Dangerous Men (Flynn Family Saga Book 2) (10 page)

Melanie nodded.  “For that.  And
other things.  They say our religion is just a hoax.”

“What do you think?”

Melanie was silent a long time.  “There
was a time, before I met Daniel, when I doubted.  My parents were worried about
me, but Daniel said that I had the right to choose my own belief.”  She
sighed.  “That’s what convinced me.  He trusted me enough to let me find my own
way to faith.”

“’By their fruits ye shall know
them,’” Maggie murmured.

Startled, Melanie stared at her.  “You’ve
read the Bible?”

Maggie nodded.  “From cover to
cover.”

“What do you believe?”

Maggie looked away.  “I don’t
know.  I used to be a Catholic, when we lived in New York.  Then, we moved to
Lawrenceville with my grandparents.  They didn’t go to church, so I didn’t go. 
But they believed in God with a faith like yours.”

“And you don’t?”

Maggie sighed.  “I believe God
exists.  I just don’t trust him.”

“Why not?”

Maggie blinked.  “Do you know how
my parents died?”

Melanie shook her head.

Maggie looked away from her
friend.  “My father was a drunk.  He beat my mother to death and killed
himself.  I prayed so hard...”

Melanie reached through the bars
and squeezed Maggie’s hand.  “For him to be healed?”

Maggie nodded.  She bowed her
head.  Her tears fell onto both her hand and Melanie’s.

Melanie sighed.  “I struggled with
that when my brother was killed in the war.”

Maggie lifted her head.  “What
happened to change your mind?”

“I asked Daniel how he could
believe in a loving God when there was so much ugliness in the world.  He said
that the good comes from God.  The bad doesn’t.”

Maggie’s head came up abruptly.  "As
simple as that?"

Melanie nodded.

Maggie drew a deep breath.  “Thank
you.  That helps.”

“You’re welcome.”

Maggie watched her go.  Then, she
sighed.  She was still worried about Flynn.

*  *  *

The day passed slowly, but it
passed.  Ben and Frank ate supper with her.  Ben told her all that had happened
that day.  Then, they started bickering about Frank’s coffee.

Maggie smiled.

“What are you grinning at?”  Frank
tried to scowl.

Maggie shook her head.  “I love to
hear you two fight.”

“Why?”

Her grin broadened.  “Because I
know you don’t mean it.”

Ben laughed.  “She found us out,
Frank.”

Frank nodded.

“Ben!  Frank!  Where in tarnation
are you?  There’s work to be done!”  Sam’s voice boomed like the crack of doom.

Frank sighed and stood up.  “Good
night, Magpie.”

Maggie smiled.  “Good night, Frank.” 
She shut her eyes and tried to sleep, but she was too worried about Flynn.

“Maggie?”

Maggie opened her eyes.  Kate stood
just outside the bars.  She carried a book with her.  “Are you too old for bedtime
stories?”

Tears filled Maggie’s eyes.  “No,
Mama.  I’m not.”

Kate smiled.  “Good.”  She opened
the book and cleared her throat.  “It was the best of times; it was the worst
of times...”

Maggie shut her eyes.  She fell
asleep listening to the sound of Kate’s voice.  She dreamed of the ravine where
the outlaws had ambushed Flynn and the Lonnegans.  She saw them beat Flynn, as
clearly as if she stood behind them.  She woke with a cry.

“Easy, Magpie.  It was just a
dream.”

She opened her eyes.  Flynn stood
on the other side of the bars.  His face was unmarked, and he grinned at her. 
Tears filled her eyes, and she looked away.

Flynn touched her hand.  “Ben told
me what happened.”  He hesitated.  “Thank you, Maggie.”

Maggie swallowed hard.  “You’d do
the same for me.”

He nodded.  “Yes, but I don’t know
any other woman who—”  He stopped speaking.

Maggie grinned.  “Did you just call
me a woman?”

Flynn grinned.  “It must be the
hunger.  I haven’t eaten all day.”

Maggie’s grin faded.  “Are you all
right?”

He nodded.  “There was no sign of
them, Magpie.”

She shut her eyes and sighed.  “Thank
God.”

“Flynn!  Where the devil have you
been?”

“Horatio picked up a stone.  I had
to walk the last few miles.”

While Flynn talked, Sam unlocked
the jail wagon.  Flynn opened the door and helped Maggie down.  Then, he turned
and strode quickly toward Sam’s wagon.  “Frank!  Is there anything left to eat?”

“Well, if you got here in time for
dinner...”

Maggie smiled faintly.  “Papa?”

Sam looked at her.  “Yes, Maggie?”

“Sometimes—sometimes, I think he
cares about me.”

Sam sighed.  “I know Flynn cares
about you.  I just don’t know if it’s the way you want him to.”

Maggie nodded.  Tears blurred her
vision.  “I want—when I held Melanie’s baby, I wanted things I’ve never wanted
before.”

Sam’s laid his large hand on her
shoulder.  “You deserve those things, Magpie.  Someday, you’ll meet someone who’ll
give them to you.”

Maggie swallowed hard.  She didn’t
want
someone
.  She wanted Flynn.  She walked slowly back to the picket
line and began to groom Sebastian.  She hoped with all her heart that Flynn
would come, but he didn’t.

That night, she cried herself to
sleep.

CHAPTER
TEN

Flynn avoided her for the rest of
the trip.  Night after night, she waited for him to come: to the picket line,
to her bedroll.  But he stayed away.  At meals, he was polite, but distant.

At first, Maggie cried herself to
sleep, but she remembered her mother, how her whole world revolved around
Michael, and she forced herself to take an interest in Melanie and the babies
and the other people on the train.

Then, they reached the Sierras. 
The passes were free of snow, but the sides were slick with ice.

Sam sighed.  “We’ll have to wait
until it melts off.”

“What if it doesn’t?”  Kate stood
beside him and stared at the sheer sides of the mountain.

Sam shook his head.  “I keep a
reserve, Kate.  For emergencies like this.”

She nodded and stared at the
mountains.  “I hope you don’t have to use it, Sam.”

“So do I.  I was kind of planning
on using it to buy a spread.  There’s one for sale near Ben’s place.  It’s got
good grazing land.  We could build a house and—”

Kate shook her head.  She turned
and looked back at the line of wagons.  “I love this life, Sam.  I don’t ever
want to give it up.”

Sam’s breath caught.  He took both
of Kate’s hands in his and squeezed them.

Maggie watched them together and
smiled.  She walked away silently.  She started down the line to check the
wagons.  She took special care with Melanie’s wagon.

The work was hard, and she was
yawning before she had finished her supper.  She rolled herself up in her
blanket, but a cold wind blew from the mountains, and she shivered.

A shadow fell over her.  Flynn
stood for a moment, looking down at her.  Then, he covered her with a blanket. 
Maggie recognized the pattern.  Woman Who Dreams had a similar blanket, except
this one had the pattern of an eagle in flight woven into the center, instead
of a horse.  Maggie licked her lips.  “Thank you, Eagle Heart,” she whispered.

He looked surprised.  Then, slowly,
he smiled.  “Good night, Fire-haired Woman.”  He turned and walked away.

Maggie lay awake a long time,
wondering what emotions she had seen in his dark eyes.

*  *  *

Three days later, a warm wind blew
in from the south.  Maggie helped the settlers load their wagons.  Then, they
started up the steep side of the mountain.  It was slow going.  Once, Sebastian
slipped, and Maggie held her breath, but the big horse recovered his footing
and continued up the mountain.

When they reached the top, Maggie
heard Kate gasp.  “Oh, Maggie.  You said it was beautiful, but I didn’t
realize...”

Maggie smiled.  She slapped the
reins on Sebastian’s back, and her team joined the procession across the green
and fertile valley.

*  *  *

In the morning, Sam stood in the
center of the circle of wagons, just as he had the year before.  “When you
joined this train in St. Jo, I thought to myself that this was the sorriest
bunch of greenhorns I’d ever seen.”  Laughter greeted this declaration.  He
grinned.  “Of course, I say that every year.  I’ve watched you grow and change,
and I’m proud of you, every single one of you.”

Maggie said good-bye to all the
settlers.  Melanie held her hands tightly for a long time.  “I’ll miss you,
Maggie.”

Maggie nodded.  Her throat ached at
the thought of never seeing the twins again.  “I’ll miss you, too.  You and the
twins.”

“Come and visit us next year.”

Maggie nodded.  “I will.”

Melanie squeezed her hands one more
time.  Then, she climbed nimbly into her husband’s wagon.

Daniel smiled warmly and Maggie and
touched his hat.

Maggie smiled back.

“Well I’ll be...”

Maggie turned.  Sam stood behind
her, smiling from ear to ear.  Slowly, he sobered, and his face reddened
slightly.  “Kate and I will be staying in San Francisco for a while.  Ben has
offered to put you up with his family until—until—”

“Until the honeymoon’s over?” 
Maggie grinned.

“Sixteen going on sixty,” Sam
muttered.

“Seventeen,” Maggie corrected.

Sam laughed.

*  *  *

A week later, Maggie and Ben rode
north along the coast.  The little packhorse Maggie had named Sancho Panza
trotted along behind them, carrying Maggie’s trunk and Ben’s duffel bag.  The
road wound upward through the mountains.  Maggie stared in wonder at the Pacific
Ocean.

“You grew up in Manhattan, didn’t
you?”

Maggie nodded.  “But I never saw
the Atlantic.  We lived on the Hudson River, and I never went further east than
Fifth Avenue.”

Ben shook his head.  “What was like
growing up in a big city?”

The memory of the sounds and smells
of the saloon assaulted her.  Maggie’s jaw tightened.  “Terrible.”  She kicked
Patches and rode ahead until Ben caught up to her.

“I’m sorry, Magpie.”

Maggie sighed.  “It’s all right,
Ben.  You had no way of knowing.”

Ben was silent a long time.  “I
guess we all have our demons to fight.”

Maggie reined in Patches.  She
looked east, toward the mountains.  She thought about Flynn spending the winter
alone in a cabin with his demons.  She shivered.

“Come on, Maggie.  I want to see
Emma and kiss my kids.”  Ben kicked Lightning and picked up the pace.

Maggie urged Patches forward.  As
soon as she caught up to him, she said, “I didn’t know you had kids.”

Ben nodded.  “I’m not much of a
rancher, so I have to work for Sam to make ends meet.  Emma, God bless her,
keeps the home fires burning all summer.”  He reined in Lightning and pulled
out daguerreotype.  A black-haired woman stood beside a much younger Ben.  Her
face wasn’t beautiful in the popular sense, but there was a kindness, a
gentleness that reminded Maggie of her grandmother.  Ben cleared his throat.  “Of
course, that picture was taken a while ago.”

Maggie nodded.  “She looks like a
lovely woman, Ben.”

Ben grinned.  “You should see our
kids.”

Maggie laughed.  “I will if you
keep moving.”

Ben laughed with her.  They rode
on.

They reached Ben’s clapboard ranch
house a little before sunset.  A tall woman with black hair stood on the
porch.  “Ben!”  She hiked up her skirts and ran to him.

Laughing, Ben jumped off his
horse.  He picked Emma up and swung her around.  They kissed.

Blushing, Maggie looked away.

“Emma, this is Maggie.  She’s the
kid I wrote you about, the one who lost her parents.”

Emma smiled.  “Come on in.  I saved
some supper, just in case Ben showed up tonight.”

Maggie followed Emma Brewster into
her home.  The kitchen was clean.  The table was made of rough-hewn boards,
reminding Maggie of her grandmother's kitchen.  She helped Emma set the table. 
A boy came in from the barn.  He smiled at her shyly.  He had his mother’s dark
hair and his father’s blue eyes.  “Hello.”

“Maggie, this is my son, Billy.” 
Ben put his arm on Billy’s shoulder.

Billy held out his hand, looked at
it and rubbed it against his pants.

Emma put her hands on her hips.  “Billy
Brewster, what have I told you about washing your hands before you come into
the house?”

Billy blushed.  “Sorry, Ma.”  He
went back outside.  Maggie heard the sound of a pump.

A little girl peeked around the
corner.

Ben’s grin broadened.  “And this
beauty is my Jessica.  Come in here, honey.”

Smiling as shyly as her brother,
Jessica entered the kitchen.  Ben picked her up and set her on his lap.  Jessica
had Ben’s pale hair and large, brown eyes like her mother.  The little girl stared
at Maggie a long time.  “Are you a boy or a girl?”

“Jessica!”  Emma’s tone was sharp.

Maggie merely laughed.  “I’m a
girl.  My name is Maggie.”  She held out her hand.  “Pleased to meet you,
Jessica.”

“That’s Aunt Maggie,” Emma
corrected gently.

Jessica took Maggie’s hand
solemnly.  “Pleased to meet you, Aunt Maggie.”

Billy came back into the kitchen. 
His hands and face were clean.  He sat down across from Maggie.

Dinner was simple: chicken and
dumplings, and the gravy was smooth and savory.

That night, Maggie slept in a bed
down the hall from Ben and Emma.  Their house reminded her of grandparents’ in
so many ways from the china pitcher and basin on the washstand to the patchwork
quilt on the narrow bed.  Maggie lay awake a long time, remembering.  When she
shut her eyes, she saw her grandfather fighting for every breath, her
grandmother thrashing around in the throes of delirium.  Maggie’s throat ached.

Morning dawned clear and warm. 
Maggie got up and went to the barn.  She picked up a pitchfork and began to
muck out the stables.

Billy arrived a while later,
yawning and rubbing his eyes.  He tried to take the pitchfork away from her.  “You
don’t have to do that, Miss Anders.”

Maggie shook her head.  “I don’t
mind, Billy.  And the name is Maggie.”

Billy smiled and nodded.  He
brought in fresh water and hay for the horses.  They worked together in companionable
silence.

Breakfast was simple, but there
wasn’t quite enough of it.  Maggie wondered why the ranch didn’t make more
money.  After she helped Emma clean up, she saddled Patches and went for a
ride.

Then, she knew.  The ground was too
rocky for grass to grow.  A little further up the mountain was a meadow with a
barbed-wire fence around it.

An armed rider with a pock-marked
face rode up to the fence.  "This is Barclay land.  Keep off."

Maggie stiffened.  "What makes
you think I'd trespass."

The man shrugged.  "I have my
orders.  Set foot on this land, and I'll kill that little horse of yours."

Maggie drew her pistol swiftly, and
the man's face paled.  "You could try," she said softly.

He opened his mouth and shut it. 
"Just stay off this land!"  He turned and rode away.

Maggie watched until he was out of
sigh.  Then, she sighed and rode back to the ranch house.  She ate a skimpy
lunch and tried to think of a way to help her friends.  “Who owns the meadow?”

“Terence Barclay.  He owns half of San
Francisco.”

Maggie took a bite of her
sandwich.  “But he doesn’t have any horses or cattle grazing on it.”

Emma nodded.  “The land sits
empty.  We’ve offered to buy it, but he won’t sell.”

Maggie sighed.  “I guess it’s like
those outlaws who attacked the Lonnegans.  They smashed Ellie Lonnegan's china
for no reason!  Some people are just plain mean.”

Emma set down her teacup.  “You’re
awfully young to understand things like that.”

Maggie nodded.  “Yes ma’am.  I kind
of grew up fast.”

“She had to, Em.  Her folks weren’t—well,
they had their own problems.”

Emma nodded.  She reached across
the table.  “Well, Maggie, if you ever need a place to stay, you’re welcome
here.”

Maggie smiled shyly.  “Thank you,
Mrs. Brewster.”

Emma smiled.  “Please.  Call me
Emma.”

*  *  *

Over the next few weeks, Maggie and
Emma became friends.  Maggie cleaned out the stables and made butter and helped
Emma and Jessica clean the house.  She and Billy went riding whenever Ben could
spare his son, which wasn’t often.

Then, one crisp October evening,
Sam and Kate rode into the barnyard.  Emma ran out to meet them.  “Mrs.
Anders!  Welcome!  I’ve heard so much about you from Maggie.”

Kate smiled.  “Thank you, Mrs.
Brewster.”  She dismounted, and Maggie noticed that she wore a skirt that was
split down the middle, like trousers.  “We’ve come for Maggie.”

“It’s late, and you’ve had a long
ride.  Please stay the night.”

Kate shook her head.  “We don’t
want to be a bother.”

“It’s no bother at all.”  She set
two more places and set dinner on the table.  Maggie helped, but from time to
time, she stole glances at Sam and Kate.  They smiled at each other the same
way Tess and James used to.  Maggie smiled to herself, but she also felt a pang
of envy.  She wondered how Flynn was.  Whenever she thought of him, she felt a
knot in the pit of her stomach, just like she had the day he had ridden out
with Ellie Lonnegan.

Maggie shivered despite the warm
sunshine.

That night, she dreamed of the
night her flesh-and-blood parents died.  She watched in helpless horror as her
mother fell back against the crate.  She couldn’t move as her father placed the
barrel of the shotgun in his mouth.  She cried out, but in the dream, she made
no sound.  Her heart pounded in terror as her father squeezed the trigger.

“Wake up, Maggie.”  A gentle hand
shook her shoulder.

Maggie opened her eyes.

Kate stood beside her bed, dappled
in moonlight.  She looked worried.  “You were having a nightmare.”

Maggie nodded and looked away.

Kate sat on the edge of her bed.  “About
your parents?”

Maggie nodded again.

Kate’s hands pulled her into a
hug.  “Oh, Magpie.  I wish Sam and I could keep you from ever being hurt or
frightened again.”

Maggie shut her eyes and buried her
face in Kate’s shoulder.  “Me too.”  She began to cry, great racking sobs, while
Kate rocked her as if she were a baby.  After a long time, Maggie drew a shaky
breath.  “Thank you.”  Kate handed her and handkerchief.  Maggie dried her eyes
with it.  She handed it back.  She sighed and shut her eyes.

Kate’s hand squeezed her hand.  “I
want you to know that Sam and I will be there for you whenever you need us.”

Maggie opened her eyes and looked
at her adopted mother.  “I’m not used to that.”

Kate smiled at her.  “Well it’s
about time you got used to it, young lady.”

Maggie laughed raggedly.  “Thank
you—Mama.”

Kate’s smile broadened.  “You’re
welcome—daughter.  Now try to get some sleep.”