Houston’s only regret was that she wouldn’t be able to say good-bye to her family and her friends. She probably wouldn’t even be able to write to them, as her letters might lead to Kane’s capture.
But she knew what had to be done, and she felt that as long as she had Kane she could be happy, no matter where they lived or in what hardship.
Now, in the darkness, she directed Zach to get the horses from their hiding places, to tighten the girths and to bring the horses closer to the jail.
Her hands were trembling as she helped Ian insert the sticks of dynamite into the chinks of the stone wall. When everything was set, she motioned Ian to let her stand on his shoulders so she could see inside the window.
“Tell him to put the mattress around his head,” Ian said as he lifted her.
“We don’t have enough dynamite to hurt him, do we?” she asked.
“The heels on those boots of yours hurt, so don’t waste my time askin’ damn fool questions.”
Houston looked into the dark cell and saw Kane sprawled across the little mattress, parts of him hanging over the side. She tossed a pebble into the cell.
He didn’t even move and it took six stones, one of them glancing sharply off his chest, before he woke.
“Kane!” she said as loudly as she dared.
“What?” he asked, sitting up. “Is that you, Houston? What’re you doin’ here in the middle of the night?”
She motioned for him to come to the window. “I don’t have time to explain now but Ian and I are getting you out of jail. We’re going to dynamite this wall away, so I want you to get into the farthest corner and put that mattress around as much of you as you can cover.”
“You’re what?” Kane gasped. “Dynamite! Listen, Houston, there’s somethin’ I have to tell you.”
“Houston!” Ian said from below her. “Them little heels are killin’ me. Are you gonna stay up there all night?”
“I have to go,” she said. “Just get in the corner, and when the wall is gone, I have horses ready. I love you.” With that, she bent and got off Ian’s shoulders.
Kane stood by the window of the cell for several long moments. She hadn’t run off to get the money, but instead, she’d set up a plan to blow the side of the jail out and rescue him. He put his hands in his pockets and started to whistle a little tune, smiling at the thought of Houston being so concerned about him.
It was while he was whistling that he heard an odd sound, like something on fire.
“Dynamite!” he gasped, grabbed the mattress and leaped into the corner of the room. Nothing could have prepared him for the noise of the explosion. It was as if the top of his head had been taken off—and the noise went on and on.
Houston, Ian and Zach hid behind a boulder as the wall to the jail came tumbling down. The dynamite removed the foundation to the two-story wall and the stones above it fell rather gracefully, leaving a clear view of the interior of the jail. Kane was huddled in a corner and, when the dust began to settle, he made no attempt to move.
“We’ve killed him,” Houston cried and started running, Ian behind her.
“Probably just deafened him. Kane,” Ian shouted above the sound of the rock that was still falling, and when Kane made no response, Ian scrambled up the rock and into the three-walled cell.
Ian pulled the mattress off but Kane couldn’t understand a word he said, so Ian had to use gestures. For some reason, Kane seemed to have been made stupid by the explosion, since he kept shaking his head at Houston, and Ian had to nearly push him onto the rock pile so he could get to the ground.
Houston waited on a horse and, as Kane got close to her, she saw that he kept putting his hands to his head as if he were in great pain. He seemed to want to say something, but Houston wouldn’t give him time as Ian and Zach started pushing him onto the other horse.
“Go home, both of you,” she ordered as she saw that people were rushing down the street toward them after hearing the explosion.
“Let’s go,” she shouted to Kane and he followed her down the south road of town and out into the dessert.
Houston rode as fast and as hard as she could spur her horse, looking back occasionally to Kane who followed her with a blank, odd look on his face.
The sun came up, and still they rode, slowing just enough to allow the horses to breathe. At noon, they stopped at a stage station, a desolate place in the middle of the barrenness between Colorado and New Mexico, and Houston paid an outrageous price for two fresh horses.
“He all right?” the station manager asked, nodding toward Kane as he leaned against the building and hit his head with his hand.
Houston handed the old man a twenty dollar bill. “You haven’t seen us.”
He took the money. “I mind my own business.”
Houston tried to talk to Kane, but he just dumbly stared at her moving mouth and followed her only after she motioned him to do so.
What they ate during the day, they ate while on their horses, never stopping even after the sun set. Only once did Kane try to speak, but when he couldn’t seem to hear himself, he made gestures that Houston finally realized meant that he wanted to know where they were going.
“Mexico,” Houston shouted four times before he seemed to understand.
Kane shook his head, but Houston urged her horse on faster and ignored him. No doubt, he didn’t want her to get into trouble with him, but she wasn’t going to let him talk her into returning. If he was to live his life in exile, she was going to live with him.
Kane caught her horse’s reins and pulled until she had to slow down.
“STOP!” he bellowed. “WE’LL STAY HERE FOR THE NIGHT.”
Every word was at the top of his lungs and Houston blinked several times at the volume breaking the still night air.
Kane didn’t say another word as he dismounted and led his horse over a small hill and into a grove of trees. Houston followed his lead as he unsaddled his horse and made a camp for the night. She wanted to go on longer, to put more distance between them and the posse from Chandler, but perhaps Kane had been hurt in the blast and needed rest. It would take a long time before the citizens could be organized, so perhaps they had time.
She had the saddle in her hands when she glanced toward Kane and saw that he was looking at her in a way that was almost frightening.
Very slowly, he took the saddle out of her arms, tossed it to the ground, and after one look that she couldn’t interpret, he was upon her.
He was like a hungry animal and, after Houston got over her surprise, she reacted in kind. Buttons flew off her dusty riding suit like corn popping in a skillet. His mouth was all over her body at once, with his big, strong hands tearing away all that inhibited his contact with her skin.
“Kane,” she half-cried, half-laughed. “Kane. My only love, my true love.”
He didn’t seem to need words as he pushed her nude body to the ground and thrust inside her with the strength of the dynamite they’d set off that morning. Houston felt as if she were like the stone wall crumbling and, as they moved together in a sweaty, fierce passion, she was sure that this was all she needed in life, and that what she’d done today had been right.
When at last they erupted together, Houston shivered with the force of her passion and the depth of her love for this man.
They lay together for a while, Kane holding her tightly in his arms, as if he never meant to let her go. And Houston clung to him just as tightly, afraid now when she thought how close she’d come to losing him, how close he’d come to being hanged.
After a long while, Kane stood and went to the horses to care for them. Houston started to help but he motioned her to lie still, tossing her a blanket to cover her from the cool night air.
Even when he built a fire, he wouldn’t let her help. Houston started to protest that perhaps they’d be seen, but Kane shouted that she should trust him, and she did. She was glad to turn over the mastery of this wild escape to him, and she was glad to lie back and be wa
ited on. He brought a plate of beans to her, with a tortilla and a cup of dreadful coffee. But Houston thought it was the most delicious meal of her life.
When they’d finished eating, Kane put out the fire, lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. In minutes, both of them were asleep.
Chapter 32
When Houston woke, it was full light and Kane was holding her and smiling angelically.
“We have to go,” she said, sitting up, shrugging off his hands and pulling on the remnants of her torn clothing. The front of her riding habit was missing so many buttons that it was decidedly indecent. “They’ll be after us soon, and I don’t imagine they’ll stop to rest this long.”
He caught her arm. “Hot after the murderer, right?”
“I really don’t think this is any time for laughter.”
“Houston, I want you to tell me what you have planned. Why are you runnin’ toward Mexico?”
“I’ll tell you as we get the horses saddled,” she said and stood, waiting impatiently until Kane also rose. “I think we can hide in Mexico,” she said, putting the saddle blanket on her horse.
“For how long?”
“Forever, of course,” she answered. “I don’t think that the law ever forgives one for murder. I think we can live there quite frugally, and I hear that people don’t ask as many questions there as they do in this country.”
He caught her arm. “Wait a minute. You mean that you’re plannin’ to live in Mexico with me? That if I’m an outlaw, you’re gonna be one, too?”
“Yes, certainly, I’m planning to live with you. Now, will you please saddle your horse so that we can ride?”
Houston didn’t say any more because Kane grabbed her about the waist and twirled her around. “Honey, that’s the best thing that anybody’s ever said to me. You don’t care about the money after all.”
“Kane!” she said, exasperated. “Please put me down. They’ll find us and you’ll—.”
She stopped because he planted a hearty kiss on her mouth.
“Ain’t nobody comin’ after us, unless it’s the sheriff’ cause he’s mad at you for tearin’ up his jail. Oh, Houston, honey, I wish I could see that man’s face.”
Houston took a step back from him. What he was saying made no sense to her, but in the pit of her stomach was a little feeling of fear. “Perhaps you should explain that remark.”
Kane drew three circles in the dirt with his toe. “I just wanted to see how you . . . ah, felt about the fact that I wasn’t a rich man anymore.”
She gave him a look that had stopped many a forward cowboy. “I would like to know about Jacob Fenton.”
“I didn’t tell you a single lie, Houston, it’s just that I guess I didn’t tell you all of it. I did find him dead at the foot of the stairs, and I was taken to jail for his murder, but the truth was that the servants had run out of the house and knew he was already dead. Although, I didn’t ask if any of them actually saw him die. That was real clever of you to think of that.”
“So why were you in jail when I got there? Why weren’t you released immediately?”
“I guess I was, sorta. Houston, honey,” he held out his arms to her. “I just wanted to know for sure that you liked me for myself and it wasn’t my money you wanted. You know, when you walked out of that jail after I told you that I’d lose my money, I thought for sure that you were goin’ to Westfield to see what you could get before I was hanged.”
“Is that what you thought of me?” she said under her breath. “You think that I’m that low a human being that I’d leave the man I love alone to face a murder trial and not lift a finger to help?” She turned toward the horse.
“Houston, baby, sweetheart, I didn’t mean nothin’. I just wanted to know for sure. I didn’t have any idea you’d do somethin’ as damn fool as . . . Well, I mean, I had no idea that you’d blow the jail to kingdom come and near kill me.”
“You seem to have recovered well enough.”
“Houston, you ain’t gonna be mad, are you? It was just a little joke. Ain’t you got any sense of humor? Why, ever’body in town will—.”
“Yes,” she said, glaring at him. “Go on. What will everybody in town do?”
Kane gave her a weak grin. “Maybe they won’t notice.”
She advanced on him. “Won’t notice that I removed the entire side of a jail that had two-foot-thick stone walls? Perhaps they all slept through the explosion. Yes, perhaps they will just drive past the building and not even notice. And maybe the sheriff will forgo telling the story of the decade about how one of the Chandler twins stuck dynamite into the wall to rescue a husband who wasn’t even charged with murder. Maybe every person for miles around won’t be laying bets as to when I’ll find out my error and whether I’ll be charged with murder.” She turned back to the horse, every muscle in her body aflame with anger.
“Houston, you have to understand my side of it. I wanted to know if it was me you loved or my money. I saw an opportunity to find out and I took it. You can’t blame a man for tryin’.”
“I most certainly can blame you. Just once, I’d like you to listen to me. I told you that I loved you—you, not your money—yet you never heard a word I said.”
“Oh, well,” he shrugged, “you said that you couldn’t live with a man you couldn’t respect, either, but you came back, and it didn’t even take all that much persuadin’. I guess you just can’t help yourself.” He gave her a crooked grin.
“Of all the arrogant, vain men I have ever met, you are the worst. I am very, very sorry that I ever rescued you. I wish they had hanged you.” With that, she mounted her horse.
“Houston, baby, you don’t mean that,” Kane said as he climbed onto his horse and began to ride beside her. “It was just a joke. I didn’t mean no harm.”
All day long they rode, and every minute, Kane was either presenting arguments to her or thinking of further excuses as to why she should be grateful to him for what he had done. He said that Houston could be more sure of her feelings for him now. He tried to make her see the humor of it all. He chastised her for using boys to help her and warned of the danger she’d placed them all in. He tried anything he could think of to get a reaction out of her.
But Houston sat on her horse as rigid as a human body could be. Her thoughts were on the people of Chandler. After the horror of the mine disaster, they’d want something to lighten their mood and they’d no doubt milk this story for every drop of humor. The sheriff would embellish it for all it was worth, and the Chandler Chronicle would probably run a series of articles on the whole affair, starting with the wedding and ending with . . . ending with a man who should have been hanged.
When Houston thought of Kane, her blood boiled, and she refused to listen to a single word he said. The fact that she had given him her love and he had doubted it so publicly, doubted her in such a spectacular, outrageous way was particularly humiliating.
She had her first taste of what was to come when they stopped at the stage station and traded horses. The old man asked if they were the couple from Chandler that he’d heard about. He could hardly recount the story for laughing so hard, and when they left, he tried to return the twenty dollars Houston had given him.
“That story was worth a hundred dollars to me,” he said, slapping a grinning Kane on the back. “I owe you eighty dollars.”
Houston put her chin in the air and went to her horse. She was doing her best to pretend that neither man existed.
Once they were on the trail again, Kane started talking to her with renewed vigor, but he lost a lot when he kept pausing to laugh.
“When I saw you standin’ there, and you were sayin’ you were gonna bust me out and save me from the hangin’ tree, I couldn’t think of what to say, I was that stunned, and then when Ian started yellin’ that the heels on them little boots of yours—,” he had to pause to wipe the grin off his face. “Why, Houston, you’ll be the envy of every woman west of the Mississippi. They’ll all wish they had the c
ourage and the bravery to rescue their husbands from the jaws of death and—.”
He stopped to clear his throat and Houston glanced at him. He was unsuccessfully trying to control his laughter.
“When I think of the look on your face atop that horse. What’re those women that wear horns on their heads? Lady Vikings, that’s what you looked like, a lady Viking come to rescue her man. And the look on Zachary’s face! If my head hadn’t been hurtin’ so much—.”
He broke off because Houston kicked her horse’s side and raced ahead of him.
Whatever Houston had expected, when she reached Chandler, it was worse. Ignoring Kane as best she could, she rode on the outskirts of the town to the north side so she would see as few people as possible on her way to Kane’s house.
It was six o’clock in the morning when they rode up the hill to the Taggert house, but already there were about twenty couples who just “happened” to be strolling in front of the house. Most of the Taggert servants were in the front drive talking to the townspeople.
Houston held the front of her destroyed habit together and mustered as much dignity as she could and rode to the kitchen entrance, while Kane dismounted at the front and all the people ran to him.
“Probably wants to brag,” Houston murmured. Somehow, she managed to get through the kitchen and Mrs. Murchison’s smiles and unsubtle questions.
Upstairs, Houston dismissed Susan and drew her own bath. After a short time in the tub, she climbed into her bed and went to sleep. She heard Kane enter the room at some time, but she pretended to be fast asleep and he went away.
After nine hours of sleep and a huge meal, she felt physically better, but her mood was worse. When she walked in her rooftop garden, she could see the street and the extraordinary number of people who were strolling in front of the house.
Kane came into her room once to tell her that he was on his way up to the Little Pamela to see if any help was needed, and he asked Houston to go with him. She shook her head in refusal.
“You can’t hide in here forever,” he said angrily. “Why aren’t you proud of what you did? I sure as hell am.”