“Then he left…told me the deal was off.”
“You mean Calhoun?” Jed asked.
Bomber nodded. “He laughed when I told him I’d tell the sheriff.”
“But why did you even get mixed up with him, Bomber? You’ve worked for my father for years. He liked you, trusted you.”
“Tired of working for other men. Wanted my own…” His voice trailed off as he closed his eyes.
“He’s gone,” Pete said.
Caroline stared into space, shocked and confused, until Jed slipped an arm around her shoulders and led her to the buggy. He put one of the slickers on her, seated her, then went back to the other men.
“Did Bomber have any relatives that should be informed?” Jed asked.
“None that we know of,” Pete said. “He was a loner. Kept to himself and never spoke much to anyone.”
“Then you might as well bury him. Since we all witnessed what happened, and heard him confess to it, there shouldn’t be any problem with the sheriff.
“I’m taking Caroline home now. On behalf of the Collins family, thank you, men, for the great job you did. I know Nathan will come tomorrow to thank you himself.
“Since you’re the foreman, Pete, I’ll leave it to your discretion what you want done here. But if these were my men, I’d sure as hell figure they’ve earned a rest,” Jed added with a grin as he tied Liberty to the back of the carriage.
Pete laughed. “I had the same thought in mind.”
Jed shook their hands and thanked them again, then drove away.
They were about halfway home when the sky darkened, and the rain and wind increased violently. Soon the torrential rain made visibility impossible.
Jed had to shout to be heard above the howling wind. “Is there any place nearby where we can take shelter?”
Caroline shook her head. “N-none th-that I kn-know of.” She was shivering so badly, her teeth were chattering.
A back wheel hit a rut and was sucked down into a muddy sinkhole. Jed jumped out of the carriage to check it out.
He’d been at sea during hurricanes, and although this storm wasn’t quite as severe, he didn’t even attempt to harness Liberty for some extra horsepower; the wisest thing they could do was to find some shelter and get out of the path of the wind.
He lifted Caroline out of the carriage and carried her into the trees lining the path. Then he slogged back in the mud to the carriage and returned with the two horses.
The trees did little to protect them from the rain, but at least they were out of the force of the wind. He looked around at the dead and fallen branches lying on the ground, and thought of an idea.
He tied the ends of Liberty’s reins around one of the big branches and propped it up high enough against a tree to form some cover below it. By the time he added two more branches, he had enough of a lean-to for both of them to crawl under. It was a crude shelter, but it warded off the rain.
He took off his slicker, shook it out as best he could, and spread it on the ground. Then he peeled off Caroline’s and shook it out as well, and proceeded to pull off her boots and stockings.
“Wh-what a-are y-you d-doing?” she protested, when he started to unbutton her shirt.
“Getting you out of these wet clothes before you catch pneumonia.”
He stripped off her shirt and skirt. Her camisole was just as wet, so despite her attempt to ward off his hands, he pulled it off and tossed it aside.
“D-don’t e-e-even th-th-think it, Fra-fraser,” she ordered through her chattering teeth when he reached for the waistband of her bloomers.
“This is no time for modesty, Caroline.” He yanked them down her legs and pulled them off her ankles.
“Now lie down.” His firm hand forced her back. For several minutes he rubbed her legs and feet vigorously, then her arms and shoulders. “Turn over.” She continued to shiver, and he rubbed her back.
“D-don’t tr-ry t-to t-tell m-me y-you ar-ren’t en-enjoy-ing th-this,” she accused when he did the same to the cheeks of her rear end.
“I shall think of this moment very fondly some night when I’m standing a lonely watch at sea.” He couldn’t resist giving that little butt of hers a tender swat. “Are you feeling any warmer, darlin’?”
“N-not mu-much.”
“Funny, I’m beginning to feel a lot warmer.”
Jed stripped off his clothes and rolled her over. Then gathering her in his arms, he held her tightly against him, and pulled her rain slicker over them.
The heat of their bodies melded, and soon he felt her relax and her shivering cease.
“Thank you, Jed. I feel much better now.”
“Since it’s still raining, there’s no sense in moving yet. When we do, we’ll have to leave the carriage since it’s stuck in the mud. Do you think you can handle Liberty?”
“I can give it a try. What about you? You’ll have to ride Belle bareback.”
“I’ll manage.”
She giggled. “That’s right, Frasers are born knowing how to ride a horse.”
“You are one ungrateful woman, Miss Caroline. Didn’t I just sacrifice my body heat to warm you up?”
“And loved every minute of it,” she joshed back. “Speaking of riding, Jed, thank you for what you did for Garrett. He’s so thrilled with Runt. I dreaded the time when he’d ask me to let him ride a horse, but now he’s been taught well.”
“He’s doing great. You don’t have to worry.”
“Thanks to you. You’re always right, Jed. I mean that sincerely. I seem to make the wrong decisions so often with him.”
“No, you don’t. Honey, you’ve done a great job raising the boy. But he’s growing up, so you have to start giving him a little longer rein.”
She nodded thoughtfully. After a while she said, “Jed, it could rain the rest of the night. We can’t stay here like this.”
“We’ll give it another fifteen minutes and then try our luck.”
She looked up at him and laughed. “What difference will fifteen minutes make in the storm?” Their mouths were so close, they were almost touching.
“Which storm are you referring to, Caroline?” he whispered. “The one outside, or the one in here?”
He trailed a string of kisses down the column of her neck.
She closed her eyes against the passion his kiss aroused.
“I should have the strength to resist you, Jed—but it feels too good.”
“More reason not to resist then, sweetheart.”
He shifted her to her back, then slowly caressed the fullness of her breasts, down her body to the curve of her hips. He lowered his head, and his mouth closed over one breast as his hand cupped its mate.
“You’re right again, Jed,” she murmured as sweet, sweet sensation washed through her. And he demonstrated just what a difference fifteen minutes could make in a storm.
She lay breathless, her heart pounding in her ears. Her body still tingled with sensation from Jed’s lovemaking. She was finally glad she had succumbed to his seduction, and was even ready for him again.
She was wrong to think she could deny him, or herself. When he left, at least she would have these moments to remember, not just a fantasy.
Somehow, sometime in these past weeks, she had fallen in love with him. Though it was exactly what she had feared, it no longer mattered. They still had another week together.
Jed suddenly lifted his head. “Listen.”
Caroline held her breath for several seconds. “I don’t hear anything.”
“That’s what I mean. The wind has stopped.” He got up and stood outside their shelter to listen, and her gaze devoured his nakedness. It was the first time she’d really had the opportunity of seeing him completely naked, and his perfectly proportioned physique was beautiful. Quite beautiful, indeed.
“The rain’s down to a drizzle, so I think we can try to head home now,” he said.
Caroline nodded and reached for her clothes.
T
he day was sunny, hot, and humid, with a bit of breeze. Rico Fraser dismounted, tied his horse to a hitching post, and removed his hat.
His cousin Jed and lovely bride Caroline had said they lived near Napa. Now his pursuit of the four men who had raped and murdered his mother had led him to that town. Until these animals were brought to justice, though, there was no time for pleasure.
His dark-eyed gaze swept the street and paused at the hitching post in front of the saloon where four horses were tethered, a large gray one among them. He was certain these were the ones he was following.
Rico walked casually down the street. There weren’t many people out in the hot noonday sun, and when he was certain no one observed him, he picked up the right rear leg of the gray horse and examined its hoof. There was a loose nail on the boot—the track he had been following for the past five days.
Rico checked the chamber of the Colt on his hip, then reholstered it and entered the saloon. He went up to the bar and ordered a beer.
It wasn’t difficult to determine that the four, loud-mouthed drunkards at the end of the bar were his quarry. His blood simmered at the thought of these vile savages violating and murdering his mother.
Rico clutched his glass to keep from striking out at the big-mouthed speaker who appeared to be their leader. He had to remain cool-headed and memorize each of their faces. Then he would seek his revenge individually.
The one nearest him turned his head and saw Rico at the end of the bar.
“Hey, Charley, since when do you serve breeds at your bar?”
“I serve anyone who’s got the two bits to pay for it,” Charley said. “And I have’ta say, I ain’t seen
your
money on the bar, Ben.”
Ben snorted and pulled a chain from his pocket. “How about this? It oughta be worth a couple of beers.”
The bartender picked it up and studied the necklace. A small golden cross dangled from the center of it.
Rico gripped the bar when he saw the chain his mother always wore around her neck. His father had made the tiny cross out of gold.
“Where’d you get it?”
The man’s face settled into a smirk. “From a admirer. If you get what I mean.”
The remark brought some laughs and hoots from his companions.
Charley put it down on the counter. “All right, but just one more round.”
“I don’t like drinking alongside this half-breed.”
“Knock it off, Ben. He’s not hurting anybody. It’s a hot day, and he wants a cool beer same as you,” Charley said.
“Yeah, well, we don’t need any half-breeds in our town. Let one in and before ya know it, town’s full of them. Ain’t that right, boys?”
His companions backed him up with words and nods.
“Hey, breed,” he called to Rico, “you got a hot little sister who wants to spread her legs for old Ben here?” He elbowed the man next to him. “The last one we had was worthless. Right, Kansas? Laid there praying the whole time—”
“While you were raping her!” Rico finished, unable to hold his temper for another moment. “You rotten son of a bitch!” Rico threw the contents of his glass in Ben’s face, then delivered a punch that sent the drunk reeling backward and crashing into a table. He picked up his mother’s necklace and put it in his pocket.
“Dammit, Slatter, I figured this would happen,” the bartender shouted. “Every time you come in here, you start a fight and break up the place.”
Slatter staggered to his feet and wiped the blood away from his split lip with the back of his hand. “Nobody gets away with hitting Ben Slatter,” he snarled. “Hold him, boys.”
Before Rico could back up to draw, two of the men pounced on him. Rico managed to free himself from one and threw a punch before the other two succeeded in pinning back his arms.
One of the bar’s patrons slipped out the door and ran toward the sheriff’s office.
Enraged, Slatter drove punch after punch into Rico while his companions held the defenseless man. Blood seeped from his nose and a cut over his eye. When they finally released his arms, he collapsed to the floor, which made the rest of his body an easy target for brutal kicks from Slatter’s boots.
“Kansas, flatten his gun hand on the floor,” Slatter ordered when the brute finished the merciless beating. Then he took his pistol and smashed the handle against Rico’s hand. “That should slow him up for a while.”
He knelt down and smirked in Rico’s face. “Next time,
amigo
, drink from the horse trough. And make sure it’s not in any town that I’m in.”
With his last conscious breath, Rico raised his head enough to spit blood and spittle into the bully’s face. Then mercifully, he passed out.
Slatter turned red with rage. “Drag him outside,” he ordered. “Eddie, get the rope from my saddle. I’m gonna hang the bastard as a lesson to any other breed who comes to this town.”
“You’re insane, Slatter,” Charley shouted as two of them grabbed Rico by the arms and dragged him across the floor. “Eddie, Curly, listen to me. You help hang that man and you’ll end up sitting in a penitentiary for years.”
“Don’t pay him no mind, boys,” Slatter said. “It’s all his fault for serving the breed to begin with.”
Within minutes they had Rico’s hands tied behind his back. Slatter slung a rope over a tree branch and slipped the noose around the unconscious man’s neck.
The few citizens who were out in the hot sun stopped and watched with curiosity. None had ever witnessed a hanging.
“What did the man do?” one of them asked.
“He raped and murdered a old lady,” Slatter said. “Then tried to blame it on me.”
“Ain’t this the sheriff’s problem?” another asked.
“We ain’t waiting for the sheriff. He’s got too soft a heart. He’d probably let the bastard go. But we saw what the breed did, didn’t we, boys? Okay, lift him up on the back of my horse,” Slatter ordered.
“That’s enough, Slatter,” a voice declared. “Take that noose off him, Kansas.”
The confused and inebriated cowboy looked at his leader, then back to Sheriff Newman’s grim countenance.
“I warned you fellows, I won’t put up with any more troublemaking. All four of you come with me, and I’ll lock you up until you sober up.”
“We’ll do that, Sheriff, right after we hang the breed,” Slatter said. He drew his gun. “Just stay out of this, Sheriff. Boys, keep him covered ’til I finish.”
“You hang a man in my town, Slatter, and California won’t be big enough for you to hide from me,” Newman said. “You boys figure it’s worth getting killed so Slatter can have his way? You know I can take a couple of you down with me if I have to, and I don’t want to shoot any of you. So do what I said and take that noose off that man, Kansas,” the sheriff said calmly.
“You heard what he said, boys,” Charley said from the doorway of the saloon, his raised rifle pointed at them.
“Don’t make no sense, Ben, for us to get killed over some half-breed,” Kansas said.
“He’s right, boss,” Eddie agreed. “Ain’t that so, Curly?” he asked his brother.
“Eddie and Curly, your folks are good, hardworking people,” the sheriff said. “I know them well, and I’d sure hate to have to gun down any of their sons. So I’m giving you boys a chance. Put those guns back in the holsters before it’s too late. I can see that boy on that horse is bleeding pretty bad. He needs medical attention and could die while we waste time standing here.”
Eddie and Curly nodded and slipped their pistols back in the holsters. “You coming, Kansas?”
“Reckon so.”
“What about you, Ben?”
“You bunch of yeller cowards,” Slatter snarled in disgust and holstered his weapon.
“Will a couple of you folks tote this man to the doctor’s office while I lock up these men?” Sheriff Newman asked.
Two of the spectators lifted Rico down and carried him away, while the sheriff herded the other four men to the jailhouse.
“I keep telling you, boys, I don’t like your odds when you’re picking on people,” the sheriff lectured. “Four on one just ain’t right.”
“Dad, you figure the horses will like this corral when we’re done?” Garrett asked.
“I know they will,” Jed said. “It’s out in the fresh air where they’re able to run, instead of being cooped up in a stall all day. There’s a few trees for shade, plenty of clover and brush to chew on, and a trough to drink from.”
“Do we have to put them back in their stalls at night?”
“Not when the weather’s good. Just if there’s a bad storm or one of them is sick. Other than that, this corral will be home to them. The only thing you’ll have to do is spread a few bales of hay around for them to eat.”
“And we won’t have to muck out stalls!” Garret exclaimed.
“Right. But you should dig a hole and bury their spoor a couple of times a week. That will help to keep the flies away.”
“This is ’bout the greatest idea we ever had, Dad. ’Cept when you taught me how to ride Runt.”
Jed ruffled his hair. “We’ll have to repaint the corral every couple of years. Nothing looks better than a bright white fence around a corral with the green grass and the horses racing around in it. Back home when I was growing up, I used to sit on top of a hill and look down on the corral. Watching the mares and their frisky colts racing across it was a beautiful sight.”
Garrett’s eyes were filled with sympathy. “Do you miss Virginia very much, Dad?”
“Only when something like this stirs up a memory.”
“Do you think this will feel like home to you someday?”
“My memories of home are growing up with my family around me. My memories of here will be watching you growing up with your family around you. Only I’ll be part of that family, too.”
Jed stood up. “There, that’s the final stroke.” They put their paintbrushes down and stepped back to admire it. Jed folded his arms across his chest. “What do you think, partner?”
Folding his arms across his chest, Garrett struck the same pose. “I think it looks good, pal.”
They grinned at each other and shook hands.
“When can we bring the horses out?” Garrett asked.
“Tomorrow. We’ll give the paint a good chance to dry.”
Nathan and Caroline drove up just then, returning from the mill.
“Wow!” she exclaimed.
“Do you like it, Mama? Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”
“It certainly is.”
“Dad wanted to paint it white so it looks like the ones in Virginia, and not like them run-down old ones in town.”
“Then that’s what we’ll always do,” Caroline agreed.
“How are things coming along at the mill?” Jed asked.
“I think when we’re finished, it will be better than it was before. They’ve got the privy up and painted, and the men have most of the office framed in. It’s larger than the previous one; it even has a little extra room for storage and supplies.”
“Did you paint the privy red and white like Dad said?” Garrett asked.
“You bet we did,” Caroline said, amused. “Especially the bright-red door on the front of it. No one will ever mistake it for anything else now.”
“Who’s that riding up the drive?” Nathan asked.
Caroline shaded her eyes. “Looks like Sheriff Newman. He must have heard about our trouble at the mill.”
The sheriff rode over. “Howdy, folks.”
“Randy,” Nathan said. “We didn’t expect you to ride all the way out here. I was planning on riding in to Napa in the morning.”
“It goes with my job, folks. Who told you already?”
“We were there, Sheriff,” Caroline said. “I’m the one he tried to kill.”
“Ben Slatter tried to kill you?” Newman asked.
“I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing,” Jed said. “You didn’t ride out here to ask about the incident at the mill yesterday, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. I came about the incident in town today.”
“Sounds like we’re talking in circles. Let’s go up to the house and discuss all this,” Nathan advised.
Once they were settled inside, Caroline brought out lemonade and a cake she had baked that morning.
“I’d like to know what happened at the mill if it involves the law,” the sheriff said.
“Well, Sheriff, I had gone to the mill to work on the ledgers. As I was preparing to leave, someone fired a shot at me through the office window,” she began.
The sheriff listened silently as she related the whole incident.
“And you have the names of the other six men who witnessed Bomber’s confession and death?”
Nathan got the list of the men’s names from his study, and Newman folded it neatly and put it in his shirt pocket. “Since I’m so close now, I’ll ride over to your mill and speak briefly to these men. I can’t see why there would be any future problem over the incident.”
“Thank you, Randy,” Nathan said. “Now, why did you ride out here today?”
“On an equally unpleasant matter. Jed, do you have a cousin named Rico Fraser?”
“Yes, I do. What about him?” Jed asked.
“There’s a young man in town who claims to be your cousin. Seems he had a confrontation with Ben Slatter and his gang. They beat him up pretty brutally and were about to hang him when I got there.”
Jed jumped to his feet. “Hang him!”
“Slatter did a real job on him. Don’t remember ever seeing a man in such shape. Doc Rivers stitched up what he could but said the fellow’s pretty busted up. Couple broken ribs, broken nose. Might lose an eye, too. Doc’s not sure about that. And Slatter busted up the man’s right hand with the handle of his Colt.”
“Is he going to make it?” Jed asked.
“Doc ain’t making any promises right now.”
“Oh, dear God!” Caroline exclaimed.
“Jed, would you mind riding into town to make sure it’s your cousin?”
“You bet I will.”
“I’ll come with you, Jed,” Caroline said.
Within minutes they were headed for town.
“I’ve got him pretty heavily sedated,” the doctor said. “He’s been slipping in and out of consciousness for the last few hours.”
Rico’s face was so badly swollen that it would have been difficult to identify him if it weren’t for his hat and boots in the corner of the room. Caroline recognized them at once.
“Caroline, I’ve got a couple of telegrams to send,” Jed said. “I don’t know how to contact my Aunt Elena, but I’m sure my brothers will know.”