Train From Marietta (14 page)

“I don’t have a wife.”

“Did she die?”

“She up and left. She’s dead to me,” Tate said coldly.

“She left her little girl?”

“Emily hasn’t suffered because of her leaving.”

Kate looked out into the dark night and wondered about the strange conversation that she was having with this man whom she had known for such a short time.
What kind of woman would leave her daughter? What had happened between Tate and his wife?

“Tell me about you,” Tate said, obviously wanting to change the subject.

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything you want to tell me.”

“Well … I’ve lived in New York all my life. My father and mother came to New York from Pittsburgh, where my father worked in the steel mills. My mother died when I was little, and my father threw himself into his work. Now he owns a steel mill, but I don’t think that he’s entirely happy with his life in New York. Oh, I also have a half-sister. Her name is Susan.”

“So your father remarried, then?”

“Yes, when I was quite young. I think that he was lonely, and he thought I needed a mother. My stepmother is a society woman. Sometimes I think that neither I nor my father quite come up to her expectations.”

“How about your sister?”

“She’s more like her mother. She likes the society life too. Her days are filled with shopping, her nights with dancing.”

“And you? What was your life filled with?” A pause. “A man?”

“No, I went to nursing school, and for the last couple of years, I’ve worked in a clinic in the city. I loved every minute of it! It was very satisfying because most of the people we helped were poor. When my uncle in San Francisco offered me a job in his hospital, I decided to accept it. I wanted to travel, to see the country and help people who need help.”

“What did your father think about that?”

“He has always encouraged me to make my own decisions, and he made it clear that he would stand by me in whatever I decided to do. My stepmother, on the other hand, was against the idea. Being a nurse isn’t society enough for her. She is sure that I’ll be back home in a few months.”

Somewhere off in the distance, a coyote howled. Kate’s fear of the unknown was replaced by her desire to talk with this man.

“Didn’t you like the life of a pampered rich girl?” Tate asked.

“I never thought of myself as being pampered, but I guess I was. I didn’t want the life that my stepmother wished for me.”

“What was that?”

“She wanted me to find a husband, preferably a rich one, with a family background that would help her socially.” Kate made a small chuckling sound. “She was terribly disappointed in me, but she has Susan, who loves society as much as she does.”

Kate leaned a little bit closer to Tate’s broad back and, just for an instant, thought about resting her head against him. It would be comforting to touch him while they talked, but she didn’t dare. Instead, she leaned toward the cave entrance and gazed at the sea of stars in the sky.

“I didn’t know stars could be so bright,” Kate said. “In New York City, there are so many lights that you scarcely notice them.”

Tate snorted. “I know. I’ve been there.”

“You have?”

“When I was younger, I left the ranch for a bit and spent a couple years roaming around the country. City life didn’t impress me too much. After a while, I decided home wasn’t such a bad place after all.”

“At least you got to see some of the world.” Then, pointing at the sky, she added, “And you have all these stars every night.”

“My father used to tell me stories about sailors who sailed the ocean guided by the stars,” Tate said, “and about the pioneers who got their bearings by reading the stars in the sky. At night, they would place their wagon tongues in the direction they wanted to travel the next day. I guess my wagon tongue was always pointed here.”

“Wasn’t there a trail to follow?”

“The first to go West didn’t have a trail. They had to find their own way.”

“I’ve always heard that a lot of the people who came West were massacred by the Indians. Is that true?” She wanted to keep him talking.

“Don’t believe what you see in the movies or read in Wild West magazines. More people died from drowning as they crossed the rivers than were killed by the Indians. At first, the Indians were very helpful to the pioneers. Gave them food and shelter, helped them to live off the land. But then, as more and more people came, they began to feel they were losing their land, and they did lose most of it. That’s what happened to Luke’s people. They are an offshoot of the Chiricahua Apaches. They left the reservation and settled in these hills. I’m not sure how long they will be able to stay here. It’s almost hunted out, and they have no way to make a living.”

“Why did they leave the reservation?”

“Luke’s father told me that there were too many rules and regulations. Different from the life that they had been living for hundreds of years. They probably felt a lot like I did in the city—out of place. They wanted to be free.”

Kate realized that life for the Indians was complicated. What she had seen in magazines or heard on the radio was a far cry from the reality. “Does the government help them?”

“Not if they aren’t on the reservation.”

“But what about the children? Luke mentioned something about a mission school. Who pays for that?”

“Well… we did manage to get the government to send a teacher after we built the schoolhouse.”

“Did you have something to do with that?” She heard the pride in his voice when he mentioned the schoolhouse. There was far more to Tate than she would ever have thought that night on the train platform.

He grinned. “A little, maybe.”

“I’d like to visit a real Indian village sometime. I’m sure that it’s different from what I imagine it to be. People back East think Indians are still savages. There isn’t anything savage about Luke.”

“Except his sense of humor. Maybe you can come back sometime and visit. But first we’ve got to get out of here and get you back to your father.”

In the midst of their easy conversation, Kate felt a shiver, remembering that they were being hunted by a man who might kill them if he caught them.

“It all seems like a bad dream. I just want to wake up and have it be over.” Kate paused, then added, “My father will want to meet you and thank you for helping me.”

“I have to admit, when Lyle first asked me to look for the woman who disappeared, I didn’t want to come,” Tate said, breathing deeply. “But knowing that Hayden could be involved, and Lyle seemed to think that he was, it was a pretty sure thing that the woman would never come back alive; and if she did, she’d be ruined. Knowing all that, I couldn’t have stayed home.”

“I’m so glad you did come looking for me.” For a brief moment, she laid her cheek against his back. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

Tate felt the warmth of her against his back and was surprised by the strange feeling that swept over him. “Better hold off on those thanks until we get out of here.” He stood up, looked down at her, and said gruffly, “You had better get some sleep.”

“Will you sleep?” Kate asked, disappointed that their conversation had come to an end.

“I’ll doze at the entrance to the cave. You’ll be all right.”

“I wasn’t worried about myself. We’ve both had a rough day.”

“We won’t get any rest if we sit here jawing all night.” He reached a hand out to her and helped her to her feet. “Can you find your way back to your bedroll?”

“I can find it.” Kate placed her hand on his shoulder. “Good night.”

Tate watched as she made her way farther into the darkness of the cave and settled herself down onto the bedroll. He sat quietly looking out into the starlit night.

He now had a slightly different opinion of Miss Kather-ine Tyler. She wasn’t the pampered rich girl he had thought she was. She was the victim of a greedy man and his nephew.

The sound of a sniffle reached his ears, and he turned around to look into the darkness. He heard the sound again, realized Miss Tyler was crying, and went back to where she lay on her blanket. He stood silently for a moment, looking down at her. He knelt down beside her and said, “Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying. I just got choked up for a minute.”

“You were crying. What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would hear me. I usually don’t bawl like a baby,” she said, and swallowed a sob.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

“I’m just tired, that’s all. I’ve been telling myself to buck up. Things could be worse. I could be out here by myself, or even worse, still be back in the cabin with Hayden and Squirrelly”

“You don’t need to be scared now. We’ll be all right here for the night, and in the morning Luke will be back. He will let us know what Hayden is up to.”

“There’s more than Hayden to be scared of. What about snakes and bats back here? Can I move up closer to you?” Kate sat up and leaned against him. He put his arm around her.

“You’ve held up real good.”

“For a city woman?”

“That’s what Luke calls you. I’ve never called you that. Well” —he chuckled—“at least not out loud.”

Kate didn’t seem to catch his attempt at humor. Wiping the end of her nose, she said, “I don’t think Luke likes me much. He’s always expecting me to do something stupid.”

“Luke’s had a couple of bad experiences with women from the city.”

“Women? He’s just a boy.”

“I don’t mean that kind of experience. I know of one who was especially hateful to him.” Tate did not want to tell her it was his ex-wife who had made Luke uncomfortable when he came to their home.

“You’ll feel better after you get a good night’s sleep.” Tate felt the hot tears on her cheek when he placed his face next to hers. He found himself reluctant to move away from her. His heart was doing strange things while he held her.

“We’ll get out of here, won’t we?” she asked softly.

“I can’t promise that, but I can promise that I’ll do my level best to get
you
out.” His voice came gently to her ears. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I know you will.”

Shifting his body, he tried to form a more comfortable cradle for her. He raised his head and looked down at her. Her breath was on his mouth. In the dim light, he could see the outline of her face. It was pale and calm.

She lifted her arm and slipped it around his neck, pulling him to her. He gave a long, shuddering sigh and wrapped her in both of his arms, hugging her close.

“Are you all right now?” he whispered. He didn’t want to like this woman. He didn’t want to have feelings for her. To him, she wasn’t quite real, a fairy or a shadowy woman out of a dream. On the heels of that thought came a contradictory one: This was a real flesh-and-bone woman he was holding in his arms.

Suddenly Tate’s arms dropped from around Kate and he stood. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t afford to have feelings for her. “Come on. I’ll bed you down closer to the entrance.”

Kate was reluctant to let go of him. She reached for his hand and held it in hers as he pulled her to her feet. Tate bent down and scooped up her blanket. She followed him through the darkness to the front of the cave, where he laid out the bedding.

“Here you are. I’ll be sitting over here where you can see me. You won’t be left alone.”

“What about you? Are you going to sleep?”

“I’ll sleep, but don’t worry, I’m a light sleeper.” With that, Tate sat down, leaned against the side of the cave entrance, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned his head back.

Kate felt a fierce wave of longing, a desire that had begun when Tate put his arms around her. Unlike most rich girls, she had no interest in her father’s wealth. She dreamed of finding a man who would love her for herself. Instinctively she knew that this man was a man of integrity. He wasn’t interested in what lined her father’s pockets. As quickly as she thought it, she pulled her thought back. He was just being kind, and she shouldn’t make much of the embrace. But, try as she might to make it trivial, it had been comforting to be held in his arms.

How could a woman leave him?

Chapter 13

E
DDYSAT UP ON THE EDGE OF HIS BUNK. Hayden’s
bunk was empty. Squirrelly was snoring like a warthog. Eddy rubbed his eyes and wished for a good stiff drink. Things were not going the way he had planned. Damned idiot in the other bunk had upset everything by letting Kate get away. If Hay-den killed her, he swore that Squirrelly would meet the same fate, only slowly and more painfully.

If only I knew that she was all right, I’d take off for Mexico right now. But I can’t just go off and leave her with these two. I haven’t told them yet that John Tyler called in the Texas Rangers. Hayden will be mad as a hornet when he finds out. Squirrelly thinks his daddy can handle most anything, but he’ll find out the Texas Rangers are not the kind to be handled by a petty crook from New York.

Squirrelly awakened, stretched, and let wind.

“You crude son of a bitch. Don’t you have any decency?”

Squirrelly laughed. “Just because I farted you think I’m not decent. What are you in such a snit for? Mine don’t stink.”

“You are so crude I wonder how your mother stands you.”

Squirrelly let out a whoop of laughter. “Because I am the son of a bitch.”

Eddy went to the wash bench, more to get away from the uncouth idiot who was still laughing than to wash.

“That ornery bastard isn’t back yet?”

Eddy didn’t answer. It was obvious that Hayden wasn’t back.

Squirrelly went to the door, threw it open, stood in the doorway, and urinated. “I always wanted to do that,” he said with a slack-lipped grin. “I really wanted to do it at home—pee on the sidewalk as people went by.”

“What an ambition,” Eddy snarled.

“You don’t have to be so nasty about it.”

“I’m going to town.”

“You take the car, and Hayden’ll be mad as a pissed-on snake.”

Eddy pulled on his pants and sat back down on the bunk to put on his shoes. “I don’t give a damn how mad Hayden gets. He’s just hired help like you are.”