Emma's Blaze (Fires of Cricket Bend Book 2) (12 page)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Never had Bill seen such a sour expression on Andrew’s face. As his brother slowly got up from where he’d lain on the ground, he frowned deeply and held his head where Emma had knocked him.

Andrew couldn’t even look at Bill. “Didn’t I tell you she was no good?”

“Yes, you did.” In the end, his little brother hadn’t been wrong. Yes, he’d been vicious. And yes, he’d been stupid. But he hadn’t been entirely wrong. Emma had covered up the truth, and Andrew had seen it first. Bill felt disgust at the thought that both of them were liars.

Then, strangely, Andrew smiled. He pointed to Emma as she walked up slowly behind Bill. “She came out here to meet me, you know. A woman alone.”

At the insinuation, Bill pulled back and slugged Andrew. He hit hard, suddenly feeling the need to hit something and his brother was the best possible target. As Andrew fell backward and grunted profanities, Bill growled, “If you want to beat the devil to hell, I won’t stop you. But you’re fired.”

“Does Pa know that?”

“No, but he’ll back me. Chasing you is tiresome. As is putting up with you. We’re all bone tired of it. Throw yourself to the scavengers, make your own mistakes, but get out of here and don’t bother us ever again.”

Andrew got up and made a run for Bill, successfully landing a good punch in the gut. Bill groaned, but didn’t stagger.

“Stop,” Emma yelled. “Stop it right now!”

“Choose,” Andrew snarled. “One of us leaves tonight.”

“Go,” Bill said to his little brother. “Get out of here and don’t you dare come back to this drive.”

Andrew’s eyes flared, and Emma worried he might have a pistol on him. He stared at Bill for a long time, hatred growing in his face. Then his features changed to a smile. “If that’s how you want it, that’s how it’ll be, big brother.”

Andrew walked off into the darkness, until Bill couldn’t see him anymore.

Emma started to say something, but stopped herself. Perhaps she didn’t know what to say.

“Just cause I sent him away doesn’t mean I chose you instead,” Bill said quietly.

“I didn’t think so,” Emma replied. “I won’t lie. I’m glad he’s gone.”

“Me too. It’s better for everyone this way.”

When Bill and Emma returned to camp, Appie clearly noticed the distance between them and their somber and troubled expressions. As if he hated to mention it, he gestured to the distance. “Your pa is all sorts of jumpy. I was hoping he’d reconsider going through the pass, but his mind won’t be changed.”

Bill’s day couldn’t get much worse. “You should know I fired Andrew. Tell the men.”

“I surely will. Your pa is that way.” Appie pointed off to the west. “Better you tell him than me. I’ve been chewed out today already.”

Bill didn’t look at Emma. “Stay with the wagon.”

“Of course,” she accepted the order.

Bill grabbed Orion and rode off toward his father, mind rolling from everything that had happened in the past hour. When he’d slipped off to sleep next to Emma, his world had been near perfect. Now, the woman he loved turned out to be built of lies, he’d fired his brother, and his pa wanted to take the drive a stupid and dangerous way.

Just then, as if the good Lord saw fit to remind him of how bad things were, he heard the sound of thunder.

Josiah rode up and met Bill as the drips of water began to fall.

“Why the pass?” Bill asked.

“Call it a bad feeling I have,” Josiah replied. “And don’t argue with me, pup. Appie’s done enough arguing for the whole lot of you for the whole year. The pass will save us a few days, get us home faster.”

“Pa—”

“When we get back home, I’m going to step down. The ranch’ll be yours.” Josiah’s voice wasn’t loud, but Bill caught every word. “I’ll be glad to know it’s in good hands. You’re smart, Bill. A damn sight smarter than I was at your age.”

“Pa…”

“Don’t you argue with me, boy. I’m too old for this. I’m tired, Bill. Tell me what you come to tell me.”

“I fired Andrew.”

“Not surprised. What’d he do?”

“A bunch of things. Most importantly, he threatened Emma.”

“Emma.”

“Sparrow.”

“I know who you mean. She all right?”

“She laid him out flat.”

“Good. Going through the pass will get her to Cricket Bend, and out of our hair, two or three days faster than going around.”

“Emma is no bother to anyone,” Bill replied. “If only you could let go of your superstition and see that she’s been nothing but helpful so far. A woman on the trail don’t mean bad luck. Andrew’s been mean as a snake for years. She just did what we’ve all wanted to do for a while. And now he’s gone.”

“So why don’t you look happier?”

Bill shook his head. Telling Josiah anything would only make Emma’s time on the drive harder. He’d keep what he knew close to his chest. “We’ll take the pass. I’ll ready the men.”

Josiah appeared surprised by Bill’s change of mind.

“You’re right,” Bill said quietly. “Wasting any more time is foolish.”

Bill was done being foolish.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Emma

The men hadn’t been exaggerating when they’d spoken of the pass being different terrain from what they’d crossed so far. As the rain continued to fall, Bill and Jess led the herd down a steep slope. As the miles passed, Emma saw the rocky cliffs on the sides of the drive get bigger and bigger, as if they were being closed in by walls of stone. The canyon seemed to go on for miles, days, years. Birds stopped flying overhead, and most of their day was spent in shadow.

The whole place made her skin crawl. The rain didn’t help.

“Ugly as sin, ain’t it?” Appie called to her from the wagon she rode beside.

“How far does it go?”

“Three, four days,” he answered. “Going around it, it’d be about six.”

“Is it prettier up there?” Emma indicated the tops of the cliffs, where the ominous edges of stone partially obscured her view.

“Yes, indeed. Green, grassy country all the way.”

“And we’re down here why again?”

Appie chuckled. “You want to ride up to Josiah and ask, you go right ahead.”

Emma sighed. She’d put aside her ill feelings about the pass, and buckle down with her broken heart and feelings of regret and shame.

Appie hadn’t lied. The pass took days to travel through, but the rain ceased after only a half a day. They kept to their routine—rise early, cook breakfast, get traveling, stop for a mid-day break, travel more, make camp and sleep—and Bill was nowhere to be seen most of the time. He joined the rest of the drive for meals, but that was all.

Appie always slept near the wagon, so Emma took to sleeping in the same area. Not wanting to be around the jovial men and their dinnertime chatter, she’d take her bedroll and immediately set it up by the wheels of the wagon. As soon as dinner had been cleared, she’d go right to her bed and lie awake for hours. Bill hadn’t come near her in days, except for when she couldn’t be avoided. He took off for the herd early, and didn’t come back to sleep until almost everyone was already snoring. Each night, Emma lay watching the fire and waiting for him to return. She knew he wouldn’t speak to her, but she couldn’t sleep without being sure of his safety.

On their third night in the pass, the howl of a coyote made Emma jump. When she saw that Appie noticed, she pulled her legs up to cross them beneath her. The troublesome ankle felt much better. She barely noticed it anymore. “I don’t like the night anymore.”

“I’ve spent some time alone in the woods.” Appie nodded in understanding. “It ain’t something a body forgets. Sometimes the night makes me uneasy too.”

“In the war?” she asked. “Did you fight?”

“I wasn’t lucky enough to be a soldier.” Appie traced a finger in the dirt. “I was running for my freedom. Never going to forget it. Each twig snapping had me thinking it was a Confederate come to drag me back. A few of my friends were with me, and all I could think of was how I’d keep us all together and alive. I’d rather have run into a coyote, let me tell you.”

“I sometimes forget that my problems aren’t the biggest in the world,” Emma said.

“I reckon everyone feels that way from time to time. Folks always got bigger problems than someone else. We’re no more than specks in a big cloud of dust, when it comes down to it. None of us.”

“When did you come to the ranch?”

“I found my way to Laredo. Josiah came in to post a notice he was hiring some men. The McKenzie ranch was smaller during the war, but the army needed beef, so they started driving the cows north to Kansas and wherever the troops needed them to go. One day in town, I walked up to Josiah and signed on. Was the only man of color on the ranch, and he was either too smart or too stupid to ask me where I’d come from. But I worked hard, and over time we came to be friends. And I have stayed on, even though I’m too old to ride a horse all day anymore. I always liked cooking and tending to things more than driving cows.”

“You’re wonderful at it. The men all adore you.”

Appie smiled a little. “I’ve known the boys since they was babies. My Deborah and I were at the house for each one of their births, save for Saul, who was born while we were out on the trail one year. As soon as they could walk, Josiah had them doing chores on the ranch and learning to ride.”

“Andrew being fired is my fault.”

“Andrew being fired is Andrew’s fault. That boy, from the time he could make words, was belligerent and vile-mouthed. Drove Maureen near crazy. She had Bill, and Jess, and Pete. All three of them were the sweetest-tempered children ever put on this earth, and then along came Andrew. He’s the spitting image of Maureen, but not a hair like her in spirit. She’s as warm and loving a woman as they come. She had her hands full with Andrew. Then Saul came, another sweet-tempered boy. And then Theo, just like Andrew, only smaller.”

“Bill doesn’t talk about Theo.”

“None of them do.” Appie poked at the fire. “There ain’t much good to remember of him. Andrew, once in a blue moon, had moments of being at least amusing. Theo wanted to fight and drink, and that was all. He got himself arrested in Cricket Bend. Bill bailed him out, and Theo was right furious and went back to that town even though we all told him not to. He crossed paths with a meaner man, and they found him in a barn with a cut throat.”

“That’s horrible.” Emma pulled her jacket around her shoulders.

“It was, but it wasn’t a terrible surprise. Now, if it had been Jess, or Pete, it would have been a sad tragedy. They’re sometimes reckless, and they drink too much when they go to town, but they’re not bad ones. They’ll settle down and make good husbands one of these days. Same as Bill will, if the day ever comes he meets the right woman. Unless he already has.”

She didn’t miss the look Appie cast her way. “I don’t think I’m the one he’s looking for.”

“Maybe not. But you’re the one he needs.”

“First, he’d have to be willing to speak to me again.”

“He will.”

“How do you know?”

“Because that man has a heart as big as the whole West. And he gave it to you.”

“I might have broken it.”

“Maybe it’s bruised, but it’s not broken. Bruises heal. Broken is forever.”

Emma gave Appie a smile. “I will miss you when I leave.”

“Unless you don’t go.”

“I have to. Appie, I’m so close to the man I’ve been chasing.”

“Think about this: you’ve gotten by these past weeks without this man you’re chasing, or the money he stole. Maybe you’re not meant to have either.”

Emma didn’t know what to say in response. Fate had never been something she’d ever put stock in. After coming all this way, could she really just give up on finding Hank and reclaiming her things? After everything Bill had learned, would there even be a point in doing so? His anger at her was obvious, and maybe the best course of action was to carry on. Her head rolled with jumbled thoughts, so she lay down to sleep in the hopes she’d wake with a clearer head.

Instead, she woke to the sound of a gunshot. As she came awake, she noticed the strange sensation of rumbling beneath her. The ground began to shake. The earth she lay upon was moving.

Off a ways, she heard what sounded like distant thunder.

Suddenly, Appie grabbed her to pull her up so she stood on her bare feet. “Get to Maggie. Now.”

Emma heard the noise growing louder, joining with other sounds of a low timbre. It all seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The hairs on her neck stood up. “What’s happening?”

The horses began to huff and whinny. Emma saw the shapes of the sleeping men rising from their bedrolls and running off in all directions.

“The herd,” Appie said, grabbing everything he could and throwing it in the back of the wagon with no hesitation or attention to where it landed. “Get yourself on Maggie and get far away from here. Go the way the cows aren’t going. And don’t you come back until you can see it’s calm again,” he said over his shoulder, moving faster each moment.

“But what’s going on?” Emma didn’t understand. She grabbed his arm. “Appie!”

“It’s a stampede,” Appie cried. “Go!”

By then, the whole drive had fallen into chaos. Emma looked around for the horses, and went in the direction where she’d last seen Saul in charge of them. She walked, and then she ran. Fear traveled through everyone and every animal she passed, and it seeped into her until she felt rising panic. By the time she located Saul, he had a bucking horse on a line, and a circle of other terrified horses stamping around him.

In the dark swirl of moving animals, it was impossible to find Maggie. Emma knew she needed to get out of there quickly, before she got hurt. Someone was going to get hurt, she feared. She thought of grabbing another horse, but she didn’t trust any of them.

She had to find Maggie.

“Sparrow!” Saul called. He gestured to a spot that was a few yards away.

There was Maggie, stomping and skittish, but close enough for Emma to run to and grab. Reaching her, Emma touched Maggie’s muzzle before pulling herself awkwardly up on Maggie’s bare back and taking hold of her mane.

Emma took in the craziness all around.

The usually organized herd of cows and horses had gone everywhere. The night’s landscape was dotted with white. The herd had splintered off into smaller packs of animals running in every direction. Emma tried to spot any of the men she owed her life to. Appie stood on the seat of the wagon, as far from harm’s way as he could probably get. She saw Josiah race through the thick mass of troubled cows, and Ollie wielded a whip to keep a group of cows from charging back the way they’d come.

Every man she didn’t see sent a spear of fear through her.

Jess, Pete, Nick, Blue, Hiram. Anyone who wasn’t accounted for could be dead, trampled.

Worst of all, Bill was nowhere to be seen.

And where had the gunshot come from? There had been a gunshot, hadn’t there? Had she dreamed that part?

Maggie was uneasy. She lost her footing and stumbled, and Emma was nearly thrown. Doing as Appie had instructed, Emma turned the horse away from the growing madness and kicked her into a run heading in the opposite direction the drive had come. She bent forward over Maggie’s neck, and didn’t look back until they’d found a safe place to stop. The pass narrowed, limiting how far she could go, but she felt it was far enough. From her seat, she watched the men riding like warriors, trying to wrangle the fearful cows and horses back into order.

As she took in the unfolding stampede, a deep and terrible fear punched her in the gut.

She’d only felt fear so strong one time in her life.

She remembered Angus Keene. She remembered glass breaking on his face, and the flames on his clothing trailing down to the floor. Unable to breathe or make sound, all she’d been able to do was run. So, she ran.

She was always running—from or to something. Right then, she could run. Race past everything and out of the pass and be on her way to Cricket Bend before anyone realized she was gone. With her money, she could forget all about the McKenzie drive and the trouble she’d caused.

A rider broke away from the rest to go after a trio of horses trying to get away. The horses, running hard, headed toward where she and Maggie stood.

The rider had to be Saul. Left to handle nearly a hundred terrified horses alone, he’d been outnumbered. The sweet man could use another set of hands, even if they were her own.

If she and Maggie went back, they could cut the running horses off. Maybe they could slow them down a bit. Maybe it would be enough to let Saul catch them. Maybe it would be the difference between his facing the challenge alone and getting hurt and a successful outcome.

“Damnation and hellfire!” Emma hollered to no one. She was as much a part of this drive as any of the men were. Even if it was the stupidest idea of her entire life, she was going to help.

“Forgive me,” she whispered to Maggie as she drove her bare heels into the horse’s sides.

Maggie took off down the slight hill of the valley. Both of them turned to come right at the three horses. Emma waved at Saul and rode straight for the charging beasts, who were startled by her appearance, skittered, and tried to stop before attempting to run again.

Saul leapt from his horse and caught the lead of one who was still dragging theirs. That horse bucked, but Saul held on and brought him back to the earth. The horse calmed a little. Saul tossed the lead to Emma, before grabbing a rope from his saddle and going after another, who stood, stomping, not far off. After a few jumpy starts, Saul managed to get a rope around the horse, and lead it back to the group. The third horse was gone, running as fast as he could run.

“Are you crazy, riding in like that?” Saul asked in a scolding tone. His face was white.

“Appie told me to get far away,” Emma said, by way of explanation.

“But you came back.”

Emma nodded.

“Glad you’re not that good at listening to orders,” Saul replied. “We can take these two back. Then you can help me round up that one and a couple others who broke free. Cows, we can catch later. Horses can go miles when terrified.”