Pete (The Cowboys) (32 page)

Pete pushed hard to reach the place where the trees grew thick enough on the low hills to provide cover. The last time he saw Mason’s men, they were still a mile from the cabin, but he didn’t slow his pace. There were only a few places where he could find cover before he reached the more dense forest of the mountain itself.

He dropped down into the canyon created by Crazy Woman Creek as it came out of the mountains. Following an ancient buffalo trail alongside the creek made travel much easier. Cottonwood, willow, ash, box elder, water birch, and mountain alder provided a band of cover about fifty feet on either side of the creek through a canyon covered mostly with sage, greasewood, rabbit brush, and sumac. Further up, juniper, maple, aspen and ponderosa pine provided a dense cover Pete hoped would hide him until he could find a cave, a temporary refuge until he figured out how to get them safely to Big Bend.

The temperature dropped significantly as they climbed higher and higher into the Big Horn Mountains. He wanted to be certain Anne was warm, but she refused to respond when he spoke. He also wanted to get as far away from the cabin as possible before stopping.

All through the morning the snowfall continued heavy enough to cover the ground but not heavy enough to make travel difficult. Except for the cold. The temperature continued to drop.

At midday, Pete pulled his horse to a stop. “I’m stopping here to fix something to eat.”

She grunted when he untied her feet and lifted her from the saddle. He was certain her muscles hurt from the unaccustomed position of riding astride, but there was nothing he could do about that now. He built a small fire, heated the beef he’d fixed for breakfast, and took it over to Anne.

“If I untie you, can I trust you not to run away?”

Anne shook her head.

“I have to take your gag out to feed you.”

She still looked mutinous.

“It would be dangerous to try to escape,” he said. “You’d get lost. Besides, you couldn’t make it back to the cabin on foot. You’d probably die of exposure if you had to spend the night outside.”

She didn’t say a word. He didn’t know if she believed him or thought he was just trying to scare her. He couldn’t take the chance. He removed the gag, but she refused to open her mouth.

“You might as well eat. I know you’re hungry.”

She just glared at him.

“We can’t stop again until evening. You need something in your stomach to keep you warm.”

Still no response.

“If you’re carrying a baby, you’ve got to eat. You can hate me, but you can’t hate your baby.”

“I refuse to be carrying your baby,” she said.

He grinned. “You probably aren’t. But if you are, I especially don’t want you to fall into Bill Mason’s hands. I don’t think he’d be very good to it.”

“From the experience I’ve had with men so far, I’d prefer to remain unmarried.”

Pete held out a spoonful of beef, and she finally opened her mouth to accept it.

“You might not have much choice,” he said while she chewed. “Until we get confirmation that you married Peter, you don’t have any money or a home. Your uncle can do what he wants with you. Your other choice is to marry Mason and hope he meant it when he said he’d protect you.”

“I don’t need anybody to protect me.”

He stopped her talking by putting more food into her mouth.

“Mason doesn’t mean to give up the Tumbling T. If you’re Peter’s widow and his heir, marrying you would make his seizure legal.”

“I told you I won’t marry Mason.”

He put more food in her mouth.

“Once his hold on the ranch is secure, I don’t trust Mason not to do something to get rid of you.”

“You shouldn’t judge everybody by yourself,” she said.

“If I did, I’d never have figured out what Mason did. I spent twelve years working in the goldfields with murder and theft rampant all around me, yet I never killed anybody for anything. I worked for my money.”

“Where is that money? I’ve never seen it. I might think you were telling the truth if you could show it to me.”

“I told you, it was stolen.”

“Like all the other evidence to support your claim,” she said. “Whoever heard of robbers taking a man’s clothes and leaving him naked?”

“Nobody. They ought to be hanged. Do you know what would have happened if anybody had come by? I’d have had to hide. I couldn’t let them know I was naked. A man could die from something as embarrassing as that.”

“Just like a man to let his pride kill him.”

“It’s what you’re trying to do. You’re so damned mad that you stood up for me against everybody, you’re willing to throw yourself into the hands of the first man who comes along, even though I’ve talked myself silly trying to show you that you’re in more danger with him than me.”

“He hasn’t killed anybody.”

“Neither have I. Now eat the rest of this beef. We’ve got to be on our way. I want to get to those hills. I’m hoping I can find a cave to give us shelter and concealment. I have a feeling we’re going to need both.” He helped Anne to her feet. “I’d like to untie you. Can I trust you not to try to escape?”

He saw her glance at the snow that had already begun to filter down through the covering of trees. She obviously figured this wasn’t the time to escape. She nodded.

“Good. I don’t like seeing you so miserable.”

“Then you shouldn’t have killed Peter.”

“When will you get it through your head that I’m not after this ranch? Even if I had decided to take it, the trouble started long before I got here. I think it started when your Uncle Carl got hurt and he appeared vulnerable for the first time. Eddie couldn’t hold this place. He might be a good foreman, but he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to men like Mason. I think Belser would have killed for it, but he wasn’t smart. He let himself be suckered, and it got him killed.”

“You know I don’t believe a word you’re saying.”

“Yeah, I know. But when I figure out how to get you to Big Bend without getting myself killed, I’m getting out of here so fast, you won’t see anything but dust. You’ll have to make your own decisions. I’m hoping I can at least make you question everything Mason says before you stick your head too far into his noose.”

“I’m not falling into anybody’s noose,” Anne insisted.

Pete ignored her interruption. “Quite frankly, I don’t think you’ll ever get your ranch back, not unless you have proof of your marriage to Peter and a very good lawyer. Even then I think Mason would fight you for it. He’d probably try to convince the other ranchers you couldn’t hold the ranch on your own, that it needs to be controlled by a man to protect all of them from rustling. And he’d be right.”

“I’d hire a foreman.”

“You’ll have a hard time finding a cowman out here who’ll work for a woman. That gives Mason all the excuse he needs to kidnap you and keep you on his ranch until you agree to marry him. The women wouldn’t like it, but the other ranchers probably wouldn’t say anything. Once you were married—and that could be arranged even without your consent—there wouldn’t be anything anybody could do.”

For once she didn’t fling a hot-tempered response back at him. Good. Maybe she was beginning to think. If he could keep this up for a few days, maybe she’d have a chance. “Enough talk. We’d better be going.”

Traveling became harder as they climbed higher into the mountains. The leafy cottonwoods gave way to scattered water birch and patches of currants, raspberry, and chokeberry. The bitterly cold wind drove the snow directly into their faces. Pete stopped twice to make certain Anne’s hands and face were covered.

They climbed steadily toward the belt of lodgepole pines still a couple of thousand feet above them. Before long they came to a place where ancient rivers had cut a canyon through rock that rose nearly perpendicular around him. This was the best place to look for caves hollowed out millions of years ago. Leaving the comparative shelter of the streambed, they rode out into the open and started up the steep mountainside.

The sharpness of the wind made him huddle deeper into his coat. Once again he cursed the men who had robbed him of the clothes that had kept him warm through Montana winters. If he ever found them, he’d take great pleasure in stripping them naked and driving them out into the teeth of a storm.

Pete soon found an area where small caves were plentiful. But finding the right kind of cave wasn’t that simple. He needed one deep enough to provide shelter from the wind and snow. He needed enough deadfall close by to build fires for cooking and heat. He needed a belt of trees to screen movement in and around the cave from anyone who might have followed them. He needed open meadow so the horses could find something to eat. Finally, there had to be a stream close by for water.

The afternoon wore on, and still Pete couldn’t find a cave to suit his requirements. With the snow getting deeper and the wind getting colder, he had to abandon the search and head toward the pine forest above. He would have to settle for building a shelter of pine boughs. They reached the trees a little before dusk.

“We’ll stop here,” Pete said. A natural park in the middle of a huge stand of pines would give his horses forage and protection from the worst of the storm. A tiny stream that meandered through the park would provide water.

“This isn’t a cave,” Anne said. “It’s woods. We’ll freeze to death or get eaten by wild animals.”

Pete laughed. “The wild animals will more anxious to avoid you than you are to avoid them. It’ll be cold, but at least we’re out of the wind.”, Pete rode among the trees until he found a group of pines growing so close together that no snow had managed to filter down through their limbs.

“We’ll make our camp here.”

It was too dark under the trees to see Anne’s face, but he heard her sharp intake of breath when he lifted her out of the saddle.

“Are your muscles sore?”

“Yes.”

The way she said the word told him almost as much as the fact that she couldn’t stand on her own.

“If I had you in Texas, I’d teach you to ride a horse properly.”

“I never want to get on a horse again,” she said.

“Hold on to the saddle for a moment.” Pete took a blanket from the packhorse and spread it on the deep pine needles under the trees. He carried Anne to the blanket and set her down gently. “Don’t move. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ve got to take care of the horses. If we lose them, we’ll both die up here in these mountains.”

“You can’t leave me here.”

“I have to.”

“I don’t have a gun. What if something comes after me?”

“It won’t.”

“But what if it does?”

“Have you ever used a gun?”

“No.”

“Then you couldn’t hit anything.”

“I could scare it off.”

“You’d more likely shoot yourself. Or me. Or worse still, one of the horses.”

“You’ve got to leave me a gun.”

“And have you use it on me the minute I return? Not on your life.”

“I won’t shoot you.”

“Why not? You’ve been wanting somebody to shoot me all day.”

“I don’t now.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Okay, I do want somebody to shoot you, but I’m not fool enough to shoot you while we’re lost in these mountains.”

“We’re not lost. And I don’t believe you.”

“Why would I shoot you?”

“Because you’re crazy enough to think I killed Peter and Belser. You probably think I’m going to kill you, too.”

“No.”

“No what?”

“I don’t think you’re going to kill me.”

“Why? According to you, I’ve killed everybody else I’ve come across.”

She looked stubborn. “I don’t believe you’ll kill me. You’d never have thought of taking me back to Texas or teaching me to ride if you meant to kill me. Now let me have a gun and go take care of the horses. I’m starved. Besides, my legs are so stiff, I couldn’t run away if I wanted.”

Pete told himself he was crazy, that putting a gun in Anne’s hands could be the same as signing his death warrant. But he’d been crazy where she was concerned from the first moment he saw her. He handed her his pistol. “Shoot in the air. The noise will scare anything away.”

Chapter Seventeen

Anne marveled at the wrenching changes that had occurred so quickly in her life. This time two days ago she was in the arms of her husband—or so she’d thought—overjoyed that he was making love to her. Any thoughts she’d had to spare had been employed looking forward to the happy years they would spend together.

Yesterday, she’d been worried about Eddie and the rustled herd, but she was confident Pete, her adored husband, would get the herd back. She was also confident he would do so in a manner that would guarantee no rustler would ever touch Tumbling T cows again.

Now she was lying in the middle of a forest deep in the mountains in a snowstorm, hoping some wild animal didn’t decide to make a meal of her. To compound her dilemma, she was the prisoner of the man who had killed her husband. And Belser. She had to get up. She wasn’t fool enough to try to run away, but she couldn’t lie here like a corpse. If she wasn’t careful, that was exactly what she might become.