
When a twig snapped behind her, she turned and saw ’Ring moving through the trees. She ran to him, put his arm around her shoulders. “Are you badly hurt?”
He leaned heavily on her. “I told you to stay away.”
“I thought maybe I could help you.”
“And I told you I didn’t want any help. I told you—What are you doing?”
She’d begun to run her hands over him, to check him for injuries. “I want to know if you’re hurt.”
He smiled down at her as she knelt and ran her hands over his calves and thighs, then up to his waist, and around his ribs. “Maddie, let’s stay here tonight.”
“No.” She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his arms. “You don’t seem to be bleeding anywhere. In fact, you don’t even have bruises on your face, yet I heard the two of you fighting. What happened?”
“Not much. I made him listen to reason, that’s all.”
“Got the drop on him, did you?”
“More or less. Now, about that staying here tonight…”
“No, it’s too dangerous. I don’t trust that robber. Let’s get down to the camp. I have to sing tomorrow night and then I have to meet the man and exchange letters.”
“About that—”
She put her hand to his lips and wouldn’t let him speak. “We’ll talk about that tomorrow. Is that your horse making all that noise? What do you think he’s eating?”
“Cactus probably. Loves the stuff. I have to pull the thorns out of his nose.”
“Just like his master.”
He smiled at her, took her hand, and led her to the horse and then mounted behind her. All the rest of the way down the mountain, he rubbed various parts of Maddie’s body and told her how much he was looking forward to a little privacy tonight. He hinted at things he was going to do to her.
“In the army, what with a lack of, shall we say, suitable females, I’ve had some time to use my imaginatio
n. I have a few things I’d like to try.”
“Oh?” Maddie asked, and her voice broke. She cleared her throat. “What sort of things?”
He put his lips to her ear and began to whisper things to her that made her so limp that, when they reached the camp, she couldn’t stand up. ’Ring helped her.
Toby came running to them. “Where you two been?” He was trying to sound harsh, and worry had made his old face look at least twenty years older.
’Ring had one arm around Maddie, and he put the other around Toby. “Talking mostly.”
Toby gave a grunt. “With you that’s probably true. Now, if I had been alone with this little lady…”
Maddie didn’t listen to any more of their banter. She eased away from ’Ring’s side and went to Edith and demanded that water be heated and a bath prepared for her. Edith complained about the late hour, saying that it was almost nighttime and time to go to bed.
“That’s just the point,” Maddie said so that Edith at last understood.
Edith went off mumbling about it being Judgment Day if her royal highness were going to spend the night with a man, but she put the water on to boil. Maddie had her bath in an enclosure of blankets, and when she was at last clean she went back to the tent.
It was dark inside, and she had to light a lantern to be able to see. ’Ring was sprawled on her narrow cot. His shoulders were wider than it was, and he was longer than the cot, so his feet hung off. He had started to unbutton his dirty, torn shirt, but he hadn’t made it before he fell asleep, so his hand was still on the third button. It had been almost four days since he’d shaved now, so his face had a heavy growth of black whiskers on it.
She went to him and kissed his sleeping lips. He gave a little smile, but he didn’t waken. “ ’Ring,” she whispered, but he didn’t so much as move.
So much for his imagination, she thought. It didn’t look as though it were something that kept him awake at night. She gave a sigh and looked with displeasure at the folded blankets in the corner. Once again she’d have to sleep on the floor, but this time she’d not have ’Ring’s strong arms around her. She was sure that she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she lay down on the blanket and was asleep instantly.
When Maddie awoke, it was late morning, and right away she knew that something was wrong. Her head was fuzzy from sleep but her senses knew that something was very wrong.
When her mind cleared, she saw that she was on the cot and not on the floor. Sometime during the night ’Ring had picked her up and moved her, but he wasn’t asleep on the floor. He wasn’t in the tent at all.
She pulled a blanket over her nightgown and went outside. Edith was bending over the campfire, stirring something in a pot, and Toby was sitting on the ground, drinking a mug of coffee. “Where is he?” Maddie asked in a voice that let them know that she wanted no lies.
“He left you a letter,” Toby said, and pulled it out of one of the many pockets on his army blouse.
Maddie didn’t want to look at the letter, but she knew she had to. With trembling hands, she opened it.
Do not sing tonight. Wait for me.
CHM
She looked up at Toby. Since the letter had been merely a folded sheet of paper, she had no doubt that both Toby and Edith had read it. “That’s all? That’s all he left for me? How long am I to wait for him? A day? A week? A year? Did he bother to tell any of you where he’s gone? Or when he plans to return?”
“No, ma’am,” Toby said, looking down at the ground. “But then, the boy don’t usually tell nobody nothin’. He keeps to himself, he does.”
“He just gives orders, you mean,” Maddie said, and turned and went back into the tent.
Once inside, she sat down on the cot and looked at the letter. CHM, she thought. His initials, as though she were a stranger to him, as though she were an army person. As though—
She couldn’t sustain her anger. She knew exactly where he’d gone: he’d gone after the men who had taken Laurel. It was what she knew was going to happen if she told him why she was singing in the West. She’d known from the first moment she met him that he was the type of man who would take on responsibility. He thought everything was his business and was something that he had to deal with.
She began to dress but her fingers were shaking too much to fasten the buttons, so she called Edith.
“What’re you gonna do?” Edith asked.
Maddie knew what she meant. “I’m going to sing, of course. I’m not going to allow Captain Montgomery to rule my life. I’m going to—” She stopped and took a breath. “I’m not going to sing tonight. I’m going to wait for him. I’m going to do just what he wants.”
“The miners are gonna be real mad. They brought that piano up here for you, and they been filin’ in from all over to hear you sing.”
“Well, I’m not going to sing!” Maddie half shouted. “If he can risk his life, I can—” She broke off. She was damned if she was going to break into tears in front of Edith. “Leave me alone. Tell the miners that I’m sick.”
Edith grunted her disapproval and left the tent.
For a long while Maddie sat on the cot, her head in her hands, not crying, for she was too afraid to cry. Why did he have to do this? Wasn’t it bad enough that she had to worry about Laurel? Why did he have to put his life in jeopardy as well?
When she heard someone in the tent, she thought it was Edith. She didn’t look up. “Go away.”
It was Toby. “I brung you somethin’ to eat,” he said softly.
“I don’t want anything to eat.”
“I sure do know that feelin’. He makes a body so mad that you don’t wanta eat or nothin’.”
Maddie covered her face with her hands. “He’s gone after my sister. He’s gone alone against I don’t know how many men. They’ll kill him and my sister.”
“Maybe, maybe not. You know, it’s almost funny you turnin’ out to like him so much. I ain’t never seen him so mad as when the colonel made him escort an opery singer. The boy said he was gonna scare you and make you turn back. He didn’t scare you none, did he?”
“He scares me now.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t think he was gonna hurt you, did you? You mind holdin’ this coffee cup? It’s burnin’ my hand.”
Maddie took the coffee and absently sipped it. “Why should anyone be afraid of him?”
“Beats me, but the colonel back at Fort Breck hates him.”
“Hates ’Ring? How could anyone hate ’Ring?”
Toby grinned at her. “You mind takin’ this sandwich for a minute? My hand’s beginnin’ to sweat. You see…Mind if I sit down?” Toby took the single folding chair and leaned forward. “You see, Colonel Harrison don’t like havin’ a full-fledged hero under him, makes him feel—”
“Inadequate?”
“That’s the very word the boy uses—that and a lot of other words. The colonel don’t know nothin’ about nothin’, and he’s afraid that the boy will get promoted and pretty soon the colonel will be callin’ the boy sir.”
“But doesn’t it take a long time to work your way up through the ranks? Surely the colonel will be retired by the time ’Ring makes a higher rank.”
“Not the way the boy is goin’ at it. He was a private just a few years ago.”
Maddie took a big bite of the bacon sandwich. “He did mention that, and, you know, at the time I didn’t even wonder how he was made an officer.”
Toby started to get up. “I guess I can tell you the story someday, but you got things to do. You know, with the worryin’ and all. I better leave you to it.”
“No, please stay. A story might help take my mind off ’Ring…and Laurel.”
“Well, all right,” Toby said, and sat back down. “It was about four years ago and we was at Fort Breck. Sometimes it seems like we always been at that place. Anyway, we was goin’ out on what they call a detail, but it was just to see if we could come up with some firewood. We do a lot of that sort of thing in the army. It’s a r
eal borin’ job, and that’s why so many men, ah…leave it, if you know what I mean.”
Maddie nodded. Deserters.
“So, we was ridin’ out and Captain Jackson was with us. There was about fifteen of us, a lot ’cause the Cheyennes was real mad. It seems the Cheyennes was gettin’ sick of the settlers puttin’ up houses on the Cheyenne land and killin’ off all the game. And the settlers—Lord! but I ain’t met a meaner bunch of people—they had the idea the only good Injun was a dead one, so they shot them for target practice. The Cheyennes didn’t take too well to that.”
Maddie knew all too well what the whites had done to the Indians.
“Since the army was there to protect the settlers—”
“Who had the guns.”
“Right you are. Well, anyway, the army was the Cheyennes’ enemy, so to speak, so on that day they decided to kill a few white soldiers.”
Toby was quiet for a moment. “They come out of nowhere. I think we was singin’ one of them talkin’ army songs and—”
“Cadences.”
“Yeah, them, and we didn’t hear nothin’. Them Cheyennes just run up on us and started shootin’. Captain Jackson was the first to go down—the Injuns probably wanted his pretty coat.”
Maddie thought there might be some truth in that.
Toby’s voice lowered. “I was one of the first to be shot. Got one in the shoulder and another in the leg.”
He took a breath. “All those men just plain panicked. Hell, they ain’t no more soldiers than I am. They was just farmers and men runnin’ from the law, whatever, and they joined the army to fill their bellies. Hardly any of ’em could ride a horse, much less shoot. When the Injuns started their attack, half of ’em fell off their horses.”
“ ’Ring took command,” Maddie said.
“That he did.” Toby grinned. “You ain’t never seen nothin’ until you’ve seen that boy in battle. I swear, he seems to get bigger. He started shoutin’ and orderin’ ever’body about and they didn’t know what to do, so they did what he said.”
“And what about you?”
Maddie wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw tears in Toby’s old eyes. “He slung me over his shoulder and carried me. I told him it weren’t no use, that I was already dead, but he didn’t listen to me. No, he carried me and did his yellin’ just the same.”