The sun was shining. The violent storm had ceased during the night, the muddy trail was already beginning to dry under the sun's intense heat, and the horses were drawing the wagon forward with new enthusiasm.
Glancing at the driver's seat beside him, Reed saw Chastity staring at the passing landscape. He had been the first to awaken that morning, and he was glad. It had allowed him the opportunity for a few minutes of silent thought as Chastity lay pressed intimately close against him. But she had awakened too soon for him to get a clear perspective on the events of the day and night past, other than to know with un-shaking certainty that he could not get enough of her.
Chastity had opened her mouth to speak, and he had swallowed her words with his kiss. She had turned toward him, and he had enveloped her in his embrace. She had given herself to him, and he had consumed her voraciously. And he had despised the moment when he had been forced to surrender her at last to reality, and had to don his parson's clothing again for the trail ahead.
Strangely, there had been little conversation between them as the morning hours passed. Knowing the need to steadily survey the passing landscape so he might follow Jenkins's directions with as little deviation as possible, he had forced aside all personal thoughts. He had noted belatedly as he turned toward Chastity a short time earlier that her gaze had grown increasingly contemplative.
A whispered word had turned her toward him then, and he had been momentarily breathless at the sight of her. Her hair, loosely confined, bobbed in fiery wisps against the graceful contours of her cheek. Pensive sparks of green glittered in her gaze, her creamy skin was touched with color by the morning sun, and her lips were parted in warm appeal. It occurred to him that he had never seen a woman more beautiful than she was at that moment. When he touched his mouth to hers, he had been hard pressed not to take her into his arms, then and there.
But Chastity's pensive posture had gradually become more rigid as the morning passed. Silent, she now clutched her locket tightly in her hand. Her eyes were narrowed, her lips compressed in a tight line as she scrutinized the passing landscape.
Closing his hand over the fist she clenched in her lap, Reed asked softly, "What's wrong, Chastity?"
Chastity turned toward him, uncertain. "I don't know. There's something about the land… it's familiar to me, but I know I've never been here before."
He questioned, "Are you sure?"
"My aunts found me in Texas. They brought me directly back to their home in the East. This is Indian Territory. I know they never would have brought me here. They couldn't wait to get back to civilization."
Reed frowned. "Maybe this land resembles a place you saw with your family."
"No… that's not it." Chastity's knuckles whitened around her locket. He saw the effort she made to draw her mind back as she asked, "How soon do you think we'll reach the mission, Reed?"
The question took him by surprise. "I'm not sure.
Maybe a day… maybe two."
Lies.
"What will you do then?"
He could not manage another lie. "I'm not sure."
Chastity shook her head. "What do you mean?"
"I have to find out how things stand at the mission first."
"Oh." Hearing the hesitation in Chastity's voice, Reed asked, "Why?"
"Because…" Chastity took a breath, her gaze silently intense. "…
Because my sisters are close.
I can feel it."
"Close?
Where?"
"I don't know."
Apprehension slowly coming to life within him, Reed pressed, "What are you trying to say?"
"I can't stay at the mission, Reed, not until you get everything settled. It'll take too long. I need to start looking for my sisters now or I may never find them.''
"But you said"
"I know. I said I'd stay until another teacher could be sent to take over the mission, but I can't."
Reed did not respond. He wanted to tell her it would be no longer than a week, maybe two, before he finished his business with Morgan and his gang. He wanted to confess that the situation wasn't what she believed it to be, that there was too much danger in a change of plans that was not thought through. He wanted to tell her that he'd take her anywhere she wanted to go, then, but too many lies were in the way. They tied his tongue, allowing the only reply he could make.
"Are you sure that's what you want?"
"I don't want to leave you, Reed. You know that, don't you?" The torment in Chastity's eyes tore at his heart as she continued, "But I have this feeling… this sudden certainty deep down inside me that if I wait too long, my chance to find them will pass."
Reed could not respond.
"Reed, please try to understand. I made the commitment to find my sisters a long time ago. I made it to them as much as I made it to myself, and I can't abandon it. If I did, it would be like abandoning
them
. I couldn't do that, Reed. You do understand, don't you?"
Yes, he understood about commitments only too well.
"Reed…"
Reed frowned, all joy seeming to drain from his heart as he replied, "I understand."
"It's a good thing I took the time to pack us something' to eat."
Bartell glanced up again at the afternoon sky,
then
turned toward Turner when he did not respond. Turner's jowled face was fixed in a scowl. He had had the same look since they saddled up and rode off with Morgan's warning ringing in their ears.
Bartell slanted another sideward look at Turner. It was Turner's fault that the steers had broken loose in the storm. He was supposed to have fixed the fencing and he didn't. But he wasn't about to remind Turner about it. It was bad enough that they had been in the saddle most of the morning without finding even half of the steers that were lost. They had herded the ones they'd located into a spot where the grazing was good enough to keep them for a while, with Turner's disposition growing worse by the minute. It wasn't just that Turner wasn't in the mood to work. He never was. This was different. Something was eating at him, and Bartell had a feeling that he wasn't going to have to wait long to find out what it was.
"I've had enough of him, you know! Who in hell does Morgan think he is, talkin' to us like he does?" Turner spat on the ground beside him,
then
jerked his mount's bridle with a viciousness that elicited a sharp whinny of pro test. "He's gettin' worse all the time. I was willin' to go along with the things he did at first, because he's smarter than most of the lawmen around. I had to hand it to him when he got the idea of rustlin' Texas cattle and drivin' them over the line into Indian Territory where Texas law couldn't touch us. I figured it was real smart of him to realize that a Texas lawman would have a hard time tryin' to find a local sheriff who'd be willin' to put his life on the line for somethin' that didn't directly concern him. I figured
we didn't have nothin' to worry about
." Turner gave a low snort. "I never figured Morgan would get crazy like he is."
"He ain't crazy."
"He ain't?" Turner raised a hairy brow. "What do you think would've happened if we said we
wasn't
goin' to go after them steers like he said?"
Bartell shrugged. "I don't know. And I wasn't about to find out."
"I'll tell you what would've happened. He would've pulled his gun and put a bullet in both of us."
"He wouldn't go that far."
"Would you bet your life on it?"
Bartell did not respond.
"That's what I thought."
"So, what're you goin' to do about it?"
"Me?" Turner shrugged. "I ain't doin' nothin' about itnot until Morgan sells that herd and I have my share in my hand. And then I'm goin' to hightail it out of here so fast"
"You're makin' a mistake." Raising his hat, Bartell wiped the sweat from his balding head. "We both know what's got Morgan all hot and bothered, and it ain't no steers that run off durin' the night."
"I'm sick and tired of hearin' about that red-haired woman!"
"A little bit of her and he'll be fine again.
Didn't you never have
the hots for a woman?"
"No, not like him.
Hell, one woman's as good as another to me!"
"He'll settle down."
"If everythin' goes his way."
"I never did see a woman who could turn him down."
"Maybe
not,
and just maybe this one will be the first. Whatever, I ain't goin' back to the cabin tonight."
"What are you sayin'?"
"And neither are you."
"Speak for yourself!"
"Wait a minute. Hear me out!" Turner sneered. "Morgan told us not to come back until we find them steers, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, we'll just take our time findin' them. We'll go back tomorrow late drivin' those steers in just like he told us. The boys should have almost all the brandin' done by then. It would serve Morgan right if he ended up doin' my part of the brandin', and yours, too."
Bartell did not reply.
"What can Morgan say? He told us not to come back without every one of them steers."
"We have to find them first, which might not be as easy as you're thinkin'."
"We'll have them all rounded up in another hour."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Look over there." Turner pointed toward a grassy knoll in the distance. "How much to do you want to bet we find them steers waitin' for us there?"
"And when we do?"
"We just lay ourselves down in a nice, shady spot for a while."
Bartell paused. He was as sick of Morgan's ways as Turner was. And he would enjoy putting one over on Morgan just as much as Turner, too. What could Morgan do about it if they showed up with all the cattle, just like he'd told them to? Bartell shrugged. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
"I'm bettin' them fellas back at the cabin are sweatin' over them brandin' irons right now."
"And cursin' up a storm…"
That thought tickling
him,
Turner laughed aloud, then kicked his mount into a gallop.
Daylight was fading. Reed had drawn the wagon to a halt for the night. He was tending to the horses while Chastity walked off along the narrow stream where they had camped.
Chastity stared at the glistening trickle of water, at the sun's setting rays reflected there. A myriad of feelings overwhelmed her, things she could not truly put into words. By accompanying Reed on his journey to the mission, she had put parts of her past to rest in ways she had never thought she could. She had faced her nightmare in the rushing water of the gully, and she had conquered it. She knew she would never be a slave to it again.
But with each passing hour, new sensations grew stronger. The sun on her shoulders, the scent of the passing landscape, the vastness that surrounded her in all directions, the lighthearted freedom it all evoked that warmed her heart and raised her spirits all were familiar to her in ways she could not explain, except to know with ever-increasing certainty that she was, indeed, coming home.
Suddenly aware that she was trembling, Chastity raised a hand to eyes that were moist. She turned abruptly at the sound of a step behind her.
Reed stood beside her, the startling blue of his eyes so intense that they seemed to touch her soul. "Why are you crying?"
She avoided his gaze. "I'm not crying."
Reed wiped the moistness from her cheek with his palm.
How could she explain to him how she felt? How could she say that she had discovered a truth she had not expected during the dark hours of the storm that his arms were a haven she had sought all her life, without knowing it? How could she say that when she lay with her flesh pressed close to his, there was no past or future, only the present and the shattering emotions he made her feel? How could she say that right here and now, when he looked at her as if there was nothing in the world more important than the two of them, and there was nowhere else she wanted to be?
How could she say all that, and in the next breath tell him she was willing to say good-bye?
"Chastity, don't torment yourself, please, darling."
"Oh, Reed, I wish…"
Conflicting emotions warred in Reed's gaze as Chastity's words trailed away. She saw the resolution slowly overwhelming him as he whispered, "There are things you must do, and there are things I must do. We're both bound to follow paths in separate directions." Grasping her arms, Reed continued more intently, "But we don't have to think of that here and now. This place is ours. And today is ours. Tomorrow is hours away. The world can't intrude here. It's just the two of us now, Chastity."