The Heart's Pursuit (9 page)
Both of which were an inconvenience at a time like this.
J
ared was awake and dressed when the message arrived from Claudette, telling him he could see Felicity again. He wasted no time in going. He didn’t even stop to inform Silver of his mission.
When he arrived at the Crystal Palace, he found Claudette waiting for him at the top of the stairs. “Felicity wants to speak with you alone. But if you do anything to upset her . . .” She shook her head, her warning clear.
“I won’t upset her. You have my word.”
The woman didn’t look convinced, but she motioned him toward the bedroom where he’d visited Felicity the previous day. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.
“Come in.”
Entering the room, he saw that Felicity was propped up by a number of fluffy pillows on the bed. A bright red scarf covered her shorn locks, but there was no hiding her swollen, bruised face.
“Good morning, miss.” He left the door ajar behind him.
“Morning.” She winced, as if it hurt to move her lips even a little.
Jared pulled a chair from against the wall and set it near the bed. Not too close. He didn’t want to make her feel threatened. “Thanks for letting me come back. I know it isn’t easy to talk about what happened. I can see you’re still scared. But there might be something you know that will help me find the man who hurt you. Some small detail you don’t even think is important. I want to find him. I want to make sure he isn’t able to do this to another woman ever again.”
Felicity swallowed and turned her head toward the window, where morning sunshine spilled through the curtains. “I was on my way home last week. It was late . . . and the night was dark.”
It was difficult to wait for her to tell the story in her own way, at her own pace, but somehow Jared kept silent.
“He came up . . . behind me. Suddenly. I had . . . I had no warning. He put his hand over my mouth . . . and then . . . then he dragged me into an old shed. There was . . . there was a lantern . . . but it didn’t shed much light. I fought him. I fought as hard as I could . . . but it was no use. Then he . . . he—” She broke off, unable to speak the unspeakable.
Jared understood without the words.
The room fell silent except for the ticking of a clock on a table against the opposite wall. It was a silence filled with pain. Jared wished he could touch her hand, offer her comfort, but such a gesture wouldn’t be appreciated. Not in her fragile state. Not with the assault so fresh in her mind.
At long last Felicity drew a ragged breath and continued. “He talked. He talked all the time. And . . . and when he was . . . done, he beat me and . . . and cut off my hair. I asked him why . . . but he only laughed.” She shuddered. “I thought . . . I thought he meant to kill me.”
Sometimes this man killed his victims. Sometimes he let them live. Either way, he destroyed lives. The need for revenge coiled in Jared’s gut, hot and furious.
Felicity met his gaze with her one good eye. “He thought I would die . . . before I was found. Didn’t he? He thought I would die or he would have . . . made certain—” She stopped, and something about her expression altered.
Alert, Jared leaned forward on the chair. “What is it? What are you thinking?”
“I remembered something. He . . . he said he was going to be . . . the next king of the Comstock.”
King of the Comstock? Comstock. The silver mines. Virginia City. Virginia City, Nevada.
At last. A real clue. At last he was back on the killer’s trail. The man he’d sought for six years was headed to Nevada. And that was where Jared was headed too.
Silver Matlock, Bob Cassidy, and Matt Carlton be hanged.
Silver poured water from the pitcher into a porcelain bowl on the table beside the bureau. After washing the best she could, she dried off with a towel and donned her clothes. Then she frowned at her reflection in the mirror. There were gray smudges beneath her eyes, evidence of another sleepless night, and she looked unusually pale. She pinched her cheeks, trying to bring some color into them. It wouldn’t do to have Mr. Newman think she was ill. He was looking for any excuse to be rid of her.
A sharp rap on the door caused her to start.
“Are you up, Miss Matlock?” Jared asked from the hallway.
“Yes.” She hurried across the room to open the door. “I’m up.”
He looked at her, his expression dour. “Meet me out front in five minutes. We’re leaving.”
“Leaving? Did you learn—”
“Five minutes.” He pivoted and walked toward the staircase.
Five minutes meant no breakfast. At the thought, her stomach growled. But she wasn’t about to complain or keep him waiting. She grabbed her saddlebags and hurried after him. When she passed the hotel restaurant, she held her
breath, pretending she hadn’t already caught a whiff of fried bacon, cooked eggs, hot breads, and coffee. Once outside, she stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath of crisp mountain air. If Jared Newman could go without a proper breakfast, so could she. He wouldn’t have a single reason to regret taking her along. Not a single one.
Opening her eyes again, she saw their horses were tied to the rail right outside the hotel. Which meant the bounty hunter had gone to the livery stables before coming for her. Had he had time to eat too?
Her stomach growled a second time.
I won’t complain. I won’t say anything about being hungry.
Jared straightened from the other side of the packhorse, where she assumed he’d been checking their supplies. “Are you ready?” he asked.
“I’m ready.”
“Then mount up. We’re wasting daylight.”
She bit back a retort. If she could look for Bob Cassidy without anyone’s help, she would do it in a heartbeat, but she didn’t even know where to begin. She was stuck with Mr. Newman. She would have to get used to his disagreeable nature.
Within minutes they were on their way, and as soon as they were beyond the last row of houses and businesses of Black Hawk, Jared kicked his gelding into an easy canter. Silver didn’t have to ask Cinder to keep up. The buckskin did so on her own.
The sun had climbed a good distance before Jared finally slowed his horse to a walk.
Silver rode up beside him before doing the same. “Do you mind telling me where we’re going? Do we have a destination?”
“Nevada.”
“Why Nevada? Last night you said no one knew where Bob was going other than west.”
He turned a hard gaze in her direction. “Nevada is west of here, and that’s where we’re headed.”
Something about the set of his jaw told Silver she’d best not press him for more information.
“It’s not too late to return to your parents’ home in Twin Springs, Miss Matlock.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going back.”
“We’re talking better than a thousand miles and more than a month on horseback. And that’s assuming all goes well on the journey. We may not even find the man you seek when we get to Nevada. This could be a wild-goose chase we’re on. He could be traveling by stage or train, something we can’t afford to do. At least my funds are limited. What about yours?”
She thought of the locket beneath her blouse. They could sell it. What it brought, plus the emergency money her father had given her—when he’d thought she was bound for Denver—might be enough to secure train passage and cover the additional expenses they would surely incur. But
what if they spent it all and still didn’t find Bob? Or what if they found him but the money and jewels were gone?
“Well?” Jared prompted.
“No, I don’t have the money for train fare, but if we have to go all the way to Nevada on horseback to find Bob, then so be it. I’m up to it if you are.”
A faint, almost indiscernible guilt tugged at Jared’s conscience. He ignored it. There’d been a day when lying to a woman as he’d just lied to Silver Matlock would have been unthinkable. Those days were long past. Lies came easily to a man in his profession. Subterfuge was a way of life.
It couldn’t bother him that she believed it was Bob Cassidy and Matt Carlton he had in his sights. What troubled him was that he was letting her continue on with him. It made no sense. Of course, he’d met Mrs. Matlock—a most disagreeable woman with a sharp tongue, the kind who gave stepmothers a bad reputation—before leaving Twin Springs, so he couldn’t blame Silver for not wanting to go home. But did she have to become his responsibility?
He’d lost his mind. That was the only explanation for his inability to send her back. They had just enough supplies to see them through a couple of weeks, maybe a bit more if they were careful. If the weather stayed good and none of the horses broke down and their luck held in every way, he
figured they could reach Virginia City by early July. Alone, Jared could ride farther and faster. With a woman tagging along? It would take him days, maybe even weeks longer. Extra time when he might lose all traces of the killer he sought.
And yet he couldn’t make Silver go back to Twin Springs. He’d let her get under his skin. That hadn’t happened to him in years. Since leaving Fair Acres, he’d remained focused, determined, single-minded, his emotions always cool and controlled. Yet this young woman had managed to bypass his defenses with surprising ease.
He toyed with the idea of first riding into Denver to check with Rick Cooper about the reward for Peterson. But that would be a waste of time. Nothing involving government entities was ever straightened out quickly. He’d be lucky if the reward awaited him when he returned from Nevada weeks or months from now.
No, he wouldn’t take the extra time to go into Denver. He wouldn’t take the time to escort Silver home to Twin Springs. They would ride northeast until they were out of the mountains. From there they would head north into Wyoming, skirting the highest of the Rocky Mountains, then finally head west again.
And Silver Matlock had better keep up.
