Teton Splendor (24 page)

“What happened?” he asked, swallowing the bile that rose to his throat. “Where’s Sophie?”

“He took her,” his mother wailed. “I . . . I’m not even sure what happened. One minute, she was in her lodge, the next, we heard a gunshot.”

Joseph’s chest tightened as if a bullet had hit him.

“Feather in the Wind is dead. Several of the warriors gave chase, but it was getting dark, and they lost the tracks. Lucas still hasn’t returned.”

Joseph blinked and shook his head. He tried to make sense of his mother’s words. What did Feather have to do with this?

“When?” It was the only word he managed to produce. He swallowed several times, trying to work the lump out of his throat.

“Yesterday afternoon. We found this.” His mother held a familiar leather pouch out to him. The braid of hair that was his and Sophie’s had been cut and ripped apart.

Joseph could only guess at what had happened. Somehow Feather had found the bundle. She must have been lurking in the area rather than heed his advice.

“We think Sophie met her along the tree line, and they must have argued. Sophie’s knife was on the ground. Feather’s, too.”

“Where was Lucas?” Joseph asked between clenched teeth. He’d made one specific request of his brother.

“Don’t be angry at your brother, Joseph. Sophie was with me all afternoon yesterday. She said she wanted to freshen up in her lodge before helping me with supper. That’s the last we saw her.”

Joseph gathered his reins and mounted his horse.

“Be careful, Joseph.” She reached up and grabbed his knee. “Lucas thought there were two men. He said judging by the hoof prints, the man who took Sophie was not the one who shot Feather. The shot was fired from a different direction.”

Joseph weighed his mother’s words. He knew exactly who had taken Sophie. Now that Sabin and the other man were together, it would make tracking them easier. And he had prints to follow. He refused to even think of what he might find when he caught up with the men.

He nodded curtly to his mother, then spun his horse around, and kicked the gelding into a gallop. Anger mixed with fear coursed through his veins. If any harm had come to Sophie . . . Joseph cursed. She was here because of him, and he’d endangered her life, or worse.

Chapter Twenty Four

The impending darkness made it nearly impossible for Joseph to follow the trail of hoof prints that led away from the Bannock village. He’d covered a lot of ground already, but Sophie’s abductor had been in quite a hurry, and had a day’s head start on him. Joseph scanned the ground for another set of tracks to join the first, but the only other visible prints were presumably from Lucas’ horse.

It gave Joseph a small sense of assurance that his brother was in pursuit of the abductor. Lucas would have been only minutes behind. Perhaps his brother had already caught up to them and Sophie was safe. Lucas was fiercely competitive to a fault, and if nothing else, he’d see this pursuit as a personal challenge. 

When the night fully enveloped him, Joseph had no choice but to dismount his horse and continue on foot. He didn’t want to risk losing the trail, and the cloud cover in the sky obscured the moon enough to dim its light. He hadn’t covered many miles over several hours, and he cursed the blackness.

A twig snapped somewhere up ahead, and Joseph froze. He cocked the trigger on his rifle that he carried in his arm. A horse snorted, and Joseph’s gelding tensed, then whinnied a soft greeting.

“Joseph?” Lucas’ voice drifted from out of the darkness. A shadowy figure leading a horse materialized.

“Lucas, where’s Sophie?” Joseph’s heart pounded in his chest. He approached his brother, who appeared to be limping.

“That bastard’s taking her up into the high country,” Lucas grumbled. “My horse took a fall and threw me. Afraid we’ve both gone lame. I was trying to get back to the village to get a fresh mount and head out again.”

“Did you see anyone else? Who took her?” Joseph didn’t disguise the frustration in his voice.

“I only caught a quick glimpse of him, Joseph. Looked like a dun horse. Didn’t see anyone else with him. When I got within shooting range just before sundown, my horse took a misstep.”

Joseph paced in front of his horse. He’d clung to the hope that Lucas would be close enough to Sabin and the other man to keep Sophie safe. Now he was still a day behind.

“Get goin’, Joseph. I’m sorry I let you down. I can’t move any faster right now.”

Joseph stared at Lucas through the darkness. Even in the dim light, the grimace on his brother’s face was obvious. He still had a fresh bullet hole in his shoulder, and now an injured leg. There would be no stopping Lucas from boasting about his war scars.

“Go back to the village, Lucas. Thanks for all you’ve done.”

“I’ll be right behind you, Joseph. Go after them and give that bastard hell from me.” Lucas slapped him on the back.

Joseph nodded, and mounted his horse. Taking advantage of the shifting clouds that uncovered the moon, he guided his gelding through tall sedge, heading west to the base of the mountains. He crossed a shallow stream, the faint moon’s light reflecting off the water in an eerie glow, and the terrain became rockier. Conifers loomed in greater numbers all around him, slowing him down. By the time the first rays of dawn rose in the eastern horizon, he’d covered several more miles when he led his horse along a narrow deer trail up the mountain.

Joseph stopped at a trickle of water that sprung from between an outcropping of rocks, and held his hand under the water, splashing it on his weary face. He blinked his eyes to try and clear his head. He hadn’t slept much in almost a week. Images of Sophie popped in and out of his mind; visions of her in a satiny blue ball gown that accentuated her bare neck and shoulders. It’s what she’d worn the first time he laid eyes on her in her father’s study in Boston.

Joseph sipped once more from the cool spring. She would have been safer in Boston. Her life wouldn’t be in danger from a killer at this very second. But Boston would have choked the life out of her in time. She belonged here among the splendor of the mountains, just as she belonged with him. And she would be back in his arms, he told himself firmly.

Reaching for his horse’s reins, Joseph froze. Small bits of gravel rolled toward him from the trail up ahead. Slowly, he cocked his rifle, and stepped away from the spring. His horse tensed, and the gelding’s ears moved nervously back and forth. Joseph focused on his surroundings, slowly scanning the trees beyond and to the sides. Birds that chirped loudly in the trees moments ago now quieted. The gentle breeze that swayed through the branches of the conifers became ominously loud.  

Every nerve ending in his body told him he was being watched. And he would lay bets that whoever was watching him knew that he was aware of his presence. The man apparently wanted to be found.

“Show yourself,” Joseph called. His voice echoed off the mountain.

“Lay down your gun first,” came the immediate reply.

Joseph scoffed. “Like hell I will,” he yelled. “Who are you?” He strained his ears to listen, moving his eyes almost imperceptibly from side to side.

“I have Sophia.”

Joseph clenched his jaw. “If you’ve harmed her in any way, I’ll kill you. Let her go.”

The man laughed. “She’s in a safe place for now.”

More gravel rolled down the path to his right, and he caught a glimpse of some blue fabric. In one swift move, Joseph darted around a tree trunk, aimed his rifle and fired. A soft groan came from behind the trees where he fired his weapon.

With a small sense of satisfaction that he had hit his target, Joseph dropped to the ground. Slowly, with the practiced stealth taught to him by his father, he inched along the ground, thankful for the thick foliage that obscured the other man’s view. He circled a wide berth around to where he suspected the man sat waiting. Joseph slowly pulled his knife from its sheath. Around another tree, his target sat with his back to him. Joseph sprang to his feet and rushed up behind the man, wrapping his arm around his neck, and pressed the tip of his knife into his opponent’s throat.

“Where’s my wife?” he growled into the man’s ear. His hand itched to drive the knife into his adversary’s throat, but first he needed to find out where Sophie was. That she wasn’t here with this man was obvious. What had that bastard done with her? Joseph’s choke hold increased. What if he’d already killed her?

The man struggled and gurgled for air, and kicked out with his legs. His hands wrapped around Joseph’s arm and gripped tight in an effort to free himself, but Joseph refused to let go. Rage and frustration, mixed with fear of what might have happened to Sophie, consumed him.

“I should just kill you now,” he rasped between clenched teeth, straining to maintain his chokehold. The man’s grip weakened. Joseph eased up on his victim, and the man sagged to the ground, gasping and coughing for air. Joseph kicked the man’s rifle that lay on the ground out of reach.

Standing over him, Joseph clenched and unclenched his jaw. The man rubbed at his neck, and looked up. A grimace formed on his face. He was the same man Joseph had seen along the Ohio and again in St. Louis.

“You’re a lot better than I gave you credit for, Walker,” he rasped. “At times I had some serious doubts about you.”

Joseph’s brows drew together. “Where’s Sophie?” he demanded.

The man laughed. “She’s safe.”

Joseph reached down and grabbed the man by his shirt, hauling him up on his feet again. Blood trickled from under the tear in the man’s shirtsleeve. Joseph bared his teeth at his opponent.

“My patience is running thin.”

“Miss Yancey is being taken care of for the moment,” the man said. “She took a nasty hit to the head and will probably have a mighty big headache for a few days, but I think she’ll recover. Same with the knife wound in her arm.”

Joseph clenched his jaw. Sophie was hurt?

“Where is she?”

“I left her with an old hermit who lives further up along this mountain with his son. I met them several days ago. I was trying to pick up Sabin’s trail. It led me to that Indian village.”

There was only one person who lived in these mountains who could be considered a hermit. Jasper Williams. It was a miracle Jasper hadn’t shot this man. The old mountain goat didn’t let anyone within a hundred yards of his cabin. That he had a son was news to him.

Joseph’s eyes narrowed. “Keep talking, mister. Who are you?”

“My name is Nathan Gibson. I’ve been following Oliver Sabin since I arrived here in the Tetons. The man is more elusive than a cougar, and unfortunately I’m not familiar with these mountains.”

Joseph recovered quickly from his initial shock. These were the last words he expected to hear.  He eased up on the man’s shirt.

“You’ve been following Sabin? That still doesn’t explain who you are, and why you’ve been following us. Or why you shot at us a week ago.”

Nathan laughed. “Believe me, Walker, if I had been shooting at you, you’d be dead right now.”

Joseph’s forehead wrinkled. “You were aiming for Lucas?”

Nathan smiled. “There was a man lurking in the bushes while you and the lady were . . . ah. . . occupied. I know a woman can cloud a man’s judgment and alertness, so I thought I’d do you a favor and shoot the guy. It could have been Sabin for all I knew.” He shrugged.

“You shot my brother.”

“I know that now. Good thing I wasn’t at my best that day. It was a terrible shot.”

“I’m still not clear who you are,” Joseph pressed.

Nathan rubbed at his neck again. “Stop pointing that knife at me, and I’ll explain.”

Joseph hesitated. Keeping a wary eye on the man, he sheathed his knife. The rifle was far enough away that, if Nathan made a move to grab for it, Joseph could easily overtake him.

“I’m here at the request of Mr. Byron Yancey, Miss Yancey’s father. He’s already paid me a large advance sum to follow you out of Boston and watch over his daughter. He told me he was worried about Oliver Sabin finding out about her, and he wanted a little extra assurance that the girl made it here alive, and would get home again safely.”

Yancey had hired a gunman to follow them? Joseph didn’t know whether to be glad or upset with this information. Did the greenhorn really think he’d let anything happen to her? He clenched his jaw. Sabin might have killed her yesterday if this Gibson fellow hadn’t been there.

“Sophie is my wife. She’s my responsibility. You can take that message home to Yancey.”

Nathan smiled. “Mr. Yancey told me that might happen, in which case I was to report back to him how his daughter was faring.”

“Why the hell didn’t you just come to us and tell us who you were?” Irrational anger shot through Joseph. Anger, because Yancey had been correct.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be seen, Walker. Yancey wasn’t looking to stir trouble between you and him. He only wanted to make sure his daughter was safe.” He paused, then looked at Joseph with a smile on his face. “You’re a much keener observer than I gave you credit for. I didn’t expect to have you see me at the Ohio that day when the boat sank, and I sure as hell didn’t think you’d remember me in St. Louis.” Gibson eyed the flesh wound on his arm. By the looks of it, the bullet had only grazed him.

“How did you know Sabin was after us? How did Sabin know Sophie is here?” Joseph paced the ground in front of Gibson.

“Best I can figure is that he was in St. Louis and must have recognized her. He wouldn’t have tried to kill her there, and you were in the company of some pretty impressive men. Men like Sabin are cowards. They won’t strike unless the odds are in their favor.”

Joseph eyed the man he had assumed was out to kill him or Sophie all these weeks. Despite his annoyance, he found him to be quite likable.  

“If I had gotten a clean shot at him, I would have killed Sabin yesterday, but I couldn’t even see him in that forest by the Indian village. I was already set to step in when that Injun woman attacked Miss Yancey with a knife. All I could think of to do at the time was get her away before he realized he’d shot the wrong woman. I did the only thing I could think of – hide her away up in the mountains and then come back to find you.”