My Heart Stood Still (Sisters Of Mercy Flats 2) (18 page)

“Have you spoken to Bold Eagle?”

“Bold Eagle will do as I ask.”

She nodded. “I have no real plan,” she confessed. “Not without upsetting everyone. What I’m thinking would mean that your friends would have to break camp and move.” Their eyes met, and unbidden, the thought came to his mind that he would love nothing more than to take her into his arms and kiss her. Firelight played over her flushed features, drawing him like a flame. “It would be easier for the three of us to escape if we didn’t have the gold to worry about.”

His expression sobered. “The gold goes with us, or we do not leave.”

“But if we—”

He released the curl, scooting to the side. “We don’t leave without the gold.”

“All right. But you’re not going to like what I’ll come up with.”

He didn’t doubt her word, but at the moment he was desperate.
Asking a woman to do a man’s work stung, but he admitted she was far more experienced in the art of escape. And common sense told him to let her take the lead. “Just don’t get us killed—or lose the gold.”

“All right—but you’re not going to like it.”

“So you have said. I’ll cope, all right?”

“All right. I’ll try to keep the risk to our necks to a minimum.”

Rising slowly to his feet, he extended his hand to her in a gesture of friendship.

Placing her hand into his, she smiled. “I’ll have something in a couple of hours.”

He nodded. “Send for me when you do.” He dropped her hand, more aware than at any time before of the young woman’s powerful effect on him. A dangerous effect he could not afford.

Thin shafts of light streaked the morning sky. Creed and Quincy sat atop a rise, watching God’s morning portrait unfold. Creed drank in deep drafts of cold air. Anne-Marie was a constant thought with him now, an arrow in his heart. She was a mystery far beyond his comprehension. It was not fair that he put her in this situation, and yet—she was willing. Was it possible that in her youth and innocence she risked her neck in order to actually feed and clothe the mission sisters? A man would be hard-pressed to find fault with her motives, though stealing was never right.

Creed rode a paint pony, his eyes assessing the outlaws’ camp. A heavy wind kicked up wisps of smoke from a struggling campfire. “They must be freezing their socks off down there.”

Quincy shifted on the stallion he was riding. “I still say we leave Anne-Marie here and come back for her later. There’s no sense in involving her in something that might get her killed. Once we deliver the gold, we come back for her. Bold Eagle will protect her with honor. It’s the only smart way to handle this. We can outsmart that gang.”

“And if we can’t?”

“If we can’t, then we’re goners.”

Creed’s answer was the same. They were in trouble and he’d use any means to escape with the gold intact. “No, and I’m tired of discussing it. She goes with us or we don’t leave.”

“Well, we’d better come up with something, and pronto.” Resignation was evident in his friend’s voice. “Bold Eagle can’t be happy about those outlaws camped on his doorstep.”

The men spotted Anne-Marie approaching the rise. She rode up, wind whipping her cheeks to a rosy fuchsia. “I’ve got it!” she declared in a breathless voice.

Creed frowned. “It’s about time. I sat up half the night waiting for you. You said you’d have it in a couple of hours.”

“Sorry, it took longer than expected. Details, you know. But I’ve got the plan.” She addressed Quincy, but her eyes found Creed’s.

Quincy frowned.

“Relax. She’s the best in her field,” Creed said. “What have you come up with?”

“Well, it’s lengthy.” The three dismounted and walked their horses along the ridge. As they walked, she talked. “What I’m about to say may sound farfetched, but from my vast experiences, I’m convinced it’s the only way out of our situation. We’ll need Bold Eagle’s help—maybe he should be here for this conversation?”

“Let’s not involve Bold Eagle until we hear the plan.”

“All right.” She glanced at Quincy. “I know you’re leery, but hear me out. Once we’re out, there’s that abandoned mission not far from here.” Her eyes searched Quincy’s. “You know where it is. We were discussing it moments before Bold Eagle’s warriors found us.”

Quincy agreed that he knew of the mission. “I’ve seen it many times.”

“We’ll be safe there until Creed heals. When he does, we’ll move on and deliver the gold and Creed can take me to join my sisters.”

Creed nodded for her to go on. “The mission is a good place to hide. But how do we get out of this camp without Cortes and his men following?”

Anne-Marie quickly began to outline her strategy. As she talked on in a rush she could see disbelief creep into Creed’s expression and outright horror in Quincy’s.

“You must be kidding,” Quincy said when the plan was laid out.

Creed stared at Anne-Marie as if she had lost her mind. “I thought you were taking this seriously.”

“I told you that you wouldn’t like it, but it will work.”

His eyes darkened. “Impossible. Do you know what it takes to move a whole camp with snow still on the ground? Bold Eagle would never go for it.”

“The plan will work. It’s positively brilliant; some of my best work,” she argued.

“You’re both crazy,” Quincy declared, “and I refuse to have anything to do with this.”

“Do you want to get out of here or stay until summer?” Creed inquired.

“But her plan is nuts!”

“We’ll do as she says.”

Quincy’s mahogany features paled to almond. “Good Lord, please have mercy on our ignorant souls.”

“You know of a better way?” she asked.

“No, but this one is insane. With our luck the last thing we need is to stir up a bunch of evil spirits. I don’t like it, Creed. I think we’d be setting ourselves up for more trouble than we ever thought about.”

“No one said you had to like it,” Anne-Marie consoled, patting Quincy’s arm. “It is a little uncommon… ”

“A little?”

“… but it’ll be over before you know it.”

“I can’t believe this woman.” Quincy shook his head like a bear with porcupine quills in his muzzle. “Creed, she’s gonna get us all killed.”

“Nonsense. Now come along, gentlemen.” Anne-Marie swept her hand toward the camp. “We have business to attend to.”

Eleven

B
old Eagle glanced up when three sets of eyes appeared in the tepee opening. “Bold Eagle welcomes his friends to his lodge.” He motioned for the visitors to sit on the buffalo robes encircling the fire.

Creed lowered himself to the ground. “We have decided on a plan.”

“And the three of you agree to this plan?” Bold Eagle questioned. His eyes focused on the woman.

Smiling, Anne-Marie nodded.

Bold Eagle directed his gaze to Quincy.

Quincy nodded his head.

“Tell me of this plan.”

“It is one that will take a great deal of courage, my brother, for it goes against our teachings, and it would take much courage to move the camp before the grass is new.”

Bold Eagle’s features turned stoic. “If Bold Eagle goes against the Wise One Above, he would be doomed forever to walk the Hanging Road.”

Anne-Marie crept closer, bending low to speak. “It’s nothing like that.”

“Continue. Bold Eagle is listening.”

Creed took over, unfolding Anne-Marie’s strategy. Bold Eagle’s brows shot up, finally disappearing into his hairline.

“I am to understand you want my people to prepare your bodies for burial, transport them out of camp on a travois, and place them on sacred platforms?”

Creed’s gaze met his brother’s unflinchingly. “This is what I ask.”

“Before you are dead?”

Creed nodded soberly.

“It is said that the ghosts of the people waiting to be escorted to the Hanging Road walk between the scaffolds. You ask too much, Storm Rider.”

“I am aware of the Apache beliefs,” Creed continued, “but there is no other way to escape without causing much pain to my brothers. Those outlaws will try to take that gold, and they won’t care who gets hurt.”

Bold Eagle shook his head. “This I cannot do.”

“Please.” Anne-Marie reached out to take his hand. “You’re our only hope and though the plan goes against everything you hold sacred, can you not help your brother?”

“I cannot.”

Creed shifted closer. “I know I ask much—”

“My brother asks too much. Far too much.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“My brother, we need the help of your tribe if we are to be successful,” Creed said.

Silence, heavy and foreboding, settled upon the visitors and their host. Only the fire emitted warmth. When the silence grew, Anne-Marie turned her feminine wiles upon the noble leader of his tribe. “Chief Bold Eagle, may I have permission to speak?”

Although women were allowed to give counsel, Bold Eagle eyed the woman in disbelief.

The chief glanced at Storm Rider and he nodded. “Permit her to speak.”

At Bold Eagle’s nod Anne-Marie began. “Noble Chief, I am a follower of the One Who Is Above.” She glanced at Creed. At his nod she continued. “I am here because God guided my steps to you.” She waited for confirmation.

The chief nodded.

“I believe that He will protect us—that I am here because He has so willed it.”

Bold Eagle turned his attention to Creed. “Do you agree with her words, my brother?”

“Yes,” Creed said simply.

Bold Eagle gave him a piercing look and then returned his gaze to Anne-Marie. Bold Eagle had a problem and he must rid himself of this problem; Anne-Marie had given him a way to do so without loss of face, and at little danger to his small band.

As the sun rose higher, Creed, Anne-Marie, and Quincy used their persuasive powers to convince the chief that the plan, though unorthodox, was sound, and there was no other viable solution at hand. “I am committed to respecting the ways of God,” Anne-Marie said, “even if my plan involves something forbidden. I am reminded of the story in my Bible when Jesus and His disciples ate grain while walking through a field on the Sabbath.”

Creed nodded. “This is true. I have read the story many times.”

Bold Eagle grunted with a heavy sigh. “Let it so be.”

In the early afternoon Bold Eagle gathered the council and explained, with Creed’s help, the steps needed in order to make the escape successful.

Horrified eyes shifted to Anne-Marie. Mutterings in the foreign tongue surrounded her.

The chief stood firm. “Bold Eagle does not like the plan but he will help his brother. It is the only way.”

“When?” one brash warrior asked. “When do we do stir up the spirits and bring evil and destruction upon our village?”

Bold Eagle’s chin lifted. “Sunrise.”

Groans filtered throughout camp and the disgruntled group dispersed, returning to their tepees with dragging moccasins.

When the sun next appeared, the plan was set into motion. Anne-Marie volunteered to be first. She lay down on the tepee floor and crossed her hands.

“I’m telling you, I don’t like this!” Quincy’s voice shook when squaws wrapped buffalo hides and strapped him onto a wooden rack. “Just the thought of being buried alive makes my skin crawl!”