[Texas Rangers 04] - Ranger's Trail (32 page)

“
Saw smoke from your chimney, but I couldn’t be sure if it was you or some passin’ stranger stopped to fix him a meal. Glad to see you home.” He looked at Andy. “Thought you joined the rangers.” He noticed Andy’s bandaged shoulder. “What did you get in the way of?”

Rusty answered for Andy. “A Comanche arrow. Andy hasn’t made up his mind if he wants to be a ranger anymore. How’s Mrs. Blessing?”

“
That Alice girl has been like a tonic to her. She’s startin’ to act like she’s thirty again. Forty, anyway.” Tom’s smile gave way to an expression of concern. “I’m glad you’ve made it home. We’ve got to do somethin’ about Alice.”

Rusty turned apprehensive. “Somethin’ happened to her?”

“
Not yet, but she’s awful homesick. Wants to go see her mother. Every time I leave the house, I worry that she may not be there when I get back.”

“
You think she’d go all by herself?”

Tom nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised. She’s got nerve.”

“
Nerve runs in the Monahan family. But she can’t take care of herself against the likes of Corey Bascom. He already tried once to kill her. He might get it done the next time.”

“
I wish you’d go talk to her. My wife tends to take Alice’s side. Neither one of them seems to realize the danger she’d put herself in, strikin’ out alone.”

Rusty did not study long. He said, “I’ll ride over there with you.”

“
You’ll have to go by yourself. I’m on my way to town. Got to be in court for a couple of days.”

“
I’ll try to talk her into stayin’ a while longer.”

“
Stayin’ may not be a good idea, either. I heard a feller was in town askin’ how to find your farm.”

“
Corey Bascom?”

“
Might be. The description fits what you’ve told me.”

Rusty smiled coldly. “Maybe I won’t have to hunt him anymore. Maybe he’ll come huntin’ me.”

Tom said, “The only reason he’d be lookin’ for you would be to locate Alice. If he can find out where you are, it’s only a matter of time ’til he learns where Alice is. We need to move that girl to a safer place.”

“
I could bring her here. And when he comes for her, I’ll have him.”

Tom gave him a look of disbelief. “Use that girl for bait? It’s not like you, Rusty. What if somethin’ went wrong?”

Rusty reconsidered. “You’re right. It was a fool notion that just popped into my head.”

“
The reason you brought her to my place was so her husband couldn’t find her. Now I’m afraid he’s fixin’ to. She’s been wantin’ to go home, and I’d say that’s the best place for her, amongst her own folks. They can protect her better than I can.”

Andy had listened without saying anything. Now he told Rusty, “You snuck her away from home in the dead of night. You could do the same thing again.”

Rusty nodded. “Looks like that’s what I’ve got to do. Think you can take care of yourself ’til I get back?”

“
You’re talkin’ to a ranger. Used-to-be ranger, anyway. Go and do what has to be done.”

R
usty had just finished unpacking the mule. Now he packed again with provisions for the several days’ ride to the Monahan farm. Andy helped where he could, though he had but one hand to work with. He said, “There’s liable to be gossip, you and Alice goin’ all the way up there by yourselves. It’ll take several days … and nights.”

“
I’ve got no interest in Alice, not in that way. I’m just tryin’ to save her life.”

“
And maybe playin’ hell with her reputation.”

“
Reputation doesn’t plow a field or put money in the bank, and gossip doesn’t draw blood. Everybody knows it was Josie I wanted. Alice is too young for me.”

“
Not that much younger than Josie was. Looks a lot like her, too. All three of them Monahan girls favored one another.”

Rusty felt a rising irritation. In an oblique way Andy was reminding him that he had lost Geneva, then had first been attracted to Josie because she resembled her older sister. True, Alice looked a bit like Josie, but that was different. Besides, she was married, or would be until justice overtook Corey Bascom. It wasn’t in Rusty to trifle with a married woman even if she did remind him a little of Josie and Geneva.

Riding toward Tom’s place, he considered the long trip ahead. He did not expect pursuit if they got away in the dark of the moon. They would strike out across country instead of following the usual trails, so interception would be unlikely even if Corey outguessed them.

He had an uneasy feeling that he was being followed. Looking back, he saw no one.

Getting Indian notions like Andy, he thought.

After a time he came to a dry creekbed and took advantage of its cover to double back on his trail. Still he saw no one. He decided Tom’s report had cut the reins on his imagination.

Alice stood on the dog run, watching his approach. For a moment the sight of her was unnerving. He could easily have mistaken her for Josie. Andy’s words came back to him. By the time Rusty reached the double cabin, Mrs. Blessing stood at Alice’s side. She looked stronger than he had seen her in the past year.

Rusty took off his hat and spoke first to Mrs. Blessing because she was the oldest and due the deference. Then he told Alice, “I was talkin’ to Tom. He said you’re itchin’ to go home.”

“
Don’t try to talk me out of it. I’ve been away too long.”

“
Hear anything from your mother?”

“
Her letters say she’s a lot better. Walkin’ on her own, doin’ most of the things she wants to. But she still needs my help.”

She sounds like Josie, too, he thought.

Mrs. Blessing said, “I hate to lose Alice, but she’s right. It’s time you took her home. She’ll be a godsend to her mother like she’s been to me.”

Rusty had argued with himself on the way over here. Should he tell Alice that Corey might be about to track her down? He had decided she was entitled to know about the danger she faced. He said, “Somebody’s been askin’ questions about my farm. Tom thinks it was probably Corey. Once he finds me it won’t take him long to find you.”

The news did not disturb her as much as he had thought it might. “All the more reason I ought to go home.”

“
That’s what I brought the pack mule for. Soon as it’s good and dark we’ll leave. You’d best pack whatever you want to take.”

Alice smiled the way Josie used to smile, and Geneva. “
Home
. The prettiest word I know.”

Mrs. Blessing said, “I’ll miss you, but it’s for the best if you’re in danger here.”

Rusty led the bay horse and the mule down to the barn. He took off the saddle and pack and poured some dry oats into a wooden trough. “Eat good, boys. You’ve come a long ways, and you’ve hardly got started yet.”

The two women cooked supper, the best meal Rusty had eaten since the hotel in Friedrichsburg. Afterward he stood on the dog run or walked around the outside of the cabin, looking for anyone who might be out there watching. Dusk seemed to last for hours. He tingled with anxiety to be on his way.

At last, when he thought it was dark enough, he went out to the barn and packed the mule, then saddled the two horses. He was about to lead them from the corral when the mule snorted and poked its long ears forward. Rusty turned quickly, but not quickly enough. He caught a glimpse of a dark figure just before a gun barrel came down on his head. It knocked him to his knees and elbows.

A rough voice said, “I always found that the best way to win a fight is to get in the first lick. That one was for little Anse. Try to get up and I’ll hit you again. That one will be for me.”

Rusty felt paralyzed, unable to move. He knew this was Corey Bascom. He wanted to shout to Alice to stay away, but he could not summon voice.

He sensed that she was on her way to the barn. He could hear her footsteps. She opened the gate and said, “I’m ready, Rusty.”

Corey said, “Rusty ain’t ready, but I am.”

She made a sharp, involuntary cry before he grabbed her and clapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t holler. I wouldn’t want somebody else to come out here and get hurt.”

He removed the hand from her face. She gasped. “Corey! What’re you fixin’ to do?”

“
Same as he was, gettin’ you away from here before Ma and Lacey find you. I know they’re lookin’ because I’ve felt their breath on the back of my neck.”

“
What makes you think I’d go with you?”

“
Because I ain’t givin’ you any choice. Listen, woman, I’m tryin’ to keep you from bein’ killed.”

“
Like you killed Josie?”

“
I didn’t kill Josie. That’s the God’s truth. Lacey done it. He thought she was you. Next time he may not miss.”

She took a moment to consider that. “I’m inclined to believe you. But Rusty was fixin’ to take me back to my people.”

“
That’s too close to
my
people. I’m takin’ you someplace where they’ll never find you.”

Rusty reached for the corral fence, trying to pull himself up. Corey raised the pistol. Alice caught his arm. “Don’t, Corey, please. He was just tryin’ to help me.”

“
From now on that’s my job. You’re still my wife. What’s this man to you, anyway?”

“
A family friend, that’s all. Josie and him was plannin’ on gettin’ married.”

“
There ain’t nothin’ goin’ on between the two of you?”

“
Of course not. But please don’t hurt him any more. He’s already been hurt a way too much.”

“
I won’t hurt him if you’ll get on that horse and behave yourself. We’re leavin’ here.” He threw Rusty’s pistol over the fence. He unsaddled Rusty’s horse and ran it out of the corral. He remounted his own and grabbed the reins of Alice’s horse. He said, “I don’t know what all is packed on that mule, but it’ll come in handy on the trip. Let’s go.”

As the two rode by the cabin, Mrs. Blessing stood on the dog run, a silhouette against lamplight from the kitchen. She shouted, “Alice, I thought you-all were headed north.”

Corey said, “Don’t answer her.”

Alice shouted back anyway. “Rusty’s hurt. Out at the barn. Go help him.”

“
Then who’s that you’re with?”

Alice tried to answer, but Corey gave her horse’s reins a rough jerk. She swallowed the words.

Though the rising moon was little more than a sliver and yielded faint light, she knew they were traveling south. She kept looking back in the darkness, half hoping Rusty was coming, yet afraid of what might happen if he was. She believed what Corey had said about Lacey having killed Josie. Though Corey was capable of violence, she had found it difficult to believe he could have shot her sister. Lacey, on the other hand, …

They rode in frosty silence a long time. Finally he demanded, “Ain’t you goin’ to say somethin’?”

“
There’s nothin’ to say. You’ve said it all.”

“
You might cry a little then, so I’ll know you’re still breathin’.”

“
I got over cryin’ a long time ago, after Josie died.”

“
I told you I had nothin’ to do with that. I came near killin’ Lacey for what he done. I never intended for you to be hurt, nor none of your family. Damn it, Alice, I love you.”

“
Is this the way you show it, by kidnappin’ me?”

“
I’m not kidnappin’ you. You’re my wife. I’m takin’ you where you’ll be safe.”

“
And where is that?”

“
Mexico. I figure we can lose ourselves down there. Nobody’ll find us.”

“
What can we do in Mexico? I’d never feel at home there. I don’t even speak any Spanish. Do you?”

“
A few cusswords is all.”

“
I don’t want to go to Mexico. I want to go home. I want to see my mother walkin’ again. I want to see her movin’ and talkin’ natural.”

Corey rode a while before he spoke again. “What happened to Josie was awful. I don’t want it happenin’ to you.”

“
It won’t. My family would see to that.”

“
What about me? Chances are your brother James would kill me, or try to. Maybe you’d like to see me dead.”

“
No, I wouldn’t. But I believe I could handle James.”

“
Think you could handle your mother, too? Clemmie’s cut from pure rawhide.”

“
I’d tell them you’re still my husband, that I still love you.”

“
Do you, or are you just sayin’ that to get what you want?”

Alice fumbled for an answer that wouldn’t come. “I did love you once. Lord knows I don’t want to, but maybe I still do, a little. I don’t know.”

“
There’s a way to find out.” He reined his horse in beside hers. He drew her up against him and kissed her. She pulled back in surprise, unsure how to react. He kissed her again, longer and harder. She felt an unexpected flush of warmth. She found herself responding with an eagerness for which she had not been prepared.