Toby gave a noisy sniff. “Anyway, he got all the men in a circle in the ground. There weren’t no cover, but there was this hole, like.”
“A depression?”
“Yeah, that’s what it was. He made ever’body keep down and he wouldn’t let nobody panic. He said that help was on its way and that they’d be out of it soon.”
“Was help on its way?”
“Hell no! Oh, pardon, ma’am. The soldiers at the fort thought we was out gettin’ wood, wasn’t nobody gonna help us do that.”
“And you knew this at the time?”
“I did, and the boy did, but them farmers didn’t. They wanted to believe the boy, I guess, so they did. The boy wouldn’t let ’em shoot unless they thought they could kill somebody.”
Toby grinned. “You shoulda seen him. He was cool as you please, givin’ shootin’ lessons to the men. You woulda thought we was target practicin’ instead of bein’ attacked by a couple hundred Cheyenne. And them Cheyenne, they took their time. I think they was enjoyin’ the sport.”
“As much as the settlers enjoyed killing the Cheyenne?” Maddie asked.
“Just about the same, I’d imagine. We stayed there all day and all night. We was about to run out of water, and the men started quarrelin’ over the water.”
“What did ’Ring do?”
“Kept it all himself and doled it out a swallow at a time. We didn’t know if we was gonna die from thirst or the Cheyennes was gonna get us.”
“Why didn’t he send for help?”
“Who was he gonna send? I was shot too bad, and if the boy left them men, they’d go crazy and they was all too scared and too dumb to know how to get past the Injuns. There wasn’t nothin’ we could do but wait and pray.”
“So how did you get out?”
Toby laughed. “If there’s one thing you can count on in the army, it’s confusion. Back at Fort Breck, the CO, that’s army talk for commandin’ officer, was a drunken old sod and the men got sick of him—they always did about ever’ six weeks—and they decided to desert, that is, after they’d taken a couple barrels of his whiskey.”
Toby closed his eyes in memory. “Here we was, layin’ in this hole, dyin’ of thirst, fightin’ for our lives, and along comes a whole passel of drunken soldiers desertin’ from the army. I don’t think the Injuns knew quite what was goin’ on, so they stopped shootin’ at us for about ten seconds and the boy made his move.”
“What did ’Ring do?”
“I was kinda in a daze then, so I don’t really know for sure, but the boy got the men in the hole up and runnin’ and they jumped up on the horses with the drunks and ever’body started yellin’ and kickin’ them poor horses and got the hell out of there.”
“And you?”
Toby looked away for a moment. “He carried me all the way. I told him not to, but he’s one hardheaded so-and-so.”
“That he is. Won’t listen to reason.”
“No, he don’t.”
“So, you all got back to the fort safely.”
“There was a few men that didn’t make it, but not many.” Toby chuckled. “The boy told the army people that the deserters were concerned when we didn’t come back from the wood-choppin’ foray and that they was out lookin’ for us. The CO had been too drunk to notice that we hadn’t come back so he wasn’t gonna call the boy a liar. The CO was smart enough to see the advantages of the whole thing. He made the boy an officer—although he said he didn’t wanta be—and gave him a medal and he got pieces of paper for the rest of the men.”
“Commendations?”
“Right, that’s it. We all got us a piece of paper sayin’ we was minor heroes instead of just a bunch of wood-choppin’ drunks.”
Maddie smiled at him. The whole story sounded like the ’Ring she’d come to know.
Toby stood up. “I reckon I better leave you now, ma’am,” he said as he walked to the tent entrance, and Maddie nodded.
Chapter 14
What followed for Maddie were three days of hell. She wasn’t very good at waiting. She was used to controlling her own life and now, between Laurel’s kidnapping and ’Ring’s disappearance, she’d never felt so out of control.
If it hadn’t been for the miners, she thought she might have lost her mind. The miners gave her someone to vent her anger on. They were lonely men and they had heard of her singing and they wanted her to entertain them. At first she’d merely told them no, mumbling that she had a sore throat or some such nonsense, but then their pleadings began to annoy her.
She turned on one group of miners and let them have it. She yelled at them with the full force of all her lung power. She told them that she did not want to sing for them, that she would not sing for them.
The men stood there and stared at her in awe. She could be very loud when she chose to be. One man, still blinking from the force of Maddie’s voice, said softly, “I guess you got over your sore throat.”
Maddie turned away from them, but that didn’t stop them from pestering her to sing for them. She couldn’t walk anywhere without a miner following her and asking her to please sing. They gave all kinds of reasons, one man saying that his family would be thrilled to hear that he’d heard LaReina sing. Another said that he’d consider his life having been worth living if he could just hear her sing. Their flattery became outrageous, but it didn’t move Maddie. She spent most of the day in a woody copse near the edge of the camp and watched the road.
Edith sometimes brought her food, but it was just as likely to be Toby who brought the food to her.
“No sign of him?” he asked.
“None. Why couldn’t he have told us where he was going? At least the direction he was taking. How could he have known where to go?”
“Maybe he went after that man you were meetin’.”
Maddie took a deep breath. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” She looked around at the trees. “I think he may have had someone with him, though.”
“That Injun friend of yours?”
She looked at Toby sharply.
“The boy didn’t tell me much, didn’t have time ’fore he left, but he said somethin’ about some journals and some Injun that can hear things.”
“I think Hears Good went with ’Ring. Hears Good will take care of him.” I hope, she added to herself.
Toby didn’t ask any more questions, but turned to leave, then looked back. “Oh, yeah, them miners that you grubstaked come back. They found these rocks.” He held out his hand and in it were four black rocks.
“What are they?”
“Lead mostly.”
“Worth anything?”
“Not much.”
Maddie gave her attention back to the road. It didn’t matter much to her one way or the other whether the men had discovered gold or not. All she wanted was her sister and ’Ring to return.
By the third day the miners gave up on her and stopped trying to persuade her to sing for them. They no longer tried to entice her with promises of a piano and even a roofed building housing the piano. They walked past her on the road and tipped their hats to her but they said little.
Maddie didn’t know or much care why the men were at last leaving her alone, but she was glad. She wasn’t aware that both Sam and Toby had placed themselves on the hill above her and looked down on her like a couple of guardian angels—or vultures as the miners saw them. Toby was outfitted with enough weapons to make him look like a pirate, and Sam had his size to intimidate anyone who bothered Maddie.
By the evening of the third day she was beginning to give up hope. She knew that this time ’Ring’s luck had run out. This time he hadn’t been able to save himself, much less a company of soldiers, from the dangers that he faced. Maddie tried to get angry at him. She’d tried to tell him that the men who had taken Laurel were dangerous, but he wouldn’t listen to her. No, he thought he knew everything. He thought he could do anything, that he was all-powerful. He thought that he didn’t need anyone, that he could do everything by h
imself.
She was trying to whip herself into a really good rage, but it didn’t work. She told herself that she’d lived all her life without him and she could be quite happy again without him, but she couldn’t make herself believe that. She’d never before thought of herself as lonely, but now her whole life seemed lonely. She remembered being alone as a child, of being alone as an adult. When those Russian students had kidnapped her and John had left her on her own, at the time it had seemed perfectly natural, but now it made her feel lonely that no one had come after her.
She sniffed and wiped away a tear at the corner of her eye. She was not going to cry over him. He had chosen to do this and it’s what he wanted to do.
She tried to think rationally about what she was going to do. If he hadn’t returned by the following day, she would start the journey to her father and get him and his men to help her find Laurel…and ’Ring. What was left of ’Ring, she amended. If he hadn’t returned by the next day, she would know that he was dead.
Perhaps her father could track him, find him. Maybe ’Ring would only be held prisoner somewhere and the men wouldn’t have killed him as they said they were going to do. Maybe—
She couldn’t think anymore because it seemed that a tight band was about her chest. “Oh ’Ring,” she whispered.
She leaned against a tree and closed her eyes. No matter how she looked at it, his death was going to shatter her.
She wasn’t aware of Toby on the hill, the way he squinted his old eyes and looked down the long, rutted road. She wasn’t aware of Sam, following Toby’s look, and also standing. Maddie was too immersed in her own grief to be aware of much of anything.
She felt his presence before she saw him. Slowly, she turned and there he was. ’Ring was dirty and his clothes were ragged and he was carrying something wrapped in a blanket in his arms, but all she saw was him. She walked to him and put her hand up to his cheek. It was scratched, with long furrows running down the side, and some of the scratches were still bloody.
She stood there, touching him, not saying anything, just looking at him until tears began to form in her eyes.
He grinned at her. “I’ve been out fighting dragons for you.”
She didn’t hear him at first. She was too glad to see that he was alive to be able to hear.
“Here,” he said, and then he dropped a heavy bundle into her arms.
She staggered under the weight, but ’Ring caught her before she fell. It took Maddie several moments to realize what the bundle was.
’Ring pulled the blanket back and Maddie saw the sleeping face of her pretty twelve-year-old sister. Maddie hadn’t seen her for years, but she’d recognize her anywhere, and she was wearing the diamond and pearl brooch that had been given to Maddie by her grandmother.
Maddie looked up at ’Ring in wonder.
“She’s a terror,” he said, rubbing his cheek. “I don’t know why anyone in his right mind would kidnap her. Personally, I’d rather take on a couple of grizzly cubs than that one.”
Maddie just looked down at her sister, then up at ’Ring. She couldn’t yet believe that either of them was safe. “She…she scratched you?”
“Nearly tore my eyes out. I kept telling her that I was sent by you, but it seems that her kidnappers had also told her that. She bit Jamie.”
“Help me with her,” Maddie said. “Is she well? Has she been hurt? Has anyone harmed her? How did you find her? Oh ’Ring, I—” She couldn’t say any more, for the tears were too strong.
’Ring caught both Maddie and Laurel, then helped lower them to sit on the ground, Maddie in ’Ring’s lap and the sleeping Laurel on the top. Maddie leaned back against him and held Laurel tightly to her.
“She must be awfully tired.”
“It’s hard work terrorizing two grown men.”
She leaned her head back against his shoulder. “Did she really put up a fight?”
“I’m bleeding from a dozen places.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“No, not now. Now I want food and sleep and you’ll want to talk to your hellion of a little sister. Have you got enough room and food for two men?”
“If I have to shoot a buffalo myself, I will.”
“I’d laugh if I didn’t know you were telling the truth.”
“Who helped you?”
’Ring nodded toward the road, and she looked up to see a man coming toward them, limping slightly as he walked. She recognized him immediately. He was the man who had robbed them and left them in the mountains with nothing. As he approached, he drew his gun and pointed it at them. Maddie stiffened.
“Put that gun down,” ’Ring snapped, and the man, with a grin, put the gun back in his holster.
“You asked a robber to help you?” Maddie asked.
The young man grinned at her. “I prefer highwayman.”
“Ha!” ’Ring snapped. “This is my infant brother Jamie. He enjoys playing dress-up and trying to frighten women.”
“It seems to run in the family.”
A few hundred thoughts went through Maddi’s mind as she looked at him. Her first thought was anger at ’Ring and his brother for playing such a trick on her on the mountain. The two of them pretending to be robber and victim, with her the innocent bystander. Later there had been that little play they’d put on, pretending to fight. No doubt that was when they’d planned their rescue of Laurel.
Aside from her anger, she was looking at this man and remembering that Toby had said that ’Ring was the ugly one.
Jamie had curling black hair; thick, black spiky lashes over brilliant blue eyes; a chiseled nose; a full, sensuous mouth over a square jaw; and a cleft chin. Not as tall as ’Ring, “only” about six foot, but as broad and as strongly built.
Maddie turned to look at ’Ring. “You are the ugly one.”
Jamie laughed at that, a rich, deep laugh. “Brains as well as beauty. You’ve done well, brother.”
’Ring didn’t seem in the least bothered by her pronouncement that his brother was better-looking than he was. In fact, he kissed her neck. “She does have brains, at that,” he said, and there was pride in his voice as well as a bit of astonishment.
Jamie gave a jaw-splitting yawn. “You, brother, may need love more than you need sleep, but not me. If no one minds, I think I’ll take advantage of that tent. Is there a bed in there?” He addressed this last question to Toby, who was coming down the hill.
“Might of known one of you youngsters would turn up,” he grumbled. “Come on, I’ll get you some grub and see you get a bed.”
As Jamie walked past them he winked at Maddie.
Maddie sat still, holding Laurel, her head back against ’Ring.
“No lecture? No anger at me for leaving you?”
“None,” she said. “I’m just glad that you’re safe, that’s all.”
“No questions about how my brother came to be here? Nothing?”
She adjusted Laurel in her arms. “Tomorrow I shall sing for you. Just you.”
He tightened his arms around her, and for a moment they sat in the growing darkness without saying a word.
“Did you wait here by these trees for me while I was gone?” he whispered.
“I was scared the whole time you were away.”
He kissed her neck. “Your hellion of a little sister was perfectly safe. The men had left her in the care of an old woman in a falling-down cabin in the mountains. They thought she was a city-bred child and that she’d be terrified by the woods.”
Maddie gave a snort. “Not Jefferson Worth’s daughter.”
“True. When Jamie and I got there, she’d escaped the old woman and two men were tracking her. She was difficult to find.”
“She would be,” Maddie said with pride. “Did Hears Good follow you?”
“I think so. We never saw any sign of him, but a couple of times I thought I heard him.”
“Then he meant for you to hear him.”
“Maybe so. Anyway, Jamie and I
found her.”
“And she didn’t want to go with you?” Maddie was beginning to smile, now that she knew that both of them were safe.
“A dragon,” ’Ring said with some awe in his voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone fight so hard. I was truly tempted to wring her little neck.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. Now, I think we should get her to bed. I think both of you are exhausted.”
’Ring started to say that he wasn’t, but he was nodding off asleep as he rested against her. Neither he nor Jamie had had much sleep in the past few days. “Maybe you’re right.”
It was a bit of a struggle getting all of them up and walking toward the tent. ’Ring started to take Laurel, but Maddie insisted on carrying her, so ’Ring put his arm around Maddie’s shoulders and they walked back to the tent together.
Toby had already made Edith spread blankets on the floor of the tent for ’Ring and Laurel to sleep on. Jamie lay on the cot, sprawled just as ’Ring had done a few days before.
“I’ll get him out of here,” ’Ring said.
“No, let him sleep. He can have the cot. I just wish that I had a couple more for you and Laurel.”
’Ring was too tired to argue with her. He looked at the blankets spread on the floor and the next minute he was lying down and asleep. Maddie lowered Laurel onto another blanket, and for a long moment looked down at her sleeping face. Only a child could sleep through all she’d been through in the last few hours. She kissed her sister’s forehead, saw that she was covered, then blew out the lantern and left the tent.
Toby was waiting outside for her. “They all right?”
She smiled at him. “Fine. Just tired. Any coffee left?”
Toby poured her a cup and handed it to her. “You find out what happened?”
She sat down on the ground by the fire and told him what she knew.
Toby looked at the fire and nodded. “I didn’t get much out of that young scamp either,” he said.
Maddie smiled at his tone. It was obvious that ’Ring was by far Toby’s favorite. “Why was Jamie here?”