Blood Gold (5 page)

One hundred yards from Fort Clemency, the mixture of anger and fear that had persuaded Gideon to accompany Hannah faded from his mind and he pulled back on the reins, slowing his horse to walking pace.

‘I’ll do the talking,’ he shouted after Hannah.

Hannah pulled her horse to a halt and stood
sideways
across the trail.

‘Why?’ she muttered.

Gideon swung his horse around her and continued down the hill.

‘Because I have to.’

Hannah hurried on to ride beside him and glared at Gideon.

‘Why won’t you look at me and tell me what you’re doing here?’

For long moments Gideon rode in silence, but fifty yards from the fort, he saw someone bob up from behind the stockade. He coughed and jutted his chin.

‘I don’t have to explain myself. I just want us both
to get out of this alive and I reckon if I do the
talking
, I can do that.’

Hannah sighed. ‘You still reckon that you can help me better than I can help myself. Well, you’re wrong. I can take care of myself.’

‘I’m sure you can. It’s just …’

Hannah glanced at the fort. There, the wooden gate swung open and two men edged through. As they raised their rifles and aimed one at each of them, she gulped.

‘But I suppose I shouldn’t complain if my brother has my best interests at heart.’

‘Brother?’

‘Yeah,’ Hannah said. ‘If you want to live, you’re my brother. And I’ll do the talking.’

Gideon glanced at Hannah and opened his mouth to argue, but ahead the two men stalked out from the fort and firmed their gun arms.

‘Then that’s who I am, sister,’ he murmured, then hunched forward in the saddle.

The two men paced into the centre of the trail and beckoned for Gideon and Hannah to halt twenty yards from them.

The man on the left, Strang Chase, edged forward a pace.

‘What do you want?’ he muttered.

Hannah held her chin aloft.

‘I want to see Jack,’ she said. As Strang snorted, she smiled. ‘I followed his tracks.’

Strang glanced at the other man, Armstrong Stacker, who sneered.

‘That’s a mighty clever talent for such a scrawny girl.’

‘I have many talents, as Jack knows.’ Hannah tapped her chin as she appraised Armstrong. ‘And I recognize you from the Belle Starr.’

Armstrong lowered his hat a mite and narrowed his eyes.

‘And now I come to think about it, I recognize you.’ He whistled through his teeth. ‘You’re a
saloon-girl
and you’re all the way out here.’

Hannah fluffed her hair and fluttered her eyelashes.

‘I’m not just any saloon-girl. I’m a saloon-girl who caught Jack’s eye. And I don’t reckon he’ll
appreciate
you keeping me from him.’

Armstrong gulped. ‘Guess as you’re right.’

Armstrong and Strang backed to the side of the trail and held their arms to the side, directing her into the fort, but then Strang’s head snapped to the side to glare at Gideon.

‘You can come in,’ he muttered. ‘He can’t.’

Hannah slammed her hands on her hips. ‘He can’t just hang around outside. And I intend to be here a while.’ She shrugged. ‘And he’s harmless. He’s a doctor. He doesn’t even pack a gun.’

From under his low hat, Armstrong glared at Gideon a while longer, appraising his apparent unarmed status.

Gideon forced his lips into his most benign smile.

Slowly, Armstrong and Strang nodded and with their suspicious glares burning into Gideon’s back,
Gideon and Hannah rode into the fort.

Strang trotted after them. He beckoned them to the side of the gate and watched them dismount. He still frisked them both, taking longer with Hannah than with Gideon. With a few barked commands, he ordered Don Ritter to lead their horses to the stable, then ordered Armstrong to watch Gideon while he took Hannah to see Jack.

Hannah flashed Gideon a smile. Gideon tried to return one, but his face froze and he could only stare at her.

She turned, and he watched Strang lead her across the fort’s wide parade ground and into a substantial stone building to the side – the powder magazine.

Hannah strode into the magazine behind Strang, her skirts swinging, but she didn’t look Gideon’s way.

Gideon hung his head and glanced at Armstrong. As Armstrong just leaned against the gate, Gideon blew out his cheeks and held his hands behind his back. He couldn’t stop himself crossing his fingers.

Once she was inside the powder magazine, Hannah glanced around, blinking frequently as her eyes became accustomed to the gloom.

She appraised the stark, windowless building quickly. The blastproof walls were four feet thick. The door she stood before was the only entrance. Across the centre of the building was a wooden wall. The doorway to the second room opened on to the main storage area and, although she was sure that no powder would still be here, in the darkness a pile of
bags nestled against the back wall.

Hannah tore her gaze from her appraisal of the room and smiled at Jack who was sitting, leaning against the side wall. He looked at Hannah with his one eye, but it was blank and secretive.

‘What you doing here?’ he said, his voice flat.

Hannah set her hands on her hips and held a leg to the side, arching a trim calf.

‘That’s a mighty fine greeting for your favourite saloon-girl.’

‘That’s as maybe, but my question stands.’ Jack rolled to his feet and stalked a pace towards her. ‘What you doing here?’

Hannah grinned. ‘I came to see you.’

For long moments Jack glared at her, his single eye still cold. He glanced at Strang, who shrugged.

‘And how did you find me?’

‘She and this other man tracked us,’ Strang said. ‘If you believe her.’

Jack flashed Strang a harsh glare.

‘I’ll decide what I believe. Leave us.’ He glared at Strang until he sauntered from the room, then turned to Hannah. ‘Why are you really here?’

Hannah shrugged, then took a deep breath. ‘I had to know.’

‘Had to know what?’

‘You’re the only man who’s ever treated me right. I got to find out why that is.’

‘And if the answer means we can never amount to anything?’

‘I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again.’

Jack walked in a circle, throwing out his legs with a slight swagger as he paced. When he’d completed a full circle, he faced off to Hannah.

‘And who is the man with you?’

‘My brother, Gideon.’

Jack’s upper lip snarled. ‘And your brother just happened to ride with you when you discovered I have gold?’

‘It ain’t like that. He arrived just after you left Destitution. I’d been writing home, claiming I was fine and that I had regular work and money for
lodgings
.’ Hannah glanced away. ‘But when he discovered what I was doing, he told me to go home with him.’

‘You wouldn’t follow a man’s orders.’

‘I didn’t. I decided to go home with him. But before I left, I had to hear what you had to say.’

Jack nodded, his hand straying up to brush his top pocket.

‘You know that.’

‘I don’t.’

Jack smiled and extracted the pack of cards from his top pocket. He held them out.

‘Present your options, then ask the cards.’

Hannah glared at the cards, then shook her head.

‘No. I want to know what you want, not what a random card says.’

‘If you want to know me,’ Jack said, turning the pack over in his hand, ‘you’ll take a card.’

Jack thrust the cards out, then fanned them.

‘All right.’ Hannah took a deep breath. ‘A
non-face
card says I stay with you. A two-eyed card says I
leave. Are those good choices?’

‘Yup. The most likely card has to be what you want to do.’

‘If it’s a one-eyed card …’ Hannah glanced away.

‘Go on. The one-eyed card has to be the
unthinkable
.’

Hannah nodded, then turned back to meet Jack’s gaze.

‘A one-eyed card says you’ll kill me.’

Jack grinned, his one eye bright. ‘You understand. Now, ask the cards what you have to do.’

Hannah reached for the pack. With her hand shaking with the slightest of tremors, she withdrew a card.

With the card lying flat on her palm, she stared at the card’s back, trying to anticipate her fate before she saw it.

Then she closed her eyes and swung the card over. She cracked her eyes open and glanced at the card, then, sighing deeply, looked up at Jack.

Jack was staring deep into her eyes.

‘And?’ he whispered.

‘Two of spades,’ she said.

‘I know.’ He smiled. ‘You were fated to stay.’

When Strang emerged from the powder magazine, he took Armstrong aside and grunted a few words to him. Then Armstrong led Gideon to the stable, which was opposite the gate. On the ground before the stable, Jack’s men had set out a row of blankets.

Gideon laid out his own blanket, but with that task complete, Armstrong left him to do as he pleased. None of Jack’s other men paid him anything but the most cursory attention.

From the few muttered comments he did receive, Gideon decided that everyone had accepted he was Hannah’s brother. And, as Gideon didn’t want to risk saying something that might disagree with any story Hannah was telling Jack, he didn’t dare initiate any conversation. So instead, he occupied his time by sauntering around the fort.

The compound was in a sorry state of disrepair. Only two buildings were complete and sturdy: the powder magazine at the side of the parade ground and the officers’ quarters beside the gate. These buildings were both stone. The ramshackle stable
still stood, but only because the back wall was the stockade and it supported the structure.

The collapsed remains of at least three other timber buildings were dotted around the parade ground, but whether they’d collapsed from lack of use or from the fort’s activities, Gideon couldn’t tell for sure. But as the wooden stockade around the complex and the raised look-out platform five feet from the top were just about continuous, Gideon guessed that the fort was in use right up until it had been abandoned.

At the back of the powder magazine, a ten-foot length of the stockade had collapsed. Through it, he saw earthworks consisting of a ditch and raised earth, which provided defence on the non-river side of the fort. The forest was beyond. Aside from the gate, this appeared to be the only way in and out of the fort.

Two of Jack’s men steadily patrolled the raised platform. They stopped to chat and glance outside over the occasional shortened logs but their patrol traced a route that frequently passed the collapsed length of stockade. From this observation, Gideon reckoned that Jack believed this was the fort’s
greatest
weakness.

As he didn’t want to draw too much attention to his interest in the fort’s surroundings and the guards’ procedures, Gideon returned to sit in the parade ground and watch the other men bustle around him.

He saw no sign of the gold that these men had stolen from Patrick and Rusty, but from the men’s
calmness, Gideon guessed it was well hidden.

At sundown, Brady lit a fire and cooked a thin stew.

With his cooking completed, Hannah and Jack emerged from the powder magazine to eat it.

Gideon tried to catch Hannah’s eye, but she
pointedly
sat away from him and kept her gaze on either her food or Jack. As soon as Jack finished eating, he barked commands to Strang, who in turn barked them to the others, then retired to the powder
magazine
with Hannah.

Then the men just chatted in small groups, again making no effort to drag Gideon into their
confidence
. As Gideon still hadn’t been able to talk to Hannah, he was content with their indifference.

Around two hours after sundown most of the men retired to sleep. Within minutes, their rasping snores filled the parade ground.

But as during the day, two men stayed awake to patrol the raised look-out platform and parade ground.

Under his solitary blanket Gideon lay back and through narrowed eyes, followed the guards’ routine, ensuring that it was identical to their routine during daylight hours.

After two hours, the guards changed, but by this time Gideon was confident that he knew their patrolling routine and decided to make his move. He watched a guard saunter across the parade ground and listened to his footfalls recede behind the tumbledown stable, then rolled from his blanket and
stood – he had twenty minutes to leave the fort, see Salvador, then return.

It was four hours into the night and the moon was yet to rise. Only the fading remnants of a camp-fire lit the parade ground in subdued, shadow-filled light.

He edged along the stable wall to reach the powder magazine. He listened for any sounds
emerging
from within, but on hearing nothing but the wind, he tiptoed to the back of the powder magazine and climbed over the fallen logs that littered the gap in the fence.

Once outside, he hurried to a trot and within a minute he was over the earthworks and into the trees, and within another minute the fort had
disappeared
into the gloom behind him.

For the first one hundred yards he kept back from the trail, making slow progress through the thick forest, but when he crested the hill in front of the fort, he headed back to the trail. Once there, he broke into a run and dashed down the slope to enter Salvador’s camp.

All of Salvador’s men were snoring. Only Zane Singer was on guard, but he was sitting, leaning against a rock and snoring even louder than the others were.

Gideon stood over him, tapping a foot on the ground and when even this failed to rouse him, he shook his shoulder.

Zane flinched, his right hand scrambling for his gun, but then he squinted at Gideon.

‘That you, Gideon?’

‘Yup.’

Zane snorted and raised his hand. ‘Then don’t sneak up on me like that again.’

‘How else am I supposed to get out of the fort other than to sneak?’

Zane shrugged and with a huge yawn and a stretch, he led him into the campsite.

Gideon stood beside the dying remnants of their low fire while Zane shook Salvador awake.

Salvador yawned and clapped his mouth open and closed, then sneered when he saw Gideon.

‘Why are you here?’ he muttered, rolling to his feet.

‘To tell you what I’ve learnt.’

‘We agreed on your signal. You don’t need to be here.’

‘And as I want to come out of this alive, I reckoned giving you some more information might be useful.’

Salvador glared back a moment, then nodded.

‘What you got?’

Gideon grabbed a twig from beside the fire. On the ground, he traced the pattern of the buildings that he’d seen inside the fort. He placed crosses in the parade ground to signify the location of most of the men, a large cross for Jack’s location in the powder magazine, and a line for the route he’d taken to leave the fort.

Salvador nodded. ‘Good information. Are they asleep?’

‘Most are. Two are on guard, but they leave gaps in
their routine. That’s how I got out.’

Salvador slammed his fist into an open palm.

‘Then we take Jack.’

Gideon shook his head. ‘Not yet.’

‘Why?’ Salvador grunted.

‘Because I want your attack to work. I’ve told you the layout so you can plan a proper assault.’

Salvador snorted and slapped Gideon’s shoulder, knocking him back a pace.

‘You tryin’ to say I ain’t got the courage to take on Jack?’

‘No,’ Gideon murmured, rubbing his shoulder. ‘I’m just saying that I’ll find out more about his arrangements and pick the right moment for you to take him.’

‘I make the decisions.’

‘You do. But if you take my advice, you’ll get the gold.’ Gideon smiled. ‘And look at it this way: Jack is staying there, so you have time to wait and pick your moment.’

Salvador rubbed his chin as he glanced away, then turned back and provided a begrudging nod.

‘I’ll wait,’ he murmured.

‘Obliged.’ Gideon tipped his hat and turned.

‘But I ain’t waitin’ for long. I want that gold.’

Gideon opened his mouth to argue, but then shrugged and with a last nod to Salvador, he dashed from the site and back towards the fort.

He guessed that he’d already used nearly twenty minutes and within a few more minutes, one of the guards would patrol past his blanket in the parade
ground. He also guessed that being away for one passage wouldn’t alarm the guards, but being away a second time would.

He reached as near to the fort as he dared along the trail, then headed into the trees. In the thick undergrowth, he made slow progress. He reckoned that the rapidly diminishing available time was
causing
his heart to hammer loud enough to alert the guards. And in his haste, he tripped over every tangle of root and walked into every dangling branch.

Long, long minutes had passed and he was sure he must have passed his first twenty minutes period when the black outline of the fort loomed against the night sky.

Gideon sighed his relief and stopped a moment to rest a hand on his chest. He took several deep breaths while he gazed along the top of the stockade, ensuring the guards weren’t on this side, then set off again.

A hand clamped on his shoulder.

Gideon flinched. A strangulated cry emerged from his lips, but he still reached back and grabbed the arm, then dropped to his knees. He yanked on the arm, trying to throw his assailant over his
shoulder
, but a second firm arm wrapped itself over his mouth and pulled him straight.

‘Be quiet,’ a voice whispered beside his ear.

Gideon struggled a moment, then relaxed as he recognized Patrick’s voice. He nodded and Patrick released his grip.

‘What you doing here?’ Gideon whispered.

Patrick shuffled round to kneel beside Gideon.

‘Trying to get into the fort. And as you got out, I reckon you can help me there.’

Gideon sighed. ‘Suppose you being here means you’ve already sorted out your other problem?’

Patrick sneered and glanced over his shoulder.

Another man stepped out from behind a tree. Even in the faint starlight, Gideon recognized Rusty.

‘Not totally,’ Rusty said.

‘You’re partners again?’

Rusty glanced at Patrick, who snorted.

‘Nope,’ Patrick said, ‘we’re just heading in the same direction.’

‘Well, at least you’ve resolved your differences without one of you killing the other.’

Rusty shrugged, but Patrick kneaded his brow.

‘At least that,’ he muttered.

Gideon pointed to the fort, then rolled to his feet.

‘And I have to go before somebody misses me.’

Patrick jumped to his feet and paced round to stand before Gideon.

‘You have enough time to tell us what you’ve learnt.’

‘I haven’t got …’ Gideon wavered a moment. Time was pressing heavily on him, but he judged that arguing with someone as bull-headed as Patrick was doomed to fail, so he quickly ran through the layout of the fort and what he knew about Jack’s
arrangements
inside.

‘And you wait for my signal,’ he said, ending his explanation.

Rusty nodded, but Patrick shook his head.

‘I’m guessing you just told that to Salvador too.’

Gideon bit his bottom lip to suppress a wince.

‘I did.’

‘So you got to answer my question – whose side are you on?’

‘Nobody’s. I’m only here to get Hannah out safely when Salvador attacks Jack. I don’t care who gets the gold.’

‘That ain’t no answer,’ Patrick snapped. ‘You’re either on my side or you ain’t.’

‘I’m not taking anyone’s side but my own. I’ll just give the signal to Salvador to attack when I reckon it’s the best time to get Hannah out. What you decide to do then and what Salvador decides to do, isn’t my concern.’

As Patrick glanced away, muttering to himself, Rusty nodded.

‘I reckon we can’t ask for anything more,’ he said.

Gideon patted Rusty’s and Patrick’s backs.

‘And I have to get back in before anybody realizes I’m missing and this discussion becomes irrelevant.’

Rusty held his hands high. ‘Go on. We’ll just wait for the signal.’

‘We won’t,’ Patrick muttered and squared off to Rusty.

But as the two men settled into a muttered
argument
, Gideon backed away from them, then broke into a run and headed towards the fort.

Despite being away for over forty minutes, Gideon
slipped back into the fort without any problems. The guards were out of sight, and he was able to wander straight into the parade ground and to his blanket.

For the rest of the night, his multitude of worries caused him to slip fitfully in and out of sleep. But to his surprise, it was still dark when he heard Hannah shuffle into a blanket two yards to his left.

Gideon waited until the grumbled mutterings from the other men about this interruption drifted to snoring, then he slipped along the ground to her side.

‘You fine?’ he whispered.

Hannah nodded. She lay on her back, staring at the night sky.

‘Yeah.’

‘Jack had enough of you?’

‘He likes to be alone when he has an important decision to make.’

‘Reckoned he’d want as much of your company as he could get.’

‘It ain’t like that.’ For the first time she turned her head to look at Gideon. In the faint moonlight
moisture
gleamed in her eyes as she lowered her voice to the lowest of whispers. ‘He doesn’t touch me.’

Gideon gulped. ‘You mean …’

‘Yeah. He’s the only man who wants to be with me, but doesn’t want to grope and paw me.’ She
considered
Gideon a moment, then flashed him a smile. ‘Aside from you.’

‘But he paid for you in Destitution.’

‘He did.’ Hannah rolled on her back to look at the
sky. ‘But he prefers to talk.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know,’ she snapped, then rubbed the back of her hand over her nose and snuffled. ‘But I want to find out.’

‘Why? Jack is an ugly, one-eyed varmint.’

Hannah rubbed her angular cheeks, her eyes downcast. ‘Looks ain’t everything.’

‘But you’re a mighty fine-looking …’ Gideon sighed and took a long, deep breath. ‘Just don’t waste your time on him. Jack is a killer.’

Hannah drew her blanket to her chin. ‘He has no qualms about hurting other people, but he’s gentle with me.’

‘That doesn’t sound like the notorious bandit Jack Wolf to me.’

‘It doesn’t, and that’s why I want to know why a man who is so sure of himself lets the random turn of a card govern him.’ She shrugged the blanket even higher and rolled on to her side, her legs tucked up. ‘He’s a fascinating man.’