The Texan and the Lady (27 page)

The back door to the kitchen blew open, sending freezing winds whirling around the room, rattling hanging pots with enough noise to make the entire hotel seem as if it shivered.

“Close the door!” one of the cooks yelled while the other raised her apron to protect against the blast.

“Sorry,” a railroad employee answered as he fought the door closed. “It’s a hell of a night. Freeze the—” He glanced up at the women in time to stop his remark from embarrassing both himself and them. “Freeze … the winter corn off its stocks,” he finished, smiling proudly that he’d thought of something decent to say.

Jennie moved to find a cup. Most of the railroad employees had learned where the back door was and that there was always coffee on as long as the light burned. “I hope you’re planning on staying here tonight.”

“You guessed it, honey.” The railroad man smiled, showing teeth that looked like a piano keyboard, with every third one or so solid black. “I thought I’d come up here rather than sleep down at the depot; but I’m not getting out in this again until the wind dies down, even if I have to sleep on the floor.”

One cook poked the other and smiled with pride. “He’d have to look hard to find a cleaner or warmer place to bed down.”

The railroad worker agreed with a nod. “Everyone’s looking for warmth tonight. Everyone except that little ragamuffin kid who hangs around here. I saw him down at the barn over an hour ago. He said there were too many people in this place, and he was making him a pallet on the hay.”

Jennie turned around. “Was the child named True?”

The worker shrugged. “Didn’t tell me his name. But he’s the one who came in about the same time all you new girls arrived a few weeks ago. I’ve seen him around but never paid much notice.”

She didn’t wait. Running up the back stairs, she checked her room. True had taken to sleeping under one of the beds, but he wasn’t there. She checked all the dark, warm corners the child had discovered in the past few weeks, but nothing. True wasn’t in the hotel.

Audrey rolled over and pushed her nightcap from her eyes. “Time to get up?” she asked with a yawn.

“No,” Jennie whispered. “I was only looking for True. Go back to sleep. I’ll make sure the boy is sleeping warm and try not to wake you again.”

Audrey rolled over without argument. Four A.M. came very early for a pastry cook and part-time doctor.

As she moved back down the stairs, Jennie’s worry for True grew. She’d always thought the child wise for one so young, but if True were sleeping in the barn, there might be a death come morning.

Jennie grabbed Delta’s stained jade-colored cape from the hook by the door. She wrapped the soiled garment around her and headed out toward the barn.

As she stepped from the porch, the icy wind hit her full blast. Snow blew around her so thick she could barely make out the outline of the barn. Pulling the cape’s hood over her face, she marched on, determined in her mission. She had to save True.

She turned once, twice, glancing back toward the hotel. Even though the wind whirled around, seeming to come from all directions at once, she thought she heard someone running across the frozen ground behind her. She could see nothing but a white, blinding blur, making the blackness beyond even darker.

Her fingers were almost too cold to move as she reached the small barn door to the side of the big opening. Everything seemed out of place. Jennie couldn’t remember ever seeing the barn doors closed and barred. Even when it had rained, the workers had left one door slightly ajar in case they had to house another wagon. But anyone would be a fool to be out tonight.

Glancing back once more, she still couldn’t shake the feeling someone was walking in her footprints even before the wind had a chance to erase them.

Forcing panic down her throat, she pulled the door open and stepped inside. The sudden stillness pressed against her chilled skin, heavy with the smell of damp hay.

“True?” Jennie whispered as she moved into the dim light. Four lanterns flickered from poles in the center of the barn. Stalls, filled with horses, surrounded her. Each horse had a full manger of oats and a blanket over his back. The thought occurred to her that folks around here paid more attention to their animals than they did to a child.

“True?” She took another step. Without the wind, the freezing air drifted silently around her, chilling her slowly.

Something moved in the shadows. Jennie jumped to one side, silencing a scream with her fist. The shadow moved again closer, materializing from blackness.

For a moment she couldn’t relax, even when the shadow turned into a gray-and-black cat. Her mind registered the animal, but her heart wouldn’t stop pounding and her legs still ached to run. The huge cat stretched in front of her and moved away.

“True?” Jennie’s voice was unsteady. She forced herself to relax her fingers. She couldn’t go around screaming at shadows. She’d frighten the poor little child to death.

As Jennie looked around the barn for True’s sleeping form, the little door she’d come through popped open, allowing wind to enter. The animals along the barn walls stomped and neighed noisily, complaining about her lack of sense in allowing the door to reopen.

Moving back into the shadows, she faced the snow so that she could close the door more securely this time. A strange smell of sour whiskey and unwashed flesh blended with the fresh, icy smell of snow. She pulled her cape lower against the wind and ignored the foreign odor.

As her hand reached for the latch, someone’s fingers closed around her arm, biting into her skin like cold iron—huge, fleshy fingers strong enough to snap the bone if she fought.

Jennie’s blood seemed to leave her body at once. She opened her mouth to scream as the hand jerked her sideways into the darkness beside the door. A large palm slapped across her mouth even before she could fill her lungs with enough air to make a sound. She fought for breath, but the hand shoved even harder against her, splitting her lip and blending blood in with the taste of dirt and whiskey.

“Make a sound and I’ll gut you right here, missy,” a low voice hissed against the side of her face. She felt the cold blade of a knife sliding along her throat, taking the top layers of skin as it moved.

The jingle of a bridle sounded from the other side of the barn. Male voices reached the dark corner where Jennie struggled. Even though they were too far away to make out individual words, hope glimmered for an instant as she realized she wasn’t alone.

The man holding her heard them also and swore to himself in a drunken slur. With one mighty push, her attacker shoved her from him. Her back hit the rough barn wall. He grabbed her shoulder with the hand that held his knife, as if to steady her. When Jennie looked toward his beefy fingers trying to hold her shoulder and the knife, his other fist slammed into the side of her face.

For a moment she felt no pain, only the sudden jerk of her head in reply. Then lightning exploded across her brain and burned an instant before shattering into total darkness. Another blow replaced the first, then another, then another, piling pain upon pain until her mind could accept no more.

As her body crumpled helplessly, Jennie’s last sense was of the cape being wrapped tightly around her, cocooning her in velvet blackness.

“Got you now, Delta,” the attacker laughed as he lifted her to his shoulder. “And you’ll wish you were dead and buried in that grave with your name on it before I’m finished with you tonight.”

Chapter 25

Y
ou’re not going with me, son, so you might as well stop following me.” Austin’s voice echoed off the inside walls of the barn.

“But, Marshal,” True ran to keep up with Austin, “I’m the one who told you Jennie was kidnapped. If it weren’t for me, she’d have been miles away before anyone missed her.”

Austin jammed his rifle into its sheath and crammed an extra box of shells into his saddlebags. “I haven’t got time to argue, True. You stay here and keep your eyes open for more trouble. I’ll be back before dawn.”

“You’ll be dead before sunrise if you go out in this blizzard.” Spider Morris entered the barn, shaking snow off him as he moved.

Swearing beneath his breath, Austin knew the old man was probably right. But he couldn’t just stand around and let some stranger take Jennie without doing something.

“Besides,” Spider moved nearer, “whoever took her will hole up to wait out the storm. He’s not going anywhere until the weather clears a bit. Our best chance is to check out every house in town and wait till morning.”

Austin didn’t want to think about what a man who was capable of kidnapping might do to Jennie while waiting. “You check town; I’m going!”

Spider shook his head. “Well, if you’re determined to head out tonight, you might want to think a minute before you go off half-cocked. My guess is there’s only a couple of places he could have made it to in this snow. There’s an old abandoned farmhouse a few miles north of here, but the road’s so grown over you’d never find it in this snow.”

“And the other place?”

“If a fellow knew where to look, he could find a cluster of caves just past the bend of the tracks heading toward Kansas City. It’s not far, but no one would hear a woman scream from there. Not in this storm. Problem is unless you know where the caves are, you’ll walk right past them.”

True pushed past Spider and planted feet toe-to-toe with Austin. “I know where the caves are; Henry showed me. I could find them with my eyes closed. And I know what the kidnapper looks like. He’s the same fellow who took Delta’s trunk.”

Austin pulled his fingers into leather gloves. “Tell me where to look, kid.”

“No. I ain’t goin’ to do it.” Tiny fists braced on slim hips, followed by a look that meant to fight both men if need be. “I’m the reason she’s kidnapped. She came out to the barn looking for me. I’m going to the caves with or without you. Only difference will be that when I get there, I’ll be alone if you keep trying to tell me what to do.”

Austin squatted down to True’s level. “Son,” he tried to make his voice calm, “this storm is no place for you to be wandering around.”

“I’ve slept out in worse and survived. Last winter I would have considered this a warm night compared to some I was out in.” True didn’t budge. “You’ll never find her without me.”

“I’ve got Sheriff Morris,” Austin countered.

“Don’t count on me.” Morris shook his head. “I haven’t been out to those caves in years. They’re something only the younguns around here play in. I probably couldn’t find them on a clear day.”

“Well, hell, I’m not taking a child!” Austin tried to sound determined. What kind of lawman takes a kid on a hunt? He’d be laughed out of Texas if this story traveled south.

“Well, hell,” True answered. “I don’t see as you have much choice. Besides I care about Jennie just as much as you do.”

Spider could see the stubbornness reflected between the two and figured they had to be kin, whether Austin admitted it or not. “We’ve no time to argue,” the old sheriff said as he pulled off his gloves and handed them to True. “Take my gloves and coat, True. You’ll be as warm as need be. If True really knows the way to the caves, you two should be back in an hour.”

Already weighted down with layers of wool, True pulled on the sheriff’s coat and gloves, looking like a ball of rags and worn leather. Spider’s waist-length coat hung to the child’s knees. “Time’s a-wasting, Marshal.”

The last thing Austin wanted to do was take a kid along with him to look for Jennie, but he had no choice. He grabbed the back of True’s coat and lifted the orphan onto his saddle.

Spider handed Austin a lantern. “Best as I can remember, there ain’t but three caves, so it won’t take you long. Follow the tracks until True tells you to turn off.” The old man looked very tired. “And head back in an hour, no matter what. I don’t want to have to look for your bodies come morning.”

Austin climbed up behind True. “We’ll be back with Jennie, if she’s out there.” He pulled his hat low and motioned for Spider to open the door. When the icy wind hit them like a blast, Austin leaned forward instinctively, protecting True as much as he could.

JENNIE THOUGHT SHE was in a nightmare as the world came back into focus. Her body was so cold she had no feeling in her hands and feet, and the side of her face ached. The world was so black inside the wrappings of her cape, she wasn’t sure if her eyes were open or closed.

Trying to move slightly, she felt a rope binding her. One loop cut into her throat, then the rope ran along her back, circled her waist, and continued to below her hips, where it bound her legs together. The taste of dirty cloth filled her mouth from the gag that twisted into the corners of her lips.

The sudden crash of a bottle made her stop wiggling. She could hear someone moving around only a few feet from her. The steps seemed heavy and slow. Since she couldn’t feel the wind, she guessed she must be inside, but without the smell of animals, it couldn’t be the barn.

A flicker of light blurred its way through the material covering her face. Another flicker. She smelled the warmth of a fire even before she felt it.

“There.” The sound of a man’s voice came closer to Jennie. “Now the fire’s going, it’s time we had a little talk.”

A huge, beefy hand slid along the cape covering her. “There seems more to you, girl, than I’ve felt before. Maybe you grew a little now that you’ve been eating regular.” His hand stopped over her breast, trying to feel her through the layers of clothing.

Jennie jerked, rolling away. The cluttered floor slowed her progress, but she moved blindly, trying to get as far from the voice as she could. With a sudden, violent tug on the rope, the man pulled her back. “Well, now, you’re awake!” he shouted. “Wouldn’t be no fun feeling you when you couldn’t let me know how much you like it.” She tried to twist away, but he held the rope tightly.

“When you gonna learn, girl, that you belong to me? Pa gave you to me last year and said I could do whatever I wanted with you. Most time you’re more trouble than you’re worth, running from me, but tonight we’re gonna have a fine time.”