Ask No Tomorrows (6 page)

“
No, ma’am.” Sam shook his head. “We ain’t stuck at all. You
just need to get into the nearest town and tell the Sheriff what is
going on at your place, that’s all. And I will be on my way; I’ll
get me another horse and be on my way, you hear?”

Riley
continued to doctor him as he sat facing her and he batted her
hands away from him. She continued nonetheless.

“
On
your way, where?” Riley asked in a soft voice.

“
Never you mind. Now you listen to me. You’ve had some
troubles, but a Sheriff can straighten this out for you. You just
gotta find one. They ain’t gonna be lookin’ for you as they think
you are the one I buried. The one that got away thinks you’re dead.
That’s in your favor. He’ll more than likely ride back to your
ranch and tell them you are dead. That gives you an edge, at least
for a while. They ain’t gonna be out lookin’ for ya.”

“
They think I’m the one you buried?” she began. “You’ve done me
another favor, it would seem. So the way I see it, I owe you. You
couldn’t get rid of me now, if you tried.”

“
You don’t owe me, and what’s to understand, so they tried to
run you off your own land. It’s still you’re land…But you gotta get
it straight and fast, too.”

“
They were gonna talk to my lawyer and get him to fix it so it
wouldn’t be mine anymore,” Riley said. “They as much as said they
think I’m crazy. Do you know how easy it is for a man to declare a
woman crazy in this country? Others talk about me a lot because I
don’t socialize like most of the women folk. I wear pants and work
like a ranch hand. Women get very little respect in this part of
the country if they work for a living.”

“
But you’re not crazy, even I know that. And now is your time
to prove it.” He barely breathed the words. “Still, you’re right,
women ain’t got much more rights than blacks. And you’re right, I
seen it happen once. Man was married, had an eye for her younger
sister. He put his wife away in one of them prisons and he married
her sister a year later. The woman never got free. She wasn’t crazy
when he put her in there, but I reckon in time she might have gone
plum nuts.”

She stared
down at him, her hand stilling. “You think I’m crazy?”

“
Well, from what I’ve seen, no. Except for comin’ back here,
you sure ain’t usin’ your head. But all you gotta do is get to town
and tell the Sheriff and your troubles are over. Just like I told
you,” Sam explained. “They won’t be following you
today.”

“
You just don’t understand, no one would believe me, and would
think me crazy for sayin’ it.” She turned away. “Around here,
they’d be on Harry’s side.”

“
Look, I don’t think you are crazy…ma’am,” Sam finally
admitted. “Just mixed up is all. And it’s understandable seeing as
how they are chasin’ you.”

She looked at
him and a slow smile spread across her face. “Thanks! That means a
lot to me that you don’t think I’m crazy. You’ve every reason
to.”

“
But stayin’ with me
is
crazy…” Sam remarked.

Chapter Four

“
No…you’re wrong. It isn’t crazy at all. It’s self-survival.
You’re a man, a man taught by the Shawnee, said so yourself. You
know more than I do about how to survive. I’m a greenhorn when it
comes to that. Stayin’ with you is a wise thing to do. Just face it
Sam, I’m gonna stick close to you ‘til I’m sure I’m safe.” She
smiled. “You and this here dog.”

Sam groaned.
This would never do. How could he make her understand?

Fool woman. Black men didn’t take up with white women. Didn’t
she have a lick of sense? Maybe she
was
crazy.

“
Never did ask you, where you’re headed.” She put the aloe on
the ground and smeared the last of it near his neck. After getting
over the indignity of being half naked in front of her, he sighed
and enjoyed the sweet touch of her healing hands.

“
West…” Sam snapped.

“
West, just West?” She twisted her head as she laid her hand
still at his shoulder.

“
That’s right.”

“
Why? What’s out there, besides outlaws and
Indians?”

“
Why what?” Sam grunted as he tried to get to his feet and
thought better of it.

“
Why West?”

“
Well, it ain’t your concern, but I kinda wanted to see what
Arizona territory was like,” Sam answered, reaching for the shirt
he’d laid in the dirt. “Heard they got some real pretty mountains.
Texas don’t have any real mountains to speak of.”

Riley eyed him
now. She watched his every move. She moved toward the fire now,
tying up the plant she had gotten. “Arizona, huh? Lots of Apache in
Arizona, I’ve heard tell. No trees out there according to a hand my
father once hired. Nothing to see there but desert and mountains,
just cactus and dust. Ever worked a ranch, Sam?”

“
You sure do change the subject a lot.” He frowned at her and
started to put the shirt on.

She pulled at
the shirt. “Let the aloe sink in and do its work, then you can put
the shirt on. If you put it on now, it’ll just stick. Besides,
those sores need some air. And stop bein’ so shy, I seen a man’s
chest before.”

“
Maybe, but not mine, you haven’t.”

“
Well.” She smiled shyly. “You’re right there, ain’t seen a
chest that pretty in my life. So are you any good at ranchin’?” she
asked.

“
Never did much except a little fence mendin’. I’m more a
cattleman. And I ain’t pretty and don’t you be remarkin’ as
such.”

“
Most white men have hair on their chest. You are slick as a
whistle. The aloe won’t let you scar either, so you’ll stay pretty
too. Cattle, huh? Well, I got plenty of beef. If you can get me
back to my ranch, Sam, I’ll hire you as my foreman.” Riley
smiled.

“
Oh
you would, would you? That’s a pretty fool notion, you don’t even
know if I’m any good,” Sam protested. “I might be the worst rancher
you ever saw.”

He chucked the
shirt, but moved deliberately away from her. He looked at her up
and down as though deciding about her. She sure was a little
misfit, but those eyes belonged to an angel, he was sure. No one
could have eyes like that and not have seen heaven
itself.

“
I
got a notion you’re good at a lot of things, Sam.” Riley
laughed.

Sam’s head
shot up and he eyed her again. He spit on the ground as though
that’s what he thought of her ranch.

Sam studied
her for a long moment, wishing more personal things didn’t come to
mind with that statement. But Riley was a force to be dealt with,
and Sam wasn’t sure how to handle her. “That ain’t a very lady-like
thing to say.”

“
I’m not trying very hard to be a lady.” Riley stared back.
“You’ll get used to it, Sam; I speak my mind most of the time. I
been raised like that.”

“
Look, helpin’ you Riley would be like askin’ for trouble.
Now…I appreciate the fact that you are healin’ me, and that you
came back because of me, but I can make out just fine alone. Better
in fact, without you. And you…well, it’s safe now to go into a town
and tell the Sheriff or Marshall what’s happened. They think you’re
dead. They aren’t gonna be lookin’ for you. All you gotta do is get
to town. You’re a woman, they’d believe you,” Sam said as she put
the plant down, gathered some dirt around it and packed it into a
small knapsack. She tied it with ribbon and stuffed it into his
saddle bags.

“
Yeah, I’m a woman.” She turned around to look at him once
again. “But that doesn’t mean much. The closest thing to a Sheriff
in these parts is Tom Snider. He works out of the Marshall’s office
from Waco; him and Waco Smith with the rangers keeps tabs on things
in the area, but we don’t have a Sheriff within’ a hundred miles of
us. Harry and Tom are thick as thieves. Harry’s already got him
thinkin’ I don’t know anything about ranchin’,” Riley said, her
brow rising with each word. “They made a real point of laughing at
me the last time I was around them. So much so I couldn’t stomach
them.”

“
Do
you?” Sam asked.

“
Do
I what?”

“
Know anything about ranchin’?” Sam asked, staring at her. The
more he looked at her, the more he liked looking. He had to find
something to keep his mind off her.

“‘
Course I do. I’ve been at it all my life. My daddy raised a
son, not a lady. Can’t you tell?” She paused as though reflecting
on it. “With Ma gone he didn’t need a lady. He taught me all there
was to know about ranchin’. But Harry’s made remarks around Tom,
and Tom believin’ every word too. He’s been slowly turnin’ him away
from thinkin’ I can run the place. I can see all this now. It’s
been building for some time. I put no stock in Harry’s ramblings
before, but now I can see what it was about, I realize that I was
foolish. I guess Harry had it all figured out, after my Pa died.
Yeah, I can see that now. Don’t know what took me so long to figure
this all out. It took him a while to plant all these wild ideas
about me. How he knew more about what to do with the herd, and how
to make the ranch make money. That all I was good for is the book
work. It’s the one thing Harry couldn’t do. Now that it’s too late
to do any good. Daddy warned me about men before he died. Said
there would be men who’d want to marry me just to get the land. And
others who’d try to steal it out from under me. He was right. I
just wasn’t lookin’ in the right places, is all.”

Sam shook his
head. “It’s still legally yours, by your father’s will, isn’t that
correct?”

“
Yeah…sure.”

“
Legally they can’t touch you,” Sam said. “They’d have to kill
you or have you declared unable to take care of yourself. You look
capable to me.”

She sighed
heavily, rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Only I’m supposed to
be a little bit dead, according to you. Easy enough done, Sam. How
do you know so much about the law?” Riley asked.

“
I
don’t really. But I know enough, I studied a little while I lived
on the reservation. Chase Rivers had me checkin’ out legal rights
for the tribe a time or two when they went to Washington about the
land rights and the reservations.”

“
Why you?” she asked, turning her attention on him.

“
Why me what?”

“
Why did they choose you to check it out?”

He hesitated
then firmed his lips and stared at her. “‘Cause I learned to read
the Law books. I was taught in the mission by a Catholic priest how
to read Latin. I wanted to talk to the Indians and Mexicans at the
mission, make friends, figured if I learned more about their
language they’d talk to me. I learned Latin and they
did.”

“
Were you able to help the Indians?”

“
For the time being, we did.” Sam nodded. “‘Course they made
new laws, and changed the treaties a time or two. It seemed like
every time they had a law that would help the Indians, they soon
had another that would put him in his place.” Sam checked the
cinches on his horse as he hung the shovel around the saddle
horn.

“
Must have been exciting living with them.”

“
I
guess you could call it that. I learned a lot, yes. I wouldn’t
trade it for anything; safest place on earth to live.”

“
You said they think I’m dead?” Riley glanced at the grave in
the distance. “That gives me a little advantage, I guess. But I
wonder if it’s enough?”

“
You ain’t gonna know that ‘til you talk to them. I don’t see
why you aren’t already there, talking to them.”

“
They won’t waste any time drawing the papers up on my land,”
Riley argued. “Harry was mentioned in dad’s will. Dad thought a lot
of him. I guess he wasn’t a very good judge of character either. I
know exactly what Harry is up to. I heard the whole thing while I
hid out. It won’t be hard for him to get that lawyer to work for
him.”

“
Sounds like you and your dad were a little too trusting.” Sam
sighed. “So what do you want to do, go shoot them dead?”

“
Could we?” Riley asked, turning to look at him point
blank.

“
Riley!” Sam shouted, shaking his head in disgust.

“
You said so yourself, it’s
my
land.” Riley came closer. “Look Sam, I’m not dead, and I’m not
crazy. I did nothing to encourage this whole thing, I’m the victim.
I’m also no fool. But I’d do better getting a big city lawyer to
defend me than any of these hoosiers. They’d back off
then.”

“
Why don’t you go to Dallas then, talk to some of those big
city lawyers and see what they can do?” Sam said in
exasperation.

“
They are stealin’ my lawyer, I’ll have to find
another.”

She sighed,
then looked at him.

“
With a town that big there should be more than one lawyer.
That’s a dandy idea, Sam. Lets head for Dallas, then,” Riley
suggested, turning back to the horse and checking the
cinches.

“
I
don’t recall sayin’ I’d go with you, Riley.” Sam frowned and
adjusted his hat, then stared at her slumped shoulders.