Train From Marietta (12 page)

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. The revulsion of seeing the snake so close and knowing she had almost stepped on it sent the bile rising in her throat. She swallowed and willed her galloping heart to be still.

“If you had to do your business, why didn’t you say so? I can’t keep running after you.” He scanned the clearing and ran his stick over the sparse grass. “It’s clear now. Go ahead and do what you came here to do.” Instead, Kate stared at him. “I can’t do it with you here,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Hurry up. I’ll turn my back,” he said impatiently.

Her face flamed with embarrassment; she could not believe that she was about to relieve herself with a strange man standing not ten feet away. Kate turned her back and squatted down.

When she finished, Tate led the way back to where he had left his saddlebags. Still shaking from her encounter with the snake and unable to look at the man, Kate followed.
Will I ever be able to face him again?

He opened a saddlebag and said, “You better eat something. We’ve got biscuits, peanut butter, jam, and a couple of strips of jerky.”

“I’ll have a biscuit and peanut butter.” Still unable to look at him, she took the biscuit from his hand. “What about you?”

“I’ll pass. We’ve got a full canteen of water, but we’ll have to go easy on it. It’s been dry. We can’t depend on finding water.”

Kate ate the biscuit slowly. The cowboy was silent while she was eating, his eyes continually searching the landscape. When she finished, she asked, “You said we had to walk out of here. Where are we going?”

“Muddy Creek. It’s a little town to the west of here. We can send a wire from there.”

“Is that where you live?”

“I live on a ranch north of town.”

A crackling sound came from the underbrush. Kate froze. The sound came again. Shuffling, swishing. Panic flared through her again. She dived toward Tate and clutched his arm.

“What’s that?” The sound jarred her nerves.

Tate threw a stone into the brush, and the sound stopped.

“It’s nothing. Probably a pack rat.”

Even if it had been nothing, Kate couldn’t let go of the cowboy’s arm. All at once, the traumatizing events of the last few days caught up with her. “I’m sorry.” Her tears began to flow. “I’m sorry,” she said again.

“Lie back and try to sleep.” His voice was low and reassuring.

Kate relaxed against him. She wished she could see his face again. He felt solid and lean. She liked the sound of his voice and the earthy smell of him.

“Tate, do you think they’ll find us?”

“Not for a while.” He moved his back and settled against a tree. “I don’t want to give you false hope. It’s going to be a long way out of here, but we can make it. I might have to leave you for a bit and backtrack to see if Hayden is coming. He won’t quit.”

A profound silence followed his statement. Kate shivered as much from dread as from the cool night breeze. Now that Tate had found her, she didn’t want him to leave her alone.

“What will we do if he catches up?” she asked in a small voice.

“We’ll do what we have to do. We’ll head into the hills instead of towards town. It’ll take longer, but we want to make it as difficult as we can for him to track us.”

As she listened to the soft, slurred voice of the cowboy, the tension left Kate’s tired body. She was exhausted and her feet hurt. It seemed odd to be sitting here, yet she felt safe and wondered why.

Tate pulled the blanket up over them. “It gets cool up here at night. Try to sleep for a while.”

She did.

Kate awoke to the sound of a low murmur. Her eyes flew open and searched for the source of the voices. She was surprised to see Tate squatting alongside an Indian boy whose dark hair reached down to his shoulders. Around his forehead was tied a twisted cloth. His clothes were clean but ragged. He wore moccasins that came up to his knees. In his arms he cradled a rifle.

“Oh-oh,” she gasped at the sight of the gun. He turned, and his eyes were as dark as coal and expressionless.

“Quiet,” Tate hissed at her. He inched toward her and spoke softly, knowing that their voices would carry in this quiet hillside. “This is Luke Ironhorse. He’s a friend of mine. He spotted Hayden about a mile down the draw.”

“I tryin’ to save your ass again, Tate,” the Indian said with a grunt.

“Watch your language, kid.”

“I know language. I not dumb,” the boy said defiantly.

“Smart britches,” Tate growled.

“What that mean?”

Without another word, Tate grabbed up his saddlebag and threw it over his shoulder. When he tugged on the bedroll, Kate got to her feet. He packed the bedding into a tight roll and tied it with a string. In a matter of minutes, he was ready to leave.

“What are we going to do now?” Kate asked, suddenly fearful at the thought that Hayden was nearby. She could still remember the sound made when he pulled the knife from his scabbard.

“Follow,” the Indian boy said, and started to move through the underbrush and up a small hillside.

“Go on,” Tate ordered. She looked over her shoulder to see Tate behind her. The boy moved swiftly and silently, and it was hard for Kate to keep up with him. But she was determined to be as little trouble as possible.

They crossed a dry creek bed, the mud cracked in the hot Texas sun. The glare from the sun was blinding, but Kate kept going forward. Occasionally, bright orange flowers grew from the reddish soil, the likes of which she had never seen before, but now was not the time to stop and admire the sights. It took nearly all of her concentration to keep up with Luke. She could hardly hear the Indian boy move. His moccasined feet glided over the increasingly rocky terrain. Her own shoes, newly heelless, hurt her feet, but she tried to ignore the pain and trudged on.

“Stop,” Tate said softly.

“What stop for?” Luke turned to face them.

Happy for the break, Kate bent to put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. The midafternoon sun continued to beat down as rivulets of sweat ran down her cheeks. The climb didn’t seem to bother the other two at all.

“Stay with Luke,” Tate said to Kate.

Luke moved past Kate and began to head back down the trail. “I go look. You stay with your woman.”

Tate shook his head. “She’s not my woman.”

“I’m not his woman,” Kate said at the same time.

“Then why you sleep with her?”

Kate’s face turned a fiery red as she waited for Tate’s answer.

Tate shook his head again and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Take her and go. I’ll catch up. I know where you’re headed.”

Kate’s eyes clung to Tate. She didn’t like being left with the Indian boy. Tate nodded at her reassuringly and, after pressing his canteen into her hand, turned away. In seconds, he was out of sight.

Without another word, the Indian boy continued on up the hill. Kate focused her eyes on the boy’s back, determined not to let him get too far ahead. As they reached a small tree that was growing out from between two large boulders, the boy stopped and squatted down in the shade. Kate sat down beside him and opened the canteen. The water felt wonderful on her dry throat. She turned to offer the canteen to the boy, but he was squirting water into his mouth from a leather pouch.

“Where did Tate go?”

“He look for Hayden.”

“What will he do if he sees him?”

“Kill him,” the boy said matter-of-factly “Or Hayden kill him.”

Kate was stunned into silence. She scarcely knew the cowboy, but the possibility of his being killed terrified her. Somehow he had managed to find her. He had taken her away from the cabin, away from Hayden and Squirrelly and Eddy. Now he was risking his life to get her out of here.

The Indian boy stood, shaded his eyes with his hand, and looked back down the hill. Without a word, he turned and started moving away. Kate reluctantly got to her feet and hastened to follow.

Luke moved steadily upward. Kate, not far behind him, was panting from the effort of keeping pace. Her shoes, while better without their heels, were little protection against the sharp stones.

Her sheltered life hadn’t prepared her for this kind of exertion.

Kate was exhausted when Luke finally motioned for her to stop. His arm pointed at a dark hole in the hillside.

“Stay. I go look for snakes.”

“Snakes? Good heavens.”

“What mean ‘good heavens’? Ain’t no bad heavens.”

“It’s only an expression,” Kate explained.

“What you mean ‘expression’?” Luke didn’t wait for an answer before heading upward again. Kate watched as he approached the dark hole and then disappeared inside.

Moments later, when Luke came out of the hole, he motioned for Kate to follow him. Without hesitation, she began her trek up the hill. Her back was wet with sweat by the time she reached the cave entrance. She peered into the darkness as Luke tossed away a large stick.

“No snakes.”

“Well, thank goodness for that,” Kate said with relief.

“Why you thank goodness? What ‘goodness’?”

Kate could only shake her head.
How can I explain that?

Chapter 11

K
ATE STOOD AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE CAVE
and looked back down the hill. The sun continued to rise in the clear blue Texas sky. Heat shimmered off the rocks below. A couple of hours had passed since Tate had headed back down the hill to check on Hayden, and she was anxious for him to return. Luke had sat quietly against the cave walls, watching her as she fretted. She didn’t want to go into the cave for fear of bats.

“When will Tate be back?”

“Why? You ’fraid I’ll scalp you?”

“No, I don’t think that.” Kate hugged herself closely, regardless of the hot summer day. Her voice had wavered when she denied it.

“I a savage Indian. City women ’fraid of savage Indians.”

“How do you know I’m a city woman?”

Luke gave a short snort of laughter. “Only city woman wear silly clothes and no hat. Why Hayden want you? Can you skin rabbit? Can you set up tepee? Are you good on blanket?”

At first, Kate didn’t understand what he meant. When it dawned on her, her face turned deep red with embarrassment. “You’re a fresh-mouthed kid. I don’t appreciate such talk.”

“What you mean ‘fresh-mouthed’?” When Kate refused to answer his question, Luke returned to another earlier one, which he repeated. “Why Hayden want you?”

“He wants money from my father.”

“You no want Hayden for your man? You want Tate?”

“Absolutely not!” Kate blurted out.
I can’t believe the nerve of this boy! How can he say such things!

“Tate better man.”

“I don’t doubt that. I don’t want either one of them.”

“You got no man. Woman need a man. I take you for my woman.”

“You’re just a boy.” Kate turned to face him. “I’m years older than you.”

Luke leaned forward, squared his shoulders, and tossed his head back. “What difference that make? I am a man. I take many girls to my tepee.”

“I don’t want to hear about your girls, you horny little toad.”

“I no toad. I an eagle.”

Kate suddenly realized that the Indian boy was having fun with her. He smiled as he stood up and walked to the entrance of the cave. Shielding his eyes with one hand, he looked into the distance.

Turning away from the boy, Kate reached for the canteen, opened it, and took a swallow. The liquid felt wonderful on her throat. She thought about taking another gulp but decided not to. “Tate doesn’t have water,” she said. “I’ll save the rest for him.”

“Tate come now,” Luke announced.

Kate hurried over to the entrance. All she could see were trees, rocks, and the glare of reflected sunlight. “Where? I don’t see him.”

“He come.”

Kate felt immense relief that Tate was near. From the moment that he left them, she had worried that he would meet up with Hayden. The brutal man might injure or kill him. Still, staring long and hard at the trail that she and the Indian boy had taken to the cave revealed no movement. Was Luke teasing her about Tate coming?

“He is not coming,” Kate argued. “I don’t see him.”

“You think I lie?”

“I didn’t say that. I just said I don’t see him.”

“Tate don’t want you see him,” Luke said matter-of-factly “You see him, Hayden see him.”

“Why do you always talk in riddles?” Kate frustratedly asked. Dealing with Luke was complicated. “And don’t you say what ‘riddles’ mean!”

“Tate tell me what mean ‘riddles. ’ Tate my good friend.”

“How long have you known him?”

“Long time. He bring mission school. I learn to read and write my name. I first in family to go to school. I go to Tate’s house and take little girl moccasins made by my mother.”

“Tate has a little girl?”

Kate looked back down the hill, still seeing nothing but the heat ripples and the harsh landscape. She squinted her eyes and saw Tate climbing the hill.

“There he is,” she said.

“Told you he was coming.”

“How did you know?”

Luke looked up at a lone eagle soaring overhead. “My brother, the eagle, tell me.”

“I’m not so stupid that I believe that.” Kate smiled, her spirits lifted now that the cowboy was in sight.

“You not smart like me.”

Kate laughed. She was getting used to the boy, and liked him. He was witty and intelligent.

Her eyes stayed on Tate as he approached. He didn’t appear to be hurt.

“Are you thirsty?” she asked, handing him the canteen.

“I had one drink this afternoon, but I could sure use another.”

“Did you see Hayden?”

Tate drank deeply before answering. “He followed my horse a ways, then backtracked when he realized that we’d fooled him. Somewhere back he picked up our trail.”

“Is he nearby?”

“A few miles.” Tate took another drink.

The hours of the day drifted by until the sun began its slow descent behind the hills. Shadows grew into deeper darkness, and the sounds of animals, free to come out now that the sun had set, reached the cave. The cry of a coyote calling for its mate sent a shiver down Kate’s back. She had heard somewhere that Indians signaled to each other using the coyote call.