Authors: Blazing Embers
She snapped her head up and caught her breath as she became aware of what she’d just said, but then she smiled and shook her head. Why so surprised? she asked herself. You’re pining for him and you know it! You can fool everybody else, but not yourself. You do miss him. You miss him something terrible.
Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks as loneliness shrouded her like a gray cloak. She had chosen a solitary existence and now she was having serious doubts about her choice. Living in the country had been fine as long as she’d had her pa or Rook to keep her company, but without them she had begun to experience again the awful fear she’d thought she had lost for good. The days were spent in jittery expectation—listening for the sound of an approaching rider or the call of a familiar voice—and her evenings went by in hour-stretching solitude while the night noises frayed her nerves and kept her awake until fatigue would finally claim her.
Working in the mine was the worst. While it kept her body busy, it gave her mind time to wander from one sweet memory of Rook to another like a bee seeking pots of honey—Rook kissing the back of her neck; Rook’s rapt expression as he stared at her so long that last day in the mine; the look on his face when he’d confessed that he’d watched her take a bath by moonlight. Regret tinged all her memories, and she quietly mourned for what might have been if she’d only reached out and taken it.
“Cassie! Cassie Mae, where are you?”
Cassie sat up straight, her eyes flying open as Jewel’s voice floated up to her. “Here! At the mine!”
Her spirits soared. What bliss! Company! No more being alone with nothing but a hound, a horse, and a bunch of chickens to keep her from going crazy. Cassie ran forward to meet Jewel on the trail and wrapped her in a bear hug.
“Jewel! I can’t tell you how good it is to see you. Lordy, it’s lonely out here! I know it’s only been a couple of days, but I’m going batty out here. I’ll get used to it, I reckon, but I—” Cassie’s delirious babbling came to an abrupt stop. Jewel’s skin was pale under her rouge and her eyes were dull and lifeless. “Something’s wrong.”
“Yes, honey.” Jewel’s reddened lips twisted with the effort and her voice was unsteady. “They killed my baby!”
The sudden pain Cassie felt was so acute she was sure someone had run a knife through her heart. She crumpled to her knees and her voice ripped up through her, dividing her pain and then doubling it.
“No-o-o-o-o!” It was a mournful wail torn from a severed heart. Still on her knees, Cassie wrapped her arms around her head in an instinctive gesture of grief and began rocking back and forth. Her world was crumbling; she waited for the end, hoping it would come soon so that she wouldn’t have to endure the pain much longer.
Jewel stared aghast at the pool of grieving humanity before her, amazed that Cassie would take Blackie’s death so hard. Then her shock gave way to reason and finally to pity. She dropped to her knees before the poor girl and grabbed her shaking shoulders.
“No, Cassie, no! It wasn’t Rook! It’s Blackie. My Blackie is dead. Not Rook, Cassie Mae. Not Rook!” She shook Cassie hard and pulled her arms away from her head. “You hear me, girl? Rook—is—not—dead.”
Cassie’s mind was blank for a few moments as her grief still held her in its grip. Then Jewel’s words penetrated and she felt a burst of pure elation. Her eyes reflected her joy, shining like stars in the night, and a smile swept over her face with the speed of a bright comet.
“He’s alive?” she asked, tears streaming down her face.
“As far as I know he is.” Jewel held her gaze for a few
more moments and then kissed her tenderly on the forehead. “Lord have mercy, girl. You’ve got it bad. I knew you were falling for him, but I didn’t know until this moment that you’d already fallen flat and hard.”
“Like a r-rock.” Cassie wiped her face with both hands and forced herself to stand up helping Jewel up with her. “But that’s neither here nor there. You’re full of sorrow and I should be the one comforting you. Not the other way around.” She leaned over and brushed bits of grass and dust from Jewel’s emerald skirt. “I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve been wrung dry.” Cassie slipped her arm around Jewel’s shoulders and they started for the house. “Let’s go to the cabin and repair ourselves. I got coffee on the stove and biscuits in the safe.”
Jewel leaned her head on Cassie’s shoulder. “I feel empty inside. They killed him yesterday. Today he’s strung up in front of the sheriff’s office like an animal trophy for all to admire.”
“No!” Cassie was horror-struck; the sheer cold-bloodedness of the act made her dizzy for a moment.
“I had to get out of town. I couldn’t stand it another minute there with everybody gawking at my eldest child’s body and flapping their gums about how proud they are that he was killed in Eureka Springs.”
“Was Blackie in town to see you?”
“I guess, but he never made it to my place. He went to the bathhouse first and was shot outside it. A Negress working there sent for the sheriff.” Jewel sighed heavily. “She left town this morning. Lost her job over it, and the sheriff wouldn’t give her a nickle of the reward money until she promised she’d use some of it to buy a train ticket.”
“That’s mighty peculiar.”
“Yes, well, I’m glad she’s gone. I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing her again, and now I don’t have to worry about it.”
Cassie cast a sidelong glance at Jewel, but she couldn’t see her expression well enough to read it. “Yep, that worked out good for you, all right.”
“I call it justice.”
“Hmmm,” was Cassie’s only comment as she walked
along pensively, a mood that soon turned to apprehension. She decided to put her disturbing thoughts aside. “Stay here with me tonight, Jewel. You got your troubles and I got mine. We can share ’em and bear ’em together.”
“Thanks, sweet girl. Don’t mind if I do.” She lifted a hand to cover Cassie’s on her shoulder. “You’re like another daughter to me, Cassie Mae. I sure am glad I’ve got you.” Jewel was quiet until they reached the house; then she lifted her head from Cassie’s shoulder. “You know what?”
“What?” Cassie asked, moving toward the stove where the coffeepot waited.
“I believe you’ve changed since Shorty died. I used to think of you as a helpless child, but I don’t anymore.”
“How do you think of me now?”
“Like a grown woman. Funny, how people can change so quick. I guess Shorty’s death chased the child right out of you.”
“Guess so.” Cassie placed two tin cups on the table and poured the coffee. “Want a biscuit?”
“Yes, please. I haven’t eaten anything since I heard about Blackie yesterday.”
“I’ll fix us some supper in a little bit.” Cassie set the plate of biscuits on the table and sat down near Jewel. “It’s so lonely out here without Pa or Rook to pester me.” She smiled at her own choice of words. “I guess I need someone underfoot to make me feel useful … to make me feel alive.”
“How thick did you get with Rook?”
Cassie peeked at Jewel through her lashes. “I slept with him.”
Jewel sighed, her body going limp. Cassie couldn’t tell how that bit of news made Jewel feel—glad or sad—but she decided to add: “And glad I did.”
Jewel seemed to stop breathing.
“That’s right,” Cassie assured her. “Good little Cassandra Mae Potter is glad she gave herself to Reuben Abraham Colton. And I don’t give a hang if that’s sinful or not.” She lifted her lashes to stare boldly into Jewel’s wide eyes. “I’d hate to think that I would leave this world without
making love to the man who made me feel like a woman.” She laughed softly. “I tried to fool myself into thinking it was Boone Rutledge who made me feel womanly, but it was Rook. He knew it and I knew it.”
Jewel averted her eyes. “Boone’s a good catch. He’s from a good family. You could do a lot worse.” Her green eyes narrowed when Cassie shot out of her chair and went to the stove. “What’s wrong?”
Cassie shook her head as she slammed a skillet onto the stove top. “I’m hungry, and I know you must be. I caught some catfish this morning at the pond. I’ll fry them up for us.”
“First you tell me what’s going on with you,” Jewel insisted. “What did Boone do to you? Did he try something funny?”
“Funny?” Cassie laughed mirthlessly as she faced Jewel. “That’s the trouble I want to talk to you about.” She took a deep breath before revealing her suspicions. “I think Boone murdered Pa.”
Jewel grinned uncertainly, not sure it wasn’t a joke; then she saw that Cassie wasn’t laughing. “Are you nuts?” she asked, all traces of humor leaving her face. “What makes you say such a thing?” Jewel glanced around nervously. “You could step in a pile of trouble, saying things like that, Cassie Mae.”
“Listen before you call me crazy.” Cassie pulled out the chair nearest her and sat down at the table. She began counting off her reasons on her fingers. “First of all I know that somebody’s been messing around in the mine besides me and Rook. I found a cup in there and I’ve seen footprints. Not my footprints and not Rook’s footprints. Second thing is Pa told me he’d found something in the mine—didn’t say what—but he was real excited. He died before he could be sure or tell me what he thought it was.” She drew a breath, knowing she had Jewel hooked and could now take her time presenting her evidence. “Third thing is that the onliest person who’s been the least bit interested in that mine is Boone. He asked about it most every time I saw him. Fourth thing is that Boone tried to talk me into thinking that Blackie or Blackie’s gang shot
Pa. Fifth thing is that Boone was mighty distressed when I told him that Pa wrote a will and left everything to me, all legal and binding.”
“Shorty left a will, did he?” Jewel asked. “That don’t sound like him.”
“I think he knew something bad might happen to him. I think Pa sensed that he’d said too much to the wrong person.”
“Could be. You think Shorty told Boone about his discovery?”
“I know he did.” Cassie ticked off her final reason on her other hand. “That’s the sixth thing. Boone knew that Pa had found something and I never uttered a peep about it, so he had to have found it out from Pa.”
“When? When did he talk with Shorty?”
“That’s the strange part of it. I should’ve seen it coming, but I didn’t.” Cassie spread her hands flat against the table and squared her shoulders. “I blame myself for some of this. I should’ve wondered why a young man like Boone was coming around to visit an old man like Pa, but I was just glad to see another face around here. Boone came by once when I was in the woods hunting. I remember Pa telling me that Boone had stopped by and visited for ’bout an hour.”
“I recall now Shorty saying something about that to me,” Jewel said, “Shorty had it in his head that Boone was working himself up to asking if he could court you. He said that Boone was just buttering him up.”
“But Boone never showed no interest in me until after Pa died,” Cassie argued. “He never said nothing to Pa about me, or Pa would’ve told me about it.”
“Well, honey, maybe Boone never got the chance. Shorty was killed before Boone got up the courage to talk about his feelings toward you.”
“No, wait.” Cassie shook her head vehemently. “The last time I knew about Boone visiting was the evening he came by and took Pa off for a private talk.”
“See?” Jewel said, smiling as if she’d won a prize.
“No, it wasn’t a talk about me. Pa came staggering back home. Boone and him drank out of a jug Boone had
brought. I’ve been thinking back and I’m sure that Pa went into town the very next day to draw up that will. The very next day, Jewel.” Cassie nodded decisively. “He said something to Boone he shouldn’t have and he knew it. He was nervous about Boone and what Boone knew.”
“It makes sense, I guess.” Jewel chewed absently on her lower lip. “It’s hard to imagine Boone Rutledge being a cold-blooded killer.”
“He let it slip about Pa saying that there was something in the mine. Boone said he heard it around town, but that was a lie. I know as sure as I’m sitting here that Boone shot Pa. It might’ve been an accident, but I doubt it. And since then he’s been coming ’round here with sweet words and vows of love, and he don’t really give a damn about me.” Her voice shook, quivering with injured pride. “Any man who could do that could shoot an old man in the back, don’t you think?”
“Whew-eee!” Jewel closed her eyes and shook her head, sending her red curls bobbing. “You going to tell the sheriff?”
“What for?” Cassie asked with a sneer.
Jewel looked surprised at first, then nodded in comprehension. “You’re right. Telling Sheriff Barnes to consider Boone Rutledge a murder suspect would be like spitting in the wind. Well, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Cassie said, although she did have a plan. Telling Jewel the plan, however, would be useless. Jewel would become upset and try to talk her out of it, and Cassie wouldn’t be talked out of it. Determination and righteous anger would give her the courage to carry it out. “What I do know is that I’ll handle this—my way. I don’t want any help from well-meaning friends.”
“You talking about me?” Jewel asked, placing a hand over her heart in feigned shock.
“Yes, I’m talking about you. I know you got friends in high places and in low places, and all you got to do is snap your fingers and they dance to your tune, but I don’t want that kind of help. I’ll handle this in due time, when I’m sure of myself and of what I believe.”
“I don’t know what you’re babbling about,” Jewel said with a snort, taking Cassie’s words as an affront.
“I’m talking about the sheriff giving a colored girl her walking papers when he should’ve given her a pat on the back for turning in an outlaw.”
“What are you accusing me of, young woman?” Jewel demanded, slamming a fist on the table to emphasize her indignation. “And be careful how you answer!”
Cassie decided, a little late, to curb her tongue. “Nothing. Forget it.” She stood up and went back to the stove.
Jewel seemed about to pursue the matter, but then obviously decided it was better to avoid dangerous ground. Instead, she returned to the relatively safe (for her) subject of Cassie’s plan to deal with Boone.