The Heart's Pursuit (31 page)

T
he strain began to tell on all of them. Some days they covered forty miles, resting only for the sake of the horses. They stayed away from towns and the rail line. Their food consisted of whatever fresh game Jared happened to find, supplemented with hardtack and beans, and even those supplies were running low. The temperatures soared into the nineties and higher, sweltering heat during the day that chilled quickly after the sun went down.

The journey would have been hard enough on its own without the added unpleasantness of Matt Carlton’s presence. For Silver, it was especially trying. She didn’t like the way he watched her. His eyes were full of evil, and at times it seemed that evil reached out to touch her, like tentacles of a sea monster.

Dean cut Carlton a wide berth, but his eyes were full of hate. Silver tried talking to the boy about it, tried to show him that hatred never made things better. But he was only a child. Could he understand? She didn’t know.

Silver began praying for Dean every night, asking God to cut the anger from his heart. She asked God to do the same for Jared. She asked Him to heal the old wounds and make him new. And she prayed that God would keep all of them safe and bring them into a new and brighter place.

It was late in the afternoon of their tenth day on the trail when Carlton’s mount pulled up lame.

“It’s a bad bruise.” Jared lowered the animal’s leg. “We’ll have to take it easy on him for a few days.” He glanced around. “We’ll make camp here.”

Silver breathed a sigh. Their campsite was in a mountain pass with trees and a nearby stream instead of the interminable desert and sage. She knew more desert lay beyond this respite, but she meant to enjoy this spot—and the early stop—while she could.

Jared shot a couple of quail, and Silver roasted the birds over the fire. After they’d eaten supper, she slipped away to bathe for the first time in what seemed ages.

After stripping down to her drawers and chemise, she stepped into the stream. The icy water elicited a shriek of
surprise. She hadn’t expected it to be so cold. She forced herself to lie flat on the smooth rocks that lined the bottom so the water almost covered her. But she couldn’t stand the frigid temperature for long. She hurried to scrub herself clean, even soaping her hair twice. Then she washed her clothes before placing them across some large rocks to dry. With any luck, there was enough heat left in the day to do the job. She rubbed her damp, goose-pimpled skin with a blanket, then donned her lone change of clothes, after which she sat on a boulder and brushed her hair.

“Silver.” Jared’s voice came from a short distance away.

She looked behind her but couldn’t see him. “I’m dressed. You can come on.”

“It’ll be dark soon.” He stepped into view.

“I’m nearly finished.” She looked away from him. “The water’s like ice, but it feels good to be clean again.”

Jared sat on another boulder. “We’ll have to go slow tomorrow, give the horses more rest. It’ll add several days to our journey, but it would be worse if we lost one of the horses altogether.”

“I don’t suppose it makes much difference how long it takes.” There. She’d spoken the truth aloud. “Not for my parents anyway. If there is a reward, I doubt it would be paid in time to help them. The banker gave them ninety days. It’s been nearly sixty. By the time we’re back . . .” She let her words drift into silence as she resumed brushing her hair.

“If there was a warrant with his name on it for his arrest,
it might have been different. We could have left him in Nevada. But as it is—” He shrugged. “I’ll send a telegram to Mr. Harrison as soon as I can.”

She loved him for trying to offer some hope. Only one of many reasons she loved him, though she continued to keep those words to herself. For now.

If Jared kissed her, he would get lost in her.

His future was uncertain. His past was unpleasant. She thought herself in love with him. He’d seen it in her eyes, time and again. He hadn’t discouraged her the way he should have. And that wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to himself.

“I’d better get back to the prisoner.” He pushed up from the boulder. “Don’t stay out here much longer. It’ll be dark soon.”

He followed the trail through the trees to their campsite, stopping when it came into view. The horses, wearing hobbles, stood dozing, their tails swishing in a sleepy rhythm. The fire cast a circle of light into the gathering dusk. Carlton sat on the ground near a sturdy tree. Dean sat on a log opposite him, whittling a piece of wood. The calmness of the scene belied the nature of their journey.

How much longer would it take them to reach Denver now that one horse was lame? Silver said it no longer
mattered how quickly they reached her home. It would be too late to make a difference for her parents. She might be right too. Collecting the reward Owen Harrison had offered several years back could be a long time coming, if it came at all, and so much could still go wrong.

He’d failed her, as he should have known he would. The right man, the man she deserved, wouldn’t have failed her.

    
CHAPTER 35
    

T
hey traveled slowly, but the injured horse didn’t improve.

“You don’t have any other choice, Jared,” Silver told him late on the second day when they’d stopped for another rest. “We can’t continue with that horse. It will have to be replaced.”

It was hot—too hot to be hungry, too hot to think clearly. Sweat trickled down her back. Her muscles ached. The icy mountain stream where she’d bathed two nights before was a distant memory.

“There has to be a better way than me leaving you and Dean alone with him.” Jared jerked his head toward Matt Carlton.

The prisoner had been secured, as usual, with a strong, narrow chain that went through the cuffs on the prisoner’s
wrists and then wrapped around a tree. It was closed with a padlock. The setup allowed Carlton some freedom of movement and a modicum of privacy when necessary but no way of escape.

“There isn’t,” Silver replied.

“I don’t like it.”

“Like it or not, it’s the best option. Unless we want to sit here for a couple of weeks. Otherwise we have to have another horse, and you are the one who has to get it for us.”

She could tell he wanted to protest further. She could also tell the moment when he knew she was right. There was no other way. They had to keep Carlton out of sight until they reached Colorado. That meant Jared would have to go alone to the nearest farm or ranch or town and make a trade for the horse that was lame. Silver couldn’t do it. Even she realized she was safer here than riding alone on the trail. At least here she knew who the enemy was—and he was chained to a tree.

“All right, Silver. But you and Dean keep your distance from him.” Again he motioned with his head toward Carlton. “Don’t remove those handcuffs. Not for any reason. No matter what he says to you. Do you understand me? Not even if a forest fire blazes through here and burns him to a crisp.”

“I won’t remove the handcuffs. I promise. We’ll be fine.”

“You’ve got plenty of water and enough food to see you through until I’m back. By nightfall, if all goes well.”

“We’ll be fine,” she repeated.

Jared’s eyes studied her. So long that she wondered if he might say something more. Something personal. But he didn’t. At last he turned and swung onto the pinto. “Keep the revolver handy.” He turned his horse away, leading the bay behind him.

Silver watched until he’d disappeared from sight—and missed him almost at once. A hot breeze whispered in the treetops. Normally she liked the sound, but not today. Today it sounded lonely, and she felt isolated from the rest of the world.

“He’ll be lucky if he’s able to make a trade today,” Carlton said. “He might not even be back until tomorrow.”

“He’ll be back.” She stiffened her spine. “Jared said he would be back today, and he will be. He’s a man of his word.” She turned toward the prisoner. “I’ll get us some hardtack to eat.”

“Where’s the boy?”

“Trying to catch a fish or two.”

“So it’s just you and me for now.”

“Be quiet.” She opened the flap on the saddlebag and peered inside.

“Afraid of me, aren’t you, Miss Matlock? You should be. I’m not weak the way my brother was. Bob was an idiot. Wouldn’t have taken him along with me to Virginia City, except I needed some traveling money, and he had a way to get it.”

Silver looked at him again, another realization dawning. “You’re the reason Bob robbed my father. He did it for you. Because you told him to do it. You coerced him, didn’t you?”

Carlton shrugged. “He was always afraid of me.”

“Did he know you were a cold-blooded killer?”

One corner of his mouth curled upward in a smirk. “Doubt it. He was never that smart. But he was afraid of me. He always did what I told him to do.”

Dean walked into camp, fishing line empty. Silver was thankful to put an end to the exchange with Matt Carlton.

“No luck?” she asked the boy, although the answer was obvious.

“Nope.”

Carlton continued as if there’d been no interruption. “I’ll get off, you know. The law won’t be able to hold me. There isn’t enough evidence, and I’ll hire the best of attorneys to make sure I go free.”

Dean whirled on the prisoner. “You won’t get off. I know you done it. I know you killed my ma and pa.”

“Did you see me do it, kid?”

Scowling, Dean shook his head.

“Then you don’t know whether I did it or not.”

Would Carlton get off? Would he go free for lack of evidence?
The thought sickened Silver.